Vernith, The New Fantasy (New Race Added)

[Xathan]

[note=Note 1, Why New Setting]So, due to a lack of interest in my other setting and some writer's block, I've decided to get back to my roots, which means having multiple settings  all manners of wierdness with a heavy use of spoilers, note block, IC blocks, and all the other unique CBG code I've missed so badly. Enjoy '" and don't worry, more settings by me will be coming along in the near future, because everyone knows that the idea of me sticking to a single project is laughable at best. I'll be getting back to my classic settings at some point, I'm sure.[/note][note=Note 2, On reviews]Since this seems to be the best way to get responses, I'm reinstating my old policy '" review something of mine, and I'll review something of yours, tit for tat and all that. You have to let me know what you want me to look at, and I'll try to make my review at least match the level of detail you've given me.[/note][note=Note 3 (Revenge of the Note)]While all reviews are appreciated, the ones I find most helpful are questions or telling me what you'd like to see more of and why '" I feed off of feedback so badly it's not even funny.[/note]Vernith is my attempt to turn standard fantasy on it's head. This setting has been brewing in the back of my mind for awhile, and I figured I'd post the basics and see if there was any response. This will be the discussion thread '" if the setting grows the way I hope it will, I'll post a Non Discussion thread but keep this for discussions.


Oh, and I've recently decided that system is a limiter when creating a setting. Make the setting, then find or make a system that fits it, not the other way around.

Points of Interest:

There Is No Magic At least, not the way we think of it in classic fantasy. There are people with extraordinary powers, but they are new '" all emerging post Apocalypse '" and fall into one of three catagories: Psions, Necrots, and Mutants. [note=Mutants]Don't think X-Men when it comes to mutants. Think people twisted with biological abilities that are immediately obvious and many times have severe - sometimes fatal - drawbacks[/note]

Humans are Dominant Which is, of course, a complete fabrication. Humanity is merely the most numerous race and best weathered the apocalypse, mainly because they were the quickest to spread across the new landmasses. No unified human power exists, however, and most other races could crush individual human powers easily. Humanity has survived because they breed like rodents, are quick and brutal in their warfare, and have a high percentage of Psions and Mutants (though the latter are mostly shunned by their original race)

Don't Expect The Classics Elves, for example, are not what you'd think. Sure, they are graceful, prefer to live in forests, love nature and have pointed ears, but they also have razor teeth they inherited from their ancestors, tails as longer than their bodies, and a culture that sees cannibalism as the greatest honor to gift to the deceased. Dwarves live underground and a shorter and stockier than humans, but are completely hairless and can climb like geckos. Halflings can pass as human children but have chameleon-like tongues and a flexible skeleton that allows them to slip through spaces 6 inches wide. Goblins are a medium sexually dimorphic species, with the males possessing wings (Hobgoblins) and the females an extra set of arms that end in wicked talons. Dark Elves are a mutation of Elves that look more like Driders than 'elves with dark skin.' Dragons are apex predators with the intelligence you'd expect from a giant reptile.

Technology is advanced Thanks to an energetic, psychoactive crystal called Gethren (which is actually a silicone based life-form), you get floating cities, force fields, and other magic-looking effects '" all of which is actually techno-magic if you want to be technical about it. However, gethren is required to tap into any kind of magic other than the psionic abilities some posses.

The World Nearly Ended It's post apocalyptic.  Though that was over 300 years ago, the ramifications of this apocalypse are felt both culturally and physically '" something, and none yet know what, unleashed the energy that caused both mutants and psions, and caused the dead to rise forming the Necrots (Essentially, the only classic magic is a form of necromancy, and very rarely something controlled).

The Gods (Or God) is/are Inscrutable Beings (or at least a being) of divine power exists...maybe, though it's hard to prove with any kind of certainty. If they/he/it does, however, then they/he/it play(s) games with evolution, physics, and reality that mortals would find utterly baffling and likely is/are directly responsible for the Apocalypse, intentional or not. However, They are worshipped in many forms and while it's impossible to say which faith is true, the existence of Oracles with accurate precognition prior to psions at least gives credence to the claim that Something Divine exists.

