The Campaign Builder's Guild

I like the section about resurrection.  I have played in a game where the DM was intent on getting us to high level as quickly as possible.  As a result it was   nothing to have two or three people die a gaming session.  The good side is that by the end I had learned to build a character that was indestructible.  The bad side was that the party became very blase about death and resurrection - and the party became totally obsessed with finding diamonds.  We didn't even have horses , but we were carrying around 10.000gp of diamonds apiece.  It made no sense.  
This seems like a great way to limit that sort of nonsense, and also make players stop and actually think about the fact that they're   dying  and being reborn - not just coming back up at their nearest rez-spot and starting over again.

Also - what happened to the elves that they became not-whole?  What did they do?

This world is definitely not being designed for the dungeon-delving, let's kill off a character every session kind of gameplay.  The Mad Hatter and I have pretty much decided that dungeons will be kept to a realistic value.  Resurrection was made in D&D for use by dungeon-delving adventurers, but it makes no sense when given to society.  Society can do too much with it and it unbalances everything.  

I think this system works better.

We're currently looking into cloning, trying to decide if it works, why it works (or why it doesn't), and when it would be appropriate to have it in our world.

On Elves
Elves were one of the first creations of Aeon and are easily the oldest race.  We haven't decided what caused it, but Aeon, like a child, decided she didn't like the elves.  She just tossed them away and removed their daemonic spirit.  Now they have sentient thought but no real essence.  When they die, no demi is released like every other race.  Because of that, their bodies rotted and became disgusting.  When a daemon possesses them, their bodies are whole again and regain most of their once amazing presense.

PS: Thanks for the first comment!

[blockquote=Jharviss]Random thought:

In almost every fantasy world humans form the foundation of the world and all other races create little bubbles within the larger human world. This is written off because humans are more ambitious and breed faster than other races, so are more likely to trade with other races and to create numerous and widespread nations. [/blockquote]
Actually, there are a number of settings on this site where the authors have decided that it would not make as much sense for the Humans to be the dominant race.  Hobyts and the Orcash (orcs) are the most common races in my setting.  And humans are often seen as you wrote about them in many settings (and I think most D&D encourages this), but many of us have also eschewed this.  
I applaud the back thought it entails to avoid all the archetypes.

Also, I agree with the comments about the commonality of ressurections and such causing all sorts of grief when taken out of the adventuring context.  I think that is one of the first mechanical 'corrections' a setting needs to make.

I don't disagree with you at all, LordVreeg, and I've only skimmed Celtricia, but most settings that don't make humans the main race make them into lesser races.  I've seen several where humans are cast aside, screwed over in major ways, aren't the native race, or are just otherwise put in a bad position.  It's rather anti-human.  I don't mean to be anti-human, and I'm sure humans will take on a larger role in my setting than most other races, but they won't be the "connecter" race.  Does that make sense?

Quote from: JharvissI don't disagree with you at all, LordVreeg, and I've only skimmed Celtricia, but most settings that don't make humans the main race make them into lesser races.  I've seen several where humans are cast aside, screwed over in major ways, aren't the native race, or are just otherwise put in a bad position.  It's rather anti-human.  I don't mean to be anti-human, and I'm sure humans will take on a larger role in my setting than most other races, but they won't be the "connecter" race.  Does that make sense?

Yes, the comment makes sense.
So...
Does Tephra need a connector race, or is such a position even relevant is the next logical question.  What level of integration versus isolation is prevelant in Tephra?  Do cultures supercede racial lines or are cultures a biproduct of race and racial history?  

Interesting question.

Having a "connecter" race is both relevant and, if done correctly, irrelevant.  With D&D races, all of the races are very antisocial except for halflings and humans.  The elves stay in their forests, the dwarves and gnomes underground.  Halflings often take a background role, so it's left up to the humans to trade with all of the other races.

The races of Tephra aren't all unrealistically isolationist.  Gnomes, humans, and satyrs I would imagine being the most social and out there, with gnomes being the most so.  Farishtaas would be the most isolationist, but they aren't going to be as bad as elves and dwarves in standard fantasy.  Even haudi, which are often disliked, aren't isolationists.

Tephra will avoid the isolationist nations.  Perhaps only the farishtaas will be limited to one or two nations. (And that's because there are very few farishtaas in the world, compared to other races.)  Cultures will depend on neighbors, terrain, and racial traits.  Each race will have its own psychological traits.  But their cultural traits will vary widely.  The haudi that live on coastlines will be very different than those that live in the mountains.  Likewise the izedans that live in the desert will be different from those that live on the volcanic plains.  Culture will definitely supersede race, but race will still be a huge factor.  Izedans have their natural love of pain, and that's going to hold true no matter what their culture dictates.

