My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Mahrlect! That was a pure coincidence, now I have to change "Ramsi" to something else.

When I name a Fumayan character, I look up Polish baby names.

When I name a Swynfaredian character, I look up Welsh baby names, etc.

I look up baby names so much, Google algorithms believe I'm an expecting dad and I get ads catered to that though I have sense switched to the Brave Browser and Duck Duck Go.

Each Scarterran nation is tied to a real world culture for a consistent bank of names BUT Fakhari are not intended to be linked to any real world culture, and the Fakhari are intended to be people of legend, so I used a Fantasy name generator for Ramsi, Chevell, and Fatine.

I'm retconning Ramsi into Jacawn which I think is a Scalenex original based on an alteration of the D&D human name "Jayce" but I could easily have accidentally saw it something first.

Jacawn has an aura of majesty to it, until you point out something wrong with "Jacawn". I am really enjoying MS Words "Find and Replace Feature."

You said "triggered" which usually means offended but then you go onto seem to approve. I agree that I would not have liked them as mindless savages, I wanted them to be highly intelligent savages and I wanted them to hold on to at least one thing that is very "dwarfy" and figured a skill at building things qualified.

I am a casual HG Wells fan. I have read "The Country of the Blind" and The Time Machine in their original format, but I have mostly only seen adaptations of his work.

I'll assume you approve. Anyway, my friend suggested I base dwarf cannibals on morlocks but change the name, but I decided I liked the name morlocks, and I checked, The Time Machine is in the public domain.

 

That's more than a small error. Four editing runs and I still missed that one. It's fixed now.

Maybe I should make Bowser my official editor. That might cut into his time on his main job, being the Santa Claus of likes.

 

So last RPG session, Kormatin found out that Lady Felicja who is all but certain to seek revenge on him some day, is probably hiding out in the Border Baronies.

As a character, he sought out information on the Border Baronies, and as a player he started (re)reading my Border Baronies articles.

It was brought up in passing conversation with an NPC, that if Fumaya loses the war with Swynfaredia, many refugees would likely flee into the Border Baronies and they would have to pass through or at least near a Border Barony that is a Swynfaredian puppet state.

They are a weak state but they could open a second front against Fumaya in the event of a Swynfaredia/Fumaya war.

Kormatin's player suggested maybe having a long term plan of overthrowing the Swynfaredian puppet, arguing that this would open up a line for them to get non-combatants out of the country and throw the Swynfaredians for a loop. They know Swynfaredia is going to invade, they just don't know win. Sure, if Fumaya (or any special interest groups from Fumaya) attack their puppet state this could provoke Swynfaredia into invading sooner but at this point it looks like a diplomatic option to prevent a Swynfaredian war before it starts is increasingly remote, so it might be better to give the Fumayans the strategic initiative.

I don't know if this is sensible from a political or military strategy. From an RPG strategy. Setting a coup in a Border Barony sounds like lots of fun, so I'm going to pretend that it's sound military strategy.

Originally I named the puppet state Uwcharaderedia as a joke about how crazy Welsh place names are. But now that I have to flesh it out more, I'm tired of writing "Uwcharaderedia" over and over again, so it is now Uwcharedia because that is a lot easier to spell and pronounce.

I already made a character profile for the current ruler Duchess Nia, and I'm working on her husband who is on paper subservient to her, but in reality he is more in charge than she is. The Duchess is a shy nerd making careful plans and her husband is the guy serving as the realm's face actually relaying orders and negotiating deals.

Then I'm going to work on some of the Uwcharedian rebels (of which there are a lot). If Kormatin's clever enough he might be able to incite a coup without gathering Fumayan troops for a military invasion. If he goes the coup route, that means spy stories. If he goes the military route, he has to convince the Fumayans to put troops towards this goal, that means diplomacy stories.

Or alternatively he could do both. If there is an external invasion occurring simultaneously with an internal rebellion Uwcharedia would collapse in days rather than weeks.

And this potential story arc could easily spin off into future Border Baronies stories, this makes me happy.

I pointed out that overthrowing a Border Barony is a lot easier than establishing a stable government, but Kormatin's player pointed out that a stable government is nice, but they only really need the hypothetical new government to last a couple years until the Fumayan-Swynfaredian conflict is over.

 

I have created a new BBBBBBorder BBBBBBarony


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Barony of Bees

The Barony of the Bees, also known as the Hive Barony is defined largely it's bee-based economy and secondarily by magical mysteries.

