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kwanzaabot
2011-01-13, 07:49 AM
The Creation Myth:

Oh, so you've found my little yurt, did you? Another adventurer botherin' this wretched ol' centaur in his Autumn years, hasslin' me to tell 'em the story of how this all came t' be. Can't an old man get his rest? You gotta be bargin' in at all hours- I know it's eleven in the mornin' you dang whippersnapper! It's a figure o' speech, kids these days, wouldn't know respect if it bit 'em on the- oh, now you says you're gonna pay me?
You should know us centaurs ain't got no use for money, nothin' you can buy wit' money that you can't pillage for half the cost... oh, you got a virgin for me, do you boy? Who? That dwarf there? She sure smells like a fair maiden lass all right, still, a bit stocky for my tastes.
But my libido ain't what it used t' be, so I figure beggars can't be choosers. Still, she's a damn sight prettier than that bag of sticks elf you got there, no offense.
Oh, where was I? My mind ain't what it used t' be. Oh right, the creation myth. You've already paid me, right? Right, right...

First things first, the name's Raggi, of the Ix- that means "our tribe", in case you was wonderin'. Other centaurs are Ion, or "not our tribe", and the Ix spit on the ground when in their company, those sons of their inbred sister-mothers! I used t' be a Chiron, that's a tribal leader, until I was exiled from the Ix by the new Chiron, and I learned this story from the last Chiron, who was taught it by the one before him, and so on in that fashion until the first centaurs, in the days of Humus, who I'll tell you about soon enough. Kids these days, everything's rush, rush, rush... stop and smell the roses once in a while will you? Ahem...

Oh, and I don't want any of you kids walkin' around during my creation myth. So, if you need to use the chamberpot, do it now, all right?

In the beginnin', there was nothing. And in this nothing, the Big Empty, the Dreamtime, the Void, the Nothing-Before-The-Universe or whatever else you foreign types are callin' it nowadays, there lived the Teufels. And the king of the Teufels was Dubhan, who you humans are afraid of namin'. Superstitious nonsense if you ask me. What is it you call Him? The Devil? The Adversary? The Hydra-With-A-Billion-Heads?

Anyhoo, one of the Teufels, Drossed, or Old Man Death or The All-Father, or whatever else you wanna name him, got sick and tired of livin' under the Devil's rule in the Vast Nothing, and rallied the help of the Ra Vanir, who was either a great big honkin' dragon, or an army of rebellin' Teufels. I can never remember which. The Ra Vanir and Drossed (who called 'emselves the Jotun) faced down Dubhan and his Teufels, and overthrew the poor bugger. But it was a long, bloody battle, and the Ra Vanir was (or were, dependin' on their particular state of bein') mortally wounded, which is quite an accomplishment I hear, what with bein' immortal and all. But, the Ra Vanir's blood filled the Empty right up, and that's when the Nothing got full, and it exploded.

A Big ol' Bang is what it was, lemme tell you! Hoo-boy! From Ra Vanir's blood, which we now call magic, things started comin' to life. First were the gods, the Aesir as you call 'em, as well as the fairies- the Vanir, the stars, the planets, and everythin' else in between.

But that wasn't enough, was it? And billions of years later- which to the gods happened in the blink of an eye- life happened. But, it was life with lots o' magic in it. It all happened on a big ol' ball o' magma, which was just startin' to cool. From the firey depths of The World- which is what the magma was, and it's what we live on right now, even if it's cooled considerably since then- came Ahi Dahana, the Red Dragon.

Ahi Dahana was chock-full of souls- or just the one soul, honestly, the details are fuzzy- of dead Ra Vanir, bein' reincarnated as he was, and he was soon joined by Ahi Visapa, the Black Dragon, forged from the toxic smoke that rose from the magma, and was made out of souls of all the dead Teufels.

Needless to say, Ahi Dahana and Ahi Visapa did not get along. I mean, at all. They fought all across The World, for billions and billions of years, as it cooled and more an' more life started poppin' up. But the First Dragons, you better believe they didn't care. Not one bit. To them, the other one was the same enemy they fought in the Vast Blank, and needed to die. So, they waged war, as the dragons do even to this day, sinkin' continents and burnin' the land.

Eventually, the god Garm, the guard dog of Old Man Death, took it upon hisself to appoint guardians to The World, and he made the dog-men, the madagar, out of the still smolderin' ash that was all that remained of the dragon's battlefields. The madagar fought against both dragons, and drove them to Darchida, the sprawling, verdant green continent, which is where the dragons now live, and has since been reduced to nothin' but a couple o' charred cliffs and crumbin' spires stickin' out of the Darchidic Ocean, in the south of The World. Still, better 'an nothing, I say!

But, you're wonderin' where you humans fit into all o' this, ain't ya? Lemme get to it, then.

After the dragons and the madagar, the next folks to come to life were the giants, or maybe the forest apes. No, the giants. I'm sure of it. Or maybe they're the same thing.
After them, came the centaurs, the perfect creations of the goddess Jondr, who made us outta the storm clouds, and who were blessed by the goddess Yord with speed, and wit, and just all-round comely looks. And everything was good until along came four (or was it five? No, the machine-brother Kabiri got blown into a million pieces, so he doesn't count). Yeah. The four fairy brothers: Aelfr; the Magi, Dvergar; the Craftsman, Orcinus; the Hunter, and Huldra; the Warrior. Or, to make it simple for ya, the elf, the dwarf, the orc and the troll.

