My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

I have pondered Scarterran ogres for some time. I like variety in my monsters but I also want the ecology of Scarterra to not seem totally implausible. For instance I don't want monsters so strong and voracious that would realistically kill everything in their geographic range then starve to death.

Ogre Option One: Scarterra has no ogres.

Pros: It's simple.
Cons: Ogres are kind of cool

Ogre Option Two: Ogres are a mortal race of humanoids that eats, sleeps, and breeds in the same manner as humans, elves, gnomes, etc

Pros: This would allow ogres to be a diverse race with both nice and mean variants.
Cons: Scarterra is already pretty crowded, and good or evil, ogres need to eat a lot.

Ogre Option Three: Ogres are a class of spirits that spend most of their time in the Aetherial realm but occasionally venture into the material plane to eat people when their divine patrons are feeling wrathful

Pros: Easy to implement and I don't have to think too hard how they fit into the ecosystem.
Cons: Ogres are a little too down to earth monsters compared to most of my other spirits. Compared to the Fachan, ogres are dull.

Ogre Option Four: Ogres are a kith of Fair Folk that spend most of their time in the realm of Fae Home but occasionally venture into the material plane to eat people.

Pros: Theoretically the best of both worlds for making ogres a mortal race and making them a spirit type.
Cons: Ogres kind of fill the same niche as Scarterran redcaps and I like redcaps more.

Ogres Option Four: A tiny number of ordinarily conceived human babies mutate into ogres in the womb for unknown reasons. Some societies kill ogre babies. Some abandon them. Some raise their ogres to be expendable warriors. Ogres have a reputation for being monstrous and it is often a self fulfilling prophecy as many ogres eventually decide "if they are going to treat me like a monster, I'm going to act like a monster."

Pros: This idea is the most unique. I don't remember who, but I think one of you guys came up with the idea of ogres being born to normal humans first, not me. I like to crowd source
Cons: The concept is cool, but in implementation it feels likes an videogame-esque excuse to throw a mini-boss into an enemy horde. Or alternatively, a repackaged version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame "Who is the real monster?"

Ogre Option Five: "Ogres" are not a race but they are a magical disease Mortals who are cannibals will gradually acquire ogre-like traits and if they reproduce, their offspring will be even more monstrous looking.

Pros: This meshes well with lots of real world mythology and it doesn't require me to make room in the ecosystem for a new species.
Cons: The exact definition of what is or isn't an ogre is fuzzy as is their power set.


I am leaning towards option five. I will now explain why. I have done a lot of internet research on monster lore from different cultures. Nearly cultures have some kind of local equivalent of the boogeyman. A stealthy monster that kidnaps misbehaving children.

Almost as common is a monster type for humans that mutate into monsters after tasting the flesh of other humans. Wendigo (Inuit), oni (Japanese), ogres (Germanic), skinchangers (Southwest Native Americans), Laistrygorians (Ancient Greek) are all very similar monsters. I'm sure if I kept looking I could find more ogre-like monsters that eat people. As of yet I haven't found an ogre-like flesh eating monster from African folklore but there are lots of blood drinking monsters. Makes sense for a continent with some of the deadliest mosquito born illnesses on Earth.

My friend and I Eron were talking and he said he thought it was a good world building tool if the same thing has different names in different lands, so I guess in Scarterra ogres, oni, wendigo, etc are going to be regional names of the same thing.

In West Colassia, where the majority of my stories are taking place, in the north cannibal monsters are "wendigo" and in the south, they are "ogres." I might create a variant for dwarf ogres. Dwarves code of honor means they are unlikely to dabble in cannibalism but they do live in an environment where food is scarce.

I'm going to use "ogres" as the generic term for the rest of this article.

The more an ogre engages in cannibalism, the more they physically change. Second and third generation ogres would generally have more extreme physical changes.

Note, I don't want to have ogres not try to eat man flesh, but they can and do eat other things. They probably mostly eat "normal" food though with a preference for meat. I figure most ogres try not to eat more people than they can realistically get away with.

Some ogres stalk the remote wilderness but most physically resemble normal humans enough that they can live among them, though not closely among them. In other words they want to be close to humans that they could eat but not so close that their dark secret of cannibalism is revealed.

Ogres pretending to be humans usually live on the outskirts of society and gravitate towards professions that let them socially distance from others. Such as tanners (the smell keeps tanneries on the edge of settlements), trappers (who go on wilderness expeditions), grave diggers (who are social pariahs and have access to human corpses), criminal enterprises etc.

A lot of ogres are lone monsters, but a lot of ogres live in small family or faux family units. In this case ogre family members will take different roles with the more human looking family members playing the role of lure. Ogre families may or may not try to "recruit" new family members by kidnapping ordinary humans or tricking humans into eating human flesh. I don't want to get too deep into this because it's half the premise of more than one horror movie series.

Ogres and ogresses are commonly larger than normal humans. Usually the primary power they develop is increased strength and resilience. Usually they first weakness they develop is an ugly visage, often having disproportionately large heads and hands.

But I can leave it vague for secondary powers and weaknesses. A ogre living in a cold environment (aka wendigo) might develop thick white fur while a ogre living in a warm desert would develop an ability to tunnel in sand creating traps like a giant ant lion.

I got some wiggle room, no two ogres would look exactly the same or have the same powers, appearance or abilities and since they are essentially human, they could have the full range of human skills. One might be a skilled outdoorsmen, one might be a cat burglar, and another a conman.


Story wise, ogres by any name, would probably fall into he category of Monster of the Week rather than be a major campaign or novel villain though I suppose an ogre crime boss might be a cool concept. Even as a Monster of the Week, that's a multi-faceted adventure. Part One of the story is piecing together why people are disappearing. Part Two is identifying the ogres and making a plan, and Part Three is the actual physical confrontation.

 

That is pretty common. I've seen the concept of cannibalism leading to physical and spiritual corruption in Cherokee, Inuit, Germanic, and Greek folklore and that was without me looking for it.

In real world folklore, almost every culture has at least one monster story where the monster is a mutated humans who is being punished for violating a severe taboo, and few things are more taboo than cannibalism.

Cherokee Skinchanger witches do something similar.

Based on something similar I read in a Shadowrun book, I was thinking ogres would prefer their own kind.

I was originally thinking that a human ogre would be okay eating gnomes, elves, or dwarves but they would prefer human. A dwarf ogre would prefer eating dwarf flesh.

Humans, elves, dwarves, and gnomes are so similar that I often use the term demihumans (borrowed from D&D). Kalazotz are physiologically so different from humans it would arguably not be cannibalism for a human to eat kalazotz flesh (though it would still be a heinous act).

A lot of modern fantasy has ogre mages. Ogre mages are sometimes a separate species and sometimes they are the elite leaders of ogre society.

I suppose a Scarterran ogre could be a mage or theurgist just like any other Scarterran mortal.

Though combining your idea with Native American folklore of skin changers, I could create a subclass of ogres that seek to gain physical and mystic power by eating specific creatures.


Talking about interspecies cannibalism. Gnolls eat the flesh of mortals all the time. But gnolls are mahrlect up already. That said, gnolls don't eat gnoll flesh.

Camazotz aren't as messed up as gnolls but they are pretty messed up. It's unlikely that a kalazotz would decide to eat mortal flesh (or more likely drink mortal blood), but if a kalazotz did develop a taste for mortal blood, they would gradually transform back into a camazotz.