Full racial write-ups will appear within the week.  The first ones will be using 'ideal' cultures.  There will be a nation where everything said in the racial write-ups will be envisioned.  Then, other cultures will appear using said racial write-ups as a basis.  Things will change for the cultures.  

Guess I dated a few Izedans and didn't know it.  Just goes to show you...

One of the current conflicts my setting deals with is Acculteration vs Tribal isolationists. And I tend to think many of the archetypes make no sense when moved into a new setting.  I am interested to see the cultural developments, and how race feeds into them.  Perhaps another collision?

Exploring...
The Haudi

A short haud, typically one that is six and a half feet or less, will be shunned by its society and, at worst, mocked incessantly.  The haudi believe in nothing less than perfection.  Flaws do not give us our differences, but are meant to be overcome. A typical haud will stand at between seven and eight feet, a female averaging four inches taller than a male.  Males are more common than females, with females composing only a third of the population.  The haudi have enormous skeletal structures, with thick, strong bones.  Their muscles are knotted and tight, their bodies heavy.  Their nails grow over an inch a day, and their teeth have to be filed down annually else their jaws start being pulled apart, causing them to look savage.  Their little hair grows short and rough, and their skin is a stony brown.  

The haudi are uptight and pretentious.  They see other races as lesser mockeries of their own.  Their civilization was long the strongest, and they still see many races '" especially humans and satyrs '" as their slaves.  Satyrs and gnomes are the haudi's closest enemies, the satyrs and haudi often warring over territory.  The haudi and aodin have long have strained relations, each one trying to get along with the other but having moral problems doing such.  Haudi often have nothing to do with izedans; they see them as nuisances, but nuisances best left alone.  Farishtaas and haudi often get along well, and have been known to call upon each other when war requires it.

Haudi often live along rivers and deltas among desert or mountain terrain.  The haudi almost always live near large limestone deposits, drinking large amounts of limewater '" a substance full of calcium.  They also eat a lot of fish, other land meats, and starches.  

Respect must be earned among the haudi, especially among outsiders.  Haudi society, however, requires that show respect to everyone of equal and higher status.  Duels are common among the haudi.  Females are typically stronger and more respected, especially due to them being rarer.  They take on all of the responsibilities males do, and take positions of leadership more often than males.  Marriage is much rarer in haudi society than in human, and powerful women sometimes take on multiple husbands.

Haudi have gained a reputation for inhumanity and cruelty among other races, especially among those that the haudi go to war with.  More so than any other race, haudi see a goal and they do whatever it takes to get there.  They are among the only race to ever use widespread chemical weaponry.  Several races have developed thunder cannons and some chemical weaponry, but haudi use them to their limit.  They are not without mercy, but the deaths of their enemies are things best not worried about.  

Haudi live to about 60 years, shorter than the average human by 20 years.  Their larger bodies simply give out faster.  Haudi, seeing this as a weakness, long ago began experimenting with chemicals to make their bodies live longer.  Many drugs have since been developed, and some haudi live as long as a century now.  These drugs often have adverse effects, however, and not all haudi risk them.  This experimentation led to haudi having the most gifted alchemists of any race, and, as times required, haudi gained the means necessary to create chemical weaponry and other alchemical compounds.

I love your elves.  That's rare, because the only elves I've ever liked are Luminous Crayons.  I am very intrigued about the Farishtaa; what is it in the unique nature of certain daemons that allows them to possess an elf?

Hate to say, but we're still working on daemons.  The thing with daemons is that their powers and natures vary widely, thus giving us a lot of room to build with them.  Almost anything is possible with daemons.  

The farishtaas are a race I'm very excited about exploring.  The Mad Hatter and myself have put elves and farishtaas on the back burner right now (not by choice, but just because we are picking other races to prioritize).  Daemons that have the ability to possess creatures may just be born that way or they may come from a society of daemons that know it.  I think that's where the myth about ghosts and hauntings come from, from these daemons that can possess.

Introducing...
Main Continent - Political Map

This is a serious work-in-progress.  This is the Main Continent[/i] (a truly inspiring name).  I've made racial notations about the larger states and a couple others, but have only marked one or two of the smaller ones.  There are roughly fifty countries on this continent.  It's a huge amount, but they fit well.  It's a continent about the size of Asia.  It seems about right.

