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<blockquote data-quote="QuietBrowser" data-source="post: 7307769" data-attributes="member: 6855057"><p>So, I was reading a review of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition's Tome of Corruption sourcebook, and it reminded me of this setting. This is something taht's been bugging me for a while, although I had pushed it away for a time.</p><p></p><p>Way back on the 1st page, I listed two of the... "design statements" for this setting as "Weird Fantasy" and "Gray vs. Grey". I also mentioned that Warhammer Fantasy was one of the things that inspired me to make this setting in the first place. Well, there is one little detail I didn't mention... a sort of mental movie, I guess, that was part of my initial vision of this world.</p><p></p><p>A peaceful village of halfling(-equivalents) are scrabbling what defenses they can, because they know a terrible threat is coming - bandits, a hobgoblin slaving party, mercenaries, whatever. It's a force of superior fighters, and they're probably not going to survive - but then, out of the woods, comes a figure. The halflings draw back in fear; faceless and imposing in baroque armor, adorned with symbols indicating a worshipper of the setting's equivalent to Khorne, this stranger could probably wipe them out himself if he wanted. But he says nothing to them, doesn't even look at them, just marches past them and plants himself on the road leading into town, right in the way of the raiders. And when they show up, he stands in their way, one man taking on many foes. And with the powers of his dark patron, he breaks them; the road runs red with blood as he hews limbs and cuts down any who dare to try and make it past him, until the survivors turn and flee. Not a single halfling has been harmed. And when one brave halfling dares to approach him and ask "why?", they receive a single, simple answer: "Because you needed me." Then he turns and walks away. The village watches him go. And then they go back to their normal lives, everything back to the way it was except in one small way: at the center of the village, there is now a small shrine, commemorating the battle that was won that day. And the halflings still give thanks for the dark wanderer who came forth in their time of need.</p><p></p><p>Chaos has always been one of the more fascinating aspects of the Warhammer World to me. But, more so the older lore for Chaos, when it was more Chaotic Neutral than Chaotic Evil. Maybe I'm not even remembering it accurately. But still, I'm well aware of the fact that modern Chaos has its flaws.</p><p></p><p>Hell, really, that could be said of all of Warhammer's "villain" factions. Orcs & Goblins are basically 80s cartoon mooks, but they get the love they do because they're so stupid they're funny; the setting doesn't try to present them as that serious a threat, it just lets them be so oafish and so happily evil that they're entertaining. But the rest? Dark Elves are arrogant, hubristic, know-it-all, self-righteous jerkbags - but the problem is, so are the High & Wood Elves. The same "dark fantasy" brush already applied to the other elven factions strips Dark Elves of anything particularly unique - they're literally just "all the flaws, none of the redeeming facets" versions of the High Elves. They actually even shallower than Drow! There's literally no greater depth to them then being a bunch of Berkshire Hunts. Skaven are basically knock-off beastmen defined entirely by being such backstabbing, treacherous little fleabags that Starscream himself would turn up his nose at their inability to work together.</p><p></p><p>And then... we got to Chaos. As that review points out, Chaos really fumbles the ball a lot. Khorne's got absolutely no depth to him, Slaanesh and Tzeentch are badly written, and Chaos in general is presented as a huge case of "own goal", where the risks vastly outweigh the rewards. It really puts its argument much more eloquently than I could, so I'll just link it: </p><p><a href="http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/night10194/warhammer-fantasy-tome-of-corruption/" target="_blank">http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/night10194/warhammer-fantasy-tome-of-corruption/</a></p><p></p><p>Now, you're probably wondering why I'm bringing this up. I'm starting to wonder too, so don't feel alone.</p><p></p><p>Basically... what I'm wondering is: should I try and include some equivalent to the Dark Gods of Chaos in my setting? Amoral, but not necessarily immoral, fiend-gods who offer power that can damn the weak but empower the strong?</p><p></p><p>It's a theme that I'm technically touching upon with the Hutaakans already. And the Gnolls. But... I don't know. At the least, these "Dark Gods" would be an alternative to the more squeaky-clean deities I created a few pages back - akin to the non-villainous options for Vecna, Bane and Tiamat worshippers presented in 4th edition. I just... I don't know if it's a good idea or not.</p><p></p><p></p><p>On a semi-related topic, I'm worried about my racial list. Namely, I'm worried there actually isn't enough "foreign" races. The Known World is as fleshed out as the Sword Coast or Khorvaire got - Humans, Haffuns, Cog & Wild Gnomes, Moon Elves, Ratfolk, Hobgoblins, Deathtouched, Goliaths, and Minotaurs if I can just wrap my head around them. But then... there's the races from off-shore. What options are players supposed to have if DMs want to play native campaigns for the Dark Continent (Hutaakans & Gnolls)? Or the Gardens of Zyn (Sun Elves)? Or the Isle of Catastrophe or the Hordelands (Ratfolk, hobgoblins)?</p><p></p><p>Not every race is going to be a big "world power". But, still, there should be options. I mean, look at Eberron; you had every single one of the PHB races, plus changelings, warforged, shifters, and kalashtar, plus orcs, goblinoids, gnolls and ogres if you wanted to go to Droaam. Or Dark Sun; humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, half-elves, half-giants, muls and thri-kreen in the classic setup, with aarakocra and pterrans in the revised campaign, dray in that one adventure module, and elans & maenads in the 3e update.</p><p></p><p>Still... I really don't have a solid idea of what races to play around with. The Known World feels pretty solid in terms of race and outline; I really want to move onto one of the other continents and give it a similar treatment. Hm... maybe it'd help me find more racial places if I just picked a continent and started fleshing it out?