Flavoring the Standard Races

[Raz_Fox]

Everyone knows what an Elf is, what a Dwarf is, what a Tiefling or a Halfling is. But they are, or at least should be, very different culturally and psychologically from the baseline race, humans. My question, to both DMs and Players, is this: How do you show this difference in your describing and playing of a non-human race? Are your Elves bored throughout the centuries, or activists trying to make sure the world stays safe and verdant for them and their children in three centuries, or crusading warriors against the orcish menace, or artists who have the habit of simply forgetting about time? The more imaginative and original the better!

I'll post an example, to start things off. In a 4th Ed. campaign setting I'm making, Dragonborn are perfectionists as well as honor-bound. Everything must be done perfectly, or it is unworthy of being done in the first place. They are also trustworthy to a fault - if a Dragonborn gives his word, he'll keep it. The evil Dragonborn are the ones who take honor to an extreme - like Denethor's guards trying to burn Faramir and Denethor alive because those were their orders.

[Spiryt]

Well, in the first place I don't like giving races such operating in absolutes qualities, like "if a Dragonborn gives his word, he'll keep it".

Of course, every culture and race certainly will have influence on it's member's way of thinking, but making them "programed" is rather cheap fantasy.

Especially that it totally depends on setting. If there are many people of given race in a world, building more cities and other societies, chance that all will behave similary is smaller.

[Raz_Fox]

Alright, I see what you're saying. These aren't supposed to be exactly what every single dragonborn would do every time, but this is the behavior that will be seen and remembered by other races.
It's like saying that humans love to join together in groups, build civilizations and protect their friends and family. There will be humans that are loners, that destroy civilization and that don't care about their family at all, but these are the minority and the exceptions that prove the general rule.
Again, with my Dragonborn example above, a player with a Dragonborn character could break an oath or do a half-shod job. However, NPCs around him would be curious or aghast at a Dragonborn that goes against the norms of his species and culture.
Oh, and my setting has kingdoms were races mix and mingle, which makes giving each race some general, defining qualities essential IMHO. YMMV.

Thanks for the feedback, by the way.

[Raz_Fox]

*SCRUBBED* You're right, Devil's Advocate. Thanks.
Thread is still open for posting; take your time.

[Devils_Advocate]

It's been under an hour.

I have my own ideas on flavoring the standard races. This thread may finally prompt me to post a writeup for each. But, like, maybe sometime within the next few days. Not OMG RIGHT AWAY!

[Asbestos]

It's been under an hour.

I have my own ideas on flavoring the standard races. This thread may finally prompt me to post a writeup for each. But, like, maybe sometime within the next few days. Not OMG RIGHT AWAY!

Actually it was slightly more than 12 hours :smallwink:

I prefer to flavor my halflings as adult con-artists, hustlers, and smugglers rather than 19th Century English urchins. Urchins are pickpockets, halflings run casinos and hire half-orcs to go make some collections. Other races have a negative stereotype against halflings, sure they're friendly and fun-loving, and they'll put just about anyone up for the night... but they always have another angle. On the plus side they're the first group to strike back against oppressive laws and governments, if there's some sort of resistance to the throne, you can bet there are halflings in it.

[chronoplasm]

The elves in my setting have a difficult time telling the difference between past, present, and future. It's all a nebulous haze to them.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Let's see.

In my 3 settings, none of which are 4e (I haven't played it enough to get bored of it)

ELVES
Broken Land
Slightly re-crunched and heavily re-fluffed, they are now warrior-poets living in mountains, forests, and in urban environs. Prefer to wield bow and sword. Speak French, or Latin, I think, and call themselves the Pulchra.
Inris
Heavily re-crunched and re-fluffed, they are now nomadic sea-farers, wild, and impetuous. Favour the bow, and the scimitar, and often dress exotically. Called the Estahel, and speak Norwegian.
Born of the Natural
Not even D&D anymore, so completely different crunch. Fluffwise, they are the fey elves of the original mythologies. Have a slight cruel twist. Prefer an indirect assault, often through spells, but will use a javelin in battle, normally.

GNOMES
Broken Land
Gnomes are the most magical and long-lived of all races, and live in the marshes and river deltas. Directly descended from the first sorcerer, all of them. Re-crunched to fit. Speak Dutch, and call themselves the Nosch.
Inris
Again, the most magical and long-lived of all races, but also rare, and elusive, usually living deep underground, hunted by dwarves. Re-crunched to fit. Called the Vendantsch, and speak German.
Born of the Natural
Don't exist! No small folk in this setting, no sirree...

HALF-ELVES
Broken Lands
Do not exist, replaced with the Qhepa, an odd insect creature from another continent. Invented crossbows, and wizardry. Speak Quecha.
Inris
Do not exist. No filthy half-breeds in this setting, no! Replaced with the Hearnes, winged, 4-armed humanoids, that quite definitely speak Latin.
Born of the Natural
I really don't like half-elves, do I? Sorry my friend, but you've been replaced with the Faerie-touched, humans stolen by the fey as babies, only to come back changed...

HUMANS
Broken Lands
Either Greek or Rohan, effectively. They speak English, but with an accent either way, one Greek, the other Russian.
Inris
No change whatsoever.
Born of the Natural
Paranoid because of the Fey, superstitious, close-minded. Tend to form into small kingdoms, very rigid feudal systems, though outside the realms they are varied.


Damn, I have to stop.
I'll finish tomorrow.

[Lupy]

Eladrin are reclusive. A player of mine started it with his character, and when they reached the Eladrin kingdom it just fit so well, so now:

- Eladrin are reclusive and antisocial
- Elves are outgoing, but not in the extreme
- Half elves need social interaction, they crave it

Then there's the other races:

- Dragonborn are loyal and a bit overprotective of their friends. Like the Attans from the Talumi, in order to keep from killing each other off over their honor, they volunteered to be the human's "slaves" though they are still self governing and have many, many freedoms
- Humans are a bit dry and sarcastic, and don't care much for Teiflings, who are smarter than they are generally, and take advantage of them
- Teiflings are excellent liars, and take advantage of people
- Halflings are friendly and outgoing, they get taken advantage of by everyone
- Dwarves are friendly, but quick to anger

All in all, it works well for minor NPCs, and gives a baseline for important characters.

[TheThan]

Well the best way is to decide on a culture and apply it.

For example I can easily see orcs as the noble savage (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleSavage) type. They live in small nomadic tribes ruled by a village elder/chieftain/shaman etc. then you simply expand on it. What sorts of customs do they have? What of traditions and folklore? What about their history or religion? Once you flesh these things out, then you’ve managed to create a society for your race. Then you rinse and repeat with the other races until your done.

The cool thing about this way of thinking is that you can get away with using some standard fantasy tropes for your campaign world and if you do a good enough job, nobody will notice (or care for that matter

[Devils_Advocate]

Actually it was slightly more than 12 hours :smallwink:
....

