[spoiler=Creation of the Universe, and the First Age]In the beginning, the universe was made simply of two elements: Ice and Fire. From the fire awoke Dracos, who with his breath created time. He soon became lonely, and so from the ice he carved a companion, whom he named Vritras and took as his wife. Through their couplings, Vritras gave birth to three eggs, whom she named Gaia, Reshep, and Loki.
Reshep was the first to hatch, and Vritras was filled with immense love for her first child. Second to hatch was Loki, who almost immediately began to quarrel with his brother for his mother's attention.
Dracos was quickly angered by this nuisance, and rent the universe in two, casting his children into the newly created realm.
The violence of Dracos actions cracked Gaia's unborn egg, and she never hatched from it. Filled with sadness for his lost sister, as well as from separation from his beloved mother, Reshep began to smooth the cracks in Gaia's shell, and slowly the world began to take form. Loki was intrigued by his brother's work, and began studying the world that was slowly taking form. He was surprised to find that Gaia was in fact never killed, but merely shattered into innumerable pieces that had each taken on a life of their own.
With these shattered bits, Loki began to cover the surface of the world with life. At first, these took simply shapes. However, as the life forms began to grow and reproduce, they became increasingly more complex under Loki's tender guidance. Soon the world was covered in dense forests and jungles, expansive grasslands, each teeming with all manner of life. Loki named the world Gaia, in honour of their sister upon whose body it grew.
Reshep, unlike Loki, could care less what his brother was doing, and once bored with his shaping of the world continued to sulk over the separation from his mother. Perhaps feeling her son's pain, Vritras slipped through the barrier between the two planes whilst Dracos slept. Finding Reshep, now fully grown, the two were overwhelmed with emotions of love after their separation. They made love, and Vritras gave birth to seven children, whom she named Marduk, Eridu, Ma'at, Anshar, Ianna, Metis, Naiada, and Thoth.
Fearing the wrath of Dracos, however, Vritras deceived her new children into believing that Dracos was their father. They had no reason to question this, and Dracos himself was too proud to even consider these children were not of his own loins. Only Loki knew the truth, but he kept the secret to himself.
As the younger gods matured, they wandered throughout the world that Reshep and Loki had created, and marveled in multitudes of life forms that Loki had lovingly tended to. Deigning to make a creation of their own, one that would surpass any of Loki's in their power and complexity, the young gods stole away some of Loki's creations and began to mould them to their own liking. To these new creatures they gave scales as hard as iron, huge leathery wings, a mouthful of teeth as sharp as razors, and an intelligence that surpassed that of living things save for the gods themselves. They proudly named these beings dragons, in honour of their father.
When the young gods unveiled their new creations, they were met with marvel from Reshep and Vritras. Even Dracos seemed pleased of these creatures that bore his name, and granted them with great knowledge, power, and magical fiery breathe, and declared their dominion over all living creatures.
Behind them all, Loki seethed with fury. To him these creatures were abominations, clashing with all other forms he had populated the world with. They lorded over his creations with casual disdain, treating Loki's beloved children as if they were nothing more than expendable goods, to do with as they pleased. Perhaps worst of all though, these intelligent beings held his bastard siblings in adoring reverence, something that none of Loki's children were able to do.
In answer to the dragons, Loki set about shaping an intelligent race in his own image. He gave them wits to match the dragons, but forwent the latter's power physical attributes knowing that reliance on these would weaken their character. As a crowning stroke, Loki gave man an indomitable will, and the ability to adapt and persevere in the face of any obstacle. Glowing with pride in his creation, Loki introduced man into the world.
Compared to the mighty dragons, man seemed inconsequential by comparison. The gods scoffed at these new creatures, and Loki flew into a rage. However, also compared to the mighty dragons, who reproduced very rarely, man multiplied like wildfire. Their determination and versatility allowed them to rapidly spread across the entire world, inhabiting even the most inhospitable regions.
