Tasothilos, the Second World (New, Updated, D20-less version)

[Kalos Mer]

Halflings

Mysterious men who wander the great desert of the east, always keeping one eye fixed on the stars.
Name: Pheundos, Banaz
Physical Desciption:Halflings are the shortest of all the major races, standing on average around 3â,¬,,¢ tall (varying not more than ~3 inches in either direction).  Though of roughly the same proportions (in miniature size) as humans, they tend towards fairly slight of build, weighing merely 30 pounds or so.  On average, men are about two inches taller and five pounds heavier than women are, though tall (3â,¬,,¢2â,¬Â or more) women are considered to be exceptionally lovely in halfling eyes.  Halflings have faces very similar in shape to humans â,¬' though their ears come to very slight points, they are not on the whole larger (proportionally) than human ears are.  One point of departure from human proportion is the halfling neck, which is famously just a little bit longer than it â,¬Ëshouldâ,¬,,¢ be to human aesthetics.  Similarly, their fingers and toes are just a little bit longer than one would expect.  Halfling men can grow beards, but they tend to be patchy and few but the unkempt choose to do so.
Halfling skin tones tend to be quite pale by human standards, and they also have a very faint tinge of blue to them.  Their hair tends to be thick and somewhat curly, and may be black, dark brown, or a reddish color.  Their eyes tend to be rather light â,¬' faint greens and blues are common, but pinkish hues are found with some frequency also.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 20/100/150/35
Demeanor: Halflings live in the moment, and are characterized by their spontaneity.  This is not to say that a halfling will not make plans for the future or take the events of the past into consideration when he acts â,¬' it is rather that the feel of the moment has a much greater influence on a halflingâ,¬,,¢s actions than it would on, for instance, a humanâ,¬,,¢s.  Nor is the word â,¬Ëspontaneousâ,¬,,¢ meant to imply that a halflingâ,¬,,¢s reactions are completely random and incongruous.  These are demihumans, not slaad.  However, halflings value creativity and have a knack for the unexpected in a way that other races do not.  For related reasons, halflings do not share in the same obsession with history and genealogy that the other sentient races do.  In most cases they are not truly ignorant of such matters â,¬' they simply do not put much stock in them.  For reasons discussed below, most halflings do not know the identity of their biological parents
Lands: Halflings do not have nations or cities, as other races do.  Such sedentary communities are unsuited to their roving nature and the intolerably hot clime of their home.  The halflings wander about the desert in great communal bands called â,¬Ëtribesâ,¬,,¢.  On average, a â,¬Ëtribeâ,¬,,¢ consists of about 40 to about 100 halflings, though a few â,¬ËGreat Tribesâ,¬,,¢ of upwards of 500 halflings are known to exist.  The activity of most of these tribes centers around the raising of various forms of cattle and goats (several types of diminutive cow, accustomed to desert life, are native to Aganamil).  The tribes follow a seasonal rotation within their lands: during most of the year, they wander through the desert, looking for cactus and other forms of desert vegetation with which to feed their flocks.  When the hot summer looms near, however, they seek out one of several known oases, by which they may set up temporary camps for a few months.  (between 5 and 15 tribes may set up summer camp at a single oasis, and these summer gatherings are known for trade and vigorous night-time celebrations.  Most tribes, in fact, wander almost exactly the same path year after year â,¬' only occasionally do the tribes deviate from their ancestral course.
Halfling tribes follow curious social conventions: children are raised communally by the tribe, and every effort is made to specifically prevent a halfling from knowing who his biological parents.  (Instead, all of a tribeâ,¬,,¢s children view the chieftain and his wife as their father and mother.)  Because the chieftain is the â,¬Ëfatherâ,¬,,¢ of all of the men in his tribe, they are all equal and he may select any of them to be his replacement â,¬' this sense of egalitarianism prevents any real sense of â,¬Ëclassâ,¬,,¢ from developing among the halflings, and they have a hard time understanding the concept of â,¬Ësocial classâ,¬,,¢ in other peoples, as well.
The vast majority of halflings live in these desert societies as mentioned.  However, in the past two hundred years or so, owing to increased contact with humans, a few small tribes here and there have been lured into the cooler climes of the East.  These halflings are looked down upon by their desert kin, and they are known as the Domesticated Ones.  Though they have left the desert, they are unable to curb their native wanderlust, and only rarely settle.  Instead, the tribes still move from place to place, and function largely as peddlers, bringing goods from village to village and trading along the way.  They earn food by doing odd jobs whereever they go, by trading for it, and (frequently enough to have questionable reputations) by stealing it.  The Domesticated Ones have a somewhat ambivalent reputation in human lands â,¬' men distrust them because of their (exagerrated) reputation for dishonesty and casual theft, but they also have a fascination with their curious traditions, exotic cuisine, and foreign trade goods.  (It is these people who come to mind for most humans when â,¬Ëhalflingsâ,¬,,¢ are discussed, even though they actually represent a small minority of the halfling population.)
History:The halfling penchant for the â,¬Ënowâ,¬,,¢ tends to lead them to disdain accounts of their own history.  While halflings have a good oral tradition that traces the deeds of their tribe back several generations, they make a distinction between â,¬Ënearâ,¬,,¢ (that is, important) history and â,¬Ëfarâ,¬,,¢ (that is, irrelevant) history, and maintain no record of the latter.  Thus, only a few general trends can be said of the halflings for certain.  