Damn that AM/PM thing! Also, I am an idiot.

Sorry 'bout that, Raz_Fox. It's just that I have seen people bizarrely expecting nigh-instantaneous responses on message boards before, so I wasn't surprised when I thought that I was seeing it again. Just surprised that anyone would do it at all.

[Doomsy]

I sometimes like to switch the roles of races just to totally screw with the players. Like making elves the orcs of a game world - savage tribal cannibals who brutally murder people who are not them.

You would be surprise at how easily those roles switch. You just have to turn elfin elitism into 'genocidal hatred' and have them constantly warring with their own racial subgroups out of an insanely elevated sense of racial purity. Once that happens you essentially turn your friendly forest kingdom of magic and fairies into a woodsy Balkans wonderland.

[averagejoe]

For the most part there isn't a lot of difference between other races and humans, at least in terms of personality. I mean, applying a different culture to a race just makes them a human with funny ears and, potentially, an attitude problem. What I do is think in terms of species differences and try to look at their psychologies from that point of view.

For example, I once stumbled onto a goblin variant that gave them a climb speed in place of some other stuff they had, and I thought that was cool so I adopted it to my homebrew goblins, tweaking some other stuff and basically conceptualizing them as arboreal. So then I thought, "Okay, they're basically monkey-ish; what might distinguish humans from monkeys psychologically?" and went from there. So, for example, being smaller animals whose basic defense is running away out of a predator's reach, they hadn't developed a concept of cowardice on their own because running away tends to be their natural physiological response. Orcs, as another example, I conceptualized as some sort of plains hunter, so rather than "aboriginal," "savage," or whatever (which any race can essentially be, even if they're really aloof and snooty noble savages, i.e. elves) I think of them basically as predators (as opposed to omnivores.) So, for example, they're perfectly able to fit into society, given enough practice/the right birth conditions, but they still tend to be confused by others' discomfort with killing and such.

[TheThan]

For the most part there isn't a lot of difference between other races and humans, at least in terms of personality. I mean, applying a different culture to a race just makes them a human with funny ears and, potentially, an attitude problem. What I do is think in terms of species differences and try to look at their psychologies from that point of view.

For example, I once stumbled onto a goblin variant that gave them a climb speed in place of some other stuff they had, and I thought that was cool so I adopted it to my homebrew goblins, tweaking some other stuff and basically conceptualizing them as arboreal. So then I thought, "Okay, they're basically monkey-ish; what might distinguish humans from monkeys psychologically?" and went from there. So, for example, being smaller animals whose basic defense is running away out of a predator's reach, they hadn't developed a concept of cowardice on their own because running away tends to be their natural physiological response. Orcs, as another example, I conceptualized as some sort of plains hunter, so rather than "aboriginal," "savage," or whatever (which any race can essentially be, even if they're really aloof and snooty noble savages, i.e. elves) I think of them basically as predators (as opposed to omnivores.) So, for example, they're perfectly able to fit into society, given enough practice/the right birth conditions, but they still tend to be confused by others' discomfort with killing and such.

That’s a cool way of looking at it. But clearly you haven’t met (and been subsequently eaten by) my South Seas style jungle gnomes.

[Asbestos]

For example, I once stumbled onto a goblin variant that gave them a climb speed in place of some other stuff they had, and I thought that was cool so I adopted it to my homebrew goblins, tweaking some other stuff and basically conceptualizing them as arboreal.


That’s a cool way of looking at it. But clearly you haven’t met (and been subsequently eaten by) my South Seas style jungle gnomes.

Ha! I totally have arboreal, island dwelling, man-eating goblins AND hunter-gatherer island halflings and gnomes. I've got poison dusk lizardfolk existing as the island variant of standard lizardfolk as well. Basically the setting is A) island heavy and I am B) familiar with insular dwarfism. Awesome to see I'm not the only one who's gone the "dangerous small folk" route.

[Raz_Fox]

:smalleek: It appears that everyone comes out during my sleeping hours. Glad to see everyone coming on out. I'll be posting some of my own, soon.


I sometimes like to switch the roles of races just to totally screw with the players. Like making elves the orcs of a game world - savage tribal cannibals who brutally murder people who are not them.

You would be surprise at how easily those roles switch. You just have to turn elfin elitism into 'genocidal hatred' and have them constantly warring with their own racial subgroups out of an insanely elevated sense of racial purity. Once that happens you essentially turn your friendly forest kingdom of magic and fairies into a woodsy Balkans wonderland.

:smallamused: Ain't that just so much fun to do. Elves are the natural target, but it can work in the other direction as well - the Goblins in the afore-mentioned campaign setting I'm working on have a very strong cultural taboo against the idea of... owning something. As long as you don't mention what's yours and what's theirs, they are among the nicest races you'll ever meet.


...

Damn that AM/PM thing! Also, I am an idiot.

Sorry 'bout that, Raz_Fox. It's just that I have seen people bizarrely expecting nigh-instantaneous responses on message boards before, so I wasn't surprised when I thought that I was seeing it again. Just surprised that anyone would do it at all.

That's all right. Truth be told, it still had the same kind of motive behind it as someone who wants their thread to instantly be posted on - I worked all day at the POD and then found my first thread down at the bottom of the page.

Your response actually helped me clear my head. Thanks.


For the most part there isn't a lot of difference between other races and humans, at least in terms of personality. I mean, applying a different culture to a race just makes them a human with funny ears and, potentially, an attitude problem. What I do is think in terms of species differences and try to look at their psychologies from that point of view.

Funny thing is, I see this as what's stopping said races from being humans with funny ears/heights/skin colors. Using my Dragonborn as an example, their focus on honor and perfection above all sets them apart. Where humans would be sorely tempted to give up is where the Dragonborn steels himself to get the job done, at any cost.
But wait. Am I reading you right? You're talking about cultures. These traits could be cultural (honor and perfectionism dating from high standards during a draconic empire) or natural. What I'm saying with my Dragonborn is that the need for honor and perfection is inherent in their blood - my settings always include the gods (or The God) creating the myriad races.
Again, YMMV. What works for me may not work for you.


Awesome to see I'm not the only one who's gone the "dangerous small folk" route.

I'm not too big on this trope. :smalltongue: Really though, the only dangerous small folk in my 4e setting are the Gnomes, fanatical servants of their creator, Vecna. Be careful what you say... you never know when they'll be listening.

Once again, I'll have to just say "WOW" at what you guys are doing. This is just amazing right here, and I know it can get even better.
Good luck posting!

[averagejoe]

That’s a cool way of looking at it. But clearly you haven’t met (and been subsequently eaten by) my South Seas style jungle gnomes.

Oh snap! :smalleek: That actually sounds pretty awesome. Heaven knows gnomes need all the non-silly cultural identity they can get.


