Post by MugiwaraBlair on Aug 7, 2013 9:19:43 GMT
The world doesn't have a name yet, I'd pull a bioware and call it The+initials of the series but that doesn't have a name yet either so eh. I'll do a rundown of the various species' genealogies, briefly describe the races, try to explain the magic system and talk about the characters I have so far. Probably not in one go but maybe yes, I don't have much to do and I'm not especially tired, guess it'll be a surprise.
Spiritual Tree
It starts with the not-yet-named spirits, they were (or are, if it turns out there's still some around) metaphysical beings "who" were meta embodiments of feelings, emotions and mind traits, however the top branch of the tree weren't really embodiments of anything. The species then splits off into Angels and Demons (both need better names). Angels are literally made of good, thus they can't become "fallen" like traditional angels could, they grow in power around good natured sentients, other Angels included, but can weaken if surrounded by too much evil. For exemple a thug won't do jack to one but a decently powerful dark mage would slowly depower them and a Demon's presence would severely amper it. Demons are essentially the same, except that they're made of evil instead, so they are opposite. Then there's hybrids. Not of Angels and Demons though, forcing a fusion would have roughly the same result as matter-antimatter contact, some of the top tier mages can do this. Hybrids can be with virtually any physical race since being metaphysical, it's physical material they hybrid with, not the specific race though it can have effects. For exemple an ogre hybrid will most likely be stronger than a human hybrid, but this isn't universal because Charles Atlas Superpower applies in the Verse to some extent. For those who don't know that term, it means one can become "super-human" (or super-elven or whatever) if they train enough. The explanation in this case being that training, battle, etc increases one's amount and or quality of "essence" (this needs a better name too), similar to how mages' mana (also needs better name) reserves and potency improves with practice. Angel hybrids are called (for now) Nephilim, they are taller than the average of the physical component's race, have hair and eyes colored like precious metals, they are utterly incapable of magic despite being powered by an extremely potent form of mana but in turn they seldom ever tire, are super strong and super tough (again, compared to the physical component) and grow stronger with age. Demon hybrids are Wraiths, as you might have cleverly deduced, they're pretty much the opposite of Nephilim, "stamina/essence" fueled magical powerhouses, very large if they expend to their full forms but usually condensed to roughly normal size (for the physical component's race, etc). They can also corrupt other races with parts of the evil they're (half) made of, resulting in vampires, weres and other such monsters. Nephilim have not counterpart to this ability since it's a kind of magic.
Mortal Tree
This tree doesn't have a precursor yet, probably some sort of primates and stuff, going back to proto-life. Then it splits off into Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans and a yet-unamed mystery humanoid race, which itself splt off into other strains of vampires, weres, etc. Dwarves are short and stout, often bearded but not always, they get beards the same as humans but keeping it growing is a cultural thing for them. Their muscles are denser than those of other mortal races, which makes them surprisingly sturdy, stronger than looks would suggest and notoriously unathletic and inflexible. Being short and stout sure doesn't help either. They favor weapons and "tech" that are like them: tough, slow and strong. Hammers, mauls, maces and heavy axes for weapons and their machines are usually coal or steam powered. They essentially never produce mages and the very few that they do are very weak (magically, they still have dwarf sturdiness) and inept. Gnomes are smaller, not necessarily shorter but much less stout and much less densely built, making them more fragile and weaker physically but faster, more dexterous and more flexible. Compared to dwarves mind you, short limbs still keeps them from competing with taller races in the athletic department. They're generally much smarter than dwarves though, and than humans. And unlike dwarves they do produce mages, on a roughly on par rate with humans. Their machines are usually powered by mana or by gaz. Few of them use weapons, the relatively few who do use swords (well swords for them, more like big knives) or lances, the rest rely on their tech or their magic. Humans are well, ya know, basically like humans were in the medieval times, but better because here they have mages, in the highest ratio of all mortal races, and a good number of the not-so-mortal ones too, around 10%, not all of which are combat potent of course but most can do enough to benefit society. Their weapons are varied but most generally prefer simple and balanced weapons. Their machines are likewise simple but effective, catapults, ballistas, some cannons in the more advanced of their provinces. The fourth mortal races is poor in numbers, don't produce much mages and do not have any established community. But, they're generally more quick witted than other races, naturally very strong and nimble and their mages have enormous mana reserves and potency, though on the downside casting spells is harder for them because their powerful mana clings to them so the more powerful the mage, the harder it is for them to flings mana through the air. Consequently they often resort to infusing melee weapons (or themselves occasionally) with elements. Infusing oneself is hazardous though because magic or not, fire is fire, "infusing" yourself with it just sets you ablaze. Unlike the more meta strains of vamps/weres/etc, the strains descended from this race are more biological in nature so they can't no sell decapitation or resist various forms of energy blasts, if you're flesh you're gonna burn and electrocution will make you twitch, etc.
