Designing an aquatic setting (Part 1, PC races)

SnowleopardVK

First Post
A friend and I recently became interested in creating an aquatic world for use as a setting of multiple campaigns of ours. We've already begun work, and I suppose what we're looking for in this topic is tips and advice with creating this setting, and for anyone to tell us if anything we've done is crazy, and not crazy in a good way (the flumphs are making me suspect that might be the case).

The setting, currently dubbed Gamislore, will be made up mostly of oceans, underwater societies, and dry-land cities situated on small islands (that way most of the normal player races will exist despite being land-based). The majority of most of the islands in the setting will be partially flooded though, either naturally or specifically to cater to the water-dwelling races of the world. In other words many areas are flattened out with a a foot or two of water covering them, such that a land-based race, even the shorter ones, could stand with their feet on the ground, while an aquatic race could remain submerged in the same area.

At any rate we're working on PC races first since we now have a vague idea of what the physical setting itself is going to be. Some of them will be transferred over from the regular PF races with little to no adjustment to the mechanics of the race themselves, whereas others will have changed or will be cut completely from our setting. We decided to remove Gnomes completely for example and plan to make a few monster races core races in Gamislore. There's also (currently) two homebrewed races, one insisted on by me and the other by my friend. We're not completely done even this first step obviously, but here's our concepts so far.

(Just so you know, there's a LOT of reading on the way.)

Humans - Not a native race to Gamislore, humans appeared on a day seven centuries ago known as "The Twilight"; a day when a large island that would come to be known as Atlantis seemingly fell from the sky. The so-called Fall of Atlantis created huge tidal waves that left the other islands of the world in their half-flooded states, and likewise brought humans with it into the world. Since then humans have spread and grown as a people, quickly adapting to magic, and even beginning to mate with other races, the most notable of these being the elves. To this day Atlantis remains the designated “home island” for the humans, with Atlantia as the humans’ capitol city. Humans can be found living on most of the islands of Gamislore however, as can most races be found living on Atlantis.

Lizardfolk – Perhaps the greatest in number and most influential of Gamislore’s land-dwelling races, the lizardfolk have advanced quickly since The Twilight from a primitive society of warriors and barbarians to an empire-building race of considerable power and influence. It is likely that the decline and eventual fall of the orc race was the primary cause for such a change. The Lizardfolk are numerous and spread out across most of the world, and are found living on all manner of islands across every other races’ lands aside from dwarven lands, which are likely too cold for lizardfolk to settle comfortably in. The tropical island Welsa Oaden, situated deep in what is generally considered to be lycan territory, is considered to be the home island of the lizardfolk race, and their capitol city Ost is situated upon it. The lizardfolk are a very military-conscious people, valuing power in a controlled and orderly form, they do not seem to get along well with half orcs because of this, but this does not stop lizardfolk communities from springing up on islands around the equator, where the half orcs primarily live. Conflict between lizardfolk and half orcs over matters of territory and strength are common, but the two races seem to get along, if grudgingly, in other situations and have been known to band together in adventuring parties and even form friendship.

Gillmen - The gillmen are one of two races, along with the mermen, that dominate the oceans of the world. They build their massive underwater cities along the coastlines of islands, preferring those islands with steep cliffs that are surrounded by deep water, as such places are easy to build in and fortify against attack, and are also easily supplemented with surface-towers, large structures that extend from the seabed out above the waves. These towers allow for non-aquatic races to maintain friendly contact with the gillmen, who are relatively accepting of the land races but possess an ancient unfriendliness and lack of trust towards the mermen. The feeling is mutual, and though the two races don’t generally get along, they do (for the most part) avoid war. Gillmen and mermen have even been known to join together as members of adventuring parties, with interactions between the two races in these situations ranging from rivalry to grudging acceptance. The capitol city of the Gillman Empire is known as Trunchet, its underwater population is composed almost entirely of gillmen, but Trunchet also maintains a thriving surface community where other races live.

Mermen – The second of Gamislore’s dominant aquatic races, the mermen build their civilizations far out to sea, preferring to carve dozens, or even hundreds of castles resting atop and alongside great coral reefs. Mermen themselves are often regarded as a haughty race, and are looked upon as snobs who believe themselves to be superior to all others. This is not true of the race as a whole of course and in fact each individual varies as much as individuals of any other race. Despite this, mermen and gillmen are not friendly. The elves also hold a low opinion of mermen for their reputation, despite having a similar reputation themselves. This has led to some tension between the two races, with many mermen declaring elves to be a race of hypocrites. Many historians suggest that this view of the mermen came about due to several centuries worth of overly prideful mermen kings who shared this attitude, but there is some disagreement on the issue as the current king Tridon is wise and benevolent. The mermen, unlike many of the other races of Gamislore do not form cities; rather they refer to their clusters of undersea castles as Kingdoms. Each merman kingdom has its own individual king or queen, but the Rose Kingdom is the largest and is considered to be the most important of these. The Rose kingdom’s monarch, currently Tridon, is always considered to be the true ruler of their race, higher in status than other kings and queens.