Funny thing is, I see this as what's stopping said races from being humans with funny ears/heights/skin colors. Using my Dragonborn as an example, their focus on honor and perfection above all sets them apart. Where humans would be sorely tempted to give up is where the Dragonborn steels himself to get the job done, at any cost.
But wait. Am I reading you right? You're talking about cultures. These traits could be cultural (honor and perfectionism dating from high standards during a draconic empire) or natural. What I'm saying with my Dragonborn is that the need for honor and perfection is inherent in their blood - my settings always include the gods (or The God) creating the myriad races.
Again, YMMV. What works for me may not work for you.

Well, it's something I kind of have trouble putting into words. To use your example, yes, most humans don't have such a concept of honor, but there are humans who do. In effect, what you're basically doing is taking one aspect of human personality and assigning a race to it. This sort of thing tends to lead to something like Star Trek (a show that I like, but has it's flaws) where the individual members of a given species are basically interchangeable with one another (except humans) because you've already got their dominant personality type worked out.


I'm not too big on this trope. Really though, the only dangerous small folk in my 4e setting are the Gnomes, fanatical servants of their creator, Vecna. Be careful what you say... you never know when they'll be listening.

Well, speaking as a pretty tall guy, I see it as making a lot of sense. Then again, I'm pretty biased. :smallamused:

[Raz_Fox]

Oh snap! :smalleek: That actually sounds pretty awesome. Heaven knows gnomes need all the non-silly cultural identity they can get.



Well, it's something I kind of have trouble putting into words. To use your example, yes, most humans don't have such a concept of honor, but there are humans who do. In effect, what you're basically doing is taking one aspect of human personality and assigning a race to it. This sort of thing tends to lead to something like Star Trek (a show that I like, but has it's flaws) where the individual members of a given species are basically interchangeable with one another (except humans) because you've already got their dominant personality type worked out.

Ah. I see. Well, I try to stay away from traits like that. I'm trying to make traits that show that the race is different from humans and allow room to differentiate eachother. For example:

- A dragonborn priest could put honor as paramount, but Bahamut's honor, not his own. He could try to avoid imperfection in his daily recitation of the holy scriptures and his preaching of Bahamut's glory.
- A dragonborn thief could take pride in his work, giving himself ever greater challenges to overcome and seek to always do the perfect theft.
- A dragonborn stonemason could do his utmost to avoid imperfections in his craftsmanship, especially life-threatening errors that could tarnish his reputation as a master craftsman.

Dragonborn feel love, hatred, greed, laziness, love, fury, lust and ambition like every other race. The need to keep their name pure and the urge to always do the best job possible is just stronger in Dragonborn than it is in Tieflings or Humans.

These traits could inhibit roleplay, but they could also give players ideas and new ways to play of of these traits. Traits or individuals all, I would simply use the method that made your game more enjoyable. For me, and from these replies at least a few others, this is adding traits to the races.

...I'd still like your opinions on the thread, though.


Well, speaking as a pretty tall guy, I see it as making a lot of sense. Then again, I'm pretty biased. :smallamused:

Y'know, there is no smilie depicting a losing battle against hilarity, so :smallannoyed:+:smallamused: will have to do.

[Prometheus]

From what I heard, Gnomes are quite good with a sprig of rosemary and basil. Maybe that's why they got moved to the Monster manual in 4ed.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Prometheus, that's alternatively disgusting, or quite delicious, with a slightly nutty aftertaste.

[AstralFire]

From what I heard, Gnomes are quite good with a sprig of rosemary and basil. Maybe that's why they got moved to the Monster manual in 4ed.

You heard correctly, except that they're quite good at using them.

Along with flamethrowers and butcher knives.

Feel free to begin running.

[Brauron]

In the homebrew (3.5) setting I've been slowly puttering away with...

ELVES are based heavily on Moorcock's Melniboneans -- sorcerous, amoral and cruel. They're pretty intensely isolationist and view all other races as no better than animals.

ORCS are a clan-based, semi-nomadic timocratic herdsman culture, basedly loosely on the "Native Irish" culture existing in Ireland before the arrival of the British.

HUMANS have an almost entirely maritime economy, with extensive whaling operations with rendering plants to produce whale oil -- based heavily on Yankee whaling economy of the 17th and 18th centuries.

DWARVES are Timocratic, Oligarchic, and highly militaristic -- a cross between ancient Sparta and Prussia under Frederick the Great. The are pretty strongly tied, economically, to the humans, importing large quantities of whale oil in exchange for coffee, which grows in the Dwarven highlands.


No small races or half-breeds in my world.

[Rei_Jin]

Well, in the setting that I've gotten published, the races are as follows.

Humans: As per PHB
Elans: As per XPH
Elves: Live in cities made in concert with nature, like to sail on the ocean as well and are generally hippies
Drow: Cruel and capricious, they live in a city built with ice and their entire religion is based around sexuality
Dwarves: Similar to PHB, have an inferiority complex though
Duergar: They built ironside ships and use gunpowder to destroy their enemies. Have a superiority complex
Halflings: Run caravans, and fund a series of universities. They're also the spies in the know. Very happy and cheerful
Jerren: Pretty much the same as the standard halflings, except they're emo
Orcs: Destroyers of nature and might makes right
Goliaths: Hippies who love nature
Gnomes: Tinkerers and generally insane
Kobolds: Have replaced goblins, get kicked around by orcs, strongly tied to dragons
Tieflings: Created by the gods to be their unholy warriors, can come from any race
Aasimar: Created by the gods to be their holy warriors, can come from any race


And so on.

[Zeful]

Well I've been working on Orcs for a while and have come up with a heavily militaristic semi-despotic society. It's kind of hard to explain really.

[Raz_Fox]

Well I've been working on Orcs for a while and have come up with a heavily militaristic semi-despotic society. It's kind of hard to explain really.

I'd love to hear it, no matter how long it takes to explain.

[Raum]

Well I've been working on Orcs for a while and have come up with a heavily militaristic semi-despotic society. It's kind of hard to explain really.I'd love to hear it, no matter how long it takes to explain.Not sure if it's what Zeful meant but look up the Scro from Spelljammer. They were a militaristic race who put fear in Elves...

One of my favorite ways of setting a racial culture is to superimpose a real life culture (or at least popularized image of a real culture) on the race. That gives you names and a functional history to tweak as well as the cultural elements. Think of High Elves as Athenian Greeks with Orcs based on the Zulu nation and Gnomes as Italy during DaVinci's day...

Or whatever cultures you think fit.

[Fawkes]

Humans are vanilla, elves are chocolate, dwarves are strawberry, halflings are chocolate-vanilla swirl.

*did not read any posts*

[Lady Tialait]

Let's see, I have a 3rd setting I use ALOT..here are some of the races..fluffwise anyway.

Elves: Hotty, Arrogant, Cruel, and Very Magical.
Dwarfs: Slow to act, thoughtful, intelligent, and dependable.
Humans: Downtrotten, Ignorant, Salvage, and Poor.
Gnomes: Creative, Quick-witted, Freindly, and Naive.
Halflings: Exploritive, Greedy, Knowledgable, and Thrifty.

