Traditional Fantasy RP?

[Recycled Human]

After playing extensively the game Dragon Age : Origins I've had my interest in Fantasy rekindled. Anyone else interested in a Fantasy styled RP?

I want something with like a Beastiary that gets updated as the hero's explore, and like item lore where you have to have some skill with items before you can know what things do...

My intentions also are to have something small that a tiny group of RPers can fashion cooperatively into a world that can later be presented as a wide scale RP on RSF! Talk about dreaming big...

Anyway, if your interested let me know because I would love to participate in a Fantasy RP.

[Aleister Black]

Count me in! Definitely! I've been playing loads of Dragon Age as well and I find myself drawn to that style of fantasy again.

If you need any help fashioning a world/setting etc. feel free to send me a pm. I'll gladly assist in any way I can (and maybe use some of those ideas that have been floating around my head for ages...).


But yeah, I'd like to be a part of that.

[Ryvius]

A bestiary? A wide-scale forum RP? Those are great ideas! I wish I had thought of them!

Huh? Oh that's right, I did. I just haven't actually made the former yet...and the latter didn't work out so well. Hopefully it works out better when more capable hands are in charge.

To answer your question, I would love to be a part of this. As much a part as I'm able, in fact. Just your humble RP servant if there's anything you need of him.

[Recycled Human]

Thanks for the support. I'm currently trying to zero in on a theme to try and aide as a building block, at least to get the ball rolling. For now, we can just focus on deciding what we want to do first.

My suggestion is rather simple. I'd really like to do a simple, traditional fantasy RP where a party of RPers (maybe five max) hunt down a dragon in its cave. Nothing fancy, just world/character/lore building. The reasons why we're together and why we're hunting the dragon are entirely speculative. I'll be trying to piece something together but if you guys want to clue me in on what kind of things interest you in a fantasy setting, I'll be thankful.

So yeah :

1) Any ideas for a theme? (Usually its best to just take a current issue like racism as in DA:O between the elves and the humans, or like the american dream in the hobbit...you know from humble beginnings a star is born...there's loads of issues we can target as a theme and build on them in a fantastical way)

2) Any particular elements you enjoy in a fantasy setting? (magic, kobolds and goblins, or just alchemy and enchantment? what do you like about fantasy?)

3) Characters...pretty easy right? XD

That's all from me!

[Aleister Black]

Sounds good to me. The first RP bit could serve as a sort of prologue, paving the way for a grander scale RP with more background. I'd gladly go and try make some visuals like I did for Empyreal Machina, as I think that sort of thing really adds to immersion and atmosphere, as well as make an RP thread look even rather more flashy than it is undoubtedly going to be already!

I have plenty of worlds I can pick details off of, there's always a few recurring themes and places in my own worlds anyway.


1) I like the interracial tension as present in DA:O, so I think we could use a pinch of that. I also like (relative) grittiness, making a fantasy world seem as realistic as it can possibly be with mages and stuff running about. I do like magic because it gives you many possibilities, but I do think this needs to be severely limited. Maybe magic has been slowly dwindling from the world and fewer and fewer mage children are born? You might even link a greater evil to that: something's been gathering up all magic, for some evil purpose.

Otherwise I like the magic system as used in the Rhapsody books by Elizabeth Haydon (should re-read those some time); if you're unfamiliar with it I'd be glad to explain it, although I'd probably mix a lot of my own thoughts in.

I'm not sure about orc-like races. Sure, they'd be a good evil minion to slaughter but it does seem a little easy to have the ugly semi-humanoid creatures be the evildoers again. It might be more awesome if the orcs/kobolds are actually fleeing for something else that is even worse... or we could have interracial wars between elves/humans/dwarves etc, or even civil wars within a race or country. While I kind of like a greater evil to fight against, I've always been a fan of diplomatic intrige, strategy and wars between countries, and this could work too.


2) Hmm, I think I did most of this in 1)... But yeah, I would like magic to be limited, either dwindling or just not so pronounced to begin with. When it comes to races, just refer to 1).


