DF World: Do non-humans have their own countries?

[Varyon]

My preference is for something more cosmopolitan, with most of the races present in each country. In the setting I'm (sort of) currently working on, Eru, most countries follow more-or-less the same political system, in which there are rules about which races can be in certain political stations, and this varies between countries. This is basically the best classification they can get - even in a country run by humans, a human could get classified as a monster if he were horrible enough*. The best you can be is royalty, and most countries only allow one race to be such. All royals in a given country are related by blood, marriage, or (rarely) adoption of various flavors. Next down the line are the nobles, which usually allows for any race that is sufficiently similar to the royals - a human-ruled country would probably allow for elves of various flavors, maybe dwarves and/or halflings**, and so forth. Next down are citizens, which most "civilized" races qualify for. The lowest rung that still count as people are the serfs, which are generally the monstrous races that aren't overly dangerous. Anything that doesn't fit into the previous categories is automatically considered a monster, and not only lacks any legal protection but may well have a general bounty on its head. Mixed-race creatures are typically treated as the lower-ranked of the parent races, but there are exceptions - a half-elf might be ranked lower than a human in elf-ruled lands, a half-orc might be ranked between human and orc in human-ruled lands, and so forth. While I've no plans for such, in theory you could have a situation where, say, a half-elf is actually ranked higher than either humans or elves (a possibility in a country founded by a half-elf, for example). Specific mixed-race individuals may end up officially recognized as only being of a single race as well (in fact, it's possible for anyone to end up officially recognized as being a member of a race they don't even share blood with, but this is exceedingly rare).

*To the rulers, anyway - a tyranny might classify an honorable freedom fighter as a monster.
**If both existed in my setting, anyway. Dwarves do, halflings don't.

[Tinman]

I set my DF campaigns in the world of Banestorm/Yirth. The Dwarves, Orcs & Elves have their own countries/domains, but Goblins, Halflings & Lizardmen live mixed into human kingdoms.

[RyanW]

The fantasy worlds I've worked on are generally not suitable for DF, but the closest would feature:

Fae - have their own kingdoms in the realm they come from
Cat-people - live in clans
Lizard-fold - live in tribes

All of them will intermingle and/or create small communities within human realms.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I have trouble imagining a halfing-dominated country, same with gnomes. I just think someone else would come in and take it from them - probably humans, dwarves, or a pile of goblinoids.

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

I do like the idea, however, that there's a nation with a majority of gnomes and halflings, somewhere, who seem to have an endless succession of rulers of other races who just never seem to make much difference - they come in, declare they're in charge now, the halflings and gnomes smile and nod, start serving them really big dinners and putting on entertaining illusion shows, nodding whenever the new boss delivers some kind of order, and telling them that, oh yes, master, it's being done, just as you say, sir!

Meanwhile, they're quietly getting on with their lives and doing just what they'd be doing otherwise. They basically think of it as a way of hiring some mercenaries to defend the nation, and just skipping the whole step of "mercenaries get too powerful, think they can take over their former masters". Whenever a new boss comes in to try to take over, they just stay out of the way and let the old boss fight it out.

I have a race based off Halflings and An Phar that are pretty much pastoral farmers who mostly live in swamps and wetlands.
There pretty much like Kelly describes in that they live near or in human lands and technically under control but really on their own.
No one wants their land and they can be a pain to dig out of it if you do.
Easier to just trade or have them pay fealty with their crops and leave them alone.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

In your DF world, do non-humans have their own countries, or do they just hang around in human countries?

The last DF world i thought up didn't have "countries". The largest polities were still just city states. Some were very populous city states thanks to magical sources of food and water, but ruling large tracts of land was impractical. So the non-humans generally lived in their own autonomous communities or nomadic tribes.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I have trouble imagining a halfing-dominated country, same with gnomes. I just think someone else would come in and take it from them - probably humans, dwarves, or a pile of goblinoids.

Halflings tend to have good abilities with ranged weapons and stealth, and in DF are more-or-less explicitly the Mob. Expect the country to be run in a manner fitting the Italian Mafia, and for warfare to favor guerilla hit-and-run (well, hit-and-vanish, small legs don't lend themselves well to running) tactics rather than straight up combat. An invading army is likely to find its command structure assassinated and its soldiers set upon while on the march. Less structured invasions may be more effective, but are hardly foolproof, as you'll be fighting on the halflings' own territory.