The four fairies were new to The World, and didn't know how to do a damn thing. So, the centaur Humus, the poor bugger, saw these four idiots, and saw that they were cold and stupid- no offense to the elves and dwarves in the audience, but this was before you folks got smart- so old Humus, he goes to see the king of the giants, or maybe the chief of the apes.

So Humus gets an audience with old Silver-Back, and he says, "your majesty, I happened to spy upon four utterly stupid fairies in your forest just now, and they don't know how to take even the most basic care of themselves. Look out the window! They're banging rocks together and playing with their [untranslatables]. Can't you spare some fire for these morons, so they at least don't freeze in the night?"

And old Silver-Back, he looks at Humus, and he says, "you have to be kidding me, Humus! I'm a king! Why would I give away my fire, when you could just as easily take fire from the gods? They're gods, what do they need with fire? Me? I'm a king! I have a certain standard of living I need to maintain!" Okay, okay, so Silver-Back might not have said it like that exactly, but it's an oral history, okay? It's expected that I take a little artistic license! Anyway, the gist of it's true, at least.

Anyway, Humus decides that Silver-Back is right. What do the gods need with fire? So, he goes about stealing it, which is a long and boring affair, but after an utterly unremarkable heisting of the gods' fire, he gives it to the four idiot fairies, who throw feces at Humus and play some more with their [untranslatables].

But, that's when the gods notice that their fire is gone! And gods bein' gods, they exact their vengeance a million fold. First, Yord grabbed Humus by the head, and Jondr took him by the tail, and they tore him in two, creating the races of man and horse. Which is why men and horses have such a close bond, they're tryin' to be centaurs again, even if they don't realise it. It's all quite charmin', if you ask me.

Second, the sea goddess Vvatn flooded the world, washing each of the four fairy brothers to a different corner of The World, and burying the kingdom of the giants under the ocean forever (but not before the moon god, Tungl the shapechanger, took pity on the giants and taught one how to breathe underwater, creating the race of Merrows, who unfortunately for this crotchety old centaur, aren't the beautiful bare-breasted maidens that folklore makes 'em out to be. And I know, I know, he only taught one, so how can one survivor birth an entire race, but it's mythology fer cryin' out loud! When does that stuff ever make sense?).

And that's the creation myth. It's late, and I'm an old man who needs his sleep. Yes, I know it's only twelve in the afternoon! Just wait 'till you're my age, you dang adventurin' hooligan! Kids these days... no respect! No respect, I tells ya!

Races:


Humans: Humans are mutts. They've bred with everything and everyone in existence so much, that their blood can be found in nearly every other race of The World to some extent, much to the chagrin of the high elves, who personally see to it to keep their blood as "pure" as possible. Noteable human ethnicities include the Solitans (http://www.lordoftherings.gr/movies/html/preview_images/TTT_Rohirrim+people.jpg), Reddites (http://images.wikia.com/narnia/images/9/90/Telmarine-army.jpg) and Ankillians (http://www.karlgrobl.com/KumbhNew/headshot%20man%20tan%20turban%202_std_std.jpg); who make up the "civilised" human nations, the nomadic Grasslandic tribes, the half-elven and bronzed-skinned Bintiarans (http://www.chinancient.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Journey-to-the-West.jpg), the Ash-Men (http://www.sydney-australia.biz/indigenous/thullii-dreaming/aboriginal-dance.jpg) of the southern wastelands, the statuesque "barbarian" Hillsfolk (http://thecia.com.au/reviews/m/images/mongol-part-one-2.jpg) of Trolvia, Selkies (http://nunetherlands.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fur-seal.jpg) (descendants of an ancient bloodline who are cursed to transform into the same sacred seals that their ancestors killed and ate), Hags (http://www.intriguing.com/mp/_pictures/grail/large/HolyGrail006.jpg) (the end result of an ancient Lemurian- see below- eugenics programme intented to produce living weapons, who are now known and feared for their uncanny skill in the magical arts), as well as the Nyunduh (http://www.johnmariani.com/archive/2007/070422/neanderthal3.jpg), tribal hunter-gatherers mostly believed to be a myth, the one strain of humanity who still is genetically "pure", and who resemble their centaur ancestors more than a modern human. The Hags and Selkies are the only two human ethnicities not to have their own homeland, and are instead assimilated into the nations that they inhabit, though they still possess their own cultural quirks. For example, Hags live in very close-knit family groups, and are disdainful of "book learning", preferring to teach their children magic themselves (father to son, and mother to daughter), outside of the influence of the Mages' Guild.
Elves: the golden-skinned, waif-like elves are the most magically skilled of all the races (barring dragons), with the Haggish humans coming in at second. Elves are typically tall, with blonde or red hair of varying shades, and are a little off-putting to look at, thanks to their empty, black eyes, reminiscent of a shark's. There are three "ethnicities" of elf: the imperialistic High Elves of the Shedyet river basin, the Wood Elves of Bintiar, and the nomadic Wild Elves of the Patien (http://www.vpnaccounts.com/images/socotra-yemen.jpg) desert (http://www.travelgrove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/socotra-vegetation1.jpg), known for building their yurts on the backs of giant tortoises known as fastitocalons, colloquially called "fasties". One interesting note about Elven fashion, is that they dislike wearing shoes- Wood and Wild Elves forgo the attire completely, but High Elves tend to wear sandals.
There is a widespread belief in a fourth bloodline, the child-stealing, black-skinned and white-eyed Dark Elves, though these are mostly believed to be nothing but a fairy tale intended to stop Elven children from misbehaving.
Dwarves: the short, stocky dwarves mostly make their home in the far north of The World, though Dwarven merchants can be found in nearly every trading post, haggling their wares, which for their customers, is an exercise in emptying your wallet very, very quickly.
Dwarven society is matriarchal, with clans being led by the oldest female (usually a grandmother or great-grandmother of nearly every dwarf in the clan- Dwarven families are incredibly large). If the clan's matriarch is a witch, that's a bonus. Male dwarves take great pride in their beards, and are almost as fierce drinkers as the centaurs. Contrary to popular belief, dwarves don't actually live in the mountains, but rather on top of them, in settlements similar to Machu Picchu in Peru. They farm animals such as llamas, yaks, goats and alpacas, and make a kind of cheese made from the milk of all four animals (plus a few kegs of ale), that is considered a local delicacy (and guaranteed- regardless of gender- to grow hair on your chest, after you pass out for about a week). They also grow maize, and ritualistically eat their dead in place of funerals.
As a coming-of-age ritual every dwarf must, upon reaching adulthood, venture out into the wilderness during a blizzard and kill and eat the heart of a frost giant. Frost giants only ever appear during blizzards, but are still incredibly rare, and believed to be messengers of the spirit world. A dwarf cannot be considered an adult until they complete this task. Eating a frost giant's heart gives the dwarf prophetic dreams for a brief period, and is said to be the giant's way of relaying a message about the dwarf's future from the ancestors in the spirit world. The frost giants would probably beg to differ.
The dwarves once had roads underground stretching all over The World, but these have been mostly forgotten over time, as mentioned earlier, dwarves prefer life above-ground, and rarely venture very far underground. Dwarves USED to live underground, but they left their mines around the time they ceased worshipping gods. The ruined mines now serve as tombs for their forsaken gods, and are only visited for mining paracelcium, a magically potent element used as a form of gunpowder, and a key ingredient in their production of mithril silk- it is powdered and fed to mulberry plants, which are in turn eaten by their silkworms, producing a thread which is stronger than steel, but lightweight.
Madagar: the dog-like (http://www.costumzee.com/view/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/wolfman.jpg) madagar (http://www.animaldanger.com/images/werewolf.jpg) are a people who were only first encountered around 200 years ago, when the first human explorers managed to cross the Edge of The World Mountains into the Garm Lands, a land of eucalypt forests, ash storms and fire, which suits the madagar just fine. They have since been used extensively as slaves, thanks to their pups being so trusting of people, they are able to be captured with little resistance. This has created quite a lot of tension between the madagar and the hominid races.
Although they have only recently become widely known, there are legends stretching back for millenia which mention dog-headed men, or "kynosephaly", as the elves called them. One such legend involves the mythical gnolls, dog-headed men who lived in the desert and ate corpses. They were supposedly too stupid to speak, and instead communicated using a system of barks and growls, but could imitate humanoid voices, which they used to lure unwary travelers to their deaths.
They attribute their creation to being the children of Garm, Drossed's (Death's) guard dog, and the greatest of the barghests, making the madagar cousins of the wargs (barghests being the guardians of the Otherworld, and wargs being barghests who abandoned their posts and became mortal).
Although some are decidedly canine in appearance, most have shorter snouts and minimal facial hair, making them look more like beastial humans. They have dog-like ears (ranging from pointy and wolflike, to the more floppy look of a labrador or beagle), long bushy tails, thick manes and yellow eyes. Fur colours range from yellow, orange and red to black, grey, brown and white.
Madagar raiding parties often sneak into human lands to find and rescue stray or mistreated dogs. They bring these dogs back with them to the Garm Lands, so madagar settlements are usually 50% madagar, and 50% dogs. They have also domesticated wargs, whom assist the madagar when hunting.
"Dog" or "dog-men/man" or even "gnoll" has become a derogatory term when referring to the madagar, as have the usual dog names, such as "Rover", "Fido", "Rex" and so on. And don't even think about calling them "werewolves".
Madagar consider themselves to be among the original inhabitants of The World, as their myths predate the creation of the hominid races by several millenia, and are only preceeded by the dragons.
A madagar's mane protects it from having other madagar attack its neck, and also affords some resistance to fire- a necessity in the harsh, ash-stormy environment of the Garm Lands. Males have longer and thicker manes than females.
