CHARACTER CREATION in the WORLD WITH NO NAME

YOU FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURE

1. SCORES
2. RACE or SPECIES
3. COOL STUFF that u can DO
4. COOL STUFF that u OWN

SCORES

to begin with, ROLL 3D6 IN ORDER for the following 8 ABILITY SCORES

• VIOLENCE
• SKILL
• STRENGTH
• STAMINA
• CHARISMA
• INTELLIGENCE
• MAGIC
• COSMOS

note MODIFIERS to your other SCORES based on the scores above. in general, use the following table for modifiers (however, starting characters cant have less than 3 or more than 18)

• 1: -5
• 2: -4
• 3: -3
• 4-5: -2
• 6-8: -1
• 9-12: 0
• 13-15: +1
• 16-17: +2
• 18: +3
• 19: +4
• 20: +5

NOTE: ALL ABILITY SCORES CAN BE USED AS SAVING THROWS TO AVERT BAD EFFECTS

your VIOLENCE score is your skill to kill, your Fighting Prowess. the modifier from Violence affects all attack rolls, though some attacks may have a smaller modifier due to bad dexterity or a weak physical nature (entirely determined by roleplay and not actually enforced in the rules). 

your SKILL is your agility, dexterity, and general ability. with low Skill your character is a clumsy oaf, with high Skill you are basically an assassin or acrobat or lockpick or whatever skilled profession you are.  The modifier from Skill affects the number of Skill Slots you have at character creation, and your skill can also possibly affect your ability with ranged weapons.

your STRENGTH is your muscle. it isnt your ability to fight with heavy weapons, because you can be muscular and not at all skilled at fighting. This is used for how much weight in treasure you may carry in your hands, as well as your ability to force things open.

Your STAMINA is your health or constitution. After your hit points are gone, all damage is taken from your Stamina, and when it reaches 0 your character dies in the goriest way possible for what dealt the damage. I don't even care if how you die isnt very likely. FATIGUE decreases your Stamina, and RESTING increases it.

your CHARISMA is your social skills and general air. it is whether people like you or not. it doesnt directly affect any sort of stat or roll, but it is used for determining character personality, and for making a SOCIAL SAVE to avert failure in a social situation (the only time Charisma checks are rolled)

your INTELLIGENCE is your knowledge, or your book-smarts. If your character went to a UNIVERSITY, then this score will be higher. it affects your character's starting languages, the ease with which they learn additional languages, what sorts of knowledge they have, and the number of spells they begin with (if any).

your MAGIC is just that. it is your character's ability with magic, their skill at sensing it, etc. it affects anything to do with magic, but more specifically the casting of arcane spells.

Your COSMOS is what you are on the cosmic scale, which truly amounts to nothing unless you have like 200+, but for a mortal you can have marginally more than others maybe. it affects how likely you are to notice something, and the ease with which you receive miraculous gifts from a spirit, being, godling, etc.

there are also other statistics, such as Armor, Damage, Hit Points, etc.

RACE or SPECIES
you can choose from the following list of races to create your character. these have codified rules, but i am not gonna write those here

• Lizard Person
• Gorgon
• Elf
• Dark Elf
• Cadaver (race template)
• Vermis
• K'Kladorf
• Undine
• Orca
• Lycanthrope
• Vampire (race made on a case-by-case basis)
• Homonculus
• Robot

COOL STUFF u can DO

YOU have 5 ADVENTURE POINTS. you can SPEND THESE to be able to DO COOL THINGS. every race has an AP COST, which is usually 1 ap, but is 2 for some and 0 for the lizard people. after "purchasing" your species, you can use AP to get cool special features, which include combat skills, magical spells, serving a weird deity, additional skill slots, strange items, etc.

COOL STUFF that u OWN

EQUIPMENT is simply decided by you in conjunction with the GM. this is because purchasing equipment takes too much time, and is really quite annoying. just come up with stuff that your character owns, run it by the GM, and they will say whether you can have it, cant have it, or if it will cost AP.

MORE on DWARFS and also HOBBITS, GOBLINS

since the DWARFLAND is blasted and wasted from construction and destruction, dwarfs will sommetimes send expeditions into other worlds to build and build and build. These expeditions will always have at least one Mother with them. They will bring with them tools from the dwarfland, brought in massive and weird caravans pulled by Pack Dwarfs (dwarfs which have volunteered their services and have had their anatomy augmented to pull things and carry things).

