My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

We are the Watchers on the Wall...

So I have resolved to read a lot more and play video games less. In preparation for me trying to find my voice as a fantasy writer, I have been tackling famous famous works.

I am currently working my way through Song of Ice and Fire. George R. Martin does a lot of things I like and a lot of things I don't like.

I do think one of his best ideas is the Wall and the Night's Watch.

So for quick recap, in the distant past, monsters came from the frozen north and the men of ancient times had to band together to fight them off and then they built an enchanted wall of ice to keep the monsters out.

Over the centuries, mankind forgot why they had the giant ice wall. They thought it was to keep barbarians and giants out, not to defend themselves against ice zombie hordes.

The Night's Watch manned the wall. It was originally intended as an apolitical organization to defend all of humanity in Westeros, but it turned into a recycling bin.

In Westeros, thieves get their hands chopped off, rapists get their genitals chopped off and murderers get their heads chopped off. Anyone convicted of one of these crimes can choose to "take the Black" and join the Night's Watch instead of taking their punishment.

Westeros has a lot of political coups. Lets look at the real world, Byzantium and then Constantinople. So lets say you are a warlord and you killed the old king. You let his kids go into exile because they are innocent children.

But all too often, the kids grow up and come back with an avenging army.

Well there were superstitions against disfigured people and no one wanted to follow a disfigured person into battle, so warlords took to disfiguring the children of their defeated enemies.

But nope, a disfigured guy managed to mount an army and kill guy who exiled okay.

Okay, lets try blinding them. What do you mean a blind guy managed to raise an army? I guess we have to exterminate the bloodlines of all our enemies

In Westeros, instead of exterminating a rival bloodline, they can send the family of defeated lords to join the Night's Watch. Part of the oath is forsaking all blood claims.

So the Night's Watch was partially a first line of defense against the Monsters off the edge of the map and was a convenient dumping ground for criminals and political exiles.

How do I use this concept in Scarterra?

Void Demons want to destroy all mortals. During the Second Unmaking, they came damn close to destroying all mortals.

The Void Demons never stopped attacking after the Second Unmaking, they just attacked in much smaller and less organized groups.

That said, even if you got a place where petty kings and warlords are in perpetual conflict, no sane prince is going to dare interfere with Void Demon hunters.

If Scarterra could create an institution analogous to the Wall and the Night's Watch of Westeros, they would.

Unlike the White Walkers and their undead minions of Westeros, Scarterran Void Demons and their undead minions can fly and swim although they are not very fast or agile flyers, so flying is good for long distance travel, but is not great for combat though they can fly over a ground based target and drop on them, a dragon or other natural flyer can slaughter mass numbers of Void Demons in aerial combat.

Void Demons are pretty nimble swimmers and can certainly keep up with Merfolk and other Scaraquans.

Here is a rough map of Scarterra and Scaraqua with the crude red arrows showing where Void Demons attack from.


Even if the Scarterran and/or Scaraquan powers that be made a grand treaty against the Void, there is no way anyone could set up a wall or a series of forts to catch all Void Demons before they get to something because there are no natural choke points unless I drastically redraw my world map (which I am not completely opposed to doing).

As far as Void Demons are concerned, Scarterrans' and Scaraquans' souls are equally delicious so both realms have to deal with Void Demons on a regular basis.

But wait, there is one choke point, kind of. The Demonic Strait (circled in red). Which ironically I named because the mightiest Demon Lord was destroyed here, not because I thought it would be a choke point to defend against demons.

It occurs to me that just south of this choke point, is the heartland of the Oshamni Empire, aka Water Rome. I circled this region in purple.


So it occurred to me that Water Rome could fortify the Demonic Strait with soldiers and fortresses and keep out most Void Demon incursions the same way the 300 Spartans kept the Persians at bay.

Void Demons can fly, so in theory, there is nothing stopping a Void Demon from breaching the water and flying overland bypassing the Demonic Straight and then diving back under water once in Water Rome's heart land.

The thing is, most Void Demons have the attention span of a goldfish and the restraint of a hungry dog near a pile of roast beef. Thus, if a troupe of demons make the plan to fly overland to surprise some Scaraquans further south, there is at least an 80% chance that they will forget what they were setting out to do and instead attack the first group of Scarterrans they see.

They won't be able to intercept every Void Demon incursion, but they will get most of them.

So this could be the main reason why Water Rome is so powerful. They have a much easier time defending themselves from the Void than the other great undersea powers to their west, east, and south who have no option other than to rely on roving patrols.

Scarterra, likewise has to just accept that random Void Demon attacks are part of life and hope the invaders bump into a party of badass adventurers before they find a big helpless village. In Scarterra, the priesthoods have monitoring systems in place. They cannot respond fast enough to save the first helpless village, but at the very least they will notice the village's losses and mobilize holy warriors to stop the problem from spreading.

Water Rome would have an elite group of warriors to defend the Demonic Strait, but few people are eager to fight a foe that won't just kill you, they will eat your soul, most of the soldiers would fall into two categories. 1) Soldiers of great patriotism that put the greater good above their own 2) riffraff that were sent to guard the Demonic Strait as a punishment.

That is surprisingly similar to George R. Martin's Night's Watch, but different enough that if my fantasy universe ever becomes monetized, I won't be sued or accused of being a hack...I hope.

 

So in preparation for the massive writing binge I plan to take in December for the next Worldember event, I am proofreading and re-organizing my old articles.

For instance, I noticed that the subarticles under the Keepers article were a mess because the ranks and titles were mixed in the factions and holidays so I am created a short article called "Rank and Title Among the Keepers" attached to the Keeper article and took all the detailed articles about each rank and attached them to the this one.

I'm also working on glossary. For those who wanted a glossary.

Would an alphabetical glossary of EVERYTHING be preferred or would separate glossaries for religious/metaphysical, nations/organizations, mortals/beasts be preferable?

 

Scarterran Equivalent to Teddy Bears

So I was at a restaurant and I saw a cute kid playing with a tiny stuffed dog toy and I got to think about Scarterran Teddy Bears.