Draconian Tree
This tree starts with a (surprise) yet-unamed species of semi-material cosmic horror, probably gonna call 'em Behemoths or Leviathans. When they slipped part of themselves in the physical plane (or more accurately, into fewer planes) the result was Wyrms, humongous scaly fucked up monstrosities, then their cosmic make-up (not like girly makeup <.<) deteriorated from being into squeezed into such a limited place (just 3 dimensions, sucks right?) so Dragons and Wyverns came about. The main differences are that Wyverns are smaller but faster and maneuver better, and they're venomous. Both become more powerful and grow bigger with age. Also Dragons are more durable but Wyverns have some degree of healing factor. Oh and btw, all 3 of those races can produce mages. Yes, DRAGON.MAGES.
Immortal Tree
First up, it's called the immortal tree but not all of those species are actually immortal, they're just pretentious and stuff. This tree starts with the L'd'r, later known as Eldr and then mistakenly as Elders. It's not supposed to be pronunceable beyond the consonant sounds put together. They are (more like were, but are too) ethereal, immaterial entities. When they touched the physical world (it wasn't all that physical at that point but was still more tangible than them) it gave rise to 3 offshoots : what is known as Ancient Elves, Jotunns (needs new name, maybe) and Fae. Jotunns engendered Giants, Ogres and Cyclops. Jotunn themselves aren't all that large, bigger than other "humanoid" races but their might more than matches their descendants'. Giants are sentient and somewhat smart, if slow witted. In fact everything about them is slow, they take centuries to mature to full size, centuries more to visibly get old, a couple more to truly fall into decrepitude and then another or so to finally die. Their extremely few mages (nigh as few as dwarves) are shamanic and must rely on primitive rituals to cast anything. Ogres are a bit smaller than giants, mature in a few decades, are feral and thus virtually non-sentient and live only to eat and break things. They live for about 150 to 200 years. Cyclops are sentient but very stupid, they have very thick and tough skin, thick blood that clots quickly, no depth perception due to only having one eye and they can't move said eye much so they must turn their heads to track movement most of the time. Being so poor in intellect makes them relatively unaggressive, they will only attack if provoked or if trying to "play". They have a lifespan similar to that of Ogres. Fae spawned Trolls and various genus of fairies. Trolls are partly mineral, even stronger than their large size would indicate, surprisingly fast, they can be mages but since they're not smart enough to learn spells they just randomly spew energy blasts and "subconsciously" make themselves even harder to kill. They can endure very grievous injuries before succumbing as it is. They live for several millenia and like some other species, get stronger with age. Fairies can be classified mostly into Pixies, who are basically disney fairies. Tiny, one foot tall at most, have wings so they can fly, all of them are mages and they barely need any sustenance, even less than their minuscule frames would have you think. Or various kinds of mean or mischievous creatures like brownies and such. Pixies live a few centuries, the lifespan of other fairies is unknown since they're usually killed for being mischievous. Fae themselves partly immaterial reality warpers of various scope. They're one of the few actually immortal races, if not destroyed they'll "live" indefinitely. How they make more of themselves is unknown but the older ones are more powerful, the eldest ones being akin to Daedric Princes, except more powerful. Elder Fae don't even need a physical form so they can ignore any wound whatsoever. Their ability to warp reality is so great that the only difference between them and a true deity is the scale at which they operate, it's continental at most, a couple of them could push it to planetary. Whereas for exemple a l'd'r can easily re-arrange a solar system and mess with astral objects. Ancient elves were similar to the late stages of what lead to the mortal races but more akin to predators than primates. This is why elves have pointy ears. That race split into the elven genus and the "greenskin" genus. The latter includes Orcs and Goblins, Hobgoblins are to goblins what ethnicities are to humans. Orcs have skin that varies from sickly pale green bordering on yellow to green so dark it could be mistaken for black. Some have grey skin but always with a faint green hue to it. There is word that older Orcs can turn blue, purple or black but this is unconfirmed because Orcs are war crazed so they don't tend to live long. For this same reason it's also largely unknown how long they can live, but there's history of a few being 3 or even 4 centuries old and not showing any sign of getting old. So presume they might be one of the few "true immortals". Their skin is very tough but rough and learther-like as a result, their muscles are even denser than those of dwarves, making them astoudingly strong and sturdy, though not-so dexterous. They also have excellent pain tolerance and endurance. An Orc warrior can keep going relatively unimpaired even is pinned with arrows, run through or if he (or she) loses a limb. Bloodloss with still get them of course but their thick blood makes this harder than for most other races. Goblins are essentially Orcs-lite, but much more agile, they can even wall-crawl. The elven genus is widely considered to have 11 subspecies. Two are a bit different but 1st the 9 regular subspecies : Dark Elves are drak grey or black skinned, are red or yellow eyed, their skin and muscles are very good at dampening energy transfer, this makes them resistant to fire, magic in general and to physical hits to a lesser degree.They live around 500 years. Wood elves are on the short side ( 4'6'' to 