DWARFS DO NOT truly HAVE A RELIGION. they have no time to hail any sort of god or spirit or saint or whatever, because they are just so busy building things. However, the dwarfs believe that the first of dwarfkind were crafted long ago by some sort of AllMother (or Mega-Mother, Queen of Dwarfkind, Mistress of Construction, etc.) they do not hail this parent, but take extreme offense if any insult her

some leading theories on the Creation of Deros:

• Deros are born from a dwarf who has become Drunken
• Deros are made from only half-finished dwarfs crafted by a Mother
• Deros are Dwarfs possessed by some sort of Daemon
• deros are created when a Dwarf or other Creature insults the AllMother
• deros are created from Dwarfs who fail to turn a resource into a new object

HOBBITS are from societies and cultures of feral and runaway babies, toddlers, and children. they do not age. they do not die. they have stunted skills and weird perspectives. they are unknowingly violent and destructive. They often steal away children and babies to turn into even more HOBBITSES. hobbits are sometimes called Halflings, Lost Children, Feral Babies

think the lost boys from peter pan, but still wearing the fancy clothing of a normal fantasy hobbit (or they are completely naked)

aarg itll kill ya

GOBLINS are all the gross and weird things that society just really doesnt like. these are usually small and gross. these are usually promptly kicked out of the said society and forced to live on the fringes in wastelands and sewers and garbage dumps. these usually also embrace that existence and fully transition over to just loving garbage and rats and killing things. many different types of creature are called goblin by others, and thus they all consider themselves to be one and the same, despite possibly vast species differences. Exampls of Goblins include:

• Garbage Elementals
• Mining Spirits (ie: kobalds)
• Greenskins (think ur run of the mill goblins and orks)
• Snotlings
• ratmen
• VOMITOR
• junkbots
• grave motes
• feral babies
• talking dogs
• monkeys

sometimes folks will call the more human-sized goblins orcs, but goblin is technically the proper name for this weird culture of many different species

ALSO WHY NOT SOME WEIRD ITEMS based on BLOODBORNE

THE BLOOD VIAL can be used for healing, but with the chance of failure if used incorrectly. When one uses a blood vial to heal one's self, roll 1d8. If you roll a 1-4, subtract that number from the hp, but if you roll higher, add the number minus 4. If the user is trained in medicine, the chance of failure is brought down to 2 in 8, and thus the maximum amount of hit points gained is also increased (instead subtract 2, rather than 4). it can also be used to distract more sanguivorous creatures

THE BLOODSHOT EYEBALL can be used to see into paralllel dimensions and worlds. Only 13 such eyes exist, each corresponding to a different dimension. they release light like a lantern, and all things illuminated by the weird light is shown from that world's perspective. Light is only emitted from the pupil side of the eyeball.

THE ASHEN CHILD is a singular object, who must have, long ago, been some royal's child or servant boy, but who also has many features of a small mummy monkey. THE ashen child can be pointed at someone, and then it will whisper a single secret of that someone into the holder's ear

the QUEENLY FLESH are large meaty and veiny organs, constantly wriggling and oozing red and clear gunk and muck and fluid. they feel IMPORTANT for some reason. If one swallows a piece of queenly flesh they can integrate complete into the strange and exclusive circles of royalty and of nobles, and they can effortlessly follow their confusing conversations, for as long as the squirming meat is digesting

MONEY

most parts of the world (and specifically the region my game will take place in) use a semi-unified coinage system, which is listed below:

• Mice
• Rats
• Owls
• Fungi
• Slaves
• Huntsmen
• Questing Beasts (or Quests)

a mouse is a copper coin, with the image of a small rodent emblazoned on it

a Rat is a larger brass coin, with the picture of a huge fat rat carved in it

an owl is about the same size as a brass rat, but instead made from silver. the image on it is usually the face of an owl

Fungus coins are made from Palladium, an alloy of mostly silver and some gold, and usually with the image of a mushroom upon them

slaves are gold coins. they have the picture of a lizard person's head carved on them (or a member of a different species in older coins (typically orcas or gorgons in such examples).

a huntsman is a coin made from gold, silver, and copper. it is green in hue. They are decorated with the image of an armed ranger or hunter

a QUESTING BEAST is the most valuable of coins. it is made from platinum, and it is carved with the most famous Questing Beast at the time of minting, or the Questing Beast of the area.

