An idea for the races of the "Stonehall Alliance" (I.E. your main group):Dwarves -
HA! I surely hope you needn't me to explain what we are! (I mean really, it's not like I can get rid of these guys, it's DWARF Fortress.)
Cacamudos -
A strange legacy of what some dwarven scholars, using somewhat over-ripe mushrooms as "mental enhancers", have described as a "preceeding" universe, these are creatures believed to be the result of somehow interbreeding of dwarves with both elves and humans who had become enraged with their former bretheren or understandably enamored with our fine stout lasses. In any event, they're... well, I guess they're a good enough lot. Some are damn good with a hammer, I'll tell you that. Kinda have to keep an eye on them, though. They've got fingers that are quicker then they're sense, if you know what I mean.
(I was thinking about making a "cave elf" that would be an elf that had sought refuge from the absurdities of DF elf life. Cacamudos is just Cacame with "Udos", the dwarven word for "man". They ALL like to think that they are the heritage of that legendary elf king and a certain baroness consort who, conspiracy theories say, managed to bear a hybrid elf-dwarf child and hide it away from notice, and so named their hybrid race after Cacame Awemendade. In any event, they'll be the same size as a dwarf (I'm not sure how this will ALL pan out, depending on how the raws look come DF2010, but I want an idea down before I worry about how to make it come true), but narrower, if possible. They will be lighter, faster, but frailer. Hair would be very thin and sparse, even on top of the head, with largish eyes, and they'd have grey-tan skin. A sort of mongrel race, and everyone would know it, and be of the type of people always ready for a fight to prove they're just as good as anyone. I'll give them anger tiltings and lack of caution for that. ... Maybe I should shorten it to "Camudos" just because Cacamudos doesn't really roll of the tongue? Maybe the name was a little corrupted as the legend was passed down from generation to generation?)
Lamia -
Ah, interested in THEM, I see? Heh, no I'm not blamin' ya, hard to find a lad who hasn't at least considered... *caugh* anyway, they're... well, they can be as unpredictable and slippery in the way they act and think as they are in the way they move. You wouldn't think they'd be so suited for stone would 'ya, but they can handle climbing surer than any mountain goat, and tunnel like a badger. They'd have made better dwarves than we dwarves if they just had more fondness for the stone. Some're of the best metalsmiths, glassblowers, or gemcutters around, though, as they make up for a love of metal what they lack in a love of stone. Came to us when the damn humans drove 'em out as "baby eaters"... probably elven tricks ...I hear some things from some o'the lads who've married one, though, and the things they can do with that tail... What? Yeah they can marry dwarves. Come out normal, too. Sometimes, you get two dwarves, one had lamia in their blood, and BOOM, they have lamia kids. Most've us think there's some majicks they use.
(These are something like the snakemen... but also a bit of lamia and naga from other sources thrown in. I think lamia are one of the more popular "misunderstood" forms of obviously non-human monster-people, alongside mermaids. In fact, they're basically just mermaids that can live on land if you really get down to it, but they have a much different history. In myth, Lamia was a specific person who was cursed to become a snake-woman and had her entire family murdered by Hera because Zeus had raped her. This understandably dropped her happiness score down to cause her to go berserk, as her civ leader apparently did not have nice enough dining rooms, and she started attacking people. In this story, though, lamia are driven out of the plains and deserts, and live in the mountains. I would have gone with "Naga" which probably better fits the image I have, but Naga are often imagined to have no arms, while Lamia are. Aside from the obvious "has a tail and no legs" bit, I would like a lamia to be more creative, more gregarious, and more social, but both a little impatient/easily discouraged and also prone to procrastination. I'd like them more graceful but not as fast and capable of quick bursts of strength, but generally either reserving their strength, or running out of steam quickly. Essentially, like a snake, they can strike quickly when coiled, or dance nimbly to the side, but can't make a straightline sprint, or keep up that speed, and need to just sunbathe most of the time, both physically and intellectually. I'd also like them to have a more artsy, less practical side. Not sure whether to make them both genders, or all-female. Either one works. It'd be nice if there was a way to mod in being good a lunge attacks, so that they could coil and spring, and use spears well... or, for that matter, make their tails give them a bonus in wrestling.)