In the real world, this is legend of the Teddy Bear according to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

HISTORY OF TEDDY BEARS

We’ve all played with one at some point; stuffed animal bears are rooted in our country’s childhood. But did you know that we have these stuffed bears because a certain man immersed himself in the natural world in the early twentieth-century?

Theodore Roosevelt, commonly known as Teddy, became the 26th President of the United States in 1901. Being an avid outdoorsman and naturalist, Roosevelt loved to explore the natural world. In his presidency he was even able to protect over 200 million acres of public land, and establish the U.S. Forest Service, as well as five National Parks! But what does this have to do with the stuffed animal bears?

In the fall of 1902, Teddy Roosevelt accepted a hunting invitation from Mississippi governor, Andrew Longino. Their guide was a man named Holt Collier, who knew the land well. Collier was determined to help an eager Roosevelt find a black bear. On the second day of their excursion, Collier came across one. Collier, who knew Roosevelt was significantly behind him with Longino, decided to tie the bear up for Roosevelt. However, when Roosevelt arrived on the scene, he was astonished. Roosevelt exclaimed that such an act would be unsportsmanlike.

The news of this act of compassion from the President spread so quickly around the United States that Clifford Berryman of the Washington Post produced the sensational cartoon at the top of this blog.

Then, a couple in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rose and Morris Michtom, saw the cartoon. They owned a penny candy shop and decided, for fun, that they would make a stuffed plush bear and display it in the window to honor the President. Rose cut out some pieces of fabric and sewed on some button eyes and put it in the window with the name, Teddy’s Bear. It was an overnight hit. So much so, that the Mitchtoms had to ask if they could use Roosevelt’s name for the bear. Roosevelt obliged, and their business took off! Instead of selling candy the couple decided to start the Ideal Toy Company, which went on to produce a multi-generational love of Teddy Bears.


Roosevelt’s children were some of the first to play with the Teddy Bear. Although not confirmed, It is said that as a gift the Michtom’s gave the above bear to Kermit Roosevelt, who was thirteen at the time. The bear was a constant reminder to the children of the tenderness of their father and his deep connection to the natural world.


Anyway, children have believed that their toys might have the power to protect them way before the early 1900s.

I was thinking that since Mera is the goddess of families and the protector of children. Dogs are considered a sacred animal to Mera's Tenders. Mera is the primary goddess of gnomes.

So I'm thinking gnome families have a tradition to give their small children a dog toy for good luck. Eventually human parents took this custom as well.


I'm not sure of the name for these. I'm thinking there is a name for these stuffed toys in gnomish that is hard for humans to pronounce so they bastardized it.

Gayoepops, but the humans bastardized this into Gopups or Go-puppies. I also like this because it kind of sounds like faux puppies.


A go-puppie might be a good medium for a miracle. The child swears the go-puppy told him to leave the house and an hour later the roof collapses. Stuff like that.


There will probably be numerous superstitions that go-puppies actually can protect children or at least provide good luck but in most cases they are just a toy. But since go-puppies are easy to make and fun for little kids to play with, they are a common sight in the hands of small children, both peasants and princes a like. The little princes have much nicer go-puppies than the little peasants, but the cheaper humbler go-pups are no less loved.

As a stuffed animal, you could theoretically put a tiny good luck charm into the stuffing and never tell the child.

And because Scarterra is a magical world, maybe sometimes a go-pup does have supernatural powers. Mera is not powerful enough to protect all children everywhere everywhen but she does her best.


Because I am a high functioning sociopath, I am well aware how I can use go-pups to tug at people's heart strings to make their emotions dance to my whims.

Here, a teddy bear was masterfully used to do so in one of the best television openings of the 21st century.



First you have adult mutants being locked up with ominous music playing and I am like "meh, been there done that" but as soon as you see faceless fascists try to grab two small children, one of whom clutching his teddy bear for protection, I'm like "ah mahrlect, this is serious!" Then you see Wolverine intervening pissed off as Hell and I cannot help but channel this guy.



So if I want to make someone heroic, I don't just have the hero save a child, I have the hero save the child desperately clinging to his go-puppy.

If I want to make people sad, when the hero arrives too late to save the innocent villager, he'll find corpses of children still clutching their go-puppies.

Or I can paraphrase Game of Thrones saddest character arc, but with a go-pup instead of a toy stag.

Spoiler: Game of Throne's saddest spoiler

Anyway, Papa Wolf is one of my favorite literary tropes, and I can use go-puppies as a storytelling tool to add emotional resonance to this.

If you go through the list of papa wolf (or mama bear) examples, a lot of them use a child's toy as a symbol of the protector's struggle.

 

So Shad created another video that applies to something I'm interested in. Drinking potions in combat.

Shad makes fun of how in video games, drinking a healing potion in the middle of combat is usually trivially easy.

He shows in simulated HEMA combat that it is time consuming to pull out a potion, uncork it, and drink it down. He also points out that an intelligent opponent will recognize what a potion drinker is about to do and try to rush the would-be drinker.



In my RPG system, D&D10, combat is split into 30 second rounds. You get a A action and a B action. The A action is making an attack or casting a spell and a B action is everything else, usually a defensive action.

In turns out in play testing that is very common for players to use half their B action to drink and potion and the other half to make a penalized defensive action. If they don't need a potion they will do a full defensive action or in the case of one player, use the B action for a taunt maneuver or acrobatic stunt.

I am not sure if it's realistic or not, but there is a cost. If your character drinks a potion, you skip doing something else or at least you heavily penalize your something else.

Shad himself mentions that if you live in a world where healing potions are a thing, soldiers would practice drinking potions in combat. While swinging around practice swords, they can have practice "potions" that are just water and their sparring partner can practice thwarting the potion drinking.

I think the net effect of this training would be drinking a potion would be fairly easy.

One thing the comment section of his video brings up is that you don't have to have the potion in a glass vial with a waxed stopper.

Real medicine was and is made somewhat inaccessible so they don't spill or leak, but necessity is the mother of invention. I think a healing potion intended to be used in the middle of chaotic combat would have an easy open tab. While kind of silly, you could have a potion dispenser system like a modern camel back or even a beer drinking hat. While these are modern things, it's not exactly out of the realm of possible for a pre-industrial to make a straw. Without plastic it is probably too expensive to see luxury straws in bars but you can rig something like this into armor.

