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<blockquote data-quote="Ondath" data-source="post: 9004586" data-attributes="member: 7031770"><p>I admittedly didn't think about the Orcs of my setting much, but they're part of the "races" that were deemed as "uncivilised" in the Imperial Age (when most of the known world was under a human-centric theocratic empire), and were treated as second-class citizens. That oppression also meant they were one of the leading forces against the Empire (alongside the Goblinkind and a few other heritages). Following the collapse of the Empire, the heritage is spread across the empire as they were often hired for unskilled labour. I completely decoupled culture from heritage (since I'm planning to run this setting using Level Up), so there is no one Orcish culture, but there might be some Orcish-led polities that try to revitalise what they perceive to be "authentic Orcish culture".</p><p></p><p>As a heritage, I play D&D's orcish tropes straight. Great might, though it has no effect on an individual's ability scores.</p><p></p><p>As for the Elves, they had a more priviliged position within the Empire, seen as esteemed allies and part of the "civilised races", so most people see people of Elven heritage as upper-class pricks with a superiority complex. Revivalist movements that attempt to recreate the Seldarine (which had been integrated into the Imperial Pantheon, which is basically 4E's pantheon) are stronger among elves as they try to remember what they had before human hegemony (which lasted for 3-4 Elven lifetimes and even that led to considerable loss of cultural memory).</p><p></p><p>The Elvish heritage is where I added my own unique twist. Elves living 700 years with no apparent worldbuilding conclusions never sat right with me, so I wanted to modify their long lifespan in a way that explains why they either (1) aren't an overpowering force comprised of perfected individuals or (2) aren't a gerontocratic nightmare. The answer was Doctor Who-like <strong>regeneration</strong>. Every hundred years or so, an Elf experiences what they call a rebirth, where their body and identity radically changes. Their physical appearance, gender, personality etc. can all change radically, and elves often look back to experiences they had before a rebirth like stories told by someone else. This radical change often causes an elf to change interests as well, an Archmage might abandon the study of the arcane and decide to take up archery as their new calling, for instance. An elf can attempt to rely upon their knowledge from earlier lives, but doing so heavily is quite traumatic and might end up dramatically shortening the elf's lifespan (e.g. if you want your level 5 fighter to rely on their time as an archmage in their backstory in the climactic fight, your elf probably won't make it out alive). Elves typically have 5-6 rebirths, which explains the 600-700 year lifespan. One difference from Doctor Who-style regeneration is that a rebirth is not triggered due to grievious injury: You get to have a rebirth only if you naturally reached the end of a lifespan.</p><p></p><p>I quite like this change, and it allows one player's character to be running around for the next couple of centuries, but that character does not have to dominate the entire campaign setting and might wear quite different faces over time. It also makes aging spells and effects (like the sphinx's attacks) scarier for an elven PC, because they are susceptible to losing their character to aging as much as a human PC. The character might survive aging dramatically, but the PC's concept won't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ondath, post: 9004586, member: 7031770"] I admittedly didn't think about the Orcs of my setting much, but they're part of the "races" that were deemed as "uncivilised" in the Imperial Age (when most of the known world was under a human-centric theocratic empire), and were treated as second-class citizens. That oppression also meant they were one of the leading forces against the Empire (alongside the Goblinkind and a few other heritages). Following the collapse of the Empire, the heritage is spread across the empire as they were often hired for unskilled labour. I completely decoupled culture from heritage (since I'm planning to run this setting using Level Up), so there is no one Orcish culture, but there might be some Orcish-led polities that try to revitalise what they perceive to be "authentic Orcish culture". As a heritage, I play D&D's orcish tropes straight. Great might, though it has no effect on an individual's ability scores. As for the Elves, they had a more priviliged position within the Empire, seen as esteemed allies and part of the "civilised races", so most people see people of Elven heritage as upper-class pricks with a superiority complex. Revivalist movements that attempt to recreate the Seldarine (which had been integrated into the Imperial Pantheon, which is basically 4E's pantheon) are stronger among elves as they try to remember what they had before human hegemony (which lasted for 3-4 Elven lifetimes and even that led to considerable loss of cultural memory). The Elvish heritage is where I added my own unique twist. Elves living 700 years with no apparent worldbuilding conclusions never sat right with me, so I wanted to modify their long lifespan in a way that explains why they either (1) aren't an overpowering force comprised of perfected individuals or (2) aren't a gerontocratic nightmare. The answer was Doctor Who-like [B]regeneration[/B]. Every hundred years or so, an Elf experiences what they call a rebirth, where their body and identity radically changes. Their physical appearance, gender, personality etc. can all change radically, and elves often look back to experiences they had before a rebirth like stories told by someone else. This radical change often causes an elf to change interests as well, an Archmage might abandon the study of the arcane and decide to take up archery as their new calling, for instance. An elf can attempt to rely upon their knowledge from earlier lives, but doing so heavily is quite traumatic and might end up dramatically shortening the elf's lifespan (e.g. if you want your level 5 fighter to rely on their time as an archmage in their backstory in the climactic fight, your elf probably won't make it out alive). Elves typically have 5-6 rebirths, which explains the 600-700 year lifespan. One difference from Doctor Who-style regeneration is that a rebirth is not triggered due to grievious injury: You get to have a rebirth only if you naturally reached the end of a lifespan. I quite like this change, and it allows one player's character to be running around for the next couple of centuries, but that character does not have to dominate the entire campaign setting and might wear quite different faces over time. It also makes aging spells and effects (like the sphinx's attacks) scarier for an elven PC, because they are susceptible to losing their character to aging as much as a human PC. The character might survive aging dramatically, but the PC's concept won't. [/QUOTE]
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