There Are Things Beyond When I said there was no magic? That was only partially true. No mortal race can use magic, and what Gods do is less magic and more just warping reality to suit their whims. However, there are creatures that defy all laws of God, Reality, and Man, twisted Others that make the Gods seem sane. These are creatures out of the nightmares of Lovecraft, and their brief touch is another possible cause for the Apocalypse.

So, that's the basics I have for now. I look forward to seeing what you want me to elaborate on and will happily answer any questions!

[Kindling]

Wow, this looks like it's gonna be cool. It's good to see someone approaching fantasy settings in a more straightforward way again - even with your twists and turns the very fact that you have elves and dwarves and dragons puts this, in my mind, in more of the dialogue-with-traditional-fantasy realm than that of complete weirdness, which I think is great! I've even been considering making a "normal" fantasy setting for a while myself.

As for what I'd like to see more of, I'd love to see you expand on cultures. Your hint at the elven reverence for cannibalism seems to say that the real divergence from standard fantasy (stantasy?) is less to do with "our elves have tails, our hobgoblins have wings" etc, and more in terms of the actual cultures of the peoples in the setting, so that's what I'd like to see more details on.

EDIT: The term Necrot seems familiar from somewhere - have you borrowed/appropriated it, or is it just a coincidence?

[Elemental_Elf]

I would like to learn more about Psions, Necrots and Mutants.

[Ghostman]

I approve of super-flexible halflings with crazy long tongues (how is their speech like?) Will all the races be reimagined fantasy staples, or do you have plans to include some completetely original creations? Is 'Necrot' a blanket term covering many types of living dead, or are they all of one kind?

You state that the gethrens are psychoactive life-forms. Are they intelligent?

[Xathan]

It's always bugged me in fantasy settings when there are 2 dozen different varieties of humans, but only one culture for ALL non-human races. I totally get that some races might only have a single culture, but most seem to assume all non-humans should only get one culture. That's not something I'm going to do here - though humanity is more diverse, every race has it's own culture. That said, there will be common trends - Elvish cannibalism, for example. Where you see a common trend, however, that's usually because of a biological drive - at their core, Elves eat their dead because it's a survival strategy the carnivorous ape-like creatures they evolved from developed during the last Ice Age, long before Elves had figured out tricks like "fire" and such. [/note] Yeah, the physical abnormalities from Stantasy (totally stole your word) are for two reasons. First, from a narrative standpoint, they're there just to remind people that they're different in a visually striking way (Even if I don't use a setting for a comic, both of my groups have very good artists in them, so stuff ends up getting drawn eventually regardless.) The second reason is I have to explain many different races on a world without gods directly popping sentient life into existence or mad wizards making them, so the answer is Evolution, which might reproduce humanoids but likely would make them look significantly different, not just "us with pointy ears, or us but squat with beards." Each culture is going to be like each creatures physical form - just enough elements of the original to be recognizable, but in so many ways fundamentally different. Since you requested it, my next post will take a look at culture - specifically, I'll do elves, then an overall turn into EE's request into psions-mutants-necrots, then back to individual cultures. I'll have to go into tech diversions while writing cultures because the two always influence each other. (Also, I'll google Necrot, but didn't intentionally borrow it - then again, the fact that it deals with the undead, has Necro, and is pronounced Neck-Rot means that someone probably already thought of it. :P)

I approve of super-flexible halflings with crazy long tongues (how is their speech like?) Will all the races be reimagined fantasy staples, or do you have plans to include some completetely original creations? Is 'Necrot' a blanket term covering many types of living dead, or are they all of one kind?

You state that the gethrens are psychoactive life-forms. Are they intelligent?

Halfling speech comes across as slurred and mushy to most ears because they have to work around their tongue, folding it up to mimic the tongue of a normal humanoid to get the right sounds across. Their own language involves a lot of throat noises and klicking sounds.

I don't plan on putting any completely original creatures in this setting right now - my own ability to suspend my disbelief is inversely proportional to the number of sentient races divided by the space they have to live on. On a one world setting, too many just destroys it. That being said, I'll have a number of completely original creatures - just not races. Necrot can be used to describe a variety of living dead - the reason they're not called undead is because undead covers any animate corpse (some Psions can telekinetically control corpses or telepathically reawaken thoughts in a brain that hasn't rotted too far (both of which are a form of undead) and some mutants can either "ride" a corpse OR have a mutation that keeps the body functional after death (a thanocyst). Necrot (both the singular and the plural) are those that are animated by a particular and poorly understood energy source. Unlike the other two they are capable of free will and independent thought - they're a new form of life.