Madagar measure in at around 6-7 feet tall on average, but it's hard to tell, since they prefer to go about on all fours, and lope along like a gorilla.
They derive little nutrition from eating plant matter, being carnivores, but often cook their food with nuts, berries and leaves for the flavour these ingredients add to their meals.
Madagar spiritualism manifests in the form of ancestor worship, revering their dead relatives, as well as their greatest warriors, shamans and heroes, in addition to Garm and the barghests, whom they consider the greatest of their ancestors (and Garm is the greatest of all). Their shamans discourage blind worship, instead encouraging their students to learn all that they can, coming to logical conclusions based on the evidence available. Ignorance is one of the greatest evils in The World, according to the madagar, as is forgetting or neglecting the past. Madagar also carve gigantic likenesses of their greatest heroes and tribal leaders into their cliff-based dwellings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hohokam_cliff_dwelling_%28Montezuma_Castle%29 ,_Arizona.jpg), which resemble giant stone Buddhas (http://famouswonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Leshan-Giant-Buddha.jpg).
Orcs: The grey-skinned, "monstrous" orcs (http://scottpurdy.deviantart.com/art/Half-Orc-Mountain-Wanderer-110422806) are an incredibly resillient people, who thrive in the barren, frozen wastelands of the north, which they call "Fomoria", (incidentally, they call themselves "Fomorians", and dislike the term "orc"), where other peoples might not be so fortunate. They're a very honorable people, and never forget to pay their debts, and expect the same of others.
Additionally, the cold doesn't bother them so much, and orcs often smash apart ice with their bare hands to get to the water beneath, so that they can go fishing or even swimming.
Orcs frequently interbreed with other races, leading to a wide variety of appearances, but for the most part are resemble flat-nosed, ugly elves, and are muscular with a dark, greenish- grey skin tone and decorate themselves in intricate, white-inked tribal tattoos (http://www.freewebs.com/lord_ofthe_rings/UrukHai_Lurtz.jpg). Particularly dark-skinned orcs often look like killer whales because of their tattoos. In fact, killer whales are sacred to the orcs.
Male orcs often have massive tusks, so when speaking non Orcish-languages, they tend to lisp a lot. Their King is Balor One-eye, a fearsome specimen of an orc. His son, Prince Bres, is oddly beautiful, and supposedly is half-human, carrying the blood of the Bintiaran Kresh dynasty (on his mother's side) as well as that of the obvious Orcish nobility.
At a glance, orcs seem a little bit like the Inuit of North America, in terms of lifestyle and clothing, but their architecture resembles the Khmer (http://0.tqn.com/d/architecture/1/0/C/l/AngkorWATaerial13.jpg) style of Cambodia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/AngkorThom-SouthGate.jpg). More permanent dwellings in this style are built in the south, whereas in the Fomoric Ocean, the nomadic orcs simply fortify their houseboats (http://wentan.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/floating-village-4-small.jpg) with animal skins and build igloo-style walls around them to keep the cold air out. These "Winter villages (http://www.electricscotland.com/thomson/images/18.12%20Floating%20village-2.jpg)" are founded wherever the ice freezes them, although orcs will break through the ice in order to row to more convenient hunting grounds. The capital, North City (roughly translated from Orcish) is warm enough to be a permanent settlement, being built on an island littered with volcanic vents, and shares the south's Khmer style.
Thanks to their lifestyle and habitat, Orcs are among the finest sailors in The World (having to navigate the arctic ice floes on a regular basis), although they have difficulty adapting to bright light, thanks to the 6-month nights experienced at the North Pole.
Orcs tend to be the same height as humans, being around 5 ft 9 for males, and 5 ft 4 for females.
Trolls: The civilised (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=141018), statuesque trolls (http://www.collectoybles.com.au/catalog/images/lotr_maquette_catapult_troll.jpg) are an unusual people, because of their ability to heal from wounds that would kill a human. Stories of trolls being able to regenerate instantaneously are actually nothing more than myths, however trolls are able to shrug off even the most severe injuries until a later point in time, allowing them to heal at a normal human-like pace when it is safe to do so, so long as such an injury isn't automatically fatal, such as decapitation.
They have to be careful to prevent infection of course, and they cannot regenerate entire missing body parts, but can regrow them if given enough time, and if there is enough of the body part's original tissue (for example, a troll with a missing arm could not grow a new arm, but could regrow a hand or finger, or an arm if they at least have a portion of their upper arm remaining. Likewise, a troll with a damaged heart could heal it- if he lived long enough- but could not grow an entirely new one).
Lemurians: Vampires, zombies, liches and reanimated skeletons all call The World home, but legends exist of a lost city of undead. The legend goes that in an age long past, a king of a now-forgotten land sought the secret of immortality (specifically, he wanted to kill Death), and found it in the form of a deal with the devil- by invoking the power of the god Dubhan, the Lemurians channeled his essence into an unborn fetus. The child was born, and dubbed the God-Killer, as nobody had died since the God-Killer's birth, thus making them believe they had suceeded in their mission to kill Death.
When it was revealed that the Lemurians did die, but had their souls trapped in their bodies while they continued to rot, the God-Killer was locked away in the catacombs deep beneath the city, where she soon starved to death, herself rising as an undead- trapped in the body of a child.
Each citizen is still vulnerable to the ravages of age- each citizen goes through life as normal, but upon death, he/she rises an undead (an excruciatingly painful experience, as their vital organs shut down, but the victim is unable to die), and continues to decay whilst their souls are still trapped in their bodies. Eventually, each citizen is reduced to a living skeleton, which will inevitably turn to dust, finally finding peace in death. The exact location of this city, if it exists, is a closely-guarded secret.
The citizens of this city call themselves the Lemurians, and their city is referred to as Lemuria.
As the Lemurians “age”, they go through several stages. A freshly-dead Lemurian is called a “Lemure” (used to differentiate them from the living term, “Lemurian”), rotting Lemurians are called “Larvae” (possibly a slang term, given their attractiveness to maggots and other flesh-eating invertibrates), and the skeletal Lemurians are called “Lases” (an old Elvish term meaning “ancestor”. The modern word is “Lares”, but is not used often among Lemurian citizens).
Those Lases who are fortunate to have finally crumbled to dust are referred to as “Lucky Bastards” by other undead Lemurians. Undead Lemurians are often referred to as “Manes” by their living families.
Just after "death", many Lemures opt to be mummified, removing formerly vital organs and have their insides filled with sawdust and spices, before being bandaged, allowing themselves to stay better preserved, if a little on the stiff and crumbly side.
Mandragora (named after the mandrake root, a magical plant often found in the shape of a tiny human) are a type of Lemurian who have left the safety of Lemuria's city walls and have become engulfed in vines and other plant life. As a Lemurian ages, it becomes riskier and riskier to move about- a slight bump can cause them to collapse into a heap of bones or crumble to dust. While this is preferable for many Lemurians, some have come to enjoy their long lives. By finding a safe place to rest, Lemurians can hibernate for decades on end. This can cause local plant life to engulf the Lemurian's body. Eventually, the body crumbles away, but the plants are left- moulded into a distinctly humanoid shape. As the process is so gradual, the Lemurian's spirit stays bonded to the new plant form, gaining a new life- they can breathe again, as well as absorb nutrients from the soil- and even photosythesize!