The young gods soon became vastly amused by these intrepid beings, and grew immensely fond of them. Many of the gods began to live amongst man, teaching them the ways of the world. Marduk showed man how to build societies, and how best to structure them so as to maintain order and peace. Anshar taught man much of the wisdom he had achieved, and was the first to introduce them to the Arts. Ianna taught man how to create beautiful paintings and sculptures, how to sing and make music, and how to make love. Ma'at showed them how to hunt like the best ferocious predators of the wild, and how to fashion weapons to counteract mans physical weaknesses. Metis taught them commerce, and showed man how to mint coins to facilitate trade. Naiada was vastly amused by man's quick wit and intellect, and taught them how to use those qualities to advance their own interests. Eridu taught man the secrets of nature, and taught them to stand up against injustices, and for those things they believed in.
Man felt truly indebted to these divine beings for the gifts they had given them, and began to build shrines and statues in tribute to them. Many even began to worship them, hoping to curry favour from these powerful beings.
This angered Loki, who saw his children being stolen away from him. He saw the young gods moulding man, as they had done with his children whom they stole and warped into the dragons. In his mind, his children were being twisted and turned away from him by the bastard children of Reshep, and this threw him into a fury.
Loki confronted Reshep, and demanded that he reign his children in before they corrupted his children any further. Reshep laughed, thinking Loki a spoilt infant simply jealous of the attention man heaped onto the young gods rather than on him. This made Loki even more furious, and he cursed Reshep and the bastard offspring of his incestuous paring with Vritras.
It was now Reshep's turn to become enraged, and he struck Loki with such a blow that the very earth itself shuddered. The two fought for thirty days, in a battle that scarred the world and caused many of the animals and beings near them to flee for their lives. Finally, Reshep pulled away laughing. He called Loki a fool, saying that man was simply a reflection of his own twisted, jealous, and fickle nature. The corruption of man's soul was not the doing of his children, but simply a passing of Loki's own corruption from a father to his offspring. He then turned and left, leaving Loki to smoulder in savage fury and resentment.
Loki's brooding soon turned to scheming. He knew that he was nowhere near powerful enough to take on Reshep and his offspring alone, especially when Vritras inevitably stepped in to take the side of her favoured son. In order to do so Loki would need a weapon so powerful that it would swing the balance in his favour, and the only thing more powerful than any of those was Dracos himself.
Loki used his great powers of flattery and deception to lure Dracos into the mortal realm, where he was conveniently ushered to the place where Reshep and Vritras lay in passionate coupling. The wrath of Dracos was like none the universe had seen before. With a flick of his wrist he shattered Reshep's physical frame before descending upon Vritras. Before even giving her a chance to speak, Dracos rent her head from her body then tore her body in two, casting the two pieces of her body to opposite ends of the earth. As Vritras' blood ran into the earth, its intense cold froze ground and water, spreading until it transformed the entire planet into a frozen waste. Dracos took her head and fixed it permanently to the heavens, where it would be seen daily in all corners of his son's world as the heavens rotated around the earth.
When Dracos returned again to his home, Loki travelled victoriously to his brother's children. Putting on a mask of profound sorrow and despair, Loki told them the truth of their parentage, and gave them account of the brutal slaughter of their parents. The young gods were shocked to learn that it was in fact Reshep who was their father, but were even more horrified though at the savage retribution that Dracos had exacted on them. Weeping over the loss of their parents, the gods let Loki lead them to the place where Reshep's body lay.
The gods despaired when they saw their father's broken form, and fell to their knees in anguish. All were so engrossed in their sorrow that only Naiada chanced to look up as Loki's mask of mourning flickered, betraying his inner elation. When the other gods finally rose to carry Reshep's body away to be buried, Naiada secretly took the form of a sparrow and followed Loki as he wandered away from the others.
Loki travelled deep into the wilderness before letting down his guard. When he finally felt none were watching, he dropped his façade and began dancing gleefully in circles. A small number of forest creatures happened to notice him, and Loki joyfully danced to them. To the great horror of the watching Naiada, Loki gloatingly detailed his plot, and swelled with pride as he described how he had repaid his arrogant brother.
