My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Owlbears are awesome!!!

(I agree about the Hobbit movies. Sad.)

As for the sex between the different species....
Maybe that's another topic where my scientific education kinda kills all the fun. That being said: your ideas are interesting. More about that later, as I am traveling right now.

 

No one wants to talk about half-breeds (other than mahrlect owlbears ) , so I'll move on to my next discussion topic: Ghosts.

First off, here are what I view are the purpose of ghosts in either fiction or RPGs, I see three main story purposes for ghosts.

1-Stories that involve laying a ghost to rest. These are my favorite ghost stories

2-Creating an atmosphere of horror with mostly cosmetic ghosts that demonstrate a place is dangerous, or maybe have a villain or monster leave a trail of ghosts behind them. I really like the technique used in the animated movie Hellboy Blood and Iron. The vampire villainous was preceded by a horde of peasant girl ghosts from her previous victims, all with the same skull face deformity. I certainly like the idea of different ghosts with the same cause of death developing similar looks.

Along those lines, ghosts can set the atmosphere for mystery plots too.

3-An unusual villain or monster that forces the heroes to fight in an unorthodox manner.

If there is a #4 or #5 story purpose I’d be interested in hearing your suggestions.



Ghosts are very versatile in fiction with a wide variety of powers and weaknesses. I would like to keep things relatively consistent. If one ghost is basically powerless and the other wields god-like powers I want a logical in-universe explanation for the discrepancy.

In my RPG world and in most fantasy and sci-fi settings, a ghost is a dead person’s soul who has unfinished business preventing them from moving on. I’m going to draw a lot of inspiration from the old White Wolf publishing game Wraith: the Oblivion (WtO), but I’m going to greatly simplify things. Rather than invent a new trait for ghosts (WtO had Pathos, Angst, Corpus, and Eidolon traits in addition to the stuff living people had) I think I’ll base a ghost’s power off of their willpower.

A ghost with a weak will can do little more than cause cold spots and spooky noises. A ghost with a strong will is going to have a wide array of frightening powers.

On the flip side, a ghost with a low Willpower is relatively easy to help pass on peacefully. If a low Willpower ghost wants to avenge his own murder, he probably will pass on when his murderer is brought to justice. A high Willpower ghost in the same situation will want to see the murderer, his accomplices, and his boss put to justice. Maybe the ghost will even want to see the murderer’s evil organization dismantled piece by piece.


Nearly all character traits for humans or human-like creatures are on a one to five scale. Willpower is an exception, existing on a one to ten scale. A typical peasant has a Willpower of 3. A typical player character or ongoning villain has a Willpower of 6 or 7. Willpower 10 is the province of unshakable heroes like Batman, or single-minded fanatical villains like Thanos. There are numerous exceptions, it’s possible for a peasant to have a very strong will or for a very powerful adventurer or villain to secretly be weak-willed even though they are hyper competant.

As a side effect of my points buy system, player characters and major villains with no magical ability tend to have higher Willpower scores because they tend to end up with a giant pile of character creation points with nowhere else to go.

Normal characters use their permanent Willpower to resist mind controlling and fear inducing effects. Characters also have a temporary Willpower rating that is capped at their permanent Willpower. Characters can spend a temporary Willpower point to get bonuses on a single die roll.

For a ghost, I figure temporary Willpower points are used for everything. Their most powerful abilities require temporary Willpower to activate. They spend Willpower to heal. I figure ghosts do not have to rest or sleep from physical exertion, but they would need to sleep (or do something akin to sleep) to recover Willpower.


Why do some people linger on as ghosts and most do not.

Mostly if the story needs a ghost, there’s a ghost, but because I want my world to be internally consistent there are noticeable tendencies. Ghosts don’t normally appear immediately, they tend to rise a few days to a few weeks after the body’s death.

-The number one factor in determining whether someone will linger as a ghost or not is how many regrets the person has when he or she dies.

-High Willpower people are more likely to linger as ghosts after they die than low Willpower people.

-Violent and painful deaths are more likely to produce ghosts than peaceful natural deaths. Though slow drown out natural deaths due to disease produce their fair share of ghosts.

-Corpses that undergo proper funerary rites are less likely to produce ghosts than corpses that are left out to get picked over by vultures.

-Divine spell-casters and pious people in general are less likely to linger as ghosts than areligious people. The Nine would like to see that no soul is missed, but they put forth more effort to collect the souls of their favorites.


Scaling Ghost Power Level by Willpower

Ghosts have health levels equal to their permanent Willpower rating +2. They do not suffer wound penalties until they are brought below half their maximum health in which case they receive a -1 die wound penalty.

Willpower 1: Spineless people like this are incapable of lingering as ghosts.

Willpower 2-4: People like this rarely become ghosts. They normally only become ghosts when their deaths are extremely traumatic and painful and/or they lived their lives for one purpose with obsessive fervor. Because over half the world’s population have Willpower score under 5, these are still the most common ghosts seen. Nearly every village has or had a ghost like this. About 50% of the world’s ghosts are at this level.

Ghosts in this range typically have 2-4 Common powers, 0-2 intermediate powers and 1-2 Handicaps. Usually these ghosts can do little more than scare people and break pots.

Willpower 5-7: People in this range can become ghosts even without suffering unusual deaths, though unusual deaths are still the norm for ghosts at this level. These ghosts are the ones most likely to attract the attention of exorcists. They are powerful enough to be a threat to the common people, but they are not as wily or subtle as the more powerful ghosts. About 40% of the world’s ghosts are at this level.

Ghosts in this range typically have 3-6 common powers, 1-3 intermediate powers, 0-2 rare powers, and 2-4 handicaps. Ghosts at this power level are capable of seriously harming or inlfuencing living beings.


Willpower 8-10: People with this level of Willpower are rare, but people with this level of Willpower tend to be very passionate and driven. A disturbingly high percentage of these people become ghosts when they die. Ghosts of this level are very powerful and are likely to construct long-term complex plans to further their agendas. They are also likely to be well versed in the tactics of would-be exorcists. About 10% of the world’s ghosts are at this level.

Ghosts in this range typically have 5-7 common powers, 2-5 intermediate powers, 1-4 rare powers, and 3-5 handicaps. Ghosts at this power level are incredibly deadly opponents.


All ghosts, regardless of Willpower, manifest with all the non-magical attributes and abilities they had while alive. Sadly the vast majority of these abilities are not very useful to a ghost. A great fighter cannot use his skills if his sword passes harmlessly through a target. A ghost with a high Crafts skill might be able to talk a living person through how to forge a sword properly but the ghost cannot pick up a hammer and make the sword himself.


What Happens to Ghosts As They Linger?

As the years turn into decades, turn into centuries, a ghost will generally see their abilities atrophy if they cannot exercise their abilities as an incorporeal being. Abilities that a ghost can use like Alertness, Empathy, Subterfuge, and the like tend to rise. Ghosts that linger on a very long time usually pick up derangements. When a ghost develops a new power, they usually pick up a new handicap to go with it. A list of powers and handicaps is at the bottom of this threads.


Finding Eternal Rest: In writing fiction and playing out RPGs, it can be a very satisfying story to help a ghost find its eternal rest. A ghost that resolves his or her lingering goals, or is convinced to simply let them go, passes on to the normal afterlife non-ghost souls get (which I’m still working on). This is common knowledge, even among most peasants. Most ghosts are actively trying to pass on to the afterlife.


Finding Oblivion: A ghost that is destroyed by magical attacks or another incorporeal creature faces oblivion, nothingness. In very rare cases, strong willed ghosts can will themselves to regenerate after facing seeming destruction like this, but they are virtually guaranteed to come back disfigured, insane, or sporting some new ghostly Handicaps. Most ghosts fear being reduced to nothing and resist this with every fiber of their being, but some ghosts give up and actively seek to end it all.


Finding an Eternal Vigil: Sometimes, a ghost decides that she likes being a ghost more than she liked being alive. Ghosts like this are rare but they are very powerful since their Willpower often grows over time. This most often occurs when a ghost’s unresolved business is continuous and ongoing. If a ghost is lingering because she wants to look after her orphaned son, the ghost will probably pass on when her son grows up to adulthood and finds a steady livelihood. A ghost in this category instead decides to linger on to protect and guide her grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc in perpetuity.


Becoming a Poltergeist: Sometimes a ghost fails to achieve his goals and does not make peace with life as a ghost. At the same time, the ghost fears being reduced to nothing and still actively resists oblivion. Ghosts in this category are irredeemable insane as their former passions and drives turn into neuroses. A ghost motivated by greed may dedicate its entire existence to guarding a single gold coin or something similarly petty. They basically are monsters now that either haunt a single area and lash out at the living out of spite, or they are roaming monsters that go around spreading suffering randomly. A poltergeist may haunt his old family home (or the site where his home once stood) violently repelling all intruders long after his family line was extinguished.