Aranea -
No, kid, that ain't no child human. They're part spider, maybe ALL spider on the inside, but they look human. I guess they can't quite majick themselves SO well they look like a dwarf, so they have to settle for halfway, am I right? Yeah, word to the wise, kiddo, NOTHING is more dangerous than a Aranea wot's got it in his head to "help" you. Huh? Yeah, they can have little dwarf children, too. Got more majicks in 'em than them lamia do, after all. Since they got the goods for it, ain't surprising that they like to be clothiers or weavers... but they have a disturbing liking for being cooks, too, and they eat stuff even I wouldn't consider, and I've eaten purring maggot, kiddo.
(Inspired a little by the D&D aranea, also a little by the Exile/Avernum series's giant friendly spiders. They're cheerful, friendly, peppy, child-like spider people who occasionally just try to see what people taste like a little! (BWAAHAHAHAHA!) I HEAVILY doubt there's going to be a shapeshifting ability, so they're just a sort of hybrid man-spider, or maybe just constantly keeping an illusion over their true forms. I don't think I could make spider-people without having silk, but since it would literally be created BY the person who would likely be weaving it, it would be "common", and as such, not like the rediculous value of a GCS's silk. As for personalities, they'd be scatterbrained, cheerful, friendly, helpful, have no caution or common sense, abundant curiosity, and generally be Fun on legs. I would also consider making them even smaller than dwarves, size 5, if I could be sure that it wouldn't screw with clothing too much. Oh, and the silk comes out of a special little "thorax" like thing on their backs that they are surpisingly capable of hiding most of the time.)
Minotaurs -
Yeah, they round out our happy little family. Don't stare TOO hard, lad, you'll make'em self-conscious, and a self-conscious minotaur gets crankier'n a wet cat. Yeah, they've been living with us for quite some while, now. Used to be bigger 'n harrier. Or would that be furrier? No matter, they're more dwarvish now, and smarter, too, for their trouble. Hate to think how desperate the first dwarf to start a family with one of the beastier ones would have been to try, or what they were drinking, but here we are. Still, how dwarvenly is it to complain about having a little fur around the, well, pretty much everywhere below the waist, really? Yeah, yeah, talk about them. They look like a beast, but don't be fooled, even the "stupid" old ones were clever little buggers. They love stone and working it as much as we do, although they tend to just like rough stone and brute force more'n using engineering like we dwarves do. That said, they've gotta be the only critters that will dump magma down on their enemies with more glee than we dwarves do, so they're not all hopeless on that front. They're actually good company for a drink, can be all philosophical, but they have an absolutely TERRIBLE wrath, let me tell you. Second most dangerous thing in the world is a Minotaur who wants you dead. I've seen one of'em keep on going after his heart was struck out of his chest, just to strangle the guy who wronged him. Too mad to realize he was already dead.
(I wanted another beastman, and considered something like an ogre or even a giant, like they had in Age of Wonders, I also considered a wolfman, but couldn't really reconcile that with mountains over forests, and settled on Minotaurs. Relentless Assault had something to do with this, as well. I also remember reading some Magic: The Gathering pulp fiction novels way back in the day that had some really different interpretations of minotaurs, and that helped lead me in this direction, as well. In the interest of not being furry or disturbing to some, consider them to have humanoid faces. I think it'd still look cool if they had horns, though. I don't know how possible it is to have creatures of different sizes in the same civ, and still be able to fit armor to them, but I don't want them to be too large, anyway, probably only size 7, like a human, or maybe 8. I think it might be cliche, but I'd like them to be a sort of "mighty glacier" combatant, slow but powerful, to be in opposition to the nimbler and weaker Cacamudos and Aranea. It'd be nice if there was a way to make them fly into a rage really easily.)
I'd also like to have a batman or maybe a harpy, but I'm not sure if putting in flyers (even if they work with the next version) would be a good idea, as having some of your not-exactly-dwarves fly could be unbalancing, even if everyone had a flier.
Gnomes would have been a possible candidate, but I shied away because they're... well, too much like dwarves, and I wanted the different races within the one civ to stand out more.
I know it's really out there, but I'd also have liked the idea of a "mandragora" civ member that has to be farmed and harvested to be "born". Maybe, MAYBE, there might one day be raws powerful enough to make something like that possible, but I know I probably wont' even get the chance to do what I'm talking about already.