Gethren intelligence is something I go back and forth on, so I honestly can't give a definitive answer yet - if yes, then the technology of my entire setting is built upon slavery, if no, then I close off any plotlines involving the technology of my entire setting being built upon slavery. So I'm going to be pondering them as I go on until I figure out the true nature of their intelligence.

[Xathan]

BTW, if anyone who has posted here wants me to review something of theirs, let me know what - I'll be happy to do so.

[Nomadic]

I'm going to echo EE in that I'd like to hear more about the "magic" users.

[Steerpike]

This looks really awesome.  Sort of a psychotic, warped version of standard fantasy, mutilated almost beyond the point of recognition but with enough resemblance to the Tolkienian norm that you can just glimpse the familiar tropes beneath the scar tissue.  Lovely.

EDIT: I want to play a Necrot and I don't even know what they are yet.

[Superfluous Crow]

Many things to like here: inscrutable gods, creepy halflings, things from beyond the realms of sanity, cannibalism, and primal dragons (finally those lizards get what they deserve; also, it makes them far more terrifying in my opinion.)  
Some of the names carry a few too many associations in my mind for me to accept them just yet, but there is time to turn that around! In fact, I think the only thing that really bothers me is that elves have tails. Not that I am an advocate of elven eugenics and racial purity. I just don't like tails. Are we talking prehensile monkey tails or small stubby tails or...?  
I have tried twist-the-trope before (still do it, sort of) and just a small warning: be careful with your changes. Speaking from what little experience I have in the matter a small change to a trope, or a handful of them, can work wonders, but if you go too far people will have difficulty reconciling the old and the new. There has to be some resemblance between the trope and the new thing for it to warrant keeping the name.  

EDIT: Gethren, how "alive" is it? Are we talking about sentient magic items, whispering voices in the back of your mind, primitive intellect a la the psicrystal, the captured voices of angels or something completely different? Should I be thinking in the veins of psionic crystaltech or is its implementation more subtle?  

[Seraph]

I'm not sure I like elves having tails either, but I for some reason envision their tails being lizardlike, and their bodies rather animalistic.  Maybe it's because the other non-human races seem to have vaguely reptilian features, but I imagine these elves crawling on all fours a lot.  Not that they'd necessarily HAVE TO, but that they would CHOOSE TO.

[Xathan]

I'm going to echo EE in that I'd like to hear more about the "magic" users.

Your wish is my command, lest the turtles are sent upon me. I do fear the turtles.

This looks really awesome.  Sort of a psychotic, warped version of standard fantasy, mutilated almost beyond the point of recognition but with enough resemblance to the Tolkienian norm that you can just glimpse the familiar tropes beneath the scar tissue.  Lovely.

EDIT: I want to play a Necrot and I don't even know what they are yet.

Thanks! That's pretty much exactly what I was going for '" just recognizable enough to make it more alien.

And I'll get into Necrot's on my post on magic users, which will come after I do one of the elven cultures, which will hopefully happen soon '" I've got a ton of hours at my normal job the next couple of days, then mothers day, so no promises as to when. Do want to ask, what exactly appeals to you in them?

Many things to like here: inscrutable gods, creepy halflings, things from beyond the realms of sanity, cannibalism, and primal dragons (finally those lizards get what they deserve; also, it makes them far more terrifying in my opinion.)  

Glad you like! :) Yeah, non-primal dragons is something I've gotten kind of sick of in fantasy '" I like them to be more feral, bestial, and overall dinosaur-esque than intelligent in really any fashion. Plus, this opens the door for domestication of a small, weak breed!

I'm not sure I like elves having tails either, but I for some reason envision their tails being lizardlike, and their bodies rather animalistic.  Maybe it's because the other non-human races seem to have vaguely reptilian features, but I imagine these elves crawling on all fours a lot.  Not that they'd necessarily HAVE TO, but that they would CHOOSE TO.

