My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Worse. I imagine Scarterra nations and cultures don't use a uniform series of measurements. But when I describe things or narrate things a Game Master, I will use modern measurements my audience will understand.

After much work, the Masks of Phidas created a universal monetary standard on Scarterra. 100 copper pieces = 10 silver pieces = 1 gold piece. That wsn't particularly difficult because most nations have the same relative scarcity of precious metals.

I haven't figure out how Scaraqua's economy is going to work. Are they even going to have a currency? If so, what do they use? The standard answer is "Ummm...shells?" but you have to figure out which shells are prescribed value and why.

 

I'm going to keep the name Karakhai until and unless I decide to monetize my fantasy setting. Even then I'm not sure this would violate a trademark since Karakerion is practically the same as the Greek word for shark. Can you trademarks "shark"?

I'm not closing off further discussion on Karakhai or any other previous post, but I feel like moving on.


Aquatic Undead

First off, Scarterran/Scaraquan Undead pop up for one of several reasons.

1) A mortal necromancer created them
2) Greymoria (or some other deity) created them
3) A Void demon created them
4) An uncommon and unlucky set of circumstances accidentally creates undead.

The line between these categories are blurred. Void Demons, mortal necromancers, and Greymoria all will try to nudge events to trigger #4. A lot of mortal necromancers use method #1 in Greymoria’s name or with the aid of Greymoria spirits.


The First Dead (#2)
On land or sea, Greymoria is the Mother of Necromancy. In Scaraqua, I mentioned the First Dead in passing in my little fluff story. The First Dead are the result when Greymoria and her sisters tried to create life before the sun was a thing. All these experimental life forms died, and Greymoria gathered up the corpses. I have no idea what the first life forms looked like but these creatures are so long dead that their undead remnants would not necessarily resemble their living forms.

An incorporeal version of the First Dead would probably be like an amoeba made of shadow that swims around and latches on to life forms to suck their energy. That’s scary but it’s not very clever, and I kind of want to avoid having too many incorporeal monsters.

I’m thinking the First Dead would be like a mass of writhing undead flesh that feeds on the living. I’m not sure whether to give the First Dead an energy draining attack or just have them literally eat their prey. Either way their writhing mass of flesh would take on physical characteristics of the living creatures they kill. A gross combination of Cronenberg and Frankenstein monsters. After millennia of feeding indiscriminately on anything they can catch, the First Dead no longer resemble whatever they looked like when back when they were the First Life. I guess the First Dead are similar in concept to D&D’s Vasuthant though my undead have a better backstory and they involve more have more unspeakably awful body horror involved. Maybe I can/should make the process for the First Dead absorbing a victim slow enough that a party of heroes could theoretically save their friend if they cut apart the First Dead fast enough.

Land Greymoria’s early experiments of undead creatures slipped the leash and became random destroyers rather than obedient servants. I figure that can hold Sea Greymoria too. The First Dead don’t answer to Greymoria and they are very resistant to mortal necromancers attempt to control them. The closest thing you can do to necromancer is to do the equivalent of wave a metaphorical carrot in front its nose and try to get the First Dead to swim in the general direction of the necromancer’s enemies.

I’m not sure what the small and large ends of the spectrum would look like but the First Dead will scale in power, so a big blob of flesh is going to be much more deadly than a small one. They can reproduce by budding. I’m not sure what the maximum size of a First Dead blob is going to be. In theory they could grow to unlimited size, but at a certain point a First Dead blob would grow so large that it could not exist in secrecy and a bunch of heroes and theurgists are dispatched to destroy it since no one wants a powerful First Dead near their home territory.


Grunt Level Undead (#1)
I didn’t change much for how D&D handles zombie and undead. Divine casters can summon undead at ●●, ●●●● and ●●●●●. Arcane casters can create zombies and skeletons at ●●, ●●● and ●●●●●. I may change things to make them match but that’s how the spell list fell out. Anyway. First tier skeletons and zombies are not that scary. Second tier, you get to pick two out of the three: smarter, faster, stronger. Third tier skeletons and zombies are smarter, faster, stronger and tougher.

At the third tier, instead of creating extremely powerful zombies and skeletons, wights and ghouls can be created. The latter of which have special abilities. Wights have an energy drain attack and ghouls have a paralyzing poison. Wights and ghouls will try to resist a necromancer’s control. They are not great at resisting, but a lot of necromancers do not accept a 1% chance of their minions slipping the leash. Wights and ghouls also transform can transform their victims into wights and ghouls. Because of this, only a small portion of wights and ghouls are under the command of a necromancer.

Couple other details. Most spells take one round (five seconds) to cast. Undead creation spells take between ten minutes and two hours depending on how big the corpse is. Tier one undead cost 5-50 gold worth of regents per spell, depending on how big the corpse is. Tier two undead about 15-150 regents. Tier three Undead cost 30-300 gold worth of regents. This is a one-time expense but wights and ghouls need to be fed periodically.

Almost any corpse can become a zombie or zombie variant. This includes animals, people, and monsters. Skeletons are more finicky. If there are too many bones broken or missing, they cannot be raised skeletons. With how many scavengers there are under the sea, this is a severely limiting requirement. Also, skeletons require the corpse to have had some combat training in life, or be a predatory animal.