I'm not sure about camelback dispenser or potion hats, but I do think Scarterrans would develop metal potion containers that clip to someone armor easily and have easy open lids.

It is also brought up that potion use during a battle would be a lot easier than potion use during a duel. Much like reloading a gun while your squad covers you a few seconds in modern fights, wounded people can fall back behind their allies and drink a potion quickly before returning to the fray.

 

After hemming and hawing over what map creator tool to use, I bought a copy of Wonderdraft. I watched a bunch of tutorials, but at some point, the best way to learn something is by trying it. There are a lot of tools and options and I barely scratched the surface, but perfection is the enemy of the good and a flawed map is better than no map at all.

Here is my first attempt to make a map of West Colassia with Wonderdraft.



The color coding loosely shows climate. Greyish white is subarctic/arctic (the Great Colassian Tundra), light brown is temperate and the greenish hue in the south is subtropical.

In case you cannot read the labels, Kantoc, my realm that combines Rohan, Camelot, and medieval Spain is in the plains area to the west.

The dwarf kingdom of Meckelorn is in the north of the World Seam Mountains, the dwarf kingdom of Stahlheim is in the southern portion and the area in the middle where the mountains are a little bit thinner is the Border Baronies Region. Fumaya is to the east of Stahlheim. Swynfaredia is south of them. Where the forest is thickest is Codenya, home of the Wood Elves and to the East of that is Uskala.



The feature exists to have the colors blend more subtly but that is one feature I'll worry about later. Perfection is the enemy of the good and good is the enemy of the okay.

I plan to keep making new maps or making minor edits to old maps. Eventually when I have several maps I can create an interactive map. In said future time, I will have a full map of Scarterra and if you click on any of the continent titles, it will then send you to a continent map. If you click on a nation title, it will send you to the national map and then city maps and building diagrams.

I think Wonderdraft is better than most other fantasy map programs out there (at least for my needs), but one thing Wonderdraft is not great at city maps and does not have the tools for building diagrams at all. I may buy a different program for that later or I may not worry about it. In my opinion city maps are not very important and if I really need them, I can draw them on graph paper by hand.

World Anvil has really been pushing Project Deios, but Project Deios is a map building program that is "coming soon." It has been "coming soon" for almost three years now. They are actually partners with World Anvil. Project Deios is promising a lot. If it delivers on half of it's promises, it will be superior to all other map building software, but until I see it, I'm not going to put any stock in it.

I'm not sure how well Wonderdraft will help me when it's time to make detailed maps of Scaraqua but I'll worry about that hurdle when I come to it, both for the color scheme and trenches.

I'm still fuzzy on the Borders, but the Elven Empire has a couple small colonies along the southern coastline interrupting Kantoc, Stahlheim, and Swynfaredia's southern coast.

While West Colassia only makes up about 30% of Scarterra's landmass it encompasses 100% of my RPG campaign and my proposed future novel, so that's where I'm going to focus my map building.

 

Here is the same map with pins

If you click on the pin for Kantoc, you have the option to read the article for Kantoc's land and/or their government. Same thing for all the other nations and the major landmarks.

The alphabetical glossary does not not have everything on it, but at this point it probably has more than half of everything on it.

It now has every divine being, every religious group, every divine fluff term, every mortal species, every feudal term.

I probably don't need to put locations on the alphabetical glossary because eventually I'll have interactive maps for the places. But in the mean time I need to stick the Science! and beasts on it.

 

World Ember 2021 is upon us, let the binge writing begin!

Lets see if I can claw into the top ten again.


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alchemy

Alchemy is the leading science in Scarterra. The core principle of alchemy is turning something into something else.The ultimate goal is to to turn lead into gold. This has not been achieved. Most consider this a metaphor for turning something dark and base into something beautiful and valuable.For adventurers the main use for alchemy is transforming rarified materials into reagents, especially durable reagents.Because reagents are valued by all spell casters, many alchemists are also Wizards, sorcerers, theurgists or favored souls, but a majority of alchemists are not spell-casters though most alchemists work with spell-casters on a regular basis.
Utility
Alchemists can manufacture reagents, adhesives, water proof metals, incendiaries, poisons and antidotes.
Manufacturing
Usually, alchemy requires various components to be combined in very specific quantities and ways at specific temperatures in sanitary conditions.
Social Impact
Since only rich people can afford alchemist training, most alchemists are in the employ of nobles and other wealthy people thus giving the upper classes another advantage.

(Sidebars)

Access & Availability
Many alchemists jealously guard their lore but most of the commonly used alchemical applications are widely disseminated.Alchemy requires expensive equipment and years of hard training to unlock even the basics of the science. This means alchemy is almost by default limited to wealthy people.Most alchemists are sponsored by a noble household. Some are sponsored by a temple. A few are sponsored by guilds. To be an alchemist, you need lots of time and money and these are usually things wealthy people and institutions have.
Discovery
Alchemy dates all the way back to the First Age. During the First Unmaking, many alchemists tried to secure their lore in guarded vaults so the knowledge would not be lost. While they were partially successfully in safeguarding their wisdom, much of their lore was lost and had to be rediscovered in the Second Age. During the Second Unmaking even more lore was lost, but over thousands of years of hard work, much of the lost knowledge has been regained in the Third Age. Some modern alchemists make the boastful claim that they have made breakthroughs not seen in earlier ages.
Related Species

• dragons
• dwarves
• elves
• gnomes
• humans

 

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Terrawans

The Terrawans are one of the two major factions within the Tenders. The other major faction is the Walchese. The Terrawans tend to favor a high degree of informality and encourage their priests, priestesses, and associates to be close to the people.The Terrawans maintain a large number of fairly small modestly appointed temples. Most of their clergy have a day job outside of their priestly duties, so one local priest or priestess might be also be a cobbler, potter, herbalist, midwife, apothecary, or almost any other profession.It is very common for Terrawan led religious ceremonies to incorporate many lay people into the ceremony.Terrawans encourage but do not require that their priests, priestesses, and associates get married and have lots of children to raise into the faith.Promotion within the priesthood is at the discretion of one's superiors. Promotions factor in talent and social aptitude, but seniority is usually the deciding factor with most leadership positions falling to the elders.
Culture
The Terrawans describe themselves as an extended family and will try to welcome outsiders warmly provided they are not rude or hostile.
Priesthood
Most of their recruits come from the lower classes. Most of their new members are recruited as adults or adolescents. Many Terrawan temples have more recruits than they can handle, so they will carefully screen the applicants they receive as well as their families.The Terrawans do not like to turn away more applicants than they have to. As a result, Considering their temples are fairly small, they tend to have a large number of priests and priestesses present.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The Terrawans are considered a peasant organization so many princes do not give Terrawan leaders much respect, but most princes realize that oppressing the Terrawans will make them unpopular with the small folk so Terrawan temples are given a lot of autonomy to run their temples and lands as they see fit.




