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Loretober 18: Biome The biome of the Three-Season Forests on the Eastern and Western Caps of the world have some subtle but important differences from the Temperate Forest biome of the Old World landmass. The most obvious difference is the "Leaf Storm" dividing the end of Autumn from the...

Loretober 18: Innovation The establishment of gear magic as a legitimate branch of arcania, rather than merely a form of occultism, allowed the development of practical pocket watches. The dwarven witch Alice von Zwilligeisen established the theory, and her brother Bolo, a master clockmaker, put...

Loretober 17: Time The division of each day into two periods of twelve hours each is now a long-settled convention, with the growth in popularity of dwarf-clocks being the factor that finally established it: The dwarven clockmakers refused to craft clocks that struck thirteen. A small number of...

Loretober 16: Premonition A true premonition, according to the scholars of the arcane, is an untrained and unintentional act of prophesying or scrying, while a false premonition is simply a matter of self-deception or wishful thinking. An important aspect of the study of formal scrying spells...

Loretober 15: History Year Event 1 The Golden Ones officially finished creating the world c. 1 - 2,500 The Crystal Age c. 2,500 - 4,300 The Electrum Age c. 3,030 Arrival of first humans and lizardmen from the...

Loretober 14: War The War of the Eyebrows was fought 240 years ago in the Red Mountains, between the goblins of Cheetzpink Mountain and the neighboring dwarves of Hartzberg. It ended when the goblins won a narrow and costly victory at the Battle of Copperbat Cave. At the peace conference...

Loretober 13: Weapons The sacred woman's daggers carried by the female followers of the Moon Goddess are all, theologically, the same dagger. This results in any given instance of the Dagger having a number of arcane oddities. Each new instance of the Dagger must be made to the same pattern...

There was an old USENET post about a setting with an alignment swap: Most of the usually-evil underground races/species (drow, kobolds, beholders, medusae) are typically-good, and the above-ground races/species are corrupted and evil. This is the bit about halflings in that setting:

Loretober 12: Cuisine Cold chocolate soup originated in La Vache Brune of the elven House of Claude, and spread from there to other eating houses along the south coast of the Kingdom of Vinland. It's possible, if unlikely, that Gaelvar Claude was inspired to invent the dish by the writings of...

Loretober 11: Nature According to the writings of the mad wizard Tim of Atland, the otherworld of Trion has much the same plant life as does Gold-Home or Earth. Likewise birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates are very much the same. Mammals are different, however, with the...

Parrots: Sonic

Loretober 10: Dragons The dragons of Gold-Home are actually all were-dragons: Humans and lizardmen from the otherworld of Adobe Colony whose magic includes the ability to shift into a draconic form. This can be a gift or a curse, depending on the level of control the were-dragon has. At its...

Loretober 9: Occultism "Occultism" is the name given to false or imaginary forms of magic, or at least to magical forms deemed imaginary by respectable wizards, sorcerers, and other mages. Examples of occultism include kleptomancy, non-Paracelsian alchemy, and the curse- and blessing-rituals of...

Loretober 8: Myths & Legends The Bear With Five Legs is an ancient Myth of Gold-Home, with different versions told from the Demontooth Mountains to the North Forest, and from the Northwest Isles to the Prodigious Plains. The goblins of the Demontooth Mountains have a version where the...

Loretober 7: Villains "Mooserider" is a favorite villain character in the Tanner cycle of stories and sagas told by elves in the north. He is also found as a villain in stories told by certain tribes of the Western Cap. The name has been adopted by various real-world villains as well. Perhaps...

Loretober 6: Heroes In appearance, Cyrano de Bugerorc might be mistaken for a villain, or at least for a charming rogue: He's an orc who wears the costume of a dandy and bears the nose of a roc. He commits poetry in public, with the saving grace of having the style, wit, and talent to pull off...

Loretober 5: Psionics For all the years that he had lived in Ylide, Master Seztrim was not a native of the city, or even of the world. Like nearly all lizardmen, he hailed from the otherworld of Colony Adobe. And like most of the lizardmen seen in the world, he possessed mental powers that he...

Loretober 4: Music "The Fool of Ovalmere Faire" is the tune played by over half of the music boxes crafted in the Principalities, north of the Kingdom of Vinland and the Meadborn River. It's a traditional aire, sometimes also known as "The Fool (or The King) of Bengate Bridge." And in the...

Loretober 3: Prophecy Lady Torishar of the House of Broktus had invited Master Seztrim of Ylide to her Doomsday Party. This was a daring and even scandalous move, not because Master Seztrim was a scaly lizardman with psi powers, but because he was a slave dealer. The men of the House could and...

Loretober 2: Nightlife Wednesday nights are Dart Nights at the Anvil and Barrel in the halfling village of Broadstump. In truth, darts are played there every night, but on nights other than Wednesdays they're played "for funsies." Wednesday night darts, on the other hand, are played for a pair...