3) I'll be making a character soonish, or do you mean supporting (NPC) characters? Either way, I'm sure I can come up with something. I'll post a character draft later. Am I right in assuming that the world and lore will grow as the RP does? Because then whatever we put in our bios is actually going to have a rather big effect on what the world will look like. Oh, the responsibility!


Your thoughts?

[Recycled Human]

Aliester it's impressive just how close you came to the one or two ideas I was thinking of then expanded on them in ways I couldn't dream of. Well done!

I'll try and address things systematically.

1) Racial tension : oh, I was a HUGE fan of this in DA:O, ryvius if you haven't played it was simply humans were the pervailing race and they enslaved elves as indentured servants untill the elves won back their freedom only to land in alienages (read ghettos) or become nomadic and try to find some of their long forgotten lore. You couldn't go far in the game without being called a 'knife ear' (should you have picked an elf). And the elves weren't too happy with humans either, in some cases they beat people to death with their bare hands. Epic.

Last night I was thinking of a 'revolutionary wars' themed rp (for the big rp) and have this little rp be the one to be 'the straw that broke the camels back'. I wanted to mix the American civil war with two opposing parties going to war over the slavery of some commodity or race. Also, this could be the tip of the iceberg leading to a French revolution style war where civil unrest comes to a head and all the old government gets overthrown. Furthermore, I wanted to have a small group (almost like a group of evil free masons) who have set these pieces in motion and seek to benefit from it in some way. Also, we could use the American Independance war in that the majority of citizens won't appreciate the militias advance (the good guys).

2) Magic as a commodity, oh man this is great. It gave me so many ideas just by itself. I feel, should we agree upon the American civil war idea that mages could be the commodity being fought over, perhaps leading to a lack of training among mages to an even worse explosive uncontrollable random outburst. Perhaps requiring a device or dog collar thing to channel their impossible power. Gives me chills how well it suits the 'slave' thing.*

3) Orc/kobold/ and my personal favorite goblins. Yes, I agree they shouldn't be the classic 'party fodder' for teams to chew through. I personally prefer the classic enemies : undead, dragons, bad guy humans, maybe some mother nature spawns like the earth golems. But yeah, I've got some ideas for a goblin race and maybe I can expand on it to make them part of the force who created the device to enslave and pacify mages. Overall, I want to make all classic races playable. Hopefully, with a new twist.

4) I was hoping we could be creating our characters for this rp and yes in essence the characters we create would be the ones that shape the entire world. However, I do wish to have npcs created, so should npcs be required for your characters background then feel free to create them. I also hope we can pick a race we fancy (hopefully all different) so we can expand upon that race and give it depth. Also, we will be fleshing out how they interact with others racially, furthermore claim a class of character to develope lore for. I, for example, think I want to claim a goblin tinkerer class.

I think that's everything. Looking forward to your input guys.

Ps aliester I LOVE your graphics, I didn't want to ask for them but I'm thankful you offered XD!!

[Ryvius]

I've already got several character ideas brewing from the ideas you guys have tossed around. If we go the direction of mages being fought over and magic ability is hereditary, I'd likely make a very young character. He'd be a mage genetically, but would have very little to no magic skill due to his town/family/teacher being slaughtered before he could be trained.

Also, I at one point planned an RP that involved different fantasy races and racial tension that never got used. I shall try to find the old race list, even though I fear it was only to be found on the computer that died...In any case, I'll find them or try to retype them from memory. Perhaps there's something in there that you can use.

[Recycled Human]

(Dons his professional voice)

I hereby disband double post rules in this topic, if you have something to add feel free to post it at your discretion.

I will begin crafting a ooc discussion topic for this role play which I will first post here for you two to review until we can come to a group consensus. At such time I will post open a private OOC Discussion complete with a private Role Play, I believe we will need at most two more participants to help flesh this out. Should either of you have an 'RPer to invite' suggestion I would gladly hear it.

As soon as I have my conceptual write up I'll post it here (note : this is not done to say 'I'm the only one who can do it'...I don't want that, but I will say that I'm the type of person who believes there are no wrong first drafts and that everything can be fixed so why wait, strike today!)