I'm having trouble really settling on names for these civilization types, so if you guys have propositions, by all means, I'm open to them. It's even tougher when this is more of a "culture" than it is a single given actual kingdom, and they can have multiple splinter civs. Of course, since they would likely cooperate, you could still consider them all part of one loosely-knit empire which falls under somewhat disparate fiefdoms.
The Bronze ImperiumThese guys... I'm really thinking "Early Roman", back when they were all about conquest, and before they got into the really hedonisitic stuff. Warlike, more likely to invade than trade. They're heavy hitters, with numbers, war animals, and hopefully also something not unlike steel, although I'd hate to be dropping out "goblinite presents" so that you have limitless metal supplies in this game. Maybe I'll make special types of clothing/equipment that get melted down at really terrible ratios, so that it's not quite as useful. What would be best is if I could enforce actually using some kind of special alloy of bronze that dwarves don't know how to make or break down (possibly because of an enzyme excreted by myrmidons... it's magic, OK?) I'd really like to imagine a massive sea of rust-colored, red-skinned soldiers marching across the horizon, the setting sun turning everything red before them, as they march to battle.
Myrmidons -
Ah, the so-called "antmen". Nasty buggers if you ever have to face 'em. They might work as hard as a dwarf, but there's no joy in 'em, some say. So far as I can tell, they only like working, killing, and breeding like... well, like myrmidons. They grow like weeds, and are tougher to kill than cockroaches. Trust me, magma is the gift the Gods made for us specifically to kill these buggers. Not much other way to go about it.
(They're like smaller humans, but with an ant abdomen sticking out their back, not unlike the aranea. They also have chitinous skin. I'd like to think they're all fire ants, so they have skin that looks bronze-ish, and very little hair. They also have smaller extra legs that are insect-like, so they look something like a centaur. This whole idea is partially a result of talking about what it would be like to have a world with a few seroius monster empires, and I thought that the ant-people that kidnapped humans as breeding stock could potentially be bartered with to help protect mankind, and started exploring ideas of a part man, part ant-man society. The antmen would have the advantage of extreme population growth rates, while the humans would have the greater inventiveness. Anyway, these aren't exactly orcs, but they're meant to breed in huge numbers. Hopefully, I can caste apart "workers", which would be non-breeding females (although I'm not sure I can do that), and breeders, which are male or female, and preferably have very short pregnancies, but since that's not likely to be possible, just have really MASSIVE littersizes and have [child:3] as a tag. Alternately, this could be an all-female race, relying upon humans for their breeding purposes. I'm thinking of giving them something like no pain and damblock. They are the zerg rush, kekeke. Enjoy.)
Patricians (Human... ish. Help think of a better name, if you can.)
They're sort of like the masters that loose the leashes of the Myrmidons. What's scary is that they don't really need the Myrmidons to do the dirty work, and love the bloodbath themselves, they just use the Myrmidons because they can't breed faster than the Myrmidons do to replace their losses. In fact, if you have a choice between dying to a Myrmidon or a Patrician, choose the Myrmidon every time. They're just cold blooded killers. Patricians... *shakes head* the only thing they live for is to see you bleed.
(Did I mention "Torture For Fun" would be a personal matter for this civ? Yeah, they're definite followers of the idea "Might Makes Right". Anyway, they're sort of humans, but they're actually smallish, size 6, in a nod towards the fact that Romans were historically quite smaller than the Germanic barbarians they fought. I hope that there's a way to make even line soldiers of certain civs be able to have a higher starting rank in weapons skills, but failing that, I'll find a way to make them artificially tougher.
Canid -
I hear tell these things can be sweet... if you're they're master. You don't want to be anybody else to these dogs, though. Mutt men, they are. Special bred to be the war dogs of an entire race of war dogs. They're sort of like our war dogs... except they are bigger than a man, stand like a man, have a thick hide, and can punch down a door.
(Not a real civ caste, but a special "war dog" just for them. Like normal war dogs, but bigger, tougher, stronger, and with Building Destroyer. This civ should be capable of handling your reccomended daily dose of Fun.)
I'm also thinking of having suitable mounts for a race like this. Preferably, they might even be able to have a "mount" that is a war machine capable of breath weapons that fake seige engine effects. Maybe place them on top of specially bred giant war elephants or something.