The exchange rate is as follows:

• 1 Mouse
• 1 Rat=50 Mice
• 1 Owl=2 Rats=100 Mice
• 1 Fungus=50 Owls=100 Rats=5,000 Mice
• 1 Slave=2 Fungi=100 Owls=200 Rats=10,000 Mice
• 1 Huntsman=50 Slaves=100 Fungi=5,000 Owls=10,000 Rats=500,000 Mice
• 1 Quest=2 Huntsmen=100 Slaves=200 Fungi=10,000 Owls=20,000 Rats=1,000,000 Mice

one can exchange any of these coins for what they are named after, or vice versa. So someone with 1 copper mouse coin can exchange it for a live or cooked mouse, and the literal mouse can also be used as a currency. Slave coins used to be exchangeable for slaves, but that is sort of frowned upon these days, and it is now typically used to buy the services of some professional. Huntsmen will typically be used to hire some powerful adventuring specialist. you cannot buy a Questing Beast, but if you catch a questing beast it can be exchanged for a platinum coin. usually, the side that doesn't have the coin's namesake on it will be carved a different way for each country or nation.

Other currencies from around the world include:

• Draugr Anatoma
• different parts of the body of a creature are used as currency in the undead empire of Draugr
• Undine Corals and Birthrights
• the coins used by the aquatic amazon race (the Undine) are carved from different species of coral. they will usually have a hole bored through them, for ease of transport (on a belt or string). The most expensive currency of the many undine empires are Birthrights, which are goods promised to a child upon hatching, and are all worth more than simple coins. They are exchanged abstractly
• Unpleasant Dollars
• The terrifying and terrible dictatorship that is Point Unpleasant uses a sort of paper money, which is pieces of flexible cardboard painted with the current demagogue's face, or some kind of important historical event. Some say that these dollars hide SECRET MESSAGES
• Monitor Hisses
• The SECRET currency of the hidden culture and society of the monitor hounds. made entirely out of sound and hissing, and exchanged abstractly
• First Nation Tablets
• Ancient clay tablets, very large. carved with a hole in the center for easy transport, and with poems inscribed on the edges. worth a FORTUNE if any are found
• Coins that are Holy in the Eyes of Ahjax
• These are any kind of coin/dollar/whatever that has been sanctified by a priest/prophet/saint/demigod/whatever of Ahjax, in the Nation of the Concordance of Ahjax. they are worth as much as they were before becoming holy when in the Nation, but when outside of it they are worth 3 times as much to an Ahjaxian. all currency must be holy to be used in the Nation of the Concordance of Ahjax

INTERESTING INFORMATIONS regarding MY SETTING

THE FOLLOWING IS A COLLECTION OF INFORMATION ABOUT MY MAIN SETTING THAT I AM COLLECTING HERE SO I DONT FORGET IT

Dwarfs
Dwarfs are from dwarfland (also known as Duergar, The Construction, the Manufactory). dwarfland is a world marred by industry, construction, and art. this is because Dwarfs are obsessed with one thing and one thing only: making stuff. They never aren't making stuff. dwarfish ethnicities/cultures/whatever you want to call them are known by what they make stuff with, for example

1. The Dwarfs of Wood and Wine
2. The Dwarfs of Flame and Steel
3. The Dwarfs of Sand and Bone
4. The Dwarfs of Meat and Skin
5. The Dwarfs of Electricity and Glass

Dwarfs do not reproduce they do not have genitals. those dwarfs that are skilled enough to makee other dwarfs are called MOTHERS. dwarfs are usually too busy making things to have gender, and so they are all agender. only those dwarfs that stop making things identify as any sort of gender.

SOMETIMES something weird happens to a dwarf. they lose their obsession with crafting and manufacture, and get a new obsession: DESTROYING THINGS. these corrupted dwarfs are called DEROS and can also be found in dwarfland. they are also too busy for gender, but instead are too busy destroying stuff. they will never make anything unless it is to a) destroy it or b) to help destroy something else. sometimes a DEros will search out the building materials of their dwarfish culture more than other materials, but they are happy to destroy anything

GHOSTWORLD is not the afterlife. there is no afterlife, without the use of powerful necromancy. GHostworld does have dead things in it. it is unclear if these are the actual dead thing they claim to be, or if they are just really good at lying. Ghosts that exist for longer become more monstrous and weird. Ghosts haunt our world to get power. the more power they get the more monstrous and weird and BIG they become. ghosts never die, they are only banished back to the ghostworld and will eventually come back to a) wreck vengeance and b) grow more power. Ghosts never forget anything

The Calendar is a circle. there are 4 seasons on it (springtime, summertime, autumntime, and wintertime). there are 13 months on it (3 in springtime, 4 in summertime (the lizard people really like summer (also they might all die without this longer heat period), 3 in autumntime, and 3 in wintertime). there is a leap year every 5 years (leap years cause the midsummer month to be 32 days long, rather than 31 days). The new years day (The Beginening) is the first day of springtime.