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Eclipse-Touched

favored souls are mortals who are born with a spark of divine power from one of the Nine in them which usually manifests as they enter puberty. While some priesthoods do not afford much special status to their affiliated favored souls, favored souls of Khemra, the sun goddess, are the rarest favored souls and are afforded much special status. While most of the Nine have an uptick of favored souls born in their Zodiac Year, Khemra's favored souls are only born during her Zodiac year. During a typical Zodiac year, three or four favored souls of Khemra are born, pretty much always to parents who are fervent Khemra worshipers. Every eighty-one years, there is what is called the Year of Khemra Ascendant in which case ten to twenty favored souls of Khemra born, sometimes in unlikely place but never to families that are openly hostile to Khemra. Khemra's favored souls are frequently but not always born during or near a solar or lunar eclipse, thus earning Khemra's favored souls the title "Eclipse-Touched." Even if they are not born near an eclipse, they are considered spiritually eclipsed touched. Khemra is a very hidebound goddess very protective of laws and tradition but even Khemra acknowledges that changes and revisions are sometimes necessary. Eclipse-touched Keepers have the rare legal ability to propose and implement changes in ecclesiastical law and tradition. They can also act relatively free of the restraints of the Keepers' normal chain of command. Some Keepers work hard to influence Eclipse-Touched to push forth reforms that are favorable to their interests and others try to sideline Eclipse-Touch so they cannot push forth reforms. Sometimes, Eclipse-Touched are "encouraged" to join adventuring parties to gain experience and spread Khemra's light to the masses but in reality this is often to get a meddling Eclipse-Touched out of a temple's collective hair. Even Keepers who dislike having Eclipse-Touched around would not normally dream of sending one on a suicide mission.
Rebel Eclipse-Touched?
It is common subject of speculation among theologians, minstrels, and lay people at tavern hearths alike about whether or not favored souls have the ability to act against their deity's interests. There are no accredited stories of an Eclipsed-Touched acting directly against Khemra, but there have been a few who espoused that the current world-wide organizational structure imposed on the Keepers by the Pentarchs of the Tower of the Sun is flawed and that less organized Khemra-worship is preferable. These Eclipse-Touched occasionally found their own schismatic Khemra worshipping factions outside the Keepers normal hierarchy. Because the Keepers cannot directly oppose Eclipse-Touched, they have not labeled these schismatic groups as heretics though they almost never endorse them. Most of these schismatic groups collapse after their Eclipse-Touched founder dies and as of yet, the few that have survived afterwards have yet to grow very large in numbers or influence.
Transmission & Vectors
Eclipse-Touched do not normally pass on any unusual hereditary traits. Since most are staunch Khemra worshipers, they tend to instill Khemra-friendly values in their children, many of whom grow up to the clergy or holy warriors or even theurgists, but this is a product of their upbringing and not their blood.
Symptoms
Eclipses-touched often have golden skin or other sun-like features in their physiology. They always have divine magical aptitude and are usually magically potent. Sometimes Eclipse-Touched have unusual handicaps or flaws, or in RPG terms Flaws but this is not universal and nearly all Eclipse-Touched consider their minor handicaps a small price to pay for their magic and status.
Prognosis
This is generally viewed as a positive condition, not a negative condition. Eclipse-Touched tend to became magically more powerful as they get older.
Affected Groups
Khemra's favored souls are usually born to Khemra worshipping married couples. They are never born to parents actively hostile to Khemra's values. Eclipse-Touched are equally likely to be male or female. In the Third Age, the vast majority of Eclipse-Touched are Swynfaredian humans or elves. It is not unheard of for Eclipse-Touched to pop up in other races but it always an unusual and noteworthy event. Generally, eclipse-touched are treated the same regardless of race or sex because all Eclipse-Touched are rare gifts from Khemra regardless of their physiology.
Cultural Reception
Amongst Khemra worshiping cultures and subsets of society, Eclipse-Touched are treated with high regard, often able to routinely sup with high lords and ladies. In circles that dislike Khemra, Eclipse-Touched may find themselves the subject of discrimination or worse, but even then it is often considered bad luck to slay a Eclipse Touched.