If I was grossly estimating, I would say that the red "Human Empire" in the middle is the size of the Persian Empire back in the day and that the Izedan Lands are about the size of the Sahara, to give you a perspective.

[spoiler=Main Continent][/spoiler]

I'm trying to imagine playing a possessed elf PC...and I'm old and wicked, so it should be somewhat easy for me...
I still like the concept, however.


What is the racial breakdown % wise of the races, in terms of population?  I saw some mention of population, but not much more than that.  Unless I missed it.

A note on population...
The world is covered with races.  I'm really not sure where to mark each race in regards to their take of the world.  I'm sure humans would have the largest population, but it wouldn't be much larger than satyrs.  Gnomes and haudi would likely be after them, followed by elves and izedan.  The izedans tend to live in remote locations, so an estimate of their race's size would leave to a lot to be desired.  The aodin have a very small population living on the land, but a huge population living in the ocean.  The farishtaa are certainly the "smallest" race.  There are five elves for every farishtaa, easily, perhaps more.

I hope this answers your question.

Exploring...
Elves & Farishtaas
Elves were one of Aeon's first creations when she collided with Tephra.  She had long ago made the daemons, so she was quite familiar with making creatures.  But elves were her first Tephran race, and were quite different from anything she had made before.  Their bodies were completely solid, made from the essence of Tephra.  She gave them two legs and two arms, made them stand upright.  Then, frustrated that they couldn't fly (all daemons could fly, it was natural!), she gave them enormous wings.  Thus, elves were created - the first angels.

But Aeon was no more than a child.  When they stopped pleasing her, she ripped away their spirits and had them hunted down by her daemons for fun.  When she cut away their spirits, they became hideous and deformed.  Their bodies mutated, growing grotesque, boils and warts covering their flesh.  Their white, feathery wings moulted, and soon they were left with nothing save large bumps on their backs where their wings once were.  Now they are likened to hairless, purple gorillas.  The greatest of the elves fought valiantly, even while several of their comrades committed suicide upon losing their glory.  It didn't take long for the once glorious race to become little more than savages hiding in the forest.

Time passed and Aeon grew in wisdom.  She created other races -- humans, gnomes, satyrs -- and never did to them what she did to elves.  Some say that she later regretted the atrocities she put the elves through.  Nonetheless, she never gave them back their spirits.
[note=Tephran]From this point forward, when discussing daemons, a Tephran is one who is substantial and mortal.  They have a solid body and a spirit in their body.  Daemons are invisible to Tephrans.[/note]
Daemons, in time, also grew.  Daemon gods became prominent in the world, and sentient daemon castes arose.  One of these castes, the halkuuja, were able to possess Tephrans.  The halkuuja could possess most Tephrans, sharing their body.  The halkuuja would have to continuously fight the Tephran's conscious for dominance, and could never stay for long.  Elves, however, proved to be much easier vessels.

With no spirit of their own, the cast aside elves were easy to possess.  The halkuuja could enter an elf, take over its entire body, and claim it as its own.  There were some initial problems.  For one, the halkuuja basically replaced the missing spirit of the elf.  In other words, once the halkuuja possessed the elf, it was permanent.  And when the elf's body died, the halkuuja inside did as well.  Many halkuuja preferred their freedom and refused to possess the elves.  The rest, however, were quite excited with the notion.

A farishtaa is an elven body possessed by a halkuuja.  The vast majority of farishtaas now are based around their own society.  Halkuuja do not mate or reproduce.  Typically they just appear, whispering out of a tree or from the sky.  Farishtaas collect the young halkuuja, before they are fully aware of themselves, and choose prime elven specimen to fill.  The halkuuja possesses the elf, and the bond is permanent.

When a farishtaa is born, the halkuuja is able to regain much of the elves original poise.  Its boils begin to disappear, it begins to stand upright.  Its white skin and pale hair softens, straightens and is easily combed again.  Their eyes are often either very soft or very dark.

For less than one in every thousand, a powerful enough halkuuja can cause the farishtaa to truly return to its former brilliance.  Great wings erupt from its back and it grows several feet.  The skin of some becomes metallic, gold or silver.  These rare farishtaas are seen as great blessings and are always given the best treatment and asked to take on roles of leadership.  It is known that very powerful halkuuja decide to possess an elf, the odds are higher of it becoming an angelic farishtaa; thus, when a powerful halkuuja arises, the best elven specimen is selected to ensure the best possible results.