The Mandragora and the Lemurians are quite hostile to one another: the Mandragora believe that becoming engulfed in plants is the key to breaking the curse (as they live again, in a fashion), though many Lemurians have come to enjoy their long lives and consider the Mandragora to be nothing more than heretics.
Lemurians possess both human and Elven blood in roughly equal parts, and cannot be considered to be solely of one race or the other.
Centaurs The nomadic, horse-like (http://elvire.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-108595716) centaurs (http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2008/03/05/prince-caspian-glenstorm.jpg), native to the Pa'arm Grasslands, are known for their skill in the arts of both war and mysticism. They live in a primitive hunter-gatherer society, moving their grazing-spots and following the migration of their prey as the seasons shift. They also have a well-founded reputation as drunken lechers, and believe themselves to be the chosen people of the goddess Yord.
Centaurs are known to trade goods (or their services as mercenaries) with Grasslandic tribes in exchange for virgins (generally male centaurs seeking female virgins, though occasionally it'll be a female centaur seeking a male virgin) to deflower. Of course, they also will form raiding parties to simply take virgins when the mood strikes them. Humans often consider centaurs to be nothing more than giant, walking libidos, though the centaurs would tell such humans to go look in a mirror.
The leaders (called "Chirons") of centaur tribes are polygamists, and are allowed to take as many wives as they wish. Most centaur Chirons have one "main" wife (a centaur, with whom the marriage is generally permanent, and from whom the Chiron's children are born), and several "secondary" wives (generally virgin non-centaurs, which are temporary, used exclusively for sex, and are replaced quickly).
Centaurs breed horses for their companionship and as work animals (carrying heavy loads in particular), and many centaur tribes (much like madagar with dogs) have almost as many horses as people.
Centaurs get most of their water from the plants they eat, as it is difficult for them to lean down and drink from streams and rivers, though not impossible- a centaur can kneel and scoop water with his hands if he wishes. They are also surprisingly good mountain climbers, resembling mountain goats more than horses in that regard.
Centaurs don't have family or tribal names, but instead identify tribal groups as either "Ix" ("our tribe") and "Ion" ("not our tribe").
Centaurs average at around 7 feet tall.
Merrow: The merrow, Also called merfolk (http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/cardart/10E/Rootwater_Matriarch_640.jpg), mermen (http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/cardart/TE/Rootwater_Mystic_640.jpg) or mermaids (http://keithwormwood.deviantart.com/art/Brood-Mermaid-91886489?q=gallery%3AKeithwormwood%2F12274305&qo=14) (the latter two dependent on gender), or amongst themselves, "Iosgunn-nea", are the descendants of "people" (the exact race is no longer known for sure, though it is theorised to be the giants) who, instead of being drowned or simply washed away by the Great Flood (caused by Humus stealing fire from the gods), were spared by the moon god Tungl, and were taught how to breathe underwater (which had the side-effect of making them rather fish-like).
They superficially resemble humans, but appear extremely skeletal and emaciated. They have rather large, yellow, frog or fish-like eyes set slightly further apart than a human, exposed nasal cavities (which they can close when underwater), and their teeth appear to be on the outside of the heads (as they lack lips), making them appear even more skeletal. They have extremely long, webbed fingers and toes, and long, thin tails ending in fins like a tadpole's. The sides of their faces (where a human's cheeks would be) are dominated by large vent-like gills. They also have small fins on their elbows. Their emaciated appearance is mostly due to the fact that they don't need many of their ancestral mammalian organs, and in particular lack lungs (they have strong gills which can breathe air as easily as water).
They spend a great deal of their lives underwater, but can survive on land, provided they stay wet. They make their homes in the mangroves of the Selk Islands, and have a legend that one day Tungl's daughter will lead them into paradise. The legends are unclear on exactly what "paradise" is.
Contrary to popular belief, they don't try to lure sailors to their deaths, and they aren't all that attractive- instead appearing somewhat like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, although appearances can vary. Most merrow are vaguely humanoid (the keyword here is "vaguely") with wet, unkempt hair (although not all merrow have hair), with spiny fins sprouting from their heads, leading down to their shoulders, while some resemble giant eels (generally the oldest merrow), and others can be anything in between.
Eel-like merrow are typically so old that they no longer need any of their mammalian characteristics at all, and instead develop features more suited for marine life, such as tentacles and an extremely bloated appearance- in fact, eel merrow have no set limits when it comes to size. These gigantic, monstrous merrow are known as Leviathans, and perhaps due to how long it takes for messages to pass between their neurons, are extremely aggressive and are avoided by the younger, humanoid merrow, lest they get eaten by their feral ancestor.
Merrow are a race of which not much is known (hence the widespread belief amongst the ignorant masses that they look like beautiful, bare-breasted women with fish tails), and are considered "exotic". They mostly keep to themselves, but merrow offering their services as merchants or navigators are often found in port cities such as Propontis or Ankillia.
In order to stay alive on land (they dry up within minutes), merrow wear specialized bodysuits called "Drysuits (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/Fremen-1984.jpg/300px-Fremen-1984.jpg)" under their clothing (if any, otherwise they just wear their Drysuit), which are designed to trap lost moisture, and recycle it back into their bodies, via long tubes leading to their nasal cavity.
Dryads (ialcoi): Dryads are considered "lesser" fairy-folk, as unlike other Vanir who draw their life-force from things like streams, mountains, and the wind, among other things, dryads are unique in that they draw their life-force from mortal organisms- plants, fungi and lichens- and are therefore mortal themselves. They might live for centuries longer than the oldest elf or dwarf (depending on the type of tree), but they will die one day. This has given them a degree of perspective when it comes to mortals, and while they still possess a decidedly alien mindset, they are not nearly as malevolent as their pixie or gnome counterparts, who are likely to spirit away children, turn milk sour, and evicerate whole families for the smallest percieved injustices committed against them. Dryads typically live in old-growth forests, and appear as gaunt, grey-skinned humanoid children with bulbous heads (http://www.rsecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/asgard_thor.jpg) and chitinous, segmented limbs- like an insect, and their orb-like, glowing eyes (http://finalfantasy.cc/dewfish/XII/characters_crop/venat.jpg) are the only facial feature that they don't obscure in shadow. They clothe themselves in Spanish moss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spanish_moss_at_the_Mcbryde_Garden_in_hawaii. jpg), and their hair appears to be made of the same substance. Dryad adventurers are rare, but do happen. Such dryads will find a way to carry a bit of their tree (or other plant) with them, such as fashioning a branch into a staff (which manages to stay alive, thanks to the dryad's magical nature), keeping a bonsai cutting of their plant with them, or wearing a pouch of seeds around their neck, as if their plant is killed, then they too will die- keeping a part with them ensures that they'll live on, if their tree dies while they aren't around to protect it. Among themselves, they are referred to as the "ialcoi", or "moss people".


