My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Okay, you sold me that gong farmers should have a guild. You have not sold me that gong farmers should be one of the 3-5 guilds that can demand an audience with the king and get one.

This applies to every business. But you are right that it would apply more to businesses that deal with their customers every day than businesses that do not. The owner of a blacksmith needs to pay his staff, negotiate with customers, and manage many supplies, but a blacksmith that is four days late delivering a pick axe is probably not going to get as much grief as a gong farmer who is four days late emptying a waste hole.

A horse or dog breeder has their own business. They only make money when they sell a well-trained horse or dog, but they have to feed and protect their animals all year, so they have to manage their money carefully to pay their staff when their expenses are regular and their revenue is infrequent.

A musician or entertainment business needs to pay the performers, buy props, feed the staff, meet the stars eccentric demands and every time a show is not being performed, the manager needs to figure out where and when the next show will be.

I do have an ability that characters may take that is along the lines of what you are thinking.

Seneschal
Your ability to manage lands, supplies, employees, businesses, and other income producing resources as well as castles.
● You can keep your family’s household running smoothly and manage a few other resources as long as there’s no intense pressure or stress.
●● You can manage a business or manor and keep almost everyone involved reasonably happy.
●●● You successfully oversee multiple properties over an extended area, even in times of war, famine and other calamity.
●●●● Rulers know that they can give you custody of their lands and goods and get them back in better condition than you received them.
●●●●● On Scarterra, you are the source material for the Parable of the Talents.

Specialties: Family farms, plantations, noble estates, mines, religious holdings, urban holdings

For instance, to balance your books you would roll Intelligence + Seneschal. To keep your employees behaving you would roll Charisma + Seneschal. To identify potential problems early you would roll Perception + Seneschal and to use predatory pricing and subversive tactics to put the screws to your customers and competition you would roll Manipulation + Seneschal.

I always like to come up with unusual attribute + ability combination whenever possible as I long as I don't derail a game to use it.

In theory, if you had to manage a great many tasks while forgoing rest and not mess up, Stamina + Seneschal but that's a stretch.

Maybe if you were a nobleman's Seneschal and had to make a good impression on a visiting dignitary you might have to roll Appearance + Seneschal, but in most cases like that it's the seneschal job to be invisible and make his lord look good.


Maybe it's not realistic, but the way the RPG rules are set up, a skilled seneschal would have little difficulty transitioning from managing a castle, to managing a plantation, to managing a horse breeder's outfit, to managing a performer's troupe, to managing a gong farming guild.

In theory, Seneschal could be used for criminal organizations just as easily, but a crime lord is going to need a lot of secondary abilities that most legitimate business managers don't have to deal with very often such as Intimidation, Stealth, Politics, Legerdemain, Alertness, and Empathy to make sure they don't run afoul of the law or get betrayed by an underling (before that underling can be removed). The full list of abilities is here in anyone is curious.

You always have the option to take a Seneschal specialization in "gong farming" and thus get a one-die bonus on all Seneschal rolls involving gong farming.

None of my PCs took any dots in Seneschal, but that's fine. It's not too difficult to hire one if necessary and only one PC, the alchemist, actually bothers dipping his toes into regular commerce.

 

Yay!
That's fine, the King would send someone else to talk to the stinky folks. And they know it. It is not glamorous.

 

So here is my glossary, I'm going to feature it prominently on my main Scarterra homepage. Hopefully this is good refresher for any lore forgotten for my long-term readers/fans (you guys have been liking my posts and commenting so I assume you guys are fans) and a hopefully a hook for new people who stumble onto my page.

I would appreciate constructive criticism on this. What is missing, what is extraneous, how it could be formatted better, etc.

Scarterra Glossary

I figure the nations or locations don't need to be on the Glossary because you can get them by clicking on the continent links. I think that is sufficient.

I didn't include races or creatures here because I have linked articles to , a Glossary of Scarterran Mortals and a much smaller Glossary of Scaraquan Mortals, both works in progress because I'm not done creating new races.

I probably need to create a similar one for beasts, void demons, and undead.

My Glossary has no direct links to anything in SCIENCE! or Culture section of Scarterra. Is it enough that they are in the table of contents or should I squeeze them into the glossary too?

 

Okay, so more glossary, less summary. That sounds like something I can do.

 

Here it is, roughly 3500 words focusing on religious stuff. I got all nine of the Nine on there as well as their Scaraquan alternate identities. I have the major religious groups and some of the minor ones. But I am less than halfway done. I'm sure it will be 10,000 words long before October. I'm going to leave out mortals, creature names, and nations but include most other things at least regarding religion, culture and SCIENCE!

 

Here's all the major Meckelorn power centers stereotypes on the others. When it doubt for what Scarterran dwarves sound like when they talk, I am defaulting to Klingons. I don't want to lean to heavily into overblown Scottish accents though they can maybe use "lads" and "lasses" a lot. I'm not sure.

Spoiler: Greystone Stereotypes

Greystone Clan on the Others

Red Shaft Clan: Strong warriors of great honor, and best of all they take direction well.

Red Scales Clan: They are mildly useful in helping elevate the kalazotz, but they spend too much time in their shrines to get anything useful done.

Dragon Bane Clan: A bunch of puffed up rangers get lucky and kill a dragon, and they think they can disguise their peasant blood.

Heart’s Fire Clan: They are pleasant and helpful now, but they would be better named Heart’s wind since their course like a weathervane.

Order of the Stone: Their motives are pure, but their cause is obsolete. There is no danger of Stahlheim and Meckelorn going to war right now. It makes more sense for the Guardians to return administration of the Great Stone to those born to it.

Priesthood of Mera: Pleasant enough and they keep the peace at home, but they aren’t worth much consideration.

Priesthood of Khemra: Khemra has her place, but we dwarves are so naturally disciplined that their priests are redundant for us. The human noble families might need Keepers to remind them of their duty, but we do not.

Priesthood of Phidas: They are our allies for now, but we are watching them closely.

Rangers: It’s good that all the clans great and small, have a place to put their least social members where they can still serve the nation.
Maiden Guard: We haven’t had a major attack on the home front requiring them to take to arms in a major way in a century, but I do not think it is wise to let our guard down at this time. As much as I do not like the cost of maintaining a second army, it is a cost we must endure.

Armorers Guild: It is the duty of all smiths to provide high quality arms to the clans to defend us all. It is galling that they set terms to us. Worse, this is emboldening the other guilds to defy us and then we will be dancing on the puppet strings of the tengku just like the Stahlheimers.

Kalazotz: The bat folk ask for little and provide us much which means I am happy to pretend I’m not to have my stomach disturbed while watching them eat.

Stahlheim: It is good to play at commerce, but it is bad to let one’s blade grow dull. Will coins protect them should the Elven Empire, Swynfaredians, or Uskalans come for them?

Mondert: It’s a pleasant diversion to speak to a pilgrim when they show up, but I don’t see why we need to worry about our backwards human-loving cousins.

Kantoca: These humans have great honor and great courage…unless that courage requires them to take their precious steeds over rough terrain. They are even slower to come to our aid than the Stahlheimers.

The Borderlanders: We have an alliance of pragmatism with the Freistadters and we are taking a gamble supporting the Barony of Bats. That’s probably enough. We want to have eyes on the Borderlands but we don’t want to get too deeply involved.

Fumayans: I hope the Great Boot can endure, but we cannot afford to send them aid when we have our own issues to deal with.

Swynfaredians: The dragon is poised to either eat its own tail or else they will eat up half the continent.

Codenya: They are neither our enemies nor our allies. This is satisfactory.

Uskalans: Since King Drosst has halted his expansion over a century ago, it is easy to ignore these humans far away from us. Perhaps too easy to ignore.

Orcs: Our great grandfathers expelled the orcs from our lands. Our grandfathers and fathers rebuilt our fortifications. Once we have rebuilt our war chest built up, it will fall on us and our sons to make sure the orcs never rise to threaten us again.

Goblins: Vermin, but the Dagger Sheaths are useful to use as training for our youngest warriors to cut their teeth on.

Kobolds: Some are hostile, some are friendly, but they all claim to be friendly when cornered. I have better things to do than sort out the good kobolds from the bad ones. If the “friendly” kobolds are wise, they should keep their distance from us.

Spoiler: Red Shaft Clan Stereotypes

Red Shaft on the Others


Greystone Clan: I proudly follow the orders of our good king without question, but if the king’s relatives want me to do something, I ask questions.

Red Scales Clan: Their warriors are mediocre at best, but they understand piety, community and the value of hard work. Fine allies in peace time, but are we ever truly at peace?

Dragon Bane Clan: I am proud of my noble ancestors, but great deeds now are more important than having great deeds in the past. The Dragon Bane Clan are doing things in the here and now. Would that more of the lesser clans follow their example, the whole nation would be better off and perhaps a great many more orcs would be dead.

Heart’s Fire Clan: They are fun at parties, but their tendency to emulate the Stahlheimers mercantile ways might cause them problems.

Order of the Stone: I rest easier knowing that the noble Guardians protect the Great Stone and our pilgrimage routes. Never speak ill of them in front of me!

Priesthood of Mera: The kalazotz like Mera and this is good enough of an endorsement to me.

Priesthood of Khemra: We spend most of our time underground so the Lady of Light matters relatively little to us.

Priesthood of Phidas: Commerce has its place but you would be wise to keep the Masks at arm’s length.

Rangers: They talk about being our first line of defense but they are sorely lacking at spotting our enemies until they are already attacking. Perhaps the kalazotz should be our watchers on the surface instead?
Maiden Guard: I will always support the Maiden Guard fully. Our men our strong because our mothers are strong. Many Red Shaft men marry officers of the Maiden Guard including my grandmother. Many of our daughters become officers there too, including my niece.

Armorers Guild: Fair wages for fair work. As long as the Armorers continues to provide the best arms in Scarterra I will meet their prices.

Kalazotz: They are strange folk but they hard working and loyal. Allying with the bat folk is the smartest thing Meckelorn has ever done. I doubt we’d have survived this long without them.

Stahlheim: One’s true wealth is one’s family and true friends. I am not opposed to possessing other kinds of wealth, but Stahlheim has traded in all their true friends for “mutual business interests” and this will serve them badly in the long run.

Mondert: Their customs are strange, but they have honor and strength. They have my respect.

Kantoca: The horsemen hold mighty Halllisan in high regard. This is enough to make us friends.

The Borderlanders: They lack discipline, but I admire their spirit.

Fumayans: These Booters also suffer the depredations of orcs. Perhaps we can ally against our common foe.

Swynfaredians: They set up puppet regimes in the Borderlands and routinely violate the sovereignty of Fumaya. We must dissuade them if we can.

Codenya: We have had little to do with these elves, but they do hate orcs, so perhaps we should reach out to them.

Uskalans: They have allied with the camazotz. Eventually this will force us into conflict with them.

Orcs: It is long overdue we take the fight to them, before a successor to Mordock arises.

Goblins: They are our enemies, the least important of our enemies, but our enemies none the less.

Kobolds: I do not know what these dragon gnomes actually want, nor do I care. We have more than enough enemies to deal with right now so I would just as soon avoid the kobolds.

Spoiler: Red Scales Clan Stereotypes

Red Scales on the Others


Greystone Clan: One’s king is one’s king and the king’s family usually take the burden of their bloodline seriously…usually.

Red Shaft Clan: Loyal and brave and they understand how important it is to keep the bat folk close.

Dragon Bane Clan: They are only out for themselves, they do not even honor their ancestors and allies. Once they run out of pilfered gold, the tanners will drift back into obscurity where they belong.

Heart’s Fire Clan: Despite their clan name, this clan is made up of pragmatists with cold stony hearts. They treat their allies like employees rather than brothers.

Order of the Stone: It is both just and practical that the Guardians hold vigil over the sacred place of our birth. The Guardians have our full support in this and all other things, they are our sword and shield

Priesthood of Mera: Without a hearth to protect, our warriors would have no reason to fight. The Tenders are our heart and hearth and thus are worth protecting fiercely.

Priesthood of Khemra: Khemra’s Zenith celebration is four months away, why worry about it now?

Priesthood of Phidas: Did I miss Phidas’ Apex celebration this year? Perhaps I’ll throw the Masks a few extra coppers to make up for it. Perhaps not.

Rangers: They choose to roam without the comforts of family and hearth. I am unsure whether this is a noble sacrifice or a fool’s choice.
Maiden Guard: They perform an honorable and necessary role for society but it might be better if we armed the Tenders or kalazotz instead of or in addition to arming our wives and daughters.