Naiada rushed back to her brothers and sisters with news of Loki's betrayal, where she was stunned to learn that Reshep somehow still lived. As he recovered, the gods all discussed how they could possibly bring Loki to justice, and avenge their mother's death. When Reshep finally awoke, they told him all that had transpired. The news of Loki's betrayal infuriated him, and his anguish over his mother's death stoked his hatred for his father into a towering inferno. Yet, he despaired knowing that in this crippled state he did not have the power to confront Loki, and certainly could not stand before the awesome might of Dracos.
It was Anshar who finally devised a plan to defeat their enemies. Through his studies of the Arts, Anshar uncovered a mechanism by which they could harvest power from mortals. Guided by Anshar's steady hand, the gods bowed the fabric of the universe, finally tearing away a section of it to create a new plane of existence. These two planes were reflections of each other, the Material Plane was that which held Gaia and all the life that lived upon her, whilst the newly created one was the immaterial. He then connected the two planes via a magical barrier he named the Veil.
The Veil, he explained to Reshep and his siblings, acts like a kind of membrane. Actions of mortal beings in the material realm are reflected in the immaterial. Each action produces an energy that exists only in that realm, and that are opposite to each other. Through the Veil, each action is linked with its counterpart, and the energy created bleeds from one realm into the other. While energy created in one realm does not abnormally affect its surroundings, the energy bled from its counterpart in the other realm does.
Anshar then showed the gods how to harness the power bled from the material realm into the immaterial. Having all of them grasping for the energy at once proved impossible, so they set about divvying up the source of this power, the nature of the mortal beings who created it, in a more organized fashion.
Anshar picked the pursuit of knowledge, and all things to do with learning, becoming the God of Knowledge
Marduk took the maintaining of law and order, and all things to do with the suppression and eradication of chaos, becoming the God of Order
Eridu, ever defiant of her twin brother, chose the battle against injustice and persecution at the hands of authority, and the protection of the less fortunate, becoming the Goddess of Defiance.
Ma'at chose the execution of war and violence, and everything to do with fighters and warriors, becoming the God of War
Ianna became the patron of the arts and of music, of pleasures of the flesh, and the pursuit of all things beautiful, becoming the Goddess of Love.
Metis dubbed himself the God of Commerce, and took everything to do with trading and bartering.
Naiada choose to become the deity of cleverness and mischief, taking as her own the practice of wit, deception, cunning, negotiation, and subtlety, becoming the God of Trickery.
Thoth wanted nothing to do with the power of the immaterial, and denounced his peers for permanently altering the face of the universe in pursuit of power, proclaiming that the ends should never be used to justify such blatant abuse of strength and knowledge. The other gods were discouraged at his refusal to participate in their plan, and suggested that he could perhaps guard the Veil against Loki's tamperings should he happen to uncover their plans, a post that Thoth grudgingly accepted.
By harnessing the power of the Veil, the gods grew to be infinitely more powerful than before. Once healed from his wounds, the gods fed Reshep power until he too was many times stronger than he had been before, and would perhaps be able to rival the might of Dracos. When they deemed themselves ready, the gods donned armour crafted of brilliant metals, and imbued with magic powers. Reshep himself wore a suit of radiant blue steel, embossed with the likeness of Vritras. In his right hand he carried a massive golden hammer, and in his left a magical silver shield that had been buffed into a perfect mirror.
Stepping across the barrier into Dracos' realm, they found the mighty god had already anticipated their arrival. He stood in wait for them, a towering, blazing inferno, and all but Reshep trembled before him.
'You come to me at the head an army' Dracos sneered, 'I too can have an army,' and with a thought brought into being a might army made of demons, angels, and all manner of other beings, all mocking caricatures of Reshep's children.
'You think to channel the power of mortals to defeat me?' He laughed'¦then spat, 'well I too can call mortals to my bidding.' He then breathed in, and drew to him all those mortal beings who had died, whose spirits walked the mortal realm. Suddenly he was surrounded too by an army of the ghostly visages of men, dragons, and beasts.