5' ), tan colored and value nature above most everything, even their own society. For exemple they would eat a family and steal their home rather than damage trees to build and hunting animals to eat. They're kinda insane in the eyes of outsiders but on the other hand wild animals will probably side with them if the situation comes up. They live 250-300 years. Ice elves are pale blue or white skinned, very cold resistant and can go in suspended animation for decades without sustenance. They live 350-400 years, or a couple millenia if they "hibernate" but that'd somewhat defeat the purpose. Deep elves have translucent white skin, are nearly blind but have highly developped other senses and are prodigious blacksmiths who possess many ores almost exclusive to them. They live 7 to 8 centuries. High Elves are roughly 7 feet tall pretentious pricks. Not that it's not at least partly substanciated. Their average intellect is pretty high, they're very dexterous and blindingly fast, their mages are some of the most powerful and since their piece of land is extremely ressource rich they have ridiculously facy and prestigious cities, raiment, weapons, etc. They also live upwards of 20-30 000 years, if no one kills them for being a douche that is. Blood elves are pale-ish red skinned, heal super fast, are stronger and sturdier than their looks would say and are almost invariably blood-lusted. Not that they can't be calm and nice if they want to. They should live only a meager 150 years but they steal vitality when they kill stuff so most of them go on for several hundred years or over a millenia. Night Elves are about as tall if not taller than high elves, purplish blue skinned hulks with night vision as good as biologically possible. They like for 2-3 thousand years. Grey elves live in mountains, they're epic blacksmiths who work with bone and minerals instead of metal (yes they smith stone, they're just that good, also magic) and they're well..grey colored. They equate might with authority, so their leader is the strongest of them and they'll leave you alone if they think you can kick their butt. They live 5 or 6000 years. Sea Elves have somewhat scaly-ish skin, full black eyes, can breathe underwater, can cause electric shocks and produce neurotoxin. They live about 600 years. Now unto the 2 special cases. Light Elves came about when some of the angelic realm spilled into the physical one, the ancient elves who were there adapted to it. They're extremely fast, surprisingly strong and sturdy, their skin is resistant to being bruised, pierced, cut and even sullied. They are fair skinned, haired and eye colored. Almost exclusively mages. Also slightly bioluminescent. They are ageless after maturing. Dryads are the ancient elves who adapted to normal nature instead of "heaven spill". They're kinda sorta plant-like in that they can get sustenance from the surrounding environment if they can't find food or drink, absorb liquid spilled on them instead of drying normally, are immune to poison, their bodily fluids are toxic enough that they can lethally envenom an arrow point by cutting themselves with it or even just giving it a few good licks, they're very endurant of wounds. They're also pretty much all mages but with a twist, a rare amount of them ( as in legendary, some don't even believe in them rare) are what they call a -insert weird dryad word here-. A kind of mage who's magic is confined to their physical abilities. They can do things like hear sounds before it should reach them, see farther than light should permit, see in pure darkness without any lightsource whatsoever, smell things without there being particles of the odour left, camouflage themselves as if they had a spell for it, move faster or hit harder than they should be able to, heal more tissue than they have spare mass, etc. They are also ageless. Oh yes btw, both Light Elves and Dryads have fast regen.
THE MAGIC SYSTEM
It's not very developped yet but the essential to know is that magic is part of the laws of physics in this Verse, the rest of the physics, bar other planes and such, are pretty close to our physics. So magic is really more like limited energy manipulation. Elements are also the same as in nature even if they are summoned by magic. I'll use fire for exemples. If a mage shoots a stream of flames, he needs to sustain it constantly with mana, if he stops sustaining it however it'll still keep burning for a fraction of a second because it will burns the oxygen in the nearby air. It didn't burn it before because it was gtting it's fuel from the mage. So the caster can burn their fingers or hands if they're not careful about that. If one magically sets a log on fire however, there's not need to keep fueling it, the log will do. And unless it's a special kind of flame, magical fire is still just fire, a creature who's highly fire resistant will lol at your fire spell the same it would as if you threw oil lamps or torches at it. Of course if you're stubborn you can fuel the spell more mana to increase the flames' temperature and intensity to power through the fire res but beware of the heat yourself, if you make it 3000 celcius a couple meters from yourself you're gonna die too.
THE CHARACTERS (SO FAR)
Main Adventuring Group:
-> "Kit" Kat the Tech Mage: Kat is a member of the 4th mortal race, one of their super mages who have trouble with casting. In fact she can't cast at all. On the other hand she is an uber genius who closely studied the physics of the world. Admittedly it's much easier to discover and understand how energy and particles behave when you can feel them. She has a flamethrower, mines & grenades, melee weapons that she can infuse, usually with electricity or just raw mana to make them more durable, given enough time to setup she'll mount a rail gun and if worse comes to worse, she can infuse herself with her very potent raw mana and become a lightning bruiser so long as she has reserves and that can be pretty long.
