Saturday, January 23, 2016

the GUILDS of the CITY-STATE of KARM

the CITY-STATE OF KARM is a very industrial nation, which is also the starting location for the players in my game. in the big capital city of the nation there sits the huge toad of the government, which isnt even a true government at all. the rulers of the city are the huge corporate bodies of the GUILDS, which used to facilitate trade in the villages that became the city, but are now bloated on money and workers. they control the city with their vice-like grip on the economy, but it is a constant power struggle between the many faction-like guilds for the ability to truly rule the town. all guilds are somewhat akin to warring factions or criminal syndicates, the members of each guild skilled in fighting and filled with hatred against the other guilds, and the city is always in a cold war between the guilds, sometimes exploding into Guild War every so often.

a note on dungeons in the city-state: all "true" dungeons were cleared out long ago by agents of the guilds, meaning that there are empty castles, caves, tunnels, and complexes littered about the city-state. the only dungeons in it then are the occasional monster nest, as well as the two municipal dungeons where the guilds drop off their waste. however, destroying the municipal dungeons would net you guild punishments

examples of guilds and their members are below:

THE GUILD OF CUBE-CARVERS are ruled by an old and crotchety gorgon who hides his identity by wearing a large box-mask. he is obsessed with the shape of cubes, and so he orders his servile guild-members to carve any and all materials they obtain into the shapes of cubes. guild members wear cube helmets and boxy armor, and are particularly skilled in the fighting style of boxing. they hate the GUILD OF SPHERE-MAKERS

THE GUILD OF WOODCUTTERS are a small guild, isolated by the other guilds to the outskirts of the city and to the lumber woods where the lumberjacks work. they will typically wear flannel clothes that hide the thick wood underneath, but they are not very popular. they like to handle axes.

THE GUILD OF BASKET WEAVERS all wear woven grasses for clothing and hats. they are very acrobatic, and due to how ubiquitous they are they are able to afford very nice things. their guildmaster, a fat lizardwoman named vurek, wears basket-clothes of golden thread and fine amber jewelry.

THE GUILD OF WAX-DRIPPERS do not craft candles, rather they use candles. the higher up in the ranks you are, the more candles will burn unendingly on your skin. their guildmaster is almost immobile due to all of the wax which covers her.

THE ETERNAL BANKING GUILD, FIRST DIVISION are militaristic bankers. they have uniforms of fine silks which cover heavy metal armaments. they carry their Master Banker in a great golden tank which is equipped with the ability to fire coins.

THE HABERDASHER'S GUILD craft buttons and ribbons and other fanciful things. they are led by a huge red knight that carries a great ribboned sword, and employs 5 by 5 buttoned squires.

Monday, January 18, 2016

weirder classes: the BARD

the basic concept of the bard works well as an adventurer. its based off of the historical traveling minstrels, who would look for heros n whatnot to sing stories about to their lord or lady, but when there was no work they would just steal whatever they could. so they have a pretty good concept that has a good reason to adventure, but thats just not WEIRD enough

bards sing about stuff. FLUTERS OF THE COSMOS play the alien music of otherworldly things, invoking unnatural power with their dissonant and chaotic sounds

THE FLUTER OF THE COSMOS
what kind of music you play and what kind of magic you use is based off of what spirit, daemon, alien, or godling you serve. some dance in parlor fashion, tooting on a flute from down below. some scream and shout anarchic things in the name of some daemon. others play artificial beepings and dissonant sounds. just in general you are gonna play really weird music, and youll have to do favors for whatever thing you serve

HIT DICE: d6 (+1/level after 9th)
SAVING THROWS: +2 to cosmos and dexterity, -2 to strength (or as cleric)
WEAPONS: dagger, other weapons based off of boss
ARMOR: light armor
MAGIC ITEMS: musical instruments, weapons, scrolls
XP to LEVEL 2: 2,250

fluters of the cosmos have the following class features:

  • if you are able to make noise in some way that your boss likes, you are able to invoke their power. this functions as a reaction roll, with +2 if it is a kind of sound that your boss likes, and the ability to spend points of dexterity or cosmos on your performance.
  • you are able to TURN creatures as a cleric by making a huge ruckus of noise. if such creatures are serving your boss, you control them instead
  • you are much more skilled at social interactions, especially with creatures relating to your boss.
  • after level 9, you may choose to join the cacophonous ensemble or orchestra of your boss, leaving the game as a character, but being able to influence the effects of the actions of the party, in a similar way to the Guardian Spirit class over at goblinpunch, with the whole party as your ward