You'll note this civ has only two races. I'd like to make them a bit more on the xenophobic side, even if they are fairly strange, themselves. They may, however, have plenty of slaves. Maybe I could put in an almost entirely slave caste, and make them the elves, sort of like in Dragon Age?
Avalon: (Also considering something like "Fae Court" or "Beyond the Veil" or something... the idea, anyway, is to give a notion of being fae creatures.)
This is the "forest" civ. I wanted to go for a less comically inept race than elves in DF, and go instead for something like a Grimm Fairytail version of fae. After all, tales of fairies were actually enough to prevent people from ever travelling in the woods in ages past, before the Victorian whitewashing of them. I'm sort of inspired by both the White Wolf "Changeling: The Lost" as well as a bit of Touhou in this, as well. Need I say that they're still going to be cannibals? Of course, they won't care about being traded wood stuff in return anymore, though... in fact, they may trade you dwarf bone short swords in return.
They should rely mostly on special, natural attacks, and not have much of any loot to drop if you attack them, but they can still use wood bows and arrows, so that they've got plenty of annoying ranged attackers.
Also, I think I'll go with no "real" elves in this civ. They're just a little too cliched, and I have plenty of alternatives. Consider elves to have "melded" into several different races, either magically or evolutionarily, except for the half-breed elves in other civs.
These should also be kidnappers or ambushers, as well as seigers. In fact, it might be best to go for entirely ambushers, but just make them truly huge ambushes. Since they have special attacks and some can fly, you'd pretty much just have to lock everything down and stay paranoid in the first month if you go to war with these guys.
Faeries -
You might think "they'd be annoying at most", but you'd be wrong. They try to act sweet and mirthful, but know that if they have a heart, it beats nothing but black ichor. I knew a guy taken by a Faerie ambush once... He got that stare. You know, the thousand-mile stare. Didn't talk. About a week later, he suddenly just starts screaming, ripping off his clothes, and then leapt into the magma forge. I hope I never know what happened to him.
(I hope to make a natural ranged/breath attack that can stun/paralyze like a GCS does, but without leaving any webs. They then prick you to death with tiny poisoned weapons, or just leave you to their bigger allies. Fun.)
Satyrs -
These guys, they're actually not TOO bad if you get to know 'em, and they're away from the others of their daffy little circles. Sure know their booze, that's for sure. Always male for some reason, but no point in asking. They don't know themselves, so far as anyone can tell. Practically live to drink, fight, and chase ladies... Can't say I blame 'em.
(Wild party guys... I'm pretty much sticking to traditional myth on these guys, so I shouldn't need to flood this post with more text than I already am on them.)
Dryads -
Plant chicks. Something looks kinda pretty about them, even though they have roots comin' out of 'em. Weird, ain't it? I think it's some kind of illusion majicks thing, always pretty no matter what. Just because they're all plants and nature and such, don't mean they're gentle nature-lovers, though. Like alot of these fae guys, they just don't think right. They can be all happy then declare you their mortal enemy for life the next instant. They... they DO things to you that just isn't right.
(I want to make them more of the irrational/insane magical beings than tree huggers. Naturally, they're not going to stay stuck near a tree. They should have essentially magical natural attacks, like the ability to send out a swarm of bees to sting and blind enemies (which is actually part of myth...) as an attack. Plus poisons of various sorts. Personality-wise, they'd have plenty of optimism and friendliness, but have everything to make their personalities as unstable as possible. Beautiful, gregarious, and a ticking freaking timebomb who will turn your body into a sac of slurry with her various poisons. Oh, and I should mention that all these castes can inter-breed. Why? It's magic, I don't have to explain jack s
!)
Naiads -
What's there to say? They're dryads that live in the water. They drag you in, and eat you alive. Pretty enough you don't even realize it, either.
(I'll be dropping some of the special attacks, but anyway... they're basically potential amphibious carp that appear with seiges. Enjoy.)
Draconids -
They're part elf, part dragon. Do I really need to say more? They're haughtier than anything you'd ever imagine, and demand instant respect, or they'll burn yer beard clean off with that breath.
(Yes, half-dragons. I don't feel like explaining much, because I've been at this post for about 6 straight hours, now, so I think I'll leave you to fill in the details in your mind.)