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Near and Far Wedding Tokens

In addition to something old, something new, and something borrowed, it is common for the bride and/or groom to have a token that is from somewhere near and a token that is from far away. This wedding tradition is widely followed by peasants and princes alike. Naturally wealthier families will work to obtain very elaborate token and poorer families are content with simple tokens. Sometimes the bride carries the "near token" while the groom carries the "far token." Sometimes this is flipped. Sometimes the bride and groom each have their own set of both tokens. Sometimes only the bride or groom carries both tokens during the wedding ceremony. The "near token" can be as simple as a rock dug up from the field where the wedding ceremony takes place or dug up from the bride's or groom's family residence. If the couple is to be married in or near a temple, the priests or priestesses presiding over the ceremony are likely to manufacture a small token or good luck charm to give to the bride, groom, or both. This is commonly a wood carving with the symbol of the Nine or whichever deity the couple venerates most. Wealthier couples may commission to have their token crafted from precious metal rather than wood. The "far token" is commonly a coin. Because most coins across Scarterra use the same standardized weights, coins often circulate widely. Because most coins have the ruler and national sigil of the place they were minted, it is usually very simple to tell where a coin is minted. Poor families usually use a copper piece while richer families use a gold or platinum coin. A coin is not required, almost any token can do. Some families will buy or even commission a piece of jewelry or artwork from a distant land. Sometimes Scarterrans will try to seek an artifact crafted by Scaraquans. More often than not, the tokens are simply carried by the wedding couple and are not directly part of the ceremony but a few have incorporated into their wedding vows with the line "Wherever we go, near or far, I am yours and you are mine." or something similar. Both near tokens and far tokens may be kept as treasured heirlooms forever. Either they are passed down to the next generation or they are buried with the couple as part of their funeral rites. Alternatively, some families prefer to throw away or destroy their tokens in a simple ritual on their first or fifth anniversary or on the name day of their first healthy child.
History
This tradition is believed to have originated with humans or gnomes at some point in the the Third Age. Almost every human culture has some variation of this.Grey elves occasionally adopt this wedding ritual but it is rare among other elven ethnicities. Dwarves rarely practice this custom but a few Stahlheimer dwarves who commonly interact with humans have adopted this informally into their wedding as an afterthought.
Participants
Variations exist among cultures, so this is not universal but the near token is usually provided by the bride's family or the wedding officiant and the far token is typically provided by the groom's family.
Observance
There are no set rules on when these tokens are presented. Some times the tokens are part of a betrothal ritual, other times they are not unveiled until the day of the wedding. Often the tokens are bestowed on the bride and groom in between.


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Something Blue

In real world Earth, "something blue" was made up by a 19th century poet because it rhymed with "new," it was never a major tradition before that poem.In Scarterra the color blue is commonly associated with Mera and Mera is the goddess of families, it is commonly considered good luck to invite Mera's blessing on a wedding. Blue is often but not always incorporated into what the wedding decorations. Less commonly the bride or perhaps the groom carries a blue token.

 

Couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd write stuff.

I'm not posting every Worldember entry here.

I summarized some of our early discussions on People for the Ethical Treatment of Elementals here and I took a lot of my stub articles related to family trees and wrote short blurbs about many characters to pad them above 50 words and count as new articles for Worldember.

But here is something new I don't believe I have posted on this thread yet.


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The Nami Civil War

One of the best kept secrets of the goddess Nami's core followers, the Rovers on the Wind is that they are in a near perpetual cycle of internal conflict.

Approximately every four generations the conflict turns violent, then a shaky peace is declared for one generation followed by two or three generations of escalating tensions.

The core conflict is that Nami teaches personal freedom and following your wishes and whims, but she didn't specify how one should treat the freedom of others.

Some view that the freedoms of others should be nurtured and protected. Some view the freedoms of others as irrelevant and people should be able to defend their own freedom. Many view this as academic, neither helping nor harming the liberties of others.

To oversimplify things, when the default moral position is Chaotic Neutral, expect conflict between the Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil minorities.

Eventually those Rovers who believe in helping others come into direct conflict with those Rovers who view others as playthings for their amusement.

Right now the current iteration is the Rover faction known as the Gentle Rain being arrayed against the faction known as the Bacchites.

Very few Rovers identify as Bacchites or Gentle Rain, but like with most things concerning Nami, the Rovers defy hard labels. Rover ideology is not standardized so beliefs such as the importance or respecting the welfare of others exists on a spectrum. Some sympathize with the Bacchites without claiming membership among them and some sympathize with the Gentle Rain without claiming membership with them. Many Rovers are trying to play peace maker and keep tensions in line but this is becoming increasingly difficult.

As their name suggests, most Rovers rove a lot. Many depend on Rover controlled temples, inns, and waystations to aid them on their travels, but at at this point, a disproportionate share of these sites are controlled by the Gentle Rain or Gentle Rain sympathizers and they have begun breaking Rover tradition and barring their doors against Bacchites and Bacchite sympathizers, claiming not to want to give them hideouts to avoid the repercussions of their criminal acts. It is only a matter of time before the two factions come to blows.

Very few outsiders know or even suspect that the Rovers quarrel amongst like this because there is an unspoken tradition among Rovers to not involve outsiders. When actual violence occurs, both factions strive to fight in isolated areas and the victor of each skirmish is honor bound to hide evidence of their bloodshed.

This détente of secrecy may be coming to an end. The Bacchites have put out feelers for allies among the Testers of Maylar and the Gentle Rain has been forging ties with the Tenders of Mera. Both factions are breaking long standing traditions involving outsiders in their conflict and Rovers who are neutral leaning in this conflict are often appalled by this but both the Gentle Rain and Bacchites claim the other side broke tradition by calling in outsiders first.

 

I wrote a bunch of short character bios, but I wrote a few longer articles. The basic challenge for Worldember is to write 10,000 words in one month but I do that in an ordinary month. I got 10,000 words in less than 48 hours because I am probably insane.

Oracles , 1100 words and I still feel I left something out.

Stewards of the Gift, 726 words, Korus' civilized side.

Stewards of the Dominion, 521 words Korus' wild side.

Vamprism, 710 words

Legend of the Silver Dragons, 231 words

Walchese, Mera's stuffier worshipers

 

I hate to toot my own horn but

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

I'm already on the Worldember leader board. 14th for word count and 8th for number of articles. My plan is to stay on the leaderboard as long as possible.

Last year I didn't stay on the board long for number of articles but this year I'm writing a mix of long and short ones. Most of the short ones are fairly simple character bios for dead royalty.

Anyway, if anyone thinks I should write about something specific, let me know.

 

A Tale of Two Dwarf Council of Elders
(Mondert probably does not have a formal Council of Elders, but they do venerate their elders.)


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The Meckelorn Council of Elders

In general dwarves believe in strict hierarchies and loyalty, but while they generally trust their leaders, few dwarves believes that their leaders should have absolute power.

Periodically the king will assemble a council of elders, with a representative from every clan. Usually the representative is the eldest male, but if the eldest male is infirm or otherwise indisposed, another representative (most of the time still an old man) is sent.

The Council of Elders will pass on concerns to the king. If the king makes a major decree or wants to pass a new law, he has to get the approval of the Council of Elders.

The Council of Elders normally is scheduled to formally gather in full, only once or twice a year, though emergency sessions are often called in unusual situation.