I see no reason why Scaraqua could not have all of these rules with no modification. Zombies and skeletons are basic undead soldiers land necromancers animate to serve as grunt troops. Mohrgs and Bone Claws are souped up versions of zombies and skeletons respectively. I see little reason to change them for Scaraquan. Physics issues of corpses or skeletons under the sea notwithstanding the whole concept of a skeleton staying together without ligaments is so ridiculous it’s not that much of a handwave to say that skeletons animated from dead sea creatures can swim even if physics says they should not to. However, a creature without bones cannot be made into a zombie. So cephlapods are zombie only. A crustacean has an exoskeleton. There is really no difference between a crustacean zombie and a crustacean skeleton. The exoskeleton does the fighting either way.


Ghosts (#4)
I cover ghosts extensively on page 18 of this thread.

I don’t see why these mechanics and rules would not work perfectly fine in Scaraqua. Mobility is less valuable because everyone moves in three dimensions but none of the other powers are broken to be especially weak or overpowered as far as I can see. Though a Scaraquan ghost with Mobility can have fun haunting passing by ships or exploring the land.

Allips (#4)
Allips are basically a rare subspecies of ghost. Allips sometimes occur when a creature dies due to a madness based suicide. Some deranged Scarterran necromancers have tried torturing people to death to create new allips, but deliberately created Allips. No Scarterran necromancer has unlocked a method to reliably create allips. Scaraquan necromancers on the other hand…

Karakhai will sicken and die in about a week if imprisoned. Hypothetically, if a sadistic jailer used magical healing on a Karakhai to drag his period out longer, the Karakhai will fall into madness pretty quick. If they are given the opportunity to beat themselves to death against the walls of their jail, they have a pretty good chance of rising as an allip. Allips are usually indiscriminate killers, but Karakhai allips have an uncanny ability to find the people responsible for their condition, so this is a very risk strategy to employ.

Ephemeral Swarm (#4)
Another rare subspecies of ghost. If a large number of identical animals dies suddenly in great pain, they might leave behind an angry swarm of incorporeal animals. On Scarterra, ephemeral rats are the most common variant of this. I suppose a school of ephemeral fish would work just fine.


Vampires (option #1 via the most powerful necromancer the world has ever seen)
I have extensive lore for Scarterran vampires. Based on my lore, it would be unlikely that either Malthius, the original creator of vampires or any of the Vampire Lords that succeeded him would bother to create aquatic vampire. Though in theory, I suppose a Merfolk could be turned into a vampire. They probably wouldn’t last very long. It’d be hard for a Merfolk vampire to feed in secret and Scaraqua has fewer sapient creatures with drinkable blood than Scarterra and Scaraqua has a proportionally higher number of spell-casters and hero-class warriors.

I like the idea of blood sucking aquatic monsters based on lampreys or cookie cutter sharks, but I think they would work better as living monsters, not undead monsters.


Liches (option #1)
Scarterran liches do not differ significantly from D&D liches. They are basically free willed zombies or skeletons with the full intellect and spell-casting powers of a mage or theurgist. Scarterran liches do not have phylacteries though and their creation process is different.

So waaaay back during the divine Rebellion the Nine hatched a plan to poison Turoch by feeding him poisonous souls. Greymoria manufacturing these poisonous souls by torturing several souls. A lot of these poisoned souls were not eaten. These fractured primordial souls flutter around the Void incapable of doing anything unless a lich magically lassos one of these broken primordial souls and merges it with his or own soul.

If a Scaraquan spellcaster learns the proper ritual he or she can become a very soggy lich through the exact same basic method. The only difference is a Scaraquan probably doesn’t believe he is capturing a soul used to poison Turoch because most Scaraquans don’t acknowledge Turoch. A Scaraquan lich probably believes he is harnessing the soul of one of the First Dead.

I might want to create an aquatic equivalent to vampires either based on lampreys or cookie cutter sharks though I suppose I could have Greymoria create a non-undead parasitic monster just as easily.

Drowned (#2)
D&D 3.5 has an undead monster called the Drowned. I haven’t stated them out yet for D&D10 but I am planning to include them. The Drowned are basically feral zombies of drowned humanoids that out of spite want to drown every living person they encounters. That works, but drowned are going to lurk near the surface of the water and try to find Scarterrans to pull under and drown them. They would probably most ignore Scaraquans, but maybe if the Drowned are versatile enough they could try to drag Scaraquans above the surface of the water and asphyxiate them.

They are mostly a creation of Land Greymoria. Land Greymoria loves to drown her enemies or people who might become enemies at some future point. Drowned would largely ignore Scaraquans and Scaraquans would probably largely ignore Drowned, unless they are very altruistically minded towards helping Scarterran sailors.

I suppose a Scaraquan necromancer that really hated Scarterran sailors could manufacture Drowned. They would be a tier three undead as they are essentially super zombies with a very specialized niche.


Dark Kraken (#2 and/or #4)
As I alluded too before, I wouldn’t mind having an undead remnant of the original Great Kraken swimming around somewhere but I’m not sure what powers and methods to give them to make them interesting and scary. A giant squid zombie is pretty unoriginal and boring. A giant incorporeal zombie is almost impossible to fight.

I’ll probably stick with Kraken as being a living menace, but I’m open to suggestions.


Witherlings (#2)
It’s unclear whether Greymoria intended this as a gift or a curse to the gnoll people since no gnoll wants to be a witherling but most gnolls will pragmatically weaponized their tribe’s dead when the situation calls for it.

A witherling that is buried intact rather than eaten, burned, or ripped apart will rise a witherling, which creates a flesh hungry undead creature like a ghoul.