Elves – An ancient race deeply tied to the magic of the world of Gamislore, the elves are a prominent power. Despite this, the elves do not seem to possess even a single island that is identified as being primarily elven. Instead of an island, most elves live in a colossal tower rising from the sea which contains within it a whole city. This tower is known as the Tower of the Gods, and the city within it is Vellia, the only elven city in the world of Gamislore that is still populated, although ruined ones are known, and thus the elven capitol. The elves as a people have a low opinion of mermen as a whole due to the reputation of merfolk for being prideful and acting overly superior to others, despite the elves often being accused of these same traits themselves. The feeling is, for the most part mutual among the mermen. The halflings on the other hand seem to get along particularly well with elvenkind. Indeed halfling airships are the only non-magical way moving between Vellia in the Tower of the Gods and the cities on the ground below.

Half Elves – Appearing even more recently than humans in Gamislore, half elves are perhaps the newest known race to provide major contributions to the politics of the world. As a people they tend to settle equally well in both human and elven society, but are also quite versatile and can be found in most parts of the world. Half elves as a people do not have their own capitol city, as they usually claim either Atlantia or Vellia, depending on the individual, as their captiol.

Halflings – A peaceful and generally friendly race, halflings get along with all others for the most part, although they are often intimidated by lycans, and do their best to avoid them. Halflings are a race that can be found in almost all of the world’s cities, and in fact possess no notable halfling cities or islands of their own. They do have a reputation as a very clever race however, and were the first in Gamislore to develop air travel. Other races have since achieved the same, but halfling airships remain as the gold-standard of quality that other airships attempt to meet. Due to such achievements halflings are generally well-respected by elves. They are occasionally looked upon scornfully by dwarves, but the feeling is not mutual and most halflings generally hold no ill-will towards dwarvenkind. Whether the dwarves dislike the halflings out of jealously for their mechanical prowess (which they would never admit), or as the dwarves claim, due to halflings being too happy-go-lucky and wasting their talents that could be put to good use working harder is a mystery.

Dwarves – A stout and hardworking people, dwarves live underground and have lived there for a very long time. Dwarven cities tend to be built deep into the cold mountains of Gamislore’s northern islands. One of the largest of these mountains, Kracka is nearly hollowed out and within it lies the dwarven capitol city of the same name. Many dwarves live within Kracka and in other dwarven cities within mountains on neighbouring islands, but not many other species do. All dwarven cities are almost entirely populated by dwarves and dwarves alone. Dwarves themselves prefer life in dwarven cities but often won’t refuse promising work in foreign lands. Because of this dwarves themselves can be found living in most parts of the world.

Half Orcs – Though the Fall of Atlantis occurred over seven hundred years ago, it is well remembered that the first race to make contact with the humans were the orcs. The orcs have since destroyed their own villages and islands by fighting amongst themselves, but seven hundred years ago still maintained a large community of villages across several islands, all under the control of a single warlord known as Farotz. Almost immediately after the Fall however, historic record indicate that Atlantis was attacked by orcs. Most races know that the humans fought back against the powerful orcs with surprising effectiveness, quickly cementing their position as a major power in the world. What is not so well remembered in history is that many humans were captured and taken by the orcs as slaves, and thus the creation of the half orc race began. Half orcs themselves remained as slaves to full orcs for many years until the death of Warlord Farotz against the automatons. Farotz’s death threw the orcs into a century-long civil war of bloody infighting which only ended when the remaining orcs were too few and far-apart to fight each other. Since then the orcs have lived on and rebuilt small villages in many of the world’s more primitive islands, especially in the south, but they never reclaimed their position as a major power in the world. The half orcs on the other hand flourished in their newfound freedom from the orcs. New settlements of half orcs and once-enslaved humans rose up where orc villages had fallen and within a few hundred years the half orcs had taken the place in the world once held by their orc ancestors. Perhaps it was because of their human influence, or perhaps they’d simply learned from their mistakes, but the half-orcs, although still a violent people who valued strength, were not prone to such catastrophic infighting. A new warlord Sardess, the first warlord since the time of Farotz, recently rose to power among their community. Sardess’ home island Qagog was declared to be the home island of the half orc race, and his home village Tantip was named the half orc capitol.