Dracos' form exploded into a swirling storm of fire before coalescing into the figure of a fearsome, fiery parody of Reshep, carrying a huge blade of molten iron and a shield bearing the broken bleeding body of Vritras.
'Vritras died a whore, a simpering pathetic slut, but even that death carries more honour than the fate that shall befall you.'
Unable to bear the taunting any longer, Reshep threw himself at Dracos, and the two battled with such a ferocity that the universe itself quaked and shook. Dracos' legions fell upon the gods, and it took all their strength to keep from being drowned beneath a seething tide of enemies.
Even with his own incredibly enhanced power, Reshep was still no match for his father, who had created the universe with a though. Many times, it seemed as though Reshep had been defeated and Dracos was again victorious. Yet each time Reshep got back up, and Dracos grew more enraged that he was unable to overcome his petulant spawn.
Finally, Dracos knocked Reshep down with a mighty blow that for a moment stopped time itself. The battle raging all around them froze, and all turned to watch as Dracos towered above his son, readying a final coup-de-grace. Dracos gathered every ounce of his power, and aimed it in a concentrated blast at his son, seeking to burn Reshep entirely out of existence.
But Reshep was not done, and when Dracos unleashed his power Reshep lifted his mirrored shield. The beam of power was reflected back, and smote Dracos to the ground. Reshep then rose and descended upon Dracos, who lay dying. He cast him into the mortal realm, where he held his body aloft and beat it with his hammer, splattering his blood over the heavens where it would burn as tiny specks in perpetuity. He smote Dracos with blow after blow, until finally Reshep's mighty hammer shattered under the strain. He then fell upon his father with hands and fists, shredding Dracos body into a million pieces. Finally, he tore off Dracos' head, and fixed it into the sky as a final act of vengeance.
Drawn by the sounds of the cataclysmic beating, Loki had arrived just in time to witness his father's final moments. So transfixed was he by the site of his brother's brutal execution of retribution that he did not think to flee as Reshep finished off his father before turning to him. Whilst Reshep had been unable to match the power of Dracos, he stood as a mountain before an insect when compared to Loki.
When his brother's fearsome gaze fell upon him, the spell that had held him in place shattered, and Loki fell to his knees begging for forgiveness.
Reshep raised his fist to destroy Loki, but could not bring himself to kill his own brother in cold blood. 'Is your love for man truly so great that you would plot the deaths of your own mother and brother?' Reshep shook his head. 'So be it, if your love for mankind is so great that it transcends ties of flesh and blood, you may then live amongst them forever. May you come in time to see how the corruption in their souls mirrors the corruption in thine own.' And with that, Reshep tore from Loki his divine power.
The last of his anger expelled, Reshep was finally overcome grief over the death of his beloved Vritras. He wailed, looking to the heavens where his mother's head hung, a lasting legacy of Dracos' crimes. Unable to look upon it any longer, Reshep burrowed into the heart of the world to spend the rest of eternity in agonized mourning, his sobs shaking the very earth and his despaired cries causing the earth in places to bubble and erupt in molten lava.
On Gaia, the heat from Dracos eternally burning head finally thawed the freezing caused by the blood of Vritras, except where the blood ran fresh from her body at the extreme ends of the earth. Life was awoken from its winter slumber by the jarring sobs of Reshep, and found a world whose face had been changed much since they had left it. The war of the gods no longer walked amongst them, and absent their mindful guidance much of civilization descended into chaos.
In the realm of Dracos, the hordes the fallen god had summoned now submitted themselves to the gods. The ghostly spirits of mortals continued to arrive though, and it soon became apparent that Dracos' spell had not simply compelled those existing spirits here, but was also drawing all spirits of those who died in the material realm. Thoth volunteered to stay behind and serve as the master of this realm, which he dubbed Khanu'gaia, the Land of the Dead. The other gods each chose from amongst the armies of Dracos followers who would serve them in the immaterial realm, and left the rest to aid Thoth in managing his new domain.