Saturday, January 16, 2016

weirder classes: the BARBARIAN

so ive been reading some posts about the design of new school dnd classes (Pathfinder and 5th Edition), which is shocking given my disposition towards old school type rulesets (like Labyrinth Lord and LotFP). from these posts, and since i own the 5e phb, i came up with the idea to make weirder old school versions of the 5th edition classes (and later the non-core pathfinder classes). so here is the first post of that sort: the BARBARIAN.

note for rules: i dont normally use prime requisites and have different ability scores, so pr wont be listed and i will provide easy conversions for ability scores. in my games, non-fighter classes dont advance in combat ability (mostly because of how i allow multiclassing), so only fighter-types will have attack bonus/attack matrix. i treat item restrictions differently, but my ruling for that isnt going here, and they will still be listed.

barbarian isnt a class. barbarian is what the "civilized" people call the "uncivilized" people. nah, thats a background, not a class. barbarians go berserk, so they are BERZERKERS

THE BERZERKER
you could be a super-soldier who has broken from the platoon and gone on a sadistic rampage, or you could simply be some manic and violent guard or militiaman, or even a wild thing that was brought up by beasts in the wilderness. berzerkers are unified by violence and anger and inability to be reasoned with.

HIT DICE: 1d8 (see below) (+2/level after 9th)
COMBAT: +1/2 level to attacking
SAVING THROWS: +2 to stamina and strength, -2 to magic and intellect (or as fighter)
WEAPONS: anything that isnt too complicated or weak (no bows, no crossbows, no daggers, etc.)
ARMOR: light and medium armor
MAGIC ITEMS: none
XP to LEVEL 2: 2,000

berzerkers have the following class features:

  • if you are not wearing any armor, you can spend points of strength as if it were armor points
  • you begin play with 1d8 grit points in addition to your stamina (constitution) score (if not using my ability score system, have them begin play with 2d8 hp)
  • you receive a +1/2 level bonus to your attack if you attack a different creature on each of your turns in combat (this adds up to a full +level attack bonus if doing that)
  • beginning at level 2, you are able to go into a violent trance. during such an episode, you are unaffected by the world around you and only react to violence. your only goal is death.
  • at level 3, and every third level afterwards (levels 6, 9, 12, etc.), you have a strange effect during your violent episodes. example powers are listed below.
    • darkness vision: you can see in darkness during your violent trances. eyes are humongous and dominated by pupil.
    • forceful bite: if you attack with your mouth during a trance, it deals 1d8 damage. mouth is filled with huge terrible fangs
    • hardened skin: you count as armor 2, even without spending points of strength, during an episode of violence. however, this makes you move slower. skin is only callouses and scabs.
    • monster sense: you can sniff the air to detect a certain breed of creature (this can be done outside of a trance, but at diminished effect).
    • venom: your attacks are venomous, and deal 1 additional point of damage each following turn.
    • really loud shout: can deafen or incapacitate creatures for a time with your incredibly loud shouting/burping.
it is important to note that you must come up with how you got such abilities. also, physical changes do not go away when not in a violent trance, they are simply diminished.

SPELLCASTING

spellcasting in the world with no name comes in lots of flavors. most things that would be called "spellcasting" are actually powers that are different from spellcasting. these include powerful mutations, innate abilities, and supernatural powers gifted by deities. they are set powers, rather than the more fluid abilities present in the casting of spells.

the main types of spellcasting are used by wizards and by the geothermal priests of the dark elves.

WIZARD SPELLCASTING
wizards roll on the following 1d30 table at least twice (possibly more if they know more spells) to determine "magic words" with which the wizard can construct their spells. if the wizard rolls the same word twice, reroll.

to cast a spell, the wizard combines as many magic words as they wish (it can also be a single word!), and they (along with the gm) interpret the spell's effect. if they wish to improve the power of the spell, they must spend points of their MAGIC score. to cast the spell, roll 1d20 + magic points allocated +/- any situational modifiers. if it is 10 or above, the spell goes off without a hitch. if it is 20 or above, it goes off REALLY WELL. if its below 10, the spell fails and something bad happens.