Armorers Guild: Superior warriors with adequate weapons will always defeat adequate warriors with superior weapons. We are making our weapons rather than accepting their unfair terms.

Kalazotz: Our peoples complement each other well and both grow stronger from it.

Stahlheim: Stahlheim, I think I remember them…didn’t they show up at the end of our last war just in time to claim a seat at the victory banquet.

Kantoca: They are honorable enough but they avoid mountains like the plague, so their actions really don’t concern us.

The Borderlanders: I’m hopeful that our efforts to influence the Borderlands will bear fruit, but I am not optimistic.

Fumayans: I bear no ill will towards the Booters, but we have nothing to gain by trying to aid them. The people of the land will still trade with us even if a different lord’s banner flies above their castles.

Swynfaredians: They like us have the blood of dragons among them, but they do not see us as kin, nor we them. They disparage us not being sorcerers and we disparage them not being trustworthy.

Codenya: They have allied with many mortal races yet retain their elven character. They even allied with a tribe of kalazotz even. This speaks well of them.

Uskalans: The vampire king is far away, but we have not forgotten the massacre of the Grey Forest kalazotz and we will make him pay, no matter how long we have to wait for him to give us an opening.

Orcs: They are still our enemies, but I’ve noticed they seem to be attacking humans more and dwarves less. I prefer not to interrupt them from their new strategy.

Goblins: I do not know which of the Nine created goblins. I do not know if they were created to be evil warriors or if they were originally created for some more benign purpose. I do know which ever god or goddess created the goblins must be ashamed of this great failure.

Kobolds: We should try to reach out to them. They cannot like goblins or orcs any more than we do.

Spoiler: Dragon Bane Stereotypes

Dragon’s Bane on the Others


Greystone Clan: They look down on us and our common blood, but what have these royals done in the last generation other than preen their beards and posture?

Red Shaft Clan: Of the leading old families, these are the only ones who do not scorn us, at least not openly. This is because they understand that nobility is in actions and not blood. Even now they are seeking to avenge a great wrong. I pity their enemies.

Red Scales Clan: A useless waste of dwarf blood. They waste their time breathing in dust from their family tombs and hide behind the bats who do all their heavy lifting.

Heart’s Fire Clan: They understand at least when to hold to tradition and when to adapt to changing circumstances though a bit too fickle to be true allies.

Order of the Stone: They cloak themselves in holiness but they are a money grubbing group of schemers like everyone else.

Priesthood of Mera: The Hearth Day feast you served was nice, thank you. Now go away.

Priesthood of Khemra: Oh right, I hear there are dwarf Keepers and not just human Keepers…

Priesthood of Phidas: “We are Masks and we are here to help” is what you hear before your wealth is stolen.

Rangers: A lot of our ancestors were rangers and that is why we are strong today.
Maiden Guard: It is good that our women know how to fight, but it is unnecessary to make a whole organization around it. Mothers and fathers can teach their daughters what they need just fine.

Armorers Guild: Give us some weapons and we’ll show you how to use them!

Kalazotz: Some of their ancestors saved the lives of some of our ancestors. How long do we have to keep these winged goblins around our holds to repay the debt? Forever? Really?

Stahlheim: If the Meckelorner clans refuse to treat us with respect, perhaps Stahlheim will give us a warmer reception.

Mondert: The older clan call us an upstart peasant house, yet when one of these backwards islanders shows up to visit, they roll out the red carpet. Hypocrites.

Kantoca: We may share a border with the horse lords, but we do not have any interests in common.

The Borderlanders: This chaotic mess occasionally spawns great human heroes. We should try to improve relations with the more reasonable Border Barons just in case.

Fumayans: These humans are wise. Their lords are all too eager to hire dwarf mercenaries and craftsmen. The older clans may view working for humans as beneath them, but that is why they are all struggling to pay their expenses.

Swynfaredians: For some reason the dragon worshipping humans don’t like us making a name for ourselves with a dead dragon. Not a big loss. The Swineherdians have always treated Meckelorners with contempt. We are just the first clan to give them a reason.

Codenya: They defend their borders fiercely and leave their neighbors in peace. A wise policy.

Uskalans: The vampire feed sacks are evil bastards but they cannot attack us without fighting through the wood elves and Swineherdians first, so I don’t see why the other clans are so afraid of them.

Orcs: Their power is broken. If they are wise they will stay away from us lest we finish what our ancestors started.

Goblins: Filthier than rats and only slightly deadlier.

Kobolds: I don’t trust the supposed cousins of dragons and if I see them, I will destroy them.

Spoiler: Heart's Fire clan stereotypes

Heart’s Fire on the Others


Greystone Clan: A grumpy bunch, but they are easy enough to soften up with a few barrels of ale.

Red Shaft Clan: I wish them well on their campaign of retribution. They throw the best victory parties.

Red Scales Clan: A little too cozy with the bats for my taste, but they are decent people.

Dragon Bane Clan: The torch that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

Order of the Stone: The Guardians sometimes overreach, but they take on weighty responsibilities so I will not speak ill of them.

Priesthood of Mera: Well meaning, but inconsequential.

Priesthood of Khemra: They have more to offer dwarf-kind than the others give them credit for. They have much wisdom and keep us in check from our worst impulses.

Priesthood of Phidas: They are useful in small doses.

Rangers: I certainly don’t want their job, so I will not bother them.
Maiden Guard: They were vital in our past, but their usefulness is over. We should take their best warriors and fold them into the regular army, then disband the rest. A separate men’s and women’s army is wasteful.

Armorers Guild: Everyone deserves to get paid for their hard work.I’m not going to begrudge them for aggressively negotiating their payment.

Kalazotz: Useful allies, but I’m not inviting them to my next feast unless they are willing to serve me drinks.

Stahlheim: They might lack courage on the battlefield, but there decision to expand trade relations with non-dwarven people was a wise one, and it’s about time Meckelorn accepts this.

Mondert: They have adapted to an unusual environment showing how we dwarves can thrive anywhere and anything if we are willing to adapt.

Kantoca: We think Meckelorn should trade with Kantoc more, but most of our lands and holdings are to the east, not the west so all we can do is give the other clans unsolicited trading advice which they will ignore.

The Borderlanders: Every young dwarf should visit the length and breadth of the Borderlands at least once for his education. It’s like all of Scarterra is condensed into one small stretch of land.

Fumayans: The Booters are hard workers and know how to enjoy the simple things. We must make sure they remain strong and do not fall.

Swynfaredians: If we don’t curtail their expansion now, our children and grandchildren will end up fighting the dragon bloods on Meckelorn soil.

Codenya: We engage in some limited trade with the wood elves. They do not allow us to see much, but what we have seen has been impressive. We should strengthen our ties with them if possible.

Uskalans: Whatever King Drosst is planning right now, we probably won’t like it.

Orcs: Each generation has its own struggles and difficulties. The orcs were our grandparents’ enemy. We must focus on our current problems.

Goblins: I pity these wretches but I will not allow murder and theft to go unpunished.

Kobolds: Dwarves and kobolds are a lot alike. We are scrappy individualists who value strong family ties and like to live in the mountains. Because of our similarities we will never be able to forge a lasting peace.

Spoiler: Order of the Stone Holy Order Stereotypes

Order of the Stone on the Others



Greystone Clan: They pretend otherwise and cover their true feelings with pretty words, but they believe they should be administering the Great Stone. Their turn towards Phidas will be their downfall.

Red Shaft Clan: They support enthusiastically because their piety is great.

Red Scales Clan: They keep their ancestors close to their hearts which I respect.

Dragon Bane Clan: They give our temple generous donations but only when lots of people are looking.

Heart’s Fire Clan: They are little closer to Phidas than I would prefer, but they seem to have their honor intact.

Priesthood of Mera: Mera’s hearth always has required Hallisan’s protection and always will but few Tenders admit to this.

Priesthood of Khemra: They are honorable and trustworthy but sometimes I wish they would wield their hammers more and wield their quills less.

Priesthood of Phidas: The Masks are working on corrupting Stahlheim. They may even corrupt Meckelorn, but they will never touch the Great Stone.

Rangers: They are unorthodox but they are brave and honorable, though often less pious than I prefer.
Maiden Guard: These honorable women are a pillar of dwarven kind as much as we Guardians are.

Armorers Guild: They profane Hallisan’s noble gift parleying their trade for profit rather than service. It is also foolish because all dwarves are blacksmiths at heart so the armorer’s guild is easily replaceable should they overstep their bounds.

Kalazotz: Honor demands we respect our allies and repay our debts. Honor does not demand I need to let the bats into my temple or my home.

Stahlheim: Even with the geographic distance to the Great Stone, Stahlheimers make the pilgrimage to visit the Great Stone often which speaks well of them and gives me hope for the future despite their growing tendency towards profane commerce.

Mondert: It is always a cause for celebration when one of the Mondarian goes through the extreme effort to make a pilgrimage to the Great Stone.

Kantoca: It is good that these humans venerate Hallisan with the credit he is due. It is not good that Hallisan’s human Guardians try to have oversight over us.

The Borderlanders: The safest way to traverse the Borderlands is along ide one of our patrol carvans, but our patrols cannot be everywhere at once. We are well aware that the local humans are not always trustworthy and there goblins and fouler things about this land, but keep in mind that most dwarves that die in the Borderlands are brought down of drowning, exposure, falling, or simply getting lost. Too many travelers overestimate the threat of brigands and carry too many weapons and not enough survival gear.

Fumayans: One of our pilgrimage routes runs through Fumaya. It is the longest and the slowest but it is safest. The Fumayans are very cooperative with us.

Swynfaredians: The Nation of the Dragon is strong now, but we dwarves have seen strong human nations rise and fall before. When the Dragon’s breath burns out, we will still be here.

Codenya: They understand that the Great Stone is not a tourist site for Rumspring elves. The wood elves are welcome to visit anywhere else they want.

Uskalans: A land with an evil king is an evil land, but it is an evil land that shares no borders with us.

Orcs: Orcs and dwarves cannot share Scarterra. Sooner or later, we will be at full scale war with them again.

Goblins: Much like mosquitos, I would like to see them eradicated but it would take more effort than it’s worth.

Kobolds: They are a very ancient people but they are also a very irrelevant people.

Spoiler: Opinions of a random dwarf ranger

Rangers on the Others


Greystone Clan: They are the epitome of older clans. Proud, haughty, tradition bound, reluctant to get their hands dirty.

Red Shaft Clan: Before their recent loss, none of the old clans were friendlier to rangers than the Red Shaft Clan, but they needed a scapegoat for their defeat. They don’t realized that many rangers died trying to defend their lord and that our losses were just as great.

Red Scales Clan: They rarely throw derision at our profession, but they also rarely buy or wares or hire our services.

Dragon Bane Clan: We used to get along with the clan, but now that clan wants to make themselves respectable, they have taken to the notion that snubbing their nose at rangers will make them look respectable.

Heart’s Fire Clan: We have a good trading relationship. They often hire rangers to guard their caravans.

Order of the Stone: We sometimes cross paths and we get along well enough. They respect honor and tradition but temper their haughtiness with a modicum of humility, or perhaps it is just stoicism or false modestry.

Priesthood of Mera: We don’t mix well but we both understand that family is determined as much by your actions as by your blood.

Priesthood of Khemra: I like the sun well enough and give Khemra her due, but I don’t need the Keepers to throw hundreds of rules at me.

Priesthood of Phidas: Unnecessary at best, untrustworthy at worst.

Maiden Guard: We rarely cross paths, but rangers and the Maiden Guard are indirectly competing to recruit strong female warriors. We tend to get the free spirited lasses and the Maiden Guard tend to get the conformists.

Armorers Guild: We don’t need their fancy gear. A true warrior’s greatest weapon is his wits and strength of will.

Kalazotz: They are worthy allies, or so I’m told. They prefer deep caves and we prefer the open sky, so we rarely mingle though we both perform vital and often unappreciated tasks for Meckelorn and Stahlheim.

Meckelorn: Stahlheim may be liberated, but we have not fully secured our homelands, so we must stay vigilant. We are the first line of defense.

Stahlheim: They pays us well for our services but the guilds are infringing on our freedoms more and more. At some point it doesn’t matter how much gold they flash at us, we can only be pushed so far.

Mondert: We love the land and they love the sea. To each his own.

Kantoca: These are decent humans. Even their lords are not afraid to get their hands dirty and are usually well traveled. They prefer hills over mountains of course, but they are tougher than most humans.

