Kerrick
First Post
Here's what I did (in a nutshell):
Dwarves: Basically the same.
Elves: Live in the desert kingdoms; they have a high-magic culture ruled by an immortal god-king. Think Egyptian/Go'auld (Stargate) culture. They occupy a large empire and practice slavery. Jungle elves live further to the south (in the jungles, duh) and are closer to the Mayans/Aztecs (complete with living sacrifices).
Gnomes: Chinese culture. They're very isolationist, have a huge beauracracy with many ministries, and are (of course) inventors.
Halflings: Monastic, live in the mountains and follow the path to spiritual perfection. Halflings and hobogoblins (see below) are the only ones who know martial arts, though they will teach others.
Half-elves: Offspring of humans and elves; often serve as go-betweens for the two races, who are not always on the best of terms. Some half-elves are slaves in the elven empire.
Humans: Roman culture. They occupy another large empire, which is constantly warring with the elves, the gnolls, and the half-orcs, among others. There are also a few other human nations scattered around with other cultural bents.
Half-orcs: Offspring of humans/orcs, either resulting from raids into human territory or consenting relations between borderlander humans and orcs.
Gnolls: Persian/Chaldaean. They are THE premier fighting force of the world, and often hire themselves out as mercenaries.
Hobgoblins: Japanese. Highly structured, very disciplined, and not often seen.
Orcs: Norse culture. Odin is their version of Gruumsh (I didn't realize the similarity until after I'd fleshed them out). They live in the cold northern lands, making raids into the human empire.
Dwarves: Basically the same.
Elves: Live in the desert kingdoms; they have a high-magic culture ruled by an immortal god-king. Think Egyptian/Go'auld (Stargate) culture. They occupy a large empire and practice slavery. Jungle elves live further to the south (in the jungles, duh) and are closer to the Mayans/Aztecs (complete with living sacrifices).
Gnomes: Chinese culture. They're very isolationist, have a huge beauracracy with many ministries, and are (of course) inventors.
Halflings: Monastic, live in the mountains and follow the path to spiritual perfection. Halflings and hobogoblins (see below) are the only ones who know martial arts, though they will teach others.
Half-elves: Offspring of humans and elves; often serve as go-betweens for the two races, who are not always on the best of terms. Some half-elves are slaves in the elven empire.
Humans: Roman culture. They occupy another large empire, which is constantly warring with the elves, the gnolls, and the half-orcs, among others. There are also a few other human nations scattered around with other cultural bents.
Half-orcs: Offspring of humans/orcs, either resulting from raids into human territory or consenting relations between borderlander humans and orcs.
Gnolls: Persian/Chaldaean. They are THE premier fighting force of the world, and often hire themselves out as mercenaries.
Hobgoblins: Japanese. Highly structured, very disciplined, and not often seen.
Orcs: Norse culture. Odin is their version of Gruumsh (I didn't realize the similarity until after I'd fleshed them out). They live in the cold northern lands, making raids into the human empire.