Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
The vast fertile plains and wooded hills of the area known to the sages as Pentopotamia, the Land of Five Rivers, has been settled by humans, elves and halflings for untold millenia. However, the great northern inland sea and its surrounding lakes - into which all of the five rivers run - are no protection from the fierce cold winds from the arctic tundra beyond.
So the land nowadays often called Otamia has always been the victim of titanic storms which race upstream along the five rivers until they shatter on the mountain ranges to the south and east. This is the reason - or so it is told - for the tradition to build deep and strong cellars and subterranean sanctuaries in this region, where even some great temples lie completely underground, and where even small towns may sit upon the remains of half a dozen older cities and their deep vaults and sewers! |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Ice Elves
These elves live in the frozen north and they are quite resistant to cold based attacks. They wear loose fitting magical fabrics made of ice. They are known to wear armor and use weapons made of ice. These weapons and armor will not break once forged unless they are brought to temperatures above freezing for more than a day because then the enchantment will break and the items will return to ordinary ice and melt. Their dweomerworkers can forge these items with great magical power. They are very protective of wildlife and nature. They will respect those who are respectful toward nature and kill only for food but those who seek profit from firs will meet an icy fate. Trappers and fir traders have had long running conflicts with the ice elves. The ice elves delight in winter and they will often paint the land with frost in celebration. Some ice elves are powerful weather mages while others are scouts or druids. |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Wood Elves
These elves live in woods or forests. Their houses are in secret groves or tree houses. The make everything they use from the forest from weapons to mundane items. They have dweomerworkers that turn fallen oak limbs into great oaken swords, they weave wood fiber into cloth making clothing and their magical cloaks and boots. They also make shields, bows and arrows from wood. The can place dweomer upon acorns and make them into elf shot which are propelled using slings. The acorns are known to cause sleep, mind control and even death to those shot at. The wood elves move silently in forests and can remain unseen due to the camouflaging effect from their cloaks. They consider themselves to be protectors of the forest and will keep out hunters and trappers. The wood elves are vegetarians and will not kill animals other than in self-defence. Many wood elves will help sick or wounded animals in they happen to find them. Wood elves are friendly toward positive nature faeries but react negatively towards unseelies like orcs, trolls and ogres. They are neutral with regard to humans . |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Alfar
They are also known as the faery elves and they a said to live in Alfheim within Arcadia. They are rumored to be the ancestors of all elves in the mortal realm and their power is supposed to be legendary. The myths say that there were two wars in Arcadia. The first was the war between the Seelies and Unseelies. The Seelies were led by the sidhe and alfar while the Unseelies were led by the Fomor. The result of this war was that the Unseelies (fomor, orcs, trolls ogres and goblins) were sent to the underworld or to remote locations. This war continued on but the Seelies always won. The second war was the war between the Seelies; the dark elves and dwarves against the light elves and dwarves. The dark forces united with the Fomor but were still defeated so they retreated to the underworld with the Fomors. The Alfar are said to aid the elves in the mortal realm, although there has been little direct evidence of that. There is, however, one legend of the wicked King Nadan who decided to use the Whispering Woods as a hunting ground and logging source. The king was said to have met great resistance from the wood elves who lived within the woods. The king developed a hatred for the wood elves as they constantly fought against his plan for control. Eventually the king was able to defeat the wood elves and had them captured. He decided to execute them and as there were thousands of wood elves the execution went through the night. Some said that the screaming of the wood elves had attracted what appeared to be riders mounted upon white flying horses. They circled the castle ominously and by the next morning the castle was a smoking ruin. Other evidence of the Alfar is the magical swords and armor sometimes found in the mortal realm. This metal which is called Arcadianite is silvery with a soft sparkle and is tremendously strong. Swords made with this metal are almost always penetrating and the armor cannever be pierced, so only crushing damage is possible. The drawback with this metal is that it is dependent on mana and will lose it's power if left in areas with no mana. |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Balor
Balor was a great hero of the fomor during the battle for Arcadia. He is described as a hideous giant with one enormous eye within his head. He can kill all onlookers with a mere glance of his poisonous eye. He is a tremendously strong and a fierce warrior. He was killed in battle and went to Hell where he was given new life to avenge the Seelies. Many goblinoids worship Balor and he has a large following among the warlike. In the mortal realm Balor cults are feared as he bestows great powers to followers. It is rumored that if Balor can gain enough power through worship and sacrifice he can return to Arcadia and possibly the mortal realm to avenge the forces of good. |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Ciocal
This is the origional king of the Fomor. He is described as a gaunt man with greenish-grey skin and ugly features. His head is bald and he has a mouth full of hideously sharp teeth. His hands are clawed and he usually wears a black hooded cloak. He is a master of secret knowledge and many scholars who are evil worship him. He is a plotter and and patiently plans his attacks upon the world. He cares little for being released to the mortal realm and instead hopes to cause great suffering from a distance. Worshippers are often given knowledge and strange occult powers. Many mages follow this deity. |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Poison Elves
These elves are quite wicked. They appear as normals elves but they have a greenish cast to their complexion. They have the power to poison food and drink and their bite is poisonous as well. They also have the power to imbue their weapons with poison too. They are immune to poison so they often keep everything they own poisonous. They are somewhat nomadic as they go from town to town causing misfortune and illness. They get along with blight elves and huldra elves for short term alliances but these are shortlived as both sides have little honor and cheat. Other elves dislike poison elves as do most other creatures. |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
The coleopterans have an ancient myth that tells of their land of origin. According to this myth their species was born on a continent far beyond the dark waters west of the Thousand Tears. They lived there in a kind of paradise until a "sky-shard" fell down on this land, thus destroying all that lived there. Only one of their tribes survived. This tribe followed a queen with the gift of foresight. She had given them a prophecy of the sky-shard and told them to build the longest tunnel of all times - a tunnel to the east, beneath the bottom of the sea, to a new promised land.
The tribe kept digging and traveling east for more than a hundred years, and they reached their promised land in the end - but because some of them had doubted the old queen and assassinated her before the arrival the coleopterans were punished: the new lands were full of other races and never again would the coleopterans rule the surface world in peace. . |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
A popular theory among sages claims that some of the so-called "Reptilians", especially the Hsaing and the Lizard Men, are somehow descendants - or at least related to - the legendary Sakyss.
Some even believe these two species to be the results of deliberate experimentations of the Sakyss, quite similar to the origin of the Dragon-Blooded. One argument for this theory is founded in the fact that the Hsaing first seem to have come from the large jungle island of Sertanya. A place which, though largely unexplored, is known to harbor most of the few Sakyss ruins still in existence. The Hsaing themselves sometimes tell of a great holy "City of the Gods" deep within the rainforests of Sertanya, but they also say that their priests in this city will sacrifice all non-reptilian intruders, and to this day no humanoid who might have found this city has returned from the jungle to tell the tale... |
Re: [DIY] DF Setting Information
Some stories about the Faery Realm - or Arcadia - claim that while it has all the usual features of a "real" natural world, like continents, weather, seas, etc., it is not a real world. Instead it is a vast planar zone within the inifinity of primordial chaos! The boundaries are supposed to be vague and shifting, often taking the form of thick fog, mist or enormous hedges.
The ubiquitous magic of Arcadia is then only a "filtered" form of chaos - and mankind itself may just be the result of the original elves, dwarves or orcs (not their current, low-mana adapted forms) who wandered in from the Faery Realm slowly being transformed, "thinned" by the harsh reality of the material world. But maybe this is really just a story... |
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