According to their own vague memories and to elvish records as well, halflings were already living in the Aganamil Desert when elves from the forest of Arjepakai expanded their empire eastward.  Though they had little desire to be masters over waves of dunes and miles of sand, they very much valued the few stable routes leading through the desert to the north, east, and south.  They thus conquered narrow tendrils leading through the desert, and enslaved the halfling populations.  The halflings were made to build and maintain roads, raise livestock for their masters, and also to work in salt mines, very commonly found along the western edge of Aganamil.
When Arjepakai fell, the halflings were freed from their elvish masters, and banded together to take up their own ways of life.  They let the old roads and towers of the elves in the desert fall to waste, and resumed a life of wandering, herding their cattle to feast on various cacti and finding the rare oases at which to drink.  Since being emancipated from the elves, halflings have only had occasional contact with other races.  Ekeusians, Andozians and others of more recent generations have used them as guides to Sakrtskaya, as the desert route to that exotic country is still the safest one.  Dwarves of the lower Bakhilun range occasionally trade with them, offering tools, weapons and metalwork in exchange for salt, spice, and desert jewels.  Orcs occasionally kidnap groups of halflings and press them into slavery.  But for the most part, the halfling tribes remain caught up in their own affairs, having little influence or impact on the politics and wars of the â,¬Ëeastern peopleâ,¬,,¢.
Magic:Despite a lack of writing, over the generations the astrologer class has managed to develop and preserve a ritual tradition purely by word of mouth.  The lack of writing or scholarly traditions, however, has prevented from them developing a logomantic spellcasting system.  They make up for this by having an innate gift for Willing â,¬' even untrained, a halfling can sometimes influence reality with his mental wishes, and a trained halflingâ,¬,,¢s use of the Will can be quite potent.  Some halflings also have a smaller, more innate arcane gift â,¬' they have developed the ability to create globes of light magically, merely by concentrating.  Roughly as bright as a torch, these globes have no offensive capabilities but beautiful to behold, and halfling chiefs value these â,¬Ëstarmenâ,¬,,¢ quite highly.
Languages:There are as many languages among the halflings as there are clans.  Fortunately, the variances between nearby tribes tend to be slight variations in pronunciation, easy enough for a foreigner to pick up.  In game terms, the halfling language can thus be divided into three â,¬Ësublanguagesâ,¬,,¢ â,¬' Near Halfling, Central Halfling, and Far Halfling  (These are OOC terms and never used by halflings to describe their own tongue).  Near Halfling is the language both of those tribes who live near the Gap of Amin, and of the Domesticated Ones.  Central Halfling is the language of the tribes who inhabit the middle regions of Aganamil â,¬' the tribes who serve as guides for merchants and others travelling to Sakrtskaya frequently speak some variation of Central Halfling.  Far Halfling is spoken by the most foreign of halfling peoples, who live in the far western and northern reaches of Aganamil.  
All of these languages share some characteristics â,¬' rather than being inflected like most other racesâ,¬,,¢ speech, they are largely isolating languages (that is, individual words rather than changes in words indicate things like tense and grammatical function). Word order is strict in halfling languages, (as it is in English), whereas most Salabrian languages are fairly loose in their word-order.  Halfling tongues also tend to be extremely rhythmic: while many languages distinguish between long and short vowels, central and near halfling instead have *three* different vowel lengths (short, medium and long) and Far Halfling has four.  This feature is one of the most frustrating for non-native speakers to learn.
Halfling languages have no native written form.  Attempts have been made by scholars to use both the Ekeusian and the Andozian alphabets to record halfling speech, but neither one is adequate without a number of diacritical marks and other auxiliary signs.
Major Religions: Halflings practice a curious religion that combines faint elements of animism with a strong astrological component.  Halfling faith is devoid of anthropomorphized deities, and indeed â,¬Ëgodsâ,¬,,¢ in general make only weak appearances in their traditions.  Drawing parallels between halfling bands who wander across the desert in seasons and stars that likewise traverse the sky, halflings believe that they can see the Will of the World in the night sky.  Every tribe has at least one astrologer, capable of glancing into the heavens and recommending courses of action based on the movements of stars and the appearances of comets and other phenomena.  Because this is mere interpretation, this â,¬Ëpriestly classâ,¬,,¢ does not rule halfling society per se â,¬' but they have a position of strong influence with the chiefs.  
It should be noted that this religion has no sacred books, and no moral codes of any kind.  (While codes of acceptable behavior and honor do exist in halfling culture, appeal is made not to edicts of the gods but to â,¬Ëthe good of the clanâ,¬,,¢. ) Halflings do not make sacrifices to the stars, but they do recognize the existence of terrestrial spirits in rivers, the winds, and the rocks (even particularly noteworthy dunes are said to have their patron spirit), and these beings are occasionally offered sacrifice, whether through incense or through cattle.
Adventurers:  Because they are natural wanderers, halflings actually take to adventuring rather well.  Many halfling adventurers are drawn from the ranks of the Domesticated Ones â,¬' these are the halflings, after all, best able to associate with members of other races.  However, on occasion a halfling from the Near Tribes might leave, whether because of a disagreement with tribe leadership or because of the need to right some personal wrong.
[spoiler=Statistics]