That is a quick outline, a sterotype for most of that race you would meet.

[Cheesegear]

Since my homebrew has been ravaged by war (twice!), and one big natural disaster. A lot of my races 'hate everything'. For reference, it's a low-to-medium magic world. Except for gnomes.

Humans...Meh.

Halflings are displaced from their home, and in the current timeline, they wander the world in caravan-style mercenary/gypsie groups. Then there are the hard, bitter Halflings who want to take back their land, they call themselves The Black Knives. While the original band died out years ago, almost all halflings will claim to be a Black Knife. For a 'human' army, hiring a band of Halfling Rangers is especially good.
Halflings have a racial enmity towards the Goblinkin.

Elves are also displaced from their home after the first 'world war' and exiled and hated by all other races because they were the catalyst that started it. If it wasn't for them, the war wouldn'tve happened. So, they got exiled to the North of the world in the freezing cold. The elves who remember are extremely bitter about being exiled and are sorry for what they did (some even forgoing the use of magic). And the elves born after the exile, are usually angry people who've grown up in the harsh land of snow. The 'new elves' have never used (arcane) magic in their life.
Elves in human lands (who don't get lynched in the first three seconds) tend to think of themselves as 'better than everyone else', and are extremely rascist.
No Drow. Only one race of elf.

As an above poster said, my Orcs are 'noble savages'. I tend to think of them as an Orc with the discipline of a Hobgoblin. Having broken free of their demonic lords (that was part of the second 'world war'), they (as a race) dislike any attempts to control them. Intelligence is a prized commodity in Orc lands. Whilst, strength-of-arms is not 'as important' as Intelligence, an Orc who can't wield a sword isn't an Orc.
...They dislike goblinkin intensely. Almost as much as Halflings.

My gnomes are used as how they were under 2e/AD&D rules. Clever little bastards who like blowing stuff up. And they don't possess the insight to blow the right things up. Gnomes have blended magic and machine. Something which makes them abhorrent to elves. But, since most elves refuse to use magic due to what happened 'last time'. Gnomes are like "What're you going to do about it..." It's proposed (mostly by elves) that gnomes will bring about the next Mage War. And if they don't, they'll probably end the world.
(I've recently introduced the magic-equivalent of the Hadron Collider into the world...Built by gnomes)

Dwarves are like the 'usual Orcs'. Heavy into Druidic and Spirit Magic. Blame almost all the other races for the Mage and Demon/Goblinkin Wars. They have a special emnity towards the 'demon races' (Orcs and Goblinkin...Although the Orcs have broken free, the dwarves still see them as un-natural). And they distrust gnomes. And so long as an Elf doesn't use magic, a dwarf is perfectly happy to be friends with an elf, given that modern elves have roughly the same harsh lifestyle that dwarves do.

Goliaths, Raptorans, Centaurs and Lycans were created during the Mage Wars when the 'Magic Nuke' (damn elves...) fused humanoids and their surroundings with each other. Other than that, pretty standard.
Aasimar and Tieflings are pretty standard too. Nothing special.

No Half-races (like elves or Orcs). The race either breeds true, or ends in stillbirth.

Dragons, Kobolds and Draconians (think Dragonlance or 4e Dragonborn) are all related. With Dracos kicking the smaller/weaker kobolds around. Rumoured to bring about the third World War (the Dragon Wars), which is a campaign I'm running with my group now.

[thegurullamen]

I went to anthropology for fun!

In the ol' homebrew setting: (Original basis for culture)

Elves: (Roman/Alexander)
--Island elves: Immortal, Mostly corrupt, Intelligent (chessmasters), Lead the elven nation, sadistic in regards to other races
--Northern (Siberia-esque) elves: prisoners/political radicals, primitive, murderous, cabalistic
--Central (Mountain) elves: Long-lived though not immortal, Diehard nationalists, proud warriors, cruel, quick thinking
--Western (Foothills) elves: Laid back, venturous, immortal, far more sociable, indifferent to external events (though still a part of the elven nation)

Half-elves/-orcs: (Bastards of war)
--(See racial culture of primary parent's)

Orcs: (Hattusha)
--Not as strong as ancient orcs but more capable, Very nature oriented, shamanistic traditions and farming in the rural areas, pantheistic disciples and alchemists in urban areas, isolationist policies, strong undercurrents of racial supremacy kept in check (or progressed) by local opinion, plains/riverbed dwelling

Gnomes: (Turn of the last millennium northern Africa/Medieval Europe)
--Desert: Mysterious race with the longest dated culture, former conquerers, potent arcanists and monks: primarily necromancers, artificers, monks, assassins; sneaky, long-term minded, untrustworthy, hearty
--Jungle: servants to the dragonspawn, sneaky, murderous, xenophobic
--Savannah: political, sociable, good-natured, aristocratic, conjurers/illusionists

Dwarves: (Typical dwarves actually)
--strongly isolationist, mostly racist, intensely religious and strong willed, cunning, insightful and proud defenders (though rarely aggressors, even against known hostile enemies), live in a valley/river delta/forested area

Halflings: (Every ethnic minority from the first millennium that caught my eye)
--nomadic, widely persecuted throughout history (survived three genocides from two different empires), conniving, merchants, tricksters, diplomats, minor arcanists, black market dealers, saboteurs

Humans: (Europe under Charlemagne)
--mechanics (airship creators); minor alchemists; half-religious, half-political; nationally/ideologically fractured (many civil wars); traders; skilled tradesmen; jacks of all trades

[chronoplasm]

The name Goliath comes from a Philistine warrior, right?
The Philistines were a maritime people right?

What if the Goliaths are a maritime race?
On the other hand, D&D Goliaths are stone people. Stone people shouldn't be very good sailors since they would sink (unless they were very buoyant somehow.) Perhaps this contradiction could be played up.

Goliaths:
They come from a land where the mountains meet the sea.
Their stoney nature makes them very rigid and set in their ways, but being sailors they have to deal with the chaotic and unpredictable sea. Despite their strength, they may feel very powerless in the world.
Perhaps they worship a fish god named Dagon.

[Randel]

Here are a few ideas I've had on racial flavor in a 4e homebrew setting.

Humans-
humans are actually the oldest of the mortal races. In the beginning of the world when gods and primordials fought, the gods were able to create angels from astral matter and primordials created elementals from the elements. The gods decided to create a new type of angel that was largely composed of material elements but infused with astral energy. Sort of a material angel.

They suceeeded in creating one and it was preactically perfect. Immortal, intelligent, it was designed to follow orders and work tirelessly and to self-replicate in order to amass an army to go against the primordials elementals and consume their resources. However, after it began working on setting up a base of operations, that first material being caught sight of a shard of astral crystal, a shard of astral energy that forms and occasionlly falls to earth. It was one of the things the gods used in creating it. Noticing it, the creature opened its mouth and ate it, devouring the pure divine energy into iteself.

