Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

Cookie elves are just a joke so I really don't think they will make the cut.

For me, if I was designing the game I would have a lot of different types of elves, dwarves, gnomes, goblins, trolls ect. The main reason is the fact that I like variety and I get bored fighting only drow and duergar. That is the reason I like to find myths and then try to make different types like rubezahl dwarves, poison elves, blight elves, duende, chilblain elves,ect. So for that reason it is good to have discussion.

As far as internal logic I don't know what to say. I could just write the history of a world I made but that would omit others contributions.

Is there anything you like so I could focus more on them instead of elves?

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

Basic timeline

In the begining there was nothing but chaos and void. The gods arose from the chaos and created the universe and all of the planes of existance. Ancient gods awoke and attempted to break into the universe and destroy it but they were thwarted by the gods and banished to alternate universes. Many gods were slain during the banishment and the ancient gods were extremely powerful.

After this the ancient gods contacted the gods through dreams and created discord and evil in the world. This made the war among themselves and those gods who were evil were defeated were sent to the prison of Hell. Within Hell there opened a great pit called the Abyss that spawned countless demons. The evil gods and their servants became known as devils while those evil beings formed from the Abyss were called demons. All sought revenge on the mortal realm and began to pollute it through sin and evil.

The mortal realm was created and as it matured different lifeforms and races arose. First plants then tiny animals. Intelligent races arose ranging from colepoterans, crawderans and other insect people. After this fishmen, vausun and other races. Then the Sakyss and other lizardmen. The Sakyss ruled for many ages. During these times the ancient gods contacted many of the sentient creatures often giving them great powers. The gods became aware of this and built the barrior against the ancient gods much stronger.

Then came the age of birdmen and mammals. Humans, Simil (Ape-men), and other races came into being. Also during this time creatures from the faery realm can in great numbers; elves, dwarves, gnomes, goblin-kin, giants, dragons, medusae, and almost all fantastic monsters. The Sakyss enslaved or ate most of these creatures but some of the elves and halflings hid in forests and other natural areas, the dwarves and gnomes dug great mines, the goblin-kin hid in caves and most other monsters kept out of reach if possible. Many humans hid as well especially in the north.

Eventually the Sakyss declined in power and humans took their place. The humans grew in power and learned great magics. Some were quite wicked and summoned many demons and dark entities to the realm, as did many evil beings from the faery realm like the huldra elves, blight elves, poison elves, dvergar, rubezahl ect. These beings created temples and warred with their less evil cousins. There were many wars but the forces of good triumphed over the forces of evil and the forces of evil retreated to secret places or deep bleow the earth. The huldras, goblin-kin and dvergar lived in the faery underworld before they came to the mortal realm so they adapted easily, others had a more difficult time and had to remain hidden in remote locations instead of underground.

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

There is no cut. So it is written, so it shall be! Someone writes anything that doesn't contradict some earlier posting - and it's in.

I'm all for variety, just right now there are too many different types of elves and not enough of anything else. I'm not a fan of the little fairy type creatures in fantasy, so I'm all for just squashing the Pocket elves. Even if I liked them - the name isn't very good.

Stuff that I'd like to see. Urban dwarves that are artificiers who live above ground. Contrasting with the more traditional dwarves who dwell below the surface of the mountains. Gnomes and how they are substantially different from dwarves. How different races have specific takes on magic and spell casting. I've always liked having dwarves standard magic being based around runes and enchanting. Tribes of racial weres - skin-turners would use witch craft and herbalist style alchemy.

I'd like to see kobolds that are weak individually but that exploit their numbers and travel in large groups and fight in packs, teams, etc.

I'd like to see the plains populated with centaurs, plains elves, Exalted Horses, and unicorns. I'd like to see them as allies and trade partners with some as enemies, but mostly they'd fight together against orcs, humans, and reptilemen.

Speaking of reptilemen I'd like to see variations that dwell in the swamplands and others that are desert dwellers. Perhaps reptilemen that roam the plains and have longer legs enabling them to run very fast.



As far as internal logic I don't know what to say. I could just write the history of a world I made but that would omit others contributions.

Is there anything you like so I could focus more on them instead of elves?[/QUOTE]

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

Well, I have just been going through some of a small part of what I want to include. As for elves, I like them and they are magical enough to be interesting when they have different powers. Pocket elves were just an idea I had for an adventure.

I haven't had enough time to get to other races in detail. The difference I see with gnomes and dwarves is that dwarves are bigger and stronger while gnomes are more magical. Gnomes have the power to meld with the earth as they are part earth elemental. Gnomes will be craftsmen on a smaller scale than dwarves. There are different types of beings too, like the Nisse, the Nains and the evil Tromes who are mixed with troll blood.

There are also many different legends of dwarves so I will use many different types. The Vasily live in farmlands and there are also others who live in cities and such. Dwarven magic is not like other magic in that dwarves are not mages but dweomerworkers. They forge magical items just with their innate skill not with enchantment. Dweomerworkers use the runes they forge from metal to focus their spell energy.

So far I haven't had time to look into weres yet but I will after the gnomes and dwarves.

There are many of these kinds of creatures, like knockers, boggarts, and others I will get to them

Centaurs are one of my favorite creatures so they will get good treatment.

Reptilemen will also get good treatment. So far there are the Sakyss who have ruled the world for most of the time, but there will be other retilemen adapted to different environments.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

I'd have figured elves were due for a hiatus after Elf Elves...

Any reason the pocket elves can't be pocket gremlins? (other than that movie)...

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

Nains

Related to the dwarves and gnomes are the Nains. They are a little smaller than a dwarf and they live with along with humans. They often live in cities and work as craftmen or merchants. Others are servants at Inns, taverns, farms or noble houses. They are skilled blacksmiths but they don't have the same dweomerworking power as the dwarves do but a few exceptional ones may come close. Nains enjoy hard work and are well disciplined. They dislike goblinoids and giants. Some may become knights or scouts while others may become thieves. They tend to be less likely to use magic but there are a few wizard nains among them. They are naturally magically resistant.

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

OK - I see that the "no editing no-how never" approach is difficult. Especially when it risks to send the setting down the silly drain.

So I've created a small wiki here - most of the content from this thread is (and will be) copied there, but I took the liberty to leave out quite a few elves/faeries, including all (well, almost all) "cookie elves" stuff.

A timeline is not in there yet - and anything in that direction should probably be kept vague and concentrated on creation myths and ancient stuff.

Please: keep posting to this thread - there's solid potential here and I'd like to prevent that from going to waste. :)

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

These would be hard to differenciate from dwarves in french :) As Nain is the french name for dwarves :)

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

Yeah, but Nains are dwarves that are household servants in some myths so I was thinking that they could be a more urban dwarf like Griffen wanted. Nains can be described as a gnome as well so I decided to make a nain different than a dwarf, just elf are different from dwarves in games yet in myths they are considered the same beings.

Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
 

I know, I was just wondering how I would call dwarves in french then :)