Flumph – A floating creature resembling a jellyfish, the flumph are very different in appearance from the other races that hold power in the world. Despite physical differences however, flumph have constructed a country across three of the western islands of Gamislore; Tunam, Sanda, and Pferb. Flumph themselves tend to live in their capitol city on the island of Sanda, the city also being known as Flumph, after the race, but they are also frequent travellers. Flumph living among other races is a rare sight, but they can occasionally be seen moving about among other peoples on all manner of islands across the world, and there are a good deal of people from other races who have settled into a life in flumph cities. Due to their appearance flumph are often ignored by other races, and occasionally even treated as threats, and such hostile treatment has been known to come from every other race but the automotons. In reality however flumph are generally helpful towards all who need their help and will accept it. It is said that there are flumph colonies on the moon of Gamislore, but as none of the other races can reach the moon none can confirm this. The flumph themselves refuse to admit or deny the existence of such lunar cities.

Lycans – A large race of people who often keep separate from others not of their own kind, lycans are feared by many other races for their power. Lycans view themselves as warriors, protectors, and healers of the world, and seek to drive out evil and discord to bring about a perfect harmony. Lycans vary in appearance depending on which of their three forms they are in. In the first, known as Lycan, for it is the form most feared by other races and the form in which most lycans do battle a lycan appears to be a massive man-wolf hybrid. They are larger in this form than in any of their others, and more physically powerful, but have difficulty maintaining connections to their inner spiritual magic. In their second form, known as Lucan, a lycan looks by all accounts to be a normal wolf, and in fact could easily pretend to be a regular wolf, as physically there is no distinguishing difference between a Lucan and a wolf. The Lucan is the smallest and fastest of the three lycan forms. In the third form, known as Haecan, lycans look exactly like humans, although perhaps a bit rougher than most. This similarity of appearance baffles scholars, as recorded history of the lycans reaches back to long before The Twilight when humans appeared. Lycans prefer this form when it comes to magic, and socializing with other races, and they also use it whenever they require the use of their hands, as it is the only one of their forms with thumbs. Lycan civilization tends to be hidden and well-removed from the influence of the other races, but by most accounts they are most-common living in what would be called the central regions of the world, inhabiting large, forested islands. These islands are known to be very close to influential lizardfolk islands, including the lizardfolk home island of Welsa Oaden, but the two races tend to interact only very rarely in their home areas, likely due to the two preferring different types of homelands and each generally ignoring the type of island that would be favoured by the other race. Lycans are also known to live upon the very same northern mountains that dwarves dwell within, but the two races still get very little contact normally. The lycans themselves refer to their pack-home, a very large group of tents that is essentially their equivalent to the capitol cities of the other races, as Milai. They have been known to move Milai from island to island however, so no one particular island has ever been named as the lycans’ main home island.

Automatons – A race of metal men, the automatons seem to be individuals one moment and soldiers under the command of a hive mind the next. Automatons look like animated armor, but due to having individual names and persnoalities, most of the time at least, it is unclear whether they are truly alive or simply the result of some extremely powerful magic. The most widely-accepted view is that they are some combination of both, but it’s hard to say since most automatons will either take offense to being asked such questions, or will ignore the question completely. Where the automatons came from is another mystery. They first made themselves known at some point between the war of the humans and orcs, and the death of the orc warlord Farotz, but there have been records of “inactive” automatons since long before then, standing dormant on islands across the world individually or in small groups. The largest of these groups originally stood in the ruined elven city of Eldos, on the island of Sorkanaton, and these have since been named the automaton capitol city and home island. The number of automatons in the world in present day is slowly but steadily increasing due to the existing ones frequently building more of their kind.

Phew...

In addition to those races, we're considering which of the other Monster/PC races would fit well. At the moment we're thinking of bringing Goblins, Hobgoblins, Tengu, and Changelings into the setting. We're thinking of doing this mostly because although coming up with the above backstory for each race in Gamislore was a lot of work, in terms of gameplay there might not be enuogh choices right now.
 
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Nice variety of different races. I like the lizardfolk as a major power - I've always thought they were cooler as tropical island-dwellers than swamp monsters, like the iguanas they usually resemble.

What's the difference between the gillmen and the mermen? The gillmen seem to be new, but they're not given a physical description at all.

How much of the setting do you intend to be underwater, and how much is on land and ships? Since almost all the detail given is top-of-the-water stuff, I assume it's mostly normal races in a water-dominated setting. I'd make at least one strange threat from below, then - the sahuagin or aboleths would make a good candidate for that as a constant underwater threat.
 

Nice variety of different races. I like the lizardfolk as a major power - I've always thought they were cooler as tropical island-dwellers than swamp monsters, like the iguanas they usually resemble.