@ Ryvius : At your liesure feel free to add the racial concepts you had, as well as begin working on your young mage character. I don't have any requirements for when posts/characters/any work for this RP ever are done...take as long as you like. I plan to only move forward when you guys say its ok.

I'm so glad to be working with you guys!

[Recycled Human]

Race : Goblin (also known as gob, hobgob, ling's, kobold etc.)*

-A stout race of humanoid creatures that reside in caves populating many different habitats. (Evolved from bird like creatures, lost their wings and beaks in exchange for intelligence)
-With a history dating back many eons, Goblins are among the first races to exhibit intelligence.
-Goblin society resembles an ant colony in that they have a supreme ruler 'birth giver' who populates the tribe assigning specific tasks to each of his offspring. The 'lings' all serve a purpose, each fulfilling a task preset before them by their King.
-Though hive mindset among insects strips individuality the Goblins are blessed with an ancestral mind allowing for complex thinking but an almost instinctual understanding of their duty. In this way, purpose is not assigned arbitrarily but rather by a ritual that determines the ling's channeled ancestor.
-Their nimble hands make them adept at building and as such many useful inventions have been crafted first from a goblin tribe.

Physical Appearance :

-The color of their skin is determined by their habitat ranging from a granite color in the mountainous tribes to a oceanic blue/green in the lake and stream tribes, even further to a ruddy brown color in the volcanic or subterranean tribes and even a dark green in forest tribes.
-Facial features range also dependant upon habitat, where the water tribes are fair skinned and smooth, the forest tribe may have a vertical wrinkle pattern akin to tree bark. Further still the mountainous tribe exhibits blocky features, some having stripes across their features. The subterranean goblins have been reported to imbue callous features and longer limbs.
-Typically short, reaching a height of 4'11 at their peak, and due to their avian evolution their bone structure is hollowed allowing their habitual living conditions to craft their form for them. This grants them a specialized shield for their brittle bones but leaves them rail thin and agile.
-Characterized by their subhuman jaw line, under bite and large pointed ears. Their long fingers and toes come to a point at their talon like finger nails.

Life Cycle :

- A birth giver (Goblin King) is typically born with all the equipment required for creating enough children for a tribe. Typically, the King spends the first 15 years of his life storing up food for the long birthing period that spans five years in which, the King produces a cauldron or a goblin litter.
- During this period a King can produce up to 500 lings, afterwards the King sets about consuming information that it stores and eventually passes on to the next king.
-Goblins are curious creatures who spend the majority of their time exploring the physical landscape, at a young age they attend school where they are informed rather informally about the tasks set before them. Often merely being prompted to spread their wings (so to speak).
-At the age of 10 all lings undergo a Calla, which exhumes their ancestral spirit and allows them to begin working in service to the king. Providing armor and weapons, information, food, medical care, inventions, instructions, enforcement etc.

*need more for their right of sending when they die...Probably need more in general...anyway thats all I got so far.*

*Most of this is totally subject to change...just my thoughts...

[Aleister Black]

I'm liking some of those ideas, very much so indeed!


(interracial) Tension: I like how you brought in class tensions as well. This could take place in one country, and other countries around it might support the government of that country simply to avoid the rebels winning and like-minded individuals in their own nations getting confident to do the same thing. But then we would have to know the scope of the world we play in. Are we going to limit it to one country or are we going to include several countries or maybe even a continent? I've always been a fan of creating maps so I'm rather interested in that.



Also, with different races come different views on certain matters. For example, humans might find mages/magic a commodity to be traded in, but how do elves see this, or dwarves?

Might there also be several mages, or small groups (about 3 or 4) of mages who are in hiding, constantly on the run for razzias and search parties, like witch hunters? These witch hunters could either be government-employed or private (like bountyhunters), or both. I have an idea for a character that would touch rather closely on this.

[Damn, I could make thorough bios of at least 5 characters already! It's going to be bloody hard to choose one]


A thought also just occurred to me; why not also bring religion into the mix? Religion has always been a mover of men, of entire nations. Include two (or more) different religions and you have tension dripping off the bloody wall! How do these religions view magic? A gift from god, a taint from the devil, or just something that needs to be controlled?