The Lizard People HATE wintertime. they cant have kids, they cant grow or hunt food, they cant even really leave their houses without special coats and heatpads and whatnot. this is because they are lizards. they also hate wintertime because it seems that MAMMALS are more powerful during it. the lizard people are incredibly weakened, but those disgusting mammals just keep on going, unhindered by the cold because of their fur and fat and warm blood. terrible violent Orca raids are more common during the winter months.

The game i will soon be playing in this setting happens in a certain region. here are some country descriptions for a handful of the nations that can be found in this region

• THE CITY-STATE OF KARM: very industrial and small nation-state, government watches all actions done, but isn't too harsh with punishments. mysterious waste dumping facilities are inhabited by weird creatures and esoterically-thinking directors
• POINT UNPLEASANT: very controlling and authoritarian dictatorship, very arid and just generally unpleasant. the government is hiding many secrets
• THE IMPERIUM OF HYBERIA: empire currently in a renaissance. filled with new marvels of pre-industrial engineering, even miraculous personal vehicles! what powers all these devices?
• THE WIZARD COURTS (of Xigzaea and of Xigzuu): two twin nations, owned by rival sibling wizards who hired extradimensional weirdos, freaks, and mercenaries to help them destroy the other wizards
• DRAUGR: immense empire of the undead to the north
• THE NATION OF ATH: athiest country, killed their god and now live within it

VAMPIRES

vampires are made from a living being "infected" with a semi-intelligent black ichor/ooze, known as CONCENTRATED VAMPIRISM. this slime replaces all of their blood, and gives them weird weaknesses and maybe a handful of powers. there are many different strains of the plague, but all of them make the body nigh-immune to pain and damage. The different strains of the vampire ooze all have extremely different weaknesses and powers (examples will be present in an upcoming post of random generators). anything can become a vampire. unintelligent animal vampires are known as CHUPACABRAS. Vampires do not necessarily have to consume blood, but they are compelled to eat meat and blood, and they must introduce the slime into the bloodstream to reproduce. 

DEVILS

DEMON is a general term for "weird thing from somewhere i am not familiar with". these include space aliens, wizard creations, extradimensional weirdos, members of other species, and Those People with the Weird Beliefs from Over the Mountain. DEVILS are a specific kind of creature. devils are from Hell. hell is not the afterlife. You can get to hell by just digging really, really deep. Hell is a a weird pocket dimension that can be accessed from anywhere in the universe by digging very deep. devils live here, and come in a monstrous and terrifyingly weird spread of variation (devil generator forthcomingg). Devils have no concept of mortality or impermanence, as they are all always reborn if they are ever destroyed. almost all things in hell is a living Devil, and most Devils are intelligent enough to speak.

THERE IS MORE THAT WILL COME i might make general posts like this to help me remember, there will be more extravagant posts however

the races of the other world with no name

The following are the most prominent races present in the other world with no name (or lizard world, for reference purposes), which is the planet that the last post is set in

The Lizard People
the most prominent race in the world. they essentially function as this planet's version of humans, but since mammals are extremely rare and always exceedingly violent and disgusting, humans are not present at all. there are many different cultures, ethnicities, subspecies, etc., just like humans

Elves
Since they are extraterrestrial in origin, they can be found on many different worlds. However, I have already written about them. a lot. Just think alien almost humanoid sadists, and you have the majority of what they are down.

Dark Elves (Drow)
the Dark Elves are the opposite of elves in every way. they are pacifists, instead of living in space they live underground and on the ocean floor, they are exceedingly religious (elves are all athiests), and they have inverted color palettes. for every elf alive, there is a mirror dark elf that hides away somewhere underground, worshiping the center of the world. think inverted color palette pacifist evangelical christians who worship the center of the world. Sometimes they will mutate into the terribly inverted nilbogs.

Homonculi
the homonculi are created by wizards, witches, cultists, alchemists, priests, etc. for many purposes. They are small creatures of flesh, brought to life through some arcane means, and augmented for some purposes by their creators. they are different from golems in that a golem is a hunk of material puppetted by esoteric and eldritch forces, whereas a homonculus is an actual living creature of flesh and blood (although they do tend to have unnatural abilities, and all have regenerative properties). If you cast dispel magic on a golem, it would fall apart. If you cast dispel magic on a homonculus, nothing would happen, for now they are living creatures.