My orcs are less evil than Tolkien's orcs. I don't think they would regularly eat mortal flesh, but the average orc is probably more likely to eat mortal flesh than the average human. An orc would probably have to eat more mortal flesh to turn into an ogre than a human would but I imagine orc ogres would be just as much pariahs among orc kind than ogres are with human kind.

Some dragons sometimes eat people, but most dragons don't. To quote the movie Dragonheart. "I merely chewed in self-defense. I didn't swallow."

Dragons that eat human flesh don't turn into ogres but some dragons say that eating the flesh of mortals is unhealthy but others say it is not a big deal.

Essentially, a dragon that makes a habit of eating mortal flesh may become addicted to it, but they don't physically mutate. Also dragons that like to eat people tend to be cruel but it's chicken or egg thing. Does eating people make a dragon cruel or do cruel dragons like eating people?

 

So here is my formal article on ogre-ism

Cannibal Sickness

Cannibalism is taboo in most of Scarterra for a good reason. Cannibalism leads to creeping spiritual, physical, and mental corruption.

Cannibal sickness is called anthropophagia by some sages, but almost no common people use this clunky term. Most just call it "cannibal sickness" and call the people afflicted by it by their local name.

People afflicted by cannibal sickness are known by different names in different places. In the northern lands of West Colassia the barbarians call those afflicted with cannibal sickness called wendigo. Further south West Colassian humans call them ogres. In Penarchia, the humans call these people oni.

Most elves call those afflicted, the skotadpein or skopen for short. Loosely translates to "those afflicted with dark hunger." Most dwarves call them jormangers.

In East Colassia the Mereshnari call them Dabrijal, or "hyena men" because they are believed to be the spiritual kin of gnolls. Among the rest of the Confederacy, some of the humans have adopted the term Dabrijal, and some use skopen or ogre.

For simplicity, I am going to call all of those afflicted with anthropophagia, ogres from here on forward.

Ogres always crave mortal flesh, but they can do eat normal food in addition to mortal flesh. Ogres are not generally picky eaters but in most cases an ogres prefer the taste of their own. Ogres of human stock will prefer to eat human flesh and an jormanger dwarves will prefer to eat dwarf flesh, and orc wendigo will prefer to eat orc flesh.

When given a choice, ogres of all stripes generally prefer the taste of the young and healthy over the old and infirm.

Most ogres have enough control over their dark cravings that they will try to restrain themselves from eating more mortal flesh than they can realistically get away with.

A few ogres, especially the most radically deformed individuals, operate as lone monsters in the wilderness but most ogres that are capable of pretending to be normal people will try to find an occupation on the fringes of normal society so they can have access to their prey, but they don't want to be so close that they can no longer hide their dark secret.

Ogres can usually recognize their own kind instinctively and they often form small cooperative units with other ogres. When ogres band together in ad hoc family units, the more normal looking family members are often the face or lure for the group.
Transmission & Vectors
Once a mortal tastes mortal flesh, they risk becoming addicted to it. Once addicted, they become ogres begin to change physically mentally and spiritually gradually developing more powers and mutations as the years go by and the eat more meals of "long pig."

Not every cannibal picks up cannibal sickness and sages are not sure of why this is. Obviously experimentation on this is both difficult and amoral.

Ogres are usually not sterile. They will pass their cannibal sickness to their offspring. Second and third generation ogres are usually physically stronger than first generation ogres, but more also more hideous of visage and more mentally unstable. Most fourth generation ogres miscarry or die in infancy. This leads some ogre families to actively recruits fresh breeding stock while others are not as legacy minded and just accept the end of their line with grace.
Symptoms
Whether you call them ogres, wendigo, oni or something else, those afflicted with cannibal sickness physically change over time.

Most ogres grow larger and uglier. Heads, feet, and hands are often disproportionately larger. Nearly all ogres gain increased strength and resilience.

Beyond this, secondary traits vary. They might pick up animal-like physical traits or grow adaptations to survive environmental hazards where ever they live. Those in cold areas are likely to grow fur and those in rocky areas are likely to gain feet mutations that let them cling to difficult surfaces. Some gain claws or fangs as natural weapons. Some merely gain vestigial claws that mark them as being tainted but don't form effective weapons.
Treatment
Purification magic can temporarily suppress an ogre's unholy appetite but to cure cannibal sickness an ogre needs to have genuine remorse, be subjected to Purification ●●●●●, and then go on a lengthy and dangerous quest while resisting the urge to eat mortal flesh the whole time. According to the stories, ogres have been cured of their conditions minutes or seconds before their deaths after dying in a poetic and noble sacrifice.
Prevention
The best way to not get cannibal sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. Not every human or demi-human who partakes of mortal flesh becomes an ogre, but it is nearly guaranteed if they engage in cannibalism over and over.

Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and orcs seem very vulnerable to cannibal sickness. Other humanoids, seem to be able to partake of mortal flesh with fewer long-term consequences or at the least different long-term consequences. Why this is is unknown.

Dragons seem completely immune to physical mutation from eating mortal flesh though some dragons claim that dragons that dragons that regularly partake of the flesh of mortals develop mental issues.

Hypothetically, if a second or third generation ogre baby is removed from his or her parents before they are old enough to eat meat and raised among non-cannibalistic people, they will grow up as normal person, not an ogre. Though they will probably be a large ugly normal person and this may lead to them being accused of being ogre.

History
There are no records of cannibal sickness in the the First Age. Dragons are immune to cannibal sickness but that doesn't mean other races didn't have this affliction. If lesser races turned into cannibal monsters, the dragons did not bother to write down accounts of this, at least no written records that survived the First Unmaking and Second Unmaking.

In the the Second Age, cannibalism among elves was rare, but it was well documented. The term skopen is an ancient one.

During the Second Unmaking saw a lot of death. Almost as many mortals died of starvation as those that died at the hands of Void Demons. Many turned to cannibalism to survive. Not every cannibal collaborated with the demons and not every demon collaborator became a cannibal, but a disportionately high number of Infernalists during the Second Unmaking also happened to be cannibals. This correlational link between cannibals and infernalists continued into modern times.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second Unmaking, the surviving elf groups had to purge their own ranks from skopen in their midst. There were small tribes of elves that survived the Second Unmaking but did not survive into the feudal having been driven to extinction during Scarterra's Red Era. According to legend, some of these rogue elf tribes were made up of skopen but that could be historical revisionism as historians want to retroactively justify their ancestors' acts of genocide.

It wasn't just elven skopen that were a problem in yesteryear. During the Red Era, winters were harsher and farming techniques were less advanced. Food shortages sometimes led to acts of cannibalism and this led to surges of the human ogre population.

In the current Feudal Era, starvation is less common so cannibalism is less common so ogres are less common, at least less common than they used to be.

Cultural Reception
Most cultures in Scarterra have laws against cannibalism and will execute any ogres they find. At least on paper.

Ogres are strong and tough and they will usually work quite cheap if their employer is not prone to asking lots of inconvenient questions. If an ogre is useful, many unscrupulous Scarterrans will turn a blind eye to ogres in their midst if it suits their interests. Ogres can be commonly found acting among criminal cartels, brigand bands, and pirate ships. Ogres can even get legitimate jobs acting as bodyguards, mercenaries or men-at-arms to lords and wealthy merchants. Since most ogres make effort to hide their unusual dietary habits, it is not hard for an employer of an ogre to invoke plausible deniability. "I had no idea Hans was an ogre all this time!" However, very few Scarterrans will shield an ogre from the law if they catch the ogre is outright while eating a finger sandwich though unless the ogre is able to intimidate them into silence.