-> Melissa the Necro Blaster: Melissa is a naturally powerful human mage, though due to her practice of necromancy (may not be called that in the final) her status as human is slowly but continually more questionable. She knows elemental attacks spells but isn't skilled enough in them to have fine control, hence the "blaster" part of her moniker. Her necro powers on the other hand are pretty advanced, she puts her own quirky spin on the undead arts by way of loophole abuse. She can animate anything that was or was part of something that was alive at some point. Leather coat ? Came from a cow, she can squeeze it on you. Paper ? It was a tree once, origami assault. And with a knowledge tip from Kat, some kind of fuel in a gnomish war machine ? It was plants at some point, attack of the flammable blob.
-> Mielikki the Hunter: One the legendary rare special dryad mages. She's a stoic bow sniper who uses twin knives in CQC. As stated before, she has unatural physical abilities. She can hear an explosion before than shockwave arrives, see in perfect dark, run hyperfast without making a sound or displacing air, etc.
-> Borvo the Golden Healer: a shiny blond half-elf "white mage", he can cast offensive spells too, basic elements, much like Melissa, except he trades firepower for precise control. He's also very good with enchants, buffs and shields.
-> Lucius the Roguish Thief: A very talented acrobat, climber, athlete and, ofc, pick pocket, pick locker, etc. He's also a smooth talker and tries to be a casanova. It mostly works on common wenches the group encounters but the female half of it no sell his "charms", each in a different way and for different reasons.
-> Krorgnashr/Baldemar the Monk: He's a very old (several centuries) Orc monk. He meditates, gives wise advice and fights with his bare hands. Often gets exasperated by some of the group's eccentric antics. Mostly Kat and Melissa. Note that despite me calling "very old", he's not the oldest member of the group, the Hunter has consciously lived for around 2400 years and has been in deep slomber for over 80 millenia.
Imperial Nation:
-> Uzza, the Ancient Queen of the Silver Sun: she is a nephilim, one of the only left in the mortal world. Nephilim can eventually decide to return to the spirit world as full angels but she doesn't think she's a good enough person to do that. Also because she swore an oath to stand vigil on the world. Uzza is 6'6'' tall, has silver hair and silver eyes, pale clear skin and wears a silvery armor made of dragon bones and scales worn over an adamantine shirt ( it's sort of a mithril expy ) and wields a shiny BFS made of "star metal". She loathes battle due partly to being tired of it (she's *ancient*) and partly due to worry over her slight bloodknight tendencies. The 2 halves of herself, human and pure good spirit conflict. She wants to be fair and promote peace but at the same time she "secretly" loves fighting. She asks enemy forces if they genuinely support their vile leader before declaring war to them so she won't kill innocents but if she judges someone guilty she will not hesitate to slaughter them right then and there. She will also not deny being a cold killer if confronted with this. She calls her battle loving side her "unfortunate true self buried within, a grim destroyer". She constantly holds back the vast majority of her full might but if she were to go all out she could break the world and it was once claimed by a Light Elven ArchMage that "Queen Uzza weathers land scorching events as one would weather the rain" . Note that in the Verse, "land" is what they call a continent and some of the sea around it.
-> Dushara the Ancient King of the Golden Moon: he's also a nephilim and as you might have guessed, he has golden hair and golden eyes. He refuses to become a full angel because he wants to stay with Uzza. Being more or less the same age as she is, he's similarly nigh-invulnerable and mighty, though a considerable degree less so because his "physical component" was much weaker than hers.
Grim Peaks and surrounding SnowFields:
-> Srtr (pronunced surtur): Srtr is the most powerful anything in the Verse so far. No one knows what it is exactly, what species or if it's a known species or if it's a he or a she. It has long loose black hair, wear a black fur lined, runes/totem engraved armor called Mundgaerdr (warding enclosure), has black markings/rings around it's white eyes and has a large sword made out of hellish fire that can turn into any other weapon, can be solid enough to be stuck in the ground and that Srtr tames so it doesn't melt it's surroundings. Srtr is a very proficient archer and spear thrower,a weapons master specialized in large blades, a master smith, can "bless" objects, has infinite stamina, nigh-instant regeneration on top of being nearly indestructible, can turn intangible, breath fire and ice, produce enormous shockwaves with it's voice, has seemingly limitless, god-like strength, extremely magic resistant, is immune to environmental extremes, poison and disease, can shapeshift into presumably anything it wants but prefers a wolf, bear, raven and dragons forms, can talk to animals and control them, sense life and death, mind control at a glance, summonings, usually dragons/wyverns, sometimes just predator animals, sometimes Wyrms (yes, with a S), control over weather, surround itself with emotion manipulating auras, spirit rending (meaning Srtr can "physically" tear apart non-physical things), energy drain, can influence aggressiveness ie. make someone go berserk or calm down a berserk, limited time control, necromancy, mass telepathy, psionic ventriloquism, super speed and obviously, Srtr is immortal.