The Borderlanders: Kindred spirits if ever there were any. I like most of these humans and the dirtier Bordlerands I don’t like are easy enough to avoid.

Fumayans: The Booters are decent humans and brew a good ale. They are hard working and tough.

Swynfaredians: They cover up their weakness and sloth with magic. Even if they conquer all the human lands near them, I doubt they will dare challenge us in the mountains.

Codenya: We love the mountains and they love the forest. To each his own.

Uskalans: I never met anyone from the vampire king’s land. I only hear rumors. The rumors are dark indeed.

Orcs: Their numbers are rebounding, they are just not rebounding in the mountains, at least not yet.

Goblins: We are well accustomed to thwarting their thieving schemes, or I thought. The new jumping breed is more troubling though.

Kobolds: All the other dwarves act like kobolds are these exotic unknowable entities with unknown shifting allegiances. It’s not that difficult! There are three groups: Laershin, Gilgren, and Tiamalans and once you learn to tell one from the other you know how to deal with them.

Spoiler: The opinions of a matriarch of the Maiden Guard

Maiden Guard on the Others



Greystone Clan: We have the full support of the king, so we have the full support of the Greystones, however reluctantly.

Red Shaft Clan: They are friends to the Maiden Guard.

Red Scales Clan: They are polite to our faces but they have slowly been reducing their financial support and it has been years since we recruited a daughter of their house into the officer corp.

Dragon Bane Clan: Dwarf boys are born reckless and they either have the recklessness beaten out of them and gradually replaced by wisdom as they become men, or they die. Somehow even the Dragon Bane’s old men still act like boys.

Heart’s Fire Clan: Sometimes I wish they would drink a little less and work a little bit more, but they aren’t that bad. When things get serious, so do they…eventually.

Order of the Stone: Wise and courageous. They guard the spiritual heart of our nations while we guard the homes of our nations.

Priesthood of Mera: Pleasant but a little soft. Nevertheless we will protect them.

Priesthood of Khemra: We rarely cross paths but we both keep our traditions and understand each other.

Priesthood of Phidas: The Masks are trying a soft coup, and they are patient enough to wait centuries for it come to fruition.

Rangers: A wild intemperate lot, but without their contributions our meals would be a lot more boring.

Armorers Guild: About one in four smiths dwarfs are women. Only about one in twenty of the armorers guild are women. I don’t know if the Armorers are avoiding women out or if women are offending Armorers. Either way, if they had more women they would probably be less selfish.

Kalazotz: During the Meckelorn exile, the kalazotz were formidable warriors in their own fashion, but their generations are much shorter than dwarves’. The current generation of bats are hard workers but fewer and fewer of them have even casual interest in bearing arms.

Meckelorn: We are deeply part of Meckelorn’s culture.

Stahlheim: A great many Stahlheimers believe we are obsolete, but they still support us out of tradition.

Mondert: They have abandoned the tradition of the Maiden Guard, but they have many female warriors. I guess they are integrated with the males. Sounds chaotic to me, but it seems to work for them.

Kantoca: Honorable enough humans, but they live their lives and we live ours.

The Borderlanders: Dwarf political involvement in this region is increasing. Only time will tell if this proves to be wisdom or folly.

Fumayans: I hope the Booters survive their current hardships, but there is nothing we can do to help them from here.

Swynfaredians: Our clans may bicker and argue, but if even half the rumors are hear true, our problems are nothing compared to the Dragon Bloods. My understanding is that Swynfaredia is picking a fight with the Booters just to give the noble houses a common enemy to rally around so they stop poisoning each other. As strong as their magic and military is, they are not prepared to fight a long war and if they wish to fight with dwarves, we will see to it they will face a long war.

Codenya: I always appreciate a chance to speak with an elf on rumspringa and they make interesting dinner companions, but I don’t think their politics matter to us.

Uskalans: Uskala seems to have stopped annexing territory, but King Drosst has begun sponsoring a great many far flung adventuring parties and some have poked around the World Sea Mountains. The vampire king is searching for something and I hope he never finds it, whatever it is.

Orcs: They remain a threat, but they are rarely threat we have to deal with personally.

Goblins: Goblins our old foes and we well practiced in countering their tricks and treachery. Sometimes they managed to nick supplies and escape, but no goblin has succeeding in harming our children in over fifty years though many of tried. What concerns me are the “new” goblins. Rangers speak of goblins that fly through the air. Sailors speak of goblins that swim like fish. Prospectors speak of goblins of huge size with stony skin. If these new goblins start working together or worse, breeding together, we will face a threat greater than any our ancestors ever saw.

Kobolds: They usually only cause problems when provoked, best avoid them.

Spoiler: Opinions of a Master of the Meckelorn Armorer's Guild

Meckelorn Armorer’s on the Others



Greystone Clan: They have a strong sense of personal entitlement which makes them difficult to negotiate with.

Red Shaft Clan: Excellent customers. Their warriors are strong because they understand the value of quality weapons.

Red Scales Clan: The cheapskates would rather fight with sharp sticks than treat with us fairly.

Dragon Bane Clan: Good customers. They are so hungry for the respect of the elder clans that if you appease their need for flattery they are trivially easy to negotiate with.

Heart’s Fire Clan: They are good customers but they have playing merchant for so long, negotiating with them is not always easy.

Order of the Stone: We offer them a substantial discount in honor of might Hallisan but they still prefer to rely on their own smith.

Priesthood of Mera: The bats can worship Mera all they want.

Priesthood of Khemra: The scroll heads can worship Khemra all they want.

Priesthood of Phidas: We understand each other but that does not make us friends.

Rangers: They preview primitive bartering over trading in coins, but I suppose rangers have always been a bit on the primitive side.

Maiden Guard: In honor of their valuable contribution to our communities safety, we give the Maiden Guard a 5% discount on all weapons and armor purchases!

Kalazotz: They are good at handling tasks too trivial for dwarves to get involved in.

Stahlheim: They understand that guilds serve the greater good for all dwarves by ensuring all tradesmen meet standards of excellent.

Mondert: We get a few visitors but they are too far away to set up a practical trade agreement.

Kantoca: A rare few horse lords who seek truly great weapons and armor are wise enough to seek us out, but not many

The Borderlanders: We should stop propping up the paupers of the Freistadt and the Barony of the Bats and see if we can work out an alliance with the Crystal Fields Baroness and the Platinum Consortium.

Fumayans: They are trustworthy but can rarely afford our services.

Swynfaredians: They can afford our services but are rarely trustworthy.

Codenya: Irrelevant tree huggers.

Uskalans: We are building a great stockpile of weapons. In the unlikely event the Uskalans attack, we will be ready.

Orcs: We are building a great stockpile of weapons. In the likely event the orcs attack, we will be ready.

Goblins: The dagger sheaths are good practice for green soldiers to cut their teeth on.

Kobolds: Their scaly skin is thicker than most other mortals but not nearly thick enough to turn aside our blades.

 

Fair Folk Revisited

I still have a lot of work to do, but I finally nailed down some basics that I am comfortable with.

The Fair Folk are called the “Fair Folk” not because they are pretty or nice but because they may be wrathful if they are talked about in an unflattering matter.

History and Origins of the Fair Folk

In the Age Before Ages, the Nine and the Traitor, aka “the Ten” were Turoch’s primary servants. Turoch had hundreds, perhaps thousands of lesser servants. It’s not clear what form these servants took. Some say that these lesser servants were mortals that were part of Turoch’s soul farm, they were just privileged slaves. They were still eaten by Turoch but before they were eaten they were given power over the others. Others state that these were immortal beings of the same general essence of the Ten, just much weaker.

Whatever these lesser servants used to be, when the Nine fought Turoch and the Traitor during the Divine Rebellion, most of the lesser servants chose to be neutral refusing to side with Turoch or the Nine.

Spoiler: What about the lesser servants that DID participate in the fighting? (Tangental to the main topic)

The lesser servants that sided with the Nine or Turoch are believed to have mostly or perhaps entirely slain, either during the Divine Rebellion or during the First or Second Unmakings.

There are many legends on rumors on what happened to these survivors. A common tale told is that the eight demon lords were the only eight surviving servants of Turoch left though many demonologists insist that the demon lords were/are entirely new beings since the lesser demons seem to be entirely created by the Void itself, it is easily possible that the Void also spawned the Demon Lords.

Most of the Nine have one to four spirit servants of exceptional power kept in reserve for extreme situations “Release the Kraken!” type situations. A common tale told is that these extra-powerful spirits were originally created by Turoch but sided with the Nine and then ended up joining the entourage of the member of the Nine it felt the most kinship with. If this is true, none of the spirits have admitted what their origins what but none of these extra-powerful spirits are particularly chatty. Most theologians believe the Nine are capable of creating spirits of this power level if they choose, so again these super spirits may or may not date back to the Age Before Ages.

Some theologians believe the few survivors who sided with the Nine are now indistinguishable from the younger spirits created after them. Just because these servants of the Nine are older than the rest of the Nine's spirit minions, they are not necessarily more powerful.

The vast majority of the surviving lesser servants of Turoch were the precursors of what are now known as the Fair Folk or simply the Fae. The Nine could have destroyed these lesser servants of Turoch who refused to join the fighting, but at this point most of the Nine were tired of fighting. Also, while the Nine had the upper hand, their upper hand was not so strong that the precursors to the Fair Folk did not have the potential to cause the Nine and their new world great harm.

The Nine basically let the Fair Folk inhabit the ruins of Turoch's palace in exchange for an understanding that they would not interfere in the Nine's business in the mortal plane. I'm not sure if I want this Détente to be a formal treaty or an informal warning.

The Fae took up residence in Turoch's home plane, because that is the sandbox they were allowed to play in. The realm is now called Fae Home.

Since almost everything in Turoch's spiritual palace was demolished, the Fair Folk rebuilt Turoch's home plane from the ground up in their own image. They set up a link to the Elemental Plane to both provide building material to work with and to sustain their own energies.

The Fair Folk either created plants and animals that mimicked those in the material plane or they imported some plants and animals from the material plane and the plants and animals then adapted to their new conditions.

Fae Home is flooded with magic and the four primordial elements so there are all sorts of things like crystalline forests, fiery salamander lizards, ice giants, and other elemental based flor and fauna. Just so I have a term to call these things, animals adapted to the Fae Realm that are not Fae themselves, I will call "sprites."

During the First Age, not many of the Fair Folk dared to challenge the détente that the Fae would stay in Fae Home and the mortals would stay in the Mortal Plane. There wasn't much incentive to cross over because both mortals and Fae had everything they could ever want or need on their side of the fence.

Of the mortals of the First Age, for the most part only the dragons had the power necessary to enter Fae Home, and very few did so.

The Fair Folk and dragons that crossed into "the other world" were mostly hyper curious explorers, dumb adolescents tampering with power beyond their ken, or criminals and pariahs who were looking for an escape from their home societies.

This means that the dragons and the Fair Folk saw the worst aspects of the other culture and these views spread through their tales. Even many thousands of years later, modern dragons and modern Fair Folk distrust each other.

The relative peace and stability between the Fae and Mortal realms came to a crashing halt with the First Unmaking. As elemental energy washed over and reshaped the mortal plane, the Fae Realm was hit at least as hard. The Fair Folk’s elemental powers were destabilized. Most of them became weaker and all of them had less precise control over their powers and forms. Many Fae died or were horribly mutated.

No longer able to meet all their material and energy needs from the Elemental Plane, the Fair Folk were now forced to interact with the Mortal Plane just to survive.

The First Unmaking completely upended Fae society. The Second Unmaking probably was rough on them too, though it is possible that they could have done the metaphysical equivalent of barring their door closed and waiting it out. After all, the Second Unmaking was precipitated by Void Demons spawned Turoch's hunger and the Fair Folk's ancestors chose to sit out of the original fight with Turoch. I'm not sure if the Void Demons could have entered Fae Home to feed on the creatures therein but they certainly would have tried to attack Fae Home.

Though some Fae as individuals might have tried to negotiate with the Void Demons and some might have tried to fight the Void Demons on behalf of mortals (either out of genuine concern or to protect their food supply).

If the Void Demons launched a partially successful attack on Fae Home or if a faction of Fae became Infernalists, that could have changed Fae society directly.

One indirect impact of the Second Unmaking is that watching the Nine's minions fight back against hordes of demons with only limited success made the Nine seem a lot less threatening to the Fair Folk.

The Fair Folk had been violating the Détente against interfering in the mortal plane for quite some time because they had no choice, but they at least tried to be subtle about it, and they gave the priesthoods and theurgists of the Nine a wide berth. In the Third Age, the Fair Folk are much bolder about interfering with mortals.