+2 Dex, -2 Str *Small Size *Speed 20 feet *+1 bonus to all saving throws: Halflings are particularly lucky.  *Halflings are naturally adept at Willing magic, and receive +2 to all Willing checks. *Incredibly adaptable, Halflings gain a +2 bonus to all Survival checks. *Accustomed to Heat: halflings have over the centuries developed a remarkable ability to resist the ravages of even the worst parts of their desert environment.  As such, even other heat souces do not cause them as much harm as they would others.  Halflings have Fire Resistance 10.

[/spoiler]

[Kalos Mer]

Orcs

Strict, proud matrons running a true intercontinental empire with ruthless efficiency that occasionally degenerates into wanton cruelty.
Name: Orex, Uqiik
Physical Desciption:Orcs are large and powerful in their appearance, standing on average between 6â,¬,,¢3â,¬Â and 7â,¬,,¢6â,¬Â tall.  Females are noticeably larger than males, standing perhaps four or five inches taller on average.  Both sexes weigh in between 210 and 320 pounds.  Orcs are almost never fat â,¬' this weight comes from their tremendous amounts of muscle.  Even beneath their thick layers of insulating skin, muscles ripple across the frame of orcs of both sexes, although the peculiar thing about orc biology is that females are the larger and more powerful sex.  The orcish face is not graceful and lovely like that of elves or men, but it has a certain dignity.  Orcs are noted for a very pronounced, bony ridge along their brow, causing their eyes to look somewhat sunken.  Their jawlines are equally bony and distinctive, jutting downward and slightly outward, and they have very firm cheeks and other features.  Orcs are noted for having very short, thick necks â,¬'their heads appear to rest nearly directly on their chests.  Men and women tend to wear their hear long, though men shave the tops of their heads bald and only let hair grow from the sides and the back of their heads.    Orcs tend to have skin that is a greyish brown hue, though some northern orcs have a more purely brown color.  Their eyes are fairly universally brown and black, and their hair, which is generally quite coarse and curly, is either black, brown, or a deep grey color.  Neither sex is capable of growing hair on their faces, but orcs of both genders are noted for having very hairy arms, legs and feet.  The thickness of chest and back hair is somewhat more variable, particularly among orcs who have been living in the north for several generations.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 15/60/80/30
Demeanor: If there is a trait common to all orcs, it is loyalty.  Orcs are frequently almost as cruel as their reputations say that they are, but they hold their promises inviolable.  In fact, if an orc is found to have broken her good word to another orc, she is subjected to a severe punishment: her name and her inheritance is denied her, she is cast out as an exile, and both of her hands are maimed.  Breaking an oath with a non-orc does not carry any formal penalty, but it is still seen as a shameful act.
Orcish disdain for members of other races is famous but somewhat overstated.  They get along fairly well with humans â,¬' the common name for humans in Orcish is Uqiikika â,¬' â,¬Ëlittle orcsâ,¬,,¢, a complementary phrase.  They have difficulty fathoming the curious set-up of human sexual politics (see below), but they admire their drive and militance.  It is the other races that orcs despise: elves, dwarves, and (especially) the little people.  Though the ommon rumor that orcs eat gnomes is (almost) certainly false, they feel great and vocal contempt for these â,¬Ëweakâ,¬,,¢ races.
The use of the feminine pronoun above merits comment â,¬' unlike all the other races of the western world, the orcish society is matriarchal and matrilineal (it is not, however, so intensely misandrist as Faerunian Drow). Women own land, control the households, conduct public business, and wage war.  Men tend to remain at home, working the land and tending the home (if they are poor) or overseeing the household slaves.  (As with humans, gender divisions are wider in the higher classes and break down among peasants).  Unlike human women, orc men do have a place in war, however â,¬' it is generally the case that an orcish army will have two â,¬Ëwavesâ,¬,,¢ â,¬' the lightly-armed men will skirmish first to wear down the enemy resistance, and then the hard-hitting battalions of females will close for serious melee while the men retreat.