Tentative Geographic Assignment: Spot 15

The valley that makes up the bulk of the Barony of Bees is rife with rare flowers that are extremely difficult to successfully transplant outside of the valley and these flowers attract the bees that make the Barony's namesake and are the bbbbbackbone of their economy.

Religion: No religion is officially supported or condoned. Most locals are pretty secular in outlook, but as this is the Borderlands region, there are always exceptions.

Challenges: The rare flowers are supposedly the result of faerie magic. The region has a lot of mysterious occurrences and disappearances attributed to the Fair Folk.

This is one of the richest Border Baronies, rivaled only by Platinum Peak. The wealth attracts poachers and thieves and there are a lot of political coups. The Barony of the Bees changes ruler often, but these bloody coups rarely extend to the common people who now barely bat an eye at regime changes. The tax rate and basic laws rarely change much, just the person collecting the taxes changes. If Uwcharedia decides it wants to expand its territory again, The Barony of Bees is a likely target because it is such a rich target

Government
An autocratic Baron or Baroness legally owns all the food crop land and therefore all the food. The Baron or Baroness taxes 20% of all non-food stuff items right off the top, and then will sell food to the locals for more trade goods. The Bee Baron will typically use his food and/or coins to buy up much of the beeswax and almost all of the reagents, so the Baron can dictate who the region's trading partners are and what the prices are.
Defences
The realm is defended by about a hundred or so conventional men at arms and about ten elite mercenaries including specialized skills and spell casters, essentially adventurers on retainer.

Another couple hundred citizens are it militia. Militia service is voluntary but comes with a modest stipend.
Industry & Trade
The rare flowers in the valley support a huge number of bees. The locals collect honey and beeswax (for candles) for export and the bees pollination also makes their crops very productive.

Some of the flowers can be distilled into high end perfumes. This makes good money but not nearly on the scale of the beeswax sales.

During the winter, the rare winter blooming flowers can be carefully harvested for reagents which means the locals can still keep busy producing exports at a time when the bees become semi-dormant.
History
Honey bee queens tend to live for two to three years. Something in the flowers in this valley are good for bees and queens often live for five to six years.Typically the Bee Barons and Bee Baronesses last ten to twenty years before facing a coup, either bloody or bloodless.

The locals just accept this as a fact of life. Over time the realm has developed a sort of paradoxical stability. In the past the realm has seen kings, queens, merchant princes, speakers of the Senate, and Warlords, but for the past century, whoever is in charge has chosen the title Bee Baron or Bee Baroness, sometimes colloquially called the BB. Given that the most of the past rulers had the enduring nickname of "Bee Baron" even if they wanted another title, most contemporary leaders here and decided to formalize the nickname.

The leader typically even wears a black and yellow cape as a badge of office.

It's not just the title that has stabilized. Most of the recent rulers have kept the tax laws and the basic government system more or less intact through each regime change rather than the new ruler rocking the boat.
Tourism
Some people visit just to see the beautiful flowers, but most visitors are merchants or traders bartering for something the Barony produces.
Geography
A valley with some carefully tended fields is ringed by gently rolling hills surrounded by fruit filled trees and a vast rainbow of colorful flowers.
Natural Resources
The flowers provide the anchor for the ecosystem and the economy making the realm relatively abundant in honey, beeswax, grain, perfumes and reagents.

Conventional crop land is somewhat limited, but acre per acre is some of the most productive cropland in all of the Borderlands region if not all of West Colassia.

While the Barony of the Bees is not as monetarily rich as Platinum Peak, the Beekeepers do not have to bend over backwards to feed themselves.

 

I never heard of "mad honey," that is really cool. I definitely want to use it somewhere.

In a place like the Barony of the Bees, it would be difficult not to accidentally cross pollinate the bad honey with the good honey because I figure the bees would be able to go fly where they wish in such a place.

 

Upon further reflection, the article you linked is based clearly in science, but I had some thoughts based in SCIENCE!

My plan was to have a powerful Fae Court exist concurrently with the Barony of Bees (parallel dimension of course, the material plane and Fae Home mirror each other). It just so happens that the Barony of Bees closest neighbor the Barony of Red Streams also has a lot of fae incursions, so they are probably being meddled with by the same Fae.

I haven't developed the Fae Courts a lot 1) because I haven't gotten around to it yet and 2) I am deliberately keeping the Fair Folk factions somewhat vague to keep the mystery alive.

