The Bronze Setting

[Llum]

Races

Humans

Humans are the most common race in the world, mostly due to their greatly varied diet compared to the other races. Most humans vary in height from 5' to 5'5" for men, 4'7" to 5'1" for women. Some cultures have higher average heights due to greater agriculture and the children of demi-gods are similar in size to modern humans. Skin color starts out a deep reddish tan in western side of the continent and slowly darkens to coal black as you go from west to east. Hair is usually black or sometimes a shade of brown. Sometimes reddish hair will appear in areas where humans and neanderthals have lived close to one another for a long time (a result of inter-breeding).

The main advantage humans have over the other races is their diet. Humans are omnivores who can eat nearly anything allowing them to spread far and wide with little worry about finding a sustainable diet. This has allowed humans to spread from the southern coast up alongside the mountain range that divides the continent from west-east and out along the north-western coast. An age ago humans passed through the mountains and now are the main inhabitants of the marshes and wetlands to the east of the mountains.

Aquatic Humans

This sub-race of humans has slowly been adapting to a more aquatic lifestyle. They all live along the southern coast.

Neanderthals

Neanderthals are very similar to humans though larger and stronger. They have roughly the same average height as humans varying in height from 5' to 5'5" for men, 4'8" to 5' for women.Skin color is predominantly pale but sometimes deepens to a olive-tan, hair is universally a shade of red or reddish-brown. Neanderthals are much wider then humans, they have conical ribs with bigger lungs as well as thicker bones and a more powerful musculature. This makes neanderthals significantly stronger then humans in terms of raw strength and physical endurance. This build has left the neanderthals with some drawbacks mainly being they require double the caloric intake of a similar sized human. This is even more troublesome due to their diet which is strictly carnivorous.

Neanderthals can be found throughout the mountain range that divides the continent in half. In the northern side they live mostly in the large plateau and around the salt flats found in said plateau. A large neanderthal population can be found in both Easthold and Westhold. In the south-eastern and northern coasts there are a large number of neanderthal villages who live mainly off of whaling and fishing of the various massive sea animals that can be found in the oceans.

Neanderthals can interbreed with humans and sea neanderthals.

Aquatic Neanderthals

A sub-race of neanderthals that live along the coasts.

Coparl

The coparl are a race that has limbs all of equal length. This allows them to walk upright on two legs or on all four limbs. Standing on two legs the coparl are the tallest race averaging from 5'7" to 6'2" in height for both men and women. Their hair ranges in color from dark gray to gray-brown while eye color is always green, blue or gray. The coparl are herbivores who eat the same vegetation as the animals they herd as well as dairy gleaned from these animals.

The coparl live only in the western side of the mountains in the great plains, savannahs and foothills that cover the land. They are pastoral or nomadic as a people, depending on which animal their clan sees fit to raise. Most coparl do not like water deeper then they can wade through so they are seldomly seen along the coasts or in the marshlands on the east side of the mountains. The reason for this is because of the low amount of body fat on the coparl (almost none), the coparl do not float like humans and neanderthals; essentially they sink. While the coparl are closer in number to the neanderthals then humans they occupy the largest area of land, larger then that occupied by humans and neanderthals combined.

[Kaptn'Lath]

Do the Copari have a "prefered" set of limbs(right handed)?

Are all four limbs hands or are there limbs that cant grab/wield?

Basically I am wondering if they can swing through trees like an ape/monkey... :)

I like this... this looks good.

[Superfluous Crow]

Is the height of copari mostly due to the length of their limbs or their torso? That is, do they have short limbs and a long torso, the opposite, or something in between?

[LD]

>>Sea Neanderthals
A sub-race of neanderthals that live along the coasts.

Do they have gills and breathe underwater?
Or do they just live by the sea??? Which I don't see how that would justify a separate "racial" category. Did you mean "ethnicity/culture" ?

[Numinous]

I'm worried about the aquatic sub-races here.  Evolution is a sow process, and while there might be cultural adaptations to living near water constantly, physical traits would be contrived, in my opinion.  Something else you should look at is the extinction of the Neanderthals in real earth history, as it's less obvious than you might think.  I just took a unit on human evolution in my anthropology class, so I'd be glad to lend my expertise in this matter.

The other thing you should really watch, and this applies only if this world is intended for gaming or fiction and not just as a creative exercise, is the potential for conflict and adventuring.  I tried very hard to build a setting with a primitive technology level, and there are big problems that aren't always seen coming.  A big one is travel, since most early cultures rarely traveled beyond their territories once attaining a level of agricultural self-sufficiency.  If you'd like help on this, I can pass on my experiences, but I thought a warning would be appropriate so you can attempt to avoid stumbling blocks later on.