Arriving back in their new home, and without Reshep to lead them, the gods bickered over who should lead them in the arduous task of healing the malignant influence of Loki in the world. Anshar felt that he should be, as it was his wisdom that allowed them to prevail over Loki and Dracos. Marduk disagreed, and felt it should be him who lead, since his expertise in applying order and law should would make him the best leader. Each other god too felt that their particular strengths made them the only one fit to rule, and their arguing soon escalated to blows. But when none of them proved strong enough to forcibly bow the others to their will, they grudgingly conceded that a leader should be picked only once one proved strong enough to do so. Each then set about carving out his or her own kingdom within the Immaterial Plane, where they schemed over ways to win the hearts and minds of all mortals, increasing their power to where they might force the others to their will and together set the world aright.
So ended the First Age, and began the second'¦
[/spoiler]
[spoiler= The Second Age, and the dominion of the dragons]
Following the departure of the gods across the veil, chaos ruled in the world for a time. Man began to succumb to his more base natures, and for the first time the gods were not there to council him. In fact, the descent was in a large part their falt, as their influence through the veil encouraged man to fall prey to the excess of various aspects of his nature and abandon the pursuit of balance. Kingdoms warred and fell, birthing and destroying vast empires. Men schemed against their own flesh and blood, committed brutal and depraved acts against others, and committed all manner of other sins to satisfy the powers-across-the-Veil. Loki now watched in horror, powerless to stop his children from destroying themselves.
The dragons had become aware of the gods' pursuit of power through use of the Veil, and so were wary and did not fall prey to the same fate as man. They studied the Veil, improving upon the Arts that Anshar had taught them, learning to harness the incredible magics the link to the Immaterial made possible. With their new powers adding to their already formidable might, the dragons descended upon the other weakened races of the world and enslaved them. This begun the millenia-long rein of the Draconic Empire over the earth.
-----the despoiling of the elven homelands, and the flight of the Great Divide-----
It was at the very zenith of Draconic civilization that disaster fell. The cause of the epidemic is still unknown, but for some reason an unknown malady came to infest the dragons. It poisoned their hearts and minds, and rendered the entire race infertile. When the near-immortal beings faced their very extinction as a race, they were gripped by a panic that robbed them of the patience and reason that had been central to the longevity of their empire. Their leaders bickered and quarreled over how to cure themselves and deal with the future, until their disagreement created a schism in the very fabric of their society, separating it forever into several distinct factions.
These factions waged a bitter war against each other, the likes of which had not been seen since Reshep led the gods in war against their father at the end of the First Age. The earth was rent and scorched, and a great many of its creatures perished. When the dragons numbers dwindled, they turned to their slaves fill out the gaps in their strength. They took on the role of creators, and moulded their servants into natural warriors, and their breeding pits pumped out legions of these creatures to make war on their enemies. It is said that mountain ranges were formed from the piles of the dead, and rivers ran red with blood until even the boundless oceans themselves began to tint pink.
The war dragged on, without pause, for a century. It was not until Jormungang, the last of the Great Wyrms who had lived when gods still walked the earth, fell dead to the ground in the midst of battle, that the dragons did stop to see the carnage they had created. When Jormungang fell dead, pierced by a thousand thousand arrows and surrounded by the broken corpses of scores of lesser wyrms, the dragons finally realized the folly they were committing. Most of their number already lay dead, littering the sites of battle with forests of bleached bone. Even their slave legions had been depleted, and many of their number were made up of the old and infirm.
The leaders of each faction set aside their differences and came together to broker a piece, and together they swore an oath that the war would end on this day, and no dragon would ever raise a hand against another in anger lest their whole race be destroyed by another outbreak of war. Still unable to agree on a course of action, the meeting broke and each leader returned to his faction to tell of what had been decided. But with no war to keep them distracted, and still no cure to their mysterious ailment, what little bound even the factions together dissolved into self-centred panic. Those dragons old enough to have palaces from before the war returned to them, while those without dug their own or stole them from other races. Then, as one, the dragons went to sleep, hibernating until a future where perhaps an answer to the doom of their race might present itself.