Becoming an Astral Spirit: If ghost avoids madness and oblivion but gives up on his original obsession, or is now incapable of resolving it due to outside factors the ghost will eventually be drawn to the astral plane. This is especially common when a ghost really revels in using her ghostly powers, but for general amusement and not to pursue her ambitions left over from life.

I’m still working on the finer details of the Astral Plane. Currently I’m envisioning Astral Plane is a realm of pure thought with little emotions. An astral spirit is basically an avatar of the ghost’s powers and aptitudes without the person’s original personality. They are virtually unrecognizable as the person they once were, even more so than a poltergeist. Eventually no trace of their original identity remains, but they still exist.



Becoming Ensnared by a Necromancer: This is not healthy for a ghost. Depending on the nature of the ghost’s imprisonment, they might be metaphorically and literally worked to death and face oblivion; they might be driven mad and become poltergeists, or they might lose their identity and get sucked into the astral plane.

I am still working on the details for how necromancers can command ghosts. One dot powers let a necromancer find nearby ghosts. An uncharactestically nice necromancer can even bargain a mutually beneficial goal, "You do me this favor and I'll do you a favor." In most cases, ghosts can not do much if the necromancer or medium is lying.

Magic users need four dot powers to restrain or issue temporary commands and five dots powers to permanently enslave ghosts. Even a weak willed ghost will fight a necromancer much harder than a standard zombie or wight, so many necromancers don't bother with ghosts at all.

It's fairly easy for a necromancer to use ghosts as a spies. A powerful and wily necromancer might command a ghostly assassin, but even the most powerful necromancers in Scarterras cannot command an army of ghosts.



If a ghost evolves or degenerates into a new form, it would probably be convenient if ghosts have convergent evolution. In other words, they move from a ghost with personal stats into a monster with standardized stats. Less work for me.


Non-Human Ghosts

I do not see why ghosts would be a human only phenomenon, or limited to demihumans like gnomes, elves, and gnomes. Certainly most creatures that are humanoid should be able to become ghosts. I’m less sure about intelligent monsters like dragons and chimera. They have souls, but should they be able to be ghosts? I am seriously unsure.

Dragons have high willpower scores but for the most part they would not make more potent ghosts than human ghosts. A dragon’s claws and teeth would great for beating up other ghosts but would be useless against the living.

I guess since I’m not sure whether I want to include non-humanoid ghosts or not I could just make them extremely rare.


Fetters?

There are lot of mechanics from Wraith: the Oblivion, that I chose to leave out and a lot I kept. One thing I’m on the fence on is Fetters. Fetters are objects that the wraith loved or hated in life. Fetters are useful to wraiths because they let wraiths heal and regenerate their ghostly energies but they also are a huge weakness. A wraith can be seriously harmed if one or more of his fetters are destroyed. A ghost that loses all his or her fetters cannot interact with the living at all.

I’m not sure if I want to include Fetters for Scarterran ghosts, and I’m not sure in what capacity. I’m guessing it will be a lot easier for an Scarterran exorcist to figure out a ghosts’ likely fetters than it is for an exorcist in the 20th century Earth to figure out what a wraith’s fetters are.

If destroying a ghost’s fetter auto-kills a ghost, then ghosts in general become a lot less threatening, though a high Willpower ghost with great mobility can probably pick and hide his fetters without a lot of fuss.

Powers and Weaknesses

(I set out to avoid the five dot system for simplicity but I sort of created it by proxy )

Animal Manipulation
Handicapped: Ghost causes animals nearby to go berserk or become ill.
Normal: Ghost visibly spooks animals nearby.

Common Power: Ghost has a calming presence on animals and can speak to them freely, though responses are simplistic and limited by the animal’s simpler mind.
Intermediate Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point and roll Charisma + Animal Ken summon swarms of small animals. The more successes he rolls, the bigger and nastier the animals in the swarm are. One success would summon bugs while five successes would summon a pack of wild of dogs or the equivalent.
Advanced Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to possess animals and magical beasts of animal like intelligence. Difficulty ranges from 4 for chickens and rats to 9 for elephants and griffins.


Conjurations
Handicapped: The ghost leaves behind salt water foot prints, blood on the walls, slime or other disturbing phenomenon at inconvenient times.
Normal: The ghost cannot create anything at all.

Common Power: The ghost can summon cosmetic but frightening features. Blood on the walls, illusory vermin, slime, etc. The conjurations cause no harm but they are unnerving to the living. Living creatures need to best the ghost pitting the ghost’s Manipulation + Expression against the living person’s Willpower. If the ghost wins, the mortal suffers +1 penalty on all dice rolls for the scene.
Intermediate Power: As above but the moral’s resistance roll is at difficulty 7.
Advanced Power: The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to make conjurations that can have physical effects as well as psychological ones. Slime constricts movements, blood can try to choke foes, shadow creatures can bite. A Manipulation + Expression roll determines how potent these conjurations are.

Corpse Manipulation
Handicapped: The ghost’s ghostly visage appears like a rotting corpse and/or smells like a rotting corpse. It doesn’t impair the ghost’s ability to move and fight though.
Normal: A corpse is a corpse of course of course unless it’s the ghosts own original body in which case he or she can use the intermediate and common powers on her own corpse.

Common Power: The ghost can enter many relatively intact corpse. While “resting” in this grotesque fashion, the ghost regains lost Willpower points and heals spectral wounds at double the usual rate.
Intermediate Power: The ghost can possess a relatively intact corpse and then spend a Willpower point to make the corpse move slightly for a few minutes, freaking living witnesses out. If the corpse is fresh, a ghost can speak a few short sentences through a corpse.
Advanced Power: The ghost can possess a relatively corpse and spend a Willpower point to animate it fully for a scene essentially becoming a highly intelligent autonomous zombie. In theory a ghost that is near a pile of dead bodies can keep switching hosts when the last host is destroyed as long as his/her temporary Willpower pool holds out.

Embodiment
Handicapped: Ghost turns invisible when inconvenient, and/or her visage displays her cause of death or emotional state in a very grisly fashion when not convenient.
Normal: Appear as a faint translucent image of the ghost’s former self. Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to whisper several sentences to the living or shout a short sentence.

Common Power: The ghost can change his/her image to be frightening and terrifying, normal looking, or an idealized beautiful version of their former self. Ghost can speak freely to the living.
Intermediate Power: Ghost can be invisible or visible at will. Also can be incredibly luminous. Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to complete change his or her form to look and sound like someone else for a scene. If a ghost knows what a living person’s dead relatively looked and sound like, she can be very persuasive at manipulating the living “Grandma told me the king had to die!”
Advanced Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to become solid and effectively alive for one scene. Ghost has all the vulnerabilities of the living while doing this.


Fate Manipulation
Handicapped: Ghost is prone to bad luck, and so are the living people near her who are sympathetic to her goals.
Normal: Ghost has no special insight or luck.

Common Power: Ghost can sense danger reflexively. Rolling Perception + Alertness. Difficulty 6 for the ghost’s self or her loved ones or items of fixation. Difficulty 7 for detecting danger to everyone else.
Intermediate Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower to automatically know the general direction of her loved ones, enemies, or objects of significance.
Advanced Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to activate a field of good luck and/bad luck for one scene. Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Every success effects two targets. A subject with good luck gets a -1 difficulty break on all rolls, a subject with bad luck gets a +1 difficulty penalty on all rolls. A single subject can be double dinged to the make the modifier -2/+2.


Lifeforce Manipulation
Handicapped: Ghost causes plants to die in her vicinity and causes the living to feel mildly ill.
Normal: Ghost has a sixth sense to identify the health or lack thereof in living creatures.

Common Power: Ghost can spend a Willpower point to numb a living person’s pain for a day or infect a living person with a serious but recoverable disease.
Intermediate Power: Ghost can spend a Willpower point to double a living person’s rate of natural healing for one week per success rolled on a Manipulation + Medicine roll or the character can complete negate all non-magical healing for one week per success.
Advanced Power: Ghost can drain life with a touch attack against the living inflicting his Manipulation in dice of damage. The ghost regains health for every success, the target suffers a level of physical attribute damage.


Memory Manipulation
Handicapped: Character has forgotten significant portions of his/her past life.
Normal: Character has full memories of his/her life though they are often viewed through an emotional lens.

Common Power: Character can spend a temporary Willpower point and sing or whisper to manipulate the emotions of others. Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge or Manipulation + Performance, whichever is higher. Difficulty 6 to create negative emotions, difficulty 7 to create positive emotions. Resisted by subject’s Willpower, difficulty 6.
Intermediate Power: Character can spend a temporary Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge or Manipulation + Performance to implant hypnotic suggestions or remove short-term memories. Resisted by subject’s Willpower, difficulty 6.
Advanced Power: Read intense memories from others or share memories with others. This can be used as a debilitating attack depending on the memory. Resisted by subject’s Willpower, difficulty 7.

Spoiler: Old Mobility Rules

Mobility
Handicapped: Unable to move more than a short distance from a person, place, or thing very important to the ghost’s life.
Normal: Walk like a normal living person, but without tiring. Also, all ghosts can pass through solid objects at will.