While some cultures and subcultures will willingly turn a blind eye to ogres in their midst, others take the opposite extreme going after ogres overly aggressively. There is no magic spell that can detect a cannibal so would be government inquisitors and vigilantes hunting ogres look for hints of behavior or appearance. More than a few "ogres" put to death for cannibalism were innocent people who were just unusual looking or socially awkward. Real ogres are often cunning enough to set up fall guys and patsies for their own crimes and often take delight in seeing innocent people killed in their place.

Most religious authorities are staunchly anti-ogre, at least in public. The Testers and Children frequent tolerate ogres among their ranks but they still treat them like second class citizens.

Outside the Testers and Children, you might be able to still find ogres.

The Lanterns and Tenders occasionally try to cure ogres, often with tragic results. The Masks often employ ogres with a heavy layer of plausible deniability. Under other religious umbrellas, you might see an occasional ogre among extremist fringe groups such as the Bacchites and Talons of Korus.



Anyway, this covers the basics of ogres and ogre-like creatures among humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and orcs. I'm going to figure out some variants for other races.

I have lots of ideas for how cannibalism would change a tengku but I won't have time to finish that article before work. Cannibalism will still lead to physical and spiritual corruption but it won't resemble an ogre's transformation.

I need to put some thought into Scaraqua ogre equivalents. My first instinct is that cannibalism is more like a misdemeanor in Scaraqua as opposed to being a gravely serious taboo. It's a Fish-Eat-Fish world after all.

 

I got to go to work soon so I'll have to edit this for typos later (I'm sure I left some). But here is vulturism, the tengku equivalent of ogres.

Vulturism

Vulterism is a variant of Cannibal Sickness that afflicts tengku.A tengku that develops a taste for eating mortal flesh transforms into what other tengku have nicknamed "Vultures.

"Unlike the so-called "ogres" that human cannibals transform into, vultures do not typically grow in size though they do get both stronger and more deformed in their own way.
Regeneration
The first new trait Vulture tengku acquire is nearly always regenerative powers allowing for very rapid healing of wounds. This regeneration only becomes faster the longer the Vulture lives. It is documented that Vulture's can regrow severed limbs in minutes. Stories that a severed Vulture head can regrow a body are yet to be verified.

Vulture tengku are so rare, that most Scarterrans are not aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Taking advantage of this, some Vulture tengku will opt to fake their own death if the heat gets too intense. Those that are aware of Vulture's regeneration will usually burn the corpses afterwards, after chopping into pieces, just in case.

A Vulture tengku's regeneration gives them an iron stomach and an near indestructible liver. They can extreme amounts of alcohol without becoming tipsy and they can drink deadly poison and process like a human drinks a whiskey. They also can eat rotten or infected meat with no ill effects, hence the nickname Vulture. Generally speaking, when eating meat that is not mortal flesh, they prefer rotten rather than fresh.

Since Vulture tengku are not as physically powerful as ogres and they are near immunity to all poisons, many choose to use poison as their weapon of choice to obtain mortal flesh.

The regeneration comes with two downsides, one immediate one slow. First, tengku vultures molt and regrow feathers very fast. Tengku are both perceptive and nosy. Molting is a side effect to many tengku illnesses, including conditions much more benign than cannibal sickness but nevertheless most Vultures find it easier to separate themselves from uninfected tengku. Tengku often mingle with non-tengku as part of their business dealings, so this is not suspicious in and of itself. As a bonus, most humans don't know enough about tengku culture to realize a Vulture is acting oddly.

The second downside is that their regeneration causes unwanted growth, in other words tumors. If a Vulture isn't executed for the crime of murder and cannibalism, she will eventually die of cancer. Before that happens it will cause ugly cysts and chronic discomfort for decades.
Secondary Powers
Overtime Vultures gain secondary powers seemingly at random but it will usually vaguely conform to the Vulture's personality and hunting style.

Some vultures have enhanced senses, some have enhanced strength, some have working wings that can provide limited gliding. All tengku can mimic any voice they hear, but a few Vultures have a magic ability to mimic voices they never heard before, instinctively producing a voice that will put her targets at ease.
Incipient Madness
Most Vultures experience hallucinations. People they've eaten in the past show up as ghostly images or voices in their heads. Sometimes they hear voices or see apparitions from people they didn't kill and/or eat. More often than their past victims don't seem to hold a grudge but the experience is maddening all the same. More than a few vultures are muttering conversations with invisible people near constantly.

A surprisingly high number of Vultures become genuine spirit loas, but most have trouble differentiating a real ghosts from a hallucination of one. They also have trouble differentiating between a genuine loa skill boost and a delusion of grandeur leading many to die on some quixotic stunt "I'm channeling a master swordsman, you cannot defeat me!"
Transmission & Vectors
Vultures are tengku develop an addiction to mortal flesh. Like a human ogre, a tengku vulture can pass his curse onto his offspring but this rare mainly because a Vulture's madness makes it hard for them to woo a sexual partner, even another Vulture.

Second generation vultures are stronger than first generation tengkus but they also tend to be even more mad and their deformities make it very difficult for them to masquerade as uninfected tengku. They actually look like literal vultures more than crows or ravens.
Prevention
The best way to not get cannibal sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. The same goes for vulturism. A tengku that doesn't eat mortal flesh will never turn into a Vulture. The more mortal flesh a tengku eats, the more likely his or her transformation is, especially if they are eating the flesh of other tengku.

Cultural Reception
Because Vulturism is so rare, most Scarterrans are unaware it exists. Tengku are not fond of airing their dirty laundry for other races to see, so they will try to quietly put down Vultures before other races can learn of the mutant cannibals in the Tengku's midst.In some ways, the tengku's secrecy has worked too well. Now many tengku are largely unaware of the existence of Vultures, so now Vultures can benefit from the ignorance of their condition. There is even a rumor that tengku are immune to cannibal sickness and this has led to tengku being overly blasé about the cannibalism taboo.

 

Don't think this breaks into @NIGHTBRINGER's territory but I just noticed that last month I crossed the threshold of 500,000 words on my Scarterra page. Half a million words of lore in less than three years.

At least for me, world building is easy and story writing is hard. I need 80,000ish words of a story to have a proper novel.

Assuming I ever reach the novel milestone I will tell more people about it than a vegan tells about their diet choices.

 

It's convenient that Warden recently posted this.

I've been thinking about Scarterran cats and dogs a lot lately. In mythology around the world, dogs are usually good guys. Even when dogs are bad guys, they are the loyal guardians of bigger bad guys and aren't really bad in and of themselves such as Cerebus guarding the gates of Hades.

I decided dogs are going to be tightly associated with the goddess Mera.

Warden's picture would be very similar to Watch Dogs.

Watch Dogs

The first dogs may or may not have been a creation of Mera, but nevertheless dogs are often viewed as sacred animals by Mera's Tenders.

Watch Dogs are essentially a Mera brand imitation of the more common Gargoyle spirit. Watch dogs are stone statues of dog at Mera's temples or holy sites The Watch Dogs will come alive if there is an intruder and either attack said intruders, issue loud reverberating warning barks or both.

