Eska, my new homebrew world

Eska, "home" in the elven tongue is a land in turmoil.


Until recently, the high elves, wood elves and drow lived in peace and harmony, ruling the small continent of Eska until Lolth split the drow elf away in an act of rebellion. This sparked off a terrible war that lasted nearly two centuries and has left its mark on all the races of Eska.


There was no winner in this war. The land is left scarred and its people scattered. What was so recently thriving cities, towns, and ports are now just huddled masses hoping to survive.


The high elves, once the ruling class on Eska, have retreated into domed mountaintop cities. During the war, their masters of wizardry used strange magics to transform their goblin servants into hobgoblin troopers, and armed them with shocklances.


Wood elves once roamed the northern forests and plains have now retreated into treetop cities. Using sorcery to awaken the wild dogs that once ran with them to fight in the war, their gnolls now run rampage over most corners of the land, out of control.


The drow, driven from the surface, used their spider mounts to drive the dwarves from their halls, and are adapting to life underground.


Now the dwarves roam in clans, the hopefully taking control of former elven fortifications across the land. They are not doing well with life on the surface, though. The lucky ones have developed a twitch, or a stutter. A vast majority of them fall into rages while fighting, which they often do. They fight for loot, for food, and for homes.


Rock gnomes make their way across the land in their giant crawlers, scavenging as they go. They build fantastic things with the metal scraps, wood from ravaged forests and stone from the cities of rubble that dot the land. Warforged, their greatest creation, guard their caravans as they travel. Many more warforged were sold into mercenary companies during the wars.


The swamps and deserts teem with lizardfolk, who have begun to step out and ask "is it now our time?".


Bandits, brigands, and pirates, all former soldiers in the war, know nothing of peace. They take land by force, getting what they want mainly through the use of their cannons. They claim ruins and take over strongholds, setting themselves up as petty kings.


Ley lines cross the land, adding power to spellcasters who can channel their power.


http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2015/07/eska.html

Looks like fun! I'm really hoping that the rock gnomes have stoney skin, sort of like the trolls from Frozen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FJyMwYB2yw

DMMike said:

Looks like fun! I'm really hoping that the rock gnomes have stoney skin, sort of like the trolls from Frozen.

Click to expand...

Nice touch. I like it.

I think a thread which actually has the word "homebrew" in the title probably belongs in the Homebrews forum. I'll slip it over there!

To show you how I'm imagining Eska, I'm going to share with you the inspirational sources that sparked this whole thing.

Mad Max: Fury Road. I had wanted to see it, but I rarely go to the movies. I usually catch them later and watch at home. My wife wasn't interested in seeing it, so I went and saw it, alone... I had forgotten how fond I was of the Mad Max world. Things have gone to hell, and we have no idea how it got that way. Different roving bands and petty warlords all have a "unique look".

Building on unique look, you can't help but love 1979's The Warriors. One of my all time favorites movies.

That, but turned up to 11.

A healthy dose of Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man and Blackstarr.


All that got thoughts swirling in my head, and I binge-read some Hill Cantons and other stuff about D&D's implied world.

Jurassic World has me replacing all the standard Earth beasts with dinosaurs, giant lizards, giant insects, monstrosities, and more. Who doesn't want to ride around on a giant wasp, or an axebeak instead of horses?


“Outside Paris the breakdown of authority was reaching catastrophe. Its catalyst was the brigandage of military companies spawned by the warfare of the last fifteen years. There were the Free Companies who write “sorrow on the bosom of the earth” and were to become the torment of the age. Composed of English, Welsh, and Gascons released after [the Battle of] Poitiers, as soldiers customarily were to avoid further payment...

Along with German mercenaries and Hainault adventurers, they gathered in groups of 20-50 around a captain...In the year after the truce they swelled, merged, organized, spread, and operated with ever more license. Seizing a castle, they would use it as a stronghold from which to exact tribute from every traveler and raid the countryside.

They imposed ransoms on prosperous villages and burned the poor ones, robbed abbeys and monasteries of their stores and valuables, pillaged peasants' barns...As the addiction took hold, they wantonly burned harvests and farm equipment and cut down trees and vines, destroying what they lived by, in actions which seem inexplicable except as a fever of the time or an exaggeration of the chroniclers.”

-Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror

"Life was squalid in the lofty but crowded fortifications atop isolated hills; visits from bandits and robbers outnumbered those from merchants and churchmen".

-Urban, William, Bayonets for Hire: Mercenaries at War, 1550-1789, p. 31, Greenhill Books, London 2007.

How can I forget Rifts? Rifts fully captured my 17 year old brain. While I don't like the Palladium ruleset, some part of the Rifts setting creeps into every world I create and game I run.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2015/07/eskas-appendix-n.html

Gray Elf

The gray elf, or mith’edhel, were the ruling class before the wars threw Eska into chaos. Their arrogance is what others notice first about them. They have pale skin and fair hair, and are taller than other elves. Most gray elves have amber eyes, but violet eyes are rare but not unknown. The prefer to wear gray, white, silver and gold. Facial tattoos are a recent trend that started with the war. Wings and aerial motifs are common decorations.

Gray elves prefer not to get their hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. They are the elite. The rulers. The leaders. They guard their wizardly powers jealousy. Only a handful of gray elf trained non-elf wizards wander Eska.

The gray elves are served by goblins, who perform all the day to day mundane tasks. Their goblin entourages follow them closely, but not too close, ready to fulfil the mith’edhel’s every wish.

During the wars, they used their arcane magic to create soldiers to fight the drow armies. They transformed their goblin servants into mighty hobgoblin legions and armed them with shocklances, and created the obsidian giants.

In the aftermath of the wars, they have retreated to their most secluded domed mountain cities, hidden on mountaintops and secluded valleys in the Earka’orod, the mountains that run down the center of Eska.

They don’t use the me'urra’ehta, or shocklances, themselves. They consider them “brutal tools for brutal fools”. Ezuchiro (charge blades) are their weapon of choice, and jealously guarded. Any n'taurn seen with one will be shunned at best, but most likely hunted, captured and killed.

Gray elves are the most haughty and aloof race on Eska. They think almost nothing of other races, even other elven races. Most other races they call “n'taurn”, low. The dwarves they hold in lower regard, calling them "talant", the fallen. Gnolls and lizardfolk are nothing more than beasts.

Ability Score Increase.
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Elf Weapon Training.
You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.


Cantrip.
You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

Speak with Small Avians.
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller avian beasts, be they reptile, insect or mammal. Gray elves love flying creatures and often keep them as pets.

Ezuchiro (charge blades)

25 gp 1d6 piercing 1 lb. Finesse, light

Charge blades are the size of a dagger and consist of a metal hilt which produces a blade of hard light and can come in a variety of colors including blue, orange, gray, green, red, purple, pink and yellow.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2015/07/gray-elves-of-eska.html

Eska, you say?

I don't know how I feel about that.

LOL! Didn't even catch that reference. Of course, I'm only hit and miss with watching Koora. Maybe I should remember to do a simple Google search before naming something.

Rock Gnome

The rock gnomes of Eska mechanically are like the gnomes in the 5e Player’s Handbook. Physically, their skin has taken on a rough, pebbly stone-like texture. This provides no protection, though.


The rock gnomes sought to escape the wars that ravaged Eska and drove them from their homes. They scavenge ruins for metal, wood and stone that they can use to create. Using their ingenuity they built their massive crawlers that have become their roaming homes. Powered by magic, each crawler is large enough to support a small gnome clan or large family.

Equipped with cranes, furnaces, workshops and lots of living and/or storage space, crawlers are perfect as mobile headquarters, shops, and homes for the diminutive junk scavengers. Rooftop gardens provide food. The vehicles play a large role in gnome society. One of the most important days for most gnomes was the annual meeting of crawlers. They are also key in gnomish defense doctrine: the vehicle's armor is strong enough to protect from most attacks.


Using the magic that powered the crawlers, the gnomes have built what has become their most fantastic creation, the warforged. The warforged protect the gnomes and their crawlers from the roving bands that would seek to rob the gnomes. There has also been a good market in selling warforged off as well.

