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Old 12-18-2012, 03:26 AM   #10
Prince Charon
 
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Default Re: Five Earths, All in a Row

Of the humanoids, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings or hobbits appear to be just pygmy humans of slightly differing phenotypes: Dwarves are generally the biggest of the Little People, and tend to be aggressive, hairy (even their women have beards), and exceptionally strong, tough, and poison-resistant for their size (an average dwarf can drink an average orc or 'normal' human under the table, and wander home without much difficulty). They prefer to live underground, in great mines and caves (though this seems to be more cultural than biological), and their sense of beauty runs toward practical, durable things. Gnomes average between the dwarves and the halflings in size, prefer to live on the surface, and tend to be quite creative. Many of them are highly skilled in illusion magic, alchemy, and engineering, making gadgets that might best be described as 'Windmillpunk', or 'Proto-Clockpunk'. Hobbits are the smallest of the human Little People, and are surprisingly nimble and sure-eyed, with tough, hairy feet, and great appetites (and proportionally large bellies). They could be said to live underground, in the sense that they prefer to build their homes out of tunnels in the sides of hills (poorer hobbits generally build the hills along with their homes, or must burrow into the ground, and deal with the rain), but they spend far more time in the sun than most dwarves do. Most hobbits are plain, quiet folk, with an aversion to adventures (dreadful things; make one late for dinner!), and a fondness for a mild form of cannabis (not the tobacco of Tolkien's notes) called galenas, or 'pipe-weed' - those who do become warriors or adventurers tend to be thinner, less relaxed, and often disdain the weed.

Giants are mostly the descendents of humans with gigantism, who have settled into there own large-but-somewhat-healthy phenotypes. Some giants are instead spirits who take large, humanoid forms. While the human giants top out at around ten feet tall, spirit giants may be much larger, and are of variable size. The locals don't make much distinction between human giants and spirit giants, save as different races: hill giants (generally human) and forest giants (mix of humans and spirits) are fairly friendly if you don't attack or steal from them, storm giants (all spirits, 'living' on/in clouds) and cyclopes (also spirits, and yes, that's apparently the correct plural) aren't friendly at all, et cetra.

Orcs appear to be Neanderthal -descendents with large canines. They average a bit shorter than baseline humans, a bit less intelligent, rather more vulnerable to heat, and very resistant to cold. They also tend to be a bit stronger, tougher, and more aggressive than baseline humans. Ogres appear to be an orc phenotype with fairly-healthy gigantism, topping out at around 9 feet, but tend towards less intelligence. Goblins and hobgoblins appear to be pygmy orcs, the hobgoblins averaging a little bigger than dwarves and a little dumber than orcs, and the goblins averaging about as large and bright as gnomes, though with less love of art and what humans call beauty. Elves say of them that "They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones," which has more to do with goblins having different ideals of beauty than elves (and most humans) do, rather than having no concept of it, at all - like dwarves, but far more so, they love practical things, and many of them would find beauty in the 'dark, satanic mills' of the Industrial Revolution (as long as they're not the ones toiling in them). Of all the orcish races, only goblins build cities - unfortunately, their preferred locations for their cities coincide with those of the dwarves, which leads to a lot of conflict. Both goblins and hobgoblins are sallow-skinned, and all orc-derived races have a tendency to wartyness. Orcs and hobgoblins prefer cold climates, while ogres and goblins might live anywhere humans do (though they prefer to avoid the tropics). Despite what the local humans will say, these races are not Always Chaotic Evil, nor are many of them inclined to eat babies - the humans are hostile to them, so they return that hostility, but among themselves, they're mostly just regular folk of the era. This has been going on for so long that it's apparently instinctive for both sides (and the orcish folk aren't going to see a difference between humans from space, and the local variety).

(Might include GURPS-style kobolds. Was thinking they live in the Caledonian Highlands, either with or replacing the Picts.)

Elves and faeries are spirits, connected to nature, to varying degrees. This sounds nice, but recall that nature doesn't just mean the peaceful green of growing plants, but the red of blood and fire, the white of sharp teeth and the flash of lightning. Nature is beautiful, but do not forget that it is also deadly. The elves are the most human of these nature spirits, and even they are a bit strange. Half-elves generally do have two human parents, it's just that an elf or two were fooling around with one or both of them, and decided to leave an empowerment behind in the child. They tend to be attractive and powerful, but creepy and spooky, from a human perspective.

As with Dieselpunk Earth, there is no specific point at which creatures of magic began to appear. As far as the locals know, they've always been there, though unlike Dp-Earth, they've never really hid. Oddly, in much of Europe, healing is the province of clerics, druids, and bards, with few other magic-users learning much of it.

TL;DR: Fantasy Dark Ages, 514 CE, with a little Middle Earth and 3.5-era Forgotten Realms.
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
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