Centaurs -
Horse-men, but never say it to their faces. They like to think they're special and different from that, somehow. They're kidding themselves, o'course, but they love nothing more than stomping on the face of guys who say it. Never try to ride one, neither. Nasty with a bow, too. They fall just behind the Satyrs and the Oni in their ability to hold their liquor.
(... Umm... they're centaurs. They have bows, they run fast, are big and tough, and are generally... centaurs.)[/quote]
Crow Tengu - [spoiler]Cocky a
holes if you ask me. They think that just because they can fly over it all, that they actually
are above it all. They're just as hard to hit as those fairies are, but they're much bigger and much stronger. They claim to be defenders of justice or balance or some such nonsense, but it's impossible to listen to them prattle on. I don't think they have friends, even among their own kind, honestly. Those fans of theirs can work the devil on you, though.
(I likes me some fantasy kitchen sinks. These are Japanese folk monsters. Technically, they should live on mountains, but they don't fit in with any other group, unless I really wanted to make an "all-tengu" civ... which isn't really that far-fetched, honestly, and probably closer to myth. Regardless, they are proud, fleet of... wing, and can have a natural attack that involves a "wind blade" attack, using their magic fans/leaves. They are fliers, and are very fast moving, but still somewhat fragile. Since they are fliers, and have ranged attacks, you're likely to have trouble if you can't use ranged attacks, yourself, or don't try to force them to fight under a ceiling.)
Wolf Tengu -
If you thought those canids were nasty... well, you'd be right. Still, what's worse is seeing one with an actual weapon in its hands, and nobody holding its leash. They like bows, but are even more deadly up close with a sword.
(Yeah, I'm actually leaning more towards a seperate civ for these guys the more I think about it. I don't want too many of these, though, although I guess it works out OK for Relentless Assault, even if that's only because they're all hostile. Anyway, these guys are basically like werewolves are now... but with equipment... and faster. They have the personalities of extreme honor-bound soldiers, and are generally subserviant to the crow tengu.)
Oni -
They're sort of like "ogres", they say. "They" are wrong. Sure, they're both big brutes, but Oni are much more vicious, and worse, smart. Even if you can't tell by lookin'. Anyway, they are known for their "Iron Clubs". You might hear "club", and think it's a primitive weapon, but those things can practically split mountains... hey... I know it's strange to say this, but... when these guys are at peace with you, they're actually the best drinking buddies you'll ever see. Share their last scrap of food with you or the clothes off their backs if yer keeping up with them in their drinking, which is no mean feat, let me tell ya. Still, if you think minotaurs are scary mad...
(Building Destroyer 2, size 10, dam block, no pain, and I'll probably put in some superfluous organs to soak up damage. It'd also be lovely if I could give them a special weapon seperate from the rest of their civ, so that they could weild iron clubs, which are basically just pillars of iron with massive spikes on them, but I might just come up with some way to jury-rig a facsimilie in for them.)
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Ever had an umbrella offer you tea, or a rusty living axe try to chop you in half? That's what these things are. You ever see some of those dolls that just STARE at you and creep you out because they sort of look alive, but not really? Well, turns out some of them really ARE. Makes you sometimes look at your tableware, and wonder if maybe it's going to come alive and stab you. I'd just as soon never have to think about them again, honestly.
(Of course, I can't just make items be "possessed" in DF, but I can set something to have child:100... which means they'll probably be very few and far between in an adult form. I can compensate by making them very tough, and with no organic body parts, they're pretty much just a smaller version of a bronze collosus. Since I'm making them a caste, they won't actually die out so long as their civ remains, though, and they'll somehow be able to breed with others, as well... consider it part of them growing a freakish demi-human body. Anyway, I'll proabably make multiple castes under the same banner of "possessed objects", like living weapons or living furniture. They'll all have special attacks or natural attacks that deal increased damage. These will probably be a real pain to actually build bodies for in the raws, but that's neither here nor there. I like putting in such odd creatures.)
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Tigers that walk like men. Need I say they're dangerous in a fight? They're sadistic things, too. Even when they're holding back, you can see it in their eyes - they're imagining how you'd taste as a roast. Always talking like they're playing some kind of chess game, waiting for you to blink or flinch, so they can snatch you away.
(Indian/Hindu mythical boogeyman of the woods. Cannibalistic. They're master illusionists in myth, but I may not be able to really do much to replicate that, so they may be fairly similar to Oni. Except these guys are just plain evil, and it will be reflected in their personalities.)