That surge of divine power set off a chain reaction that corrupted its essense, turning it into a mortal and imperfect creature and splitting it into two seperate genders. The gods were shocked at its disobedience and saw what it had become. At first, they decided that the whole idea was a failure and abandoned the first two humans alone to their own ends... but the two managed to stuggle through the world and multiply.

As the divine and primordial wars raged, the gods noticed the humans again. Saw that they could fight and ocasionally beat primordial minions and even more that humans divine essense allowed them to power the gods with their faith. The gods went back to humans and demanded obedience... but humans looked them in the eyes and most rejected them. The gods had not created them, nor cared for them, and they did not control their destiny. The gods were shocked, but some bargained with the humans, for their worship in return for divine help. Thus churches were formed and the humans faith gave the gods power and helped in the battle against the primordials.

While the humans essence was random... a fluke created by some freak accident, some gods were able to examine them enough to copy them. They created dwarves to be more steadfast, elves to be more intelligent, and other races beyond that for all sorts of niches and purposes.

Many are the races created by the gods, formed and blessed by their creator deities and instilled with some idea on what they are to do, be it to guard the mountains, guard the sea, or guard the woods and magic realms. Humans however were not created as they were and have no purpose... and no limitations.

The other races were created, improved in many ways with longer lifespans and given a few advantages to help them out. They were also given a deadly allergy to astral crystals, to prevent the mortal races from tampering with that pure divine energy that had created humans so long ago. Humans however, have no such reaction and in fact particularly atracted to it. Where occasionally falling stars rain from the sky, carying the glowing shards of astral energy... a hard substance poison to practically every living race... humans will be drawn to it and try to devour it.

Eating an astral shard gives humans many benefit such as making them younger, healing wounds or regenerating limbs, or even boosting their level of abilities. The astral shards seem to melt in their mouth. Dwarves may find the valuable star-crystal and alloy it with steel to make powerful swords, axes, armor or shields... and then find that the blades cannot hurt human flesh and their shield calls to human foes like honey to bees... many are the humiliated dwarves who could only look in horror as their ancestral weapon was grabbed up by some human and eaten like candy.

In essense, humans are the race without meaning or purpose. With no deity that can claim them as their creator they look around, unable to agree on who to worship and try... often unsucessfully to find a meaning or purpose in life. A humans life has no meangin... except that which they give to themselves.


Halflings-
Halflings are one of the first mortal races created based off the human design. In fact they were created by one godess who was a bit less well-versed on the technical aspects of creating a race and instead modified a group of humans directly.

Due to some odd law of cosmic narration, children are often protected from lethal harm though some kind of sheer luck. The godess decided to capitalize on that and stunted a group of humans so that they don't physically grow to adulthood. The results left them their luck for their whole lives (though some other more vital biological issues resulted) and though a lot of trial and error the godess created halflings.

Halflings share the common trait of being allergic to astral crystals, but generally live longer than normal humans. Both due to some divine tuning, a decreased metabolism, and their natural luck for avoiding nasty fates. They look much like normal human children. They eventually die of old age, which tends to hit them rather hard. They don't seem to age a whit after they reach maturity until a hundred years later when their first wrinkle appears... then a cascade failure goes off and they become short wrinkled prunes and die. Once they stop being cute then alot of protection seems to fail them as well.

They were intended to patrol the oceans and fight water elementals... but the first halflings quickly pointed out that that would be incredibly impractical, logisitcally impossible, and they have no idea how they could be expected to find lest fight bits of magically animated water in an ocean. Thus, they pretty much gave up on that line of reasoning but quite a few halflings tend to enjoy the water anyhow.

Oddly, halflings are quite capable of breeding with humans, though its generaly deemed creepy for them to do so. In any case, there are no half-halflings. The child is either a full halfling of a full human.

[Raz_Fox]

Woo-hoo! Second page! This thread has even more room to grow, however. Keep up the wonderful posts and ideas!

@Zeful: Yeah, that idea can really work well. Of course, I tend to do that only when it comes time for me to make up cultures and kingdoms; I try to make multi-cultural lands in my worlds.

@Tialait: Do I sense a bias towards the smaller races? :smallwink:

@Cheesegear: Very unique world! The "ravaged by war" idea isn't one I'd personally have thought of, but it can be very effective in creating the world. Didn't Harry Turtledove write a series that was about the World Wars in a fantasy world?

@thegrullamen: Interesting. It seems to me very much like a combination of the roman empire and the era directly after its fall (with the humans and the desert gnomes). Sounds like you put a lot of thought into making this world.

@chronoplasm: :smalleek: I wish I could make connections like that. Bravo, I'd love to hear some of your other ideas on races.

@Randel: A bit wierd and crazy, but full of imaginative ideas. How'd you dream all of this up? And why am I thinking about Skaven when I read about your humans?

@everyone: Brilliant. Happy posting!

[Malfunctioned]

In my game, so far anyway, the race are quite different from the PHB, with the exception of Humans and Gnomes.

Orcs: Mostly peaceful farmers, have a massive irrational hatred of Elves and small sects often raid cities containing elves, thus they have developed a bad name for themselves as savages.

Elves: I really hated the hippie tree-hugger thing they had, my Elves are city dwellers, normally found as rogues or bards, almost all of them are slightly agoraphobic.

Dwarves: For the Dwarves I attempted to give them more tribal aspects, they live in small clans, almost always above ground since they are at an almost constant war with the Duergar who live in the same type of surroundings as the PHB Dwarves. The Dwarves carve out large circles of stone and rock and then place tents over them to live in, also any Dwarven Barbarians must take the Complete Champion or UA totem variant as each Dwarven Clan is linked to a certain animal.

Halflings: My Halflings have a culture very similiar to feudal Japan, I really only gave them this for two reasons, the Halfling/Ninja seemed really cool and plus seeing a Halfling Samurai would be awesome :smalltongue:

What you think of these?

[chronoplasm]

Orcs:
Apparently, Orcne is an old english word for devil-corpse, understood as some kind of walking dead.
My idea is, what if Orcs are actually a type of undead that forms in the blood-soaked soil beneath the battle-field?
Orcs emerge full grown from the ground where wars were waged. They have no memories of their past-lives except for their training and their rank. The orcs will immediately organize themselves upon birth and seek out a base of operations.
When orcs aren't fighting wars, they train. They need very little food and sleep since they are animated by necrotic energy.

It is said that Orcs are elite soldiers of the gods who will play a key role in the final war of the end-times.

[Human Paragon 3]

Orcs:
Apparently, Orcne is an old english word for devil-corpse, understood as some kind of walking dead.
My idea is, what if Orcs are actually a type of undead that forms in the blood-soaked soil beneath the battle-field?
Orcs emerge full grown from the ground where wars were waged. They have no memories of their past-lives except for their training and their rank. The orcs will immediately organize themselves upon birth and seek out a base of operations.
When orcs aren't fighting wars, they train. They need very little food and sleep since they are animated by necrotic energy.