What do Fae Want and Need?

I spoke with my friend Eron. He liked the idea that Fae feed on emotions because it differentiates Fair Folk from all other entities.

Void Demons feed on souls, undead feed on primal life force, elementals passively feed on the energy of the universe like metaphorical photosynthesis or osmosis, the Nine and their spirits feed on worship, and various monsters feed on flesh.

At the moment "feed on emotion" is being left deliberately vague. That way Fair Folk can do almost anything a story requires.

They can also form pacts with mortals which may or may not involve emotions. Somehow the Fae get something out of mortals going out of their way to do things for them.

One very simple pact for very simple Fae is a Fae spirit cleaning a peasant family's house in exchange the family for periodic saucers of cream being left out.

On the extreme end you could have a village that makes periodic human sacrifices to the Fae in exchange for bountiful harvests or general health.

Of course individuals can make Fae Pacts to gain supernatural powers in exchange for weird flaws or periodic service. Something none of my players were even remotely tempted to consider. Hence why I haven't developed Fae much yet. But if someone else was running a game, and Fae warlocks was a character option, that's what I would play. I did make a 5th edition D&D character like this for a game that never made it passed session Zero.


Fae entering the Mortal Plane and Visa Versa

While very powerful Fair Folk and mortals can cross between the Mortal Plane and Fae Home almost anywhere using almost any 'tween spot, but most cannot do so unless there a portal or a gateway.

In the Third Age, there are hundreds of portals and gateways linking the Mortal Plane and Fae Home though most are only accessible at certain times (such as only a midnight or only at dawn) and others are only accessible on certain dates, especially the "'tween times". The major 'tween times are the halfway points between the Solstices and the Equinoxes, the Scarterran equivalents of Earth's Celtic holidays of Midsummer, Beltaine/May Day, Samhain/Halloween, and Imbolc/Groundhog Day. Thus the 'tween times tend to be associated with Fae activity. Noon and midnight count as 'tween times on normal days but only for about 30 seconds to a minute.

The metaphyiscal idea is that to cross between the Fae and Mortal realm, you have to move "between the realms." During the Tween times, noon and midnight, the whole world is between things. Same for the Tween Days which are halfway between the Solstices and Equinoxes.

Most Faerie gateways are located in 'tween places which usually means bridges (which are between two sides of a river or stream) and doorways which are Tween different rooms. I Scaraqua, most of the Fae gateways would be located on the haloclines which are the tween zones between seas though I probably need to narrow down the portals to a specific portion of the Halocline rather than the entire Haloclines because haloclines are huge.

Other Fae Portals are not activated by specific times, but they need to be activated with passwords, drops of blood, singing a song of opening, or eating specific food before stepping through among other fantasy tropes.

The rarest and most powerful portals are essentially always open and they are usually guarded heavily.

Then of course there is the confusing aspects, that portals might not always be two directional. Some portals might always be open on one end but only open on the other end on rare occasions.

Portals can also be person specific. Some portals are biased to make it easier for mortals to exit Fae Home and make it easier for Fae to exit the Mortal Plane but other portals do the opposite and act as proverbial booby traps to ensnare people from the other side and not let them out.

Death and the Fair Folk

So Fae are not native to the mortal realm and they are descended from Turoch's spiritual servants who were not mortal in any official sense. Fair Folk both belong to the world and are outsiders. They are both mortal and immortal.

My thought is that Fair Folk age very slowly, often existing for hundreds or thousands of years, but hundreds or thousands of years is not forever.

When a Scarterran Fair Folk grows old, his or her mind dies, but not the body, not exactly. They kind of degenerate into creatures of animal like intelligence or less. Because Scarterran Fair Folk are shape changers powered by the elemental, their final form can be weird.
"Why are those two willow trees literally weeping, and are eternally on fire?"

"Oh that's just Uncle Oberron and Aunt Titania."

That covers Fair Folk that die of old age, essentially contracting a combination mental and physical illness. I'm not sure if Fair Folk that are slain by violence would also shape change into something that is still technically alive but not really.

Fair Folk killed by cold iron or Void energies might instead reform into undead remnants.

The above stuff, I'm more or less set on, the below stuff is in the Maybe File.

Unanswered Question..."Adult Situations"

In the real world a lot of Faerie tales feature true love, unrequited love, star crossed love, wholesome puppy love, erotic lustful hookups, and terrifying rapacious couplings.

Real world faerie tales are more often to have non-heteronormative coupling than other stories. Because Faerie are magical shape changers, you could theoretically have a baby conception from a same sex coupling. It's not quite a Faerie tale, but it is something Loki did in Norse mythology.

In real world Earth there were also lot of stories about changelings. Changelings were usually babies, but sometimes children and adults were taken. Babies are taken by the Fair Folk and replaced with a Faerie baby. Sometimes the Faerie baby was intended to grow up among humans and act as an agent for the Fae and other times the Faerie baby was a simulacrum that wasn't a true person and would "die" in a few weeks.

One story from the old defunct RPG gameline Dark Ages Fae, it explained that if a Faerie baby is swapped for a human baby, it creates two changelings. The human baby raised in a Fae Realm will eventually turn into a full Fae while the other Fae can be picked up and recruited once it grows to adulthood.

I'm not sure how often I want Scarterran Fae and Scarterran Mortals to interact romantically. One idea that I have is that during the Second Age when the Fair Folk's elemental powers were destabilized and they had to interact more with mortals, it's possible they opted they wanted or needed to bring in mortal blood to stabilize their forms and powers. Of course the Scarterran Fair Folk could have obtained mortal blood with either sexual coupling, changeling kidnapping or a mix of both.

In real world Faerie art, a lot of Faerie look like elves or goblins. In fact, before D&D and Warhammer, goblins and elves were almost synonymous with Faerie. It just so happens that during the Second Age when the Scarterran Fair Folk wanted to strengthen their mortal ties, the two most populous mortal races were goblins and elves. Real world Faerie tales often incorporate mermaids, so that could work for Scaraqua.

So my main thought is that modern Fae are like 80% Fae, 20% mortal on average. They didn't want to incorporate more mortal blood than they had to. Full 50/50 hybrids would probably be second class citizens in Fae society.

Besides Fae that are 20% mortal, there could be mortal races that are roughly 20% Fae. I'm thinking may unicorns, satyrs, and centaurs. Perhaps one or two homebrew creatures not directly lifted from real world mythology that have Fae based origins.

Unanswered Question...Fae Factions

I certainly don't want Scarterran Fae to be a unified bloc, but I'm not sure how I want to divide them.

One is by environment. The Fair Folk are tied to the Mortal Plane but the Mortal Plane is divided between Scarterra, Scaraqua, and to some extant Scarnoctis. The Fae Home Realm could have semi-separate divisions for the land, sea, and underground as well with separate societies that barely interact with each other. Or maybe not, the shapechanging could care little for this division.

The Fair Folk have elemental origin so they could have metaphysical or philosophical ties to the classic elements of Fire, Air, Water Earth. Maybe they also have ties to more defined elemental such as ice, magma, crystal, dust, etc. Maybe not. Maybe elemental ties are no longer politically important to the Fae are purely a cosmetic thing.

Scaterra has humans, elves, goblins etc. Scaraqua has merfolk, karakhai, Astalakians, etc. Fair Folk races from western mythology could include sidhe, pooka, satyrs, brownies, pixies, trolls and redcaps among others. From Japanese mythology we can throw in Oni and Tenuki among others. I cannot name too many off the top of my head, but African, Native American, Aboriginal, Indian, Chinese, and Polynesian mythology all have creatures which could be the inspiration for a race of Fair Folk. To use the vocabulary of the out of print game line I love, Changeling the Dreaming (CtD), this would be a Fae's "kith."

The spinoff from CtD was Dark Ages: Fae their were three "origins." Changelings, Inanimae and First Born. True born are old school Fae that are spawned by two Trueborn having sex or a lesser Fae sprite that managed to gain enough power to let it evolve into a true Fae. Inanimae are humanoid creatures that are "born" when magical energy coalesce around something natural creating tree Inanimae, wind inanimae, fire inamae, etc. Changelings were either the result of baby swaps of mortal and First Born infants or human adults brought to a Fae realm long enough that they morph into a changeling. The term for this from that game series is called origin. I like the CtD kith more than the DAF origins, but they both have some appeal.

Real world Faerie tales usually have a Seelie and Unseelie court or a Faerie and Goblin Court (which is essentially a Disneyfied version of Seelie/Unseelie). Others have Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter Courts.

I really like the seasonal courts of DAF. The Winter and Summer courts are traditionalists who want to keep humanity at arm's length while the Autumn and Spring courts are reformists who want to adapt to the changing mortal world. The Winter and Autumn Courts are harsh and pragmatic while the Spring and Summer Courts are romantic for lack of a better word.

I'm not sure that fits Scarterra though though I could adopt their system of seasonal courts to the four classic elements though a voice in my head is telling me I should come up with courts for my setting that are not simply repurposed from another book's lore.

That's probably enough for one post.

 

I thought the World Anvil Summer Camp Contest was long over, but apparently I got an honorable mention for my article on haber crystals.

haber crystals

Haber crystals are a valuable type of durable reagents that slowly grows in areas saturated with the ambient elemental energy of earth.Haber crystals can incorporated into any magical item crafting that involves metal. At a sufficiently high temperature, the crystals will melt and mix well with most known metals.Haber crystals grow in stalks of mineral from the ground vaguely looking like spiraling stalagmites. They tend to be found in areas with lots of ambient earth elemental energy.Haber crystals are valuable and are technically a renewable resource because their crystalline stalks keep growing albeit haber crystals grow quite slowly and stalks can be permanently damaged or even destroyed if crystals are harvested too quickly.A typical small crystal stalk can safely produce approximately 50 gold pieces worth of usable crystals every year while the largest known stalks such as those in the Barony of Crystal Fields can let someone harvest 500 to 1000 gold pieces a year without causing permanent damage.
Properties
Geology & Geography
There are over a hundred known "stalks" of haber crystals throughout Scarterra though most of them are quite small and they are widely spaced apart. Most of them are found in rocky rugged hills and mountains.The Borderlands fiefdom known as Barony of Crystal Fields happens to have multiple large stalks in one place making it the best source for haber crystals in all of Scarterra.It is rumored that there are even more stalks of haber crystals deep underground in the caverns of Scarnoctis that put the Barony of Crystal Fields to shame, but this like most so called facts about Scarnoctis, remains a subject of much speculation.Haber crystals never naturally grow in Scaraqua , but haber crystals and metals alloyed with haber crystals are not actually harmed by lengthy exposure to sea water.
History & Usage
Everyday Use
Almost any magical item incorporating metal can use haber crystals as part of the base reagents but haber crystals lend themselves especially well to crafting magical armor and bludgeoning weapons.
Refinement
If haber crystals are melted at a high temperature, they can form an alloy with most known metals. Metals alloyed with a small amount of haber crystals can be used to craft magic items.
Reusability & Recycling
Once melted down, haber crystals cannot be extracted from whatever they are melted into, but metal alloyed with haber crystals can usually be recast without a lot of difficulty.
Distribution
Storage
Haber do not require special storage conditions and seem to be able to be stored indefinitely.
Law & Regulation
Trade of harvested haber crystals is not illegal in any locality in Scarterra though in some places there is an excise tax placed on their sale (along with most other reagents).If a stalk of haber crystals is harvested too aggressively, this can permanently hamper it's ability to grow new crystals in the future. General powers that be that own these crystal stalks will very harshly punish any crystal poachers that damage their stalks in this way.

 

So I was pondering on whether the Fae Courts should be based on the four classic elementals/four directions/four seasons or something else.

By the way. Fire/South/Summer/noon, Earth/East/Spring/dawn, Air/West/Autumn/dusk, Water/North/Winter/midnight if I lifted the courts from the published work Dark Ages Fae by White Wolf publishing.

But whenever I'm stuck on a binary question for a long time, I usually fall back on.



So I'm thinking that Scarterra's Fae had four very powerful courts very similar to the courts in Dark Ages Fae. But then the First Unmaking decapitated the leaders of all four courts.

The four original courts still exist, but they are mostly paper tigers now. Now there are dozens of new courts. Most of these courts are basically warlord fiefdoms. If a Fae that can dominate a valuable resource and ration it out their their friends and followers, that Fae can essentially declare herself a lord or lady. I'm not sure if the Fae are going to use King/Queen, Duke/Duchess, etc or if they would have their own titles. I figure Scarterran Fair Folk would be egalitarian, at least regard to the sexes. They would not be egalitarian with regard to race, social class, or elemental affinity but at least males and females and would be equal at least on those grounds.