The Gods:

There are three distinct families of “gods”. The Aesir (gods) and Vanir (fairies, or lesser gods), who were created when the universe was given life, and the Teufel (demons), the original inhabitants of the Primordial Chaos.

Vanir are typically the embodiments of specific places or objects (such as one particular river or a certain tree, rather than the idea of a river, which would be more likely to be embodied by an Aesir such as Vvatn). Vanir take physical form in the guise of the fairies, and are less powerful than the other gods, and can even die (such as the dryads, who die when their tree dies, or the naiads, who are the spirits of rivers, and die when their river dries up).
Vanir tend to be worshiped as household deities (most common in communities of wood elves and humans) or in animistic religions (such as those of the madagar and dwarves).
Like the Vanir, Teufel are likewise “lesser” gods, often called “demons”. They usually have no physical form, simply appearing as horrible, incorporeal (or invisible) monsters, who can only whisper dark things into a person's ear, often driving him/her to madness or evil. Alternatively, they can manifest themselves physically by possessing a mortal, or by impregnating a mortal (male, female or neither, it doesn't matter) with themselves, or an aspect thereof. Teufels did not take part in the creation of the universe, and as such don't resemble anything within it. They're completely and utterly alien, both in form and personality, although they can take on avatars that are more "familiar". A child born from the union of a Teufel and a mortal is called a teufling. Many demon-worshipping cults can be found in the more isolated areas of The World.
Vanir are the "opposites" of the Teufels in many ways, being the personifications of everything in creation. They too are somewhat alien, but resemble familiar creatures and concepts, even if they're grossly exaggerated and distorted. For example, a pixie might appear as a "giant" caterpillar with the wings of a hummingbird, with little "human" arms. Wierd, but familiar. On the other hand, a Teufel might appear as something like this: http://www.3x6.net/vhoorl/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/yog-sothoth2.jpg in its true form.

The Original Gods:
Old Man Death, The All-Father, Drossed- god of death, time, creation, destiny, king of the gods. Variously described as the father of Ravanir and Dubhan or their brother, depending on the mythology in question. Appears as a blind old man armed with a cane made of an equally ancient (living) oak tree, or a black-skinned elf whose body makes up the universe, and whose eyes are the sun and moon. Other accounts depict him as a pale humanoid (race unknown) wearing a white burial shroud, whose face is obscured by a mask made of a cow's skull. His eyes in this form can be seen through the mask, and appear to be blue flames, though one is not burning as brightly as the other. Although Drossed is married, he has had many, many lovers of every possible race, and his extra-marital indiscretions are the cause for many types of monsters (Ahmbre- see below- is a very vengeful, and often curses these bastard children into different forms). Drossed parallels the real-world concept of both the “Almighty” creator god and the Grim Reaper, as Drossed cares for everything in the universe so much that he sees to it to personally meet with every single living organism upon their death to guide them to their final destination.
Father Dragon, Magic, The Rainbow Dragon, The Horned God, Life, The Trigrammaton, Ravanir- The “dead god of life”, protection, magic. Appears as a rainbow-coloured serpent or dragon with a massive pair of antlers in artwork representing him, or alternatively a horned, large-breasted woman holding a snake in each hand (representing Dubhan), or a goat-headed man- although only Drossed and Dubhan know for sure what he/they looked like. His name is considered the most holy of all the gods among mages, who refer to him as "the Trigrammaton", representing the three elven runes used to spell his name (the elves consider these to be "Rin" "Av" and "Ar", but they have it in reverse- it's actually "Ra" "Va" and "Nir").
The Adversary, The Devil, Dubhan- god of destruction and the personification of primordial chaos, evil. Appears as a black-scaled Hydra with a billion heads, and occasionally, a humanoid torso (making him look like some kind of centaur).