Lands: The orcs are not natives of the Salabrian region.  Their empires and kingdoms lie far away, beyond even the distant country of Sakrtskaya, in the extreme south of the continent.   It is a cold land â,¬' the northernmost reaches, seat of imperial power, are in the southern reaches of the temperate zone, and the greater extent of orcish territory is in the harsh tundra.  Though the orcs of the Imperial center tend to live fairly urban lives, most orcs tend to live in small, isolated communities of hunters, fishers and gatherers, and it is from these hardy folk that the orcs gather most of their armies.  Formally, all orcish lands are united under the banner of the Baghuuk Empire.  In practice, some of the southern reaches are all but autonomous, with the central government not even bothering to collect taxes from these poor villages.
Very early in their history, the intrepid orcs sailed across the northeast sea and found the great island of Niibaq.  Ã¢,¬ËCleansingâ,¬,,¢ it of its native population of kobolds, the orcs added the isle to their possession, where it has remained ever since.  This island has been the launching point for the many orcish raids and invasions into the Salabrian Sea in the past two thousand years.
Within the Sea itself, the orcs hold Angusalak, which was formerly the elven kingdom of Ostarok.  They rule this land with grim efficiency as the northernmost colony of Baghuuk, and it is the center of the slave trade in Salabria.  In addition to Angusalak, however, there are a considerable number of small villages of orcs spread throughout the Sea â,¬' the remnants of old invading armies driven back by the humans, dwarves, and elves.  These villages are very individualistic, and none of them maintains any contact with the Empire any more.  They tend to shun outsiders, knowing well that most humans have a fear of orcs.  (This villages are most common in Philstaros, but exist in remnants in Sanceline and Andozia as well.
History:  Orc history is rich and complex, and will be covered in detail later.  In summary, however, it is sufficient to divide the history into four great imperial periods, with long gaps of civil war and fragmentation between the first and second and between the second and third empires.  
According to their own accounts, the first orc women, under the great orcish matron Ughar, arrived in Uliiq (their own name for their southern lands as a whole) born on the back of a great shark many thousands of years ago.  In Uliiq, they found orc-men, who at that time were wild and uncivilized creatures.  Ughar and her daughters set about teaching the men how to build homes and plant crops, and then they intermarried and settled with these orcs.  It is out of gratefulness for their cultural superiority, then, that the women have ever after ruled in orc lands.   Within a generation of Ughar, orcs had spread to every corner of Uliiq.  They were torn by faction, however, and not governed as one people as Ughar had always intended.  It was not until Taapuk, the eldest daughter of Ugharâ,¬,,¢s eldest daughter, raised armies and made her brethren submit that the near-legendary First Empire of the Orcs was formed.  This First Empire is so ancient (dating back to the third millennium MP) as to consist now largely of myth â,¬' the orcs remember it as the pinnacle of good orcish virtues.  
After more than fifteen hundred years of rule, the First Empire was destroyed in the mid-second millenium by a flight of dragons across the southern lands â,¬' the frightful Gancaldron the Mad is thought to have been one of these.  Orcs fell into chaos and faction again, and for a thousand years no matron held Ugharâ,¬,,¢s Seat in Baghuuk.  Then, the Second Orc Empire arose, more from diplomatic negotiations between states than through military conquest.  Though not so legendarily virtuous as the First Empire, the Second is known for itâ,¬,,¢s great military glories.  Under the Second Empire, orcs conquered every square inch of Uliiq,  added the isle of Niibaq and added much of southern Sakrtskaya to their possession.  They even established a number of colonies in Salabria.  This empire fell in turn, this time to internal strife rather than outside attack.  The Third Empire which arose a few centuries later is remembered by modern orcs as being wicked in conduct and irreverent towards the gods.  This empire held sway until about five hundred years ago, when a religious revolution toppled the system and created the new, conservative Fouth Empire, which has ruled down to the present day.
Magic:  Orcs have a tradition of ritual and logomancy that is a little stunted compared to the very powerful human traditions.  In the past  century, increased trade with human cultures has enriched their magicians with foreign spells, but they still lack some of the inventiveness which human practioners possess.  The one type of orc magic which is very sophisticated is in the area of abjurations and wards â,¬' since orc spellcasters of old tended to be warriors as well, they dedicated a great deal of their energies to the creation of spells which protect the caster from harm.