I figure that the Barony of the Bees is such a fertile rich place because the land and flora is infused with faerie magic, but the disappearances, generally weirdness and the short reigns of local rulers are also due to faerie magic (the Fair Folk are taking "payment" for services rendered).

A lot of fairy tales warn mortals against eating faerie food. Some stories have Fair Folk unable to eat certain mortal food.

So I'm thinking that, at least for the local Fair Folk from this area, Fair Folk cannot eat mortal honey without harmful effects and mortals cannot eat faerie honey without harmful effects.

This gives the Fair Folk a weapon to surreptitiously poison mortals that they want to remove or kidnap. A clever mortal could reveal a Fair Folk in disguise as a normal human by slipping honey into her food, but most mortals have not figured out that the local Fair Folk are weak to honey traps (pun!).

 

So the artist I commission is going to start illustrating this article in early June, and I am excited.

She asked me two intelligent questions that I had not considered. What do dress like? and how do they style their hair? She asked if I could email her some pictures of examples to use.

When I wrote the elemental ethnicity article, I thought about them in scientific terms. "This is what their bodies look like and this is how their hair grows out". It slipped my mind to develop clothes and hair styles.

I'm open to suggestions. I hadn't really given thoughts between earthy and fiery people tend to keep their relatively short and watery and airy people tend to keep their hair relatively long.

 

Originally the Border Barony of "New Uwrcharedia" had almost no details written about it because I didn't think it was important. Due to the PCs surprising me, now the region is the linchpin of a grand political strategy.

Inspired by a stupid meme by cousin sent me, I have added a unique hook to the province. I figured all the Border Baronies need a dash of the fantastic to make them memorable so I was inclined to use this meme.

If the picture doesn't show, try this link




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Wooly Slopes Province

The "Wooly Slopes Province" or "Wooly Slopes Barony" is officially called "New Uwrcharedia Province", but the colloquial name sticks.

The Wooly Slopes Province is one of the largest fertile areas in the Border Baronies, but it has the downside/downslide in that most of the land is at an awkwardly steep angle

Conventional farming is difficult in most places though it has been achieved with careful terrace farming.

This realm is best known for its sure footed sheep and goats and sure footed shepherds.
Defences
Currently the land is parceled between many petty Uwcharedian lords and ladies. These lords and ladies are all combat trained, some are very skilled, some not so skilled. All are well equipped with excellent and weapons and armor.

There is a peasant militia but it is a paper dragon. The local lords hold the peasants in thinly veiled contempt and the local peasants have no real loyalty to their new lords.

Due to the sloping terrain, cavalry is impossible to use here.
Industry & Trade
Subsistence farming and herding. A little bit of reagents trading and a lot of export of wool goods.
History
New Uwcharedia was an independent border barony that was invaded and annexed by Uwcharedia with help from the Kingdom of Swynfaredia, primarily House Goirsonad.Sometimes called the Crooked Barony, not just for the slopes but for the rulers. Much like a stereotypical Border Barony, a lot of new governments came in with high ideals but grew corrupt over time, only to be overthrown by a new government with high ideals.

First a republic got hijacked by wealthy merchant interest than it was overthrown replaced with a feudal system with a just Baron, but the Baron's heirs got greedy and they too were overthrown.

Most recently, the region was ruled by an indepedent semi-feudal coven of wizards, formerly entitled the "West Borderland Coven". They were popular with the common people. As long as the coven got their reagents, they mostly let the shepherds conduct their affairs as they saw fit with light taxes and minimal interference.

Then a Swynfaredian strike force of sorcerers overwhelmed their magical wards and murdered all the wizards, installing a well connected squib from House Goirsonad.

The new rulers uncovered "evidence" of maleficium including necromancy and skin changer witches but almost no one believes the stories.Most of the reagents are tied up in a fifty year agreement with House Goirsonad to pay the war debt to Uwcharedia for military aid received. Roughly about twenty years remain on the agreement, but it's likely the new agreement after it expires will still be very one-sided in Goirsonad's favor.
Architecture
Houses are small and carefully built foundationally to be level for the inhabitants.
Geography
Green lush, not so gentle slopes is the norm here.
Natural Resources
Farming opportunities are limited but the realm can feed itself...barely. The realm is a bit overcrowded with expat Swynfaredians.