Would alchemy fall in the field of magic of would it be a seperate profession alltogether? Where's the line between alchemy and brewing potions or simply making bread? Or maybe alchemists would be the 'grey area', people who are not prosecuted by default, but who will be arrested or taken even at the slightest hint of anything magical going on?


What kind of magic system would we employ? Personally I'd prefer magic that isn't too flashy, or at least to begin with. We could use the elements, which are pretty straight-forward and everyone knows their way around that. I do remember putting a list together with several kinds of magic and the relevant spells for a LARP I was planning at one point. That never happened but I still have some of the magics in my head. It was mainly class-based more than anything though. I'll briefly write down what it was here:

Druidism - partly component-based magic. With certain herbs and extracts, the druid is able to make potions to do simple things such as brew potions with potent healing effects, to much more difficult (and time-consuming) potions that can change your human form into an animal one, or which lets you get in touch with nature to such an extent that you can move plants, and, with exceptionally potent potions, even trees.

Enchantment - The enchanter guides magic into objects making them magical in nature. This could be temporary or, when the caster is skillful and the magic plenty, for a very long time indeed. The effect is never permanent, since not even the most well-crafted weapon is a suited vessel for magic. There are tricks to conserve magic for very long time, but it will seep out eventually.

Battlemage - This mage focusses on offensive magic, and is able to create fire and ice from virtually nothing.

Healer - This mage is adept at closing wounds and purging poisons.



I understand this might not all be used for the RP, but maybe it'll help you get more ideas about possible magics.


Also, how does one define magic? I heard Ryvius talk about genetics which is cool (even though people wouldn't know it was genes maybe) because then it would be inheritable, but could it also suddenly develop in someone? Maybe as a gene that has been dormant for generations but has now awakaned? And if we're talking about magic as a commodity, then the mages would be the vessels, right? Would there be any way to take it out of the mages? I think so, because that's pretty much what enchantment is, right? But I'd imagine a living mage would be both a perfect vessal (no leakage as opposed to inanimate objects) and a mana-generator (as he produces new magic as well). The collars you speak of would then be devices to keep mages from spilling magic, either on purpose or by accident. Or would they also be some kind of control? Have the collars been infused with some kind of magic? Was the collar a plot of this evil freemason-ish group to begin with, taking out one of the few things that can stop them from fulfilling their goals?

I was also thinking that if some people can be mages and as such vessels of power, so could other creatures. A dragon strikes me as an inherently magical creature. A dragon might be such an enormous vessel of magic energy that it would be worth risking death for to collect that huge amount. Of course, actually capturing a dragon would be quite hard if not impossible, so killing it and storing the magic in human mages or objects designed for that purpose might be a better option. Anyway, I believe the surge of magical energy that comes free when a dragon is killed should be a very useful thing indeed.


I'm having many ideas for characters at the moment, would it be OK if I posted several on here? I could make a few of them NPCs later but I think it would still go a long way towards creating this world as all my characters would have a rather different background, coming from very different environments, classes, background etc.


When it comes to adversaries, I think we have plenty of options. All the races could fight all other races, mages could rebel, countries could make war, there could be civil war within countries/races, there could be dragons, hellish creatures, undead... I don't think we need to worry about enemies.


Also, sorry for my rather disjointed post, but I'm writing down ideas as they come to me so I don't have ANY structure in mind.

[Recycled Human]

I'm in just about the same boat XD! Just writing stuff as it comes.

Feel free to dump as much info on magic as you want. And maps, go nuts! Although the scope for the small scale RP is rather cut and dry, it would be nice to have some history, we are creating a world here after all! XD

I'll take the time to answer what I can too, my idea about the collars would be more akin to your 'spillage' idea, that the mages can be 'reigned in' so to speak, should they start to get out of line. I'd say the technology to create it could have stemmed from one of the other -non magical- races so as to promote a system of checks and balances. (Remember, the key to a large scale RP is balance...in theory)

What you mentioned about 'magical beasts' really intrigued me too, perhaps for our small scale RP that could be the focus : The free-mason style group collaborates with a group of mercenaries from the best each race has to offer, and hires them to take down a dragon (no small feat) but to do so with sensitivity (perhaps they can't send a large scale group for fear of pissing off the large group of warriors that worship the dragon ... /shrug). And once our team slays the dragon and takes it to the free-masons they use it to free mages somehow, like overloading the collars circuit. Perhaps this legion of shadows (free masons) knows that the process of removing the collars will kill many mages in the process but tout their first success as the first 'free mage', giving this previously unknown class a voice, and a powerful commodity at their command.