I could easily use this same basic principle to make any Scaraquan come back as a witherling under the proper burial conditions. If I choose to do this, it should probably be a fairly uncommon species that leaves behind witherlings.


Void Spawned Undead

Faceless (#3)
The most common Void spawned undead is the Faceless. A Faceless is an incorporeal life draining humanoid soul that drains the social attributes of sapient prey. They are relatively weak but if a person has zero means of striking incorporeal undead a Faceless cannot be defeated, only fled from.

Faceless are spawned when a Void Demon drains a mortal into a lifeless husk. There is a 50%ish chance of creating a Faceless. Faceless can create new Faceless but only about 10% of their victims rise as Faceless. During the Second Unmaking Faceless probably killed more people than the Void Demons themselves.

Void Demons still come to Scarterra (and Scaraqua) in small numbers, so new Faceless are still spawned. Faceless are extremely resistant to being controlled by mortal necromancers so pretty much everyone destroys Faceless when they can.

On Scarterra, the Nine created Silverwood trees to help mortals fight Faceless. I may have to give Scaraquans a Silverwood equivalent. Scaraquans can flee from Faceless noticeably easier than Scarterrans because Scaraquans can swim in three dimensions.


Bodak (#3)

Bodaks were in the 3.5 D&D Monstrous Manual. I might just toss them out and replace them with a creature of my own design. If a Void Demon drains a person’s life force and eats their soul and that person was an extremely potent badass with Willpower 10, they don’t create a lowly Faceless. They create a Bodak. One of the most powerful minions of the Void Demons known. I don’t see why Bodaks couldn’t swim.


Death Shrieker (#4)
Death Shriekers spawn on the sites of battlefields and massacres on sites that happen to be repositories of Void energy. Deathshriekers were never deliberately created but the numerous large battles of the Second Unmaking created a lot of these. Some of these battles were underwater.

These undead are very powerful but very few new Deathshriekers have been spawned since the Second Unmaking so most of these ancient evils have been put down. Deathshriekers are nomadic and Scaraqua has more open space. There are probably considerably more surviving Deathshriekers in Scaraqua than Scarterra. Given that Deathshriekers are not required to feed on the living, a lot of them haunt very remote frigid waters or super deep waters which are sparsely populated.


Laboratory Undead (#3)
The Demon Lord known as the successor employed the Void Demon equivalent of mad scientists to create new warrior breeds of undead. A lot of extinct races were raised again as unique undead monsters.

I’m going to use the Bone Drinkers or a variant of them. Bone Drinkers in D&D 3.5 are hobgoblin zombies that literally liquefy their victims’ bones and then slurp them up.

Most Void Laboratory undead are very rare, especially a thousand years after the Second Unmaking. Most Laboratory undead are so rare you can count all the members of each species on one hand. Many are literally unique. What they lack in numbers, they make up for novelty. All other undead are known quantities. If you search through enough libraries or question enough magical academics, someone should be able to tell you the strengths and weaknesses of a vampire, deathshrieker, bodak, allip, etc

The only way to take down an unknown undead monster is trial and error. Some of these abominations can swim.

EDIT: I forgot Salt Mummies (#4).

Salt Mummies occur when a corpse is mummified by salt in an area with lots of latent Void energy. If a corpse is mummified by salt without Void injury, you just get a gross mummified corpse, but it's not going to rise as a zombie and try to kill you, you get a salt mummy with no capital letters.

Since Void Demons turn into salt when they die, it's was not uncommon for large scale battles between Void Demons and mortals to create salt mummies. No salt mummies were seen during the Second Unmaking. The Void demons were probably not aware of Salt Mummies. Salt mummies are completely dormant until some unlucky ignorant salt miners digs them up. While Salt Mummies were created in ancient times, their appearance in the world is a modern phenomenon.

Lots of undead drain the vitality of living creatures in some way. Wights drain physical attributes, Allips drain mental attributes, and Faceless drain social attributes. Vampires literally drink blood. Salt Mummies kill the living by dehydrating them.

As far as I know, corpses cannot be physically mummified by sea water. Since Salt Mummies draw moisture from everything around them it stands to reason that if a Salt Mummy ever entered the sea the Salt Mummy would either explode or it would grow in power to a godlike degree. I'm leaning towards explode.

The odds of a Salt Mummy entering Scaraqua is pretty low, because they are very much a desert monster.

Undead Elementals

Along a similar vein, I'm not sure how Inverse or Twisted Elementals would work. Twisted Elementals are also called Undead Elementals though they aren't technically undead because they were not technically "alive" to begin. They are the result of a normal elmental being mutated by Void energy into a parody of their former self. Twisted elementals are quite rare though during the Second Unmaking the Void Demon armies had mystics that could create them, but none of these demons have been seen in modern times. Thus most/all "new" twisted elementals seem to be accidental creations that no one planned.

Salt elementals draw in moisture and dehydrate living creatures around them.
Vaccuum elementals draw in air and asphinxiate living creatures around them.
Ash elementals draw in heat and freeze living creatures around them.

Dust elementals are the redheaded step children of the Twisted Elemental family. They just like to break stuff and find all buildings and manufactured items offensive. They are indifferent to living creatures and will not normally attack them, unless they try to protect their homes and possessions.

They work great as Scarterran monsters, but I have no idea how any of these would logically work in Scaraqua.



Anyway, I’m open to any and all suggestions on crafting interesting aquatic undead variants.