Most of the useable land is grazing land not farmland. And wool is the main export. The secondary export is reagents. Occasionally, naturally occurring sideways growing herbs develop enough latent magic to be usable as potion ingredients.

 

Speaking of deadly gnomes no one saw coming...

Now it's time for more mutant cannibals!

ollums

Even more frightening than ogres, even more frightening than jormangers and wendigo are the ollums!

I'm serious! Don't laugh.

-Beslyfle the gnome, matron of Fumaya's Tenders

Ollums are gnomes mutated by Cannibal Sickness.
Transmission & Vectors
Ollums are gnomes who develop an addiction to eating mortal flesh. Like a human ogre, a gnome ollum can pass his curse onto his or her offspring.

It is fairly rare for ollums to have offspring. Most afflicted with Cannibal Sickness are also afflicted with ugliness, at least by the standards of what their race considers "ugly" and ollums tend to have their appearance distorted faster than most, so they have trouble finding willing romantic partners among untainted gnomes, and they rarely seek unwilling partners, generally wanting to avoid conflict and not having strong sex drives.

Ollums even find each other off-putting, so they generally avoid other ollums, thus they rarely mate with each with other.

When they do occur, second generation ollums tend to grow even uglier than first generation ollums, but they tend to be stronger and hardier, developing useful mutations faster than their parents.

Symptoms
Ollums remain small, but their limbs tend to elongate and their fingers and toes grow longer. Most ollums eventually go barefoot as they can no longer fit in conventional gnome shoes. On the plus side their toes eventually morph into essentially a second set of fingers allowing them to grip things with full manual dexterity.

Like most of those with Cannibal Sickness, ollums' senses tend to gradually sharpen. Hearing and smell improves dramatically, as does through night vision, though ollums need some light to see. Very few develop perfect dark vision.

Ollums often dislike bright light, but they are not physically harmed by it, nor are their senses impaired in bright light (unless they are one of the rare ollums to develop perfect night vision).Most ollums can excrete a sticky substance from their fingers and toes. They can use this to enhance pickpocketing ability. This also lets them snatch fish and rodents with their bare hands to eat. Most dramatically, ollums use their sticky fingers and toes to scale walls and ceilings.

A young ollum often has trouble controlling their slime excretions and stick to things they don't want to stick to. Younger ollums often leave slime trails wherever they go. Older ollums can control their slime better and almost never have accidents and leave little sign of their passing.

An ollums' most unique ability is their chameleon power. They can change their appearance to mimic the color and texture of their background. The longer their Cannibal Sickness runs, the better this camoflage becomes until they are practically invisible, yet because they are not actually invisible, divination magics that pierce illusions are useless at detecting ollums.

Ollums gradually increase in strength, especially in the grip strength of their fingers. Good for climbing rocks and strangling throats.

An ollum's increase in strength is not very dramatic when compared to ogres and wendigo. While ollums can overpower most ordinary gnomes, most struggle to take down a human without weapons and the element of surprise.
Treatment
Purification magic can temporarily suppress an ollum's unholy appetite but to cure Cannibal Sickness an afflicted 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, ollums have been cured of their conditions minutes or seconds before their deaths after dying in a poetic and noble sacrifice.

Ollums are anti-social and it is rare to find an ollum who wants to be cured, but gnomes often work much harder than most races to redeem their wayward souls and a disproportionately high number of them have Purification magic.
Prevention
The best way to not get Cannibal Sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. The same goes for ollum transformation. A gnome that doesn't eat mortal flesh will never turn into a ollum. The more mortal flesh a gnome eats, the more likely his or her transformation is, especially if they are eating the flesh of other gnomes.
History
During the Second Unmaking, a lot of mortals turned to cannibalism, and some of them were gnomes.

Most gnomes that survived the Unmaking had attached themselves to groups of surviving dwarves and elves. Ollums likewise usually attached themselves to groups of jormangers and skopen.

At the dawn of the Third Age, most gnomes maintained their friendships with dwarves and elves for generations but most ollums had a falling out with their cannibal brethren.

When the jormangers and skopen fought against their untainted brethren, it was usually convenient for them to cut their ollums loose. Other times, the ollums themselves fled away from doomed cannibal clusters. Most ollums became lone monsters in lonely tunnels and gradually died off. There weren't enough rogue ollums to create a sustainable breeding population.

Modern ollums, rare as they are, have no direct historical ties to the ollums of the Second Unmaking.

