Fitting other races into a Hyborian Age D&D campagin

[supergoji18]

I'm going to begin a Hyborian Age campaign this weekend. I'm getting together some notes for the setting, and I'm trying to fit some races outside of human into it. I've already found a decent way to fit most of them into the setting by making them represent either a particular culture (goliaths) or by claiming they are a different type of human (halfling) or a degenerate human (goblins, orcs, half-orcs).

The only ones I'm having issues with are elves and half-elves. I feel they can be made to fit easily by either making them magical humans, members of a lost civilization/race or making them an Elder Race. I was hoping to get some more ideas to better fit them into the setting. I'm specifically looking to fit the PHB elves (high elves, wood elves and dark elves, as well as half elves). If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Lapak]

I say Elves are leftover Atlanteans. Make them rare - like to the point of being unique oddities in the main campaign region, at most each sub-type should have a single lost outpost on a distant island or similar that is utterly isolated from the rest of the setting. PCs could be scattered wanderers from one of those outposts or Kal-El type foundling children who were set adrift in magical suspension pods at the point of the cataclysm, only recently awakened to the current world.

[Max_Killjoy]

There are layers of fallen and lost civilizations going back for aeons before the Hyborian Age.

When I get a chance later today I'll throw a list in a post for you.

[supergoji18]

I say Elves are leftover Atlanteans. Make them rare - like to the point of being unique oddities in the main campaign region, at most each sub-type should have a single lost outpost on a distant island or similar that is utterly isolated from the rest of the setting. PCs could be scattered wanderers from one of those outposts or Kal-El type foundling children who were set adrift in magical suspension pods at the point of the cataclysm, only recently awakened to the current world.

This seems like a good idea. Perhaps the High Elves were the ones who remained as close to their original atlantean culture as possible, while Wood Elves completely changed their lifestyle to survive, but never degenerated and re-evolved like the cimmerians so they retain their original appearance for the most part. Dark Elves can be the elves who made bargains with dark powers to survive, and relocated to stygia and hyperborea where they ply their dark sorceries in service to secret societies.

There are layers of fallen and lost civilizations going back for aeons before the Hyborian Age.

When I get a chance later today I'll throw a list in a post for you.

That would be greatly appreciated!

[Mordar]

This seems like a good idea. Perhaps the High Elves were the ones who remained as close to their original atlantean culture as possible, while Wood Elves completely changed their lifestyle to survive, but never degenerated and re-evolved like the cimmerians so they retain their original appearance for the most part. Dark Elves can be the elves who made bargains with dark powers to survive, and relocated to stygia and hyperborea where they ply their dark sorceries in service to secret societies.

A little degeneration wouldn't hurt, particularly because that fits the RE Howard motif much better. That would seem to make the "wood elves" Hyborian Picts...

Interesting idea.

- M

[Yanagi]

The Howardian way to fit them in would be to slot them into the earlier Thurian Age (or even earlier) as fully-developed civilizations, then decide what kind of condition they're in the current Hyborian Age. This fits with how the Serpent Men ruled what became Stygia but are overthrown, but still turn up in Kull stories (and eventually Conan and Marvel Universe stories). Pre-Thurian there's reference to sunken continents (Mu) and non-human civilizations that got wiped out. In the Hyborian there's the occasional reference to kingdoms and regions beyond the known ones.

Like, having elves be an Elder Race from the sunken continent of Mu, of whom there's a remnant that fled and have salted themselves into various isolated parts of the world, would allow them to both be around and be different types, have enough contact with people for there to be half-elves, and keep them flexible in their plot utility.

So they could be the hidden masters of a city or cult, or geographically isolated in an unhospitable region that they can survive with magic. I mean, Antarctica is just kind of down there not being used; call it Erebus or Thule and you'll be Howard-ing like a pro.

In the Conan comics, Hyperborea was sort of like that: super evolved psychic dudes who were immortal and thus decadent up to 11.

Since Howard's mythos overlaps with Lovecraft, another possibility is that they're not an ancient nonhuman species, but some kind of alien-human hybrid that has numbers enough that they breed stably. That could make them comparatively "new" to the Hyborian setting if that's a thing you wanted.

[Max_Killjoy]

The Howardian way to fit them in would be to slot them into the earlier Thurian Age (or even earlier) as fully-developed civilizations, then decide what kind of condition they're in the current Hyborian Age. This fits with how the Serpent Men ruled what became Stygia but are overthrown, but still turn up in Kull stories (and eventually Conan and Marvel Universe stories). Pre-Thurian there's reference to sunken continents (Mu) and non-human civilizations that got wiped out. In the Hyborian there's the occasional reference to kingdoms and regions beyond the known ones.

Like, having elves be an Elder Race from the sunken continent of Mu, of whom there's a remnant that fled and have salted themselves into various isolated parts of the world, would allow them to both be around and be different types, have enough contact with people for there to be half-elves, and keep them flexible in their plot utility.

So they could be the hidden masters of a city or cult, or geographically isolated in an unhospitable region that they can survive with magic. I mean, Antarctica is just kind of down there not being used; call it Erebus or Thule and you'll be Howard-ing like a pro.

In the Conan comics, Hyperborea was sort of like that: super evolved psychic dudes who were immortal and thus decadent up to 11.

Since Howard's mythos overlaps with Lovecraft, another possibility is that they're not an ancient nonhuman species, but some kind of alien-human hybrid that has numbers enough that they breed stably. That could make them comparatively "new" to the Hyborian setting if that's a thing you wanted.

You beat me to it, at work and have not had a chance to look up those details.

[Mordar]

Since Howard's mythos overlaps with Lovecraft, another possibility is that they're not an ancient nonhuman species, but some kind of alien-human hybrid that has numbers enough that they breed stably. That could make them comparatively "new" to the Hyborian setting if that's a thing you wanted.

Which also dovetales very nicely with Antarctica...though the Elder Things and Shoggoths are the primary critters to be found down there, there's no reason the elves couldn't be a discarded experiment of some group of Elder Things. They tried several servitor constructs before the Shoggoths...

[but I still really like the idea of wood elves being the picts, so use both!]

- M

[Beleriphon]

Which also dovetales very nicely with Antarctica...though the Elder Things and Shoggoths are the primary critters to be found down there, there's no reason the elves couldn't be a discarded experiment of some group of Elder Things. They tried several servitor constructs before the Shoggoths...

[but I still really like the idea of wood elves being the picts, so use both!]

- M

Or they more or less live like Picts (Picts live like wood elves?) that their societies are functionally the same, but each as a separate tribal group. When two groups mingle you get half elves.

[Talakeal]

I say Elves are leftover Atlanteans. Make them rare - like to the point of being unique oddities in the main campaign region, at most each sub-type should have a single lost outpost on a distant island or similar that is utterly isolated from the rest of the setting. PCs could be scattered wanderers from one of those outposts or Kal-El type foundling children who were set adrift in magical suspension pods at the point of the cataclysm, only recently awakened to the current world.

I second this.

Do not make them fey whatever you do.

[Max_Killjoy]

The RPG Primeval Thule has both refugee Atlanteans, and elves as decadent fading remnants of a great civilization of the past, lost in the black lotus dream. PC elves are assumed to be of the few remaining elves who have drive and determination, and have not succumbed to the drug's blissful allure.

[Jay R]

D&D is a pastiche of ideas from many different worlds. Your goal is the feel of the Hyborian Age. Don't sacrifice that just to include every aspect of D&D.

If they don't fit, then don't try to fit them in.