Clan elders meet informally in smaller groups almost daily and they gather informally in larger groups almost month.

Individual clan elders meet with the king on a regular basis too. In most cases, when the king offers something for the Council of Elders to vote on, he already knows the outcome. In order to save face, if the king expects one of his decrees to be voted down, he will usually withdraw his decree before a vote can be held.

Also, before official votes are cast, political minded clan elders are nearly constantly lobbying other clan elders to support their initiatives so there is a lot of horse trading, bribery, and sometimes intimidation between clan elders over contentious votes.A small number of the richest and most prestigious wield disproportional power the other clans via both the formal and informal machinations of the Council of Elders.
History
The Council of Elders has been an institution for as long as dwarves kept written records.Stahlheim has a similar tradition, and originally had a Council that operated almost identically, but over the centuries the Stahlheim Council of Elders has gradually lost its teeth.
Participants
The main participates are the clan patriarchs and local lords.

While women do not sit on the formal Council meetings (barring extraordinary circumstances), clan matriarchs do participate vigorously in the informal meetings that lay the groundwork for the Council of Elder meetings.

As mentioned previously, the formal Council meetings are mostly to officialize decisions that were already made ahead of time.

Sidebars

Lesser Councils Of Elders
Some, but not all of the king's major vassals also periodically convene councils for the clan elders of the clans in their jurisdiction. Their methodology and politics is almost exactly like the politics of the main Council of Elders but on a smaller scale.

Even if they don't formally convene a council of elders, almost all dwarf lords will seriously heed the words of clan elders.

What About The Kalazotz And Gnomes?
While Meckelorn values its gnome and kalazotz citizens, neither group has any of their elders sit on the Council of Elders.

That said, both the gnome and kalazotz also respect their elders and their elders talk to the dwarf elders so gnome and kalazotz needs are addressed in the Council by proxy.


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The Stahlheim Council of Elders

the Kingdom of Stahlheim was once a colony of the Kingdom of Meckelorn but it became independent, but most Stahlheimer traditions are very similar to Meckelorner traditions. At first glance, the Stahlheim Council of Elders seems very much similar to the the Meckelorn Council of Elders, but the similarities are mostly surface level.The king of Stahlheim, much like his Meckelorn counterpart, is legally required to have his major decrees and new laws approved by a vote of the Council of Elders. The main difference is that the Stahlheim Council of Elders is a council of yes-men that rarely pressure the king to withdraw decrees before the council meeting and almost never vote down the king's decrees.In order to get the king to reconsider something, it generally takes the organized opposition of at least two thirds, if not three quarters of the Council of Elders.The real power behind the throne in Stahlheim is the guilds. The Council of Elders is little more than a ceremonial paper dragon.It is almost unheard of for the king's vassals to bother calling on their own local Council of Elders.

 

There are a couple mini-contests for various categories. I am entering this one in the (super)natural law category. If I win, a professional illustrator will give me free art for this! And this would be a doozy because I would be thrilled to have a professional bring my elemental ethnicity to life.

I'm going to enter many contests, but of all the contests a free illustration is the prize I desire most.

It would help if one of you guys with a World Anvil account could toss this a like on this or any other article

If any one has any constructive criticism for this, let me know.


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Factors that influence ethnic variations in merfolk


I am entering Near and Far Wedding Tokens in the traditions category.

I am entering Eclipse-Touched in the conditions category though a nagging voice in my head is telling me that my oracles article might be better.

I am entering my alchemy article in the technology category. It's not the most original article in the world, but it's all I got for now and this category has very few entries in it.

I am entering the Nami Civil War for the conflict category.

More are coming surely.

 

This is my entry for the military unit special category. Some of it is familiar, some of it is new.


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Deep Wardens Legion

I always was impressed by the concept of the Night's Watch from George R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and I thought something similar might work for my world because of what Void demons represent, but it is not practical for Scarterrans or Scaraquans to build a giant wall that covers the entire north and south poles.

Void Demons do not need to breathe. They can fly, run, or swim and they can enter the mortal plane from anywhere on the poles.

But Void demons do have a major weakness of having low attention spans. They are very bad at ignoring a single target now for the delayed gratification of attacking several targets tomorrow. This does create one choke point, at least for Scaraqua, at least for the Sea of Enosha (circled in purple) which has the natural choke point of the appropriately named Demonic Strait (circled in red).

Most Void demons that have the idea attacking Scaraquans in the Sea of Enosha, the mostly densely populated Scaraquan sea, they will usually enter via the north pole and try to swim through the Demonic Strait.

Void Demons can try to fly over the land near the Demonic Strait for hundreds of miles and then dive into the Sea of Enosha, but in most cases they will get distracted and choose to attack Scarterra instead.

Thus, by fortifying the Demonic Strait, the Oshamni Empire can avoid most but not all random Void demon incursions, which is part of the reason the Oshamni are so prosperous and powerful relatively to the other undersea nations.

The Deep Wardens Legion is the Oshamni's first line of defense against the Void.
Composition
Manpower
Currently, the order has roughly 1200 members. ~400 soldiers, ~800 support staff, ~20 mages and theurgists.

Because fighting demons doesn't simply imperil one's life, but it imperils one's very soul to a possible oblivion, there are not a lot of volunteers.

Criminals can get a pardon for past crimes if they join the Order. Paupers can be guaranteed money and food if they join. Thus most, but not all of the legion's members are castoffs from society.

Unlike most conventional legions, the Deep Wardens Legion is fully integrated with all known undersea races. Astalakians regularly fight side-by-side with Merfolk, Ojiongo, and even a few Karakhai.

The legionaries are united by their grim task and this sense of desperate camaraderie helps overcome the normal fiction between the Scaraquan races that makeup up the Oshamni Empire.
Equipment
The legion is focused on mobility first and foremost, so they do not carry heavy equipment.

They are well equipped with temporary magical items, magical tiles and other potion equivalents for augmentation, healing, and signaling.
Weaponry
Most of the legion is trained in spears and long daggers like the regular legions and have comparable armor.