MAGIC WORDS

  1. Fire
  2. Cold
  3. Ball
  4. Force
  5. Unseen
  6. Servant
  7. Faerie
  8. Slime
  9. Flesh
  10. Baby
  11. Bolt
  12. Dark
  13. Eyeball
  14. Spider
  15. Poison
  16. Summon
  17. Monster
  18. Knife
  19. Bullet
  20. Bite
  21. Magma
  22. Death
  23. Undead
  24. Animate
  25. Object
  26. Bone
  27. Blood
  28. Water
  29. Air
  30. Laser

GEOTHERMAL PRIEST MIRACLE USE
the geothermal priests of the dark elves know how to cast spells from a set list of miracles that are sanctioned by the priesthood. the use of these geothermal miracles follows the same dice rules as above, but using the COSMOS score rather than MAGIC. the priest can improvise new spells using the words in the names of the spell, but this is incredibly discouraged.

Friday, January 15, 2016

MORE ECOLOGY of the WORLD WITH NO NAME

there are many farmed animals beyond the ceratopsans detailed in the earlier post on animal life. there are also DOWNFOWL, which are gigantic herbivorous birds that are cultivated for their big and fluffy down-feathers. in the wild, their feathers are tougher and their bodies are scrawnier, with some species even retaining the large keratin horns that were bred out by their lizard person handlers. CHICKENS in this world are just as violent and angry as their earth counterparts, though they tend to have fewer feathers and sharper beaks. otherwise, they are not different in any way from the earthling avians. some say that there are gigantic kinds of chickens that hunt as predators in wild places, but this is just rumor.

the aquatic MOBILE MOUNTAINS are huge arthropods which sometimes stray onto land or are captured by fisherfolk. they look like huge rocks or boulders, and their outer shells are truly made from collected minerals which are used for protection, but within is the stringy meat of other arthropods. when they crawl onto land they tend to die quickly, but since they are blind (or at least hard of sight), they sometimes do it, to their detriment. crawling all over these huge bugs are the parasitic KNOCKERS, crustaceans that cling to the sides of the mountain and crawl around on it, boring through the mineral shell with their similarly mineral-coated mouthparts, sucking some of the blood of the beast and then burrowing back to the surface.

scrawny packs of WILD CATS scavenge and feed on the corpses of fallen creatures, while their pampered domesticated cousins prey on mice and are fed fancy foods. a similar scavenging thing which competes with the feline creatures are HESPEROS, dog-sized and long-legged crocodiles that hunt small reptiles and mammals and compete with cats for scavenged meat.

slithering through the grasses of plains areas are SERPENTS of many sorts. there are the drab and friendly PLAINS SNAKES, which are nearly identical to the much more hostile and territorial SAND SNAKES that hide in holes in the ground in the very same sandy plains that the plains snakes dwell in. they are differentiated by the time at which they are active, and a helpful folk-rhyme helps the lizard people susceptible to the sand snake's hostility and painful bite filled with venom know which serpents are safe to play with or be around (plains snakes during the sun-times, sand snakes afterwards). many species of SEA SNAKES swim through the oceans, with the most well-known being the SPIRAL SERPENT. it is so called for the spiral formation of its swimming.

SKINKS are welcomed by any farmer, for they eat the arthropod pests which would otherwise ravage crops and cause famine. in the cultures around the first nation/point unpleasant region, blue tongued skinks are considered lucky, and the presence of a blue tongued skink is enough to make any lizard person or other person at ease.

ANGLER BUGS are much like an arboreal version of the aquatic angler fish. they flit between trees, hanging below them brightly colored and bulbous antennae that attract smaller insects and flying things, which they then drag to their mouthparts and quickly devour.

SALAMANDERS are common in any wet area. RED GIANTS, also known as HELLBENDERS are huge reddish-brown salamanders which are found in muddy rivers. they swim around and use their drab coloration to their advantage in the ambush of prey. NEWT HOUNDS are carnivorous salamanders that have been bred and kept by the lizard people in environments much too wet and swampy for normal monitor hounds. they are about the size of a fairly large hound, and with the skin and head of a salamander. even though they walk on the land, they must be kept wet to stay comfortable.

TSUCHINOKO are very rare serpents that hide in grassy and otherwise hidden conditions. they spring forth to ambush and attack their prey, which they incapacitate with powerful venom. they look like squat snakes, with strong muscles that facilitate the spring ambushes.