 

I suppose I can make bartering the norm. That works fine for fiction (in fact it might even work better than currency because a writer doesn't have to be consistent with value), but it can make RPGs a headache.

The thing that makes gold, silver, and copper such great currency in that they retain their value, they are divisible divisible (cut an ounce of silver in half you have two half ounces) and it's fungible. Fungible is a fancy of way of saying interchangeable. If you deposit ten pounds of gold in a bank and withdraw ten pounds of gold a year later, you are probably not going to withdraw the same ten pounds of gold you put in and that's fine. Pearls retain their value, but they are not fungible and they can be cut in half without ruining their value.

I guess since Phidas is the God of Commerce on Scarterra and Phidas' aquatic alter ego has much less influence in the Sea, currency never really caught on among Scaraquans. At least not universally.

One think I did think of that works for Scaraquan currency is the magical green stuff being traded in disks, aka cermanic pieces. A greenstuff smith could converted into things with a minimum just like copper coins can be melted down to make copper goods. So a ceramic piece would have roughly the buying power of a copper piece on land.

Pearls are nice, but you cannot use a superbly valuable pearl to buy two fish for dinner. You can do that with a ceramic piece.

So I guess people would buy everyday items with ceramic pieces but anything big, a fine crafted sword, a suit of armor, the contract work of a master builder would require barter and some of that barter would be with Surface Dwellers. I haven't hashed out the specifics, but Merfolk are going to have an easier time than most of the others at interacting with land creatures than most of the other Scaraquans.

I was planning to follow up the Karkhai post with a similar thread about Merfolk but I'm stuck on aesthetics.

Should they look like this:



Or this:



Or both, which is what Aquaman comics do. I would say almost half of their underwater stories involve racial tensions between the Atlanteans that look human and the Atlanteans that don't.

I guess I am comitted that Merfolk will be beautiful, just not neccesarily human-compatible-sexy beautiful.

 

Builder People

Most fantasy settings have a subgroup that is good at building stuff. Frequently this is dwarves. I’ve been seesawing between Crustacean people and Aquatic Cyclopes (Seaclopes). Then I thought? Why not both?

So Merfolk can and do make their own stuff. Karakhai can make their own stuff, not particularly well but they aren’t helpless when using stuff they crafted themselves. It’s not especially difficult for a Scaraquan to obtain goods manufactured by Surface Dwellers. On average a Scaraquan goods roughly as easily as a Scarterran can buy imported goods from another land nation a hundreds of miles away. It’s not cheap, but it’s not especially unusual.

When it comes to trading with land people, merfolk have the edge because they can survive on land easier than most. When it comes to forging metal in pockets of air, Cephlapod people have the edge because they have proportionally more magic users.

I am going to make Cylcopes immune to fire and extreme heat, so they are going to edge that they can work around an underground volcano without being boiled alive. I already covered Cyclopes in detail on page 18. Of all the pages on this thread, I may like page 18 the most...

One thing is the different Cyclopes groups don’t agree on where they came from and the other Scarterrans know even less. I like the idea of Cyclopes being born in the sea initially before a faction took to dwelling on land then forgot about it. Merfolk believe that humans, gnomes, elves, and dwarves are all the descendants of Merfolk who changed themselves to live on land. It would really stick in the craw(fish) for Merfolk to learn that this is not true, but it is true for Cyclopes.

Since I already developed Cyclopes in detail, I don’t need go deep into developing Seaclopes. I figure they would be one of the less numerous groups in Scaraqua. They probably stake their territories in areas near undersea volcanos and other magical things that cause the water to be too hot for other Scaraquans to live there. They cannot live exclusively there because they would need to farm or hunt/fish, but they can do that in the surrounding areas where the warmth is mild enough to be a boon to life. Seaclopes are going to be very mercenary in outlook. They will craft anything for anybody and the only question they ask is “What are you paying me?”

So I kind of want to make Scuttlers crab people and I kind of want to make them lobster people, but there is mild problem in that I watch a lot of cartoons. If I hear or say “crab people” I cannot help thinking about South Park. If I hear or say “lobster people,” I think of Futurama. Or I can you know, grow up and get over it....

Nah.

If I leave it vague, I can avoid that. Effectively they are Crustacean People. They have hands. Lobsters and crabs don’t have hands.

We’ll give them two sets of arms, one with crustacean-like claws, one with human like hands. Beyond this they would be pretty straightforward to figure out. They would be considerably stronger and tougher than other Scaraquans, but they would also be slower. I don’t want to make them completely unable to do anything but scuttle on the sea floor, but I do like the idea that they would be slower and clumsier swimmers compared to the other Scaraquans.

The Crustacean people are going to be more populous and a lot more diplomatic than Seaclopes. They will typically parley their building skills to other Scaraquan people in exchange for long term alliances rather than one-off trades like the Seaclopes prefer. But first, they need a name.


English: Crab/Lobster

Greek: Kávouras/astakós
Latin: cancer/locustam marinam
German: Krabbe/Hummer
French: Crabe/ Homard
Welsh: Cranc/ cimwch (A beautiful culture but they need more vowels)
Japanese: Kani/Robusutā
Mandarin: Pángxiè/ Lóngxiā
Arabic: salataeun/surtan albahr
Spanish: cangrejo/langosta
Portugese: caranguejo/ lagosta
Vietnamese: cua/tôm

I am beginning to doubt whether any culture on Earth has a cool sounding name for crab or lobster. So I’m going to refer to these guys by the unflattering nickname the other races give them: Scuttlers. Perhaps their self-referential name is really hard for everyone else to pronounce. Something with a lot of percussive clicking in it. Or I might go with the Japanese Robustallians. I'm not 100% in love with that name, but I think it has the most promise of the names above, but for now, they are Scuttlers.