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Heh, cold-hearted doesn't even start to describe... Actually, some are kind... But I've lost good friends who literally watched their fingers fall off as they slowly went into a sleep they never woke up from... I need another drink, I'm gettin all melancholie.
(Basically, blizzard men. But in civ form. I actually think Toady was inspired by these creatures. Anyway, I'll make them fairly rare, because they'd be devastating otherwise. They'll have personalities that make them extremely polite, meek, and compromising... but also duplicitous. Some myths say that they actually eat the body warmth they steal from others.)
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Remember when I said that the most dangerous thing in the world was a Aranea who wanted to help? Well, this is what they are when they want to harm... I guess the moral of the story is that giant spiders are dangerous no matter what they are trying to do.
(Maybe this could have inspired Aranea a bit, now that I think about it, the way that Oni inspired Ogre Mages. Anyway, in myth, they are spiders who have lived for at least 400 years, where absorbing the moonlight for such an insanely long time has imbued them with magical powers to transform themselves into humanoids. They seduce men, then cocoon them and eat them when distracted. In game terms, however, these will be an always-female civ-form of a GCS. Basically, a GCS that appears in a seige... If I can do half this, I'm thinking that the Fae are going to be people's favorite civ to get into wars with.)
Youko (kitsune) -
You might think the giants like oni would be the most terrifying thing to stalk the woods wouldn't you, but the Youko are the true terrors. They can put the Rakshasa and the Patricians to shame with their love of inflicting pain on others. They just plain don't understand the emotions of others, but are capable of playing a very patient game where they can act like they do, just to try to get what they want later. Some tales say they've used their illusions to single-handedly bring down entire empires by turning nobles and generals against one another one after another until the entire nation has collapsed in hundreds of little civil wars.
(Actually, I'm wondering if they might be a bit redundant, what with Oni and Rakshasa already in there, but, like I said, I loves me some Fantasy Kitchen sink, and I'd like to see them in there, too. I'm splitting them up into Youko and Inari, a wild version that lives for self-gratification, and a more civilized, wise, and restrained version. Anyway, they should be rare, but some of the most powerful creatures around, using multiple special attacks, but also having multiple stages of growth, getting larger and larger in their "true forms", although they might still look human in their illusory forms. These things should wind up eating dragons for breakfast without even having many weapon skills when they get into the advanced stages.)
WHEW! Finally done with that civ... it's... umm... kinda long, isn't it?
The Silkroad KingdomsThis is a mish-mash of "other" plains races that allied together out of necessity. They're based around trade and are a fairly disparate group. I know there's no real way to be able to work this with just castes alone, but I'd hope that they would be a fairly disloyal group, suspicious of anyone outside their own communities, but nevertheless, dependent upon trade, and because of that, forced to be cosmopolitan, even if it strains with buried racial tensions.
Humans (Maybe I should give them another race name?) -
These are creatures not unlike those Cacamudos, but taller, clumsier. Not bad some of the time, but somewhat pitiable for their inability to truly grasp dwarven culture. For some reason, they are generally considered the next best candidate for leading civilization if we Stonehallers were knocked out of the running somehow. Anyway, they tend to have plenty of whatever it is you don't have, so long as what you don't have isn't steel, or a few of the finer things in life.
(These are... humans! Actually, they're mixed-breed humans, because they have been living with, and inter-breeding with, several of these other races, so they aren't quite "pure" humans. That also goes into why they've split off into being a seperate species from the Patricians of the other plains civilization. So they're basically the "elves" of some fantasies - just humans with pointy ears.)
Enothoyari (Maybe I should just make up a shorter name, like "Arrayen" or something, but this should be "fallen man/woman" in elvish) -
Some fancy name for surface elves. Supposedly means they're not really elves, or that they're "impure" to the "real" elves, but the "real" elves aren't around anymore, so who cares? They're basically humans who grow up way too slow and have even pointier ears. Plus they don't grow old. Doesn't mean they don't die by a longshot, but they don't grow old. They might sometimes like to talk about having a seperate culture in olden times, but they're no different from humans, nowadays. Said to be made up of the elves who didn't have enough sense to join us dwarves, but got enough sense knocked into them to at least go join the humans.
