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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9801931" data-attributes="member: 58172">Here is a setting for 5e 2024.Human-founded cultures rival Dwarf-founded cultures. Other populous species -- Elf, Tiefling, Goliath, and Dragonborn -- get caught up variously in the conflict.With regard to its design, the setting emerges from the following considerations.The main themes that comprise all of D&D are:Spacetime (teleport, remote presence, prescience, time alteration, fate, luck)Mind (telepathy, charm, suggestion, subjective phantasm, Ethereal soul)Fear (fright, hold, domination, Ethereal soul)Illusion (objective apparition, lifelike force construct, Ethereal force)Force (telekinesis, flight, simple force construct, Ethereal force)Elemental (fire-radiant, air-lightning-thunder, water-cold, earth-plant-fabrication, Elemental, Giant)Fey (lifeforms, shapeshift, Beast, Fey)Shadow (death, disease, poison, Undead)Healing (health, resurrection)Astral (symbol, language, Celestial, Fiend, Aberration)The power sources in addition to Martial (that exaggerates reallife body and technology) are: Psionic (Spacetime, Mind), Arcane (Illusion, Force), Primal (Elemental, Fey), Divine (Healing, Astral), and Necromancy (Fear, Shadow).The most played player species of DnDBeyond are in order: Elf and Human, then Tiefling, Goliath, Dwarf, and Dragonborn, then Halfling, Orc, Gnome, and Awsimar.Settlement patterns. Urban is fully multispecies, but some might subtly privilege one or two founding species. Rural has a majority species with significant minority species. Indigenous preserves early sacred traditions of a particular species, but other species become family members, especially spouses and adoptees. Each species has examples of all three patterns.The storytelling tropes of the fivesome band: Jock (lead singer, wellrounded) and Rebel (lead guitarist, critique), Smart (keyboard, intellectual), Heart (harmony, idealistic), and Big (drummer, guardian). A sixth member is often an Asset, a helpful contact from a rival organization.The characteristics of a species might suggest the tropes of a fivesome band member. Nevertheless, it is a culture itself that is operative, and normally other species are also members of a given culture.The most-played classes of DnDBeyond are in order: Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard, Paladin, then Warlock, Cleric, Ranger, Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, and Monk. Plus Artificer. Hopefully there will be a Psion soon, and maybe eventually a Warlord.There are two governmental superpowers: a Human-prevailing Urban culture rivals a Dwarf-prevailing Urban culture. Both are multispecies cosmopolitan.Human Martial Wellrounded Jock (the Human-centric Urban culture defines the main themes of the entire setting: this culture features Rogue, namely the politicians and business opportunists, who exploit or integrate the members of any other classes -- plus hopefully there will be a Warlord class for this culture to also feature prominently.)Dragonborn Divine Rebel (cultural counterpoints emphasize and critique against the themes of the setting: cultures feature Paladin plus Cleric). There is an influential Dragonborn subculture functioning organically within the Human-founded Urban culture.Dwarf Martial Asset (these dwarven Assets are helpful antiheroes, or at least useful contacts: cultures feature Fighter plus Monk).Tiefling Arcane Smart (academic, protoscientific, geeky, and-or shrewd): cultures feature Wizard plus Warlock and Artificer). Tiefling Urban cultural values teach rationality as a reliable method toward good, and neutrality among conflicts. But individuals do as they will, and often are mercenary for either side of the Human/Dwarf rivalry.Goliath Primal Big (each individual is an army of one, who can overwhelm physically and magically to defend others: cultures feature Barbarian plus Druid and Ranger). One of the Goliath cultures is Urban Primal with elemental advanced magitech and technotopian values. Goliaths tend to be preoccupied with their own internal elementalist conflicts while ignoring the affairs of the Human/Dwarf rivalry.Elf Heart Psionic (these elven cultures revere seers that foresee, troubleshoot, and steer the futures of individuals and groups, ultimately toward a future of universal good for all of the setting, but occasionally with painful sacrifices or selfish gains along the way: elven cultures feature Bard plus Sorcerer and Psion). With many exceptions: Drow cultures orbit Urban Dwarves, Wood cultures Rural Humans, and High cultures Urban Goliaths. But the Courts of all of these elven cultures meet annually at the Reverie, to coordinate for a shared good future.The High culture is Urban yet Indigenous, inhabiting cities that float high above the clouds in the Border Ethereal Plane, with pilgrimage sites for any species seeking prescient advice. These cities develop around Ethereal-Fey Crossings.Traditional Wood culture includes both Elves and Humans, and now often other species as well. It emphasizes civic responsibility. Inhabiting industrious opulent inter-bridging treehouses, each Wood town forms its own army of mages, building a mutual alliance within an economic league that includes certain communities of neighboring cultures. There is also a nomadic Grugach culture comprising families of Indigenous Orcs and Wood Elves that joined them in ancient times. Today some Grugach families are remote wilderness isolationists, and others are Urban wealthy merchants traveling the trade routes seasonally.Indigenous Dwarves inhabit mountains, whence the Rural Duergar towns of the Underdark, and the Urban cities under wetlands that then forged a vast multispecies empire across the Surface. The royal families of the Surface Empire are Dwarf by law, but beyond the royalty, citizens of any species rule at every level of the imperial government.Drow cultures are Indigenous to the Underdark, thus often involve Duergar, whence many Drow families, "houses", emigrated to become citizens of the Dwarf Surface Empire. Most Drow houses maintain close ties with the Astral Plane, especially to honor Celestial Corellon their ancestor (or subversively the Fiend Lolth). Primordial Elves are shapechangers without a true form. Among Drow, the ancient Corellon prefers to take the form of a Drow of any gender.</blockquote>

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