Good luck though, hope this works for you.

[Llum]

Are all four limbs hands or are there limbs that cant grab/wield?

I like this... this looks good.
[/quote]
>>Sea Neanderthals
A sub-race of neanderthals that live along the coasts.

Do they have gills and breathe underwater?
Or do they just live by the sea??? Which I don't see how that would justify a separate "racial" category. Did you mean "ethnicity/culture" ?
[/quote]
The other thing you should really watch, and this applies only if this world is intended for gaming or fiction and not just as a creative exercise, is the potential for conflict and adventuring.  I tried very hard to build a setting with a primitive technology level, and there are big problems that aren't always seen coming.  A big one is travel, since most early cultures rarely traveled beyond their territories once attaining a level of agricultural self-sufficiency.  If you'd like help on this, I can pass on my experiences, but I thought a warning would be appropriate so you can attempt to avoid stumbling blocks later on.
[/quote]
Good luck though, hope this works for you.
[/quote]

Thank you, much appreciated :D

[Superfluous Crow]

Can imagine the copari would have trouble reaching tools and such if their arms are short? But i like the mental image of them changing mode of locomotion.

[Llum]

Magic, Gods and Religion

Magic

Magic is a real force in the world. Those who gather enough will and determination to wield this force have shown abilities beyond their mortal ken from flashy destructive powers to more subtle and far reaching techniques. Very little is certain about magic save that it is intrinscally linked to a persons soul.

Mortal magic has its limits, it cannot conjur up great beasts from thin air or animate the dead. Most battle magic is the application of focused energy, rays of light, heat or kinetic energy. Other then these a lot of magic is the direct manipulation of the physical world by growing plants extremely quickly, refining materials and other such applications.

Religion

Religion is prevalent in the world, every culture and group of sentients from the simplest group of cave dwellers to the sprawling metropolis of the Rex and Dominii tribes worship. While scripture, doctrine and rituals are diverse and often contradictory a few things are universally agree'd upon. All living things have souls (plants, animals, fungus, etc...); Souls are made of raw magic (not a physical thing); Souls are dull and useless unless mated with intelligence and sentience; When a sentient dies this person has three choices, enter the heaven any God willing to claim them, reincarnate in a new body without memories, disperse into raw magic.

The Gods keep score of how many souls they've amassed into their respective heavens. They play a game with the souls of mortals who's rules are beyond mortal knowledge and often at the expense of the mortal in question.

Because souls are made of magic they cannot be directly manipulated by this medium, this means souls cannot be taken or removed from heaven and placed into objects or creatures, souls cannot be ripped from a body except by death and souls cannot be influenced by magic.

Gods

Gods have existed long before the land cooled from its molten splendor and the oceans ceased boiling. However, it is only in the last few thousand years that the Gods have had anything to do with the mortal races. Originally humans, neanderthals and the coparl were dull and uninteresting to the gods, but then the light of sentience and intelligence began to shine in their souls. This caught the attention of the Gods who started to meddle in mortal affairs.

The nature of Gods is well known fact in the world, they are sentient creatures made from pure magic. They fight and bicker amongst themselves while keeping score of how many sentient souls they have amassed. Very nearly all the Gods who interact with mortals encourage their worshippers to travel, expand and convert others to their worship.

[Steerpike]

Are the gods anthropomorphic?

[Llum]

Are the gods anthropomorphic?

Some, it helps in communication. Probably 40-50% of them do. Not even all the powerful ones ether, one of the stronger Gods takes the form of the Sun.

 Although others base themselves off other living things. The more "hands off" Gods do less then that, some don't even take a distinct form instead staying abstract, a tinting of the light with a tinkling of chimes, kinda thing.

The Gods have their own flaws and personalities, so they take a form that they like.

[Llum]

Rex Tribe

The Rex tribe started out as a small fishing tribe along the noth-west coast of the continent just to the west of Wrecker's Bay. Adopted early on by a ibis-headed deity, Suria, the tribe continued to live calmly. Soon after a second settlement, called Sur to honor their deity, was founded to the south in coparl lands to be used for agriculture, knowledge given to them by Suria. Nearly 75% of the population moved to Sur abandoning their traditional livelyhood of fishing.