The Crustacean People are Now Called Scuttlers!

I like the idea that they are builders first and crafters second. Cyclopes might be better at metalwork and equally good at shaping hard ceramic tools, but the best builders and architects will be Scuttlers. So Scuttlers could magically guide coral to grow in controlled ways. They can cut stone and lay them as bricks. They could use greenstuff ceramics to forge bricks. Scuttlers are so much better at building structures, no one under the sea even tries to compete with them anymore.

Since they are going to be associated with Hallisan and/or Phidas they will probably be builders or crafters. Either working metal in pockets of air, sculpting magical green stuff, or growing things out of coral. That means their claws would probably not be very analogous to real crustaceans but more akin to human hands or they could have two sets of arms, hands for tool use and claws for bashing. But if they are builders by nature, at least some of them are going to be weapon smiths. If they have access to the best weapons that makes claws less necessary.

I usually use variations of a “wizard did it” to explain how creatures gain features more than I use “natural selection did it” but I like the idea of their claws being a somewhat vestigial organ. Each generation tends to have just barely smaller claws than the last. Their claws would be far more effective weapons than a punch from a merman’s fist or a slap from a Squidman’s tentacle.

I am intrigued by the idea of them putting extensions or covers on their claws to make them stronger, sort of like a human putting on brass knuckles. Since both crabs and lobsters use their claws defensively as well as offensively I imagine they would be pretty hard to hit if they strapped a giant shield on to one of their claws. They wouldn’t need much training because that fighting style is largely instinctual. They could strap a shield on both claws they wield a polearm with their human hands. Not something I want to fight.

With their extra arms, thick shells and knack for crafting fine weapons, it would be very difficult for even the strongest Karakhai Warrior to defeat a Scuttler in a head on-assault. The Scuttler’s Achilles’ Heel is their poor underwater mobility, so the best, if not only reliable way to beat Scuttlers is to outflank them. This also feeds into the Scuttler’s penchant for being skilled builders. If they can lure enemies into a place with closed quarters, the Scuttlers cannot be outflanked.


Scuttler Religion and Philosophy

Scuttlers view Hallisan and Phidas as the creators of their race, and most Scuttlers worship these two deities primarily. They will pay cursory worship to the other deities. If a Scuttler is profusely worshipping a deity who isn’t Hallisan or Phidas, he or she is probably putting on a show for an outside observer. Scuttlers tend to be private bunch and commonly view their relationship with the gods as a private thing.

Scuttlers very rarely “hear the call” to take up the faith late in life. On their third birthday, young Scuttlers are ritually blessed by a priest or priestess, or time permitting the child is blessed by a succession of priests and priestesses. The Scuttler clergy will examine astrological charts, talk to the family about the child’s budding personality, look at the child’s shell for unusual patterns and do a whole bunch of esoteric stuff. They will then declare what line of work the child should pursue. Usually, parents take this as a suggestion not a command but if the Scuttler clergy say the child is destine to be a priest or priestess, the parents nearly always consent to give their children up to be raised by the clergy.

Scuttlers clergy are equally common among males and females. About two thirds of the Scuttler priests serve Phidas or Hallisan. The other third is split roughly evenly between Korus, Greymoria, and Mera. It is extremely rare for a Scuttler to become a priest to Maylar, Nami, or Zarthus. Politically Scuttler clergy are Scuttlers first and worshippers of their deity second. Most Scuttler priests get along better among Scuttler priests dedicated to other deities than they get along with non-Scuttler priests dedicated to their same deity.

Scuttler’s value hard work and are usually perfectionists by nature. Scuttler’s are private around non-Scuttler (the Shell-less ones). They can get boisterous and competitive amongst each other, but they will nearly always present a unified front against outsiders.

Sex and Gender Roles among the Scuttlers

Real world lobsters, Males are a bit bigger than females on average but it’s quite close. Among crabs, males tend to have noticeably larger claws. If male Scuttlers have more focus on their claws, that would logically mean that females are more focused on their hands. If I follow this trend forward that might suggest that male scuttlers are more likely to be warriors and female scuttlers are more likely to be builders. Again males would still be good at crafting things and females would still be good at bashing foes with their claws, but this a good starting line.

Overtime, Scuttler Society became more focused on building and less focused on fighting. This would tilt the political power in favor of the females. The Scuttlers also became more intertwined with the other Scaraquan people. Karakhai are pretty matriarchal. I’m likely to make Merfolk matriarchal. This might pull Scuttlers in a matriarchal direction. That said, Scuttler gender relations are probably best described as egalitarian and meritocratic with very little prescribed gender roles. Nine times out of ten, another race cannot tell the males and females apart if they don’t look very closely and who wants to look at a Scuttler that closely.

Long ago, Scuttlers males would earn mating rights over females by fighting other males viciously. Modern Scuttlers are monogamous, but their wedding ceremonies typically include ritualized mock combat which the groom to be always wins against the other males attending the wedding.