It is said that Orcs are elite soldiers of the gods who will play a key role in the final war of the end-times.

That rules. I give you A++ and 3 internets.

[chronoplasm]

Thanks. :)
I will cherish my internets forever.

Dwarves:

Dwarves aren't short, drunken scotsmen; They are the worms of the earth.
The Dwarves are stocky, corpse-like creatures that feed upon the remains of dead gods.
In the beginning, there was a war waged between two races of gods. One was slain and split in twain. One half became the sky, the other became the ground.
It is said that the dead gods will rise from their tombs one day for revenge. Until then, the dwarves feast upon their rotting meat and the fungus that grows from it.

The dwarves are obsessed with their work. The dwarves are to create the magical weapons that will turn the tide of battle in the final war. From early childhood, the dwarves are trained to craft metal and the bones of the dead gods to make swords, shields, armor, and strange components of great machines. Dwarves are remarkable for their single-mindedness. When a dwarf devotes himself to a task, the entire world around him is dead to him leaving him alone to his work.

[Cheesegear]

@Cheesegear: Very unique world! The "ravaged by war" idea isn't one I'd personally have thought of, but it can be very effective in creating the world. Didn't Harry Turtledove write a series that was about the World Wars in a fantasy world?

Never read Harry Turtledove. So I wouldn't know. But what happened was that the Elves were experimenting with magic, and then they botched it - bad. And they opened a rift (and many smaller ones around the world) into the abyss.
Demons came out and 'goblinised' a lot of humans and halflings, the only two races who didn't inherently use magic (dwarves were resistant). And therefore weren't protected when the demons turned them into Orcs and Goblinkin. And used these as their troops.
...A massive war happened. After that, all magic was outlawed, and wizards were lynched and scrolls were burned and wands were snapped. Essentially, no wizards.
Then the demons tried it again a decade or so later. Except the war turned when the Orcs broke from the control of the demons, and slew goblinkin left and right. While the elves stayed in the north and their exile and refused to help. They took care of the goblins in their area, and wouldn't help anyone else.

And that's why people respect Orcs (they don't have to like them though), and elves are universally hated. And now the gnomes have built the Magron Collider with which they hope to close the rift...Or make it bigger (according to everyone else).

[Randel]

@Randel: A bit wierd and crazy, but full of imaginative ideas. How'd you dream all of this up? And why am I thinking about Skaven when I read about your humans?


I got the idea when I was thinking of making warforged be a sort of golem created from stone, metal, and flesh (like the ultimate combination of golem building materials or something) that has the mind of the human used in making it. Then I thought why humans are so often used as a base creature... whenever there is a half-something then its always humans that are the half. Then I remembered when I was reading the old Golem story about the jewish golem. And I read a part in the afterward that said that a golem was basically a living thing, but an incomplete one without a soul. Apparently Adam was supposedly a golem when first created and fashioned from clay, it was only after god breathed life into him that he became a fully alive human.

Soo... after tossing those ideas around I figured that the gods created something like a mindless construct to work for them, but when that 'sinned' by eating a forbiden fruit (astral crystals or basically concentrated divine power) then it attained life of its own. Naturally abandoned and tossed away by its creators, only later do the creators find that humans are tough things that can help the gods... but don't have to. Thus the gods have to bargain with humans to get their faith, but then create the knock-off races who pretty much are skewed enough that they worship their creator gods by default. This explains why humans can breed with so many things... everything else is based off of them so its not too much of a genetic stretch to make it work (even if the results aren't always pretty).

As for the idea of astral crystals being edible by humans and poisonous to everything else... why not? Humans are always seen as mundane or 'the average guy with a short life span and maybe some adaptability to make up for not having any cool moves' so having them be the only thing that can eat concentrated divine magic and survive, and not only that be hungry for the stuff and eat it even when made into a weapon, it just seems so awsome to me.

Oh, and now that I think about it, the idea of humans being able to eat magic items made with astral crystals in them was inspired by a scene in Neverwhere, where villain Mr. Coupe bargains with a hero for a priceless oriental ceramic... looks at the beuty and craftsmanship of something so rare the 'adds a little wonder to this world'... and then he takes a big bite out of it and eats it, savoring it even as the shards cut his mouth which will heal up quickly enough (he's practically immortal naturally but if humans gain regeneration power from astral crystal then they potentially admire an ancient ceremonial battle axe and then bite big chunks out of it, ripping their mouths and shattering teeth but healing them up within moments and still getting the benefits of it.)

[Brauron]

One of my favorite ways of setting a racial culture is to superimpose a real life culture (or at least popularized image of a real culture) on the race. That gives you names and a functional history to tweak as well as the cultural elements. Think of High Elves as Athenian Greeks with Orcs based on the Zulu nation and Gnomes as Italy during DaVinci's day...

Or whatever cultures you think fit.

I do that a lot (especially being a historian by training). A setting I used briefly but haven't had much use for lately featured Elven society based on Renaissance Italy...it was a campaign heavy on politics and diplomacy and whatnot, and I haven't had the energy, time, or drive to run another game like that in a while.

[Raz_Fox]

@Malfunctioned: That halfling culture is really neat! I may use that one of these days; I already had plans for a dragonborn culture like that. You're right, halfling ninjas would be cool.

@Randel: Ha! I see. That's still really cool, but I can't look at your post without thinking about the Skaven obsession with warpstone - a poisonous mineral that falls from the sky and gives them chaotic power, while killing and poisoning anyone else.

I think that since everyone else has posted their ideas, I'll post some of mine, from the campaign setting I'm creating.

Eladrin are artists and designers, given an instinctive love of beauty by the gods. They have the unique ability to retreat fully inside their minds, with only a bare idea of their surroundings. Insanity is regarded as the worst thing that can happen to an Eladrin. Their perception of time is strange, and they can spend hours or days admiring a work of art. They also love libraries and museums as a race, and they have built the greatest in the world. Most Eladrin are self-sufficent enough to cook food, make and repair clothing and keep their great houses in good condition; their long lifespans allowing them to learn how to do so and still have time to specialize. Oh, and they view the wielding of magic as their service to the gods.

Elves are deeply connected into their world. They instinctively understand their surroundings, and are quick to react to changes. Quick to wrath, quicker to seek joy; Elven parties are among the wildest in the world. Elves have sweet teeth, loving honey and sugar; they enjoy wine but adore milk, the intoxicating, heavenly drink. Dancing is an integral part of Elven culture, and they love the music of the fiddle and harp. For all this celebration, Elves will always be hunters at heart, and they are deadly in war. One can easily tell what enviroment an elf is at home in, for their hair changes color to match it. The sea elves have turquoise and azure hair, while the mountain elves have silver, grey and white, and the forest elves have dark brown and verdant green.