The surface of Gaia was again left without masters, and so began the Third and Final Age, the Age of Man.
[/spoiler]
QuoteThe curtains open to reveal the world near the ends of the Age of Man. Without gods to hold him back, or dragons keeping him enslaved, the indomitable man again found himself spread across the surface of Gaia, but this time as its masters. He forged great kingdoms, who rose and fell, conquering their neighbours to forge great empires, that themselves then rose and fell. By the time the players arrive, man has ruled the world for nearly four thousand years. But by now, his civilization is mired with the fetid stench of corruption and decay. What were once great kingdoms are now pathetic shadows of themselves. In the west, the empire of Praetoria collapses under the weight of its own arrogance, led astray by a clergy twisted by their pursuit of dark secrets and darker magics. The once proud cities of Tiranor have been brought low by the quarreling of their five great households, who wage a cloak-and-dagger war of succession over the failing royal dynasty. Varnyr fights a losing battle against the encroaching tribes of the Orukken, and desperately seek the assistance of their neighbours, even knowing that no assistance will ever come. Attylia and Midgard to the north, and Thorcia to the south, are now little more than mildly civilized nations of barbarians, who brawl, pirate, and battle amongst themselves like animals.
In the East, the Caliph of Azhara watches helplessly as the newly formed Order of Light battles a war in the streets against the century old Daarun Syndicate, whose agents have pierced every level of society. East of them are the twin kingdoms of Tenoch and **Khurash**, fragments of an ancient empire beset by a terrible evil that grows deep within the jungle dividing them. Further south is the great empire of Sinae, whose borders have been shut tight to the outside world for nearly 50 years, though rumours are abound of demons and spirits that infest the realm.
And beyond that, behind thick doors and drawn shutters, secret meetings are held for an organization that has no name, in preparation for the return of their master. His great masterpiece is just now entering its final act, and there is justice to be wrung from all those who wronged him so many years ago, a debt for which he has been waiting patiently so very long to repay.
The Legacy of Loki is a 4th edition DnD campaign I'm going to run with some friends of mine. I've been writing it in a top-down fashion, since school, work, and travelling has prevented my gaming group from getting together for long enough for me to put some serious work into worldbuilding (as I'm sure everybody who's read all that over-wrought tripe above can tell :P).
I don't plan on changing the rules and classes much until I feel I have a much firmer hold on the gamesystem, and understand what could be or should be changed to better fit the world. Right now the only things I've changed are the superficial details of how magic works, and the classes react to the sources of power.
My biggest problem at the moment is fitting elves and dwarves into the setting. Dwarves I had originally planned to be a descendent of dragons tinkering with man in the attempt to create a proper race to man their forges and engines of war. The elves...well quite frankly I have no idea where the elves fit in except some very sketchy ideas about battle with the dragons, the scorching of their forest homelands, and the flight of half their number across the sea to the west while the others either fled deep underground or became enslaved by the dragons.
Any criticisms or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm writing a paper at the moment, otherwise I would spend more time filling some bits I've mentioned but never explained (such as the Orukken, who will resemble orcs and have been discussed in another thread on this forum). Do know that this is all very rough drafts that I haven't even looked back over to edit for grammar though, and at least a few horrendous sentences have been caught by the one friend I asked to glance over this.
Also attached is the progress I've made on the world map, though I'm having trouble fitting empires in the way I want them and have considered scrapping it and starting fresh.
(//../../e107_files/public/1237276421_911_FT0_ancient_paper2.6w_cities_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1237276421_911_FT0_ancient_paper2.6w_cities.jpg)
I honestly don't have the heart to read all that history without some kind of idea about what the setting entails, but i had an idea for what you could do with the elves. You say that they flee across the sea; maybe they never landed on the opposite coast? Due to mistrust and prejudice from the natives of the western continent they didn't settle down and instead kept moving, sailing from city to city as traders. They are essentially nomadic seafaring pirate/merchants. It could be part of the elven mentality that the constant travelling is in quest of a new and perfect homeland. After many hundreds or thousands of years the mental image of this homeland has become an unattainable utopia which they'll of course never find the like of.
