New Tribal World

[Master of Monkeys]

I am creating a new world for the pleasure of all involved. It would be incredibly awesome if this became a community project. This is what I was thinking for the new world:

Geography
The world is very jagged and broken. It features incredibly tall and steep mountains, incredibly deep canyons, those things in New Mexico that get really tall (any idea what they are called?), lots of caverns and such.

People
The people are very tribal. That's really all I have right now.

Magic
I want magic to be very hard, so I was thinking hard wild magic DCs (DCs you have to beat so the the spell doesn't do something weird) or DCs to even cast at all. Maybe there is something that prevents Mages from casting and they have to overcome the force.

Creatures
The nature of god is animistic, so everything is a god. Every rock and such has a spirit. The only thing not gods are people.

The world is populated by very large intelligent animals. Some of the animals are demigods, some are lesser gods, and so on. The animals get power through worship, as more people worship an animal, it gets bigger and more powerful and gets more divine ranks.

I just had an idea, everything gets bigger the more divine ranks it has. A pebble can become a mountain, a stream can become a river, a squirrel can become a big squirrel. Sounds cool.


I am going to start fleshing these ideas out, starting with the gods.

 

[Master of Monkeys]

RELIGION
People tend to congregate around the things they worship. The different tribes of people worship different things. Most tribes recognize that most things are gods though. Almost all tribes worship the sun.

MYTHOLOGY
Creation
There are many different creation myths, but a pravelent one goes as follows: before time, the great gods, gods who didn't need worship, lived in chaos, the gods Man and Animal fought constantly in the chaos and the god of man was pushed back, near defeat. Before he died, he gave up his divinity to create a single pair of humans born mortal, and he cursed all the gods creations to be bound to his pair of humans. Earth and Sun gave gifts to the humans, so that Animal couldn't kill them. Earth allowed the humans to live on his body. Sun allowed humans a piece of his power and created fire.

Animal's Downfall
After Animal killed Man, and Earth and Sun gave some power to protect the humans, Earth and Sun were weakened. Animal felt that he could kill Earth and Sun and have all of creation for himself. Animal attacked Earth first, scarring his body greatly, he pushed back Sun while he attacked Earth. Eventually the Sun and Earth used all their might to destroy Animal. He split in to many different gods. After the war, Earth was broken and Sun only worked half the hours. Earth allowed the animals to live on him and Sun gave them light to live by.

DEITIES
The Great Gods
The Great Gods were:

Animal - All animals in a single form.
Earth - The planet.
Man - He looks like us, except bigger.
Sun - The sun, big ball of flame in the sky.

The Animal Gods
The gods he became were: Ape, Bear, Camel, Crocodile, Eagle, Elephant, Fish, Horse, Lion, Owl, Pig, Raven, Shark, and Snake.

The animal gods mated and created more animals, but when Animal split, these are the gods he became.

EDIT: Organized it differently

 

[Angelsboi]

nice mythology!!

Sounds cool. My ideas:

- What if a party starts worshiping the mages' familiar? Will he too start getting divine status?

- http://www.sayahda.com/cycle.htm That should help you with what animals to use. Being Pagan, and having a shamanic relative, i find this FASCINATING!!

- So you have high DCs for magic. What about Druids, Rangers, Clerics and Paladins? Do they have to deal with this DC as well?

 

[Master of Monkeys]

Thanks! There are a LOT of Native American animal totems! Thanks for the list, it helps a lot.

Alligator, Ant, Badger, Bat, Bear, Beaver, Blackbird, Bluebird, Buffalo, Bumble Bee, Butterfly, Camel, Cardinal, Cat, Chicken, Chinchilla, Chipmunk, Cougar, Cow, Coyote, Crab, Crane, Cricket, Crow, Deer, Dingo, Dog, Dolphin, Donkey, Dove, Dragonfly, Duck, Dugong, Eagle, Echidna, Elephant, Elk, Emu, Ferret, Fish, Fox, Frog, Giraffe, Gnu, Goat, Gopher, Goshawk, Grasshopper, Hawk, Heron, Horse, Hummingbird, Jaguar, Jay, Jellyfish, Junco, Kangaroo, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Kinkjou, Kite, Koala, Kookaburra, Ladybug, Leopard, Lion, Lizard, Llama, Locust, Loon, Magpie, Monkey, Moose, Moth, Mustang-Horse, Okapi, Opossum, Orca, Ostrich, Otter, Owl, Panda, Panther, Parrot, Peacock, Penguin, Peregrine Falcon, Pig, Platypus, Polar Bear, Praying Mantis, Rabbit, Raccoon, Rat, Raven, Red Panda, Rhinoceros, Roadrunner, Robin Redbreast, Salamander, Salmon, Sea horse, Seagull, Seal, Shark, Skunk, Snail, Snake, Spider, Squirrel, Swan, Tasmanian Devil, Tiger, Tortoise, Toucan, Turkey, Turtle, Vulture, Wolf, Wolverine, Wombat, Woodcock, Woodpecker, and Zebra.

Some of these might not be needed, some might not be gods, or some might be non existant on the world.