Post up whatever you see fit and we'll just weed through the stuff until we find all the info we're looking for. Then once we feel like we've got a story we can move forward.

*I still need to work on the actual story proposal ... hmm*

[Aleister Black]

I'll try make a kind of map I've never tried before. I'm having a few ideas but I'd like some names first so I can work those in from the start instead of trying to make it fit in post-production


So the collars, then, are some form of anti-magic? Its counterpart, like the negative and positive sides of a magnet. We could make it so that in earlier times, this material was used as anti-magic armour, but then someone had the idea of instead of fighting the symptoms, they would curb the source, and put it on the mages themselves. Maybe this happened after a mage uprising, or a mages' attempt to seize power somewhere? That would make mages criminals, giving governments ample reason to employ large numbers of men to hunt them down, as well as their unique ability to hold and generate magic. This way, the government could use their power without having to fear an uprising.

That is, until some of them break out.


I also like the magic system of Elizabeth Haydon's books, although I forgot some parts of it. It's hugely based on elements (all the races being descendants of pure elements themselves) but a large part is also based on Singers and Namers (might be caled differently in the English version but I have the books in Dutch) who can do things using music. The reasoning is that if one know's someone else's true note (musical note or name) and then works little changes in that, he or she can change that person. The main character gave another character huge affinity with the earth that way, bu taking his name and then calling him 'child of the earth' or some such. Someone else she gave a boost in tracking because she named him pathfinder. It sounds very bland now I admit but in the books it works great.


Are we going to keep to traditional dragons? Because I'm thinking that dragons, being so old and magical, would be as diverse as all animals, and races of men and elves and dwarves and so on. Some might be nightmarish demons while others would be regal, beautiful creatures. Some might have wings and others might not. I'd like to see dragons as a much more diverse race but you guys can drop this if you think it's humbug.


Is there any kind of tangible resource that generates or restores magic or are mages (and dragons) the only magic-generating organisms? I ask this because this would determine whether or not there's something called mana potions. Personally, I'm leaning towards only having magical beings (humanoid or not) able to generate magic. A tangible resource would make the enslaving of mages rather unnecessary.


If we are going to include religion (I think it would be a shame if we didn't ) we also have to think about its effects. Is religion, in this world, nothing more than a man-made concept, or is there really something more that might actually do something at some point? Personally I tend to prefer the social aspect of religion rather than the semi-magical, but it's worth thinking about nonetheless.


I'm interested in the Shadow Legion (freemason) plans. Killing dragons might overload the collars, enabling them to free the mages... but a rather direct result is also the disappearance of the dragons. While this might seem like a rather insubstantial side-effect to their rescue operation(dragons are a nuisance anyway, burn our crops and stuff), this might actually be their real goal. What might the disappearance of dragons entail? The loss of the greatest magic-producing entities in the world, for one thing. The annihilation of fierce fighting creatures full of power, too. And, of course, a lot of mages would be loyal to the Shadow Legion because they were freed by them. Were the dragons there for a purpose? What purpose would that be, and how would anyone be helped if dragons could no longer fulfill that purpose?


OK, those were my last thoughts before heading off to bed!

[Recycled Human]

Great food for thought.

So perhaps the Shadow Legion (is that a video game name we just ripped off? XD) is attempting to remove the influence of the powerful dragons? Perhaps we can tie dragons in with the religious aspect.

I also approve of your idea that Dragons aren't one sided. Perhaps they're fickle, perhaps they're manipulative.

I don't require a renewable resource but even with a renewable resource in magic we could always say that the easier route was in using mages themselves.

Woo...good stuff...I know ryvius was working on mage stuff, any ideas Ryvius?

[Recycled Human]

This is what I've got for an opening for the mini RP. Tell me what you think!

