theme for a fantasy campaign

[whswhs]

One of the things I've been thinking about is the ways in which the various races might "sin"—that is, go down a destructive path. I'm looking for ways in which all of them might refuse cultural, ecological, and economic exchange with the others. Like my other thoughts, these are speculative and somewhat inspired by Tolkienian symbolism. However, I don't want to have any purely "evil" races like his orcs; even Tolkien was thinking better of that later in life.

* Dwarves tend to worry about hoarding and trying to have a lot of inflow and no outflow.

* Elves develop very stable societies preoccupied with rank and formal roles. and want the rest of the world to be equally stable; ideally they'd like to have massive afforestation so that as much of the world as possible can be a pleasance.

* Ghouls fall into short-term thinking, seeking maximal returns without repeat business, through stealth, theft, fraud, and occasional mobbing.

* Halflings have the characteristic problems of market economies: If you don't have formally defined property rights in something they treat it as a free good and overuse it. They also have some rent-seeking tendencies, though not as bad as elves.

* Men's failings are the state, conquest, and war; they're attracted by power.

* Selkies embody the lawlessness of the open sea, being likely to turn to viking raids.

* Trolls seek power at an individual level: Males through superior strength, females through superior magic. Trollwives are the closest the world has to the classic "wicked witch" stereotype.

Bill Stoddard