Seems like I did it all in one go, surprise.
Spiritual Tree
It starts with the not-yet-named spirits, they were (or are, if it turns out there's still some around) metaphysical beings "who" were meta embodiments of feelings, emotions and mind traits, however the top branch of the tree weren't really embodiments of anything. The species then splits off into Angels and Demons (both need better names). Angels are literally made of good, thus they can't become "fallen" like traditional angels could, they grow in power around good natured sentients, other Angels included, but can weaken if surrounded by too much evil. For exemple a thug won't do jack to one but a decently powerful dark mage would slowly depower them and a Demon's presence would severely amper it. Demons are essentially the same, except that they're made of evil instead, so they are opposite. Then there's hybrids. Not of Angels and Demons though, forcing a fusion would have roughly the same result as matter-antimatter contact, some of the top tier mages can do this. Hybrids can be with virtually any physical race since being metaphysical, it's physical material they hybrid with, not the specific race though it can have effects. For exemple an ogre hybrid will most likely be stronger than a human hybrid, but this isn't universal because Charles Atlas Superpower applies in the Verse to some extent. For those who don't know that term, it means one can become "super-human" (or super-elven or whatever) if they train enough. The explanation in this case being that training, battle, etc increases one's amount and or quality of "essence" (this needs a better name too), similar to how mages' mana (also needs better name) reserves and potency improves with practice. Angel hybrids are called (for now) Nephilim, they are taller than the average of the physical component's race, have hair and eyes colored like precious metals, they are utterly incapable of magic despite being powered by an extremely potent form of mana but in turn they seldom ever tire, are super strong and super tough (again, compared to the physical component) and grow stronger with age. Demon hybrids are Wraiths, as you might have cleverly deduced, they're pretty much the opposite of Nephilim, "stamina/essence" fueled magical powerhouses, very large if they expend to their full forms but usually condensed to roughly normal size (for the physical component's race, etc). They can also corrupt other races with parts of the evil they're (half) made of, resulting in vampires, weres and other such monsters. Nephilim have not counterpart to this ability since it's a kind of magic.
Mortal Tree
This tree doesn't have a precursor yet, probably some sort of primates and stuff, going back to proto-life. Then it splits off into Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans and a yet-unamed mystery humanoid race, which itself splt off into other strains of vampires, weres, etc. Dwarves are short and stout, often bearded but not always, they get beards the same as humans but keeping it growing is a cultural thing for them. Their muscles are denser than those of other mortal races, which makes them surprisingly sturdy, stronger than looks would suggest and notoriously unathletic and inflexible. Being short and stout sure doesn't help either. They favor weapons and "tech" that are like them: tough, slow and strong. Hammers, mauls, maces and heavy axes for weapons and their machines are usually coal or steam powered. They essentially never produce mages and the very few that they do are very weak (magically, they still have dwarf sturdiness) and inept. Gnomes are smaller, not necessarily shorter but much less stout and much less densely built, making them more fragile and weaker physically but faster, more dexterous and more flexible. Compared to dwarves mind you, short limbs still keeps them from competing with taller races in the athletic department. They're generally much smarter than dwarves though, and than humans. And unlike dwarves they do produce mages, on a roughly on par rate with humans. Their machines are usually powered by mana or by gaz. Few of them use weapons, the relatively few who do use swords (well swords for them, more like big knives) or lances, the rest rely on their tech or their magic. Humans are well, ya know, basically like humans were in the medieval times, but better because here they have mages, in the highest ratio of all mortal races, and a good number of the not-so-mortal ones too, around 10%, not all of which are combat potent of course but most can do enough to benefit society. Their weapons are varied but most generally prefer simple and balanced weapons. Their machines are likewise simple but effective, catapults, ballistas, some cannons in the more advanced of their provinces. The fourth mortal races is poor in numbers, don't produce much mages and do not have any established community. But, they're generally more quick witted than other races, naturally very strong and nimble and their mages have enormous mana reserves and potency, though on the downside casting spells is harder for them because their powerful mana clings to them so the more powerful the mage, the harder it is for them to flings mana through the air. Consequently they often resort to infusing melee weapons (or themselves occasionally) with elements. Infusing oneself is hazardous though because magic or not, fire is fire, "infusing" yourself with it just sets you ablaze. Unlike the more meta strains of vamps/weres/etc, the strains descended from this race are more biological in nature so they can't no sell decapitation or resist various forms of energy blasts, if you're flesh you're gonna burn and electrocution will make you twitch, etc.