Cultural Reception
"Gnomes are friendly and gregarious, but Mera bless them, they are are also nosy busy, and gnomes have very little respect for another mortal's privacy.

An ogre or especially an jormanger can often take on a mundane job that doesn't interact with other people on a regular basis and hide in plain sight, remaining undetected for years.

An ollum cannot pull off this trick.

First off, ollums physically transform faster than most other cannibals, but even if they could hide this somehow, it will do them little good. Gnome communities try to not to leave anyone on the outskirts and they will immediately notice any odd behavior.

That doesn't mean gnomes are going to immediately say 'oh no, we have an ollum!' and break out the torches and pitch forks, but they will try to figure out why Waredar keeps refusing social invites, seems to have an odd pallor and goes off by herself into the woods so often.

Most ollums cannot handle that level of scrutiny, so they don't try to live among normal gnomes.

Ollums are still gnomes, albeit corrupted gnomes, so they crave a sense of community. Most ollums will seek out a community to join, usually a community of criminals or monsters, whoever won't look askance at a cannibal in their midst, providing they are useful.

Lone ollums do exist. It's noted that they are always very lonely. They will frequently talk to themselves and they will sometimes play mind games with their food.

In combat, they don't have the brute strength of other cannibals, so they rely on their stealth. Even lone ollums prefer to use groups in an indirect way.

Ollums often will look for two groups at war and skulk around battlefield sites, picking off stragglers. Not only does this mean there is an abundance of vulnerable wounded prey, but the disappearances will usually be blamed on the other side, not some invisible cannibal.

Also note, if you are hunting down cannibals, most cannibals cook their food, but ollums generally eat their meat raw, both animal flesh and mortal flesh. Some believe that since cannibal gnomes have forsaken Mera's sacred values, that ollums no longer derive any joy from hearth fires, but I believe the explanation is less metaphysical. Ollums rely on stealth to survive and a cooking fire will give away a person's position for miles."

-Daana of Meraland, Defender of the Hearth

Mera gave us gnome silver tongues as a tool to spread peace and harmony but our silver tongues can be used for evil. Any good thing can be turned to evil.

Most of the very best and the very worst human kings and queens have gnome advisors. Mediocre human monarchs usually have human advisors.

A wise and just king probably has a gnome advising him on how to efficiently protect and serve his people. An ironfisted tyrant king probably has a gnome advising him on how to efficiently oppress and exploit his people. It is probably not too surprising that the most powerful ogre chiefs in recorded history had an ollum advisor giving them advice on how to eat people more efficiently.

What is surprising is that peace and harmony can be turned to evil. I see I got your attention...good.

You probably heard that Cannibal Sickness manifests differently in different races. Ogres, skopen, jormangers, etc. Most of the time, cannibal mutants are xenophobic and can barely work with their own kind, let alone outsiders. It is almost unheard of for cannibals of different races to cooperate with each other.

Almost unheard of does not mean never. When cannibals have peace and harmony amongst each other, all normal Scarterrans tremble in fear, for they are all prey. When we see cannibals cooperating across racial lines, there is usually an ollum puppet master pulling the strings of the grand coalition creating peace and harmony among murderous cannibals.

Gnomes don't really have magic tongues. We seem to have magic tongues because we are good at reading people so we can gauge emotions and adjust what we are saying on the fly The scroll heads say "gnomes instinctively see and interpret micro expressions that other mortals do not notice." Village wise women simply say "gnomes have good instincts".Ollums are also good at reading emotions and figuring out what people want. They are arguably better at this than untainted gnomes. Some believe ollums can actually read minds because they seem to be uncannily accurate at guessing specifically what people want. A cornered ollum will offer you the moon.

If you are motivated by greed, they will offer to take to you to great hidden treasure if you just spare them. If you are motivated by justice, they won't hesitate for a second to sell former companions up the river if you just just spare them. If you are motivated by compassion, they will spin a tale of how desperately they seek redemption from their lowly state.

Obviously you would a fool to trust an ollum as far as you can throw one. We gnomes are compassionate and often try to cure those afflicted with Cannibal Sickness. Keep in mind that ollums will try to use your empathy against you. Most ollums don't want to be saved, but they are damn good at pretending to be remorseful when the situation calls for it."
-Beslyfle the gnome, matron of Fumaya's Tenders

(sidebar)

The concept for this monster is a combination of Gollum from Lord of the Rings and gnomes. Since they are based on gnomes, the "G" is silent, ergo "ollums".Thank you to my friends for suggesting this.