I think the list might become:

Alligator, Badger, Bat, Bear, Buffalo, Butterfly, Camel, Cat, Chicken, Cougar, Cow, Coyote, Crab, Crow, Deer, Dog, Dolphin, Donkey, Dove, Dragonfly, Eagle, Elephant, Elk, Fish, Fox, Frog, Giraffe, Goat, Grasshopper, Hawk, Heron, Horse, Jaguar, Jellyfish, Kangaroo, Koala, Leopard, Lion, Monkey, Moose, Mustang-Horse, Owl, Panda, Panther, Parrot, Peacock, Penguin, Pig, Polar Bear, Praying Mantis, Rabbit, Rat, Raven, Panda, Rhinoceros, Salmon, Seal, Shark, Snail, Snake, Spider, Swan, Tiger, Tortoise, Toucan, Turtle, Vulture, Wolf, Wolverine, and Zebra.

I basically got rid of anything I couldn't picture being huge and everything that I didn't know right away. This list is still huge, any ideas people?

I am going to start giving stats to some of the gods.

EDIT: Actually, I am not going to start giving stats to some of the gods.

 

[Master of Monkeys]

What if a party starts worshiping the mages' familiar? Will he too start getting divine status?

In short, probably yes. But, it requires a lot of people to worship something to actually make it divine. And I think every animal will start demigod (divine rank 0) so all animals will be immortal, familiars too. Familiars could be as smart as wizards and maybe be wizards themselves, I could see this being a bit of a problem. Maybe wizards don't get familiars, maybe familiars are naturally less intelligent than all other animals. Any ideas?

EDIT: by immortal, I mean won't age.

 

[Master of Monkeys]

MAGIC
The Nature of Magic
I almost always remove clerics and allow some wizards to heal on my worlds, I am thinking about taking the exact opposite stance on this one. There are no wizards and some clerics get more wizardly powers; it could be based on domains, or some other system. Any ideas?

 

[Angelsboi]

I say when a Wizard gets a familar, he imbes a peice of himself. Mortality. Thus they can age, die and not be gods. HOWEVER, i dont think all animals need to be demigods b/c then how will you get beats of burden to obey you?

What about running into pack of demigod wolves?

As far as your god list ...


I say choose 12 (or however many months you have. That way, you will also be adding to the astrology of things. Have like 12 Main gods, 6 intermediate gods and 3 demi gods.

You still need to get rid of 49 animals. I say make 9 of them hidden from EVERYONE and have the other 40 extinct. Maybe have the humans hunt them to extinction or wizards hunting them trying to become animals to become Gods (they do have ploymorph you know)

 

[Master of Monkeys]

I say when a Wizard gets a familar, he imbes a peice of himself. Mortality. Thus they can age, die and not be gods. HOWEVER, i dont think all animals need to be demigods b/c then how will you get beats of burden to obey you?

No beasts of burden, if an animal helps you, its because he wants to. Humans are more farmer than hunter-gatherer. Maybe a tribe of humans and a tribe of horses work together to survive. Maybe animals have a hard time surviving too and they need to help humans, and gain their worship to survive.

 

[Angelsboi]

i see. Interesting concept. Since its a tribal world, i say give druids more wizardly spells and allow sorcerers (freaks of nature or blessed by the gods) maybe even psionics.

 

[Master of Monkeys]

DEITIES
Animal Gods
Greater Gods (2 Greater Gods)
Earth, Sun

Intermediate Gods (6 Intermediate Gods)
Eagle, Lion, Owl, Snake, Tiger, Whale

Lesser Gods (12 Lesser Gods)
Black Bear, Cheetah, Elephant (2), Heron, Grizzly Bear, Moose, Polar Bear, Raven, Shark, Turtle

Demi Gods (1 Demigod)
Peacock

Quasi-deities (35 Quasi-Deity packs)
Ape, Boar, Buffalo, Camel, Crocodile, Cow, Coyote, Crab, Crow, Deer, Dog, Dolphin, Donkey, Dragonfly, Giraffe, Mountain Goat, Hawk, Horse, Kangaroo, Koala, Leopard, Horse, Panda, Penguin, Rat, Rhinoceros, Seal, Snail, Spider, Swan, Toucan, Vulture, Wolf.

There is one of each greater, intermediate, and lesser god; with the exception of elephants, which there are 2 of.

With quasi-deities, there is one pack for each of the animals.

Fish are the only animals with no divine members and humans eat fish if they have a choice.

God Rankings
All deities can grant spells.

Greater Gods
Greater gods are planet-sized titans that are not controlled by worship. They have godly abilities such as creation.

Intermediate Gods
Intermediate gods are 4 sizes larger than the animal is normally. They have godly abilities and are very powerful and intelligent.

Lesser Gods
Lesser gods are 3 sizes larger than the animal is normally. They have a few godly abilities and are powerful and intelligent.

Demigods
Inbetween lesser gods and quasi-deities in power. A few godly abilities.

Quasi-Deities
Quasi-deities are 1 size larger than the animal is normally. They have no godly abilities other than immortality and a few resistances. They tend to be more powerful than a dire animal, but not incredibly powerful. They are more intelligent and wise than the average human.



EDIT: NOTE: This is just a basic structure for the religion, it really depends on the amount of worship, so their might be a few creatures that are more godly than the average of their creature type.

ANOTHER NOTE: I have been screwing up on the terminology, I have been calling quasi-deities demigods, thats why there is so few demigods, I had totally skipped them when I made the deity list.