Roughly as large and fast as ordinary dogs, but Watch Dogs are far stronger and more resilient.


I've already posted Geu-Puppies here, but here it is again. I wrote my article on Geu-Puppies last December and I wrote about Watch Dogs over a year ago. I haven't realized that they are pretty similar. The difference is a Watch Dog is backed by real applied magic and a Geu-Puppies is backed by mostly by superstitious folklore.

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 tend have fancier, less threadbare Geu-Puppies, 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 geu-puppies are quite small, but larger Geu-Puppy toys are by no means unheard of.

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. A few have tiny symbols of the goddess Mera put into the stuffing for good luck since Mera is associated with the protection of children.
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 he or she 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 just in time, or tales of night time prowlers coincidentally tripping over Geu-Puppies on the floor and knocking themselves unconscious bumping their heads.

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 sewn together, but you never know for sure.

Here is my article on Scarterran dogs. Not magical creatures, but the actual dogs. Note
"Watch Dogs" with capital letters are magical dog statues that come to life during times of dangers and "watch dogs" are regular dogs trained to bark at intruders.

dogs

Scarterran dogs are fairly similar to real world Earth dogs. Much like Earth dogs, Scarterran dogs were descended from wolves.

Legends differ on whether the transformation from wolf to woof was precipitated by Mera, Korus, Zarthus, or a bold mortal acting independently though it is clear that dogs were fairly common in the Second Age and even more common in the Third Age.

Many dogs are selectively bred and the most common dog breeds fall into the four broad categories of guard dogs, hunting dogs, house dogs, and lap dogs. Less commonly there are show dogs, herding dogs, and fighting dogs. Scarterran dogs come in the same variety of shapes and sizes of real world dogs, but Scarterran dogs come in even more colors.

Like horses, dogs can manifest ethnic traits from elemental forces.

Earthy dogs tend to be large and strong if a bit slow in both senses of the word. They tend to have brown, dusty, roan, or black fur.

Fiery dogs are very spirited and aggressive and have great endurance. They tend to have reddish orangish fur. As they get older, their fur is streaked with dark greys.

Watery dogs are intelligent and inquisitive and are naturally strong swimmers. They tend to have light blue or vaguely greenish fur.

Airy dogs are very fast but they are geared for sprinting not long term endurance. They are a bit flighty and have low attention spans. They tend to have white, golden, or silvery coats.

Most house dogs and lap dots are watery/airy hybrids. Most hunting dogs are earth/air or earth/water hybrids. Most guard dogs are fiery/airy or fiery/watery hybrids. Of course any combination is possible and dog breeders have tried everything.

Fur style varies considerably. The shortest hair dogs are fire/water hybrids (including a rare few totally hairless breeds) and the shaggiest dogs tend to be air/earth hybrids (including a rare few that can be sheared for wool like sheep).One niche that Scarterran dogs have that real world dogs do not is there are more watch dog variety. Selective breeding can create watch dogs that are sensitive to magic spells in their presence or that can sense undead and Void minions at great distances. Dogs with all four elemental traits in roughly equal proportions are said to be more attuned to the supernatural than other dogs. Presumably because a dog with all four elements is grounded so firmly in nature that they can sense imbalances.

On average, Scarterran dogs are a bit larger and stronger than real world dogs, and they tend to live a bit longer often routinely living 15-20 years. Purebred or near purebred dogs with only one dominant elemental trait tend to have somewhat shorter lifespans than mixed breeds.



I'm still working on editing an article on cats. In real world folklore, cats in mythology are complicated. Considering a real cat can go from cuddly and friendly begging for pets to clawing the shit out of your forearm in a span of a few seconds, this sort of makes sense.

I'm not sure the best way to present this, but Scarterrans are not going to have a universal lore the way Scarterrans have a more or less universal lore on dogs.

Witch Cats

In the real world, cats are associated with witches, both evil witches and benign witches. This means I want Greymoria's followers to be pro-kitty. I may or may not have secular mages not affiliated with Greymoria also be pro-kitty. Though I'm not sure what tangible powers a cat familiar would bestow with any. I suppose cat familiars can range in power greatly. Of course nothing says a mage can just have a pet cat and not have a cat familiar. I suppose Greymoria will have some cat spirits of various powers too.

Bridge Cats

In a lot of real world folklore of many cats that can travel between worlds. Commonly the spirit world if a culture believes in a parallel spirit world. Sometimes cats are said to guide souls to the afterlife, sometimes they might be a hazard to souls in the afterlife.

While all of the Nine deal with the connections between worlds but Korus is the main god of bridges. I could image Korus spirit cats would be able to open portals or magic fonts between the material plane, Fae Home, Elemental Plane, and Aetherial Realm.

Cats are independent, so there could be some cats that can travel between worlds that are not affiliated with any of the Nine. There are probably a lot of faerie cats and it may be possible for ordinary cats to travel between the mortal plane and Fae Home sometimes.

Big Cats

At the moment I am leaning towards making lions associated with the god Hallisan (think of noble lions that are sort of Aslan) and leopards associated with the goddess Khemra (think of Egypitan nobility). Though I am tempted to make leopards a Nami animal instead of a Khemra animal because leopards are commonly associated with the Greek god Dionysus and Nami is Dionysus-like.

I'm not sure if I want tigers or cheetahs to be associated with any deity. Scarterran tigers are limited to Umera for now and cheetahs are limited to East Colassia. Lions and leopards are more universal.

For the most part big predatory cats are associated with the heraldry of nobles, especially martial nobles, and Khemra and Hallisan who are often seen as deities for the elite.

In ancient folklore and RPG books, there are many monsters based on big cats. Scarterra has chimera as a mortal race which are three headed monsters that have a lion head. Chimera are the physically largest mortal race in Scarterra besides dragons and giants and the weirdest mortal race apart from beholders.

Manticores are vaguely based on lions. The god Maylar occasionally releases Manticores into the physical plane to eat people he dislikes though some theorize that Maylar has one Manticore that he keeps ressurecting.

I could easily throw in real cat monsters later. Maybe some Faerie aligned or Khemra aligned sphinxes.

Omen Cats

This ties into bridge cats or witch cats, but cats are often considered omens. Usually omens of danger. This can work in a wide variety of ways.


Hunter Cats

Cats are nocturnal hunters, so they are often associated with the moons. They are commonly associated moon deities who are often hunters such as Artemis. By moon deity is male, Zarthus. Zarthus is a nocturnal hunter of sorts, so he is likely to have some association with cats.


Cats are annoying and cuddly. Useful and useless. I'm not sure why the Egyptians worshiped cats as holy while most Japanese supernatural cats are demon. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to which real world cultures venerate cats or despise them.

Here's a rough draft with how cats ethnicity is going to work. Someone could selectively breed cats but I assume most cats, even domesticated cats mate as they will and not as their owners wish them to.

Earthy cats tend to be larger than other cats. They are usually much more mellow than other cats, They tend to have brown, dusty, roan, or black fur. Earthy cats often make good house pets as they are less independent and more cuddly than most other cats.

Fiery cats are very spirited and aggressive and have great endurance. They tend to have reddish orangish fur. As they get older, their fur is streaked with dark greys. They make lousy pets but great mousers. They also tend to depopulate birds from areas they live in.

Watery cats are intelligent and inquisitive embodying the curious cat to a "t", Unlike others cats, they have little issue with water and are not shy about swimming. They tend to have light blue or vaguely greenish fur.