Females typically lay eggs once in her lifetime, typically laying clutches of five to seven eggs. The female molts completely during this time and would theoretically be helpless if the Scuttlers didn’t reserve their very fortifications for young mothers, and the whole community pitches in to defend these places. The birthing time is almost never a surprise, with females knowing roughly a year in advance when her birthing time is coming. Birthing times are staggered. Even if nearby females are biological sisters, they are likely to have their birthing times years apart.

During times of great strife (when large number of Scuttlers die to war or disease), females will have two or even three clutches of eggs over their lifetimes. Even the Scuttlers are not sure of how this happens, but most assume the gods of the Sea interfere on behalf of the Scuttler People. This has the unfortunate side effect of drastically lowering the females’ overall life expectancy considerably.

Assuming the Scuttlers are not undergoing a period of great strife, females typically have their birthing time around age thirty. Males and females both typically survive to seventy or eighty. Young Scuttlers go through a large number of rapid growth spurts, typically every two to three years. Scuttlers technically don’t stop growing until their late twenties but they are considered full adults at sixteen.

The mother and father are the primary caregivers of children and their primary peers are their brothers and sisters, but Scuttlers can expect to grow up with a lot of attention from many aunts and uncles. Families operate much like family businesses and that business usually involves building something. As soon as a child is large enough to lift a pile of clay, their practical education begins. Parents are discouraged from playing favorites with their young, but aunts and uncles can and do pick favorites. If the aunt or uncle has a specialized skill, this often is the basis for one-on-one apprenticeships later.


Scuttler Organization and Outsider Relations

Over their history the Scuttler people incudes an embarrassingly high number of disastrous wartime defeats. This has taught Scuttlers humility. Scuttlers typically parley their building skills to other Scaraquans in exchange for a place in the societies of others. They will nod politely while Karakhai monologue about how they are the strongest race in the Sea and they will nod politely while Merfolk talk about how no other people are as rich and cultured as they. Scuttlers react so little to slurs against their race that few among “the Shell-less” even bother insulting Scuttlers anymore. They are okay being called “Scuttlers” after all. A Scutter’s true pride is in his or her work. If you want to get on a Scuttler’s good side, praise their work, not them. If you want to insult them, insult their work.

Scuttlers usually create communities within communities creating private Scuttler enclaves within societies run by other races. If another Scaraquan claims rulership over the Scuttlers it’s wise to not rub their face in it. Wise princes know they will get better work form the Scuttlers if the Scuttlers are given the autonomy and privacy they desire.

Amongst themselves, Scuttlers tend to heed the words of their elders in high regard though the society is meritocratic, so a talented young prodigy can wield a lot of influence. Private among other races, they are incorrigible gossips amongst themselves. Whatever the task is, a Scuttler community usually has an accurate idea of who the best person for the job is. A Scuttler that has a loose tile in a wall he made can expect his fellows to rib him for that flaw for years to come…in private. Amongst outsider Scuttlers take communal responsibility for any flaws in their work and will not single out one of their own kind.

Scuttlers will often settle disputes with crafting contests and this is something of a spectator sport. A spectator sport that most non-Scuttlers would find extremely boring. The clergy judges whose work is best. Informal challenges will invoke an informal secular crowd with secular judges. It is rare, but not unheard of to have crafting contests to the death where the loser is executed.

Scuttlers are a competitive lot, and they don’t limit every contest to crafting. They also like athletic and martial competitions but these are nearly always low stakes and informal. They are also boastful amongst their kind. This is sometimes referred to as claw measuring contests.


Scuttler Magical Traditions

To become a theurgist in my world, a mortal needs to develop intense faith for one deity or intense faith evenly diffused amongst all the deities. About 90% of theurgist develop their magic through the tutelage of a priesthood while about 10% are essentially self-taught. Among Scuttlers, 99.9% of theurgists develope their magic under the tutelatge of the priests. About one in a hundred a fifty Scuttlers is part of the clergy and thus is a theurgist.

Favored souls among the Scuttlers are rare to the point of being all but unheard of.

Most Scuttler theurgists develop an aptitude for the Crafts sphere, even if that aptitude is uncommon to their divine patron. It’s rare for a theurgist to not at least dabble in Craft’s sphere. Plants and Animal magic is often used to shape coral growth. Scuttler theurgists that have a martial focus tend to focus on Spirit Magic, and generally try to summon spirits to guard their vulnerable flanks.

Scuttler sorcerers are quite rare. Only about one in five thousand Scuttler manifests this gift, and sometimes they never get beyond a one dot abilities because they aren’t even aware of what they are and what they can potentially do.

Scuttler wizards are more common with roughly one wizard per three hundred Scuttlers. Like the theurgists, Scuttlers tend to focus their studies towards creating magical items, picking up as many Item Creation Merits as they can. Scuttler wizards generally favor straight forward magic like Conjuration and Invocation. Enchantment and Illusion magic is uncommon. Like the Theurgists, Scuttler mages also favor magic to guard their flanks and compensate for their poor mobility. Scuttler transmuters love to surprise foes “I’m fast and agile now, you are doomed Shell-less One!”

On Land

Lobsters can survive a few days on land if they stay moist. Crabs are in the same boat, but certain subspecies of crabs are really good at surviving on lands and some are not.

I figure Scuttlers would be pretty good at fighting on land as the coast is within sight. If anything they woudl be more dangerous on land than in the sea because when they don't have to worry about fighting three dimensional opponents, their lack of mobility is not as big of a liability on land as is it in the sea. If Scuttlers were wearing manufactured armor on top of their natural armor, they would be like slow crawling tanks that almost no non-magical attacks could defeat, Scarterrans could only flee inland. If the Scuttlers want to claim a beach, there is not a whole lot land based humanoids can do to stop them. Fortunately for the Scarterrans there isn't much on a beach to hold a Scuttler's interest, though I could imagine they could hold private gatherings on remote beaches outside the water for privacy.

