Po' Human Trash

[the Jester]

The redneck thread got me thinking... (no, this IS on-topic, I swear...) do you have social/geographical/ethnic stratification in your campaign within races?

For instance, I have an elven island with two subraces of elves... the coastal tribes view the interior people as inferior savage barbarians, while the interior elves view the coastal elves as tainted, dilluted and impure (and therefore unholy, and therefore evil) by contact with outside races.

Another example- the humans of Forinthia are a colonial power. Many places where their empire holds sway, the natives are human, but the Forinthians treat them as an inferior people, much like many European imperial colonies did.

I'm thinking of how the 'city folk vs. redneck' attitude that seems so prevelent plays out in rl, and wondering how it applies to dnd. Do you keep such tensions between different races, or do you have them within the races? Do all dwarves get along or do the hill dwarves from Var have a view of the hill dwarves of Beldo as shoddy craftsmen and dishonest traders? How much predjudice is there against one's own kind?

Tangentially, whenever someone asks, "How can two good nations fight?" I think of situations like these. There are lots of issues to be divided over other than good and evil!

 

[francisca]

The redneck thread got me thinking... (no, this IS on-topic, I swear...) do you have social/geographical/ethnic stratification in your campaign within races?

Kinda. There are two broad categories of elf in my homebrew: true elves and the rest. True elves are immortal. Their offspring are long-lived, but mortal, having a 900-1000 year lifespan. The true elves have not had offsping in about 20,000 years. They are very xenophobic and about 3/4 insane.

Other than that, there is suspicion between urban/rural folk when the situation calls for it, but no downight animosity.

 

[Piratecat]

I definitely have social stratification within my game. Heck, even Dragonlance did when they introduced the gully dwarves.

 

[diaglo]

I definitely have social stratification within my game. Heck, even Dragonlance did when they introduced the gully dwarves.

and the K-Mart elves vs. the Silver spoon in mouth elves.

 

[Piratecat]

Diaglo, I'm suddenly having a flashback to Ricky Shroeder. Thanks a lot, bud.

Seriously, the concept of degenerate elves is an interesting one. Suppose you have a forest of "elves" which the normal elves shun and want nothing to do with. They have been corrupted by contact with humans, supposedly, and now are stupid and slovenly and weak.

Then you require the PCs to enter this elven ghetto in order to retrieve something - a person, information, whatever. Better yet, require them to redeem the elves in some way.

There are a lot of plot hooks here. Suppose the whole forest is an experiment by some God to see if elves can be degenerated into something feral, and the accusations of human/elven inbreeding are just malicious rumors? Suppose that these are really gray elves, cursed? Lots of fun possibilities here.

 

[diaglo]

Diaglo, I'm suddenly having a flashback to Ricky Shroeder. Thanks a lot, bud.

Seriously, the concept of degenerate elves is an interesting one. Suppose you have a forest of "elves" which the normal elves shun and want nothing to do with. They have been corrupted by contact with humans, supposedly, and now are stupid and slovenly and weak.

Then you require the PCs to enter this elven ghetto in order to retrieve something - a person, information, whatever. Better yet, require them to redeem the elves in some way.

There are a lot of plot hooks here. Suppose the whole forest is an experiment by some God to see if elves can be degenerated into something feral, and the accusations of human/elven inbreeding are just malicious rumors? Suppose that these are really gray elves, cursed? Lots of fun possibilities here.

the novels explored a lot of these concepts. the kinslayer wars in DL over contact with other races.

and the FR novels concerning the creation of the sahaugin. or the drow.

i always liked the introduction of the grugach/ wild / k-mart elves into the DL setting. it made for interesting politics.

 

[francisca]

Seriously, the concept of degenerate elves is an interesting one. Suppose you have a forest of "elves" which the normal elves shun and want nothing to do with. They have been corrupted by contact with humans, supposedly, and now are stupid and slovenly and weak.

That's pretty much the way the True Elves in my homebrew view the regular elves (see above). And all hell is going to break loose at some point as they seek to expunge their "mistakes".

 

[Pants]

I have a little bit:
The Sun Elves look down on everybody. They view humans as barbaric degenerates, High Elves get classified as an inferior form of Elf. Wild Elves are seen as even worse than humans. Dwarves are respected for the crafts, but are shunned because of their lower magical aptitude. Halflings are generally ignored and seen as bothersome, childish creatures. Orcs are only good for one thing; extermination.
Surprisingly, only Gnomes are respected from the other races. Gnomes are viewed as inately magical beings and are greatly respected by Sun Elves. A Gnomish Illusionist even holds a position on the Council of Mages.

The Wild Elves are Xenophobes. They distrust Humans and all other outsiders. They have a great dislike of Arcane magic and shun it from their society.

High Elves are just as accepting as humans. Their empire was shattered centuries ago and they were forced to live with the 'lesser' races. This made them tolerant of most of the other races, however High Elves dislike the arrogant attitudes of the Sun Elves and distance themselves from them.

Various human cultures have different views on the other races. The Lorenzans view anyone else who isn't Lorenzan as a potential slave. The barbarians of the north respect the warlike nature of the orcs and the hardiness of the dwarves, but they consider all of the Elves frail and weak. Most humans, however, are fairly tolerant of other races.

 

[Gez]

Well, the self-labelled "high elves" are the most racist and arrogant humanoids you may find (beholders are worst, but they aren't humanoids). They call grey elves "near elves", wood elves "under elves", and the whole rest of the Creation, "slave" "cattle" or "trash".

I thank the elf-players from the Wizards boards for their influence in the mindset of high elves IMC.

Otherwise...
Dwarves are likewise in four common subraces: hill, mountain, gold, and coast. Gold dwarves tend to be pretentious and physically lazy -- sort of intellectual merchant snobs. Hill and mountain are wary of them for this reason; but all three are allied in a confederacy that protects the interest of all dwarven lands, so there's kind of mutual respectful distrust.

Coastal dwarves are nearly unknown to all others. They're rather like Medium-size korobokuru. Primitive and reclusive, living on shores and coastal cliffs.

Humans living in one of the two free nations have mixed pity and contempt for those living in the tyrannical empire.

All gnomes get along well, when they meet.

 

[neoweasel]

Well, given that there are languages in each of the major categories that are devoted to the underclasses/uneducated, I'd say so.

In the Orcish Republic, it's Gnollish (and, to a lesser extent goblanic)

In the Sylvan Empire, the native tongue of one of the regions is considered a "gutter" language.

The characters spend most of their time dealing with military officers, bureaucrats and diplomats so knowing those languages is not deeply useful but, when it is, it's nearly necessary.