What's the difference between the gillmen and the mermen? The gillmen seem to be new, but they're not given a physical description at all.

How much of the setting do you intend to be underwater, and how much is on land and ships? Since almost all the detail given is top-of-the-water stuff, I assume it's mostly normal races in a water-dominated setting. I'd make at least one strange threat from below, then - the sahuagin or aboleths would make a good candidate for that as a constant underwater threat.

Gillmen are from PF, I took them from the "monsters as PCs" section in the SRD. They're basically more fishy humans, with legs (unlike the mermen) so they're more capable on land. They're still an aquatic race though, and water dependant, so they have to be completely submerged at least once every 24 hours.

As for the setting itself, right now it's catered towards top of the water simply because there are only two races capable of living below the waves. With higher levels of technology in the setting though, (halfling airships being my main example) we're thinking of adding some more access to the depths even for air-breathers. At the moment we're considering putting in goblins as another PC race, and oddly enough one of the underwater ones (well, pseudo-underwater at any rate). They'll have submarine technology and live in giant undersea caves with their cities built into huge air pockets. Of course this means the submarine technology would become at least somewhat available to other races. We're also probably going to make water breathing spells longer-lasting and available somewhat early on for both divine and arcane spellcasters. Not too early though, I definitely want there to be at least a few levels where the air-breathers have to contend with flooded areas as obstacles.

Certainly we do have a lot of above-water stuff right now, as described earlier, since the politics of most of the races is more likely to involve the islands. Mermen on the other hand would be more concerned with the reefs, trenches, and coastlines, and Gillmen would be concerned with both, but more focused on the underwater areas. In addition to what's already been described above water, one more thing we know will definitely be a part of the setting is pirates.

How much completely underwater action occurs would partially depend on a combination of the GM's discretion and the number of land vs water PCs in the party. A hypothetical party of all human fighters would probably only be given above-water with very few completely flooded areas in their campaign for example, since none of them have the natural or magical ability to breathe underwater. Even still I might send them under, expecting them to have to rely on potions. Most parties however would probably be given at least one completely submerged dungeon on account of most parties having at least one spellcaster capable of casting water breathing, or at higher levels mass water breathing spells on the party to make exploring such a dungeon possible. The more water-breathers and spellcasters in the party, the more frequent such dungeons would be, and certainly due to having both the gillmen and mermen as major races there's reason to have all kinds of dungeons below the water.

Certainly in most cases there would be a combination of above and below-water action in any particular campaign. The deepest depths also make great places to improvise, as they're dark and unexplored. A GM could quite easily put any number of large undersea abominations in such depths. And I plan to do so myself when I run a game set in Gamislore.
 
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Just out of curiosity, have you considered using Alluria Publishing's Cerulean Seas aquatic Pathfinder campaign setting?

That looks interesting, but it also looks as though I'd have to pay for it, which I can't afford unfortunately.

I really enjoy creating settings and worlds for things anyways though, and I find I'm generally more comfortable using worlds I've created as a setting than I am using someone else's setting. Doing it this way is a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to the eventual completion of my project.
 

You could also use Undines

Check out this thread on paizo: Sources for Absalom and Azlant structures. It has a few links to free extras. Azlant is PFs Atlantis. Brandon Hodges' From Shore to Sea is a supplement about Sunken Civilizations from Open Design.

Also Sinister adventures' indulgences pdfs had some aquatic rules and are quite cheap. They're available at paizo.

Other similar threads:
Aquatic Campaigns
http://www.enworld.org/forum/pathfinder-rpg-discussion/304950-sea-world.html]Sea World
 
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We chose to omit the Undines because there would be a bit of an obligation to include Ifrit, Oread, and Sylph if the Undines were there.

The Aquatic Campaigns link looks helpful by the way, thanks (I haven't gotten a chance to read through all 4 pages of that topic yet, but I will). The Sea World one seems to just take me back to the main index of the forums however.
 

Some interesting stuff- you might find the Aquatic Ideas thread- link in my sig- to be of use.

I'm not so sure your automatons of metal would be the best for an aquatic campaign- too much rust potential. Perhaps if they were of stone...or wood?
 

The internal frame of the automatons doesn't rust. Not to mention a watery world probably has some method of working rust-proofing into most types of metal armour and weapons, otherwise things would be a big hassle.

Nice Aquatic Ideas topic by the way. I've only read the sea centipede's bit so far and already I think this is gonna turn out to be an interesting read.
 

For your gill-men, if you are using Pathfinder you might look over the locathah in the Beastiary 2 (or in the d20 SRD). In my undersea game, I made the locathah a hermaphroditic race with individuals colored in patterns similar to those of angelfish.

I also like to look to nature, when designing undersea races - Inspirations
 

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