 

Writing about the Barony of the Bees was inspired by a short video on medieval candles. I was then spurred to look up more sources of pre-industrial lighting. Here is the summary for how all my research applies to Scarterra.

I still haven't figured out if magical light sources are a thing in Scarterra. A lot of magic spells create a glow as a secondary effect, but that's mainly for dramatic effect, not for practical lighting. I'm thinking of having a conjuring spell that can conjure a glowing spirit to follow you around.

I like the idea that in Scaraqua, they domesticated some form of bioluminescent sea life, essentially "We'll feed you regularly if you come when called and light up the areas we point at."

I'll work at the specifics of Scaraquan and magical lighting later. The article below is 95% science, only 5% SCIENCE!


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artificial lighting

Scarterran lighting is based on research on real world lighting.Most Scarterrans try to maximize use of the sun being active between dawn and dusk, but that still leaves about three to four hours a day where a human doesn't require sleep and has no sunlight.

Most homes and workplaces have a hearthfire that is at least partially lit 24 hours a day. Most night time activity is congregating around the hearth.

A torch is just a burning stick, but burning sticks don't last particularly long. If you just need a few minutes of light to get from the hearth fire to wherever you are sleeping, a burning stick is adequate and practically free.

A better torch is a stick wrapped in a rag soaked in some kind of flammable liquid, but not too flammable. A hand held torch can last about thirty minutes. This costs about a copper piece.

Most commoners might keep a torch in a sconce near the exit to their house. If they hear a noise or need to go outside for a brief time, they use a torch, but torches are not ideal for long term use and are a bit expense.

If an alchemist made the torch, a hand held torch can last about two hours, but they cost about five copper pieces to manufacture and most alchemists mark up the sales price to a full silver piece, making this pretty much the province of adventurers and mercenaries.

A long torch is usually at least five feet long and are usuallly planted in the ground. They aren't very portable, but they are good for providing lighting at a large gathering.

Torches of any stripe are generally too expensive and too messy to be a long term lighting source for day-to-day use. They are problematic indoors because they produce a lot of messy (and often hot) ash. They are also a fire hazard. In poorly ventilated small enclosed areas, torches can make an area unbreathable fairly fast.

Candles are the norm for day-to-day use. Rush candles are essentially rush branches soaked in animal fat. They provide decent light but only for about ten to fifteen minutes, but the materials they are made of are readily available and the construction process is simple, so even the poorest peasants can make them easily and it's not a huge problem for them to keep changing the rush candle when the old one goes out. If poor people need to work at night, this is usually how they do it.

A tallow candle will last a fair bit longer than a rush candle but the light they produce is dimmer and they smell unpleasant. Tallow candles are not usually used to read by or do precision work, they are typically used to not trip over things in the dark.

Beeswax candles are the best, providing comparable light to a rush candle but lasting much longer and with fewer variations in brightness. Beeswax is not cheap, so beeswax candles are mostly the province of nobles and clergy. Arguably the clergy more than the secular nobility. It is very common for bishoprics to keep bees for their own use and as a source of income.

Beeswax is roughly worth it's weight in silver. It is a little bit less valuable in areas where bees are common and it is a bit more valuable in areas where bees are less common. Most bees like wooded areas, so areas with limited trees have limited bees.

The Elven Empire is highly literate and thus burns through many candles to read by, but they don't have a lot of bee-friendly woodland, so there is a near constant stream of cargo ships bringing them wax.

Most lanterns are essentially a candle with a cover on it to refract the light and provide a shield against gusts of wind extinguishing the candle. Also, holding a lantern is less likely to spill hot wax than holding a candle directly. Lantern covers are usually thin greased animal skin, less commonly glass or paper. Because of the predominance alchemy in Scarterra. Glass is of a higher quality than the real world Earth glass of the middle ages though it's still not cheap.

An oil lamp is a wick in a pot with a handle. Sometimes the pot is metal, more often than not clay. Whether rendered from vegetable oil or an alchemists workshop, lanterns are fairly expensive, roughly on par with beeswax candles. Unsurprisingly, oil lamps are more popular in areas where bees are relatively scarce and fairly uncommon in areas where bees are relatively plentiful.

 

For those who don't know what Mimics are, Mimic are dungeon monsters that mimic a piece of furniture or a prop. The iconic mimic is a treasure chest, but they can be a book, a chair, a door. They turn into something that humanoid adventurers might want to pick up or handle.