Draconian Tree
This tree starts with a (surprise) yet-unamed species of semi-material cosmic horror, probably gonna call 'em Behemoths or Leviathans. When they slipped part of themselves in the physical plane (or more accurately, into fewer planes) the result was Wyrms, humongous scaly fucked up monstrosities, then their cosmic make-up (not like girly makeup <.<) deteriorated from being into squeezed into such a limited place (just 3 dimensions, sucks right?) so Dragons and Wyverns came about. The main differences are that Wyverns are smaller but faster and maneuver better, and they're venomous. Both become more powerful and grow bigger with age. Also Dragons are more durable but Wyverns have some degree of healing factor. Oh and btw, all 3 of those races can produce mages. Yes, DRAGON.MAGES.
Immortal Tree
First up, it's called the immortal tree but not all of those species are actually immortal, they're just pretentious and stuff. This tree starts with the L'd'r, later known as Eldr and then mistakenly as Elders. It's not supposed to be pronunceable beyond the consonant sounds put together. They are (more like were, but are too) ethereal, immaterial entities. When they touched the physical world (it wasn't all that physical at that point but was still more tangible than them) it gave rise to 3 offshoots : what is known as Ancient Elves, Jotunns (needs new name, maybe) and Fae. Jotunns engendered Giants, Ogres and Cyclops. Jotunn themselves aren't all that large, bigger than other "humanoid" races but their might more than matches their descendants'. Giants are sentient and somewhat smart, if slow witted. In fact everything about them is slow, they take centuries to mature to full size, centuries more to visibly get old, a couple more to truly fall into decrepitude and then another or so to finally die. Their extremely few mages (nigh as few as dwarves) are shamanic and must rely on primitive rituals to cast anything. Ogres are a bit smaller than giants, mature in a few decades, are feral and thus virtually non-sentient and live only to eat and break things. They live for about 150 to 200 years. Cyclops are sentient but very stupid, they have very thick and tough skin, thick blood that clots quickly, no depth perception due to only having one eye and they can't move said eye much so they must turn their heads to track movement most of the time. Being so poor in intellect makes them relatively unaggressive, they will only attack if provoked or if trying to "play". They have a lifespan similar to that of Ogres. Fae spawned Trolls and various genus of fairies. Trolls are partly mineral, even stronger than their large size would indicate, surprisingly fast, they can be mages but since they're not smart enough to learn spells they just randomly spew energy blasts and "subconsciously" make themselves even harder to kill. They can endure very grievous injuries before succumbing as it is. They live for several millenia and like some other species, get stronger with age. Fairies can be classified mostly into Pixies, who are basically disney fairies. Tiny, one foot tall at most, have wings so they can fly, all of them are mages and they barely need any sustenance, even less than their minuscule frames would have you think. Or various kinds of mean or mischievous creatures like brownies and such. Pixies live a few centuries, the lifespan of other fairies is unknown since they're usually killed for being mischievous. Fae themselves partly immaterial reality warpers of various scope. They're one of the few actually immortal races, if not destroyed they'll "live" indefinitely. How they make more of themselves is unknown but the older ones are more powerful, the eldest ones being akin to Daedric Princes, except more powerful. Elder Fae don't even need a physical form so they can ignore any wound whatsoever. Their ability to warp reality is so great that the only difference between them and a true deity is the scale at which they operate, it's continental at most, a couple of them could push it to planetary. Whereas for exemple a l'd'r can easily re-arrange a solar system and mess with astral objects. Ancient elves were similar to the late stages of what lead to the mortal races but more akin to predators than primates. This is why elves have pointy ears. That race split into the elven genus and the "greenskin" genus. The latter includes Orcs and Goblins, Hobgoblins are to goblins what ethnicities are to humans. Orcs have skin that varies from sickly pale green bordering on yellow to green so dark it could be mistaken for black. Some have grey skin but always with a faint green hue to it. There is word that older Orcs can turn blue, purple or black but this is unconfirmed because Orcs are war crazed so they don't tend to live long. For this same reason it's also largely unknown how long they can live, but there's history of a few being 3 or even 4 centuries old and not showing any sign of getting old. So presume they might be one of the few "true immortals". Their skin is very tough but rough and learther-like as a result, their muscles are even denser than those of dwarves, making them astoudingly strong and sturdy, though not-so dexterous. They also have excellent pain tolerance and endurance. An Orc warrior can keep going relatively unimpaired even is pinned with arrows, run through or if he (or she) loses a limb. Bloodloss with still get them of course but their thick blood makes this harder than for most other races. Goblins are essentially Orcs-lite, but much more agile, they can even wall-crawl. The elven genus is widely considered to have 11 subspecies. Two are a bit different but 1st the 9 regular subspecies : Dark Elves are drak grey or black skinned, are red or yellow eyed, their skin and muscles are very good at dampening energy transfer, this makes them resistant to fire, magic in general and to physical hits to a lesser degree.They live around 500 years. Wood elves are on the short side ( 4'6'' to 