Lord Agragax Presents: The Fantasy Realm of Escalonia

Oh I have edited my published articles A LOT.

A good start, but you got a little over 24 hours to write 10,000 words if you want to participate in World Ember this year.

These articles look like they are about 1000 words each give or take.

The secret is linked articles. It's very easy for Lizardkin to get exiled for their crimes right? Make an article on who is the judge who sentences exile. Make an article on how exiled Lizardkin cope, where they go and what they do. Has anyone every regained their honor with a quest in exile?

You mentioned the Lizardkin tribes don't fight much anymore. A historical article on their past wars would be of interest.

You mentioned different Lizardkin tribes. You use the ethnicity template to detail those tribes, then go back and edit the Lizardkin species article to add links in the "include ethnicity" section.

 

Hmmm, I had no problem customizing the color of Nilen's eyes. More options than I knew what to do with.

 

Don't use the paint brush for the eyes. Color options are subheadings of the "choose your eyes" function

They don't let you paint the eyes because it's hard to select a small iris. Humanocentric but what are you going to do.

 

I believe gnolls existed in 2nd edition which was before the Lion King but they grew in prominence in 3rd edition and beyond (which was after Lion Kingdom.

In a lot of ways, they are orcier than orcs. Like most things I incorporated from D&D, I toned down gnolls for Scarterra but I kept the essentials.

Scarterran gnolls are among the least mentally stable sapient races in Scarterra.

In D&D they cannot be reasoned with at all. They are one dimensional physical bad guys. D&D gnolls are intricately bound to savage predatory demons. Not scheming clever demons.



In Scarterra, gnolls were a collaborative project between Greymoria and Maylar to kill elves and other enemies. Pretty quickly Maylar took over and Greymoria washed her hands of gnolls.

Scarterran gnolls are very good at surviving harsh environments but they do not have enough grasp on tactics to be able to fight wars of attrition against civilized opponents (like the much more successful orcs), so they were wiped out in most Scarterran lands but they are firmly entrenched in the Great Colassian Desert and other harsh wastelands relying on their survival skills and rapid rate of reproduction to keep them alive.

EDIT: The owl people are a cool idea, but I don't have any constructive feedback or ideas on this yet, so I'll get back to you later.

 

In my opinion, wings plus four limbs should be limited to very magical creatures such as dragons, angels, demons, and pixies.

I would think long and hard before you make owlmen have two legs, two arms, and two wings, especially since you said you wanted them to be "more owl than humanoid." A six limb variant sacrifices realism in order to make them more humanoid.

If you change your mind and want to make them more humanoid, that's your call. There is no wrong way to make a fantasy race. I'm just saying that "I want them to be more owl than humanoid" and "I want to give them six limbs" is like saying "I want to go on a diet" and "I going to each a large chocolate cake by myself." You can have a diet or a cake, but you cannot have both.

One option is to give them hands and arms with wings underneath them. This would make them less agile flyers than real owls, that's probably fine. Humans are less agile climbers than real monkeys.

Another option is to give them humanoid like dexterity on their feet.



Owls have a lot of cultural mythos attached to them and not all of the myths go in the same direction. The fun thing about owls in mythology is that they are often heroes and they are often villains and they are often coldly neutral. This fits because real owls straddle the thin line between being adorable and terrifying depending on context.

Owls are associated with being wise because the Ancient Greeks had owls as the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom. This carried over to the Ancient Romans with Minerva and the idea of owls being wise sort of creeped into the Roman Catholic Church. Owls (at least certain owls) were also associated with Hades/Pluto. In this case owls would guide souls of the dead into the afterlife. This also permeated the mythos of the Roman Catholic Church. Not official doctrine, but a lot of artistic personifications of angels of death give them owl wings. Both benevolent angels of death taking people to Heaven and demons dragging people to Hell are often depicted with owl-like wings.

Celtic mythology and assorted northern Europenan folklore often have owls as harbingers of ill fate. The owls aren't usually causing it, the owls are warning of it. You kind of see this in owls' depictions in Grimm's fairytales.

Native American folklore has some evil monsters with owl like traits. But they are all over the map, sometimes owls are good guys. Sometimes they are neutral messengers.

If your owl people have friendly relations with the local humans, they would be excellent messengers and mailmen.

Most owls are nocturnal but there are a lot of diurnal owls including the famous snowy owl. Owls are associated with both the positive and negative aspects of night.

I will point out that the owl's head swivel ability is quite creepy when put on a humanoid package.

You can always use science for inspiration too.

 

They even were in the first monster manual IIRC. 1974, which makes them predate The Lion King by two decades.

 

This works.

They might get a reputation for wisdom by being mysterious whether they deserve it or not.

Whether or not the groundlings know what the owl people want, you should know what you want.


In my world, I usually focus on small scale conflicts not epic world changing events, but I do give some thought to epic world changing events.

Flight, even limited flight is a huge advantage. A small number of owl men should be able to obliterate a group of humans with superior numbers between their flight and (presumably) night vision and stealth.

Maybe I am cynical or a closet sociopath, but whenever I create a fantasy race, I ask myself the question. "What would happen if this fantasy race faced an enemy that has genocidal ambitions?" In fact, any race that survived the Second Unmaking did face an enemy with genocidal ambitions, but I'm still mostly thinking of human or humanlike enemies, not Lovecraftian demons.

Scarterran gnomes are good at talking, but if talking fails, they are in serious trouble. Their low strength is a huge liability, even with their stealth bonuses, they would not fare well in a total war scenario against humans.

What has kept the gnomes alive so long. Well one, they are good diplomats, but just in case they have the Order of Delas. It is well known that princes that routinely murder gnomes en masse have a strong tendency to drink from poisoned cups or have their throats slit in their sleep.

The Kalazotz are one of the younger races in my world. They never faced a wide scale threat against their whole race. As of yet, they do not have an effective means to defend themselves from ordinary humans using total war tactics. That's why most of them stay in very remote areas or have allied themselves to mighty dwarf warriors.

Humans are slower to develop from child to adult than any known animal. Owls have a fairly long maturation period compared to other birds (as is the case with many raptors).

The Tytoss probably stash their babies and juveniles in tall trees.

A genocidal opponent would try to chop down their trees or set the forest on the fire.

What can the Tytoss do against this strategy?

That's essentially what killed the Grey Forest Kalazotz in my world. Their treetop homes were cut down and they were harried so they could not rest. Remember that is how prehistoric humans hunted. Human aren't faster than other animals but they are relentless trackers and have great stamina on long runs.

 

What do Tytoss eat? How do they get it? Hunting and gathering? Fishing? Agriculture? Pastoral middle ground between hunting/gathering and agriculture?

This question should be addressed by all your fantasy races.

I notice you pick a lot of predators. Your fantasy can and should be different, but normally in most fantasy settings most humanoids are omnivores and humanoids that are obligate carnivores tend to skew towards the evil side of the spectrum.

Most of your fantasy races seem to be based on carnivorous animals. That doesn't mean the humanoid versions have to be carnivores too, but it doesn't mean that they can't be carnivores.