Common Power: The ghost can hover and float. The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to float with a modicum of control.
Intermediate Power: Spend a temporary willpower point to fly with speed and agility.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to enter the astral plane, exiting the Astral Plane is free. Ghosts (and living people who can somehow travel to the Astral Plane) can move about fifty times faster in the astral plane than the material world. The hard part is to avoid overshooting your destination in the material plane because the Astral Plane has so few landmarks. The ghost needs to roll Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 6) or Intelligence + Arcana (difficulty 5), assuming they have the Arcana skill, to navigate accurately.

Mobility (Revised)
Handicapped: Unable to move more than a short distance from a person, place, or thing very important to the ghost’s life.
Normal: Walk like a normal living person, but without tiring. Also, all ghosts can pass through solid objects at will.

Common Power: The ghost can hover and float. The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to float with a modicum of control.
Intermediate Power: Spend a temporary willpower point to fly with speed and agility for ten minutes per success on a Willpower roll.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to enter the astral plane, exiting the Astral Plane is free. Ghosts (and living people who can somehow travel to the Astral Plane) can move about fifty times faster in the astral plane than the material world. The hard part is to avoid overshooting your destination in the material plane because the Astral Plane has so few landmarks. The ghost needs to roll Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 6) or Intelligence + Arcana (difficulty 5), assuming they have the Arcana skill, to navigate accurately.

Ghosts in the astral plane are fully corporeal to all astral monsters and astral travelers. Ghosts that spend a lot of time in the astral plane tend to develop derangements faster than ghosts that do not.

Spoiler: Old Possession Rules

Possession
Handicapped: The ghost frequently causes living people nearby to have sudden chills, nervous tics, hairs standing up, etc.
Normal: The ghost cannot interact with living people directly.

Common Power: The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to possess a person but not control them. This is mainly used by a ghost to vicariously enjoy the pleasures of being alive, but this can be used to facilitate travel or gain a hostage if the ghost is fighting someone capable of harming incorporeal creatures. This can also be used for a ghost to temporarily evade another incorporeal foe.
Intermediate Power: As above but the ghost can force the subject to take sudden actions or blurt out things. Each action is resisted by opposed Willpower rolls. As soon as the living subject wins one contest, the ghost is evicted from its host and cannot repossess her for 24 hours.
Advanced Power: As above but the ghost has full control. Make an opposed Willpower roll versus the mortal being possessed. The ghost has full control over the person for one hour per net success.

Possession (Revised)
Handicapped: The ghost frequently causes living people nearby to have sudden chills, nervous tics, hairs standing up, etc.
Normal: The ghost cannot interact with living people directly.

Common Power: The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to possess a person but not control them. The ghost and the would-be host make opposed Willpower rolls. If the mortal is suspecting a ghostly possession (such as if the ghost is visible), the ghost’s Willpower roll raises to 7. This is mainly used by a ghost to vicariously enjoy the pleasures of being alive, but this can be used to facilitate travel or gain a hostage if the ghost is fighting someone capable of harming incorporeal creatures. This can also be used for a ghost to temporarily evade another incorporeal foe.
Intermediate Power: As above but the ghost can force the subject to take sudden actions or blurt out things. Each action is resisted by opposed Willpower rolls. As soon as the living subject wins one contest, the ghost is evicted from its host and cannot repossess her for 24 hours.
Advanced Power: As above but the ghost has full control. Make an opposed Willpower roll versus the mortal being possessed. The ghost has full control over the person for one hour per net success.

It is far easier for a ghost to possess a third party pawn rather than to lead a possessed victim to damage itself directly or indirectly. When the ghost takes actions against the host’s direct interest, the host gets an additional resistance roll. If the actions the possessed person is forced to take are directly suicidal or acting directly against the host’s loved ones, than the host’s resistant roll is at difficulty 4.

Spoiler: Old Telekinesis Rules

Telekinesis
Handicapped: Nothing, the ghost cannot interact with the material world at all.
Normal: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to write or draw in dust, the film on windows or move very tiny objects slowly.

Common Power: Ghost can move tiny objects at will. Spend a temporary Willpower to activate telekinesis equal to the ghost’s Strength.
Intermediate Power: Move heavy objects slowly, or smaller objects at great speeds, enough to cause injury. One temporary Willpower point enables the ghost to perform one such feat per dots of Wits s/he has.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to blast a target (living or incorporeal) with energy. Damage pool is the ghosts Wits + Strength.

Telekinesis (Revised)
Handicapped: The ghost periodically moves objects or knocks things over when nervous or agitated.
Normal: The ghost cannot move objects at all.

Common Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to write or draw in dust, the film on windows or move very tiny objects slowly but not with any dexterity or finesse. Spend a temporary Willpower to activate telekinesis equal to the ghost’s Strength.
Intermediate Power: Move heavy objects slowly, or smaller objects at great speeds, enough to cause injury. Alternatively, the ghost can move smaller objects with more finesse, tying and untying knots for instance. One temporary Willpower point enables the ghost to perform one such feat per dots of Wits s/he has.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to blast a target (living or incorporeal) with energy. Damage pool is the ghosts Wits + Strength.

Template for new Ghostly Powers
Handicapped:
Normal:

Common Power:
Intermediate Power:
Advanced Power:

Anyway, I am open to any and all feedback on mechanics and fluff for Scarterran ghosts.

 

Gah I forgot that I wanted to make at least a small post about half breeds.

Starting with the Owlbear: those aren't half breeds. That's just an animal that looks like a crossbreed so people named it like that. If it looks like something you know then you use that name. Happened all the time in reality. A Koala bear is not a bear, a Raccoon (called Waschbär in German, meaning 'washing bear') is not a bear, neither is a Panda. Seals have much more in common with dogs and weasels than with whales.
A coot is not a chicken and not a duck, and is still called either duck or chicken in several languages because it is somewhat similar looking to both.
There are things that look like a duck, walk like a duck and quack like a duck but are NOT a duck.
That's the reason why phenotypes can be really misleading.
Electric Eels are not eels. A Maned Wolf is not a wolf. A mountain goat is not a goat. Sea horse and mountain lion are other known examples.
(Don't even get me started at Guinea Pig or Flying Lemur)

Uhmmm... yeah. That's the first thing to say.

The next is: in general: half breeds between different species don't happen often. They are really rare. Between closely related species they are possible, but usually even then the offspring are not fertile.

So it depends a lot on the backstory: if Elves/Orcs/Dwarves and Humans are very closely related in a universe then they can _maybe_ cross breed. And _maybe_ the half-somethings are fertile. Most likely not though.

Sexually compatible is more than being able to stick the thing into the thing.

Magic (like modern genetics) can of course do a lot of stuff. Some of it will work, most probably won't or at least shouldn't.
If your story doesn't depend on it though I would make the whole cross breeding very rare.


As for ghosts.... not much to say at the moment. Your post is pretty extensive and I see some good stuff, but I have a hard time with ghosts so I'll have to think about it. The extent of their interactions with the living world can make them super powerful.

 

Also @Owlbears: IMO not that silly if you do it right:

 

Ok I read through the ghost post again.

My main concerns:
Mobility, possession, and telekinesis.

The common abilities are already incredibly powerful. A ghost that helps someone (as long as there aren't as many counter-ghosts on the other side) is a mighty support unit.
Moving objects, even tiny ones, can decide situations (including battles). Imagine a ghost that opens the girth of a saddle to make a battle wizard fall off his horse. That's moving a tiny object to great effect. Tying the shoelaces of a swordsman can get him killed. Moving certain small parts of weapons or armor can make them fall apart. Moving a tiny pebble or thorn into the right position can make a huge difference.
They are also awesome distractions.
Even common ghosts are perfect spies/scouts. An infantry squad could have a ghost (fallen comrade or something) that just looks around corners for them. Common ghosts can go everywhere and most people cannot notice them.

 

In Scarterras, magic trumps genetics. Among other things, Lamarkeanism is real. About a third of inherited traits are from the mother's genes, about a third from the father's genes, and about a third from the parent's lifestyle and environment. The latter reason is why people near the equater tend to develop fiery traits, people near the poles tend to develop airy traits, people inland tend to develop earthy traits, and people who live near water develop watery traits.

Again magic trumps science. But I haven't put a whole lot of thought into where animals come from. I have elaborate origin stories for most of the intelligent species but little to nothing where animals and animal-intelligence monsters come from. In most cases it's because Korus (or less commonly another deity) shaped the animal.

I suppose on the magi-science thing similarities between animals would because Korus recycles the same ideas (he is a nature god and is all about recycling) or because he created X out of Y. For instance, I figured Korus would have created horses first, then branched out into pegasi, unicorns, nightmares, hippocampi, zebras, etc. Nightmares are probably going to be a copycat effort from Maylar though. Hippocampi he probably worked with Mera on. Mera and Korus usually get along well and fish horses are something the sea goddess and horse god would produce together.