5' ), tan colored and value nature above most everything, even their own society. For exemple they would eat a family and steal their home rather than damage trees to build and hunting animals to eat. They're kinda insane in the eyes of outsiders but on the other hand wild animals will probably side with them if the situation comes up. They live 250-300 years. Ice elves are pale blue or white skinned, very cold resistant and can go in suspended animation for decades without sustenance. They live 350-400 years, or a couple millenia if they "hibernate" but that'd somewhat defeat the purpose. Deep elves have translucent white skin, are nearly blind but have highly developped other senses and are prodigious blacksmiths who possess many ores almost exclusive to them. They live 7 to 8 centuries. High Elves are roughly 7 feet tall pretentious pricks. Not that it's not at least partly substanciated. Their average intellect is pretty high, they're very dexterous and blindingly fast, their mages are some of the most powerful and since their piece of land is extremely ressource rich they have ridiculously facy and prestigious cities, raiment, weapons, etc. They also live upwards of 20-30 000 years, if no one kills them for being a douche that is. Blood elves are pale-ish red skinned, heal super fast, are stronger and sturdier than their looks would say and are almost invariably blood-lusted. Not that they can't be calm and nice if they want to. They should live only a meager 150 years but they steal vitality when they kill stuff so most of them go on for several hundred years or over a millenia. Night Elves are about as tall if not taller than high elves, purplish blue skinned hulks with night vision as good as biologically possible. They like for 2-3 thousand years. Grey elves live in mountains, they're epic blacksmiths who work with bone and minerals instead of metal (yes they smith stone, they're just that good, also magic) and they're well..grey colored. They equate might with authority, so their leader is the strongest of them and they'll leave you alone if they think you can kick their butt. They live 5 or 6000 years. Sea Elves have somewhat scaly-ish skin, full black eyes, can breathe underwater, can cause electric shocks and produce neurotoxin. They live about 600 years. Now unto the 2 special cases. Light Elves came about when some of the angelic realm spilled into the physical one, the ancient elves who were there adapted to it. They're extremely fast, surprisingly strong and sturdy, their skin is resistant to being bruised, pierced, cut and even sullied. They are fair skinned, haired and eye colored. Almost exclusively mages. Also slightly bioluminescent. They are ageless after maturing. Dryads are the ancient elves who adapted to normal nature instead of "heaven spill". They're kinda sorta plant-like in that they can get sustenance from the surrounding environment if they can't find food or drink, absorb liquid spilled on them instead of drying normally, are immune to poison, their bodily fluids are toxic enough that they can lethally envenom an arrow point by cutting themselves with it or even just giving it a few good licks, they're very endurant of wounds. They're also pretty much all mages but with a twist, a rare amount of them ( as in legendary, some don't even believe in them rare) are what they call a -insert weird dryad word here-. A kind of mage who's magic is confined to their physical abilities. They can do things like hear sounds before it should reach them, see farther than light should permit, see in pure darkness without any lightsource whatsoever, smell things without there being particles of the odour left, camouflage themselves as if they had a spell for it, move faster or hit harder than they should be able to, heal more tissue than they have spare mass, etc. They are also ageless. Oh yes btw, both Light Elves and Dryads have fast regen.
THE MAGIC SYSTEM
It's not very developped yet but the essential to know is that magic is part of the laws of physics in this Verse, the rest of the physics, bar other planes and such, are pretty close to our physics. So magic is really more like limited energy manipulation. Elements are also the same as in nature even if they are summoned by magic. I'll use fire for exemples. If a mage shoots a stream of flames, he needs to sustain it constantly with mana, if he stops sustaining it however it'll still keep burning for a fraction of a second because it will burns the oxygen in the nearby air. It didn't burn it before because it was gtting it's fuel from the mage. So the caster can burn their fingers or hands if they're not careful about that. If one magically sets a log on fire however, there's not need to keep fueling it, the log will do. And unless it's a special kind of flame, magical fire is still just fire, a creature who's highly fire resistant will lol at your fire spell the same it would as if you threw oil lamps or torches at it. Of course if you're stubborn you can fuel the spell more mana to increase the flames' temperature and intensity to power through the fire res but beware of the heat yourself, if you make it 3000 celcius a couple meters from yourself you're gonna die too.
THE CHARACTERS (SO FAR)
Main Adventuring Group:
-> "Kit" Kat the Tech Mage: Kat is a member of the 4th mortal race, one of their super mages who have trouble with casting. In fact she can't cast at all. On the other hand she is an uber genius who closely studied the physics of the world. Admittedly it's much easier to discover and understand how energy and particles behave when you can feel them. She has a flamethrower, mines & grenades, melee weapons that she can infuse, usually with electricity or just raw mana to make them more durable, given enough time to setup she'll mount a rail gun and if worse comes to worse, she can infuse herself with her very potent raw mana and become a lightning bruiser so long as she has reserves and that can be pretty long.