I do not personally like the idea of races being specifically engineered for a purpose (and why would dwarves be that much better than humans at smithing?), so the dwarves could instead play on other themes. Maybe make them arctic? Play with them and the Inuit/eskimo or viking cultures.
Hope you can use this :)
I actually read that thread, but it still doesn't say an awful lot about your setting. Although a good deal about religion. Are you going to have a lot of religious strife and such?
And wouldn't exactly call my previous ideas cliché? Some might consider the races cliché by virtue of what they are.
Anyway, could be interesting to take concepts that are perceived as evil and show them from their good sides (if you can find them). Gambling, cannibalism, hedonism, bloodshed, 7 sins, hypocrisy, fear, terrorism, stuff like that.
You could make elves extreme hedonists? Maybe after living hundreds of years they have grown tired of life and seek out new and progressively more extreme pleasures. Maybe this makes them extremely creative as well, so the elves often occupy themselves with art and inventions.
Dwarves could be extreme isolationists, living in secluded mountain valleys and other distant places without contact with any other races. They kill outsiders on sight and are almost mythical by now. They are brilliant historians and antiquarians though, preserving everything as it has always been.
EDIT: Visually, the elves would wear very colorful and strangely cut clothing, and have incredibly odd coloured hairstyles and dozens of piercings and tattoos and the like. The dwarves would be dressed in very archaic clothing.
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowI actually read that thread, but it still doesn't say an awful lot about your setting. Although a good deal about religion. Are you going to have a lot of religious strife and such?
And wouldn't exactly call my previous ideas cliché? Some might consider the races cliché by virtue of what they are.
Anyway, could be interesting to take concepts that are perceived as evil and show them from their good sides (if you can find them). Gambling, cannibalism, hedonism, bloodshed, 7 sins, hypocrisy, fear, terrorism, stuff like that.
You could make elves extreme hedonists? Maybe after living hundreds of years they have grown tired of life and seek out new and progressively more extreme pleasures. Maybe this makes them extremely creative as well, so the elves often occupy themselves with art and inventions.
Dwarves could be extreme isolationists, living in secluded mountain valleys and other distant places without contact with any other races. They kill outsiders on sight and are almost mythical by now. They are brilliant historians and antiquarians though, preserving everything as it has always been.
EDIT: Visually, the elves would wear very colorful and strangely cut clothing, and have incredibly odd coloured hairstyles and dozens of piercings and tattoos and the like. The dwarves would be dressed in very archaic clothing.
By fantasy cliche's i meant more along the lines of "BBEG from the north who seeks to destroy all life," having good and evil gods, the epic battle of light and shadow, races that are purely bloodthirsty monsters while others are purehearted scholars...that sort of thing.
I was thinking a lot about elves and dwarves on the bus ride to school lecture today, and I finally decided on something actually very much along the lines of what you just suggested. I figure that races like elves and dwarves will be Loki's failed experiments to create his "perfect race."
The elves will live too long, their interests too fleeting, and their tastes too fanciful. They will always prefer form over function, and while their patience is at times impossibly long due to their very long lifespans, their attention can also be strangely fleeting. For instance, an elf may suddenly wish to abandon his current life and family and take to the road, spending half a century in a far away land amongst another race, something not unusual and culturally accepted.
The elves will be broken up into several distinct subgroups though, based on an event called the "breaking" or something, where their civilization split apart following a very one-sided war against the dragons.
Dwarves, on the other hand, will be the opposite of elves as Loki swung too far the other direction to compensate. Dwarves will be isolationist, and will leave their mountain fortresses only extremely rarely. Their family ties will be immeasurably strong, and they will have strong feelings about honour and keeping oaths or promises. Their patience will also be immeasurable, and they will labour single-mindedly often for a century to complete a single task.