The gnomes make their living as craftsmen and traders, always traveling, though. They are generally distrustful of the elves because they started the wars. They feel pity towards the dwarves, and generally cut them good deals. They avoid gnolls whenever possible. Most others they are distrustful of, though generally willing to do business with.

Gnomes of Eska worship Garl Glittergold.

Inspiration for the crawlers was taken from Wookieepedia.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2015/07/rock-gnomes-of-eska.html

I'm wanting to get the different races of Eska done first, before moving on to classes. My next in line was going to be dwarves, but they weren't coming together the way I wanted to. Since the three subraces of elves formed the dominant power before the Kinslayer Wars, I'm going to finish them out before moving on to the other races. Most of the lore of Eska is only a rough outline I have typed out as well as some nebulous ideas floating in my head, and seems to change and take shape as I write it. Wanting to provide pictures to go along with my ideas, things get changed depending on what I can find with a Google image search as well, since I have no artistic talent.

I've noticed a linguistic shift recently as well, though not as much noticeable in what I've posted. I've been using this English to Elvish translator to come up with many names so far. Before the Kinslayer Wars, the elves were the rulers of Eska, and many place names and other "older" things are named in elvish. Since the war has subsided, the elves have retreated and become reclusive. Humans and other races are now stepping forward, and some newer names are starting to reflect this, such as the common words that now name it the Kinslayer Wars.

Wood Elves of Eska (taur’edhel)

The wood elves, or taur’edhel, served as the scouts and provided most of the food for the elven empire that grew and roamed in their lush forests.

While the gray elves are aloof and haughty, the wood elves are a distrustful and xenephobic race. Where the gray elves will ignore or look down upon you, the wood elves will likely kill or capture you, just for stepping foot in their lands.

The taur’edhel are masters of the Forenya’taur, the great forest that covers the northern part of Eska. They build great treetop cities, guarded by griffon riders, known as the thoron’raa’roch. Many wood elves never touch the ground during their lives, except for their hunters and bands of rangers and druids accompanied by packs of cooshie that patrol the forest floor that keep outsiders at bay.


Masters of the bow, the thoron’raa’roch and rangers supplement their normal arrows with me'urra’pilin, or lightning arrows. These function as normal arrows, having the same range when fired, but doing lightning damage instead of piercing and having a “tracer bullet” effect when fired. About a third of arrows in a taur’edhel quiver will be me'urra’pilin.

During the Kinslayer wars, looking to bolster their numbers, the taur’edhel used their sorceries to transform their cooshie into humanoids, and set the huan’apanonar (dog men) packs loose to fight the mori’edhel and their spider beasts. These huan’apanonar packs now roam loose throughout all of Eska.

Since the Kinslayer Wars, the taur’edhel have retreated into the Forenya’taur, and except for a few individuals, rarely leave. While once in firm control of the huan’apanonar, many of them have broken free, but still remain on good terms with the taur’edhel. While they sided with the mith’edhel (gray elves) in the fight against the mori’edhel (dark elves), they now distrust both races, since the details of the start of the War have become cloudy. They dislike the hobgoblin forces and goblin servants of the gray elves as well.

They trade with the rock gnomes whenever their crawlers make their seasonal stops along the edges of Forenya’taur, and festivals have begun to spring up around these trade fairs. The crawlers are too big to enter the forest, so the rock gnomes rarely enter the forest. Warforged are generally on good terms with the taur’edhel, since the elves find these creatures of living wood, stone and metal fascinating. While few in number, some forest gnomes do live in the Forenya’taur.

They consider the dwarves, or talant a joke, since the mori’edhel have driven them from their halls at the end of the Kinslayer Wars. They usually underestimate humans, and are often amazed and surprised at their versatility. Those lizardfolk (takel'var) that already dwell in the Forenya’taur are tolerated, but those from outside are often killed, though the wood elves often can’t tell the difference, either killing or ignoring any groups they encounter.

The wood elves worship Rillifane Rallathil, though many are starting to follow the Seelie Court, which is causing some rumbles throughout taur’edhel society.

The taur’edhel use the same statistics as wood elves from the Player’s Handbook.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2015/08/wood-elves-of-eska-tauredhel.html