Languages:  The languages of the orcs are deep and gravelly, favoring guttural consonants and back vowels.  While it feels slightly intimidating and perhaps a little grating to the ears of more â,¬Ërefinedâ,¬,,¢ peoples, when spoken by an orc it has an undeniable sense of nobility to it.  The orcish language is not completely unified â,¬' Imperial Orcish is the language learned by all of the elite matrons (and about half of the male elites), and is the official langauge of governance and prayer.  However, over the vast territories of the empire a number of regional dialects have developed, and some of these dialects at the fringes of the Empire (as, for instance, in Angusalak) are distinct enough to be considered entirely separate languages.
Orc languages operate on a general principle of small, mono- or di-syllabic roots modified by a number of short affixes to produce sense.  This allows a single orcish â,¬Ëwordâ,¬,,¢ to convey a very precise meaning, one that can only be fully replicated by an awkward circumlocution in English (or, for that matter, Ekeusian).
Two curiousities bear mention here:  the first was only recently discovered, as the relationship between humans and orcs transformed from one of overt hostility to one of business.  The system that the orcs use for writing down their language is extremely close in shape and use to the script used by the ancestors of the Andozians in first millennium MP.  Though there are a few different symbols in the Orcish version not present in the Andozian (and vice-versa), and the script as a whole tends to be angular in the Orcish and curvy in the Andozian, the relationship is undeniable, and too great to be mere chance.  The explanation, however, has not yet been found.
Secondly, although the Orcish language sounds quite noble when they speak it amongst themselves, humans, lacking as they do the full weight and resonance of the orcâ,¬,,¢s voice, sound rather childish when they speak Orcish languages.  For this reason, a popular fad among the nobles of South Salabria in the last century or so has been the bestowing of Orcish nicknames on their children, slaves, servants, and pets.  These names are often deliberately mispronounced to make them more â,¬Ëendearingâ,¬,,¢.  The elvish slaves, in particular, loath this practice, although they are without the means to stop it.
Major Religions: Orcs have a fairly simple familial pantheon of animalistic deities, consisting (in crude terminology) of the Great Whale Mother Sea (Gul), the Bear Earth Father (Qitakas), and their two children, the Eagle Sky Daughter (Lua) and the Infernal Walrus Son, Kuldaaq.    These principle deities are supplemented with a number of lesser spirits representing idealized versions of various animals.  Theirs is a very pious culture, and these gods, however primitive their origins, have developed a complicated theology over time.  The orcish religions rely heavily on (non-magical) rituals â,¬' every pious orc must do certain things when she wakes up in the morning, before she eats, before she washes, and so on.  Ritual cleanliness is incredibly important to the orc, as well â,¬' certain foods, actions, and words are strictly forbidden or require atonement and purification after use.
A rite that should be mentioned because of itâ,¬,,¢s political significance is the Ankas, or honey-rite.  Once per nine days (the orcs have a week of nine days), in ritual remembrance of the offering of thanks that Lua first gave to her parents, the pious orc prays over, and then consumes, honey.  Wealthy orcs use pure honey, while poorer ones tend to use diluted mead instead.   Their need for a stable souce of honey and Angusalakâ,¬,,¢s immense wealth in this resouce were one of the primary motivations behind the invasion of that land and enslavement of its people.  Orcs denied this rite are likely to become highly demoralized â,¬' at least one attempted invasion of Salabria in the distant past ended because an army that ran out of honey mutinied.
Adventurers: Orcish adventurers in the Salabrian region are rare.  For the most part, the very orderly orcish colonial society of Angusalak does not smile upon those who shirk their duties to their matriarchs and instead embark on some romanticâ,¬,,¢s crusade.  One form of adventury, however, is condoned and encouraged: bands of orcish mercenaries, formally recognized by Angusalak and paying considerable tithes to that government, frequently find employ in the armies of humans, who recognize the boon which orcsâ,¬,,¢ great strength and intimidating stature bring to their endeavors.  Occasionally, individual members of one of these mercenary bands â,¬Ëgoes rogueâ,¬,,¢ and joins a smaller, more informal adventuring party.
[spoiler=Statistics]