A hundred years after Sur was founded invaders came from the west. The invaders were physically huge, often wearing large grizzly pelts and worshipped Arcturus, a minor deity of fury and fighting. Sur was captured but not without some of the farmers being able to escape, the refuges spoke of how the invaders had sharp metal weapons unlike anything they had ever seen before. The invaders, called the Bardens used the captured Rex villagers to start mining copper and tin ore, an abundant resource in the grasslands.

Over the next twenty years a guerrilla war was fought between the free Rex people and the Bardish invaders. While the rebels won several small victories over the years, they were slowly losing. In the twenty first year they managed to free a slave who had been taught how to cast bronze. With the help of Suria this free'd slave, known as Ryl, created seven bronze khopesh that aided in the channeling of forces, allowing their wielders to let loose vicious beams of heat or force. The seven wielders became the first Rex magi who killed all Bardish invaders, save for a few who managed to escape.

These seven figures: Ryl, Rast, Yvonne, Zannex, El, Myr and Gelgan became heroes to their people, and their houses became the seven Houses of the Magi. Over the next generation the seven, blessed with longer life by Suria for free'ing their people, oversaw the expansion of their people with the newfound knowledge of smithing and magic. Soon an organized priesthood formed as the population grew too cast for Suria to interact directly with everyone.

Nearly two hundred years after the Bardish were driven from their lands Myr and a group of scouts were ambushed and killed by the returning Bardish. Blessed by Arcturus these warriors were part man and part bear, rampaging across the country-side they killed Rast in the great Battle of Royen Fjord. Finally the bestial invaders arrived at Sur, Zannex was blinded in its defense and Ryl the Smith was crippled but the new head of House Myr, the great grandson of Myr managed to slay the leader of the bear-men forcing them to retreat.

Soon the priesthood started to advocate expansion so they would never be so vulnerable to invaders again, the working populace agreed and a campaign of war and annexing soon followed.

Three hundred years later the Rex rule the nothern coast from the edge of the mountains to Forest's Edge in the west, they've annexed large tracts of coparl herd land and have started a mine in the foothills to the east. The Rex have mastered the use the bronze gladius, bronze tipped spears, and large shields originally used by the Frest Coparl. The seven Houses of the Magi are a force to be feared on the battlefield wielding their powerful khopesh foci and often riding newly domesticated horses or chariots.

[Steerpike]

Cool.  Feels very Egyptian.

The name "Forest's Edge" implies a Forest with a capital F.  Is it like a massive uber-forest kinda thing?

[Llum]

Cool.  Feels very Egyptian.

The name "Forest's Edge" implies a Forest with a capital F.  Is it like a massive uber-forest kinda thing?

Not sure how Egyptian it is, I guess its the use of the khopesh and the ibis-headed god that did it?

As for the Forest, you are correct. A large section of the west is one massive temperate forest. Also the eastern side of the mountains have a lot of tropical and semi-tropical forests.

[Llum]

Coparl Enclaves

Forestbrothers

The Forestbrother coparl live along Forest's Edge, inside the Forest and around the smaller southern Salt Forest. These coparl differ from others in that they heard a type of giant ground sloth. They are pastoral, travelling from several different semi-permanent camps depending on the season.

Camps inside the forest and near the edge often harvest a type of larva to make silk, they gather fruit from natural groves and dig tubers from the earth. Like most coparl they use some kind of thrown implement, in this case short spears and throwing disks. They are the only coparl to build homes from wood.

Hillfolk

The Hillfolk are the most numerous of the coparl even though they occupy less territory then their plains dwelling cousins. Pastoral like the Forestbrothers the Hillfolk herd a large type of goat. From these goats they gather textiles, horn, glue, milk and cheese.

Most Hillfolk live in excavated dens or caves. The Hillfolk use short horn bows to ward off the mountain animals that descend  on their flocks, as well as the plains animals who venture into the foothills. Slings are also quite popular as armaments as well.

Plainslanders

The Plainslanders are the only truly nomadic coparl. They wander across the vash plains and savannah of the West. Their chosen animals to herd form a symbiotic relationship, large wooly triceratop-like creatures called Woolies and a large kind of mammilian snake known as wolf-snakes. Woolie fur is sought after around the continent for its softness, durability and resistence to wet and fire.

Most Plainslanders use slings or occasionally throwing spears. Long knives cast from bronze or sharpened obsidian shards are worn by adults. The knives are handy when warding off jaeger-eel swarms. Portable tents are the only type of home ever used by Plainslanders, usually fashioned from textgrass and Woolie fur.

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=Llum]Adopted early on by a ibis-headed deity, Suria, the tribe continued to live calmly.[/blockquote] This sounds like a great story.  Does this happen often?  What would it mean to this tribe?