-> Melissa the Necro Blaster: Melissa is a naturally powerful human mage, though due to her practice of necromancy (may not be called that in the final) her status as human is slowly but continually more questionable. She knows elemental attacks spells but isn't skilled enough in them to have fine control, hence the "blaster" part of her moniker. Her necro powers on the other hand are pretty advanced, she puts her own quirky spin on the undead arts by way of loophole abuse. She can animate anything that was or was part of something that was alive at some point. Leather coat ? Came from a cow, she can squeeze it on you. Paper ? It was a tree once, origami assault. And with a knowledge tip from Kat, some kind of fuel in a gnomish war machine ? It was plants at some point, attack of the flammable blob.
-> Mielikki the Hunter: One the legendary rare special dryad mages. She's a stoic bow sniper who uses twin knives in CQC. As stated before, she has unatural physical abilities. She can hear an explosion before than shockwave arrives, see in perfect dark, run hyperfast without making a sound or displacing air, etc.
-> Borvo the Golden Healer: a shiny blond half-elf "white mage", he can cast offensive spells too, basic elements, much like Melissa, except he trades firepower for precise control. He's also very good with enchants, buffs and shields.
-> Lucius the Roguish Thief: A very talented acrobat, climber, athlete and, ofc, pick pocket, pick locker, etc. He's also a smooth talker and tries to be a casanova. It mostly works on common wenches the group encounters but the female half of it no sell his "charms", each in a different way and for different reasons.
-> Krorgnashr/Baldemar the Monk: He's a very old (several centuries) Orc monk. He meditates, gives wise advice and fights with his bare hands. Often gets exasperated by some of the group's eccentric antics. Mostly Kat and Melissa. Note that despite me calling "very old", he's not the oldest member of the group, the Hunter has consciously lived for around 2400 years and has been in deep slomber for over 80 millenia.
Imperial Nation:
-> Uzza, the Ancient Queen of the Silver Sun: she is a nephilim, one of the only left in the mortal world. Nephilim can eventually decide to return to the spirit world as full angels but she doesn't think she's a good enough person to do that. Also because she swore an oath to stand vigil on the world. Uzza is 6'6'' tall, has silver hair and silver eyes, pale clear skin and wears a silvery armor made of dragon bones and scales worn over an adamantine shirt ( it's sort of a mithril expy ) and wields a shiny BFS made of "star metal". She loathes battle due partly to being tired of it (she's *ancient*) and partly due to worry over her slight bloodknight tendencies. The 2 halves of herself, human and pure good spirit conflict. She wants to be fair and promote peace but at the same time she "secretly" loves fighting. She asks enemy forces if they genuinely support their vile leader before declaring war to them so she won't kill innocents but if she judges someone guilty she will not hesitate to slaughter them right then and there. She will also not deny being a cold killer if confronted with this. She calls her battle loving side her "unfortunate true self buried within, a grim destroyer". She constantly holds back the vast majority of her full might but if she were to go all out she could break the world and it was once claimed by a Light Elven ArchMage that "Queen Uzza weathers land scorching events as one would weather the rain" . Note that in the Verse, "land" is what they call a continent and some of the sea around it.
-> Dushara the Ancient King of the Golden Moon: he's also a nephilim and as you might have guessed, he has golden hair and golden eyes. He refuses to become a full angel because he wants to stay with Uzza. Being more or less the same age as she is, he's similarly nigh-invulnerable and mighty, though a considerable degree less so because his "physical component" was much weaker than hers.
Grim Peaks and surrounding SnowFields:
-> Srtr (pronunced surtur): Srtr is the most powerful anything in the Verse so far. No one knows what it is exactly, what species or if it's a known species or if it's a he or a she. It has long loose black hair, wear a black fur lined, runes/totem engraved armor called Mundgaerdr (warding enclosure), has black markings/rings around it's white eyes and has a large sword made out of hellish fire that can turn into any other weapon, can be solid enough to be stuck in the ground and that Srtr tames so it doesn't melt it's surroundings. Srtr is a very proficient archer and spear thrower,a weapons master specialized in large blades, a master smith, can "bless" objects, has infinite stamina, nigh-instant regeneration on top of being nearly indestructible, can turn intangible, breath fire and ice, produce enormous shockwaves with it's voice, has seemingly limitless, god-like strength, extremely magic resistant, is immune to environmental extremes, poison and disease, can shapeshift into presumably anything it wants but prefers a wolf, bear, raven and dragons forms, can talk to animals and control them, sense life and death, mind control at a glance, summonings, usually dragons/wyverns, sometimes just predator animals, sometimes Wyrms (yes, with a S), control over weather, surround itself with emotion manipulating auras, spirit rending (meaning Srtr can "physically" tear apart non-physical things), energy drain, can influence aggressiveness ie. make someone go berserk or calm down a berserk, limited time control, necromancy, mass telepathy, psionic ventriloquism, super speed and obviously, Srtr is immortal.
Seems like I did it all in one go, surprise.
very curious to see where you go with it.