Airy cats are very fast and they are very skittish embodying the scaredy cat archetype. They are a bit flighty and have low attention spans. They also are the most prone to wander of any cat. They tend to have white, golden, or silvery coats.


I figure most inland areas have mostly earthy cats. Most coastal areas are equatorial so these areas have a lot of fiery/watery cats.

Most cold areas are inland so there a lot of airy/earthy cats.

I imagine Scarterran cultures with predominantly earthy cats generally have a positive view of kitties and most cultures with predominantly fiery cats generally have a negative view of kitties and only tolerate them because they kill mice and rats.

I'm not sure if sailors would like having a watery cat on board or if they would find such a cat annoying. Perhaps both. Most airy cats are feral or at least and reclusive so most people wouldn't think much of them good or bad.

 

I think your method is better than mine. A good EU will make a good story better, but a EU is worthless without a story to go with it. A good story doesn't need an EU at all.

 

Reposted image here \/



Assuming the ents never tore down Isengard. What would do with it after Sarumon was dead?

I wrote about a short article about "The Great Sanctuary of Mercy." It was formerly called "The Great Tower of Justice." The "Justice" was the justice of a murderous iron fisted tyrant. Basically he was a vampire king but he swore he would never drink the blood of the "innocent" and he used rigged criminal courts to make sure there was no shortage of "guilty" people to feed off of.

Anyway, so the big bad guy had a giant evil looking tower. He and his minions died outside the tower.

So the good guys thought, "the tower didn't commit any actual atrocities. Maybe we can use the tower for good." Besides thousands of buckets of white paint, how do you perform a home makeover for a tower of evil?

 

Once in a while, I get a strange urge to develop an obscure part of Scarterra that will not only not be needed for my novel or RPG campaign. Today I woke up with a lot of thoughts about druss elves which I discussed in hypothetical terms on page 33 of this thread but didn't get much response on so I moved to Scaraquan things. Druss elves, loosely based on dryads are woody plant based humanoids with accelerated life spans compared to humans. Today I came up with the idea of them having negotiable food and sleep needs. They can essentially sleep to avoid eating or eat to avoid sleeping.

I still haven't figured out how they reproduce and whether or not they are capable of copulating and/or producing offspring with other races. In both ancient and modern folklore, satyrs are always male and dryads are always female. Satyrs and dryads that mate produce satyr sons and dryad daughters. I'm probably not doing that because I am more or less committed to Scarterran satyrs having 50% males and 50% females. I might make male and female druss elves or I might have them assexually reproduce or I might try to come up with something more fantastic.

Apart from in Warhammer, dryads are usually depicted as being sensual seductive creatures. I'm not sure whether I want them to be living symbols of fertility or completely asexual plants or somewhere in between. Notice, I didn't make a single reference to gender in the article below. I'm keeping my options open.

I also need to figure out what they are doing now. Originally they were slave soldiers that happened to be content with their lot. After the Second Unmaking they were freed. I don't know how their culture would evolve after this. Just like the kalazotz have a bunch of bats thats are closely allied to dwarves and a bunch of bats that are not. Many druss elves are closely allied to wood elves and many are not. So they would probably branch off (pun!) into different cultures.

I'm also not 100% I like the name "druss elves". If and when I come up with something better I will change it.

Here is what I have so far. This is a WIP, so I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to develop these people further.

druss elves

Druss elves, also called dryads are humanoid tree people. They are true mortals with full mortal souls, one of the only plant creatures to have mortal souls. They are roughly as large as elves and have similar facial features and ears to regular elves. While it is not proven, many believe that druss elves were somehow evolved or mutated out of normal elves.

Their woody skin makes druss elves more resilient against physical attacks. They are a little bit less agility than elves, but they have the full range of movement and manual dexterity that humans have.

Druss elves are highly resistant to most poisons that afflict most mortals but they are vulnerable to certain herbicidal poisons though keep in mind that herbicides are much rarer on Scarterran than real world Earth.

Druss elves can more or less choose to quit sleeping for long periods of time or they can enter periods of short hibernation. Sleep is healthy. Druss elves that sleep the bare minimum tend to die in their early twenties while druss elves that regularly hibernate can at the extreme end enter their forties. Common wisdom is that druss elves do not age at all when they are asleep. There are unsubstantiated legends of ancient druss elves sleeping for centuries in hidden groves.

Druss have short life spans on the whole. They are not suicidal by any means but they knowing they don't have a lot of time in the world, they are likely to take risks and seek new experiences. When faced with something that does not interest them, they may try to electively sleep through it if they can do so safely. A lot of them live passionately a cause that they are willing to die for.

Just about every animal is vulnerable when they are asleep. While they are plants, not animals, druss elves are very vulnerable when they sleep. They sleep like the dead. Most mortals wake up pretty quick when they hear a loud noise, but a loud noise is not always sufficient to wake up a dryad by itself. When druss elves wake up on their own, they are usually instantly alert, but when woken up unexpected, they usually stagger around like a drunk elf for at least a minute, maybe a few hours if they were hibernating.

Basic Information
Growth Rate & Stages
Druss elves grow up fast. Seedlings (aka children) grow from infancy to adulthood in less than five years. Not only do they grow fast they learn fast. Druss seedlings are effectively super geniuses, able to learn new skills and languages more quickly than any other mortal. Their super genius brains fade away as they grow older but even adult druss elves are pretty fast learners.

This accelerated growth rate comes at a high cost. Most druss elves die of old age in their late twenties. Druss elves don't really have age like mortals do. Once they reach adult hood they are physically in their prime until they start aging really fast and typically die within a month or two of showing the first signs of aging. In their case their leaves change colors than fall out. Then they physically wither.

Most druss elves are okay with this. They find the slow aging that other mortals undergo to be terrifying and are happy to get it done all at once with just enough time to set their affairs in order.
Dietary Needs And Habits
When a druss elves sleeps, they are also eating. Druss elves feet and legs literally root into the ground. While sleeping they are drawing nutrients from the soil. This process takes about four hours in a moist tropical jungle nine or ten hours if the land is both cold and dry.

Druss elves that get plenty of "sleep" do not have to eat anything at all and they barely need to drink any water. However, a druss elf can choose not to sleep, in which case they do need to eat. Roughly half again what a normal elf in a day.

When they choose to eat, druss elves don't eat fertilizer or other plant food, druss elves eat "normal" food. They usually have the same dietary preferences of elves. They are no more or less likely to prefer meat over grains and vegetables than elves are. Their systems can handle rotted or tainted food any better than a human.

Some druss elves like eating food, others find it tedious. A dryad that goes more than three days without sleep gets a little bit cranky. After about two weeks, druss elves start to be physically impaired after about a month. Supposedly prolonged time without sleep can leave to madness, especially hallucinations, but few druss elves push the envelope like this.

Most druss elves can also hibernate. Hibernation for a druss elve is triggered by meditation that most druss elves practice and some practice extensively. Many choose to sleep through the winter. With proper meditative training, druss elves can hibernate almost whenever they want, up to about four months. With meditative training, a druss elf can also choose to sleep a little bit and eat a little bit. Without the training and practice, a druss elf can choose to either sleep a lot or eat a lot, but not split the difference.