GIANT SPIDERS are sometimes used as mounts by more daring mount-riders, mainly for their military uses and ability to climb walls and trap things. they are oftentimes used to pull the chariots of very important people. in the wild, however, they crawl through forests and plains and all other places that spiders reside, acting much as a spider does. these arachnid predators are specially adapted for the preying on other large arthropods, but they also eat mammals and reptiles.

things you can KILL WITH and things that STOP YOU from BEING KILLED

of course, im talking about Weapons and Armor, collectively called Armaments.

the rules i use for weapons in my games (and system) are based on the weapon's size. unarmed battle is only 1D4, small hand weapons are 1D6 damage (stuff like daggers n small clubs). bigger arms, like swords and axes and shotguns deal 1D8. the REALLY big stuff, like broadswords and whatnot deal 1D10. if its like a cannon or something just use a save and if they fail they die, if they win they take like 1D8. ya dont really need to write down the damage of things, just know how big and bad it is.

for armor, since armorclass isnt something in my games, armor is a dmg reduction. light armor subtracts 1 damage, medium subtracts 2, heavy subtracts 3. there is some with an armor score of like 4+, but you cant really buy that with your money. if, after damage reduction, its 0 or below, you take no damage (if its negative you dont heal why would you??). your amount of armor points also reduce your movement, meaning you subtract your armor points from your DEX score

if you just keep the same damage dice and damage reduction, the armaments can be anything!

WEAPONS

Obsidian Sacrificial Knife (D6 damage)
useful for magic stuff, plus ya can pass off as a cultist and get into their secret gatherins. also easily concealable yay. however, people dont like things that look like cultists. you can get it from nekromancers, cultists, and people that wanna look edgy and metal. shiny

Teething Rifle (D8 damage)
ranged. living thing that is always shedding teeth, needs to eat to produce more "ammo". meat can be covered with metal and wood so it looks like a normal gun. takes extra food resources that the party needs. ya can get it from vivimancers or from strange alien factories.

Grendel's Arm (D10 damage)
long reaching. giant monster arm, must be grafted to body to use with any accuracy. weird monsters (especially giants) will either accept you as one of their own or hate you bc of your monster "murder" (no in between). found in monster graves, dungeons, pulled off of giants

Sorcerer Cage (D8 damage)
ranged. a small wizard-spirit in a cage, cast spells with some poking and prodding. nature of spell-attack will vary, but only function as an attack roll. if it ever gets free, wizard-spirit will hate you so so much and try to kill you.

Pistol (WITH BAYONET) (D6 damage)
ranged (and melee). really just sorta a normal gun, you can get special bullets and whatnot for it tho.
he looks worried

SWORD OF CONFLAGRATION (D10 damage)
really big sword, but also on fire. this fire could spread to things hit with it, it also could not. people will both find you really cool, but they will also really sorta dislike you bc you could catch everything oh fire why in hell is you sword on fire

ARMOR

Armor People (2 armor points)
these people just really want to be on your body for some reason. they are probably really small, so a lot of them can fit, huddled on your body. if you take enough damage, they will die and fall off. this is your fault

Layers Upon Layers (1 armor point)
why are you wearing so much clothing? well it allows for some protection, i guess. if you are attacked by a blunt attack, damage is reduced as normal, but slicing attacks will eventually completely destroy your armor-clothes.

Something Edgy and Heavy (3 armor points)
ow the edge. could you even fit more spikes and skulls on your shoulder pads and knee pads? well anyways, this stuff will either instill fear in your enemies (which is your goal) or it will instill humor in your enemies (which is not your goal), based on how over-the-top it is

Symbiotic Slime (2 armor points)
the slime is thick and protects both it and you from much damage. it must be fed, or else it will begin to feed on you, and any creature that touches it is damaged.

Garbage Armor (2 armor points)
you cobbled this together from garbage of lots of different kinds. might be smelly, might attract bugs and rats.

The Armor of The Famous Knight (3 armor points)
how did you even get ahold of this? it musta been really expensive. it used to belong to a famous knight/dragon slayer/bounty hunter/general/whatever, and it has some real historical value! nothing else special though. its just armor

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

the NEW GOBLIN, the ORC, and the BUGBEAR

before, i have stated that goblins are a monstrous subculture of all manner of strange beings. such a subculture exists, and they are often compared to the weird race of goblinkind, but they are more akin to all kinds of monsters and spirits that hide away in the societies of the world. goblins themselves are something different entirely. (with the Iconic DnD Races i am trying to make them more akin to weird spirits or beings which can be found in all kinds of environments. this is quite evident in my descriptions of the dwarfs, elves, feral children (hobbits), etc. and will continue to be the theme between such Iconic humanoid species)

