Right now, I'm working on a lore/mythology to a high fantasy medieval-esque world. I'm not sure what it'll be for, though I might have a forum game set in it. Don't know what to name it yet.
Humans: As in much of the Tolkein-esque fantasy, humans play the adaptive role. Their lifestyles, civilizations, and religions reflect this ability to change. From the xenophobic Eastern Watchers to the racial melting pot that is Argain, from the survivalist families of the Far North to the autocratic Southeast tribes, from the fervent Crusaders of the Flaming Blade to the slurry of tribal deities, the word best describing humans is variety.
Individual Civilizations:
Argain: Argain is easily the largest human city in the world, a trait certainly influenced by its geography. It is at the connection of two rivers, both of which are major shipping routes and both of which pour into Lake Argain from over two hundred feet up. The city is built on this height, which protects it from the sea raiders who are willing to sail upstream twelve miles. It also provides an economic advantage because shippers wishing to sail goods from the sea further upstream or vice versa need to pay Argainian workers to haul the goods up.
Argain's status as a trade hub also leads to its ethnic and racial diversity. On the Divine Islands in Lake Argain, over three hundred religious faiths, pantheons, or sects are represented, including dwarven, elven, and even orcish religions. The city itself, while having over a million human residents, has about as many visitors and non-human permanent dwellers. The sheer number of traders, travelers, and pilgrims makes the many inns, taverns, and brothels of the city extremely profitable. Their owners, as well as heads of shipping companies and other businesses, tend to live on the Gold Island on the northern river in houses as big as a lesser city. On the other end of the spectrum, the slums of the city contain almost a third of the human residents, though it is not hard to find work and many find work in the city guard. From a military standpoint, Argain is a naval juggernaut and has an extremely well-trained corps of soldiers numbering about ten thousand, though ten times that are in the city militia or guard.
The Holy Kingdom of the Crusaders of the Flaming Blade: The Holy Kingdom is a powerful theocracy on the west side of the continent. It controls a fairly large amount of land, though its citizens number about six hundred thousand. The Holy Kingdom has a number of requirements of its citizens, including military service and religious duties. The wealth is far more distributed than in Argain; while an aristocracy exists, the low end of the economic spectrum is the highest among human civilizations.
The Watchers in the East: The Watchers, as a civilization, are much smaller than the other human developments, but are powerful nonetheless. The isolated location of the Eastern Watches in the low mountains, coupled with the attacks on their ships and villages by sea raiders and the Southeastern tribes have made the Easterners wary of those not bearing the golden tower on their banners. The Eastern Watches form a military state, which absolutely prevents the distribution of wealth away from the state. The Easterners rarely trade outside their cities, and their relatively small population of fifty thousand is the most competent and powerful human military force on the continent.
The Tribes of the Southwest: The tribal peoples in the Southwest do not form a single people as much as they form a fractious, tumbling chaos headed by several powerful warlords. These warlords fight over land and slaves (i.e. everyone else) like two year-olds fighting over a giant bag of candy, but with swords and arrows.
The Tribes of the Far North: These Inuit-inspired people are the incarnation of humans' ability to adapt to their environments. While they have no centers of civilization to speak of, the clans of fifty to eighty they live in are highly capable. While survival is a fight, it is much less so for the Far North tribesmen than with others. They use every part of animals, and their weapons are carved from bones of their prey or, when desperate, from the ice, which remains throughout the year.
Dwarves: The dwarves, like the humans, are similar to their stereotype. Relationships take a very long time for them to develop with other nations, and they craft the greatest of all mortal objects. Their style is ornate, and a typical dwarf has at least one decorative axe in his house. Their livers' capabilities far surpass those of humans, and so drink alcohol almost exclusively. Like all things, the dwarven outlook on brewing sees it as a craft to perfect rather than a job to do or a thing of beauty. Most dwarves are part of this stereotyped homogeneous culture, but they each have their own personalities. Individual civilizations will not be discussed; rather, sub-races of dwarves will be shown
Hill Dwarves: Unlike their mountainous brethren, hill dwarves are fairly easygoing. They are far less suspicious of foreigners, though they still have a devotion to the dwarven pantheon and their crafts. They are something more like a cross between a dwarf and a hobbit.
Sea Dwarves: Dwarves of the ocean, like hill dwarves, have their own culture separate from the mountain dwarves. They reflect the hardships a life on the sea presents, rather than the protected life under a mountain. They learn about the frailty of things much sooner, and so protect what they have much more fiercely. They are also more quick to form agreements, pacts, and friendships than the mountainous dwarves.
JAN 20, 2010
Elves: Again, a fairly stereotyped race. However, they have a few varieties. Most are nature-worshipping of some kind, and they do not usually put religion as a high priority. Some use metal, some use wood, and most use magic in some way. However, there is not a perfectly generic elf as with a dwarf, simply because of the variety of elves that exist.
High Elves: The High Elves are most like those of the Lord of the Rings. They weave subtle spells into their crafts and create things for their beauty. To them, a sword is not good unless it has certain aesthetics both on and off the battlefield. They are fairly tolerant, more so than any of the other elven races. They do not have a serious unified religion and mostly focus on the power within each aspect of nature, making constructions that reflect these aspects.
Dark Elves: The Dark Elves, or Night Elves, are similar to the High Elves. However, they are a fair bit more macabre and warlike, and they are nocturnal. They are hardier, though less lithe, than the other elven subraces.