I still don't see a purpose for owl bears beyond aesthetics. I will admit they kind of look cool.

This is the kind of feedback I wanted. I'm thinking about Star Trek where everyone bones everyone and hybrids are pretty common.

Shadowrun has lots of interbreeding though it's sort of back by science. Dwarves, elves, trolls, etc are all considered to be subgroups of humans. In the case of Shadowrun, there are no halfbreeds. Children of muti-meta pairings come as one or the other. If an elf and a human have a baby it will either be a full human or a full elf.

Athas, which is a harsher more visceral world has a fair number of half-breeds. They also have a lot of magical mutants.

I guess I'm not sure what mood I am aiming for in my world. I didn't have a narrative plan like that when I started created this world. I wanted to create a fantasy world starting with the gods and working my way down to mortals. I wanted to create an RPG system to bring my world to life. Half-dragons, half-elves, and half-orcs were grandfathered in because that's what people expect to see in D&Dish worlds. Then I decided to ask why. I asked, why half-elves and not half-gnomes?

That's reasonable, I might trim these down.

The ghost would have to catch the wizard's horse, but I guess it wouldn't be that hard if he had mobility and telekinesis.

I think that's an intriguing idea that can add an interesting hook to an otherwise unremarkable squad of soldiers. As useful as ghosts can be, I imagine superstitions and fears would mean not every soldier would be okay with this arrangements. If the lads all trust Dead Tom, it's likely their commander or army chaplain would not. There'd be interesting stories when the lads have to try to help Dead Tom push his incipient madness back.

One issue that would make the living less likely to work with ghosts is the embodiment power that lets ghosts impersonate other people. Most storytellers know three or four stories about charlatan ghosts leading their "friends" to destruction. These circulating stories cause well-storied people to be cautious of any ghost, even if it looks and sounds like grandma.

I could also add additional weaknesses to ghosts. Right now they can be destroyed by magical energy or silverwood weapons. I could add some non lethal weaknesses such as being replused by salt or temporary banished with cold iron. Another non-lethal weakness could be impaired abilities in natural sunlight.

 

At least they have a somewhat decent explanation for it but yeah.

As for balancing the ghosts:
I'd expect castles being warded against ghosts. And the same could apply for people.
You could just say that ghosts cannot touch any object that is magical in real life, or at least it would be much harder.
That could be a good justification for weak magical items being quite common, even if they don't do much.
A baytlemage would certainly enchant his stuff, maybe even cast some anti-ghost shell.
The shell spell could also be used for trapping ghosts, creating a ghost in the shell.

 

Here are some mildly tweaked revamps of those three powers. Related questions. Are any of the ghostly powers too weak relative to the others.


Mobility
Handicapped: Unable to move more than a short distance from a person, place, or thing very important to the ghost’s life.
Normal: Walk like a normal living person, but without tiring. Also, all ghosts can pass through solid objects at will.

Common Power: The ghost can hover and float. The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to float with a modicum of control.
Intermediate Power: Spend a temporary willpower point to fly with speed and agility for ten minutes per success on a Willpower roll.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to enter the astral plane, exiting the Astral Plane is free. Ghosts (and living people who can somehow travel to the Astral Plane) can move about fifty times faster in the astral plane than the material world. The hard part is to avoid overshooting your destination in the material plane because the Astral Plane has so few landmarks. The ghost needs to roll Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 6) or Intelligence + Arcana (difficulty 5), assuming they have the Arcana skill, to navigate accurately.

Ghosts in the astral plane are fully corporeal to all astral monsters and astral travelers. Ghosts that spend a lot of time in the astral plane tend to develop derangements faster than ghosts that do not.


Possession
Handicapped: The ghost frequently causes living people nearby to have sudden chills, nervous tics, hairs standing up, etc.
Normal: The ghost cannot interact with living people directly.

Common Power: The ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to possess a person but not control them. The ghost and the would-be host make opposed Willpower rolls. If the mortal is suspecting a ghostly possession (such as if the ghost is visible), the ghost’s Willpower roll raises to 7. This is mainly used by a ghost to vicariously enjoy the pleasures of being alive, but this can be used to facilitate travel or gain a hostage if the ghost is fighting someone capable of harming incorporeal creatures. This can also be used for a ghost to temporarily evade another incorporeal foe.
Intermediate Power: As above but the ghost can force the subject to take sudden actions or blurt out things. Each action is resisted by opposed Willpower rolls. As soon as the living subject wins one contest, the ghost is evicted from its host and cannot repossess her for 24 hours.
Advanced Power: As above but the ghost has full control. Make an opposed Willpower roll versus the mortal being possessed. The ghost has full control over the person for one hour per net success.

It is far easier for a ghost to possess a third party pawn rather than to lead a possessed victim to damage itself directly or indirectly. When the ghost takes actions against the host’s direct interest, the host gets an additional resistance roll. If the actions the possessed person is forced to take are directly suicidal or acting directly against the host’s loved ones, than the host’s resistant roll is at difficulty 4.


Telekinesis
Handicapped: The ghost periodically moves objects or knocks things over when nervous or agitated.
Normal: The ghost cannot move objects at all.

Common Power: Ghost can spend a temporary Willpower point to write or draw in dust, the film on windows or move very tiny objects slowly but not with any dexterity or finesse. Spend a temporary Willpower to activate telekinesis equal to the ghost’s Strength.
Intermediate Power: Move heavy objects slowly, or smaller objects at great speeds, enough to cause injury. Alternatively, the ghost can move smaller objects with more finesse, tying and untying knots for instance. One temporary Willpower point enables the ghost to perform one such feat per dots of Wits s/he has.
Advanced Power: Spend a temporary Willpower point to blast a target (living or incorporeal) with energy. Damage pool is the ghosts Wits + Strength.

Spirit Loas
Looking the lores for Possession and Mobility over make me think about Caribbean Loas. A concept I may implement in Scarterras as supernatural merit. In Caribbean folklore a Loa is a “spirit horse”. The concept exists outside of Caribbean folklore. A spirit horse is a type of medium that invites in ghostly possession. The spirit and the horse work in tandem. The spirit host is mostly in control but the spirit horse gains access to the ghost’s skills. The sample I read describing in a White Wolf sourcebook had a middle aged psychic woman channel a deceased doctor friend of hers when she witnessed a neighbor who was victim to a hit-and-run traffic collision on a pedestrian.

I’ll work on the details later, but a Scarterran Loa would able to 1) allow ghosts in who do not normally have Possession powers and 2) allow ghosts to reach him very quickly even if they don’t have Mobility powers. 3) Loas would be at least slightly more vulnerable to hostile possession than the general population.

EDIT: Here is the Loa Mechanics I came up with later.

Spoiler: Spirit Loa mechanics

Spirit Loa Mechanics

Spirit Loa is a Rare Ability that rates between one to five dots like most traits.

● You sometimes hear disembodied voices and get unexplained flashes of insight or luck.
●● "I see dead people..."
●●● You are fully comfortable channeling your power...usually
●●●● You are probably more comfortable dealing with dead people than living people.
●●●●● You are world famous, at least among dead people.

Specialties: warrior spirits, ancient lore, family spirits, ghostly senses


Spirit Loas, also known as spirit horses can open themselves up to possession and borrow the skills of the spirit “rider”. The spirit in question is usually a ghost from the material plane, or one of the honored dead from the Aetherial Plane. This usually invites a friendly spirit with similar goals, and the spirit and Loa usually work in tandem, but a botch always brings an unwanted rider that will fully possess the Loa temporarily.

Even if the spirit rider does not initiate a hostile possession, a Loa can easily manifest new verbal accents and mannerisms from their spirit riders. Spirit Loas can also manifest cravings and urges as their spirit riders yearn to enjoy food and other simple pleasures of the living. This is solely a role playing suggestion, the Spirit Loa is normally not forced to act on these urges.

Most Spirit Loas are born that way and begin manifesting the rudiments of their powers as children. In theory, Spirit Loas can pop up anywhere, but most Spirit Loas show up in cultures that practice filial piety and ancestor worship. A lot of Loas have a near-brush with death early in life which triggers their nascent powers.

It is possible that a Spirit Loa that only has one or two dots of the Spirit Loa ability is not even aware that she is a Spirit Loa, attributing her occasional ability boosts to sudden inspiration or dumb luck.

A rare few individuals develop Spirit Loas later in life through training and studying. This is especially common for someone who is studying necromancy, divination, or theology of the afterlife.

Ghosts are attracted to Spirit Loas and may drop by just to chat. Spirit Loas with high dot ratings often have more dead friends than living friends. There is a kernel of truth to the stereotype that Spirit Loas are asocial loners with poor hygiene who crazily whisper to their invisible friends in the corner.

In societies that commonly value ancestor worship, about one in a hundred individuals is a Spirit Loa. Among societies that do not normally put much thought to their honored dead, Spirit Loas make up approximately one in five hundred individuals.

Most Spirit Loas are non-spell casters, but it is possible to be a mage or theurgist to also be a Spirit Loa, it’s just very rare.