You arrived at the quaint hostel at the base of a colossal mountain. It's purple and blue cliffs arch high above the tightly bricked building. Dusk has settled in bringing with the abrupt drop in temperature a foreboding overcast sky. A signpost above the door swings as your party pushes open the heavy wooden door. The creak of wood groans under lofty foot fall. There, swaying in the light breeze, you can make out the sign. It reads 'Inri Dominous', which the scholar you brought informs you means 'enter the Dominion'.

Nestled in a corner, a dwarf coddling a mug of ale belches a skeptic repose, 'an odd name for an inn'. But you know better. These cliffs are home to them, the Dominion. A heretical band of pagans worshiping a foul demon somewhere amidst the bowels of the Archedy Mountains. Your party have all only recently met, humbled by the cold and bound by familiar circumstance, those circumstances being the last free night before you received word from your respective leaders to take up this secret quest. For now, you are greeted by a funny looking robust man who methodically strokes his pet lizard while eyeing your group suspiciously.

''ve no trouble wit yer masters,' the boisterous man exhales, 'naut to be on the black 'un's back side. e've taken rooms on yer accord, paid in full and wot. Jus don't let wha ' tever yer sturrin in that eyesore of a pot spill out on this 'stablishment.' He takes the time to wink and you can see he's addled by magic.

With only threadbare instructions and your countrymen's best equipment, you settle in for a quiet night. Take advantage of this, it may be your last!

[Ryvius]

Oooh boy, did I have a lot of catching up to do. Not gonna lie, I did a lot of skimming. I think I got everything you guys said though.

I think mages being hereditary is a good idea, but that it's something that only has a chance of manifesting in the child. Also, mages should have some physical way of discerning them. (Like the classic streak of silver or white in a person's hair to signify they have magic ability.)

This would play well into the religious aspect. Think about what would happen if two normal people had a child, but the child is born with a streak of white hair. The anti-mage movement could be a largely religious thing as well.

[Aleister Black]

I have something to share: the very first draft of a map for the world!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...maprp1copy.png




Anyway, it's only a first version, and I'm obviously going to improve it with icons and such instead of those colours, which I only put in to give you an idea of what's what. (the original way I drew the map is pretty much unreadable by anyone except me anyway )

If you have ideas for names and such, let me know and I might put those in. Also, let me know if you have any special wishes or other kind of feedback on the map, if you want anything changed etc. Personally I'm pretty happy with the current layout when it comes to shorelines and hills/mountains and stuff. I'm not completely sure about the other things (forests mostly, and I'm never ever sure about lakes).

Don't forget that we can make this as big or small as we want. This might be a continent or just one country. (I kind of see multiple countries in this map though, might just be me) In any case, we can expand on this map as much as we want I think, I didn't really put any definitive borders down yet.



---


I like the intro for the introductive mini-RP. It doesn't really set anything in stone yet and gives us plenty of room to make stuff up and pretty much do everything. I'm game. I'd assume that place would be somewhere in the northwestern part of the map, then

[Recycled Human]

Dude, sick map!

I can't believe the detail. I'll spend some time coming up with names and I had a simplistic idea for that. Areas, towns cities should be named by prominent races in the area. So we'll need to decide which races we're using. Some races may have a certain style to their language. I'm not great a names but Kendra is, maybe I can get her involved!

Seriously though, mad props man great job!

[Aleister Black]

Glad you like it.

When we have some names (I have a few names as well but I almost always use those names on my maps; it might be good to actually use some new ones for a change) and a few outlines for countries and the spread of culture/race/religion (I can make those submaps for that that show exactly those things in colourcodes? Could be good as a reference point) I can try make up some diplmatic relations as well as (shared) history of one or two nations.

I could also try my hand at some conceptual art, but I've been out of practise for AGES; quality will not be so good. Still, might be good as reference point and as something to spice up the RP Pictures are always good.



Names I often use on my maps:


Dorinthy (country, or more accurately a city state)
Theden (country)
Dibranic Islands (island group)
Dibran (nation/city state)
Dohir (city)
Hiath (forest)
Ludan (country)
Tavieth (city)
Spire (mountain city)
Deran (country)

These are names I often use, ever since I made my first map. They just sound ok to me I guess

EDIT: Admittedly they sound better in Dutch.