I think Scuttlers would generally have relatively little interest in "swimming on land." A Scarterran humanoid is more likely "Oh gods! A giant crab monster!" and then either flee or attack. Merfolk are far less likely to terrify surface dwellers. If they can get around this aesthetic problem, they can probably establish peaceful trade relations with land folk, assuming both sides have something the other side wants.



I am intimidated by the prospect of making crunch rules for Scuttlers. The four arms are a cool concept but they are hard to integrate into D&D10 in a balanced way. In traditional D&D games, bonus attacks are not that hard to come by. Under the D10 system, extra actions are rare and valuable.

They are going to have high Strength and Stamina. Low Dexterity (except with handicrafts) and probably somwhat subpar social attributes. Natural armor, claws. I haven't figured out what the base movement rate for all the Scaraquans will be but Scuttlers will be at the bottom of the heap for that one.


I didn't set out to do this, but I ended up creating a fairly peaceful, agreeable and cooperative Crustacean race. I keep thinking about "the crabs in the bucket" metaphor which doesn't apply to Scuttlers at all. I am thinking of having an ancient schism among the Crustaceans and creating a more beligerent and violent savage offshoot race of Scuttlers. Perhaps with bigger claws and less skill at building...

 

I was actually aware of this, that's why I brought up currency in the sea as a concept and asked for help.

I was thinking of ballast trying to figure out which tools and weapons would be worth it and which ones would be too heavy and cumbersome to bother with. I think daggers and spears would be the go-to weapons for instance. I hadn't put a lot of thought into ballast for currency. I mean metal coins are borderline impractical for land people. I never thought metal coins would be a currency Scaraquans would mess with.

Now that I think about it, assuming reasonable physics, a merfolk riding a hippocampus wouldn't be that much faster than a merman swimming under his own power. A hippocampus would be a decent pack animal though.

Gold is basically chemically indestructable. Platinum is corrosion resistant, it won't corrode nearly as bad as copper or silver but it won't last forever. That's why the Ancient Roman nicknamed Platinum "true silver." Like silver only better. Platinum has a problem they share with gold and magnified. Platinum is so rare and valuable it's not very useful for trade. An ounce of silver is worth about twenty dollars today. It will get you a very nice dinner. Back when we had silver dollars. A silver dollar would buy you a very nice dinner many decades ago.

An ounce of gold is worth roughly $2000 today. That will buy you a hand tailored suit. An ounce of gold would have still gotten you a hand tailored suit in the 1890s too.

How often do normal people need to make purchases in gold. Not very often. How often do normal people need to make purchases in platinum. Never. That's basically something for royalty.

Scaraquans who trade with Scarterrans for each other might hold onto coins as treasure but I never thought Scaraquans would use coins amongst each other.

But you are right, I need something light for currency that wouldn't impair swimming overmuch. I had thought that whatever form Scaraquan territory takes, that it should be wearable as jewelry. If you make a purchase, you pull a piece of whatever off your bracelet or necklace. If someone pays you, you clip it onto your jewelry. It also lets people flaunt their wealth.

I figured ancient (non-aquatic) dragons of the First Age would wear their wealth in this matter. With gold, silver, and platinum worn as jewelry. And they would be shaped as scales rather than round disks. Sea dragons could still wear similar jewelry. Sea dragons were sort of the peasants of dragonkind, so they wouldn't have had as much wealth so they wouldn't be weighed down as much.

I'm not 100% satisfied with this system, but it's better than anything I have thought of as of yet.

I am not 100% sure. However unlike a majority of my ideas. The cylinder shaped world is something I have sort of an irrational emotional investment in.

suppose a globe would still work as long as the poles still gave way to a realm of unending hunger, everlasting cold, and infinite nothingness.

I will (reluctantly) ponder other shapes.

 

Nothing in set in stone. The 2.0 version of my map may or may not look considerebly different. Assuming I keep the cylinder, I do not want it to be tall and spindly. I want the map to be wider east-west than it is north-south.

Here are my thoughts as they are right now as to the world.

The Void exists on the north and souths ends of the world. It warps space existing as one realm in two places.

The planet's core is full of elemental energy. It also warps space in that it contains more space and stuff than it's small geographic size recommends. The elemental core is metaphysically the source of all life in Scarterra.

West Colassia is going to be defined by the interactions of the three great powers. Swynfaredia (the sorcerer nobility group), Uskala (the nation ruled by an evil dragon pretending to be a vampire pretending to be a human), and Kantoc (the horse loving analag to Rohan and Brettonia). The smaller nations have to hop when one of the three big nations says so. There is also a lot of monster/barbarian infested wilderness.

East Colassia is defined by the conflict between the Dark Elves and the Colassian Confederacy. A giant desert and tall mountain range puts a speed bump in their fighting making it impractical for either side to launch a full scale invasion of the other. Thus, brushfire wars continue indefinitely.

Umera is not very well developed. My plan is to eventually set this up as a land for Eastern fantasy adventures. Samurai, ninjas, kappas, demon monkeys.

Penarchia is not very well developed by design. The reason I have a bunch of tiny kingdoms there is this is a good place to write stories where the king is murdered without throwing the political scene of the entire world into turmoil.