GOBLINS
goblins are small humanoid things. they are feeble and weak physically, filled with all manner of disease and poison which they could inflict on others. their skin is green and pocked with sores, their faces are ugly and monstrous, either something bestial, some caricature of old age, or something weirder. they are numerous and everywhere.

goblins evolve through consumption. if they kill and eat some living thing, they will begin to take on traits from it. these traits can be passed on down through the generations of goblinhood, creating many different creatures and strains of goblinkind. what some call Hobgoblins are goblins which ate a lot people. Goblin-Hounds are goblins which ate a lot of dogs. Kobalds are goblins which ate rocks or snatched the small mining spirits into their mouths. there are shiny gold goblins, rusty and impervious iron goblins, long-tailed monkey goblins, and goblin changelings (what do you think they ate to become that). to stay as a goblin, the goblin must eat undifferentiated garbage.

the goal of a goblin is to become some kind of Ultimate Being, all through the consumption of all that they possibly can shove into their mouth. goblins do not eat out of hunger, for they are never truly hungry. goblins only eat to reach their goal of evolution.

sometimes, a goblin will eat so much of a particular thing that they will become identical to that thing, with distinction between being nigh impossible. these people merge into the society, mimicking the culture and the people as well as they possibly can, but still working for the goblin folk, bringing them captive people so that they may become one themselves.

the nature of the goblins that are called Thouls is strange and shrouded by lies and semi-truth. they seem to be either the closest thing to a Perfect Being that the goblins have become, or they are goblin efforts to turn non-goblins into a goblin creature, twisting their bodies into weird forms with surgery, augmenting their biology with weird magic and science.

ORCS and OGRES
orcs are lithe and violent humanoids, with blue or green or red skin. they are obsessed with violence, for they see life as a literal game, with death and destruction as the most fun parts! if you die, you're gonna be reborn really quickly anyways, so it doesn't really matter.
orcs are like this but always super happy while slicing your head off with that ax

as orcs age, they get taller and taller. the oldest orcs are immense things that are called ogres. some of the most ancient of the orc things are as tall as mountains, with strange knowledge gathered from their millennia of existence. orcs follow anybody who is larger than they are, with no exceptions. orcish leaders are typically called The Tallest, or Big'uns.

there are many different tribes, enclaves, gangs, and armies of orcs. they fight and feud constantly, all for the sole reason that one tribe claims their leader is The Tallest and the other claims that their's is the Tallest. their solution to this is battle, and whoever wins obviously was bigger and badder

there is a stereotype that ogres are dumb brutes, nothing more than huge slabs of muscle and fat. this is most definitely not the case, as the tallest orcs (ogres) tend to be even more experienced than other orcs, making them more knowledgeable. the smaller orcs are the ones that are really not much more than savage brutes, in it for nothing more than fun.

BUGBEARS
bugbears are strange things. they are shape-changing creatures which hide in closets, under beds, outside windows, and in the darkened recesses of attics and basements. they take on fear-inducing forms, but for what reason people can only guess at. some say they eat fear, others say that they just do it for fun. they mutter and they make the floorboards creak. they are the things that move all of the stuff in your room while you are asleep. they are the things which gaze at you through the window, but which you claim to only be the boughs of some dying tree. they are the things that snatch away children in the night, and the things that crawl through hallways and through the walls, moaning and groaning.

what bugbears look like in their true forms is unknown. they change into any number of faces and of bodies and of skins. some may look like furry things with the head of a jack-o-lantern, others will look like meaty cows and horses but with something off. there are those with skin of cracked porcelain, and those who look like huge hulking hairy brutes. bat wings, fish fins, finger bones, yellow eyes, scaly skin, dirty fur, and suckered tentacles.

for some reason, the feeding habits of the bugbears are what most speak of them. some say that they are child-eaters, while others go broader and claim that they eat of the flesh of humankind. the above suggestion that they feed on fear is another common one, as is the idea that they do not eat at all, and instead are removed from the ecosystem entirely.

bugbears, though not a kind of creature that interacts with people very often beyond instilling fear and terror, are oftentimes found in the monstrous subcultures of hidden things that dwell in many settlements. however, since bugbears have unnatural shape-changing power, they are essentially indistinguishable from the many other monsters, goblins, faeries, undead, vampires, and mutants which belong to such cultures and frequent businesses that cater to the monstrous palette.