The legion has some magical weapons enchanted to be extra harmful to demons that are highly valued treasures of the legion.
Structure
Total obedience to superiors is mandatory, but soldiers are expected to display imitative and be able to do their duty without constant supervision.

Promotion is based on merit and unlikely other legions, politics or race rarely plays a major factor in who gets promoted.
Tactics
The Demonic Strait is fairly narrow on the whole, but a few places are extra narrow, some of them have been built that way artificially with construction. In the event of an incursion, the Legion will make a temporary stand at each chokepoint, then flee to the next chokepoint if the they meet extra resistance or the Demons decide to take to the air temporarily.

The Legion has permanent watchmen at each choke point plus they have regular patrols swimming up and down the strait.

The entire strait is lined with acoustically amplified virdilut tubes that allow outposts to communicate with taps similar to Morse Code in the real world.

If the tubes are damaged or otherwise temporarily inaccessible, the watch men and patrols carry the magical equivalent of underwater flares as a backup means of communication. Thus, the Legion's watchmen call for reinforcements quickly in most circumstances.

The strait is also lined with hidden supply caches. Given that Void demons have poor eye sight for non-living things, it does not take a lot of effort to hide hide a cache of potions or weapons.
Training
Training is intense but somewhat informal. New recruits are vigorously trained in combat, reconnaissance, field medicine, and fast swimming drills among other things.
Logistics
Logistical Support
The waters of the demonic straight have some modest mineral resources but the area does not support many plants or fish, so foodstuffs and medicinal supplies have to be imported regularly.

Most of the farms at the mouth of the Demonic Strait do a large portion of their business with the Deep Warden Legion.
Auxilia
If there is an unusual upsurge in Void activity, the legion can call in reinforcements from the regular army, but in most cases, such reinforcements are slow in coming.
Upkeep
The soldiers get the half again the normal payment legionaries receive as hazard pay, even if their skills are somewhat subpar.

There are very few exploitable resources in the Demonic Strait, so most of their supplies have to be imported.
Recruitment
Even with the relative high salary given to the soldiers of the legion, it is difficult to find volunteers willing to risk the destruction of their very souls. The Deep Wardens Legion cannot afford to be picky with recruits.

Most of the recruits are criminals who join the legion to receive a pardon.

Others join the legion to avoid abject poverty. A few are extremely patriotic or have very deep settled spiritual beliefs they are willing to risk their souls for the greater good.

A few are nihilists who either don't believe in the afterlife or they don't believe they have a positive afterlife coming.

Members of other legions are occasionally rotated into the Deep Wardens legion for a temporary basis, usually as part of a punishment.
History
Given that the heartland of the Oshamni Empire is in the Sea of Enosha, they quickly realized that it was in their interest to fortify the Demonic Strait.

Originally they rotated their regular legions in and out of the Strait, but they had a large problem with soldiers deserting. It is one thing to ask a soldier to risk her life in defense of the realm, but it's another to ask her to risk her soul to oblivion.

There were experiments with giving legionnaires in the Strait hazard pay but that had limited success at best.

Ultimately, an empress came up with the idea of giving convicted criminals pardons if they swear to defend the Demon Strait made up for their recruitment/retention issues. Convicted criminals have to way a certainty of execution against the possibility of their soul being destroyed.

Some time ago, the Deep Waters Legion once had to deal with incursions from barbarian tribes in addition to Void demons, but those times are long gone. Most of the northern tribes now know better than to mess with the Oshamni Empire. In fact, some of the northern tribes are now tentative allies to the Deep Wardens Legion. The legion will sometimes trade equipment to the barbarians in exchange for food or information.

 

This is my entry for the item category.


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Geu-Puppies

Geu-Puppies, also called Go-Puppies or faux-puppies, are the most popular toy in all of Scarterra. The cute little stuffed dogs are snuggled by sleeping children the world over, boys and girls alike.Geu-Puppies grace the bedrooms of young princes and young peasants alike. The richer children have fancier, less thread bare Geu-Puppies than poorer children usually have but the poorer children's toys are no less loved.There are no rules or regulations for what is or is not a Geu-puppy. Some Geu-Puppies are crafted to closely resemble real dogs, perhaps even specific real dogs. Other times Geu-Puppies are made to be fantastic, crafted with exotic color patterns or cosmetic features that real dogs never possess but nevertheless appeal to a child's aesthetics. Most of these toys are pretty small, but larger Geu-Puppy toys are by no means unheard of.
Manufacturing Process
Dog shaped cloth pieces are sewed together with stuffing inside.
History
The idea that a beloved toy can protect a child is an ancient and enduring one.

Mera is the goddess of families and the protector of children. It is also believed that she created the first dogs of Scarterra. Dogs are considered a holy symbol of Mera. Thus, keeping a dog icon near a child is considered good luck.

At some point, some gnomes decided rather than simply carve the image of a dog into the frame of a child's bed, why not give the child a dog icon that a little one can cuddle with.

These toys were called "Geurale Apepy" in the Gnomish language translated as "Facsimile Dogs" or "faux dogs." When these toys spread to human families, the name was shortened into Geu-pups or go-puppies because it is easier for humans, especially human children to pronounce.

Much as real dogs will protect their families, some believe that geu-puppies will protect children. There are legends of these dog toys coming to life temporally to protect the children who love them. While few believe a stuffed toy can bite an attacker directly, there are somewhat more credible stories about Geu-puppies barking warnings to wake a child's parents or tales of night time prowlers coincidentally tripping over Geu-Puppies on the floor.

This is mostly superstition, but there is an element of truth in the superstition. Mera and her spirit minions can enact miracles and are likely to use geu-puppies as an intermediary for said acts of divine intervention, these miracles are very rare. Most Geu-puppies are nothing more than rags and cloth.


(Sidebar)

Item type
Miscellaneous
Current Location
Scarterra
Rarity
Geu-Puppies are very common, found in almost every human or gnome household with children. A few dwarves and elves also give their children Geu-Puppies.
Raw materials & Components
There are no standard rules or systems for making Geu-Puppies. Some are stuffed with rags, some are stuffed with straw, some are stuffed with feathers. Almost any soft material can be used in their construction.