Spirit Loas are less to come back as ghosts after their own deaths than the general population. Spirit Loas never retain their Loa abilities post-mortem.


Spirit Loas are more vulnerable to hostile possession from ghosts than average people. Attempts to possess Loas are at -1 difficulty, -2 difficulty if the Loa has four or more dots of the Spirit Loa ability. On the plus side, a Loa is always aware the second a spirit attempts possession on them and never suffers memory from a possession.

Loas can roll Perception + Spirit Loa (difficulty 7) reflexively to detect ghosts in their immediate proximity. There does not have to be ghosts nearby to use their ability, Spirit Loas can channel spirit riders from many hundreds of mile away with little difficulty. Proximity is not nearly as important as being in an area that resonates positively with the honored dead.


Spirit Loas can call upon the spirits once per day normally. If they want to use their ability additional ties, they have to spend a temporary Willpower to do so.

Loa rolls Wits + Spirit Loa to call on a spirit as a free action or Perception + Spirit Loa to call on a spirit after meditating for at least twenty minutes.

Every success grants the character an extra dot of mundane ability for an entire scene, the maximum temporary rating of an ability is still 5. If the player wishes, she can split her bonuses up between multiple abilities if they are related such as Dodge and Melee.

It is slightly easier to enhance an existing ability than to channel and ability the Spirit Loa does not have at all. Rare Abilities are considerably harder to channel than common abilities. At know point can a Spirit Loa invite a spirit rider to enhance their Spirit Loa trait.

If the Loa is seeking cerebral ability boosts, it’s possible the information gleaned is leaning towards the spirit rider’s personal biases, especially if the player is channel bonus dots in History or Politics.

The difficulty depends on how likely it is friendly spirits are metaphysically tied to the area.

Area Base Difficulty
The Loa’s family ancestral shrine (difficulty 4)

Hollowed cemetery or holy site of Loa’s favored religion (difficulty 5)

Area is intimately familiar to the Loa, but not tied directly to the dead (difficulty 6)

No personal connection, but many mortals lived and died here (difficulty 6)

Most Places (difficulty 7)

Area is both very unfamiliar to the Loa and sparsely populated (difficulty 8)

Situational Difficulty Modifier
Today is Calendar Holiday honoring the dead. (-2 difficulty)

Loa is trying to channel an ability he has zero dots in (+1 difficulty)

Loa is using ability as a free action (+1 difficulty)

Loa is trying to channel a rare ability (+2 difficulty)

Area is infested with undead or otherwise polluted with Void energy (+2 difficulty)

Most ghost’s have highly personal goals, and these goals are rarely “I wish I toppled a castle while I was alive.” I suppose a lord in a castle, even a just lord, is likely to end up with a few ghostly enemies.


Ghosts are one of three incorporeal creatures I am likely to include. Now I’m trimming it back two. Ghosts, Faceless, and Shadows.


Ghosts are of course a staple of folklore from every culture on Earth. Faceless are a creature of my own creation. Shadows are a D&D monster. They are the weakest incorporeal monster in D&D, but still fairly potent. They can create a lot of new Shadows by converting their energy drained victims. In a dungeon they are a threat to adventurers. Outside a dungeon they could theoretically overrun the world if they targeted villages. Shadows can also be summoned by mid-level necromancers in D&D. Scarterran Shadows would had an energy draining attack that inflicts physical attribute damage. I thought about letting top level necromancers in Scarterras D&D10 summon or create Shadows, now I think it’s too unbalanced. Especially that if D&D character existed in Scarterras they would never be able to rise above 9th level characters or 4th, maybe 5th level spells. The craziest magic is off the table.


So the main two incorporeal creatures are going to be ghosts and faceless. I might add a few more incorporeal creatures but they are going to be rare. Rare in this case meaning "practically unique". Most castle owners are far more concerned with Faceless attacking than ghosts, though most anti-Faceless defenses would also counter ghosts.

Faceless

I mentioned Faceless a way back but I’m going to go into detail on these. If a Void Demon kills a mortal by draining their life energy into a husk, there is a good chance (10%-50%, not sure where to draw the line) that the husk will rise as a Faceless. Faceless can also create more Faceless from their victims but not as easily. True Faceless are the direct products of Void Demons killing mortals. A True Faceless that drains a mortal might create a Lesser Faceless. Lesser Faceless are exactly as powerful as True Faceless in all respectgs except their victims don't become Faceless. They just become corpses.

Death Demons can command Faceless directly, at least small groups of them but most demons cannot or will not bother. They just unleash Faceless in the general direction of their enemy like a fire and forget missile and not give them a second though.

Faceless kind of look like ghosts, but they lack any and all distinguishing features. It’s impossible to guess on who a Faceless used to be. Their energy drain attack inflicts attribute damage on a mortal’s social attributes. The Faceless are trying in vain to fill the bottomless hole left by their stolen identity.

During the Second Unmaking when an army of demons killed over 90% of all mortals everywhere, the random hordes of rampaging Faceless inflicted almost as much damage as the organized sorties by the demon armies.

Eventually, the Nine intervened and created vasts forests of Silverwood trees. Silverwood is a nice smelling, durable, rot resistant wood that has silvery bark and the interior wood is shot with silvery veins. Not real silver, you cannot pull metal from the trees, but like the metal silver, Silverwood is blessed by the Nine and harmful to undead and creatures of the Void.

Silverwood is solid to incorporeal creatures. The surviving mortal armies forged clubs and other weapons from the wood. They also lined their walls and fortifications with sheets of Silverwood. Because most Void Demons didn’t pay very close attention to their Faceless auxiliary troops, they didn’t realize the threat that Silverwood presented until the Demon armies were on their last legs. The remaining Demon Lords ordered their minions to chop down and set fire to any Silverwood forest they found, but they still lost the war. They didn’t get all the trees, just most of them.

After the Second Unmaking, Silverwood trees are still highly prized. Even with the Demon Lords dead, it was many centuries until the last surviving pockets of Void Demons and Faceless were rooted out and destroyed. Also, small groups of Demons break into the material plane every year. Beyond the fact that they are useful for fighting incorporeal, Silverwood is considered holy and impressive. A lot of rich people like to make things out of Silverwood to flaunt their wealth. Peasants and merchant class people carry tiny chips of Silverwood as good luck charms. A lot of magical items with wooden components are made from Silverwood.

I’m still working on the economic reality, but as a baseline I figure Silverwood of lumber or weapon quality is worth its weight in gold. Silverwood shavings, wood chips and sawdust (useful to feed fires when cooking potions and other magical concoctions) is worth its weight in silver. I haven’t decided if the leaves or needles are worth anything. Same goes with the seeds, fruits, or cones. I’m not 100% sure whether I want Silverwood to be a deciduous tree or an evergreen. I’m leaning towards evergreen using albino redwoods for inspiration.



Or aspen trees in the winter as inspiration.



Silverwood trees can be planted and cultivated, but they grow very slowly. Pretty much every Silverwood grove near civilization is claimed by a lord, priesthood, or coven. Most Silverwood groves that are far from civilization is claimed by an intelligent monster, barbarian tribe, manifesting spirit, or something similar calling dibs on it.

There might be a few ancient or modern fortifications still lined with Silverwood but most of the ancient fortifications had their Silverwood stripped away by looters. I’m not sure how easy or expensive it is, but without Silverwood, to fortify a dwelling against incorporeal creatures requires a spell that has to be renewed at least once a year. There might be simpler specific wards that only ward off ghosts or only ward of Faceless. Faceless are directly powered by the Void. Ghosts are powered by their passion and generally only have a tiny amount of Void taint. In theory, logical metaphysics would imply that they would repelled by different things, but I figure most people bothering to ward off one would also cover the other. Perhaps by ritually burning a small amount of Silverwood shavings with the right spells.

That could work. I’ve toyed with the economics of magic. I figure the weakest and most common permanent magical items would sell for around 500 gold pieces. That’s roughly as expensive as a healthy trained warhorse with full barding and armor. Expensive, but nobles and other rich people probably have a few magical items. Once a magical item is commissioned, it tends to stay in circulation. If the owner of a magical item dies, either his heirs will seek it out or his enemies will try to steal it. I suppose I could make a lower tier of magic items, but they would basically be conversation pieces (self-tying shoes, and silly things like that), not useful weapons or tools.

My spell list for arcane is pretty small. Obviously, the school of Necromancy should include some spells that affect ghosts in various ways. The school of Abjuration should probably have an anti-ghost spell or two. I already included a Transmutation spell that temporarily makes an incorporeal creature solid (and thus hittable). I might add an Enchantment spell that can let a weapon hit incorporeal creatures. I’m not 100% sure if I want incorporeal creatures to be vulnerable to magical energy attacks from the invocation school and to what extent. Maybe I’ll let invokers blast incorporeal creatures if the caster expends a tiny chip of Silverwood as a material component.