(i try to make all of the intelligent species that i create have a specific goal or motivation. dwarfs want to make stuff, elves want to tear the universe limb from limb, feral children want to do childish things and never age, goblins want to become a Perfect Being, orcs just want to have fun (and get taller while doing it), bugbears want to cause fear, k'kladorf want to isolate themselves, cadavers (might) want to find out who they were in life, werewolves and vampires want to reproduce, orcas want to steal and pillage, etc.)

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

FOUR SOME PLACES

THE SPECULARIUM OF KANEZ was once a thriving city, filled with hustle and bustle and all sorts of noises of life. now not a single person lives here, for they have all been converted into an extreme energy source for the powerful wizard KANEZ, who hides and crawls through the alleyways of this place, constantly marauded by the indistinct voices of the folks who have become nothing but magical energy forced into his flesh. he is fearful and paranoid, and almost never uses his nearly limitless power for fear of what the long gone people will do. the streets have become home to gangs of monitor hounds who are very bold about their secret society, for they have nothing to hide from a wizard who is too afraid to do anything but weep and grovel at the mercy of his own energy source.

THE ELFIN CITY OF MANMEAT is an anarchic mockery of a metropolis. it is simply the largest of the many elf-cities which dot the surface and underground of the world like horrific fever dream-esque pimples. the elves from this place are pale and with long, stringy black hair. their teeth look like the teeth of the sharks which swim through the rivers of the place, and which are fought by many elves with free time. their eyes glow in the darkness, and they are able to craft weapons from garbage of equal caliber to the best crafted weapons of the best smith. there is a mayor, and there are elections, but the mayor is just whomever has had the meat-crown on the longest, and the elections are closer to all-out brawls. for some unknown reason, the elves of this city hate each other with a passion completely unknown to all other elves. could this be connected to their wish to construct a city and their surprising immunity to iron?

THE ISLAND OF TIPHANYA is dominated by a great fortress, and within this huge hulking walled citadel there is a community of monks of some seemingly long dead faith, having survived the armageddon which befell the rest of their community through what they claim to have been "pure faith" and "the will of the gods". the actual nature of their religion is completely unknown, as they assume that the apocalypse was to eradicate all non-believers and leave only those who truly believed, and so think that everybody who visits is a follower of their faith.

NEKROMANTIA is the most important necropolis that can be found worldwide, barring only the expansive DRAUGR EMPIRE. nekromantia is ruled by the Thawed Queen, a massive and seemingly mammalian creature that is of some long dead race, which only lived during the VILE MAMMAL AGE (Ice Age). she is stuck within a block ice, slowly melting, and she is only able to interact with the world beyond through her speeches and ravings to her undead servants and subjects. nekromantia is built on a mountain, home to innumerable graves from innumerable ages. it is also the place where one can get the closest to the moon of THE GRAVEYARD in the entire world, as it is the tallest peak, and a very important location for that god-moon. the undead of nekromantia tend to not interact often with any other societies, with the exception of their far-away sister nation of draugr.

ANIMALS of the NATURAL WORLD

MONITOR HOUNDS come in many flavors, ranging from the great hulking lizard-things that rove the wilderness with no master, to the small and colorful pocket hounds that royalty and nobility carry with them in their bags and pockets. they were domesticated long ago by the early lizard people, for use as help in the trying times of the VILE MAMMAL AGE (Ice Age). wild populations of the monitors are slowly dying out, due to hunting by hunters of many kinds. domesticated monitor hounds have a hidden semi-government and secret economy, both of which are fraught with deceit and corruption in the mock street-courts of the lizard dogs. wild monitor hounds have a strange government, one that is more chaotic and collectivist than the imitation of noble life that the domesticated monitor society has. Monitor hounds that are truly monstrous in stature are used by the druids, but it is hard to tell whether they are natural wild hounds or shapeshifted nature freaks

RATS and MICE are some of the most common mammalian forms of life, along with SHREWS and other such small creatures. they live in burrows and hideyholes just as they do in our world, and are similarly eaten by many animals, such as serpents and even the great cultures of the lizard people. another common kind of mammal are the many species of BATS which fly through the night sky, eating insects and chowing down on fruit and, in some species, living a sanguivorous lifestyle. the vast majority of mammals grow no larger than these small rodents or their feline predators CATS, and non-rodent mammals are very limited in population. the only true exceptions to this are the ORCAS, intelligent yet brutish and violent aquatic mammals, and the GNOLLS, cunning and intelligent and hungry and sadistic hyena-like creatures that hide in a small part of the southlands, known of in other lands only from what has been told by the crocmen.