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="QuietBrowser, post: 7307769, member: 6855057"] So, I was reading a review of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition's Tome of Corruption sourcebook, and it reminded me of this setting. This is something taht's been bugging me for a while, although I had pushed it away for a time. Way back on the 1st page, I listed two of the... "design statements" for this setting as "Weird Fantasy" and "Gray vs. Grey". I also mentioned that Warhammer Fantasy was one of the things that inspired me to make this setting in the first place. Well, there is one little detail I didn't mention... a sort of mental movie, I guess, that was part of my initial vision of this world. A peaceful village of halfling(-equivalents) are scrabbling what defenses they can, because they know a terrible threat is coming - bandits, a hobgoblin slaving party, mercenaries, whatever. It's a force of superior fighters, and they're probably not going to survive - but then, out of the woods, comes a figure. The halflings draw back in fear; faceless and imposing in baroque armor, adorned with symbols indicating a worshipper of the setting's equivalent to Khorne, this stranger could probably wipe them out himself if he wanted. But he says nothing to them, doesn't even look at them, just marches past them and plants himself on the road leading into town, right in the way of the raiders. And when they show up, he stands in their way, one man taking on many foes. And with the powers of his dark patron, he breaks them; the road runs red with blood as he hews limbs and cuts down any who dare to try and make it past him, until the survivors turn and flee. Not a single halfling has been harmed. And when one brave halfling dares to approach him and ask "why?", they receive a single, simple answer: "Because you needed me." Then he turns and walks away. The village watches him go. And then they go back to their normal lives, everything back to the way it was except in one small way: at the center of the village, there is now a small shrine, commemorating the battle that was won that day. And the halflings still give thanks for the dark wanderer who came forth in their time of need. Chaos has always been one of the more fascinating aspects of the Warhammer World to me. But, more so the older lore for Chaos, when it was more Chaotic Neutral than Chaotic Evil. Maybe I'm not even remembering it accurately. But still, I'm well aware of the fact that modern Chaos has its flaws. Hell, really, that could be said of all of Warhammer's "villain" factions. Orcs & Goblins are basically 80s cartoon mooks, but they get the love they do because they're so stupid they're funny; the setting doesn't try to present them as that serious a threat, it just lets them be so oafish and so happily evil that they're entertaining. But the rest? Dark Elves are arrogant, hubristic, know-it-all, self-righteous jerkbags - but the problem is, so are the High & Wood Elves. The same "dark fantasy" brush already applied to the other elven factions strips Dark Elves of anything particularly unique - they're literally just "all the flaws, none of the redeeming facets" versions of the High Elves. They actually even shallower than Drow! There's literally no greater depth to them then being a bunch of Berkshire Hunts. Skaven are basically knock-off beastmen defined entirely by being such backstabbing, treacherous little fleabags that Starscream himself would turn up his nose at their inability to work together. And then... we got to Chaos. As that review points out, Chaos really fumbles the ball a lot. Khorne's got absolutely no depth to him, Slaanesh and Tzeentch are badly written, and Chaos in general is presented as a huge case of "own goal", where the risks vastly outweigh the rewards. It really puts its argument much more eloquently than I could, so I'll just link it: [url]http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/night10194/warhammer-fantasy-tome-of-corruption/[/url] Now, you're probably wondering why I'm bringing this up. I'm starting to wonder too, so don't feel alone. Basically... what I'm wondering is: should I try and include some equivalent to the Dark Gods of Chaos in my setting? Amoral, but not necessarily immoral, fiend-gods who offer power that can damn the weak but empower the strong? It's a theme that I'm technically touching upon with the Hutaakans already. And the Gnolls. But... I don't know. At the least, these "Dark Gods" would be an alternative to the more squeaky-clean deities I created a few pages back - akin to the non-villainous options for Vecna, Bane and Tiamat worshippers presented in 4th edition. I just... I don't know if it's a good idea or not. On a semi-related topic, I'm worried about my racial list. Namely, I'm worried there actually isn't enough "foreign" races. The Known World is as fleshed out as the Sword Coast or Khorvaire got - Humans, Haffuns, Cog & Wild Gnomes, Moon Elves, Ratfolk, Hobgoblins, Deathtouched, Goliaths, and Minotaurs if I can just wrap my head around them. But then... there's the races from off-shore. What options are players supposed to have if DMs want to play native campaigns for the Dark Continent (Hutaakans & Gnolls)? Or the Gardens of Zyn (Sun Elves)? Or the Isle of Catastrophe or the Hordelands (Ratfolk, hobgoblins)? Not every race is going to be a big "world power". But, still, there should be options. I mean, look at Eberron; you had every single one of the PHB races, plus changelings, warforged, shifters, and kalashtar, plus orcs, goblinoids, gnolls and ogres if you wanted to go to Droaam. Or Dark Sun; humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, half-elves, half-giants, muls and thri-kreen in the classic setup, with aarakocra and pterrans in the revised campaign, dray in that one adventure module, and elans & maenads in the 3e update. Still... I really don't have a solid idea of what races to play around with. The Known World feels pretty solid in terms of race and outline; I really want to move onto one of the other continents and give it a similar treatment. Hm... maybe it'd help me find more racial places if I just picked a continent and started fleshing it out? [/QUOTE]
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