Also, just for balance, I need to work some way for divine magic to contain or restrain ghosts. I can either work into Necromancy, Protection, or Purification. Augmentation and Crafts are pretty vaguely worded. I suppose these powers could let people or objects strike incorporeal creatures temporarily. I may or not require small pieces of Silverwood be involved to adapt these powers to affect incoporeals.

 

Looking good!

The concept of Spirit Loas is intriguing!

 

Well I need to fine tune how Scarterran Loas work. The RPG gaming system I'm stealing the concept from has Loas in a world with tens of millions of ghosts in it. Scarterras has tens of thousands of ghosts. So Scarterran Loas would effectively have to not only open themselves to ghosts, but to call ghosts to them.

Rather than beat the subject like a dead horse, or cover Loas who are metaphorical horses, let's talk about horses that are both alive and literal.



It would be a waste of time to go into deep detail over every animal but horses horses are a major part of the shared myth in nearly every culture on real world Earth. It’s time develop horses in the Scarterran shared myth.

Tales of the Noble Horse

Wild horses existed in the Third Age. The early dragons occasionally ate them. As the dragon population grew, some horses were kept as livestock. Korus and Maylar rarely have a serious disagreement, but horses represent one point of contention. Korus was okay with Maylar styling himself as the god of animal husbandry, but he always had a soft spot for horses and believed they were too noble to be kept as lowly livestock.

When the dragons’ dominance ended and the elves’ dominance, Korus decided that if horses were to be kept animals, they would be valued partners and not merely food. Korus’ followers were instrumental in horses being used as draft animals and transportation for elves around the world.

During the Second Unmaking, many domesticated horses went feral. Most demons only paid minimal effort to animals, so a lot of horses survived to see the dawn of the Third Age. When the Third Age dawned, Korus’ first human priests were quick to lead their kin to gather these up these horses. Horses became even more integral to humans than they were to elves.

Even in the Third Age, dragons still like to eat horses. Not every dragon likes to eat horses but a more dragons like to eat horses than dragons who like to eat people. If a dragon is the sort that likes to extort humanoids, most people find it more tenable to give a tribute of horses to a dragon to eat than to offer up fair maidens to eat. Not every dragon that likes the taste of horseflesh is a thief or a bully. Some dragons buy horses to eat. Others eat the horses of honorably vanquished foes. Dragons are generally not very pious in the Third Age, but dragons still realize that the Nine are bigger and stronger than they are. Modern dragons know that to farm horses to eat is to invite Korus’ hostile attentions.


Pegasi



During the Second Unmaking, the Nine tried their best to save as many mortals as they could. Most of the Nine played favorites with the mortals they saved. Korus was no exception. As the God of Horses, a lot of Korus’ most pious worshippers were equestrians. To aid his followers, Korus gave some of their horses the power of flight.

A lot of heroes during the Second Unmaking rode Pegasi into battle. Korus knew that beating the Demons was a team effort, so he made sure the Pegasi had a friendly disposition to all humanoids not corrupted by the Void, at least until the crisis passed. Pegasi often helped heroes not affiliated directly with Korus. In a lot of cases, Pegasi survived the death of their riders. Some Pegasi carried a great many mortals into battle.

After the Second Unmaking, as a sign of respect to the contributions of the noble Pegasi, Korus’ followers set all the Pegasi free. Most Pegasi are wild in the Third Age. Pegasi have the spirits of horses and will accept humanoid riders, but Pegasi are extremely difficulty to breed in captivity. To win a pegasus mount, a would-be rider must tame a wild pegasus and earn it’s trust. Pegasi are considered holy animals to Korus’ followers and those who abuse Pegasi or treat them like a mere commodity can expect to face the wrath of Korus’ most militant worshippers.

Wild Pegasi are extremely clever animals, but they are not people smart. They are merely clever beasts. They generally live in herds like wild horses do, but they have extremely large ranges with herds regularly flying hundreds of miles a day. They have no qualms about crossing large seas.

Pegasi herds are not a common sight, but they can be seen almost anywhere flying over every continent on Scarterra. Wood elves claim the first Pegasi riders are their direct ancestors. Wood elves generally find an easier time winning the loyalty of Pegasi than humans do. Grey elves and dark elves find taming Pegasi near impossible. Loren is the only nation that can claim to have full squadrons of Pegasi in their army.

Zebras



Zebras are considered a sacred animal of Korus, at least in regions that have zebras. They are venerated by the by the Stewards of the Dominion who value their deceptive strength and inability to be tamed. It is easier believed that zebras are a surviving offshoot of the original wild horses Korus created in the First Age, or if they represent the descendants of some horses that Korus de-domesticated in the Second Age.


Unicorns

Unicorns are spirit servants of Korus. Their primary purpose is to defend pristine areas of natural beauty. Unicorns have been known to defend mortals from time to time, but their priority is nearly always the defense of nature.

Unicorns have human intelligence. Intelligence of unicorns varies a lot, unicorns are as smart as people, but they are not always as smart as smart people. They are not immune to being tricked. A lot of unicorn spirits are exemplars, the reborn souls of faithful followers of Korus.

Unicorns all are divine magic users. All Unicorns have Animal ● (which allows them to talk to any animal and most magical beasts), and a great many unicorns have the more advanced powers of the Animal lore as well. All unicorns have Plant ● (which allows them to magically obscure their hoofprints). It's fairly uncommon for unicorns to have more advanced Plant powers unless they are specialists of some sort.

Unicorns do not have sleeves, but if they did they would wear their hearts on them. A unicorn that has high levels of Healing and Purification magic is probably going to radiate an aura of serenity. It will probably have white fur. A unicorn with high levels of Wrath and Hexing is going to radiate menace and likely have blood red fur. A unicorn with high levels of Weather magic is probably to have literally thunderous hoof falls and rainbow colored hair. A unicorn with high levels of Plant magic is likely to have green fur, a thorn covered horn, and vine like hair in its tail and mane. There are some unicorns that are not very bright, but the unicorns with lots of Divination magic are always very intelligent, their countenance making their wisdom obvious. Unicorns are always beautiful and majestic, even when they are terrifying.

Unicorns can run on the surface of water. Some are said to be able to run up vertical surfaces. Relative to other spirits, unicorns can travel between the mortal plane and Korus’ sky realm quite quickly and easily but they can only enter or exit the material plane from wild areas of natural beauty. Unicorns seem to be able to understand most if not all mortal tongues. A small number of them speak humanoid tongues, but they are usually cryptic and terse. It is unclear whether the rarity of unicorns is talking is because most unicorns can’t talk or because most unicorns won’t talk.

Scarterran Unicorns do not favor virgins over non-virgins and they do not favor girls over boys. When it comes to mortals, they favor Korus worshippers over everyone else but they prefer to avoid people in general. Unicorns are generally proud and haughty. It is rare that they consent to allow humanoids to ride them, even if they are devout Korus worshippers.

If a Korus affiliated divine caster uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will be as a normal horse with an exceptional handsome and lustrous coat and it will sport a very short stubby version of a unicorn horn.


Hippocampi



Korus and Mera usually get along well. It is generally believed that Korus and Mera created hippocampi, together.

There are two types of hippocampi, lesser Hippocampi and greater hippocampi. Lesser Hippocampi, like Pegasi, are animals. Lesser Hippocampi cannot breathe out of water, though they can hold their breath a long time to skim the surface of the sea if they choose. They often breach the water and like to leap into the air for the sheer fun of it. Lesser hippocampi serve merfolk much as horses serve land based humanoids.

Greater Hippocampi, like unicorns, are spirits. They can breathe air or water and thus they are much more commonly seen by land dwellers than lesser hippocampi. Greater Hippocampi are a lot more willing to allow humanoids to ride them as steeds than unicorns are. They can also magically bestow water breathing on land based riders, or air breathing on riders with gills. Korus affiliated Hippocampi have stubby unicorn-like horns, Mera affiliated Hippocampi have heads that look like normal land horses.

Mera affiliated hippocampi are a lot friendlier to humans and humanoids than Korus affiliated Hippocampi, the latter of which are more concerned with the protection of sites of natural wonder than the protection of people. Korus affiliated hippocampi are believed to be rare, but the truth is they just have no reason to let humans see them.

Like unicorns, all greater Hippocampi have Animal ●, but have a wide variety of powers are possible. On average, hippocampi are less powerful and less intelligent than unicorns. Unlike unicorns, you cannot guess what a hippocampus’ aptitudes are by looking at it, but hippocampi who have a lot of mystic power tend to also be bigger and stronger than hippocampi with relatively little mystical power meaning an educated observer can guess a Hippocampus’ general power level by its size.

When Mera affiliated divine casters uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will be a functional land horse but it will have cosmetic features like fins and scales that vaguely resemble a hippocampus.


Nightmares



Nightmares are an old school D&D monster that I adapted to my setting.

Korus was angry at Maylar when the dragons used noble horses as lowly foodstuffs. Initially, Maylar was upset when Korus taught elves to use horses as draft animals or steeds. During the Second Age, Maylar taught his followers that fighting from horseback was the province of cowards and weaklings…initially. Overtime Maylar saw the value of mounted warriors.