Aesir:
The Firey Songstress, Lady Slaughter, Vel (or Krovell)- goddess of war, blacksmiths, fire. Appears as a young dark-skinned, redheaded woman wrapped in flames, clad in golden armour and armed with a shield and hammer and with a raven on her shoulder. The raven is often falsely believed to be a phoenix, but is actually Crow, a figure from Dwarven myth, which somehow found its way into human and Elven folklore. Some elves even go as far as to make Crow and Vel into a composite deity- a bird-headed goddess known as Krovell in order to convert the dwarves to their faith. Other interpretations of Vel depict her as a nude, four-armed woman with long, smoldering, black hair, holding a severed head in one hand, and wearing a necklace of skulls, and with blood (not hers!) dripping from her fanged mouth.
The Dancer of Winds, The Holy Thief, Jondr- goddess of trickery, deception, storms, messengers, wind. Appears as a woman with clad in white, flowing robes and with silver wings where her arms should be. Her hair is black and curly, and is surrounded by a halo of lightning. She is the patron deity of thieves. To members of the Theive's Guild, she appears as an inconspicuous human orphan, unwashed and wearing grubby clothes. However, this manifestation of Jondr has no face, merely a blank slate.
The Green Bard, The Divine Virgin, Yord (or Yorgarmr)- goddess of the hunt (both as predator and prey), the harvest, the seasons, animals/livestock, plants, purity, earth. Appears as a porcelain-white skinned adolescent (often androgynous, but usually female) humanoid with impossibly large antlers. Her hair is dreadlocked and brown with traces of green moss growing on it, and her legs end in red-furred hooves with white splotches, like a faun. She is armed with a bow that always hits its target, and has a quiver of arrows that never runs out. She and Jondr lead the Wild Hunt, an annual event which has Jondr, Yord and a pack of barghests hunting a single female virgin moss dryad (or ialcoi).
To a mortal, the Wild Hunt appears as nothing more than a terrible cyclone or hurricane, but is actually a mystical event when the mortal world and the Otherworld become one for a single night. Every year Jondr betrays Yord by aiding the ialcoi (sometimes, but not always resulting in its freedom), and every year Yord is fated to not see it coming. She is depicted as a dog-headed deity known as Yorgarmr by some Elven cults, attempting to appeal to the madagar veneration of Garm in order to convert the “heathen mutts”, and variously as an albino doe, a massive bear or white-furred female centaur.
The Drummer of Tides, Lady Sea, Vvatn- goddess of fertility, love, beauty, healing, water. Appears as a beautiful, nude pregnant woman covered in frost. Flowers sprout from her frozen blonde hair, and she carries a basket full of fish in her right hand, and a spear in her left. Selkie myth gives her an alternate form- that of an ancient and wise walrus covered from the waist down in thousands upon thousands of barnicles.
The Witness, The All-Seer, The Muse, Ilsenda- Goddess of wealth/commerce, knowledge, forbidden lore, creativity, madness and invertebrates. She often appears as an unremarkable human or Elven woman, wearing a white robe, a blindfold and carrying a book under each arm. These books are said to contain all the knowledge of the universe. Alternatively, she has been known to make appearances in the form of a madness-inducing, writhing mass of tentacles and eyes. Oddly, she's not a Teufel, but does kind of resemble one. The elves worship her as a goddess of wine (and orgies), and her followers drink themselves to madness in her honour, whilst dancing naked under the full moon. To the wild elves she appears as a bare-breasted Elven woman, with her skin and muscle missing from her face, revealing her bloody skull. This represents her status as the goddess of things people shouldn't "see".
The Shapechanger, He-Who-Eats-The-Moon, Brother Moon, Tungl- God of the moon, shapeshifting, curses. Appears in selkie myth, but as a king of the fairies, rather than a god. He appears as an ever-changing giant made of sea water, with fish and other sea creatures freely swimming throughout him and back into the ocean. The merrow believe that he devours and regurgitates the moon over the course of a month.
The Sun, Sol, Roune- God of the sun, daytime. Appears as a giant dung beetle made of magma, who pushes the sun across the sky each day. Unlike real-world cultures, Roune is actually a rather minor god.
The Heavenly Consort, The Queen of Heaven, Ahmbre- feminine counterpart of Drossed, goddess of rebirth, birds, wisdom, precognition. She is the wife of Drossed, hut most cults to her are relatively nonexistent these days. However, she was a major god in ancient times. She appears as a beautiful, graceful, middle-aged woman with black wavy hair, and is wrapped in a cloak of phoenix feathers- the reason phoenixes are held as sacred, something that is often falsely attributed to Vel and Crow. Her cloak gives its wearer the power to take the guise of any bird, and to fly between planes- including the ability to cheat death. The gods have no need for such powers, but it is a highly coveted artefact among mortals.
The River King, Dyet- God of old age, the Shedyet River, reptiles. A crocodile-headed god worshipped primarily by the ancient Lemurians- he has little to no worshippers these days (people who don't die have no need of a god of old age), but was revered as the personification of the Shedyet river. It's possible, like the other animal-headed deities of the Elven pantheon, that Dyet was once two completely different gods, but any trace of these original gods has been lost for millenia. People used to pray to him to protect them when sailing down the Shedyet, which is naturally, full of crocodiles and lizardfolk.
Mother of the Grain, Killer-of-many-Orcs, Killer-of-many-Dwarves, The Storyteller, Yydis- Dwarven and Orcish goddess of beer, stories, celebration and music. Although the dwarves no longer worship any deities, they once did. She is still worshipped by the orcs, who worship her as a goddess of vodka, which they prefer due to its difficulty to freeze, which comes in handy in their home in the Arctic Cirlce. She appears as a youthful, bare-breasted dwarf (or orc), wrapped in the skin of a dead orc (or in the case of the Orcish version, a dead dwarf). She carries a keg of beer under each arm, and wears a golden helm which covers her eyes, and is decorated with eagle's wings where her ears should be. It is said that she favours storytellers, and she can concoct a special beer by fermenting her own blood. Anybody who drinks this beer will become The World's greatest storyteller; a prophet of sorts, as every story they tell (or every song they sing) will foretell of things to come, and can bend reality to their will (to an extent). Her name in pronounced "Yie (as in 'lie')-Diss". It is said that the Dwarven gods have been locked away in stone sarcophagi somewhere deep beneath The World, and that certain Dwarven witches are using their channeled power for their own, selfish use.
The Traveler, He-of-the-Guiding-Stars, Dagna- ancient Dwarven and current Orcish god of sailors and sailing. He appears as a wizened old Dwarf (or Orc), with eight stars floating above his head. His beard appears to be made of seaweed, and he wears a brown leather raincoat and hat.