Blood Elves: The Blood Elves are an enigmatic group. They are very few in number, and they mainly fight through ancient blood magic, which draws power from the very life force of beings. Personality-wise, they show little emotion but still regard the forces of nature as great powers which are not to be opposed directly
Sun Elves: The Sun Elves are the only group which does not specifically revere nature. While they respect it, their focus is more on drawing the power of their sun god. Like the Blood Elves, they fight primarily through magic, drawing on the energy provided by the celestial sphere. They build massive constructions above the ground, reaching hundreds of meters into the sky. Old rumors say the Sun Elves built a city in the Far South which would easily dwarf Argain and which was protected by a solid gold tower three thousand feet tall. The legends of this city are a testament to the power of the Sun Elves.
Wood Elves: The elves we know and... love? Like their DF counterparts, the Wood Elves do not use metals. They act in a sort of "accordance with nature", eating their deceased foes but not killing for sport or specifically for meat. They are easily offended, and their religious practice shows unifying forces, each tied to a few spheres of existance.
Orcs and Goblins: Orcs and Goblins do not have a very solid culture. Their lives are like the Southwest Tribes' but more barbaric and exotic. The Orcs are large, about eight feet on average, while the goblins are typically five feet in height.
I decided to drop kobolds for now.
Religions: The religion of this world is widely varied. Gods exist, all with varying degrees of intercession and power. For most gods, the number of worshippers determines the power of a god. However, this is not always the case.
THE TWELVE: These twelve gods were the original gods (original meaning first; they were not the first things in existance). While worshippers do have an impact on the group's power, they are equal in power, derive much of it from another source, and each is more powerful than the rest of the gods. They have general spheres, working with concepts rather than forces of the material world. They interfere little compared to the other gods, unless a great threat is posed. They leave the affairs of mortals, including afterlives, to the lesser deities, however. In addition, their true names are unknown and they do not have gender or sex in the manner we think of it.
God of Pondering- The Ponderer is the most enigmatic of the Twelve. Few are devoted to him, and his intercessions are almost nonexistant. He does not have a common name, and not even the others of the Twelve know his true name. His pondering is possibly a cause of his general lack of fame, as he ponders forces even the Twelve do not fully understand. However, when he does move, his strength is incredible. His intercessions, though few, are only made with the purpose of shedding some speck of light onto an issue which he does not understand.
God of the Celestial Sphere- The High King is possibly the most well known of the Twelve. His sphere of influence is the heavens: the sun, stars, moons, and other planets. In a more general sense, his sphere of influence includes all the immaterial worlds and deific planes. While the scope of his rule causes many mortals to call him 'king', he is no more a king than any of the others of the Twelve.
God of Creation- The Maker is another fairly famous god of the Twelve. He is honored in dwarven mountain halls as the Great Blacksmith, and his crafts are of such skill that the other gods' works seem to be crude piles of scrap hastily thrown together when comparison.
God of Magic- The Spellweaver is a little more obscure than the previous two, but he has his fair share of worshippers. He also is the source of magic in the material world; from the essence of each god he formed a thread of magical power, these were woven together into the material world, and twelve aspects of magic thus result.
God of Luck- The Guide is more obscure than even the Spellweaver, and his influence is by far the most prominent. He has a natural knowledge of fate, and as such most oracles draw their powers from him. He nudges in the right direction those few legendary heroes in whom he saw great fates.
God of Blood- The Bloodletter is almost as mysterious as the Ponderer; his sphere is the force of life, the most integral part of the mortal world. Despite this, he has few followers, as the art of tapping into the unrestrained energies of the blood tends to be frowned upon.
God of Time- The Clockkeeper is another important, yet little known god. He does almost as little as the Ponderer; despite this, those who manage to contact him find his ability to direct the ebb and flow of time to be a useful power. Little else is known of him on the mortal plane, however.
God of Chaos- The Dirsuptor is a famous and active being; he delights in disorder, but not necessarily strife. He has a somewhat active following, unlike many others of The Twelve; this increases his influence in the material world, but his actions are often frowned upon by the other gods. He directly opposes the Enforcer
God of the Wild- The Wild One is active, but not famous; his sphere is the untamed lands, the natural state of being. He often dislikes the actions of the other gods: The Enforcer for creating an artificial order where the natural, elegant one suffices, the Disruptor for causing chaos, the Spellweaver for acting to evade the natural way, the Warmonger for causing trouble.
God of Shadow- The Hidden One is less active and less famous than most of the gods. He is a giver of refuge and a place to hide; his followers often do so in secret not only because it is the nature of their god, but also because their lack of transparency leads to distrust. He is the god of things hidden, and when he acts, he does so subtly.
God of Order- The Enforcer is another of the more active gods. His goal in the world is structure. Structure, however, does not mean peace: his followers often actively pursue the forces of the Disruptor. Again, like the Disruptor, his actions make him one of the gods more frequently scorned.
God of Strife- The Warmonger is the most active of the gods, without question. He does not care for order, nor for chaos. What he seeks is conflict: Whether the highly structured game of chess, or ten thousand killing each other for no reason, his goals are met. This leads to his having few followers, as they are often firebrands and they have trouble avoiding conflict, even between each other.
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Topic: Fantasy world: Possibly back in business. (Read 2168 times)