They will then use their sticky secretions to hold the target in place and either bludgeon the target death, bite the target to death, or maybe barf acid on their target.

I cannot get this out of my head. I think I fought one or two Mimicks as a player but I never felt like throwing one at the players when I was the DM.

I never did a a lot of dungeons. I tended to prefer wilderness adventures. I was far more into Dragons than Dungeons.

But anyway, Mimics have an ancient history having been created by Gary Gygax himself. Gary Gygax freaking loved dungeons. He liked traps and monsters and a Mimic is essentially a hybrid of a trap and a monster. This basic concept has been copied or mimicked in many video and computer games.

Mimics have gone through a wide variety of evolution and a lot of source books have alternate forms of mimics.

There is a lot of material on mimics. Maybe I'm overly biased but I can see a pattern.

Phase One: Bro this is a cool monster!

Phase Two: Bro this is unrealistic even in a fantasy setting, but I have a lengthy explanation that can make them make more sense.

Phase Three: Bro, you're over thinking it. It's a monster to surprise the player with. It doesn't need a lengthy backstory. Just roll with it.

(repeat Phase One)

My biggest beef with most Mimic lore is that Mimics need to eat a quantity of meat equal to a human being every week or two. I don't think a Mimic could keep this up very long in a populated area before they get wise. If you have a Mimic in a dungeon, they are likely to go months or years at a time before they have prey to eat. At least in my dungeons.

Mimics are cool but I just have trouble wrapping my head around something of animal intelligence trapping and killing at least two human beings a month.

So I'm thinking if I want to include Mimics, I am going to lean more towards fantasy and away from sci-fi which is what D&D Mimics are.

Here is short and entertaining overview on the evolution of Mimics.



I kind of want to have everything in Scarterra and I kind of want everything in Scarterra to have a backstory, though it needn't be an elaborate backstory. For instances, Scarterran pegasi were created because Korus wanted his favored mortals to have flying steeds to help them fighting demons during the Second Unmaking. That's about 20 words of explanation.


Meta Reason: Mimics are a cool monster for dungeons.

Story Reason: Why do they exist in Scarterra?

I believe the official D&D backstory. Is "Who cares get off my back! Oh wait it's mysterious."

Dark Souls has about a three and a half minute backstory for Mimics.

My two standard origins for dungeon monsters are (1) Greymoria created this because she likes to watch monsters eat people or (2) a wizard created this monster because he wanted unorthodox guards of his lair and then the monster got loose and went feral and starting breeding.

Just to mix it up, sometimes one of the Nine other than Greymoria creates a random creature but Greymoria creates about as many new monsters as the other eight deities combined.

Likewise, occasionally a mortal other than a wizard creates a monster. In Scarterra, cockatrices were created by a farmer hating druid that thought it was funny to turn a chicken into deadly destroyer.

I'm thinking that Scarterran Mimics are a type of sprite. For a recap, sprites are to Fair Folk what animals are to humans.

Making them a sprite gives them a simple origin story, and it explains away my realism problem of them not being able to feed themselves. Fae creatures don't need as much as food as material plane creatures.

Anyway, not all of my Fair Folk shapeshift, but shapeshifting is far from uncommon in Fae Home.

My thought is as the beasts of Fae Home evolved into proper sprites, some of the creatures tried to copy the Fair Folk's shapeshifting ability.

My thought is that to a Fair Folk, Mimics are almost cute. Sure they can bite, but Fair Folk are so used to shape changing that Mimics are blatantly obvious to them.

A lot of Mimics are wandering the wilderness but sometimes Fair Folk keep Mimics as pets and sometimes get them to mimic certain things for fun or aesthetics.

It's when Mimics enter the material plane that they become dangerous. Also, most Mimics that make it into the Material Plane are older and more experienced at mimicking things.

The fact that humans and other mortals get fooled by Mimics and occasionally killed or injured by them is amusing to the Fair Folk. The primitive humans actually rely on their eyes and ears, they have practically no mystical senses at all.

Also, Fair Folk and by extension sprites, kind of indirectly feed on psychic energy from mortals. Sure a Mimic can catch a deer by pretending to be a salt lick, but they get more nourishment from a mortal because they feed on their fear and surprise, not just their flesh.


There you go, that is an example of how my thought process works when it's time to add a new monster.

That's the basic concept. I haven't statted them out yet.