Druss elves, like ordinary plants are photosynthetic, but their photosynthesis is a bit weaker than real plants. They can survive without sunlight at all (though they find doing so irksome). A druss elf that gets lots of sun can get by on little bit less food and sleep and a druss elf that gets very little sun can survive by sleeping and eating a bit more.
Civilization And Culture
Major Language Groups And Dialects
Most druss elves speak Elven as their mother tongue, but a great many druss elves are multi-lingual as druss seedlings can learn languages very easily. Most druss elves can speak with no trace of accent if they choose.
History
Druss elves were originally bred as a slave race. Historical records do not indicate who created the first druss elves or when. However the "why" is clear. During the Second Age, druss elves were primarily as expendable shock troops and occasionally as workers in dangerous situations. Considering they have short natural life spans, it didn't seem like a huge loss if they died young. Druss elves grow up and die fast by human standards. To elves, they are practically mayflies.

By the end of the Second Age at east half of the elven nations had druss elves among them. By all accounts, the druss elves either did not know or care they were being exploited in this matter. They seemed to hold their elven masters in high regard and appreciated what they were given, viewing their dangerous assignments as being more than fair recompense for giving them fertile lands to live on.

During the Second Unmaking, most druss elves died. Since most druss elves were unquestioning slave soldiers, it was easy for elf lords and ladies to throw their legends of druss elves at the demon hordes in order to protect themselves. While the elf princes did not want their druss elves to die, when choosing whether to sacrifice an elf or a druss elf, they would choose to lose a druss elf every time.

Eventually a few druss elves started to question their orders. Others got separated from the communication chain of command and lost their orders through no decision of their own. A lot of druss elves tried to eke out the Second Unmaking by themselves in small mobile groves of independent druss elves.

Most of these independent groves died fighting Void Demons. Towards the end of the Second Unmaking, when the demons were less numerous but more practiced at hunting mortals and aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Druss elves can survive almost anywhere but they are extremely vulnerable when they sleep and because he winters were longer and harsher during the Second Unmaking. A lot of Void Demons were able to suss out where groves of druss elves were sleeping and stage surprise attacks.A few independent groves of druss elves managed to survive into the Third Age. The vast majority of the druss elves that survived the Second Unmaking allied with the ancestors of modern wood elves. The wood elves claimed that none of their ancestors never enslaved druss elves (a dubious claim) but at least during the Unmaking, they treated the druss elves as allies and not as expendable minions. In exchange for the druss elves' aid in battle the proto-wood elves worked hard to guard the druss elves while they slept. In the Third Age, the druss elves are a valued part of the nation of Codenya.

 

I had a list, but then I realized keeping a comprehensive list was a waste of time. Especially after I stopped limiting myself to D&D Monster Manuals. There are hundreds of creature entries on the D&D wiki but now I am relying more on internet search engines for "Monsters from Celtic/African/Native American/Japanese/Indian/Aborginie/etc folklore." That is tens of thousands of creatures. I cannot possibly use them all.

I have a fairly large "maybe" file of entries from the D&D Monster Manuals and a lot of them are likely to linger in the "maybe file" indefinitely.

My "no" file is pretty small. There is also a "probably not" file that is pretty large.

Halflings, they are too similar to gnomes so they would be redundant.

Rakasha are a hard no, they are too marhlect weird and too powerful.

Titans, they are too big. I set a guideline that no land creature can be bigger than a blue whale. No sea creature can be more than twice the size of a blue whale. So this rules out a lot of things besides titans.

I had maybe a a score of other hard "no"s but I cannot name them all of the top of my head as they are usually pretty obscure.

About six months ago, I made a fairly obvious epiphany. I thought back to something I learned getting my useless liberal arts degree.

The root word of demonstration is monster. Monsters are unique aberrations. When you make a demonstration, you repeat something that was done before and show how it can be done again. Thus you de-monster it.

Manticores are a monster in D&D sourcebooks. In Greek mythology, the manticore was a unique monster. In D&D sourcebooks, Medusae is a race of snake haired women. In Greek mythology, Medusa was one snake haired woman.

So about six month ago I decided to start giving Scarterra some true monsters. This is a good savior for creatures in the "the maybe file". For instance, Scarterra now has one Manticore. Most unique monsters in Scarterra/Scaraqua are spirits that the Nine keep in reserve for "release the Kraken!" moments.

A few of them are unique Fae creatures or mortal mutant aberrations like the nameless creature living under Border Barony Spot 11.

But anyway, no one has any feedback on druss elves? I never made a sentient plant creature before and put a lot of thought into this.

 

You probably meant this in jest, but I'm going to answer this in detail because this is something I put a lot of thought into regularly.

The more races I have, the harder it is to add more. Perhaps we are using different terminology but "race" to me in a fantasy context means mortal race.

I do have a rule for adding a new race or creature. There needs to be an in-universe reason (they fit into the narrative of Scarterra) to include them and a meta reason to include them (because I think their inclusion would lead to cool stories for writing or RPGs).

First Age Mortals: Dragons, kobolds, brute giants, sea giants, scale giants, beholders, delvers, chimera

Anyway all the mortals of this era were either created by 8/9 of the Nine (sans Greymoria) to serve the dragons (giants, delvers) or they were created by Greymoria to compete with the dragons (kobolds) or they were created by Greymoria to compete with the dragons but then ended up serving them (chimera, beholders).

I am still open to create new First Age mortals, so I could still end up with more. With the exception of kobolds (who were more or less considered a failure by their creator), any race I create here needs to be big and powerful enough to matter to a society of dragons. Kobolds are kind of like the prototype for humanoids.

I might throw in some extinct races too since it's easily possible a race from this era did not survive the First and Second Unmakings plus the rise of elves and humans. Since the dragons of the First Age were very powerful, they could have chosen to drive a race extinct if it annoyed them enough.

Giants were the preeminent thurakel of the First Age, I feel like I should have more than three giants. Scale giants were grunt soldiers, brute giants were simple laborers, and sea giants were lightly less laborers that also had gills. The death giants are the degenerate mutant remnants of a lost giant tribe that got corrupted by the Void. I don't know if I want to create a different giant type that they sprung from or make them mutated brute and/or sea giants.

Second Age Mortals: Elves, aranea, goblins, satyrs, tengku, dwarves, gnomes, cyclopes, druss elves, metamorphs, gnolls

Anyway, some races were created to harm the elves (goblins, aranea, cyclopes, gnolls), some were created to help the elves (druss elves, metamorphs) and some were created because other gods besides Greymoria wanted to create a race to exemplify their ideals (gnomes, tengku, dwarves, ibixians).

Ibixians were driven extinct during the Second Unmaking. I might rename them to something else so I don't get sued. Anyway, Ibixians are hyper lawful desert dwelling goat people in D&D. In my lore they were created by Khemra as a vanity race. Khemra is not very sentimental, she is a utilitarian. During the Second Unmaking, her goal was to save as many mortals as possible and chose not to play favorites. The rest of the Nine did play favorites and prioritized saving their pet races. Thus Khemra's pet race was wiped out.

I could create more races in this category but the category is already pretty crowded. I could always add more extinct mortals to this category but I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

Third Age Mortals: humans, orcs, kalazotz, derro, yeti, frog goblins, rock goblins, fire goblins, jumping goblins.

Except for humans and orcs, all of these races are an evolutionary offshoot of something else. I feel like I need more. I believe no post on this thread has gotten more likes than Scolenex suggestion for a barbarian panda on page 48. The question is, did the people just like Scolenex's joke or do they seriously want a race of panda-folk. Scarterra does have pandas in Umera. I'm just not sure if Scarterra should have super pandas. I have a tongue and cheek origin story for Scarterran pandas but I'll save it for later.