Lunatus by design is not attached to any major continent. The backstory of the Elven Empire depends on this geographic isolation, and the concept is based on the British. The Elven Empire is the fading remnants of a giant colonial empire that once the sun never set on.

In theory, I could have stuck the Wood Elves and three dwarf nations anywhere.

Khemarok was kind of an afterthought. I wanted to put a Khemra theocracy with an Ancient Egypt aesthetic somewhere and didn't have any better places to put it.

I like the visual layout of a Mediterranean style of geography where all the land masses sort of coalesce around a central sea. Now that I'm starting to develop Scaraqua, this central sea setup even more than I did before.

 

Okay, 3 times wider than it is tall is now canon.

What is not canon yet is exactly how long the world is. I won't abandon the idea of finetuning this, but for me it's much more enjoyable to talk about creature types and currencies than stuff like geology.

 

Preview of Coming Attractions: Merfolk. Also, Squidmen which will probably be called Wuzika.

Water Rome

As for the larger geopolitical picture, I thinking my primary inspiration will be Ancient Rome. I don't have an allegory for Rome on Scarterra yet, unless I want to collectively consider the Dragons of the First Age Ancient Rome.

I haven't figure out what to call these Ancient Romans. I could call them the Atlantateans or something cliched like, but I'd prefer to call them something unique. For now I'll call them Water Rome.

Merfolk are probably going to be the de facto upper class of Water Rome. Wuzika are going to be the embodiment of the stereotype of the scheming advisors trying to be the power behind the throne. But what made Real World Rome so large and powerful is that for much of their history they assimilated with the various cultures they encountered. As far south as Africa and as far north as Hadrian's Wall, people considered themselves Roman citizens. So Water Rome is going to on paper (or whatever Scaraquans use in place of paper) be an egalitarian realm where anyone who plays by the rules can be a full citizen.

Water Rome is probably going to encompass more than half of Scaraquas sapient population. They are probably going to have less than half of Scaraquas physical territory but most of the territory they don't control is going to be harsh waters. Frigid polar waters, deep trenches, the undersea equivalent of "Here there be Dragons" parts of the map. In fact, In Scarterra/Scaraqua, "Here there be Dragons" is pretty literal.

Water Rome is going to be past the Pax Romana period and entering the early stages of the decline. Water Rome is not going to fall tommorow, but they are losing prestige.

Corruption and Decadence-A lot of the nobles are going to be getting increasingly petty and decandent, they are losing the respect of the common people.

Along those lines, the wealthy families of Water Rome are embroiled in bitter rivalries. They spend more of their time undermining their rivals than they do serving the realm. This means there are a lot of cloak and dagger assassinations and brushfire civil wars.

Maybe toss in some cults and secret societies that are doing really nasty things. There could be a puritanical backlash of moral authoritarians endorsing brutal inquistatorial actions.

Racism and Jingoism-Water Rome was founded on assimilation and inclusion but fantasy racism is going to be on the rise.

This sort of happened to Real Rome with the Huns (and other barbarians). During the Pax Romana when the Romans encountered a new culture they'd be like "Okay, you can keep your old gods, but they are part of the Roman family of deities. Worship both, that's fine." Rome adopted new technology and strategies from their conquered people over time, but by the time they encountered the Huns, they needed the Huns to fight in their military, but they wouldn't make the barbarian Huns citizens. This bit Real Rome in podexs.

Water Rome is going be going through something very similar. Just replace the word "Huns" with "Karakhai." That's not to say they have zero Karakhai that are loyal to Water Rome, but the Karakhai they do have are the oddballs of the Karakhai race. The mainstream Karakhai consider the Imperial Karakhai weaklings at best, race traitors at worst

Increased Contact with Scarterra: As Water Rome grew, more Water Romans opted to create trading relations with the surface dwellers. On some level this has aided Water Rome as the realm can import all sorts of Scarterran goods. They can even call in aid from powerful Scarterrans with the magical means to survive underwater, but there are some downsides.

Going back to the decadence, a lot of wealthy Water Romans are wasting state funds on impractical Scarterran goods. Merfolk are vain and they love to be patrons of the art. Wealthy merfolk love to comission Scarterran artists to paint portraits of them. It is not cheap to magically enchant a painting to stand up to the vigors of being under the sea.

This has also created a new internal schism on top of all the other internal schisms. The Deeps and Shallows. The Deeps want to cut off contact with Scarterra and the Shallows want to increase contact with Scarterra. Just because two politicians are both Deeps doesn't mean they agree on scope or tactics.

It also means that some ambitious Scarterrans are trying to drag Water Rome into their land based power struggles. Uskala (that's the realm with the dragon pretending to be a vampire pretending to be a human) might try something because King Drosst loves slow burning plots and has a magical focus. Any coastal power (Apseldia, the Elven Empire, Kahdisteria, the Colassian Confederacy, Mondert among others) would be foolish to not least consider reaching out to Water Rome.

Expand or DIe: Real Rome's economy and prestige largely depended on constant expansion. Water Rome will be sort of similar and the fact that Water Rome hasn't really expanded meaningfully in over a hundred years is not good for them.

Barbarians at the Gates: I'm thinking more Cold War than Hot War, but there are going to be a lot of ambitious Karakhai warlords, scheming dragons, plotting Wuziki and unspeakable monsters in the deep trenches that are probing Water Rome for signs of weakness.