Oh, that mental image is too cool to pass up '" except that I'm saving that for my actual lizardmen. However, elves can move on all fours, but it's more of an ape-like movement than a reptilian crawling '" the closest they get to crawling is when hunting, dropping to all fours and slinking along in a more catlike motion.

[Steerpike]

[blockquote=Xathan Worldsmith]Do want to ask, what exactly appeals to you in them?[/blockquote]Given that everything else is fairly warped, I'm just looking forward to hearing more about necromancy...

[Seraph]

Just want to say, Necrots makes me think of Warhammer 40k Necrons.  So basically, Skeletons with guns, scarabs, and floating pyramids

[Kindling]

...the Sha'kyn Elves of the southern isles, for example, take that carnivorous diet to it's logical predatory mindset and wage war with each other on a nigh-perpetual basis, while the Lar'kyn live in a forest they saved from the Apocalypse with heavy usage of gethren to shield it...

Must you use apostrophes in your names? This may just be my personal preference, but just... Why? What would be so wrong about Shakyn and Larkyn as names? If you want to make a clear gap between the syllables why not just make them separate words, as Sha Kyn and Lar Kyn? Or hyphenate them, if the spaces really bother you that much, to get Sha-Kyn and Lar-Kyn. Sorry, I know they're your names... you're free to put apostrophes in them whenever and wherever you like.. I will take my apostrophe intolerance away now.

[Xathan]

[blockquote=Xathan Worldsmith]Do want to ask, what exactly appeals to you in them?[/blockquote]Given that everything else is fairly warped, I'm just looking forward to hearing more about necromancy...

Heh, the necromancy is as warped from the norm as everything else '" still recognizable, but I'm hoping you like the way I spin it.

Also, brief aside '" since there seems to be much more interest in the 'magic' users of the setting, I'm going to be doing them next instead of the Lor'kyn '" will save them for the post following magic.

Just want to say, Necrots makes me think of Warhammer 40k Necrons.  So basically, Skeletons with guns, scarabs, and floating pyramids

The Necrons were an inspiration for the Necrots among another things, though I'm going for more of a hybrid of the Gothic and Egyptian for the aesthetic of their architecture/devices and very different culturally/psychologically than the Necrons.  

...the Sha'kyn Elves of the southern isles, for example, take that carnivorous diet to it's logical predatory mindset and wage war with each other on a nigh-perpetual basis, while the Lar'kyn live in a forest they saved from the Apocalypse with heavy usage of gethren to shield it...

Must you use apostrophes in your names? This may just be my personal preference, but just... Why? What would be so wrong about Shakyn and Larkyn as names? If you want to make a clear gap between the syllables why not just make them separate words, as Sha Kyn and Lar Kyn? Or hyphenate them, if the spaces really bother you that much, to get Sha-Kyn and Lar-Kyn. Sorry, I know they're your names... you're free to put apostrophes in them whenever and wherever you like.. I will take my apostrophe intolerance away now.

Typically I agree with you on apostrophes in fantasy names, but in this case It's for what I feel is a valid linguistic reason '" Sha'kyn and Lor'kyn are both contractions for Shalicoris Cusikyn and Lorsaethiv Cursikyn respectively (Kyn is a single letter/sound in the elvish language). In this case, the apostrophe is there to represent a lack of a pause, much like the apostrophe in 'don't' or 'can't' or 'we'll'. They contract their names for ease of speech but use the full name for the region their from '" a Sha'kyn would say 'I am a Sha'kyn from Shalicoris Cusikyn', but most other races use the contraction to refer to both culture and region.

You'll see a decent number of contractions in the elvish language because it's long and complex, and they've adapted their language to fit interactions with other races '" most humans grow impatient when conversing with elves that do not use the contractions because it makes saying even simple statements take significantly longer. This carried over into the elvish language they speak amongst themselves now, though the nobility and social elite use the full language. Lor'kyn use the most contractions in their dialect because they interact with non-elvish cultures the most while Sha'kyn interact the least and therefore their dialect has the least contractions. The third elvish culture (which I haven't named yet) interacts with other cultures on a regular basis but tends to do so on their own terms, so their dialect's use of contractions falls between the Lor'kyn and Sha'kyn.