Robots
Robots are created by roving factories that swallow all of the resources that they come across and produce artificial beings that they drop off while crawling. They are made of stone, metal, plastic, wood, bone, and many other sorts of material, and they are powered by some mysterious energy. They can look like anything, and are usually made for some specific use, though that use is usually not known by the robot.

The K'Kladorf
k'kladorf are a race of eyeless giant mole crickets that live underground. They see the world through their sensitive hairs and antennae, and speak with a clicking and clacking insect language. They are hoarders of all materials/goods/items, which don't necessarily have to be valuable, and they are very paranoid at all times. They revere those who go up to the surface as heroes, like how we honor astronauts, and they are incredibly individualistic. K'kladorf enclaves/holds don't have a true leader, because each cricket believes themself to be the leader.

most orcas probably look like this

The Orcas
Orcas are semi-humanoid, larger than a human intelligent whales from The Wall of Whales. They have mouths filled with ravor-sharp teeth, and come in many sorts, ranging from smaller dolphin-men to great blue whale ogres. They are all obsessed with violence and with killing things, and that is truly all that they live for. Also they are famous for their "sexual depravity".

This was drawn by my friend xenon, whose art can be found at twcannibalism.tumblr.com!

Lycanthropes
Werewolves come from the moon. Or, rather, one of the moons. They are a strange "mutant" kind of lizard person, changed by alien parasitic worms into some kind of mammalian predator, somewhere between a hound and a person, or maybe (though less common), some other mammal and a person. They are incredibly varied, even in the same familial group, and the disease can be passed down from parent to child. However, these worms are newly introduced, and thus only newly infected first generation werewolves exist.

The Vermis
The Vermis are undead creatures. They are made when a living being is eaten by worms, who absorb the person's consciousness and wish to continue that person's life, as an undead conglomeration of worms and bugs. Some say that there are more mindless versions of these creatures that are made through other means, such as druidic magic, the powers and influence of The Graveyard, or by some collective consciousness of a group of creatures.

Gorgons
Gorgons are intelligent mammal-like reptiles with incredibly powerful venom and poisonous skin. Some say that the venom and poison of a gorgon can turn you to stone, but this is almost completely unfounded. Their venom/poison paralyzes whoever is subjected to it. They will usually walk on all fours, but can walk in a more upright fashion for a short time.

Cadavers
The Cadavers are undead creatures, in a similar vein to the Vermis, though they are more of a being's corpse rather than the creatures that fed upon a being. If something can die and leave behind a corpse, it can become a Cadaver. Cadavers will usually be rotting meaty creatures, preserved dead flesh, or a dusty and ancient skeleton, though any kind of dead thing at any point of decomposition or preservation is an option. Unlike the Vermis, cadavers usually forget their past lives before death, or only have the faintest of recollections of them.

Undines
Undines are a race of aquatic amazons, of a sort. They are an all female race of fish people who have formed many warring empires and nations underwater, and even some that crawl up onto land. When underwater, they appear to be dunkleosteus, but with great variety of skin tone and other such features (some might have bright red hair-like gills coming forth from their heads). When above water, they take on a humanoid form, but they retain the toothy and bony faces of those antediluvian aquatics. They are violent, but in a more military style, rather than the Orca type of brutal combat.

is this game a gonzo game?? yes

I HAVE BEEN GONE FOR A WHILE AND I HAVE MANY THINGS

SORRY ABOUT MY ABSENCE

but while i was gone, I was working on many things! I began an over-skype dungeons and dragons game (which i will be posting about over here), and I am working a second over-skype dnd game, which will be played shortly. The first game is entirely improvisation (or almost entirely) so i cannot really talk about it, but the second game is more planned out. it will be a large-ish wilderness sandbox, found in a region of one of the two main planets for my main dungeons and dragons setting (I created a new world solely for this game) I am here to talk about the region, through the use of jeff rient's 20 questions.

1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

Well there are a whole lot of religions, but the most prominent (at least on this continent) is The Concordance of Ahjax, it is a church that worships lots of different saints, demigods, bishops, etc. who are all lesser to an ultimate being named Ahjax, who is actually an only-semiconscious reptilian titan who floats through space with a belly full of serpents. Other major cults and religions include a great dog made of and embodying energy named Growl, a sentient spirit of natural disasters who takes on the form of a roving stormcloud, the floating and screaming god/planet known only as The Graveyard, a weird being of pure chaos and weirdness from the place between dimensions, an embodiment of the network of all of life, and so many small godlings, demigods, demons, spirits, etc.

1. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

the town that the players begin the story in (The Citystate of Karm) is fairly economic and industrial, and so standard equipment is easily enough purchased there. Other nations ad towns will have their own shops as well, though what they consider standard might vary.

1. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

Most of your characters would be "monsters" that might require special armor and gear. all of the playable races are much stranger than the average fantasy equivalent, and the closest things to humanoids are the extraterrestrial sadist elves and the most populous race, the lizard people

1. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

On the coast of the northern half of the region (the region is on the outward portion of an ocean gulf), there are the constantly warring twin nations of The Court of Xigzaea and the Court of Xigzuu. They are ruled by wizard siblings who hate each others guts, and got 8 other cosmic weirdos and spirits each to help them destroy the other. They might be the most powerful wizard in all the land, but of course wizards everywhere are constantly ascending into the heavens, turning themselves into liches, mutating their form into some monstrous version, seeing the truth behind reality, etc.

1. Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

obviously it is the first and forever king of The First Nation! or maybe its that giant jarl to the north, or the other giant jarl to the north. How about the dictator that rules the nation at Point Unpleasant? I've heard he was pretty good at fighting. Wasn't there some big muscle-y lady a while ago who tried to free all of the slaves in the whole region? she had a big sword i think. Lots of people are constantly doing amazing feats of strength and winning wars and battling monsters and whatnot

1. Who is the richest person in the land?

We all know this! the terrible roving robot factories that trawl over the entire world and take resources, only to craft them into living beings. those machines have taken so many resources, they must be the richest! or maybe its some wizard. might be the beauracro-council of Karm, they have a lot of factories and stores and whatnot. Most rulers are pretty rich, just in general. Its probably some terrible moster or dragon or god though

1. Where can we go to get some magical healing?

why would you ever go to magic to heal yourself, you fool! do you want to grow a second face on your shoulder or some eyeball on your foot or something? if you really want to use magic for something that won't just heal with a good amount of morphine cough syrup and waiting, most doctors have some minor witchcraft skill, and you could totally ask around for some sorcerer who could try to fix you up. there might be some woodland witches that'll help you, and some priests/cult leaders/clerics as well

1. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

Firstly, undeath is not a disease, how could you be so bigoted. secondly, alignment change isn't really a thing in this setting. However, for most of that other stuff? look for a doctor or wizard or priest that can help you. They'll probably have an ad in the local paper, or maybe some sign up at their storefront. Curing death might be a bit more expensive, and i hop you like still rotting/being incorporeal. However, there is one thing that cannot be cured, and that is lycanthropy. Once you have the worms of the hound in you, you cannot get rid of them, no matter how hard you try. Any amount of mammal worm in your body is too many mammal worms.

1. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

There are a lot of organizations that more arcane types can belong to. So many that most cannot be named here. You could, of course, go into service as an apprentice in the Wizard Courts, or you could learn from a pack of wilderland druids. You might get your power from a higher being, in which case you might belong to a church of some sort. There are lots of small sorcerer schools, and most cultures have their own types of magic and magic-users. There are so many schools, cults, monastic sects, etc.

1. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

anywhere you can find any other kind of NPC, though they will oftentimes band together into guilds and sects and houses and whatnot. The Citystate of Karm has many merchants and engineers in it, as well as many economists

1. Where can I hire mercenaries?

anywhere good adventuring gear is sold, or at the MultiRegional Mercenary Militia, a company that allows for mercenaries to get licenses and work for even more money than they could before. Most major cities have an office of theirs.

1. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

Many places. In the Nation-State of Ath, all religion and bowing down to higher than mortal beings is illegal. In the Nation-State of the Concordance of Ahjax, all worship of religions other than the Concordance of Ahjax is forbidden. Most rulers have their own fears and superstitions that influence their lawmaking, and thus, many countries have some esoteric and confusing rules.

1. Which way to the nearest tavern?

Ask the local Drunkard. every town has a Drunkard. they might not be drunk on alcohol, however

1. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

There are so many. like i mentioned above, there are the roving robot factories, but those are huge and hard to destroy. There are the Orcas from the Wall of Whales (an ocean to the north, which is actually nowhere close to the region but orcas end up everywhere) (orcas are sort of this settings replacement for orcs, as they are bigger than human-sized intelligent whales that can sort of waddle on land). Probably some wizard just made some horrifying concoction of two beasts that everybody hates for killing all of their livestock. there are many monsters that rove the wilderness.

1. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

Lots of wars, between lots of countries. 

1. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

Yup, you just have to find them. Only one is very famous throughout the entire region, and that is the Imperial Arena of Point Unpleasant, where dissenters to the dictator are thrown. It is famous primarily because of horror stories that escapees from the nation tell of it.

1. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

So many. The chaotic weirdness demon I mentioned above is trying to intrude upon the world, and thus there are followers of it, and every cult/monastic sect/etc. is a secret society

1. What is there to eat around here?

Some places have fine dining, others have meat pies and rat-on-a-stick, some places have only dirt and potatoes, some places have basically fast food

1. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

lots of them, especially the ones rumored to be hidden in The First Nation, if you can get over the walls

1. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

Just over the hill. or maybe in the sewer, the cave just outside of town, the nation to the south/north/east/west, etc.

Races of the World With No Name, Part 1

The World With No Name is my primary pure fantasy setting, with all of the wizards, orcs, dragons, and dungeons that you know and love. Except it is actually more of a science-fiction setting where the majority of the people are uneducated superstitious peasants and thus think that all of the science is magic and that all of the creatures of the world were created in an instant by some god. Of course, there are definitely gods, they just aren't omnipotent nor universe-creating.

Below there are the basic descriptions of many of the races of this world, along with false beliefs regarding them and their true origins.

The Serpent People
The Serpent People died out many thousands of years ago, possibly millions of years ago. They had empires that spanned the entire world, they studied the origins and machinations of magic, they fought or were allies with the ancient elves, and they had incredible lifespans. What made them fall nobody knows, but now there lie in many parts of the world the strange metal, stone, and plastic machines and buildings of these ancient people, forever rotting despite their enhanced strength of material

Many of the things above are true. However, there is one thing that most people do not know about these snake folk; they used advanced genetic engineering and other sciences to create a vast amount of the races and creatures that crawl the world today.

Like this, but with more blood and claws and tumors

The Elves
I've written about elves before. Basically, they are sadistic pieces of crap.

Elves are just as old, if not older, than the Serpent People. However, unlike those snake men, Elves come from some otherworldly star or planet. The ones on our world have been stranded here for millions upon millions of years, slowly tearing the planet apart limb from limb. Elves are like an intergalactic disease, traveling from world to world only to destroy, maim, decay, and burn all in order to entertain their terrible immortal minds. They are chaotic beings from another world, and all (or most) fae creatures in the universe are descended from the original extraterrestrial stock. Elves in our world may come in many sorts, but those in space have horrifying monstrous variety. Many alien peoples know to flee when they see a vast and blubbery elfin leviathan barreling down through their atmosphere, ridden by and pregnant with the murderous violent spawn that will implode that planet.

The Humans
Humans come from many different cultures and races in our world, and they are the majority race, at least on the surface and in civilized lands.

Humans were modified from primitive and ancient apes by the Serpent People. They came in a handful of varieties that were bred for different uses, ranging from sport hunting to arena fighting to beauty pageants to information storage, which all interbred and merged together after the death of the snake empires, forming the hominid race that lives, breathes, and eats on the surface of our planet.

Upper Dwarf

The Dwarfs
Dwarfs are short human relatives that live primarily underground, and come in two main varieties.

Lower Dwarf

The first are known primarily as "Upper Dwarfs", and they are the more well known sort. Upper Dwarfs live closer to the surface, and they are short, squat, fat, and hairy. Upper Dwarfs are superstitious and xenophobic, extremely paranoid and obsessed with the forthcoming apocalypse that will wipe out all fleshy life. They create their numerous structures, statues, and robotic creations for the purpose of "surviving" after the Meatpocalypse destroys their fragile forms, and they hoard precious objects for the same purpose. Their religion is based on a mixture of the movements of the sky (astrology and astronomy) and the movements of the earth (geology), and is much more like a system of superstition than an organized religion. Upper Dwarfs are wary around strangers, and hide many, many things from them. Each dwarfish city-state has its own culture, but there are many things that shared between them (such as their religion).

The second sort of dwarf is the "Lower Dwarf", which is found in the deepest caverns and subterranean expanses. They are pale-skinned and bright-eyed, with frail and slight frames wrapped in slimy and nigh-hairless skin. They do not have large civilization, and live underground in roving gangs and tribes. They crawl on the ceilings and walls of caverns, hoarding bones, coins, rocks, and anything else they find interesting. They are quite bestial, and have no qualms over stealing and murdering anything that has something tasty or shiny in its pockets or on its bones.