I'm keeping the Mimic's ability to shape change into things people (and to a lesser extant animals) want to touch but I'm not sure if I want to give them sticky tongue like pseudopods or some other form of movement and attack.


Speaking of adapting 5th edition D&D. @Bowser talked about making a 5th edition Scarterran adventure campaign.

I thought about dipping my toe in the water and figure out which domains are eligible to what clerics then my job hit the floor at the sheer number of domains that now exist in 5th edition, so I thought screw that!

While I have only have nine gods (and the option to be a pantheon caster) the Nine are multifaceted enough that most domains can probably apply to several of them. For instance, Oracular domain could apply to everyone.

Though I'm sure I'm such a control freak that I will disagree with something Bowser comes up with, but I guess some media adaptation is required.

Among other things, my system of D&D10 has a different advancement scheme.

The more PCs advance, the more multi-faceted characters become and gradually player characters become more political the farther they advance.

In D&D, the stronger monsters you can fight until around 20th level you can punch a god in the face. In D&D10, the most powerful things are roughly equivalent to a 9th or 10th level challenge, nothing above it really.

So a Scarterra with high level characters is bound to diverge from my Scarterra, but I guess I should be ready to roll with the punches and see what someone else comes up with. Especially since I am big on the public domain being expanded.

 

I guess there are 14 basic domains but there are around 50 in various sourcebooks.

I can work with 14 and the Scarterran Nine. The Scaraquan Nine are a little different but I'm not going to get into that.

Light would be very fitting for Khemra the sun goddess. Sort of fitting for Nami the arson goddess and Zarthus the moon god. A bit of a stretch for Mera the hearth goddess or Hallisan the forge god. Could work for a pantheon caster since this stretches across many of the Nine's area of influence.

Arcana is a clear fit for Greymoria. Sort of fitting for Nami since this focuses on divination and travel. A bit of a stretch for Korus but not unfeasible given the knowledge aspect.

Forge is a clear fit for Hallisan god of forges. The spell list and abilities are very fiery so they fit Khemra fairly well. A bit of a stretch for Nami, Mera, or Phidas.

Twilight is an ideal fit for Zarthus, god of the moon. This is a reasonable fit for Greymoria goddess of darkness and magic. A bit of a stretch for Korus and Nami.

Peace is a natural fit for Mera. Peace is a reasonable fit for Mera's on-again off again boyfriends Korus, Hallisan, and Zarthus. There are some fringe factions among Nami's worships that might justify this domain. This could also work with pantheon casters because the Cult of the Compact is pretty indirect and peaceful.

Order is a good fit for the three lawful deities: Hallisan, Phidas, and Khemra. Mera and Greymoria have fringe groups that could theoretically justify this. This whole domain is a stretch in a way because in my system, I specifically gave the Nine zero means of directly overriding free will. Nami was that effective bestowing free will.

Tempest is a natural fit for Nami goddess of weather. I actually think this is a bit of a stretch for Mera, she is the goddess of sea but she is the goddess of the nice aspects of the sea and this spell list is pretty destructive. Korus is a loose fit along with Nami.

The War domain is an obvious fit for Maylar and Hallisan. But each of the Nine has a martial order within their ranks, except for Nami and the Cult of the Compact.

Life is a natural fit for Mera and it's the healbot domain. It's a bit of a stretch for Korus and Phidas but they both dabble in heal bots. It could be a reasonable fit for pacifist pantheon casters.

Just by the name, Death fits Greymoria, but the actual spell list suits Maylar bringer of woe and disease better. Phidas is a loose fit because he is in Team Evil. Khemra, Korus, Zarthus, and Hallisan have a very loose fit here because they occasionally smite things very hard and they have very militant fringes be okay with this sort of utter destruction of your enemies.

Grave is slightly softer than Death. It's a good fit for Korus and Greymoria. A bit of a stretch for Khemra and Phidas.

Knowledge fits for everyone thought it's a bit of a stretch for Maylar and it fits the three Neutrals Khemra, Korus, and Nami best.

Nature is an obvious fit for Korus. A loose fit for Maylar, and a bit of a stretch for Nami and Zarthus.

Trickery is an obvious fit for Zarthus and Nami. A reasonable fit for Phidas, Maylar, and Greymoria.


Hmm, of these 14 domains, Phidas kind of got the short end of the stick, but I guess he is the weakest of the Nine, but he is so far above mere mortals the difference with his peers shouldn't matter.