+2 Strength, -2 Wis:  Orcs are massively powerful in their physique, but their will is usually not that strong. *Medium Size *Speed 30 *Thick Skin â,¬' living as they do in a very cold climate, orcs have developed a thick layer of skin to insulate them.  This thick skin provides them 10 points of cold resistance..  It also gives them a 3 point damage reduction versus bludgeoning weapons. (This damage reduction does not stack with bonuses from armor or any other source.) *Orcs are notoriously bold, and gain a +2 bonus on all saving throws versus fear effects *Orc culture values the art of wrestling, and by virtue of both their size and this training orcs receive a +2 racial bonus on grapple checks.

[/spoiler]

[Túrin]

So it turns out that there's a post limit on replies to threads.  For that reason, all 14,000 words of my work on Races cannot be accomodated in a single post.

:D Gosh, y'think? :P

Wow, 14,000 words. This is huge. It's gonna take me some time to work my way through this. Expect race-by-race commentary to come in during the coming week.

The ability of humans to mate with just about any sentient mammalian humanoid is a particular property of their race.  Matings that do not involve one human partner (a gnome and a halfling, for instance) are not capable of producing offspring.
[/ic]

this[/url] page.

I have a feeling we'll get to converse a lot this week.

;) Túrin

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I agree with Turin on the cross-breeding thing.

Originally I allowed no interbreeding between species, but then I decided fae were supernatural, and thus could reproduce with mortals.  Different mortal species cannot reproduce together.

But it does depend on how much realism you want.  If you want the more classical feel, then it doesn't matter so much.

[Kalos Mer]

I understand where both of you are coming from, but my intent was to make this a 'special power' of humans, if you will.  Namely, the reason that they are the dominant race is because they are particularly fertile.  The main effect of this ability is that when mating amongst each other, they have more children, more often, than other races do (while most races, especially halflings and elves, are producing barely enough young to keep their populations constant, humans are increasing in population exponentially).  

A significant *side-effect* of this, then, is the human 'flexibility', if you will, in fertile pairings.

[LordVreeg]

I know that out-of-date thing.  I am trying to re-do my Igbar maps on AUR before they disintegrate.
And I will reveal somehting to you, since you have something similar with your deities---Almost every setting I have ever run is still extant somewhere on my current Celtrician world, though transformed and normally after whatever destroyed it.  I like where you talk about the creative process you went through as well, and th4e actual foibles and flaw you ran through to get where you are now.

I like some of the cultural notes on  the religions, i.e. the numerology, and the distance from the gods.  Mine are distant after a pact that ended the Age of Legends, called the Accords of Presence, but the effect is the same, to remove them from the playing field.
I like the unusual characteristics of Antios.
I like the deities, but am interested in the format of the churches and the popluarity of worship.

I absolutley love the differentiation of magic use and sources.  I am a crank for needing to have the same type of versimilatude in my peculiar setting, and I love the background work to the magic system.

As to the level of power issue, my systems keep power levels low.  I think the longest running current PC has about 50k EXP (I use a skillbased system, so I cannot translate into levels directly).  SO I prefer to keep my players threatened by everyday events.



I will read more later,

[Kalos Mer]

Hm... I suppose I better start revamping this thread to make it more up-to-date...