(These are essentially "city elves"... they're not hippies, and have lost most of what makes them unique. Still, they're slightly faster than humans, but also thinner and weaker. But with iron on, that's enough to make them slightly more threatening, right? I'm not even sure I really want to put them in there, honestly. I kind of like an idea of a race of half-elves, with no "real elves" around anymore, but I'll see what people think, and I'm not attached to this.)
Lizardmen -
Heh, they drove the lamia out, but kept the ones that were even more reptile in. Don't ask me how human brains work, if they worked right, they'd be dwarves, am I right? Anyway, they're big, scaly, dour, and can be intimidating, but they're not all bad. They seem slow, but can be decent craftsmen, although they're not much of inventors. They rely on humans for that. They're pretty tough in a fight, too, that's for sure, but it's only enough to compensate for a lack of steel. There's no compensating for dwarven combat skill or engineering. They do have that nasty trick with attacking from the water, though.
(Yes, lizardmen are interbreedable with humans... it's sort of Elder Scrolls-y, I guess. They've got tougher hides, and use metal weapons, now, plus they've got somewhat larger egg clutches than normal humans, if I can help it. They also age faster, though. Still, they should make up a decent chunk of the front lines of the Kingdoms' troops. They're also amphibious)
Sphinx -
(Sorry, I'll just start leaving some of these "dwarf's-eye-view" of the critters out, since I'm WAY beyond tl;dr already, and this is the second day I've been typing this post out, now, so I'll just pick up the pace a little. Might go back and fill in later. I'm actually a little unsure if I want a sphinx, per se, but the idea of a centaur-style quadrupedal creature with a humanoid upper torso is one I'm drawn to. The easy answer would be to just say some kind of beastman, but really, when you do a fantasy that doesn't have elves, and it does have other races, it seems like everyone just sticks some cat/tiger/wolf/ox ears and a tail and a big appetite on a human, and call it a day. So, I figured if I was leaning towards an animalistic creature, why not one that was more animal? (I already have two dog-people and one cat-people already...) Maybe it should be something that has a larger human-to-animal ratio, though... Anyway, point is, the final creature should have me trying to test whether I can mess with skeletons in castes. Since I'm not sure exactly what I want (hey, maybe I'll just make something up wholecloth?), I'll hold off on personality quirks until later.)
Harpy -
(This one and the next, I'm sort of split on. I could do elemental humans, and make a Sylph (air elemental), Undine (water elemental), and a Salamander (fire elemental) - and that salamander could be magma-immune, ensuring that no single trap, aside from maybe spikes or cave-ins, would be capable of stopping a single invasion. On the other hand, the obvious fourth, earth, has "gnome" as an elemental, which I suppose I could throw in, too, just for completeness... but then, the problem is that such symmetry (and their near-humanness aside from elemental affinity) doesn't really mesh with the idea that this is a really WEIRD culture, just that it's one with everything balanced by another type of creature. So yeah, back on topic, harpies. I might not wind up calling them harpies, since "harpy" tends to bring up notions of withered hags (maybe sirens would do better...) but basically, they're winged humanoids with arms instead of wings, although they have bat-like wing-claws, and talons on their feet, so that their natural attack is a kick, and they are as likely to carry things with their taloned feet and flying as to actually lug something around in their arms and walk. If I'm going to use harpies, I'm going to have to use a much more cheerful version of them.)
Kappa -
(Yeah, sure, probably belongs with the other Japanese folk monsters, especially since they are somtimes portrayed as man-eaters as well... but I'd rather have another amphibious, and a "turtleman" would work. Maybe it's Touhou at work on my mind, but the idea of little engineer kappa scurrying about the battlefield fills me with a bit of glee. Anyway, they'll probably be smaller and somewhat weak compared to other races physically, but be the brains of the operation. I doubt there will be anything relating to learning speed around, however, so I'll just do what I can. Maybe they can get a "shell" advantage, though. Regardless, they should have more intellectually curious personalities.)
Inari (Kitsune) -
(Basically, these are just kitsune/yoko that have become allies of humans. They would be physically similar, but because of their difference in outlooks, they're mentally quite different, being self-disciplined rather than self-gratifying. If anyone cares, Inari kitsune are white or white and black foxes, as opposed to red foxes.)
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Topic: Stonehall Alliance - Experimental DF2010 cosmopolitan civs mod (Read 17170 times)