Scaraquan Mortals: Merfolk, Astalakians, Karakhai, Ojiongo, Seaclopes

So the Merfolk, Astalakians, Karakhai and the Ojiongo are the main races of Scaraqua, the Big Four if you will. The Seaclopes are a tiny minority. I am satisfied with the Big Four, but I want to expand my roster of minority Scaraquan races. Technically frog goblins, dragons, and sea giants qualify as Scaraquan mortals but I still want to create more.

I also want more races to populate Scarnoctis though there is overlap between Scarnoctis and Scarterra as dwarves, kalazotz, camazotz, cyclopes, common goblins, kobolds aranea each have one metaphorical foot in Scarterra and the other in Scarnoctis. Frog goblins are the ultimate adaptables with a webbed appendage on Scarterra, Scaraqua, and Scarnoctis.

Derro, delvers, beholders, fire goblins, and rock goblins are almost exclusively Scarnoctis creatures.

I also want to create one or two aquatic races that bridge the gap between Scaraqua and Scarnoctis.

Beasts: So most animals that exist in the real world right now, also exist in Scarterra or Scaraqua. West Colassia loosely has the flora and fauna of pre-industrial Europe. East Colassia loosely has the flora and fauna of Africa. Umera loosely has the flora and fauna of East Asia, Khemarok loosely has the flora and fauna of Australia, and Penarchia loosely has the flora and fauna of South Asia. All five landmasses are going to have cows, chickens, goats, pigs, and sheep somewhere. Scarterra has some vegetarians and vegans but I don't think many societies are going to have an equivalent of kosher laws about "it's okay to eat this beast but not that one" beyond simple things like satyrs not wanting to eat goats because they goats remind them of themselves.

I don't know enough about oceanography to tell you about the differences between the animals in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, but most real world aquatic animals exist in Scaraqua somewhere. I might make some/most/all whales and dolphins classified as mortals rather than intelligent beasts but I'm still on the fence about this idea.

In addition I have the supernatural animals of pegasi, griffin, ankhegs, cocatrices, grootslang, rust monsters, bonecrackers, murder trees, twig blights, trolls, elemental trolls, and chokers on land representing supernatural beasts. I am tempted to throw out chokers because they aren't that interesting and they may be copyrighted by I have don't have a lot of subterranean monsters. I put my own spin on these creatures, but bonecrackers are the only true Scalenex original.

One thing a vast majority of D&D worlds have is dire animals. Effectively we are talking about Ice Age mammals. Dire wolves, sabertooth tigers, cave bears, giant sloths, wooly mammoths, and megladon sharks. A large minority of D&D worlds also have dinosaurs. These beasts are real but long gone making them good fantasy fodder.

While it almost sacrilege on Lustria-Online, I don't think I want prehistoric beasts like this on Scarterra. My current thought is that Scarterra and Scaraqua used to have these creatures but they are more or less all extinct. Giant mammals and giant dinosaurs require a lot of territory. The First Unmaking and the Second Unmaking would have drastically reduced their territory. So maybe a few survived but wait, you got a bunch of haggard refugees that have just lost their homes and farms and are scavenging the post-apocalyptic landscape for food, and they run across some wooly mammoth. They are not going to say "This may be the last breeding pair of mammoths, we must preserve them!" They are going to say "Ooh, meat!"

Bonecrackers are a rare exception. Bonecrackers survived two apocalyptic events because they were so useful that mortals worked to keep them alive. They are probably Scarterra's last dinosaur and they are kind of pathetic dinosaurs because generations of domestication have made them weak on purpose.

I may or may not create a lost island of dinosaurs or ice age mammals somewhere but I doubt it. I am more likely to create an extra-planar pocket dimension controlled by Korus where keeps a preserve of extinct animals but I'm not sure what purpose such a place would serve.

At sea I have hippocampi, kraken, giant opabina, dark amalgams, and nightmare sponges representing supernatural beasts. Hippocampi and kraken are the only two on this list that are not Scalenex originals. I'm still hammering out the details for a supernatural augmented version of an angler fish, but I'm not sure how to implement.

I like supernatural beasts and I want to put as many of them into my setting as I can justify for the meta reason a that dangerous monsters are fun.

But there is something I have to consider. I don't want a predatory monster to be so powerful that it will realistically all the lions, tigers, and bears (or sharks and orca if in the sea). Also, humans, even preindustrial humans are good at driving animals to extinction. If a magical beast is really dangerous to either humans or their livestock, the humans are going to try to kill it.

Let's revisit the list I have of land beasts. pegasi, griffin, ankhegs, cocatrices, grootslang, rust monsters, bonecrackers, murder trees, twig blights, trolls, elemental trolls, and chokers.

Rust monsters have an evolutionary adaptation that lets them counter hunters. They destroy metal. Griffin, pegasi, and cockatrices can fly. Grootslang and ankheg can burrow. Chokers are great at hiding. Murder trees, twig blights, and trolls can respawn quickly.

Of course I still have fae, elementals, and spirits. These creatures are not native to the material plane, so they are not required to follow the ecological rules of beasts and mortals.

After writing this post, I realized that undead are essentially a type of mutation. I technically have many, many types of undead in Scarterra all undead in all fantasy is essentially a derivative of a zombies, a skeletons, or a ghost. Is it fleshy, bony, or incorporeal? So I got my basic zombie. Drowned, which are are essentially faster swimming zombies, morghs which are stronger faster zombies, salt mummies which are essentially faster stronger zombies with a special dehydration attack, and vampires which are effectively free willed zombies with a bunch of esoteric powers, ghouls are essentially zombies that infect those they bite.

I am probably going to keep slowly expanding my undead roster, but basic zombies, basic skeletons, and basic ghosts are going to remain the only really commonly seen undead whereas most other undead are going to be the center of a story in and of themselves. Technically, in Scarterra/Scaraqua, ghosts are not undead, they are "restless dead" but I don't want to split hairs more than I am already doing.

Besides a bunch of undead variants I have lycanthropes, cannibal sickness (creating ogres and buzzards), and Void taint that can create assorted mutants.

I a sense all mutants are are ultimately from the Void. Cannibal sickness is a thing because cannibalism is spiritually linked to Turoch's all consuming hunger by a universal law. Undead are at least indirectly powered by the Void. Lycanthropy was a disease engineered in a Demon Lord's laboratory.

I guess I have elemental mutations too, but these are more inheritable. Beings who acquire elemental mutations usually pass these on their kids directly. That's how regular goblins evolved into jumping goblins, frog goblins, rock goblins, and fire goblins. Which are effectively goblins infused with air/water/earth/fire magical energy. That kind of mutation is more evolution than aberration.

 

I was thinking about some background lore for my favorite card game, Sentinels of the Multiverse. The alien race known as Maynarians (probably not spelling it right) blurs the line between sexual and asexual reproduction.

They essentially get pregnant with their own clone periodically. This happens involuntarily when a Maynarian is either very relaxed for a long consecutive time (representing a safe time to have offspring) but it also happens when a Maynarian is fearful and stressed for long consecutive time (other Maynarians are probably dying off so offspring are needed to shore up the numbers).