Of course these petty courts would plot and scheme against their neighbors and there would be Fae that try to eschew joining any Court.

There would be a political faction that wants to restore the original four prime courts to their former glory. There would be a faction that would want to eradicate the existing remnants of the four prime courts.

There would be factions that want to create new mega courts based on something other than elemental affinity and there might be a faction of Fae proletariat that want to abolish courts altogether.

Most Fae are too arrogant to worship anyone or anything, so they would never worship the Nine or Turoch (whatever form Turoch has now), but they are not so arrogant that they don't realize that the Nine and the Void Demons don't have power that can threaten them. So many Fae are willing to negotiate with the Nine and the Void Demons but they aren't willing to serve them. But the Fae probably don't agree on the proper way to deal with the Nine and their spirits, Void Demons, or mortalkind and they could easily have political and/or philosophical divisions based on the "correct and proper way to deal with our lessers."

A very common theme in Scarterra is that constant divisions hamper their potential. In theory the Fair Folk are collectively powerful to challenge the Nine but they are too busy fighting themselves to even dare to try something like that.

The dragons could take over Scarterra if they cooperated, but they can't cooperate.

If Scaraquans unified, they could dominate all Scarterran sailors and bring the seafaring nations to their knees, but they cannot cooperate.

The Nine could probably seal up the Void forever and create a paradise on Scarterra if they could cooperate better.

So all these factions will be fun to come up with but the real fun will be coming up with Scarterran takes on Faerie races.

But if everyone cooperated, we wouldn't have constant intercine struggles to make stories about.

 

Okay, so I found my Dark Ages: Fae book.

This is not Scarterran canon, this is another game line's canon, but I would like to milk it for ideas.

So this is set in the 1200s or there abouts of a fictional version of Earth that is historically accurate but not. The main historical events still unfold like they did in the real world but there a bunch of supernatural creatures lurking in the shadows. Dark Ages: Fae is in the same universe as Dark Ages: Vampire, Dark Ages: Werewolf, Dark Ages: Mage, and Dark Ages: Inquisitor, but you can easily run a Fae game and never meet a vampire or werewolf or whatever.

The Fae believe their ancestors created the world and everything in it (this contradicts the lore of Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and Inquisitor, but no matter). Also "the world" means "mostly Europe." There were four competing courts, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

The four courts fought for dominance for literally thousands of years. It was rare but not unheard of to have four sided battles but they did occur, and in roughly 400 AD, they had a big one and highest ranking member of all four courts was either slain or went missing. This didn't end the war, but there were no more big battles, just periodic skirmishes. Then in 1100s the Fae discovered that the quaint little empire the humans called "Rome" had fallen but there was this new thing called the Roman Catholic Church which had come to dominate most of Europe and it just so happens that Catholic and symbolism was actually very deadly to Fae. Also, the human race grew in numbers and now had far better weapons and technology than they had the last time the Fae were paying attention.

A lot of Fae were tired of all the war, and this seemed like a good excuse to take a 100 year "Oath Truce" to pause the War of the Seasons. A hundred years is a very short time for Fae btw. They don't age or view time like humans do. Nor has this stopped plotting and scheming for the War of the Seasons even though they are mystically bound from fighting each other in the name of court or raising armies.

The Spring fae embrace change n all orms, watching life progress over seasons and reveling in all its myriad variations (including many different ways it can end). They have lost many of their greatest holdings from centuries past, but of all the Courts , they are most adept at finding new homes and adapting new surroundings.

The Summer court prides itself on adherance to tradition and structure, and harsh observance of discipline. Summer fae are stern but fair masters, and their love of traditions means that they have retained many treasures and strongholds from ages past.

Fascinated with humanity, even more than most fae, the Autumn-kin are contemplative and clever. Swearing an oath with an Autumn fae is much likemaking a deal with the Devil -- enticing, empowering and often deadly in the final analysis. The Autumn fae look at humans and their faith with wonder and ambition, and they of all Fae know the next phase of the War of Seasons depends on dealing with humanity.

The most brutal of all of the Fae, the Winter-kin lurk under bridges and in dark forests. While they are vicious warriors, most are not looking forward to the end of the Oath Truce with any degree of enthusiasm. Organized war isn't much to their liking, but preying on humanity and the thrill of nighttime hunts, the taste of blood and fear -- these things are very much to their tastes. It is only the notion of plunging the world into a deep savage night that spurs them to participate in the War of Seasons at all.

There are four power dominions which encompass the Fae's powers: Day, Dawn, Dusk, and Night. Summer Fae get a small bonus when using Day, Spring Fae with Dawn, Autumn Fae with Dusk, and Winter Fae with Night but a Fae is not required to study the magic of his or her seasonal court and it's not uncommon to have Fae exercise dominions not associated with their court.

Day magic is slightly more powerful on the Summer Solstice, Night magic on the winter solstice, Dusk on the Autumnal equinox and Dawn on the Spring equinox.

Day magic is slightly easier at high noon and a 30 minutes before and after. Night is tied to midnight. Dusk is tied to sunset and Dawn is tied to sunrise in a similar fashion.

All of the dominions have power over certain elements, certain plants, certain animals, certain metals, certain emotions.

For instance, level one magic lets a Fae turn leaves or other worthless materials into coins or other fake valuables that disappear in a few hours (faerie coins). I think level four magic can make real metal. Night makes silver, Dusk makes bronze, Spring makes copper, and Day makes gold. Day wins this contest but they lose out elsewhere. All Fae dominons have shapechanging as a power manifestation at level two, and Day is limited to domesticated animals while the other dominions get to turn into cooler things.

Day magic is tied to gold, courage, love, majesty, fruit bearing plants, domesticated animals (dogs, pigs, cows), light, fire, mind control

Night magic is tied to silver, fear, dreams (especially nightmares), illusions (especially stealth via darkness or blinding enemies), evergreen plants, carnivorous nocturnal animals (cats, wolves, crows), water, mind shielding.

Dawn is tied to copper, innocence, purity, healing, fortune telling, flowering and vine-like plants, swift and peaceful herbivores that like the dawn (rabbits, deer, and songbirds), fertility, lowered inhibitions, stealth by being overlooked or forgotten, earth, and weather control.

Dusk is tied to travel (including bypassing locks and other sneaky stuff), sneak predators like foxes, thorny plants, reading minds, ghosts, illness, seeing the past, wind


I'm likely to use the Dark Ages: Fae system of seasonal courts as a baseline for Scarterra's elemental courts, and I'm probably going to use the four dominions of DAF as baselines for Scarterra's Fae powers.

As of yet, I'm not yet sure what I'll keep and what I'll change.

But I'm going to have Fire, Earth, Water, and Air Courts. The courts will have had a long history of rivalry during the First Age. But the First Unmaking decapitated the leadership of the four Courts forcing a lot of the Fae in the Second Age to make due without the structure of the courts supporting them, but some Fae found that they liked this autonomy.

By the Third Age, the four elemental courts are reestablished, but they are less powerful than they used to be. The four elemental courts still are rivalries but they have moved from being enemies to being frienemies. They are quietly making under the table deals with each other to unite against their shared enemies, the Fae that think the elemental courts are a joke.

Now the realm of Fae Home is dotted with dozens if not hundreds of small "courts" ruled by local lords or ladies who are able to hold onto their lands with naked force. A few of these little courts are loyal to one of the elemental courts. Many pay lip service to one of the elemental courts, and a few openly tell the elemental courts to suck a lemon.


Related note, I mentioned that portals between the material plane and Fae Home are often in Tween places. Since the entire Borderland Regions is sort of a Tween Place, I think that region should have a disproportionally high number of Faerie portals and thus a disproportionally high number of Fae incursions.

Fae meddling could help explain why the region is so politically unstable with so many coups and regime changes.

 

I keep track of it with my prodigious intellect. Also, I have gobs of notes and of course my World Anvil account lets me organize my ideas into categories.

Here is my base article on the Fair Folk, it covers the basics of what it is to be a fae.

Here is my base article on Fae Home, the realm where Fair Folk hail from.

If an average Scarterran found a scholar learned in Fae Lore, they could probably find out all the information in the above articles if they asked politely. The stuff I'm going to write below gets into the weeds, and very few mortals know this information.

While most people would not link Fairy Tales with George Orwell, I am drawing a lot of inspiration for this from 1984. In 1984 the nations of Oceania, East Asia, and Eurasia were in perpetual war over the Equatorial Front (neutral ground that kept changing hands between the three major powers). The three nations were each strong enough that they could survive indefinite attacks even if the other two nations allied against them. The three nations used the perpetual war as a means of keeping their population placated and under their thumb because they need protection from the perpetual war. If you are unfamiliar with 1984, here is a good summary.



History of the Four Elemental Fae Courts

During the First Age, Four Elemental Courts: the Fire Court, the Earth Court, the Water Court, and Air Court were in perpetual war though the war did not look like a conventional mortal war where soldiers lined up and fought with weapons, at least not always.

If a bunch of Earth fae occupy a piece of territory in the realm of Fae Home, the area will gradually pick up more Earth elemental energy, become rockier, more mountainous etc. If a group of Fire fae occupy an area, it will gradually grow hotter. The four Courts all had the goal of terraforming as much of the realm of Fae Home as they could to meet their version of “perfection.”

There are small portions of Fae home that are naturally awash in elemental energy. There are bastions that are permanently inundated with the mystical energy of Fire, and the Fire Court built mighty fortresses here. In the unlikely event the Earth Court, Water Court, and Air Courts formed an alliance against Fire, the combined might of the opposing Courts cannot defeat the Fire Court in their primary bastions though they can force the Fire Fae out of the neutral areas. The Air, Earth, and Water Court also have similar bastions that are strong enough to withstand an a combined attack from the other three Courts.

With no side able to win a permanent advantage, the four courts are always in perpetual war. If the other three Court pushed the entire Water Court to hide behind their castle walls, the alliance against them would fall apart and the Courts would probably gang up on whichever Court seems to have the most territory at that moment giving the Water Court an opening to flow out of their bastions and resume grabbing new territory. The Courts thus would frequently make and break alliances and all alliances were temporary.

The saddest thing according to some modern fae historians and story tellers, the four Courts didn’t really need to fight during the First Age. The realm of Fae Home, had the metaphysical equivalent of a utilities hook up to the Elemental Plane for both cheap power and cheap food. For all intents and purposes, the Fair Folk wanted for nothing. The fae do need to eat, and they do need shelter, and they like having tools, but during the First Age, they could conjure an almost limitless amount of food and building materials in their home realms. The anti-Court fae claimed that the Lords and Ladies of the Four Courts created this perpetual war so they would have a perpetual excuse for dominating the commoners.

Some modern fae, particularly Court loyalists, argue the opposite. Fae Home, perhaps all of Scarterra and Scaraqua too is defined by conflict. Everything alive in Creation has at least a tiny amount of the essence of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Even a Fire aspect Fair Folk needs a little bit of Water, Earth, and Air to live. If the fae stopped fighting all together, Fae Home would wither and die because the elements are not mixing properly. Blood spilled in war fertilizes the universe so new life can grow.

The anti-Court Fae find this ridiculous and point out that life would better for all Fae if they could stop fighting pointless wars. In fact, if the fae want to mix elements, they can do this in peace time pretty easily. A majority of fae consider this taboo, but some fae take this “mixing of elements” in a very sexual direction and created a small number of elemental hybrid fae children. That’s not the only way to have mixed element fae. If two earth fae conceive a faerie baby in an area inundated with fire energy, their child will probably have earth and fire traits. A few hardline Fair Folk conservatives find this scandalous and taboo, but most fae don’t bat an eye at this kind of passive mixing.

In any event, the First Unmaking broke the perfect connection between Fae Home and the Elemental Plane was damaged. The Fair Folk no longer had infinite resources and they now had to deal with scarcity. The Fair Folk had to enter the Mortal Plane to survive.

In the First Age, nobles of the Fair Folk had previous forbidden meddling with the Mortal Plane and very few fae had reason to enter the Mortal Plane other than curiosity because as mentioned before, they wanted for nothing. Those Fair Folk that chose enter the Mortal Plane were mostly Court-less Fae that entered the Mortal Plane both to thumb their noses at four Courts and to find a refugee where the Courts could not harm them.

