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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xeviat" data-source="post: 9476727" data-attributes="member: 57494">Hey everybody.I've been fiddling with my setting for a long time; sometimes it's half of my time spent thinking about gaming. I've been approaching my world building from a more sci-fi angle, considering what things could have evolved from and what it does in the world or society. Without going too into it, my setting takes place on Earth, but 50 million years in the future with magic. The world is kind of one big laboratory run by the Angels (hyper evolved humans that embraced cybernetics for life extension, think gray aliens or Protoss) that's being tampered with by Devils (hyper evolved humans that embraced genetic engineering for life extension, think D&D devils being humanoid but with bestial and horrible features). The set up has allowed me to consider what different fantasy beasts are in the world, and I thought people might find it interesting to discuss or might have some of their own head canons for D&D and fantasy gaming.Here's some examples from my setting:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Griffins are part of a new group of animals, Dragons. Birds that magically developed an extra set of limbs. Basal members of the group still have their feathers, while more derived members grew bigger and reverted to scales. This group includes Griffins and Hippogriffs, but also owlbears (grew bigger, wings atrophied, now wings and wing feathers are used for threat displays) and Dragons. Dragons, though, are infused with magic and are now closer to spirits than mortals.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Dinosaurs" "re-evolved". Names are inspired by 4E D&D. Theropods and pterosaurs are Drakes. Sauropods are Titans. Ornithischians are Behemoths.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Modern animals like wolves and panthers and elephants might be described differently or repurposed. Most larger mammals from today went extinct, but they've been replaced with other mammal groups. So there's something we call a wolf since it's convenient, but it's actually a mustelid, and panthers are mongooses. Rhinos and Elephants are repurposed as Behemoths, and others... but Axe-beaks and the like are still theropods, so they're Drakes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The peoples of the world have evolutionary lineages too. They're a big part of the Angels' experiment, elevating animals. Humans are apes, a recreation of the Angel's ancestors. Elves are fey that adapted to the forests of the world (jungle is dark, woodland is wood, taiga is high, kelp forests are sea...). Dwarves evolved from badgers (hence the toughness, the hairiness, and the surliness). Halflings evolved from spidermonkeys (and have tails!). Orcs are pigs (tusks!). And so forth.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This also explains why humans can mix with so many. Giants are altered humans. Lycanthropy is a disease evolved from original human/animal hybrid retroviruses, and shifters are remnants of later versions of the same experiment. Elves are fey humans. Angels and Devils are future humans. Dragons are magical. And so forth. It also gives players of humans free rein to have fantastical cosmetic differences from having distant ancestors.</li> </ul>Unrelated to my setting, here's some D&D Lore headcanons that I have (whether or not they were seeded by actual lore, or someone else making theories, I don't know anymore):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mindflayers are from the far far future where their empire lasted until all that was left were red and white dwarves for energy, the galaxy was going dark.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mindflayers are evolved from Aboleths; that's why Aboleths don't remember what Mindflayers do about their empire.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Githyanki and Githzerai are future humans, their evolution guided and manipulated by Mindflayers like were were domesticated livestock.</li> </ul>What are some of your ideas? What do you think of mine?</blockquote>

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