Considering available races, I thought you said we were pretty much going to include every traditional race. From the top of my head, the races that would live in comunities would be:

Humans [pretty much everywhere. Human place names are pretty straight-forward, yet diverse, as humans live in pretty much every possible way. Old English names would sound okay for human places I think. Just derive from existing names and give it our own twist?]
Elves [don't really wanna go multi-syllabic lisping 'th'-sounds on this, that's too traditional for my taste. Rather, named after natural phenomena? Like Aurora for cities in a cold climate or Mirage for cities in hot climates, or simply names of flowers and trees, elves being the nature lovers they are. We could also divide the elves into two (or more) kinds: a rural kind that is still a bit wild (I have a few nice ideas for that)and thus have more nature-like names, and the more civilised kind of elves who would follow a more human style of naming cities/countries/people]
Dwarves [When I think 'Dwarf', I think 'clan'. Family name? Or maybe old Celtic/Gothic/Viking names would suit them well. Viking or Gothic names (I have a Danish dictionary; I'm sure I can get some cool-sounding stuff from there, too) might be better because that might sound more original, besides, we could use Celtic for some humans then.]
Goblins [hive-like community, possibly called after the birthing King rather than the place? Gobbos are your thing Chris ]
Orcs [small tribal warbands? Don't think they would found cities, let alone countries. Nomadic?]
Kobolds [strike me as largely solitary creatures? Don't really have a clear imagine of Kobolds]
Undead and other kind of (un)natural creatures/constructs are not important as they would not found cities.


I'm not including differences within races yet, as that's a step further.



---


Another idea regarding magic: an undead is made by pumping magic into a dead body much like how an object is enchanted. The same applies to undead, however: since it is in fact an inanimate object (its life is artificial, it is in fact the magic imitating life) it will not be able to permanently contain the magic and as such will 'spill' magic, running out after a certain amount of time.


I also have some nice ideas regarding rural elves/wild elves as opposed to more city-based elves. They would mainly roam the deep forests, and some elves are exceptionally wild; having been trained to be in close connection with a totem animal to emulate certain instincts and skills to make them better fighters - a remnant of a brutal and bloody war among elves, several centuries ago. Some of these elves are unaware the war has ended and still hunt. In a nutshell though, I could write down more history but first I need to know whether everyone actually thinks seperating the elves into two (or more?) different branches is actually a good idea.

Also, should elves have an extraordinairy long lifespan? I'm usually quite opposed to anything longer than 150-200 years for elves as well as dwarves. I tend to dislike it when characters in books or RPs are like 3000 years old. It is the fear of death, fatality, the short bloom of one's youth that sometimes make characters interesting, and a long lifespan makes that a bit more uninteresting. Another question is how do we want to portay elves/dwarves? Though I don't mind the basis of the stereotypes, I'd like to drop the whole 'elves are beautiful and powerful and old and super and perfect and...'-methodology. To me, they seem frail. Fast and agile, but not as strong as humans can be. Elves seem traditional to me, a people dedicated to their culture, history and lore. (and perhaps a religion?)

EDIT: But we probably wouldn't make them all Tolkien-powerful/graceful anyway what with balance checks and stuff.


Would magic be equally distributed (amount of mage children as well as amount of talent) among all the races?


----


I'm off to bed, work tomorrow!

[Recycled Human]

Sorry for not responding to this sooner. =/

Dibranic Islands (island group)
Dibran (nation/city state)
Dohir (city)
Hiath (forest)
Ludan (country)
Tavieth (city)

I really liked these names Aleister! I'm sure we can find a way to work these into your map.

As for your races, I enjoyed your breakdowns of each and think we should let the few people participating in this RP work out the specifics of their chosen race. (I think you implied this anyway, but I reworded so there).

A Kobold is a type of Goblin, I suppose depending on where you look they are either like Wolf Goblins fighting in a pack or loner Goblins...really depends.