After the First Unmaking, The fae were now required to periodically enter the Mortal Plane just to survive. Most of the fae that were holding the keys to entering the Mortal Plane were fae who hated the Four Courts. This means a lot of fae commoners abandoned their Lords and Ladies to ally with these former Court-less pariahs. Also, when the Fae were dying of the faerie equivalent of malnutrition, the idea of fighting for the glory of your Court seemed a lot more foolish, so even the fae that stayed with their Courts opted to dial back their wars with the other three Courts.

The Four Courts eventually rescinded their bans on their subject entering the Mortal Plane but the Court-less Fae had a head start finding, creating, and securing portals linking Fae Home to the Mortal Plane.

The Four Courts had another handicap besides losing the first mover advantage, which is metaphysics. Remember how I said that Fae portals are usually found in Tween zones? Tween zones occur where two or more things meet and you cannot find a Tween zone in a homogenous area. The Four Courts are centralized in bastions of uniform elemental power. These regions are not conducive to crossing over into the Material Plane.

The four elemental Courts still have their nigh-invincible fortresses but their power to influence the areas outside of these bastions is limited. Thus the Four Courts have went from being all-powerful to being little more than paper tigers.

I'm not 100% sure, but I may have a few of their "impregnable" fortresses actually get ransacked during the First and/or Second Unmaking. Even a temporary breach would be a stain on the honor of the Court in question and would embolden Court-less Fae.

There are a small number of Fair Folk who still fervently believe in their Court leaders and still want their element to dominate Fae Home. There is also a small number of Fair Folk who want to see the Courts die out entirely. Most Fair Folk fall in between these two extremes and are willing to change their spoken opinions on the issues of Courts to whatever is expedient in the short term. If the ruler of the local area is staunchly anti-Court, most visitors will at least pretend to hate the Courts.

Now there are scores of independent Fae realms. Some of these Faerie Lords and Ladies are loyal vassals of whichever Court matches their own elemental ethnicity, some pay lip service to their Court, some try to maintain ties to more than one Court, and some are proudly Court-less.


While Scarterrans and to a lesser extant Scaraquans have noticed that a great many Fair Folk seemed tied to the Elemental Plane on some metaphysical level, very few mortals know how the Fair Folk Courts are divided now. A few might have pieced together clues to figure out that there is a Fire Court, a Water Court, an Air Court, and an Earth Court but they don't know how they interact or that the four Courts are not only quarreling with each other but they are also fighting Court-less fae. Most mortals have no idea that the Fair Folk are now trying to figure out where mixed element fae fit into their political order.

Given that Fair Folk are unpredictable shape shifters, mortals rarely know if they are encountering different fae or if they are encountering the same fae in a different form. This makes it really hard for mortals to wrap their heads around Fae politics.

For their part, the Fair Folk are not exactly experts on mortal politics either. Also given that Fair Folk live a really long time compared to most mortals they have a lot of trouble keeping track of what king or queen is sitting on what throne. That said, Fair Folk are usually better informed about mortals than mortals are about Fair Folk. While mortal politics changes quickly, mortal religion changes a lot slower. The Fair Folk may not worship the Nine, but they at least understand them and they have a rough idea what to expect if they are dealing with Mera's Tenders or Maylar's Testers.

While the Nine are all different, they agree that they don't want Fair Folk interfering with the rightful worship of mortals. Most Fair Folk in the Material Plane will give the Nine's temples and priesthoods a wide berth and choose to interfere with more secular mortals. Though during the Second Unmaking saw the Nine's temples and spirits get humiliated so they are less afraid of the the Nine than they used to be.

More on the specifics of the Fair Folk Courts and how the four Courts are differentiated is coming soooooon.

 

Lets get even deeper into the weeds and probably talk about elemental aspect fae more.

A quick Note on Faerie Magic

I only hae a rough outline for Fae magic powers but I'm going to make five general lists of power, Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and General.

Earth Fae get a small bonus when using Earth Fae magic, but they can wield the magic of the other three elements and non-Earth fae can wield Earth fae magic too. The same goes for every other element aspect.




Heavy Versus Light Aspects

A heavy fire elemental aspect fae is probably going to have eyes glowing like hot coals and a hair that is perpetually on fire. A heavy water aspect fae probably has watery semi translucent skin and hair or a beard that is a literal water fall. You get the idea. Heavy elemental aspect fae are marked by an element in a very extreme way.

Heavy elemental aspect fae used to be the “normal” default for Fair Folk but there are fewer and fewer of these with every generation, and they are now a minority among Fae.

A light elemental fire aspect is going to look pretty similar to a “fiery” mortal with frizzy red or yellow hair and other more or less purely symbolic cosmetic features that vaguely remind one of fire but they are not actually going to radiate heat or ignite combustable materials. Light water aspect fae would probably just have blueish skin and flowing and wavy but very human looking dark hair. The plurality of the Fair Folk have a light elemental aspect.

Fae with no elemental aspect may still have elemental powers, but nothing in the elements is blatantly part of their bodies. These fae used to be very rare, but now they are only moderately rare. They are still a small minority, but their numbers are growing with every generation.

A rare few fae have two light elemental aspects and a very rare few fae have three light elemental aspects. It is rare but hardly unheard of for a fae to have a heavy elemental aspect colored by a light elemental aspect. The rarest fae of all are those with two heavy elemental aspects. These fae tend to attract a lot of attention, both positive and negative, from other Fair Folk where ever they go.

The only way for a Fair Folk to have two heavy elemental aspects is for two heavy elemental aspect fae of different types to copulate and conceive a child. This is considered somewhat scandalous by many Fae, especially those who back one of the Elemental Court.

Fae racism is fairly rampant. Fae with elemental aspects look down on those who don’t have it, and some fae without elemental aspects believe they are the future and the old guard is inferior to them. There are a few self-hating Fair Folk, but the vast majority of fae believe whatever combination of elemental traits they possess is the “best” combination of elemental traits a fae can have and all others are inferior.

One would think that Fae with heavy elemental aspect are usually staunch supporters of their respective elemental court and those with light elemental aspects are casual supporters or rebels. This is not the case. You can not accurate guess a fae's court affiliation just by looking at them if they are not wearing heraldic symbols.

Many heavy elemental aspect fae resent being told what to do by the Courts. If you are the perfect personification of Fire, then it is is insulting for the Fire Court to try to order you around. Conversely, some light Fire aspect Fae overcompensate by being enthusiastic supporters of the Fire Court. Even mixed elemental Fae can choose to throw their lot in with one of the old school Courts or try to maintain ties with multiple courts. Though Fae without any overt elemental traits, these Fae are usually very opposed to old school Elemental Courts because the Elemental Courts treat them like pariahs.


Earth Aspect Fae and the Earth Court

I’m thinking earth aspect fae are strong and slow, but not slow as in dumb. The earth aspect fae have some dummies, but no more than the other groups. They are slow in that they are careful and deliberate, but once they decide to act they act with complete certainty and are terrifyingly relentless. Think of the Ents from LOTR that spend a long time discussing things but when they go to war, they really go to war. Or imagine a pile of rocks that sits dormant for 20 years and then causes a devastating avalanche with no warning.

Words used to describe earth aspect fae often include the words: stalwart, steadfast, stubborn, focused, stoic, and vain.

Sometimes the earth is mellow and doesn’t care what the rest of the world does, a rock is still a rock whether the wind blows or the water flows over it. Sometimes earth can be very controlling deciding where water flows and shaping how winds blow, and fueling or smothering fire. A lot of earth aspect fae are very controlling and want the Earth Court of Fae to dominate everything. A lot of earth aspect fae would rather live and let live and want the Earth Court to go suck a lemon. There are comparatively few earth aspect fae that are indifferent to the Earth Court or merely provide lip service. Most of the time, it’s all or nothing. The nobles of the Earth Court remain confident they can still be the dominant Fae power and are carefully plotting to slowly and steadily gain territory, fortifications, and treasure.

Earth fae magic includes enhanced strength and durability as well as an enhanced ability to stand one’s ground and avoid knockdown. Earth fae magic allows fae to meld with the earth and even travel through the earth like the worms from Tremors. Rocks have long memories, so earth fae magic can peer into the past. Rocks are hard to move so earth fae magic can be used to resist hostile magic that changes them such as mind control, emotion manipulation, or hostile transmutation.

Fire Aspect Fae and the Fire Court

Fire aspect fae are passionate first and foremost. They usually act with little forethought and do what feels right, in other words, they are hot heads. They love and hate with equal intensity until their passions burn out and they ignite their passions for something else. They tend to be artistic and industrious being spiritually connected to the fires that shape pottery and metal. They tend to be social being spiritually tied to hearth fires, but because their passions burn out and reignite elsewhere, they may be social but they are not steadfast. They like to have other people around them, but they are not particularly concerned if it’s the same group of people as it was yesterday. This means romantically, monogamy is almost alien to them.

Words commonly used to describe fire aspect fae include hot headed, hot tempered, passionate, lustful, social, fickle, intense, curious, and vain.

Some fire aspect fae are staunch supporters of the Fire Court and some are staunch opponents of it, but the majority are fence sitters who pay lip service or change their mind on the court a lot. While a few members of the Fire Court dream of bringing the other three courts to heel, most of the old school lords and ladies of Fire believe that before that can happen, the elemental courts need to convince all the Court-less rabble to bend the knee. They are willing to work with the other three Courts to make this happen and then they can resume fighting. The Fire Court is more likely to meddle more with mortals than most other courts as opposed to acting with and against other fae directly. The lords and the ladies of Fire understand that mortals are the key to true power.

Fire fae magic of course includes summoning fire and blasting people. They can manipulate inner warmth to survive in hostile environments. They can lower inhibitions or increase courage. They can fan the flames of love or lust or cool them off. They can manipulate light. Fire symbolizes wisdom and keeps the darkness at bay giving them access to more divination and illusion counters than most other elements. They have minor access to sickness and illusion magic via their spiritual ties to smoke which is tied to both sickness and illusion.

Air Aspect Fae and the Air Court

Fae in general are known to be fickle and curious hedonists, but air aspect fae have these traits in spades. They are always in motion and eager to try new things and learn new things, but they rarely stay focused on any one task for long. Air aspect fae may or may not be musically talented but they nearly always appreciate music. These fae have to always be in motions, figuratively or sometimes literally Other fae are, but the air fae do.

Words commonly used to describe air aspect fae include curious, hedonistic, flighty, fickle, contrarian, talkative, and vain.

The Air Court may be the weakest of the old school courts. In the past, they fought with the other Courts just so they could have something to do. Now the old courts don’t do much and mostly sit in their ancient citadels and talk about how things were better in the good old days. The Air Court still has a few castles in the clouds but they have the fewest die hard supporters of any Court and are the least likely to meddle in the other Fae. On the plus side, they don’t have as many die hard enemies as the other Courts either because of their live and let live attitude. Some air aspect fae are even finding a niche for themselves as neutral arbiters for the disputes of other Fae groups.

Air fae magic includes magic related to travel especially flight. Their magic includes clairvoyance and clairaudience, limited mind control, enhanced speed, healing and vitality.

Water Aspect Fae and the Water Court

Water is always moving, but always constant. Water aspect fae may be shallow or they may have great hidden depths to their personalities, but they always want to pretend to be deep even if they are not. Many water aspect fae like to speak in riddles and are frustratingly indirect. Water distorts light, so many water aspect fae like to put up a false front.

Words commonly used to describe water aspect Fae include enigmatic, sensual, empathetic, mercurial and vain.

Water aspect fae like being hard to read, but unfortunately for them it is usually pretty easy to tell if a water aspect fae is a staunch supporter of the Water Court or if they are an opponent of the Water Court. Use your nose. Court supporters usually smell of salt. In a metaphysical sense, the oceans are not purely made of water. The sea floor is composed of the essence of Earth, the heat currents are the essence of Fire and the bubbles and currents are the essence of Air. That said the Water Court believes their future is in Scaraqua. All four Courts and the various Court-less factions all want to control as many portals between Fae Home and the Mortal Plane as possible and the Water court bet all their chips on Scaraqua. The other three Courts can try to meddle with humans and other Scarterrans, but the Water Court is content dealing almost exclusively with Merfolk even ignoring most other Scaraquans. The Water Court is trying to keep the other three Courts and the various Court-less factions out of the seas as much as possible while the water aspect fae that are not affiliated with the Water Court have almost uncontested control of the lakes, rivers, wells, and rainfall of Scarterra because the Water Court doesn't find these fae worth the effort of bringing to heel.

