So in this new campaign, the world was rolling right along nicely enough by way of four native sentient races -- elves, dwarves, orcs and halflings -- who weren't horribly intrusive on their local ecologies and lived at peace with each other. Being more than just variations on the same race, and more like true species unto themselves, each of the four occupied its own niche so direct conflict over resources was rare.
Then along comes a new race of people. They called themselves "humans" (pronounced something like "hew-mon" -- but you know how it is with foreign languages), who had landed on this world by way of transdimensional gate or somesuch wacky magical explanation. Refugees. Their homeworld was on the verge of collapse and they needed somewhere new to live. No problem; the world had plenty of undeveloped territory. And they seemed nice enough.
But over the next several hundred years, something disturbing happened. The humans were exquisitely adaptable -- they could live almost anywhere, and didn't seem to care where. They were smart, productive and bred very quickly compared with the native sentients. And they had a penchant for conflict and war that the world had not seen before.
Before the Original Four realized what had happened, humans had spread into their lands, consuming natural resources at an alarming rate -- resources that included the orcs, elves, halflings and dwarves themselves. The orc tribes, for example, were all but destroyed in territory wars with humans, hunted down and locked into slavery. Those that did survive were raped or otherwise used for "breeding stock" to produce a "less savage" people (still referred to as half-orcs). The elves were more difficult to conquer, although many so-called half-elves were likewise the result of conflict. Dwarves took a more defensive, less interactive stance with humans and pulled away into their mountainous halls. And halflings are a notoriously dodgy lot, almost impossible to pin down and proving to be more trouble for humans than they're worth.
The campaign allows any of those five races (elves, half-elves, half-orcs, dwarves and halflings) as player characters, but not humans. Humans are the enemy. The campaign also puts minor constraints on class availability as well, such as sorcery being an entirely human pursuit while only wizardry is available to the natives via generational teaching methods -- yet another example of humanity's usurping adaptability.
It's pretty clear now why humans had to leave their original world. And the natives of this world are ready to do something about it, jointly, before the same happens here.
But how would you describe humans as a race in this campaign? Must they be described necessarily as "evil?" Or merely verminous? Oblivious?
Then along comes a new race of people. They called themselves "humans" (pronounced something like "hew-mon" -- but you know how it is with foreign languages), who had landed on this world by way of transdimensional gate or somesuch wacky magical explanation. Refugees. Their homeworld was on the verge of collapse and they needed somewhere new to live. No problem; the world had plenty of undeveloped territory. And they seemed nice enough.
But over the next several hundred years, something disturbing happened. The humans were exquisitely adaptable -- they could live almost anywhere, and didn't seem to care where. They were smart, productive and bred very quickly compared with the native sentients. And they had a penchant for conflict and war that the world had not seen before.
Before the Original Four realized what had happened, humans had spread into their lands, consuming natural resources at an alarming rate -- resources that included the orcs, elves, halflings and dwarves themselves. The orc tribes, for example, were all but destroyed in territory wars with humans, hunted down and locked into slavery. Those that did survive were raped or otherwise used for "breeding stock" to produce a "less savage" people (still referred to as half-orcs). The elves were more difficult to conquer, although many so-called half-elves were likewise the result of conflict. Dwarves took a more defensive, less interactive stance with humans and pulled away into their mountainous halls. And halflings are a notoriously dodgy lot, almost impossible to pin down and proving to be more trouble for humans than they're worth.
The campaign allows any of those five races (elves, half-elves, half-orcs, dwarves and halflings) as player characters, but not humans. Humans are the enemy. The campaign also puts minor constraints on class availability as well, such as sorcery being an entirely human pursuit while only wizardry is available to the natives via generational teaching methods -- yet another example of humanity's usurping adaptability.
It's pretty clear now why humans had to leave their original world. And the natives of this world are ready to do something about it, jointly, before the same happens here.
But how would you describe humans as a race in this campaign? Must they be described necessarily as "evil?" Or merely verminous? Oblivious?