CRICKADEES are huge flying crickets that nest up in the boughs of trees, competing with BATS and even the few BIRDS for space. they, along with the BEHEMOTHS, eat the hulking APHIDS that would otherwise destroy great groves of trees and other plant-life. BEHEMOTHS are gigantic insects, easily larger than even the monitor hounds ridden by druids, with mountain-like curved and smooth shells, patterned with many different patterns in different species. they are nearly unstoppable giants, the only things which can defeat and eat the aphids and their ant masters in the wild, and able to stop the destruction of wilderness areas in an instant. when a behemoth wades into an area, pushing the venomous ANT MASTERS out of the way with their bulk and their smooth shells, breaking the bodies of the aphids and snacking on their insides, attracting lesser, vulture-like crickadees to feast on the weaker aphids and even sometimes on the ant masters.

LOOMS are humanoid creatures, nothing more than unintelligent beasts, which will crawl around the edges of towns, scavenging for scraps of food like a bear would on the earth. when the sun sets and the moons rise, the looms can be seen activating their bioluminescent spots that allow them to find friends and mates in the darkness. there are many superstitions regarding the looms, almost comparing them to the obviously unnatural bugbears, but they are nothing more than peaceful scavengers.

on the shores of the ocean, many different animals can be found. PUFFERFLIES are semi-aquatic fish which can fill themselves with liquid or even air, and then shooting out of the water in a great stream, all to avoid the dread attack of some aquatic predator. QUEEN CRABS are more often found on the shores of more northern lands, but they sometimes drift further south and into other lands. they are huge crustaceans, resplendent in the bright crimson shades which color the slight male's huge crown-like crest, but the much much larger females are just a famous, known for their plentiful delicious meat in fishing communities. many species of HERMIT CRABS, coming in many different sizes, gather different materials to hide in, or even sometimes to construct a home for themselves. giant sorts are not too common on the shoreline, but can be found deep underwater, with mysterious room-like chambers in their shell-homes.

LEECHES are found in any wet environment, and they eat many different kinds of things. of course, there are the vampiric leeches of the more swampy lands, which are oftentimes prone to becoming chupacabra from their sanguivorous lifestyle, but there are also worm-eating leeches in hilly lands, coral-like sea leeches, huge many eyed and bloated gutter leeches which have evolved for an urban environment, and snatch at airborne insects and bats with prehensile teeth. SAND WORMS are found in desert areas, with their heavy armor plating protecting their fragile wet flesh from the abrasive sand beyond it. they are common predators, and they will sometimes disguise their tongues as cacti to attract prey. OASIS NEMATODES are small worms that can be found in the isolated pockets of water and life in the desert, which will snag on the flesh of their perfect host, and cause disorienting mental effects, brain tumors, and possibly death in hosts that are of the wrong sort.

tiny PTEROSAURS flit through the skies of the very warm regions near the equator, where some bat species would overheat with their fur and warm blood. they are very colorful, with beautiful crests and bright markings. they run the gamut from predator to prey, from carnivore to omnivore to herbivore. some break open nuts with their strong beaks, while others use snaggle teeth to snatch tiny flying insects and even other, smaller pterosaurs from the sky. it is said that there are huge, larger than a person, pterosaurs hidden somewhere in the wilderness.

CERATOPSI are farmed for their meat by the lizard people, but they once were huge horned creatures that roamed the wilderness in huge flocks and herds, chewing on the grasses and defending themselves from the large predators. they have huge crests, sometimes with eyespots or other coloration in some breeds, and with snipping beaks and piercing horns. cow ceratopsi will tend to have smaller horns than the male ones, but the females are much larger and fatter. there is a very large trade in the huge horns of these beasts.

ROACHES come in many, many sorts and live in many environments, with small URBAN ROACHES sifting through the refuse of civilization, brown and grey and easily missed. the flat CRACKER ROACHES crawl in the dark spots of wet forests, flattened and wide so that they may fit through thin spaces. GARGANTUA ROACHES are large sorts that live within swampy environments, adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle and defended against marsh predators with a hard shell.

more of the ecology of the world with no name is forthcoming