A great many fae have shape shifting powers but water aspect fae tend to be the best shape shifters. A great many fae have illusion powers but water aspect fae tend to be the best illusionists. They also have minor access to healing and augmentation.

 

I finally got to take a break from adulting to enjoy a local Oktoberfest with my buddies. Naturally, what do red blooded males such as we discuss over beers? Fantasy world building.

So my friend suggested that because Fair Folk are so fantastical, they should be used sparingly or frequently, but not in middling amounts.

In other words in either the Monster of the Week is occasionally a Fair Folk or Sprite or Remnant but generally the Fae do not impact major events.

OR

The entire premise of a RPG campaign or a novel is based around one or more Fae villains with many minions and third wheel Fae NPCs.


His words hold wisdom, but left to my own devices, I usually tend to gravitate towards the middle. According to Eron, creating my own versions of Fae Kith moves in a middling direction.

Originally I was thinking that every Fair Folk character I create is an entirely unique creature. They look unique, they have different powers, goals, personalities, weaknesses, etc.

The alternative, to use a term from the White Wolf game line Changeling: the Dreaming and introduce Faerie kiths, or essentially faerie races.

I am thinking of having some unique Fae and some Kiths. And because Fair Folk are racist or whatever you want to call it the unique Fair Folk look down on Kiths for being cookie cutter Fae with no individuality and the Kiths look down on unique Fae for being mongrels with no heritage.

Two Fae of the same Kith would look similar but not identical and they would have similar but not identical powers and maybe similar but not identical Echoes.

An Echo is a weakness unique to a Fae. Most Echoes are trivially easy to exploit if you know what the Echo is but your odds of finding an Echo by accident are low. For instance, one Echo is that a particular Fair Folk might not be able to harm a mortal wearing his clothes inside out or a Fair Folk might be injured if someone addresses him by his name backwards.

Also, note a Fair Folk cannot use an Echo against another Fair Folk, only a mortal can wield an Echo. But a Fair Folk is perfectly capable of sharing the knowledge of an enemies Echo amongst nearby mortals.

Optional Idea: Fair Folk without Kiths gain their first Echo in adolescence and gain new Echoes quickly. After a Fae dies of old age after 1500 years, he might have seven or eight Echoes.

Fair Folk with Kith are born with one Echo and only gain additional Echoes slowly. After 1500 years of life, such a Fae probably only has two or three Echoes. The problem is, the entire Kith has the same birth Echo, so it is a lot easier to discover a Fair Folk's weakness if they have a Kith.



That's kind of cool, but it's kind of limiting also. Once in a while, I need something statted out for a throwaway encounter.

For instance, so Session 0 (when people make their characters and backgrounds) was much faster than I thought it would be, so I figured I might as well start Session 1 but I had nothing concrete planned.

"So you are traveling on a winding road to the big city and you are attack by ummmmmm,"

(At this point, I only had statted out about 25-30 creatures)

What do I have stats for that they can find and won't create a lot of loose ends that's neither too strong or too weak?....Anhkeg!

"A giant insect creatures burrows out of the ground and attacks Aranil's horse!"

Some time I just might want to have a pack of identical Fae as a random encounter. Though Eron points out that this leads to middling encounters.


Anyway, without further ado. Here are two sample Kiths I am strongly considering including. Redcaps and Kitsune.

Redcaps

Redcaps, based on Scottish folklore, have showed up in many RPGs, so I might as well include them too.

Redcaps are named for their fondness for dipping their caps in freshly spilled blood. Redcaps are roughly gnome sized but they are supernaturally strong and solid for their small size.

In much folklore, redcaps are all leathery skinned ugly men, but Changeling: the Dreaming has half of them be leathery skinned women. I figure I would rather have redcaps reproduce in the same general manner humans reproduce, rather than have redcaps asexually reproduce from spores or have a small number of redcap queens laying clutches of eggs. But I'm not going to go deep in the details. Redcaps have males and females in roughly equal numbers, and they make baby redcaps that way. Unless I say otherwise, assume most Kiths have equal numbers of males and females and they reproduce the "traditional" way.

Redcaps tend to favor large bludgeoning weapons but they can also kill foes with their sharp teeth, and they are perfectly capable wielding almost any weapon they find. Redcaps can chew and eat almost anything and many have a taste for human or faerie flesh.

About 30% of redcaps have mild earth aspects, 20% mild fire aspect, 35% no elemental aspect, 15% all other possibilities. Redcaps have some fae magic, but it’s not their forte. They prefer to use brute force to solve their problems as opposed to use magic or abstract thought to solve problems though they certainly are clever enough to set up traps and ambushes.

Redcaps rarely opt to play politics. They usually form small bands of their own kind and follow and meanest and toughest redcap or maybe the cleverest redcap. Redcap bands may act independently robbing and killing whomever they like or they will act as mercenaries hiring themselves to various Faerie lords and ladies that need unsubtle muscle.

Redcaps have short life spans compared to most other fae, tending to go through their Final Change somewhere between 450 and 550 years old. Most redcaps live lives of violence so they rarely survive to see their Final Change. Redcaps frequently but not always leave behind Remnants that are poisonous mushrooms. A redcap that dies violently will probably leave behind one large ugly mushroom while a redcap that lives long enough to go through his or her Final Change will often become a circle of mushrooms, often with mystical powers such as perpetually growing mushroom based reagents or even a portal between Fae Home and the Material Plane. In real world folklore, dead redcaps leave behind a single large tooth when they die. Which I suppose they can do that too. Such a tooth probably has some kind of magical properties that would make them valuable, but not so valuable that hunting redcaps would be a viable career path.

I'm not sure what echo to give redcaps. In the real world folklore, redcaps are destroyed by recitations of scripture or the brandishing of a crucifix, both of which cause them to burst into flames and leave behind a single tooth.

I probably don't want to go that far as to have redcaps bursting into spontaneous flame, but I'm thinking the redcaps weakened by symbolism of the Nine. Specifically, the Nine together. Simply brandishing Khemra or Mera based icons at them would have not effect. Probably the Symbol of the Nine would cause them mild pain and perhaps a recitation of all nine names of the Nine in a row would cause modest injury.

Kitsune

Kitsune are based on Japanese folklore and have come in a wide variety of interpretations. Below is my interpretation of Scarterran Kitsune.

Kitsune all have innate shapechanging powers. Their true form is a fox-humanoid hybrid. They can also take the form of normal foxes or normal humans, usually very attractive humans or very handsome foxes with full shiny coats. Kitsune are highly magical and always have additional powers in addition to shape changing, but two Kitsune probably won’t have the power set.

Kitsune are sometimes nicknamed “nine tails,” but only the oldest and wisest kitsune actually have nine tails. Kitsune grow additional tails as they grow in age and mystic power.

After childhood, Kitsune, like most Fae, no longer age much, so counting their tails is about the only way to guess a Kitsune's age.

Kitsune can hide their tails whenever they wish but most like to flaunt their tails whenever they can which can sometimes be a problem. Almost any Fair Folk that dies in the material plane can have their corpse harvested for reagents but Kitsune tails are especially valuable.

In their true form, Kitsune have sharp claws and teeth, but they are rarely front line fighters. Kitsune are nimble but rarely very strong, so their claws and teeth are not very effective against an armored opponent.

Their magics tend to favor enchantment, illusion, trickery, and rarely have many brute force magic abilities, but Kitsune favor versatility. Most older Kitsune eventually learn a few heavily damaging magical tricks.

About 30% have mild air aspect and about 30% have mild water aspects. About 40% are a hodgepodge of other elemental makeups.

Whether part of the the major courts or one of the minor or acting as a lone agent, Kitsune are socially oriented and love to play games of intrigue and influence.

Kitsune grow new tails as they get older. Babies have a little stub which takes about five years to grow enough to resemble an actual fox tail.

After the first tail, additional tails have a very small transition phase growing from stub to full tail in a few weeks or even a few days. Typically each new tail takes longer to appear than the previous one. Something along the lines of 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 40 years, 80 years, etc. New tails often start appearing after a life changing event or epiphany. Kitsune usually undergo their Final Change after around a thousand years of life. Being natural shapeshifters, Kitsune Remnants can take almost any form though they usually have some throwback to several tails such as a vine heavy plant.

Kitsune can survive losing a tail (or more) and the tails grow back fairly quickly, but their new replacement tails are never as beautiful as the original and their powers and psychology are never the same afterwards. Kitsune that lose one or more tails in life frequently turn into predatory and violent Remnants after their death or Final Change.

Essentially, a Kitsune’s birth Echo is that they are extremely ill effected if their tails are chopped off. At that same time, while Kitsune can hide or retract their tails, they don’t like to. They have a psychological compulsion to show them off out of vanity.

 

It's generally a lot easier to adapt something from an old story than to create something whole cloth. So once in a while I will type "Native American folklore creatures" or something similar into a search engine and see what I get. Often stuff, I wrote off before as "Too weird for Scarterra" would qualify as "Exactly weird enough to be a type of Fair Folk."

Here are some maybe file Kiths. Even I decide not to create kiths based on them, these ideas are too cool to not use at all. For instance, even I don't want to create a Kith of Fair Folk called the Qalupalik, I probably want to create at least one unique Fair Folk lady named Qalupalik skulking in the icy northern waters of Scaraqua.

African Folklore

A Tikoloshe (or Tokoloshe) is an evil-spirited gremlin in Zulu mythology. A shaman may send a Tikoloshe to vex his enemies, causing anything from harmless fright to illness or death. Tikoloshes are described as short hairy humanoid figures that can render themselves invisible by swallowing a pebble - all the better to sneak up on their victims.


The Popobawa is a fairly recent manifestation reported in Zanzibar and Tanzania. The creature is a demon who appears as a normal human by day, and a one-eyed, bat-winged monster at night. The Popobawa attacks and sodomizes both men and women in the dark of night, and is particularly vicious to those who don't believe in him. Attacks were first reported in 1965 on the island of Pemba. Reports of attacks come every few years, with a large number in 1995 attributed to mass hysteria. Some think that the attacks of the Popobawa can be traced to "waking dreams" or "night terrors," in which the person experiences hallucinations somewhere in between lucidity and sleep. The name Popobawa in Swahili translates to "bat wing."


The Impundulu or Lightning Bird is a supernatural bird from Pondo, Zulu, and Xhosa folklore. The South African bird is as big as a human and can summon lightning and storms, hence the name. The bird is sometimes a shape shifter that can appear as a human, and sometimes said to be a supernatural familiar that guards a witch or witch doctor. It will attack people and drink their blood. However, parts of the Impundulu or its eggs have medicinal powers.

An impundulu would probably be a Sprite, not a Fair Folk. In Scarterra Fair Folk are people, Sprites are beasts. Much like humans, elves, dwarves and the like compared to horses, pegasi, and lions.


Native American Folklore

I am tempted to use Wendigo as a Fair Folk or Remannt, but I prefer the idea that they are cursed mortal though I could have subspecies of Wendigo that represent a type of Remnant.

I could use Skinwalkers. But Skinwalkers are not normally otherworldly creatures, skinwalkers are evil men and women who make pacts with otherworldly creatures.

It is not hard to find badass art of Skinwalkers.



A lot of Western Faerie tales have lessons for children "Don't go into the forest alone at night" is a common one. The Qalupalik is an Inuit monster that snatches children that play near the edge of the ice near the water fond of drowning and/or eating said naughty children. Given that sing it kind of reminds of me of Western Siren monsters. I think Qalupalik would make a good fit in Scarterra with a modest amount of tweaking.

Uktena are cool, they might make a good Remnant.

Floating Heads would make a fantastic Remant too. Though I might use them as Maylar spirits instead. I like Floating Heads a lot (one of my past short story entries featured), so Scarterra is going to have a few, whether or not Floating Heads are a spirits, Fae creature, or mortal plane monster.

Spoiler: The Teihiihan are an awesome template for Fair Folk!

The Teihiihan were a race of dwarves who preyed on Native tribes living on the plains of Wyoming and Colorado
The Teihiihan – deriving from the Arapaho word for “strong” – are a race of cannibalistic dwarves with allegedly superhuman strength. Although descriptions vary, the Teihiihan are generally depicted as the size of children, with dark skin, and said to have an extremely aggressive and unsociable disposition. According to some legends they possessed the ability to become invisible, whilst others contended they merely seemed so due to the incredible speed with which they caught their adult prey. Within Native folklore, it is widely agreed that the Teihiihan were destroyed in an ancient conflict, in which the Arapahos and other Native American tribes allied to successfully defeat them.