Another idea regarding magic: an undead is made by pumping magic into a dead body much like how an object is enchanted. The same applies to undead, however: since it is in fact an inanimate object (its life is artificial, it is in fact the magic imitating life) it will not be able to permanently contain the magic and as such will 'spill' magic, running out after a certain amount of time.


I also have some nice ideas regarding rural elves/wild elves as opposed to more city-based elves. They would mainly roam the deep forests, and some elves are exceptionally wild; having been trained to be in close connection with a totem animal to emulate certain instincts and skills to make them better fighters - a remnant of a brutal and bloody war among elves, several centuries ago. Some of these elves are unaware the war has ended and still hunt. In a nutshell though, I could write down more history but first I need to know whether everyone actually thinks seperating the elves into two (or more?) different branches is actually a good idea.

Also, should elves have an extraordinairy long lifespan? I'm usually quite opposed to anything longer than 150-200 years for elves as well as dwarves. I tend to dislike it when characters in books or RPs are like 3000 years old. It is the fear of death, fatality, the short bloom of one's youth that sometimes make characters interesting, and a long lifespan makes that a bit more uninteresting. Another question is how do we want to portay elves/dwarves? Though I don't mind the basis of the stereotypes, I'd like to drop the whole 'elves are beautiful and powerful and old and super and perfect and...'-methodology. To me, they seem frail. Fast and agile, but not as strong as humans can be. Elves seem traditional to me, a people dedicated to their culture, history and lore. (and perhaps a religion?)

I feel your concepts of Magic are interesting especially since I've never heard many of the ideas you've cited (even though you mention borrowing part of your magic system from books). If you want, I recommend seeing what Ryvius thinks about the magic system...I'd like to let both of you play and as per my teamwork mentality post, I'd really like to make sure everyone feels important and Ryvius should know, there's no pressure to get things done of course but help from that guy is ALWAYS welcome. So since magic is a big deal here and you've both expressed interest, work together and see what you come up with maybe?

I will say this, I love the 'spillover magic' thing, I love the enchanting dead bodies thing, and I especially love the shapeshifter elves. All well done all great.

And if you want to expand on your Elves, I give you free reign to explore the elves. I agree with you that elves shouldn't live past what...200 years oldish. And I have always been a fan of how different social settings effect the individual, therefore I love the natural play on the differences between nomadic elves, city elves etc.

Now, about my proposal for the RP, I suggest that we use that as a basic understanding as to what our characters are doing (they've been commissioned) and we go ahead and post up some character sheets. Post as many as you like, if you don't settle on one we can always use it elsewhere.

I'll work on this as well and post up what I have when I have it.

Thank you both for your hard work and I can't wait until we have more to work with to start really creating a working world!

[Aleister Black]

It's funny how I recommend a book for its nice magic system and then go off and make up lots of my own stuff These things I'm now making up aren't really from any book... Well, maybe some parts are, but I'd be unaware of that. Of course people are influenced by what they see and read and hear, though.

But yeah, I'm interested in what Ryvius comes up with. The magic system is going to be quite important I think, because what with the dragon (sub?) plot that's beginning to evolve, not to mention the mage collar ideas, magic may turn out to be a very important aspect of the RP indeed!


Here's something I wrote during my lunch break at work, it's just a few notes on dragons and things I associated with them and how they might fit in some kind of plot.




Maybe it gives you guys some more ideas to work from.



I'd love to give some more background to the elves. I'll try and work on that tonight and see if I can make something work. I've been thinking about it a bit already and I'm starting to see a possible outline.


Do we have some sort of outline on where we want certain races to be on the map? I have not yet placed any borders for countries, so we can work out together how many countries/provinces to include and where to put them. When that preliminary work is done I can start creating a semi-finished map. And if we ever feel like we need more space, we can always extend the map. This is by no means the entire world, I'm sure there's plenty of space for more maps. Maybe in time we can create continents! (A man can dream)


I feel we need to change the name of the Shadow Legion. It sounds cool, but it also sounds as if it is impossible that we DIDN'T rip it off from somewhere. There's bound to be some ominous names left that we can use


Do you guys think we need some kind of timeline for history and stuff? We don't need to actually use it in-game, but it might come in handy as some kind of reference point as we create the world.