Anyway, Vreeg, some responses to your comments:
re: churches:  I will be getting to this eventually.  The problem is that of all the churches, only Anarina has a truly unified, international priesthood. (And even she has splinter cults like the Fated who are shunned by the 'legitimate' faithful.)  As far as popularity of worship: my nations written up in the Wizards archive thread include things about the most popular religions on a national basis which should give you some idea.  Those nations are in serious need of updating, of course...

I'm glad you like the magic system, it's one of my favorite parts of New Tasothilos.  It's changed a little in the transportation from d20 to non-d20 (previously, spellcasting was the 'main' way of using magic - now, Willing and Spellcasting both predominate) but the flavor remains the same.

As far as power level:  Well, the system I am designing ensures that 'routine' combat can be dangerous even to those of high levels.  However, while I don't like GMing for a bunch of nascent demigods, I like to have my PCs able to be competent 'experts' in their chosen lines of work.  Obviously, 'level' metaphors are going to breakdown in my classless, levelless system, but the level of play I see being most suited for Tasothilos gaming is about levels 6-9: the PCs are better overall than most folks, but not by an overwhelming amount, and there are still plenty of bigger fish out there.

Here's a question for folks while I'm revamping this thread and grinding my way through the Wanderknights for the other thread - I'm trying to differentiate the physical appearances of the Tasothilos versions of the races a bit from their standard D&D looks.  Any thoughts?

[LordVreeg]

About the churches...I mention it becaue so much work went int these deities, I just had to beliveve they were central.  We don't need universal, unified churches.  I'm curious what the religigious outlook is in a normal town, and a normal city.  And just as curious what part relgion plays in a person;s life, and what worship plays.

Glad to talk system with you as well.  I dumped classes and d20 and started creating my versions when my mess started, so it's pretty extensively playtested.  As it is near and dear to me, how are you going to keep things dangerous yet have progress? (mine's a classless, skillbased system)

I'm really glad your orcs are 'people'.  I have Orcash and Gartier (bugbears) as civilized races that are playable.  I made bugbears smarter than people, just VERY sarcastic and hard to get along with.

I use a lot of sub-race to give a lot of differentiation with my races.  Red Hobyts are actually Hobyts with a strong amount of Klaxik (dwarven) blood,  Hybern Klaxik have Hobyt and Gnome Blood.  the 6 different Omwo~ (elvish) people have very different eye, hair, and even physical makeup.
Dwarves will screw anyone in Celtricia.  The joke is among Omwo~ that one of the main Klaxik greetings can actually be translated as, "I'm wet and lonely".

[Kalos Mer]

Re: Orcs:  This is one of the things I'm proudest of where basic setting conceits are concerned.  I wanted orcs to remain a strong 'antagonist' presence in most Tasothilos campaigns, but I wanted them to have a good deal more culture and even some potential sympathy than their typical D&D incarnation as 'monsters'.  That and my recasting of dragons as utterly unique creatures (no color-coding here!) are probably my two favorite alterations to the standard D&D 'bestiary'.

Re: sub-races: I'm more looking for overt physical feature changes than variations in coloration.  Not sure exactly how to proceed.

Re: system: Mine too is classless, level-less, and skill-based.  My system has not been playtested - hell, it's not even completely designed yet.    The basic way it works is this:  characters earn two different kinds of 'improvement points' each session.
The first are experience points, which are spent immediately to improve skills.  (However, players can only improve skills that the player used in the last session, to cut down on the 'I learned to swim better by killing dragons' logical jump that sometimes pops up in D&D.  Skills are purchased on a pyramid scale, much the way they are in Ars Magica.

The second are called Character points.  These are stockpiled and can be spent to buy other kinds of advantages - improvement in primary and secondary ability scores, the Tasothilos equivalent of 'feats', and other goodies like Techniques (specialized ways of using skills - the most numerous types of Techniques are various fighting styles).  Characters are encouraged, however, to keep a few character points in reserve, because they can also spend them 'on the fly' to negate a bout of bad luck when it really counts, or to alter the course of the storyline, within certain parameters.

(Experience points are awarded based on how difficult the challenges the characters face are, and how successfully the characters overcome them. Character points are awarded for good roleplaying and dramatic storytelling.)

Instead of combatants whittling away at their opponents' pool of 'hitpoints' (a pool that gets ever larger as the levels go up) through constant sword blows, combat in Tasothilos consists a lot more of contesting for advantage, high ground, and the like, gradually tiring the opponent and  wearing down his defenses, then killing him with 2-3 (sometimes one, RARELY 4 or more) well placed blows that actually *hit*.  