Farishtaa society sees all of this as normal.  An elf being possessed by a newborn halkuuja is the typical status quo and is how almost all farishtaas were born.  

The farishtaas believe that elves are lesser beings.  They have no spirits, so they're no better than animals.  They respect all of the other races, for they have spirits.  As such, the farishtaas treat elves as servants, like pack animals, and have little qualms with possessing them.  

From the elves' perspective...
Elves lost most of their intellect with the mutation.  They give the farishtaas many reasons to see them as animals.  They communicate, even have a written language (a butchering of their once eloquent True Elven), but are typically not proficient at complex tasks.  They are superb farmers, lovers of nature, and good to each other.  They are also strong and make for efficient manpower.  When the elves lost their spirit and their bodies became mutated, the one bonus was that they became exceedingly strong.  The angelic elven bodies had been made light, like a birds, to allow them to fly.  As such, when a farishtaa is born, its body actually becomes weaker.

Elves are loving individuals, but they are also savage and quick to anger.  They do many things on blind faith.  They all know of their lost heritage, but few of them are wise enough to stop looking at the past and start moving toward the future.  Elves are inept with technology and almost never have the brains for magic.  For this reason it is easy for farishtaas to keep the elves in line.  What the farishtaas lack in strength they make up for with other, more efficient means.

For many centuries the farishtaas would secretly carry off elves and have them possessed.  This has changed over the past century as farishtaas have begun to inspire elves, teaching them that the change into a farishtaa is a sacred one.  Now a ceremony is held whenever an elf is chosen to become a farishtaa.  The elves see it as a blessing.

Of course, the farishtaas don't tell the elves that the elf is effectively killed in the process.  They just tell them that they become enlightened and often forget about how they were when they were elves.

Every once in a while a friend of a chosen elf will cause trouble.  These troublesome elves are then either killed or, if proven to be a good specimen, they too become farishtaas.

Defining...
Lifespans

One thing that Tephra avoids is the enormous lifespans of other worlds.  No race lives upwards to 900 years in Tephra.  The thought of that is absurd.  Furthermore, creating a history for such a race would be impossible.  In the course of a couple D&D-elf generations, humans have gone from fighting with bronze swords to landing on the moon.  A single D&D-dragon could live through the birth of civilization on Earth to modern day.  Absurd.

I also dislike the fact that humans in other worlds are the longest live race.  On Earth, humans live significantly longer than other species.  Aren't giant turtles the only things that can match our lifespans?  So why are humans in fantasy worlds given the short lives?  No more.

For now I shall leave out the aodin as I am undecided on their lifespans, but here are the lifespans of other races on Tephra:

Elves - 80-90 years
Farishtaas - 180-200 years
Gnomes - 150-170 years
Haudi - 60-70 years
Humans - 80-100 years
Izedans - 50-60 years
Satyrs - 120-140 years

Quote from: JharvissDefining...
Lifespans

One thing that Tephra avoids is the enormous lifespans of other worlds.  No race lives upwards to 900 years in Tephra.  The thought of that is absurd.  Furthermore, creating a history for such a race would be impossible.  In the course of a couple D&D-elf generations, humans have gone from fighting with bronze swords to landing on the moon.  A single D&D-dragon could live through the birth of civilization on Earth to modern day.  Absurd.

I also dislike the fact that humans in other worlds are the longest live race.  On Earth, humans live significantly longer than other species.  Aren't giant turtles the only things that can match our lifespans?  So why are humans in fantasy worlds given the short lives?  No more.

For now I shall leave out the aodin as I am undecided on their lifespans, but here are the lifespans of other races on Tephra:

Elves - 80-90 years
Farishtaas - 180-200 years
Gnomes - 150-170 years
Haudi - 60-70 years
Humans - 80-100 years
Izedans - 50-60 years
Satyrs - 120-140 years

Totally agree.  Did simlar things, as it is hard to keep the events of 500 years before 'legendary' when any PC elf should remember it.  I have a few races that top 200 and Omwo~ (elves) that hit 300 or 350...but none of the thousand year olds that would, in reality, ruina a campaign.
My Sauroids (Dragons) can live longer, but only a few legendary onces are over 600 yrs old, due to their own wars and the DRagonriders of the North.

This is a very logical step to setting that is going to have a more 'legendary' feel.