Orcs are destructive and brutal by nature, but also genial, forgiving and boisterously enthusiastic. Orcs have their own twisted code of honor, where no value is given to life and safety but much on loyalty to friends and the sanctity of the soul. It is said that the only time an orc feels alive is in battle, whether the battle is sport or real. Orcs are firm believers in reincarnation, and believe at the end of the world there will be a never-ending battle. Orcs love tattoos and scars, often boasting about their battle wounds. Orcs also love strong drink, often looting villages and towns for beer and ale.

What do you think?

[Asbestos]

Thanks. :)
I will cherish my internets forever.

Dwarves:

Dwarves aren't short, drunken scotsmen; They are the worms of the earth.
The Dwarves are stocky, corpse-like creatures that feed upon the remains of dead gods.
In the beginning, there was a war waged between two races of gods. One was slain and split in twain. One half became the sky, the other became the ground.
It is said that the dead gods will rise from their tombs one day for revenge. Until then, the dwarves feast upon their rotting meat and the fungus that grows from it.

The dwarves are obsessed with their work. The dwarves are to create the magical weapons that will turn the tide of battle in the final war. From early childhood, the dwarves are trained to craft metal and the bones of the dead gods to make swords, shields, armor, and strange components of great machines. Dwarves are remarkable for their single-mindedness. When a dwarf devotes himself to a task, the entire world around him is dead to him leaving him alone to his work.

This, and the Orc bit, feels very, very Norse and Germanic. I'm terribly curious about it... what do your elves do?

-----------------
In my world I pretty much split up the elves into two, possibly three groups.
I've got the 'Wild Elves' from the MM and 'Gray Elves' as well. The PHB elf simply doesn't exist, it might have in the ancient past, but not anymore. Wild elves live in small, hunter gatherer communities based around the ruins of ancient elven sites. Wild elves are basically savages, not so much the noble kind either, so its probably best to avoid them. The Gray elves occupy the last few great elven citadels across the world and generally see themselves above every other race. They're constantly training for some unknown future war, which causes their neighbors to be incredibly wary of them. The Gray elves have some dealings with the few dragon-run city-states, and have some ancient treaties with the shamanistic Saurians, but for the most part they just ignore everyone if they can.
The third group of 'elves' is the seldom seen Shadar-kai. An ancient group of fey who went to war with the elves long ago and brought about a global disaster, causing the decline and fracturing of the elven civilization, and ultimately the birth of the Wild and Gray elf populations. The ruins of Shadar-kai cities litter the southern islands (pretty much everyone just thinks that they're 'elf' cities because most races have no history of anything other than the ancient elven empire existing in the past or of the war the ended it) and it is speculated that a whole nation of them still exists in the "Great Darkness" of the south. The Great Darkness is basically the plane of shadow bleeding into the world, it currently, and has for as long as anyone can remember, covers about 1/4 of the southern hemisphere. Those that go in rarely come out and, when a great storm blows through, aberrations, undead, and other monsters wash up on nearby shores.

[kodemage]

I tend to not flavor entire races but I so create subsets of a race with a specific description to separate them thematically. For example, the PC's were recently in the Nectocracy of Mavet Rav (Stolen from WotC, modified Slightly) where they saw the wholesome nice Halflings that all work together and are happy and nice.

Recently they've become pirates, and after harvesting their first bounty they have retreated to a mysterious fog shrouded chain of islands known as the Pirate Isles. The first island they land on is shaped like a skull and has some rather dangerous inhabitants. Shambling mounds set traps, dinosaurs hunt them with deadly inhuman intelligence, and then there are the Halflings.

These are dark skinned, jungle living, cannibalistic, spear chucking, and not your friend halflings. The PC's can hear the disturbing chants and the occasional blood curdling scream in the distance.

TL;DR; Scary, Cannibal Halflings

Regards,
-Benjamin

[TheThan]

My campaign world, dwarves are desert dwelling pseudo-Arab types. I did it mainly because I thought the idea of a dwarf in a turban, puffy pants and shoes with upturned toes was too awesome to pass up.

[chronoplasm]

This, and the Orc bit, feels very, very Norse and Germanic. I'm terribly curious about it... what do your elves do?


The elves are servants of the gods who live as mortals to enforce divine law.
The Wood Elves protect the sacred forests and the gateways to the astral plane. They also serve as messengers of the gods.
The Eladrin are the servants and caretakers of the holy palaces. Sometimes they will be sent out into the world on special missions from the gods.
The Drow live amongst the Dwarves and the Shadai-Kar and watch over the graves of the dead gods, waiting for them to rise again.

The elves are invisible eyes watching over the world. They lurk in the shadows passing judgement upon mortals, and swoop out, unnoticed, to dole out punishment to those who do evil.

[sonofzeal]

My racial flavour is based on divergent evolution from a single source, with each race attaining the description it has because of external influences. (note: 3.5)

Dwarves
- Surrounded by savage/violent races.
- Militaristic, paranoid, and fiercely insular (siege mentality)
- Resent humans for “not assisting enough”, but hold out hope for future assistance.
- Legendary warriors (defence)
- Government: LN, capitalist (focus on merit)
- Civilians: LN -> LG, cautious but loyal

Elves
- Few major enemies, geographically isolated from the major aggressors.
- Focus on higher learning and research; strive for the perfection of various arts
- Polite and welcoming to other races, but in a condescending way (professor mentality)
- Legendary scholars
- Government: LN, socialist
- Civilians: CG -> NN

Humans
- Contact with most other races, non-aggression pacts with major wild races.
- Pragmatic, hardworking, proud of their strength (workhorse mentality)
- See other races as useful allies or as liabilities
- Legendary tradesmen
- Government: LN, capitalist (focus on wealth)
- Civilians: NN -> NG, pragmatic and pastoral

Gnomes
- Territory overrun with gnolls.
- Survive by wits, intelligence, and pragmatism.
- Love pranks and intrigue, but not malicious tricks (except against stupidheads)
- Think humans are stuffy and that gnolls are stupidheads.
- Legendary strategists
- Government: LG, socialist
- Civilians: NG, thoughtful but sly

Halflings
- No dedicated territory; homeland destroyed in wars generations ago.
- No cohesive social structure, moderate loyalty to other Halflings.
- Prefer to go unnoticed by other races.
- Legendary thieves
- Government: none
- Civilians: CN, loners

Orcs/Gnolls
- Respect human boundaries (mostly), but merrily raid each other and dwarves.
- Aggressive but poorly organized.
- Totally focused on strength: avoid the stronger, prey on the weaker
- Orcs: Legendary warriors (offence) Gnolls: Legendary rangers
- Government: NE, tribal
- Civilians: CE, open and direct

[TheSpartanMoose]

Here's an idea for the Half-Elves I started messing around with after reading this thread.