Characters have two 'secondary attributes' that come into play here: Fatigue points that indicate how long they can keep up strenuous activity without getting tired (combat is the most common situation where they come into play, but not the only one), and 'scratch points', which determine how much actual physical damage a character can take before the combination of shock and pain starts to negatively impact their actions.  Unlike hit points, which can reach triple digits not TOO far into a professional D&D warrior's career, 'scratch points' are usually around 3-5, and even getting a score into the double digits is EXTREMELY rare.  (Fatigue Points are based on a combination of the character's Will and Constitution scores, while Scratch points are based on the character's Constitution score.  Both can be improved by spending Character Points.)  

Characters will survive in Tasothilos far more by their ability to defend themselves and avoid getting hurt than by their ability to actually take phsyical damage.   (This system makes things that are harder to 'defend against', like falling damage, poison, sneak attacks etc FAR more dangerous.)

[sparkletwist]

There is a lot here, so I've not had a chance to read nearly all of what you have to offer, but what I've seen looks pretty interesting so far.

I like your model of "different approaches" to magic, where it's not so much a fundamental change in the power being employed, but rather how the caster chooses to invoke the power. I've experimented with this in my own settings, too.

I also liked how humans had unique abilities and their own unique perspective on the world. Too often (most likely because humans are the most familar), they are sort of the "normal" race, and every other race's characteristics and abilities are described as how they are different from humans, so it's neat that you didn't do that. I think it can be helpful to players trying to create characters of any race, really, to not only be able to read about how their race is unique in that race's description, but to able to look at humans as yet another race with its own unique abilities, rather than a "default."

[Kalos Mer]

I've just completed what is a nearly-final version of the map for Tasothilos 3.0.  This version does not include detailed landforms (mountains, rivers, deserts, etc) just the general shape of land/water.  I'm uploading it here in two versions, one world-wide and the other focused on Salabria.  See what you think.

The coastline is subject to slight revision, and I will be working on the particularities of landforms/etc overtime as well.

[sparkletwist]

The maps look nice, but there are a couple of factors that are making them not as nice as they could be. First and foremost, I don't think JPG is the best format to use for maps like this. The JPG encoding process destroys the detail, and makes things like finely detailed text hard to read. You should probably use PNG or GIF. Secondly, the black writing is kind of hard to read on the blue ocean background.

One other (small) bit of criticism is that the black detail on the ocean looks good, because it makes it lighter and darker shades of blue, but on the land, it looks a bit strange-- maybe it'd be more natural to use various shades of brown?

Looking at them, I got kind of a feeling of North and South America (though South America is kind of bent in on itself) and one part of West Africa... but that could just be me looking too hard.

[Kalos Mer]

I assure you, any relations to North/South America or any other real geographic locations is purely coincidental.  

(Though actually, in Tasothilos 1.0 several islands' shapes were based on real continents / islands.)

As far as your critiques:

I welcome any advice on compressed image file formats, as I know next to nothing about these matters.  I've got the original version (with multiple layers for easier editing) saved in a massive-resolution Paint Shop Pro 8 file (unfortunately, since I no longer live in a dorm, I no longer have free access to Photoshop, though I may download GIMP at some point, I've heard good things.)

I'll definitely take your suggestions about legibility of the writing into consideration in future versions.  Also, you're completely right about the strange effect on the land - I'll separate out the water and only apply the effect there in future versions.

[Kalos Mer]

New version of the map, implementing a few of your suggestions.  Later today or tomorrow (depending entirely on how much longer I can stay awake) I will finally update the Organizations thread with not one, but two, major societies of Tasothilos - the College of Arcanists and the Order of Wanderknights.

Still not entirely satisfied with the land effect, but at least now changes in hue have something to do with terrain changes.  It should at least be more legible.

[Tangential]

I. Am. So. Stoked.

I'll wait for the Organizations to put up an meanigful critique , so for now I'll just ask about the scale on the new maps. And I have to say, that while I'm somewhat excited about the new game rules, especially the 'contestation' system (I always like to see new, functioning mechanic sets), it is the 'fluff' of Tasothilos that draws me to it.

One final note for now: You said in the Orc write up that the north of Sakrtskaya is cold and the south more temperate. This seems to be contradicted by the new map itself.