kwanzaabot
2011-01-14, 08:54 PM
Aw, c'mon guys! 150 views, and not one comment? :smallannoyed:


Without further ado, here's some more. :D

Cosmology:


The Material Plane: This is the physical universe, which functions (with the exception of magic, of course) much the same as our own world. It is theoretically infinite in scope, and contains trillions upon trillions of stars, galaxies, planets (which may or may not contain life) and other celestial bodies. The campaign itself is focused around one particular solar system, and most importantly the third planet, known as The World to its inhabitants, which orbits an unremarkable yellow sun.
Other planets are Nebu (the first planet, roughly analogous to Mercury), Vespir (the second), Martis (the fourth) and the gas giant, Jove (the fifth).
Annwn: World of the Aesir. Every god or goddess (all billions of them) has a palace here. Supposedly appears in the night sky- each star is said to be a god.
Mag Mell: World of the Dead. Garm, Drossed's guard dog, watches over the entrance to this realm- the dead are free to come and go as they please, but the living are forbidden to enter. In fact, it's impossible for a living being to enter at all, unless they can best Garm in combat, which is, for the most part, an exercise in futility. There are said to be numerous entances to Mag Mell throughout The World, although their locations change constantly, as the magic that creates these portals is unstable. Such portals tend to appear in deep cave networks and mines, and around the Shedyet River in Patien (generally during lunar eclipses on cloudless nights). Portals are characterized by fog suddenly appearing. When this fog clears, the person finds him/herself in Mag Mell, often facing (a very annoyed) Garm. Mag Mell is a beautiful, idealised world, bathed in light. Supposedly appears in the daytime sky- being apparently a world of blue skies and clouds.
The Otherworld (Fairyland): The “backstage” of the Material Plane, a world of pure magic. Magic is channeled through this realm into the physical world- magic being the life force of Ravanir. Gnomes, pixies, satyrs, nymphs and so on all live here. It's basically a parallel to the World, except grander and more idealised. The geography and plant life differs slightly, too. Mountains exist where no mountains do in their counterpart, and Fairyland has grass, flowers, mushrooms and trees of every colour of the rainbow, in proportions that make Earth's redwoods look like toothpicks. However, it lacks the "solid-ness" of the real world, with everything seemingly made of bright, shifting, seemingly corporeal mist- magic in its raw state.
Maginauts (mortal planes-travelers) are often seriously disoriented by traveling through The Otherworld, but do so because of its infinite (yet super-finite) scope, allowing one to travel to and from different planets in the solar system and universe, provided they know what they're doing- one miscalculation and you could re-enter the physical universe floating dead in the vacuum of space, somewhere beyond Jove or Martis, after only minutes of navigation after leaving The World. The same could happen just by standing still in The Otherworld, because of The World's orbit around the sun.
The Void: While the Void outside the universe is more or less empty, fleeting glimpses of potential universes do flash occasionally throughout this realm, if you can see past the infinite hordes of demons.
It is a highly morphic realm, which warps and grows according to the thoughts of its inhabitants, the demons (or Teufel).

akragster
2011-01-14, 09:44 PM
Aw, c'mon guys! 150 views, and not one comment? :smallannoyed:Nope, we're not going to comment...

...

That said, I like some of the ideas in here. The creation myth seems to have been pulled mostly from the creation myths of our world (stealing of fire, Big Bang), but I still like it. The races seem nice and diverse, and it would be awesome if any future works fleshed out/introduced their culture(s).


You seem to have a nice start for a universe here. It'll be interesting to see what is done with it.

Kuma Kode
2011-01-14, 10:29 PM
Aw, c'mon guys! 150 views, and not one comment? :smallannoyed:

You have seven-and-a-half thousand words, and almost maxed out the character limit of your post.

That is a lot to read.

Edit: On a more serious note, I will read it when I'm more awake.

kwanzaabot
2011-01-15, 07:13 AM
You have seven-and-a-half thousand words, and almost maxed out the character limit of your post.

That is a lot to read.

Edit: On a more serious note, I will read it when I'm more awake.

You're talking crazy talk.

Really? Is it that many words? Jeebus. :smalleek:

Oh, and akragster: I'll probably flesh out the cultures in the mornin'. This setting has been brewing in my head a while now, so I've actually got a lot of that kind of stuff written up. But for now, I need mah sleeeep.