Anyway, when a Maynarian gets pregnant, they instinctively get touchy feely with their friends and neighbors. From their touch, they pick up a tiny bit of DNA for their offspring, so the end result is an offspring that is ~60% their DNA, and ~40% the entire communities DNA.

I could see stealing this idea. When druss elves are about to produce a seedling, said druss elf could cross pollinate with other druss elves or even normal trees. Maybe they could even cross-pollinate with elves and/or humans. I like the idea of cross-pollination because this could easily allow for druss elves that look like different trees. I could give them traits based on the science of folklore of their tree. A willow based druss elf might be a drama queen prone to emotional displays like weeping. Willow druss would probably be a bit more agile than other druss because willow is such a bendy wood. An pine tree based druss would be able to cold temperatures easier than other druss but be somewhat more vulnerable to fire than other druss. A poisonous tree might produce a more mean spirited druss.

I don't know what would trigger a druss elf to be able to create a seedling. I like the idea that druss elves produce one seedling at a time normally but go through this several times in their life. Pregnancy/budding could be triggered by stress or a lack of stress. It could be seasonal.

Traditional dryad folklore makes dryads symbols of fertility and thus very sexual beings. I'm not sure how sexual I want druss elves to be. I don't want to be a prude, but I don't want to make Scarterra to look like an HBO series either. There could be an intimate component to druss reproduction, either G-rated or X-Rated or somewhere in between. One set of fiction I read did something weird with mermaids and mermen. Traditional intercourse was viewed extremely casually but kissing was extremely private and intimate. That's because kissing is actually how they reproduce.

Presumably it would be obvious when a druss elf is in their fertility cycle. They could literally flower. Another option is that druss elves adopt more female traits when they are in their fertile cycle and resemble males when they are not. Or I could just make druss elves look female all the time because 99% of other stories about dryads make them female.

Another question is how many seedlings can a druss elf produce. I like the idea that some part of the seeding process is under the druss elfs' personal control. Ergo, they don't have to spawn offspring if they don't want to. They could deliberately limit their population so not to outgrow the area.

I'm thinking under extreme circumstances could have seven or eight seedlings, and under normal circumstances, they typically have three or four seedlings. A very safe druss elf where premature death is quite rare, have a norm of 1.7 children per druss.

 

Sea giants has been on my to-do list for a long time. They are giants that living in the sea.

Admittedly they don't have much going for them besides they are very big. They don't have much culture of their own as they have been forced to adapt to the cultures of others.

sea giants

Sea giants, are aquatic giant humanoids. They were originally created in the First Age as a thurakel race to serve aquatic dragons, but the survivors in the Third Age have gained a modicum of independence and have diverged into different groups.

Sea giants are willing to work with other mortal races amiably, but they are assertive and cunning enough to haggle for a good price and will not tolerate poor treatment.

Sea giants can survive out of the water for short periods of time as long as they stay moisturized.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Sea giants adults tend to range between ten feet and twelve feet tall when fully grown and weigh between 1400 and 1800 pounds. They are bit lankier than other giants with proportionally longer limbs but they care less bulk. Males and females are roughly the same size. Males and females are similar enough that outsiders often have trouble telling them apart.
Biological Traits
Adult sea giants tend to weigh between 1500 and 2000 pounds and typically stand between 11 and 13 feet tall. Compared to other giants they are a bit lankier with proportionally longer limbs but less bulk.

Their hands and feet have retractable webbing that help with swimming. Their hands can fold in their webbing to allow for better manual dexterity and tool yes. Their feet have retractable claws that can help the grip things or dig in sand. They have similar retractable claws on their fingers but they are largely vestigial and not capable of doing much real damage or breaking up hard substances.

Sea giants have a higher top swimming speed than most smaller Scaraquans but they accelerate fairly slowly and they cannot turn with the same agility as merfolk and karakhai.
Growth Rate & Stages
Like most giants, sea giants exit infancy around their fifth yar, they enter adolescence in their early twenties and are considered full adults around age forty. They typically die of natural causes early in their fourth century but a rare few lucky individuals have lived to see their fifth century.

Females tend to remain fertile till about the age of 250 while males tend to remain fertile until around 350 years. Single births are the norm, but twins are not unheard of. Pregnancy lasts about two years.
Dietary Needs And Habits
Sea giants are fully omnivorous capable of subsisting on meat or plant matter. Individuals have different preferences but most sea giants like a mix of food types. Given their dietary needs, sea giants are not especially picky. A sea giant needs about ten times the food intake of a human sized Scaraquan.

They have strong stomachs and strong teeth. They can handle eating most carrion safely and they crunch through a lot of hard shelled sea creatures and deal with moderate toxins. Given their great size, their system can easily process poisons that would be fatal or at least debilitating to a human-sized Scaraquan.
Additional Information
Perception And Sensory Capabilities
Relative to other giants, sea giants have keen senses. Their hearing is a little limited compared to other giants but their eye sight and sense of smell are quite acute, at least underwater. Outside of water, their sense of smell is somewhat muted and they are somewhat disoriented by bright sunlight.

On land or in the water, sea giants have excellent vision in the dark provided there is some light. They cannot see anything in total darkness.
Civilization And Culture
Major Language Groups And Dialects
Most sea giants learn Draconic as their mother tongue but they usually make some effort to learn other languages.

History
Sea giants were created as a thurekal race to aid sea dwelling dragons in the First Age.

Generally speaking, in the First Age wealth and social status correlated to height with the richest dragons mostly living in mountains and towers and the dragons living below sea level were usually but not always poorer than the dragons living figuratively and literally above them. This meant that the dragons had to make due with fewer thurakel.

Land dragons had between two and three giant thurakel per every dragon while sea dragons had roughly a one to one ratio with their giants. This also had the effect that most sea giants were forced to be more versatile, as they were not common enough that they could specialize. A sea giant needed to be able to fight, build, or perform grunt labor as circumstances called for. They are far less passive than the docile brute giants and less aggressive than the violent scale giants.

Roughly eight out of ten sea giants died during the First Unmaking. About half were killed outright by the supernatural disasters and the other half of the deaths were slow death of hunger as their once dependable domesticated food sources were wiped out.

Once the dust settled, a large minority of the surviving sea giants sought to ally themselves with surviving dragons, but the majority opted to live for themselves in small nomadic tribes hunting and foraging much as they did during the First Unmaking only this time in safer environments.

Initially the sea giants were able to thrive and expand quickly but they had to compete with emerging populations of merfolk and ojiongo who were often able to outcompete them with superior numbers and better organization.

The sea giants are not afraid to fight for what is theirs but they can sense which way the currents are going and a great many chose to ally with smaller but numerous Scaraquan often providing combat and labor support in exchange for food. A few even allied with coastal dwelling Scarterrans.

Two subspecies of sea giants diverged from the main race. Nicknamed the shallow giants and the deep giants. The shallow giants were more amphibious and could survive outside of the water for longer periods of time on land. The deep giants lost the ability to survive outside of water altogether but evolved adaptations to handle the darkness, cold, and high pressure of the deepest waters of Scaraqua.

The deep giants thrived and expanded while the shallow giants barely avoided extinction during the Second Unmaking.

After the Second Unmaking, almost all of the independent sea giant tribes were killed off. The few sea giants that survived the cataclysm were mostly those who allied with other races. Except for a few deep giants enclaves, nearly every sea giant in the Third Age is firmly entrenched as a valued minority of one the undersea kingdoms or empires.