Gnomes tend to have a lot of spellcasters, and are natural tinkers. That latter bit may well make gnome kingdoms rather wealthy (thanks to proceeds from selling inventions), which can combine with the former to outfit their army with magical gear, which may allow them to overwhelm stronger but less well-equipped armies. Wealth can also allow them to hire mercenaries, although that can be a risky proposition. Their greater proportion (presumably) of spellcasters may also make them difficult foes to fight, and you never know what nasty surprises lay in store for you.

Of course, that doesn't mean they need to have countries of their own - both races lend themselves well to living in others' lands, and if they existed in my setting they'd likely be eligible for nobility in most countries.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

The last DF world i thought up didn't have "countries". The largest polities were still just city states. Some were very populous city states thanks to magical sources of food and water, but ruling large tracts of land was impractical. So the non-humans generally lived in their own autonomous communities or nomadic tribes.

My own setting doesn't have particularly large countries, due to the "1 month rule" - a country that is too large for an army to march from any given point to another point within a month is too large to maintain. This isn't really an absolute limit, but the vast majority of polities are much smaller, and I don't have any plans for there to be any that are larger. The one month limit is based on the "war season" being two months long, so if it takes you more than a month to rally your army, there isn't really anything you can do with it (a country that only fights defensive wars will ultimately fail, because its neighbors will be able to become too powerful - the world is pretty conflict-heavy).

I'll need to look at my notes again, but I believe this would limit a flat country to roughly the size of modern France. Add in hills, mountains, forests, rivers, and so forth, and the actual size is a good deal smaller. Not city-state size, of course, but probably closer to the size of a typical US State than a typical country.

[sir_pudding]

My last DF game had:

• A more or less cosmopolitan region of independent kingdoms with various demographic but overall dominated by humans.
• A mountain range with goblinkin, trolls, wildmen, yeti and winged and mountain elf tribes. Beneath was a vast Dwarven kingdom. Above was a ruined flying city inhabited by winged-elves, faerie-folk, gnomes, demons, undead and a dragon.
• An aggressive desert empire ruled by an undead avatar of an elder god, with human and beast-folk (cat, beetle, lizard and dog) subjects.
• A forest dominated by wood elves, but with faerie folk, human, and halfling villages.
• A secretive order of Dragonblooded with monastery-citadels in isolated locations all over the world.
• An ancient city-state in a marshland ruled by shadow elves, with a sizable minority population of dark ones and a couple of dragons.
• A hilly badlands with goblinkin and giants. In the center of this was the vast corpse of an elder god, surrounded by the camps of psionic pilgrims of all races inhabited within by Mind-Warpers and their servants.
• Seven sprawling ruined cities built by a civilization that never existed.

[Highland_Piper]

I have two DF settings.

1st one is what you might call Dungeon World if that wasn't already a registered copyright. It takes place completely underground in an infinite megadungeon. Because of the nature of a Megadungeon nations are not practical but I do have communities based around non-humans. I also have communities based off of height as some areas of the infinite dungeon are tailored for those the height of Dwarves, gnomes, & Halflings.

The 2nd is a more traditional setting and yes the majority of the races have their own nations. My reasoning was you don't normally get multicultural settings in historic settings except in very large trading areas or national borders. I also didn't make humans the dominate species in my setting.

I have a race of Plains Elf which I've based off of the Lakota Tribes.
Several nations of Dwarves
A nation of High Elves & Wood Elves based off ancient China and Wuxia novels
Three separate Goblin-kin nations and they are not stereotypical 'Bad Guys'
A small nation of Dragon-Blooded
Gnomes are travelers like the Romani in our history.
Faerie Folk replace gods and religion in my world. "Small Gods" everywhere which gives spawn to a large number of Half-Spirits
A region of City-States of "Beast Men" - Cat folk, Minotaurs, Wolfkin, Coleopterans, etc.
I only have one nation that is truly multicultural and it is based off of Rome and the Oxbridge collegiate system.

[Bira]

My DF setting is only one country so far, which is somewhat human-dominated but contains representatives of all species. The catfolk who live there are descended from refugees from a pseudo-Egyptian civilization (now extinct), and there's also a Viking Scandinavia analogue that's mostly orcs.

[Flyndaran]

Single species nations seem unrealistic to me unless they live in places impossible for others to survive.
Though if one species is just super suited to a region or ill-suited to others so they defend their niche with ferocity such that it's overwhelmingly them there, I could see it making sense.