 

I can only submit one organization to the Worldember organization category and I have written up a bunch. The one I'm planning to submit is the Red Shaft Clan, updated from the brainstorming I put on this thread not long ago.



Red Shaft Clan

The Red Shaft Clan is one of the most prestigious clans in Meckelorn with a long history of renown warriors and many victories. Unfortunately, a few years ago the clan suffered an ignominious defeat.

Their clan elder and his entourage were ambushed by orcs while traveling to a meeting and several of the ancient heirlooms carried by the elder and his attendants were stolen. Both the deaths and the thefts have caused a huge loss of honor that the clan is eager to rectify. Their new no-nonsense leader Vamorus Redshaft has sworn to do just that.

While they are less jolly of late given their recent loss of face, the clan is generally known to be gregarious by dwarf standards and are said to throw great parties. Their ethos is to fond of work hard, fighting hard, and celebrate hard.The clan is formally allied to the Abehreh kalazoz clan and the kalazotz have help soften their rough edges and help shape their fun loving values. In fact the Red Shafts often speak of relaxing or celebrating as "going bats".

The Red Shaft Clan sigil is a broken red battle axe on a gold field. The broken red axe of course represents their famous ancestor killing a orc warlord with a the shaft of a broken axe and the gold is because a lot of the clan had blond, at least when the sigil was designed.
Public Agenda
To restore their family honor by recovering their lost heirlooms and spilling much dwarf blood.
History
Descended from a humble family of cobblers known appropriately as the Shoemaker Clan. During the Great Meckelorn War they had to focus more on survival than making shoes. They gained their new namesake when one of their leaders was fighting a challenge with an orc chieftain who sundered his axe. Seemingly disarmed, when the orc started gloating, the dwarf stabbed in the eye with the broken shaft of his sundered axe.Thus the clan rechristened itself the Red Shaft Clan. Since that famous event, the Red Shaft Clan regularly produces some of Meckelorns most celebrated warriors.

Since then, the clan has seen many famous war heroes among them and have had a martial focus since then. Their prestige is great and they even occasionally intermarried with the royal family.
Religion
Religiously, The Red Shaft Clan follows a biased nonagon giving Hallisan lots of worship and praise and the other eight deities roughly equally rote worship. Hallisan is viewed as the guardian of their ancestors souls and their filial piety is mostly folded into their Hallisan worship.

Sidebar

Leader Title
Clan Elder
Family Leader
Vamorus Redshaft
Parent Organization
Dwarf Kingdom of Meckelorn
Location
Land of Meckelorn
Official Languages

• Dwarven

Neighboring Nations

• Abehreh kalazoz clan

Related Species

• dwarves

Related Ethnicities

• Meckelorner dwarves

EDIT: I also added a stereotype section to the main article, but it's near identical to one you already saw, but with hyperlinks so if you read an opinion about Group X and you forgot who Group X, you can look it up.

 

The Character Special Categories has more entries than any other category, but I figure they could use one more.

@Warden is fond of kalazotz and @Aginor is fond of gong farmers and @Lizards of Renown is fond of everything I do, so I thought I'd run with a kalazotz crime lord (or lady).

Also, for what it's worth, kalazotz related articles tend to get more views and likes from strangers than anything else I do on World Anvil.


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The Mother of Mountains

Patli(A.K.A. Mother Of Mountains)
Dwarf society is fairly rigid and hidebound and most are content with this. A few dwarves find ways to remain a part of their society without completely divorcing from it including dwarf rangers and certain minority religions.

Other dwarves who don't fit in with polite society expatriate themselves. Others choose to become criminals

.A few gnome nonconformists become criminals and there are many gnomes living in dwarf lands, both Meckelorn gnomes and Stahlheimer gnomes are part of their respective societies. Given that dwarves are a xenophobic lot, even if they mostly trust gnomes they still watch them closely. After all gnomes are known for their silver tongues, while rare, it's not unheard for a gnome's silver tongues to be forked, metaphorically speaking.

Dwarves tolerate tengku merchants in their territories but these resident aliens much breathing room. Fairly or not, the crow folk are often the first people to be suspected of criminal activity.

Kalazotz are generally the last people dwarves would expect. They are family oriented, honest, and often a little timid. Whether they view kalazotz as valued allies, useful servants, or persistent annoyances, most dwarves take the bat folk for granted.

What would suspect an elderly kalazotz to be running a large criminal organization.

Her birth name is Patli, but she rarely uses it. The kalazotz crime matriarch goes by the alias the Mother of Mountains. Most who hear the name assume she is a dwarf or a gnome and that's exactly how she prefers it.

Since Meckelorner dwarves rarely give kalazotz laborers a second glance, the Mother of Mountains uses them to smuggle clandestine messages and various small contraband goods.

Larger contraband items are moved by the gong farmers or poop porters. In the land of Meckelorn, many poop porters are kalazotz and dwarves and non-dwarves alike give them a wide berth for obvious olfactory reasons.

Not wanting to be reliant one system, she utilizes couriers and smugglers from a wide variety of lowly professions, not just gong farmers.

Her main business is brokering deals for forged guild certifications, but she also brokers deals with fences and reagents and poisons smugglers. She doesn't commonly deal with murder or beatings for hire, but she certainly knows how to hire muscle when the situations calls for it.
Mental Characteristics
Personal History
Her real name is Patli and she was born to a family of gong farmers. She resented her lot in life and believed kalazotz were mistreated by the dwarf majority.

She decided from a young age she wanted to make something of herself and was not afraid to take some harsh actions to do it. Quickly realizing petty theft was a high risk for low reward, she used her position as a gong farmer to sneak looks at people's personal letters and correspondences while emptying their chamber pots or quietly lingering longer than necessary to overhear choice snippets of conversation.

Armed with secrets as her currency, she bought her way into the good graces of some illegal guilds and then used blackmail, bribery, or poison to eliminate or subjugate dwarf or gnome criminals who stood in the way of her ascension.
Education
Fully literate and multilingual, her main talent is an organizer though she has a good understanding of many herbal remedies and poisons. While she is not a spell casters, she knows a lot about reagents and can appraise their value easily.

While she usually delegates this to underlings, she is a talented forger herself.