Enworld Co-OP Campaign Setting

[GreatLemur]

That all sounds workable. I've got a natural inclination to want to leave elves and dwarves out of everything, but I acknowledge that this would make the setting a lot less appealing to some folks.

So if the world was invaded and terraformed by humans, elves, and dwarves, then the whole invasion was either done by a very big, advanced, multi-species empire . . . or it was less an invasion than an evacuation, with a few totally different civilizations all trying to flee to this new world--maybe working together, maybe not--because whatever world they came from was somehow becoming less hospitable than a poisonous swamp planet ruled by malevolent psionic aberrations. (Hm, sounds more like the world simply ending thans some terrible conquering force chasing them from their home plane, now that I put it that way. I mean, if these folks had the power to take their new world away from the chulls and the aboleths, and terraform it, they had to be magically and militarily a very, very big deal.)

Anyway, I think we should all sound off on what playable races we'd like to see included in this setting. Personally, I'm still leaning towards just humans and a few human variants (such as soldier castes developed by the original invading empire, and ordinary humans mutated by the changing environment or aboleth science), but I realize that's a position most folks won't share.

I think we aught to put Dwarves up in the Alpine level, Elves at the Ponderosa level, and humans in the foot hills. I think human society should more than resemble Indian society during the Muslim occupation of India; and the Dwarves resemble Nepalese society. While the elves have a "Tibetan" society.

Damn, that does have a lot of flavor, there.

 

[Sir Elton]

it does. India during the Muslim occupation is probably the best scenario. The muslims bannished the Apartheidal Caste System for a while.

Elton.

 

[Tonguez]

I think the first invasion should be Human Only

but have other races be 'evolved/engineered' from humans
eg goblins - tainted by the Abberations or a frontguard engineered to survive the original conditions of the planet (have some immunity to poison and disease?)

Humans - standard

Dwarfs - Humans who evolved to subterranean living

Giants/Orcs(?) - Humans bred for War

Tzu - (Tibetan) Psychic Humans who were exposed to an ancient artifact that gave them Mystical Powers

Listen Young one and understand. This World was once a realm of darkness where only chaos and madness held sway.
But the Chosen looked down upon the World and were dismayed and so they came with cleansing fire and fists of stone to transform this World.
The monsters of the dark world were cast out, and the poison of their World was made clean that men might walk upon the world - that was the First Age.

But alas, Man had been corrupted by the lingering poisons and by war and they were transformed. Amongst them now were the goblins who resist the seeping Miasma, others grew strong and large for war that they could cast down the last of the Abberant ones and yet others grew stout and hard, digging within the mountains for the resources that it held.
And in time the Chosen departed and the strife arose amongst the children of Man and the the First Empire of Man was lost and the World once more fell into ruin.

For unknown ages Man has remained in his fallen state, but the Chosen called out and one responded. He who lead his people out from the strife below and climbed higher than any before him.
and he came upon the Valley and saw there the Truth of the World, a pillar of stone and fire and he was the First of us who are called the Tzu-​

The history of the World as recorded on the Tzu Pillars​

 

[Sir Elton]

Dwarfs - Humans who evolved to subterranean living

I think H.G. Wells' Morlocks fit better for humans evolved to subterranean living.

Giants/Orcs(?) - Humans bred for War

I like this.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Anyway, I think we should all sound off on what playable races we'd like to see included in this setting. Personally, I'm still leaning towards just humans and a few human variants (such as soldier castes developed by the original invading empire, and ordinary humans mutated by the changing environment or aboleth science), but I realize that's a position most folks won't share.

The "deep background explanation" for Urbis why all those different humanoid races are out there goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a realm where a cabal of powerful wizard ruled. These wizards were unhappy with their finite life spans as humans, and altered their unborn children that they would live for centuries, have good looks, keen senses, little need for sleep, high manual dexterity, and a number of other advantages. These children were the first elves.

But they didn't stop there - they altered the children of their servants and slaves to create more useful servants or slaves. They created gnomes and dwarves as craftsmen, halflings as manservants, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and other such creatures as warrior races, and so forth.

Eventually, this empire ruled by elves collapsed through infighting, and the survivors spread throughout the world. Eventually, civilization rose again and recorded history begins - with few beings knowing the truth of it all.

For this world, we could say that the elven-ruled empire started the colonization, but eventually the government collapsed for whatever reason. The "terraforming artifacts" still worked, allowing the survivors to prosper at a much lower technological and magical level - but recently, something went wrong and many of the artifacts stopped working...

What do you think?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Tzu - (Tibetan) Psychic Humans who were exposed to an ancient artifact that gave them Mystical Powers

Elan (from the XPH), perhaps?

That would also mean that they live for very long times and probably know more than they let on.

It would also mean that they don't procreate normally - instead, they secretly search for new "candidates" to join their race among the primitive human tribes...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

*sigh*

I wish the end of these kinds of threads wasn't so predictable...

 

[helium3]

Bwahahahahahahahahaahahah!!

I feel your pain.

It's why I don't bother to contriubute to these sorts of threads anymore.

Why do you think it happens?

I have two competing theories . . .

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Bwahahahahahahahahaahahah!!

I feel your pain.

It's why I don't bother to contriubute to these sorts of threads anymore.

I should have known better, too, but I find these kinds of discussions so fascinating that I can't help myself.

Oh well - a few of these ideas are cool enough to be salvaged for other projects...

Why do you think it happens?

I have two competing theories . . .

People tend to have limited attention spans. For a project like this, the first task of order is to find people who you know have enough time, drive, and energy to form a "core group" and who can continue to motivate each other. That's easier with people who know each other in real life.

 

[helium3]

People tend to have limited attention spans. For a project like this, the first task of order is to find people who you know have enough time, drive, and energy to form a "core group" and who can continue to motivate each other. That's easier with people who know each other in real life.

That's a good point. I also think that people have different ideas when these things start to form, and when it's clear that an individuals idea doesn't jive with the "collective" they lose interest in the project.

When I was involved in OGCS I noticed an immediate drop-off in interest once I turned into the climate zone "nazi" and started posting stuff to the wiki on that subject. I always kind of figured that the act of putting something concrete like that out into the public space turned people off from the project because my vision didn't match theirs and they assumed that because I was posting stuff I was "in charge."

Needless to say, I was pretty damn annoyed considering the amount of time I put into that work.