A unique aspect of their characters, it is suggested in some tales that the Teihiihan had the ability to remove their hearts and store them for safekeeping, in so doing protecting themselves from physical harm to their persons. One such prominent story within Native folklore tells of a warrior captured by a family of Teihiihan, and who to delay his death asks his dimwitted captors about the macabre organs adorning their residence. Upon learning their true nature the warrior stabs each of the hearts, killing each member of the Teihiihan family and winning his freedom.

That's just a few minutes of lazy searches. At some point I need to try a deeper dive into ancient legends, perhaps going tribe by tribe.

Western folklore, especially Celtic and Germanic folklore is a goldmine. Most Western faerie tales as we know them are based on Celtic or Germanic folklore.

I haven't even dipped my toe into the water for Indian and Ancient Chinese folklore creatures that would make good Fair Folk. I am having a lot of fun.

 

I mentioned "Remnants," so I thought I should write a full article on them.


Go to Scarterra Homepage
Remnants

Fair Folk like to boast about being immortal, but they do not live forever, and they can be slain by violence.

Fair Folk also eventually grow old, though it takes a very long time for most with most of them having life spans between 250 and 2500 years old. Technically they do not "die" of old age, but they do cease to be.

During a Fae's "twilight time" a Fair Folk will lose his or her mental faculties while physically mutating, transition from one of the Fair Folk into that of a Remnant. Remnants take many forms, plant, beast, or even a landmark.

Remnants are often extremely strange, such as a perpetually flaming willow tree that is always making crying noises. Whatever form they take, Remnants have a symbolic connection to the Fair Folk they once was. Some Remnants are dangerous, some are beneficent, and many are merely benign oddities neither harmful nor helpful.

Monogamous Faerie couples often go into their twilight together and merge into a single dualistic Remnants. Likewise, twins are very common among the Fair Folk become merged Remnants when they die.


Some Fair Folk are comforted by the notion that a part of them will always live on, but others view the mental and physical mutations as terrifying. Fair Folk are a proud people, very few Fae will admit they fear becoming Remnants.

Certain Remnants are considered blessed and some are considered cursed, and the Fair Folk have many superstitions about what actions in life lead one into becoming a pleasant reincarnation or a foul one.

Remnant Management
It is generally taboo for one of the Fae to harm or destroy a Remnant, especially if the Remnant used to be a friend or family member. This is tantamount to a mortal grossly violating a corpse. Most Fair Folk will work to accommodate a nearby Remnant, even if doing so is inconvenient, but they will reluctantly destroy a Remnant that is overtly dangerous to Fae.

When Remnants appear in the mortal plane, many Fair Folk will try to relocate them back to Fae Home for the Remnant's protection though they can be hypocrites if a Remnant is highly dangerous. In such a case, Fair Folk will often deliberately push such Remnants into the mortal plane because they would rather not violate the taboo of not harming a Remnant when they can pawn the problem off on mortal adventurers (and maybe kill a few mortals they don't like in the process).

Remnants, as well as common Sprites can be destroyed by mortals and processed into reagents.

For most mortals, it is very difficult to tell the difference between a Remnant and a Sprite since the most Fair Folk try to hide the nature of their twilight time from mortal kind so even many Fae scholars have never even heard of "Remnants." A great many Fair Folk are completely indifferent to the slaughter or domination of Sprites but will go to great lengths to enact on vengeances who dishonor a Remnant. This of course makes the Fae seem even more fickle to mortals than they already think they are.

(Big Sidebar)

What About The Ones Who Don't Make It To Old Age?
Many, but not all Fae slain by violence leave something behind. A "remnant" with a small "r" rather than a big "R." Lesser remnants might a small flower bush, a large mushroom, a rodent sized animal, or a large tooth.

These lesser remnants sometimes have minor magical properties but they are often little more than harmless curiosities. Some Fair Folk will try to collect these lesser remnants to stage a funeral with but many others view them as wholly inconsequential.

Fair Folk that die violently under highly emotional and/or supernaturally unusual circumstances occasionally leave behind Undead Remnants. These creatures will eventually get their own article, but needless to say they are terrifying as they are rare.

(little sidebar)
Genetic Ancestor(s)

• • Fair Folk

Geographic Distribution

• • Fae Home

 

Here is a proof of concept.

This very sad song has an example of an Echo, in this case her Echo "my life force is connected to an ancient tree" and she leaves behind a small "r" remnant when she is slain by her Echo.

 

Here is something not related to Fae, though I suppose a Fair Folk lord could hire a bailiff, that seems unlikely to me.

I've been going over my older posts to edit them and update hyperlinks and I saw a couple references to bailiffs but nothing explaining what bailiff was.

In the 21st century, we hear "bailiff" as the guy in a court room who acts as the judge's muscle. But in a medieval context, the definition is very different.


Go to Scarterra Homepage
Bailiff

Most of Scarterra is dominated by feudalistic nations. Most kings and queens have many vassals who manage parcels of land in the name of their liege, but the king almost certainly has a personal demesne.

In a lot of cases, the king and queen are so busy dealing with their vassals and foreign ambassadors and other aspects of politics that have little time to manage their own demesne. Even dukes and counts often have this problem.

Any feudal lord of course cannot manage their land if they are not there. Perhaps they are off to fight a war, have an adventure, act as a political envoy, or simply shirk their duties to go indulge in hedonistic excesses.

It is often the case with feudal bishoprics that the ecclesiastical rulers are too focused on spiritual concerns to be willing and able to deal with day-to-day decisions of managing the land. Likewise, the mage lords feudal covens often prefer not to have to deal with lowly tasks such as realm management.

If a lord or lady cannot or simply does not want to directly manage his/her own land, the lord or lady can hire a bailiff to do it for them.

The bailiff makes sure the servants are paid, the livestock is fed, tools are maintained, vital assets are guarded and otherwise make sure all the little details of realm management are attended to.

Bailiffs are similar to courtly Stewards. They both have similar job descriptions, but there is a social class distinction.

A bailiff is an employee paid a salary on a temporary basis (though a good bailiff will probably have his contract renewed) while a Steward is a formal court position that is theoretically held for life (though a lousy Steward can still be removed by their lord).

A king or duke might have a bailiff and a steward, but most lesser lords and ladies have to make due with one or the other. If the ruler has both, the steward probably has the bookkeeping while the bailiff is the one who actually goes out to supervise the staff.

 

I got an article on the Maiden Guard. A lot of World Anvil people use copyrighted images without crediting the author, but I follow the rules.

I've cleaned out most of the art from my older articles that violated WA's policies (that they rarely bother to enforce). I'd like to use this picture, she's wearing medium armor (neither clunky full plate or a chain mail bikini) and carrying a crossbow (not a ludicrously oversized axe or hammer), realistic gear that the Maiden Guard would likely use most of the time. Sadly the picture it's copyrighted.



Oh yeah, here is the article. I might try to design a dwarf lady warrior on Heroforge, that's legal. Or I could flag @Warden. What kind of heraldry or sigil communicates both Dwarfiness and communicates Girl Power?

EDIT: I found the artist's name and website. By World Anvil, I can use the picture now, but I'm still curious what Warden thinks their sigil looks like.

I imagine the Maiden Guard has banners hanging in their bases and in the great halls of kings and other potentates but they rarely march under their banner.

The Officers would probably wear a sigil on their armor and clothing. I don't know if the reservists (essentially the entire dwarf female population) would bother wearing any such insignia).

Maiden Guard

Both the dwarf kingdoms of Meckelorn and Stahlheim have a cultural norm that women take care of the homesteads, children, and elderly and men go out to mine, gather food, or march with the army, but the dwarves do not ‌ want their women to be damsels in distress.

Most dwarf women, much like dwarf men, are expected to be reasonably competent in a fight. The Maiden Guard is the organization responsible for making sure dwarf women can hold their own.

As part of her rite of passage into womanhood, an adolescent dwarf girl is expected to spend a minimum of three months undergoing training with the Maiden Guard.

Afterwards, until they are middle aged, dwarf women in the lands of Stahlheim are expected to train with the Maiden Guard for one week for every year, so their skills do not get rusty. In the land of Meckelorn dwarf women are expected to train with them two weeks a year to keep their skills sharp.

All dwarf women are expected to show basic proficiency with a crossbow and at least one melee weapon. Poorer clans tend to favor spears and richer clans tend to favor battle axes or swords. Any young dwarf woman that shows a special aptitude for weapons training is likely to be invited to become an officer of the Maiden Guard, either serving as a full time officer or serving three or six month rotations.

Any dwarf women under middle age can be called up as a reservist by a ranking officer of the Maiden Guard. Ever alert for dangers at the homestead, the Maiden Guard often manages to mobilizes before the women before men can muster their reserves, at least in the case of surprise attacks.

The Maiden Guard and their reservists more often than not are dealing with goblins and other foes that rely on trickery and guile over brute force. After generations of playing counter espionage, most of the best dwarf investigators are officers of the Maiden Guard. The Maiden Guard and their reserves are intended primarily as a defensive force, the defense of children especially. Dwarf women can sometimes accompany men in battle on offensive actions, this is pretty rare. It is fairly common to see dwarf men and women fighting side-by-side defensively.

When the dwarves are officially in a state of war, every war council has a officer of the Maiden Guard as an observer if not an advisor. Both the kings of Meckelorn and Stahlheim have a matriarch of the Maiden Guard on their council and most of their higher ranking vassals follow suit. It is not forbidden for an officer of the Maiden Guard to also be ordained as a priestess so the Maiden Guard has an ear in ecclesiastical politics. Since the officers meet with the women of the general populace often they get a lot of gossip and scuttlebutt. The Maiden Guard is one of few organizations that transcends the political boundaries of Meckelorn and Stahlheim All of this together means that the officers of the Maiden Guard are very well informed about the goings on of both the very high and the very low of dwarf society.

Detractors
While most dwarves hold the Maiden Guard in high regard, they have some detractors.

A few, mostly Stahlheimer dwarves, believe that it is a waste of time to train women to fight or it is amoral to send women out into dangerous situations, believing men should handle all of the fighting.

Others argue that the concept of women warriors is sound, but the implementation is flawed. Some think that dwarves should put their fighting men and women together rather than maintain separate command structures, separate armories, and separate supply lines. The Maiden Guard's material needs are sustained by "voluntary" donations but clans that are viewed as being stingy on donations get shunned and many men and women alike do not appreciate this.

Others argue that while girls should learn to fight just like boys do, it would better if young women trained within their clans like the young men do rather than training with strangers though it has been countered that since women join their husband's clan, it might be complicated if her father's clan and her husband's clan have different approaches to training, favored weapons, and drills, this necessitates women having their own parallel group with a more or less standardized set of rules.Others argue that it is unfair that dwarf women are expected to fight while most allied gnomes and kalazotz, male and female alike, are not expected to be able to fight.

Some dwarves in both major nations view it as a wonderful thing that Maiden Guard stretches across Meckelorn and Stahlheim while others in both nations would prefer the two nations create separate Maiden Guard organizations.

(Top Side Bar)
Are The Maiden Guard Officers Actually Maidens?
The officers of the Maiden Guard are not all maidens. Marriage is not forbidden nor is having a civilian job though many officers do choose to remain celibate and/or abstain from civilian work. Roughly half of the Maiden Guard's officers chose to marry and roughly two thirds of them choose to maintain a non-military trade.

Promotions come slightly faster to officers who are unmarried than those who are married. Promotions come much faster to full time officers than part-time officers who have a second job. Most of the ranking matriarchs are essentially married to the Maiden Guard.

Dwarf women have a high social expectation to get married and have children. Becoming an officer of the Maiden Guard is one of the few socially acceptable ways a dwarf woman can avoid marriage given that the Maiden Guard are responsible for the safety of all children, no one can accuse them of shirking their maternal duties.

Many dwarf men find officers of the Maiden Guard to be very attractive marriage partners believing that strong women bear and raise strong children. It is common to see officers of the Maiden Guard marry male war heroes. The children of such unions are are watched closely and have very high expectations placed on them. Sometimes these children grow up to be great heroes or heroines, or they might snap under the pressure and disappoint their parents and relatives.

Are some officers secretly "leafers"? Yes, but not as many as most dwarf men think.

(Bottom Sidebar)
What About Mondert?
Mondarian dwarves and Mondarian humans do not require their women to fight nor do they do forbid them from fighting.

The Mondert Armed Forces integrate their fighting men and women into the same force. They are generally less formal than other dwarves, they have very few full time soldiers. If there is a hostile force, the young and strong will take up weapons and band together to kill or drive off whatever the problem is.