The humans or elves (not sure which yet but for this example we'll use Elves) were spreading their empire and ran into humans. They were disgusted by the uncivilized Humans, but felt sorry for them for it wasn't their fault the gods made them inferior. Instead of slaughter them the Elves decided to help them by breeding with them in order to breed the Human out of future generations.

I figure it would be a lot like the way the British Empire treated the Aborigines. Not exactly how it would all play out yet, but I'd the Half Elves would be resentful for what the Elves did to their people. On a side note horray for anthropology class! :elan:

[chronoplasm]

Here's an idea for the Half-Elves I started messing around with after reading this thread.

The humans or elves (not sure which yet but for this example we'll use Elves) were spreading their empire and ran into humans. They were disgusted by the uncivilized Humans, but felt sorry for them for it wasn't their fault the gods made them inferior. Instead of slaughter them the Elves decided to help them by breeding with them in order to breed the Human out of future generations.

I figure it would be a lot like the way the British Empire treated the Aborigines. Not exactly how it would all play out yet, but I'd the Half Elves would be resentful for what the Elves did to their people. On a side note horray for anthropology class! :elan:

I like that... I might end up using it.

Question:
What happened when the elves ran into orcs?

[thegurullamen]

I like that... I might end up using it.

Question:
What happened when the elves ran into orcs?

Silly chronoplasm. Orcs aren't people!

[skywalker]

My campaign world, dwarves are desert dwelling pseudo-Arab types. I did it mainly because I thought the idea of a dwarf in a turban, puffy pants and shoes with upturned toes was too awesome to pass up.

My racial flavour is based on divergent evolution from a single source, with each race attaining the description it has because of external influences. (note: 3.5)

Dwarves
- Surrounded by savage/violent races.
- Militaristic, paranoid, and fiercely insular (siege mentality)
- Resent humans for “not assisting enough”, but hold out hope for future assistance.
- Legendary warriors (defence)
- Government: LN, capitalist (focus on merit)
- Civilians: LN -> LG, cautious but loyal
Interestingly enough, I don't want to get into RL stuff(which this is close to, forgive me) but I'd like to draw a parallel between what I've bolded(please note that I specifically did not bold the "savage/violent races" line) and the RL country of Israel, and point out that I've always liked the Tolkien-ian concept of "Dwarves as Jews." Being that Tolkien's dwarves are master craftspeople, tend to keep to themselves in their separate communities, have their own special language(Yiddish) that is almost completely different from those of the other races, along with several physical feature cues that tie them there. I've always enjoyed this trope.

[sonofzeal]

Interestingly enough, I don't want to get into RL stuff(which this is close to, forgive me) but I'd like to draw a parallel between what I've bolded(please note that I specifically did not bold the "savage/violent races" line) and the RL country of Israel, and point out that I've always liked the Tolkien-ian concept of "Dwarves as Jews." Being that Tolkien's dwarves are master craftspeople, tend to keep to themselves in their separate communities, have their own special language(Yiddish) that is almost completely different from those of the other races, along with several physical feature cues that tie them there. I've always enjoyed this trope.
Huh, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. I suppose it's possible it was subconscious, but given my (complete lack of) knowledge of Israeli politics as of the time I originally wrote that (I've learned more since, but not much), I'm gonna say it was a complete coincidence. That said, you could probably find some group (europe maybe, probably not the USA) that there's resentment towards for lack of political/military support.

The whole setup also works as a WWII analogy, with Dwarves as British, Humans as the rest of the commonwealth, Gnomes as French, Halflings as Gypsies/Jews, Elves as Americans (before Pearl Harbor), etc. II think we decided Orcs and Gnolls worked for Central/South America and Africa, Hobgoblins for German/Japan/Italy/Spain, Kobolds as Russia... yeah, was fun. Also not what I was thinking of when I made it, but that's okay.

TBH, all I was thinking about was a rational reason for the races to act the way they do. This way, elves aren't mamsy-pansy wussie boys because they're born that way, it's just that their civilization has had the luxury of staying more or less uninvolved in the major conflicts. Dwarves aren't merely short surly xenophobes, they're the product of prolonged attack from multiple fronts who need that "us vs them" mentality to help them cope with the psychological pressure of their situation. A member of either race, if raised in the opposite situation, would take on more or less the opposite viewpoint and attitude. In essence, by justifying the stereotypes, I've attempted to allow them to be more or less abandoned.

[Human Paragon 3]

Gnomes-

Gnomes do everything fast. They think fast, talk fast and act fast. Not just "quickly," but actually fast. The reason for this, is that gnomes only live for about 5-6 years, and a 6-year-old gnome will look and act like an 80 year old human. They perceive time differently- everything else seems so slow. A minute to them might seem like half an hour. A month feels longer than a year. A year spans decades. A decade is longer than any gnome could hope to live.

They seem impatient to outsiders, but in actuality the are acting normally. They can consider things faster because they have more time to consider. They learn faster because they have more perceived time to study. Their movements seem rodent-like; they skitter and flutter like frightened mice or rabits. Indeed, they are tiny, about the size of large rat. And, like a rat, Gnomes can annoy the hell out of other races. Because of how fast they speak and how difficult they are to understand, how rashly they act, and the unsettling way they move... and before you know it, they're dead anyway. Gnomes are of little value to us humans.

By contrast, big folk seem slow and stupid to Gnomes. It's a constant struggle to pay attention to their low, drawling voices for what seems like an eternity as they pontificate. Big folk take forever to think, an eternity to act, and therefore they must be very dull. In order to communicate with big folk, gnomes have to slow down their speech and talk veeeeeeery sloooooowly, or else they won't understand. They have about as much insentive to befriend a human as we have to befriend a humpback whale.

All the same, they are friendly and try to be patient with the big folk because of the larger races' power. Having a bigger ally to help defend their settlements, or move a tree, or build a structure can be very useful. In exchange, gnomes can reach places that the big folk can't, do delicate work incredibly quickly, and, in rare cases strike a relationship that endures, even though for the human it will be sadly short lived.

For the Gnome, however, it lasts a lifetime.

[chronoplasm]

Silly chronoplasm. Orcs aren't people!

Silly me. :smallredface:

What about dwarves or halflings? How do elves feel about them?
Do elves just go around screwing everything and hoping it goes away the next morning?

[TheSpartanMoose]

I like that... I might end up using it.

Question:
What happened when the elves ran into orcs?

Cool, feel free.
To be honest I haven't figured out the Orc thing yet. This was the first thing I came up with and haven't had time to sort everything else out yet. Maybe they kill them, maybe they fight, or maybe Orcs and Elves never interact. I'll definitely post when I do. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.


Silly chronoplasm. Orcs aren't people!

HAHA! Everyone knows Orcs were created to be killed by adventurers for money and power.

[chronoplasm]

Maybe thats how half-orcs come to be?
The elves want the orcs to be bred out of existence, but they don't want to do it themselves so they come up to the humans and say "Hey baby, can you go breed with that thing?"
The humans drop their trousers and say "You can count on us!"