Religious strife will also play a very central role in this campaign, because it religion in this world represents human excess. For those who didn't read the backstory, the gods constructed a parrallel plane called the "Immaterial Realm," which is a sort of inverse reflection of our own. Each event in our world is reflected in theirs. They created a magical link between the two called the Veil, which ties each event with its counterpart.
When a being in the material realm performs a behaviour, it creates an energy that is linked to the opposite energy in the immaterial. The link causes an exchange of energy, impowering both the god of that behaviour on the other side and the mortal on this side with a bit of energy.
Many don't even notice this exchange, as these behaviours are too subtle and insignificant to do much. To others though, this exchange is like a shot of heroine, and they become addicted. People who follow Anshar thus become addicted to the accumulation of knowledge, and lose sight of reason and morality in the process. Likewise some become addicted to pursuit of beauty, or depraved pleasures of the flesh and take that path way too far.
The only way to avoid this is either through brute force of will, or through balance. This magical relationship through the Veil does not promote balance, however, and instead promotes excess. The only proponents of balance in the world were Loki and Thoth, the former is now virtually powerless after his brother Reshep stripped him of his godhood while the latter is bound to his duties in the land of the dead.
Long story short, the main theme is excess rather than evil, and balance rather than good. Magic has been changed only subtly, and the primary BBEG will be Loki, who now must resort even more to scheming and plotting than before to attain the justice and vengeance he desires, and return the world to what he views as its natural and proper state.
The PCs will likely come into contact with him at some point, though he simply appears as a human not being able to expend the extremely limited reserves of power he has. Their main divine benefactor will be whatever gods they choose to follow (who will likely lead them down the path to excess and sin), as well as Thoth.
Thoth, though the ruler of the dead, was the one god who saw the terrible dark side of the power of the Veil, and warned them all against it. When they ignored him, and he refused to help, he was essentially banished by them to the plane of the dead, and tasked with the keeping of the souls of mortals. He still watches the mortal world though, if only to judge those souls who reach him and force them to attone for their sins.
He will recognize that the party has become wrapped up in Loki's plan, and will send them back should they die (for a price), and occasionally give them information that he has about Loki's plans.
Another theme is that of decay, as each age begins with a different race ruling the world and ends with that civilization's decay and collapse. First it was the gods, then the dragons, and now man rules much of the world, yet his civilizations are collapsing. The players will constantly run into the artifacts of past civilizations, be they be made by man, dragons, or others. The pcs will also be constantly faced with the forces that tear down a society, be they war, corruption, political turmoil, anarchy, religious insurrection, natural causes, isolationism, barbarism, etc. Each nation will be facing extinction from a different cause, many fueled by a different for of excess and framed in the context of different gods.
Praetoria (whose name i HATE, but can't think of a better one) will model the ancient Roman empire as it grew fat and lazy with decadence and corruption. The twist is that there is a sort of catholic church that reflects the one of the medieval era. The church will be dedicated internally to the worship of Anshar, and will have delved specifically into the practice of necromancy. Various army forces and city guard will be aided by Ecclesia mages, as well as various undead constructs, giving the whole empire a theme of a nation that is long since dead and rotten yet still refuses to admit that it isn't alive and in its prime.
The last theme is that of man versus the environment, framed by the battle between the brothers Loki (who created and represents life), and Reshep (the god of the elements and the one who shaped the world). Not sure how far I'll take this one, but with global warming being so big in everybody's minds these days I'm sure it will be easily recognized by my players.
One thing I have a problem with still is Metis and Naiana. Metis is the god of commerce, while Naiana is the god of "cleverness." These seem to overlap too much... Perhaps Metis should be the god of industry? This means that Naiana will cover bartering, swindling, and economic brilliance while Metis will be alot about crafting and metalwork too... I don't know.
And I apologize again to all those trying to help me who have to put up with my inability to be concise and organized :P Thank you for putting up with the constant <wall of text>'s
Also thanks Pheonix for the compliment on the map :)