There are a few throwback groups of Maylar’s Tester’s that despite equestrians but in the Third Age, Maylar generally has no problems with his warriors fighting from horseback. He even created a special breed of horse spirits to serve him, the Nightmares.

Nightmares are flamed wreathed horses that fly. If a cavalry warrior pleases Maylar with his brutality, tenacity and cunning, he may have the opportunity to tame a Nightmare. If the Nightmare deems the warrior strong enough he has a flying, firewreathed steed for life. Nighmares have literally fiery manes, tails, and hoofs.

Nightmares have human level intelligence. They are usually roughly as intelligent as the warriors who ride them. They can understand mortal tongues, but cannot speak any better than a normal horse

If a Maylar affiliated divine caster uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will not be a Nightmare. Maylar affiliated summoned steeds will vaguely resemble a nightmare with midnight black fur and a reddish orange mane and tail.


Kelpies

Kelpies are a spirit minions of Greymoria. It is unclear if Greymoria created Kelpies with Korus’ blessing or if Greymoria created Kelpies to spite Korus. Like many of Greymoria’s minions, their true purpose is to spite Mera.

Much like the kelpies of Celtic myth, Scarterran Kelpies try to entice humans or humanoids to ride them. Then the Kelpies run at break neck speed for the nearest body and water and take their hapless rider to a watery grave. The Kelpies’ tell-tale sign that they are not regular horses is that they are perpetually wet and smell of the sea.

Kelpies will not drown riders that are fervent worshippers of Greymoria. Some of Greymoria’s priesthoods will even use mounting a kelpie as an intiatiation test. If a Greymoria affiliated divine caster uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will probably be a Kelpie.

Kelpies do not have flashy supernatural abilities like unicorns and nightmares enjoy, but each and every Kelpie is highly intelligent and very cunning. If a Greymoria worshipper wins the loyalty of a Kelpie she hasn’t just gained a loyal steed, but she has gained a canny advisor.


Storm Stallions



Storm Stallions and Breeze Broncos are spirit minions of Nami. Korus and Nami usually get along well and it’s assumed that these horses were created with Korus’ blessing. Perhaps I need to give them a less silly name.

Storm Stallions are violent storms that take the form of horses. They commonly serve as avatars of Nami’s wrath. Nami is generally not known for her wrath but she is not a pacifist. Every once in a while, a goddess just needs to smite something.

Strom Stallions can fly, possess exceptional strength, and can summon lightning to smite their foes. Most Storm Stallions are “wild” but Nami has allowed her most worthy followers to ride them into battle much like Maylar does with Nightmares, though this is fairly rare. While not forbidden to take on a warrior’s mantle, Nami doesn’t encourage her followers to be warriors either.

Breeze Broncos don’t have any exotic powers, but they run like the wind so to speak. They are faster and less apt to tire than normal horses. If a Nami affiliated divine caster uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will probably be a Breeze Bronco.


Solar Mare



Like all the goddesses, Khemra generally gets along well with Korus. Khemra was the last of the goddesses to jump on the horse bandwagon, but many o Khemra’s followers claim she gifted mortals with the first chariots. Like with Nami’s horse servants, I might want to come up with a less silly name for them.

Solar Mares are fairly rare. Some artists picture avatars of Khemra riding a chariot pulled by flaming horses. Solar Mares are the flaming horses. Solar Mares are a weapon of last resort. Khemra sends them to the material plane when her patience is exhausted and it’s time to destroy her enemies with fire. Solar Mare’s never allow mortals to ride them because what mortal could survive riding them? The rare, rare times when Solar Mares fight along Khemra’s favored mortals, they are probably pulling a magical war chariot.

If a Khemra affiliated divine caster uses the lore of Spirit Magic to summon a temporary steed, it will vaguely resemble a Solar Mare with golden fur and an ambient glow.


And the Rest

Zarthus, Hallisan, and Phidas do not enjoy a special relationship with Korus. They do not have a special relationship with animal husbandry like Maylar has. None of these gods command the loyalty of any especially powerful spirits that take the form of horses. They do however recognize that horses are undeniably useful, and they would not wish to deny their followers the ability to use them.

All three of these gods allows their followers with Spirit Magic to summon temporary steeds. Like most such steeds, they are slightly faster and less prone to tiring than most mortal horses. Zarthus steeds tend to be silvery and glow faintly like moonlight. Hallisan’s spirit steeds tend to appear to have earthen or stony skin, though they aren’t any more resilient to damage than any other common spirit horse. Phidas’ steeds look like sickly nags but have the full strength and vitality of any other magically summoned horse.


Griffins



Griffins are not horses but they are integrally tied to the Western mythos of horses.

Griffins are predators with animal intelligence, but by animal standards are highly intelligent. They are opportunistic predators, but they really like horseflesh and will take greater risks to prey on horses or horse-like creatures than other targets. Most storytellers assume that griffins are a creation of Maylar, a relic from Maylar and Korus’ horse based cold war. A few speculate that Korus was having an off-day and someone accidentally (or perhaps deliberately) created a predator that favors horseflesh.

Griffins rarely go after horse-like creatures that are spirits such as unicorns, unless said horse spirits are wounded or otherwise especially vulnerable.


More special horses?

Spirits that take humanoid force can sire or bear half-spirit children if they fall in love with mortals. I have yet to decide if horse spirits like unicorns can cross breed with ordinary horses and create half-spirit steed. Regardless of whether or not the practice is real, Scarterrans are superstitious. If a horse is especially healthy and strong, some people are going to guess that the horse is descended from a horse-spirit coupling. More than a few smarmy horse salesmen or proud horse breeders claim their stock has otherworldly parentage.

In most cases, a hypothetical half-mortal/half-spirit horse would not have any exotic powers. They would just be a bit stronger, faster, smarter, or hardier than the average horse unless the half-spirit horse offspring bred with spirits again. Some storytellers claim that the first zebras, Pegasi, and lesser hippocampi are the result of Korus ordering his horsey spirit minions to breed with ordinary horses en masse to create new species.

That’s actually an item of theological debate. Does Korus create new animal species by sculpting them like a potter sculpts clay, do the new creatures emerge from Korus’ mind during lucid dreams, or does Korus create new species by directing animals to undergo unconventionallove?

Don’t be a prude. Life is gross. That said I won’t entertain those notions for the creation of the first centaurs.

Centaurs



I am on the fence whether centaurs should be a spirit type or a mortal race. The core concept of centaurs from real world mythology is the juxtaposition of wild and civilized wisdom and the juxtaposition of wild and civilized flaws. I especially like the legend of Chiron who taught many Greek heroes. Whether centaurs are spirits or an uncommon mortal race, the primary intent of Korus in the creation of centaurs was primarily to spread wisdom of the wilderness to the various mortal races. Centaurs are also bad ass fighters.

I think I’d slightly prefer centaurs be a race of mortals rather than a race of spirits because developing them as mortals allows for interesting development of their family/herd dynamics. On the other hand, centaurs are wildly impractical and would nothing remotely like them would ever exist without magic. That sort of implies that they should be spirits and not mortals. I thought about making centaurs a subspecies of Fae but since I am decoupling Scaterran Fae from nature, that's not a very good idea.

Whether mortals or spirits, centaurs are not a super successful product launch for Korus. Wood elves take the advice of centaurs very seriously but very few other people do. They are not a failure (like so many of Greymoria’s creations) but centaurs were and are not as effective as their creator wished.



If anyone has any horse based suggestions for my lore, I won't say neigh to new ideas.

 

Attonement complete, but if anyone says I need to cut down a tree with herring I'm using my moderator powers on them.

EDIT: But you don't have a problem with Storm Stallions, Breeze Broncos, or Solar Mares?

 

I think you might have overdone the details with all the horses, but I don't spot anything I don't like.

As for the centaurs: I think they were created by some good who just liked the looks of horses and men and combined them. IMO they are just too absurd to be the result of anything natural.

 

For a pre-automobile society, horses were more important culturally than dogs and cats combined.

If a gnome or small humanoid summons a magical steed, they will summon an appropriately sized pony version of the horse they would get.

Maybe I will have to revisit whether I want to have centaurs in my world or not.

Okay, let me cover something that I haven't nailed much down more. Ogre sized monsters. Trolls, tiger men, minotaurs, various snake men, kroxigor, and variations of ogres. So basically I'm talking creatures that are considerably larger than humans and considerably smaller than giants. For the rest of this post, when I write "ogre" I mean any large sized humanoid.

Maybe double to triple the weight of an average human, one to three feet taller. As a baseline, an ogre is humanoid creature that is roughly as strong as a gorilla and smart as a human.