Dwarfs were also created from primitive apes by the Serpent People, but they were made for more specific purposes than humans originally were. Dwarfs were crafted and bred for two primary uses: work and war. Their emotions and minds were controlled by snake chemicals and machines, to make sure they were subservient and unwavering when working, or violent and unrelenting when fighting. These chemicals and machines have been gone for generations, leading to the widespread dwarfish paranoia and xenophobia that is widespread today, among other neurological disorders. Lower Dwarfs evolved from those original dwarfs that had been isolated in the deepest caves for centuries, changing their forms to fit their cavernous environs.

He's probably hiding a big fat queen in his attic

The Halflings
Halflings are short and slight human relatives that lived in burrows and hives out in plains regions, before they were more forcefully integrated into human societies. Unknown to most humans, they live in eusocial hives ruled by a great and corpulent queen that births all of the hobbits in the nest, with most of the hive being sterile and muscular females. They function very similarly to eusocial insects, but they are hominid in origin. In human societies, however, they will typically hide their queens in a basement or attic, and will attempt to mimic a family usual to the human culture they are present in. There are also many halflings that have left their queens, and those half-pints are called Street Goblins. They live in chaotic and unstable gangs and tribes in the streets of cities and towns, stealing from rich people, begging on the sides of streets, brawling in alleys, etc. Halflings have been created with subservience in mind, either to a Serpent Person or to a queen, and when they have no leader they devolve into instability and violence. Street Goblins are able to reproduce without the need for a queen, though how is unknown.

Halflings, similarly to the races above, were created by the Serpent People. They were engineered as easily disposable pets and messengers, with queens created to produce mass quantities of these small humanoids. Their brains were wired to serve a leader, and their bodies were made small and slight in order to easily produce them cheaply. When the Serpent People all died out, this leader instinct and small frame coincided to create the eusocial halfling burrows and hives. However, since queens were expensive to maintain, as they required fairly large amounts of food, each and every halfling drone (the sterile female halflings) have a built-in ability to produce a single child agametically, which can be activated with certain chemicals in order to produce a quick messenger.

I said they came in staggering variety

The Hoblings, Hobs, and Bugbears
Hoblings are small humanoid goblins that come in great uncanny and monstrous variety, with some looking just like small humans and others have more mutated features. Hobs are created when a Hobling reaches a certain age (varies from population to population), and enters a puberty-like stage, growing and mutating into a strong and human-sized Hob. Bugbears are a third stage in the life cycle of a Hob, and are born when either a Hobling or a Hob dies. After death, a Hobling or Hob decays and fills with insects, worms, grubs, bacteria, fungi, plants, and beasts of all sorts, becoming a monstrous undead abomination with glowing eyes of fireflies and squirming decomposers under its hairy and stretched skin, crawling on the fragile and dusty bones of the goblin.

Hoblings and Hobs are both quite different in behavior. Hoblings may seem fearful and naive, but in reality that hides a veneer of manipulation and stealth. Hoblings might seem like nothing more than simple thralls, but they are actually the ones pulling the strings. Hobs are more straight forward, and more often will bully others into submission rather than manipulation, though they are still quite conniving and controlling. Both Hobs and Hoblings are incredibly militaristic and greedy, and they love to take things from others and hurt others simply because they can. Bugbears, on the other hand, are sneaky shadow monsters and bogeymen, crawling through the night and stealing into houses and homes to their unknown deeds.

Hobs are one of the very few creation of the Elves, and were originally created as toys just to torture and as agents of the fae monsters. Hoblings were made as slight sneaks and masters of stealth, their many slight fingers useful as weapons and tools. Hobs were made more as soldiers, and they were trained to use brute force and violence to hold sway. Both stages of development become Bugbears after death simply because the Elves did not wish to lose vital assets to them. The extreme change over time was done to save on resources. Even though it may not be obvious at first, these creatures were made through collaboration with the Serpent People, during one of the periods when the two races were allies and friends.

The Orcneas
I've already written about Orcneas (they have undergone a name change). Basically, they are violent and murderous, but pretty friendly.

The Orcneas were created by the Serpent People as war machines. Dwarfs comprised the majority of soldiers (there were some Serpent soldiers as well), but Orcneas were like living tanks, siege engines, and cannons, or like berserkers, myrmidons, and other horrifically skilled and violent soldiers. Those larger sorts are called Ogres. Orcneas populations were kept low by the Serpent People, but after their death there were great booms in Orcneas populations, slowly turning into the horribly violent race known today. Their name is descended from the Serpent words for "Eaters of Corpses", due to them being fed on the rotting cadavers left behind after a battle. Orcneas are actually one of the few races made by the Serpent People who were not controlled chemically, but they were brainwashed and taught that violence and war was a game.

More is Coming Soon