I did recently give dragons a trim. I made all dragons from babies to old age a little bit smaller. I also docked every dragon a dot of Strength and Stamina. I want them to be powerful but I don't want them to be living gods. In terms of mass, the largest dragons are actually smaller than the largest elephants. The largest dragons weigh as much as adult female elephants. Of course, an elephant is so match for a dragon but that's neither here nor there. I might make dragons smaller again. I still haven't figured out how powerful their breath weapon should be and more importantly, how easy it is use. I might require them to expend temporary Willpower to breathe fire. That way they cannot constantly burn all their foes without taking a long rest between burniations.

That's an important aside because it covers scale.

Ogres, are potentially very powerful. If D&D did not have level based advancement for some humans, Rakasha, giant tiger ogres who are strong, smart, and magically adept would be ruling the world. D&D tends to make large monsters of this size either quite dim and barely sapient or considerably smarter than the average human. It's fairly uncommon to find large humanoids on the same intellectual level as humans.

I haven't created many monsters with above-human intelligence yet. Dragons maybe, but a dragon's intellect is mostly from the slow and steady approach. They are smart because they have long life spans. Beholders and Alboleths also are supernaturally smart but they also have long life spans.

Whether I make ogres dim witted, average, or brilliant, I believe in a somewhat realistic fantasy setting I need to come up with a good reason why the ogres are not utterly dominating the humans around them. Even a dim ogre wearing primitive hide armor and wielding a spiked club should be able to take on ten men with a better than even chance of winning. Ogres with medieval level metal armor and weapons should be able to take on twenty-to-one odds. Add in the options of magic and they should be running the planet, assuming they pick their battles and engagements intelligently.

But there are two major limiting factors. Usually in fantasy, creatures of ogre size take longer to mature meaning they cannot recover from losses easily but this can be a backhanded advantage if they have long lifespans and the capacity to keep learning.

The biggest limiting factor is without some magical ability to draw additional sustenance, ogres would require a lot of food to survive. Whether they hunt or farm, whether they get their own food or make slaves get it for them, that takes a lot of land. Humans also like land. If I establish that my my ogre race(s) is/are not powerful enough to subjugate humanity I need to also figure why the ogres haven't been wiped out by humans just to take their lands.

So I'm thinking most mortal ogre races are going to operate solo or in small bands. Most ogre races are going to live in wild untamed areas that humans are unwilling or unable to live in.

Already established that the arctic region of eastern Colassia has Yeti. The Yeti are probably going to be the closest thing I have to a civilized races of ogres. Yeti usually live, hunt and forage in single family units, but they have a shared religion, a shared culture, formal courtship and family ties, and a single chieftain. I might put Yeti in West Colassia's north two or the antartic regions of the southern continents, haven't decided yet.

The mountains of West Colassia have giants. That makes it hard for ogre races to thrive there. The great desert of East Colassia is infested with gnolls. Again, that would make it hard for ogre races to thrive there. That's leaves forest and swamps.

D&D trolls would be pretty easy to include in any fantasy setting. They are loners, they can eat almost any organic matter, and they can survive without shelter. They are barely smarter than animals. They are a perfect simple but challenging random encounter monster. I kind of find them boring because they don't serve a greater story purpose than a bug hunt but they don't really harm stories being around.

The original Greek myth of the Minotaur is pretty disturbing. It just so happens that my ideas for Scarterran Minotaurs are equally disturbing. I'm going to want to come up with something more PG.

I don't have an elaborate origin story but I think it would be cool to have a Kroixgor like monster. Imagine if a kroxigor was actually really smart and really viscous. I can imagine a cunning swamp monster pulling an adventuring party to a watery grave one-by-one.

This leads me to think about lumping kroxigor and mintotaurs together. Perhaps with lion ogres and bear ogres and shark ogres. Maybe they are all actually one species with several progressions. I need to figure out some way they reproduce without this trope or bestiality which was the Ancient Greek mythology.

I can use Athasian animal headed giants as a baseline. So assuming I find a non-squick way for Animal Ogres to reproduce, their kids would not look like animals, but ugly humans. When a young ogre is beginning adolescence it's time to go on a vision quest and find their spirit animal. They go off into the wilderness alone and bind their soul to a tiger, or a crocodile, or a bear or something.


That covers my general thoughts on ogres in the mortal plane. Ogres that are spirits or Fair Folk bypass the space issues of mortal ogres. Spirits and Fair Folk don't need land to draw sustenace from. In most cases, spirits' forms are shaped by the Nine to interact with humanoid races. In most cases the Nine would prefer human-sized spirits to better relate to most mortals but larger humanoid spirits are good for being strong and scary.

My list of statted out spirits is pretty sparse right now. Right now, I only have one ogre-like spirit, the Maskless. Phidas is known as the masked god, most of his spirit minions wear masks. Maskless do not have masks. I like literal names. The Maskless show off their ugly faces because they relish in being terrifying. They are seven foot tall lithe bounty hunters relentlessly pursuing those who broke magically enforced contracts.

I have developed my Fair Folk even less, but I do like the idea of the various Courts or factions each having a small number of some kind of ogre to serve as guards and enforcers.

 

Man, that's grim. I kinda like it though.
It would make them pretty much longer types though, no such thing as an Ogre camp (unless that kind of gigantism actually happens often enough for them to build groups).

 

I like the concept. For hominids I like the idea that they would be kept as an resource, treated badly, but too valuable to throw away entirely. I imagine they are kept in figurative or literal chains until needed.

I don't have Lizardfolk yet, but the concept fits for almost every humanoid I have. I just need to figure out why some people are born ogreized. Once I figure out why I can figure out who is ogreized. Then I can figure out why Scarterrans believe that some people are born as ogres.

Options for why incude some kind of Void taint, latent dragon blood (or some other monstrous blood) manifesting oddly, Maylar or some other deity manipulating things, elemental magic convergence, or something else entirely.

 

No lengthy sprawling wall of text today. I did do some research on pre-Shrek ogre stories. There is one universality with ogre stories. Ogres and ogresses eat people, especially children. The witch in "Hansel and Gretel" was an ogress even though she wasn't especially large. Some scholars speculate that medieval ogre stories are a derivative of the cyclops stories of ancient Greece.

I guess that explains GW Ogres. Their love of eating people was practically their only character trait.

I'm not going to base the concept of Scarterran ogres off of eating people.

That's not to say I'm opposed to having monsters eat people. Any animal intelligent monster will treat people like any other source of meat.

-Gnolls have a cruel streak. They prefer to eat people over other things out of a sense of pragmatism.
-Goblins will eat anything including people, but they prefer to dominate other races rather than kill and eat them (though they will eat them when they are done).
-I haven't developed orcs much. I think I'm going to limit their eating of people to symbolic acts like eating the hearts of worthy foes.
-Brute giants respect other sapient creatures enough that they won't eat them barring situations of true desperation.
-Scale giants don't have a problem eating sapient creatures but that's not their preference. They mostly want to steal their stuff.
-Dragons are individualistic. Some go out of their way to eat people. Others view eating sapient prey as an extreme taboo.
-Chimera don't have a moral problem eating people, but they do recognize that humanoids typically fight back harder than most animals. They do defend their territory from all intruders. If they are driving humans or orcs from their hunting grounds, they might as well eat any humanoid they kill while they are about it.
-Aboleths have no moral compunction about eating people, but they have little problem finding food. If they eat a humanoid it is probably as much to hide the body as any other motivation.
-Behir are kind of like weaker pseudodragons. I guess they would have varied opinions much like dragons. I haven't developed them in great detail.
-Aranea don't have a problem drinking blood from sapient prey but they are pragmatic enough to realize that their enemies will retaliate far more harshly against monsters who eat them as opposed to monsters who merely kill them.
-Most undead sort of have to feed on people in some fashion (their blood, their souls, their sanity, their vitality, their flesh) unless they are mindless drones directed by a necromancer.
-Beholders are motivated primarily by their paranoia. If they end up incidentally killing a humanoid that is plotting against them, they might as well eat the corpse...unless the humanoids deliberately sent the beholder a Typhoid Mary hoping the Beholder would eat it and infect itself.
-Destrachauns are basically one-dimensional cruel monsters. They probably enjoy eating sapient prey, after they play with their food of course.
-Spirits don't really have to eat. They are sustained by the gods directly. If a spirit eats a mortal, the spirit (probably a Maylar of Greymoria spirit) is deliberately trying to terrify other mortals.


I'm not sure if kobolds should eat people or not. It might vary by clan or tribe. Gilgren kobolds are most sociopathic so they probably don't mind the practice. Tiamalan kobolds usually try to seek friendly relations with other humanoids and Laershin kobolds want to be left alone, so they probably avoid eating manflesh. Kobolds do have amazing digestive systems and can eat almost anything. That doesn't mean they don't do eat almost anything.

I did look up D&D Raksashas. The tiger ogres are kind of written with a lot of contradictions. They are devils that go through a ritual to manifest in the material plane as a Rakasha, but they also breed through sexual reproduction. In fact, female Rakasha are basically brood mares and little else. In my opinion devils shouldn't be able to replenish their numbers through sexual reproduction if they also are transformed souls.

Rakashas do like to eat people...a lot.