Kobold King

I'd be opposed to that. I think the coolest aspect of a multi-species world would be how humans interact with sapients that are wildly different from them. If we make everything strictly humanoid, we might as well just stick to the stock elves and dwarves in my opinion. Or not have other sapients at all.

INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. RELEASE THE CERBERI! By which I mean, no, not at all. On other news, as much as I like the idea of magical minerals working their way up an ecosystem, I think I also prefer the visual of glowing enchanted krill colonies.

"And for my next trick, I will make all the members of my fan club disappear."

I SAY WE DR. TARR AND PROFESSOR FETHER THIS PLACE.

1) Sure thing my friend. 2) Yes? I just picked a random animal's Latin name, like I get most of my non-English names.

Avian could be neat. They could also be bats, or pterosaurs, or giant flying amphibians with wing membranes on their legs. The sky is literally the limit. (I also went into this with the loose concept of a sapient spider civilization that dwells in small numbers aboard flying silk balloons, floating far above the landscape while they harvest aerial prey and trade with ground-based civilizations. Maybe they could be a subspecies of the subterranean spiders?)

Humans - I like that. I like that a lot. Homo sapiens, always physically weaker than the rest of the animal kingdom, has to use its ingenuity to hold its own in this savage world. One question, you talk about humans being imported from elsewhere--who would be doing the importing? An extinct progenitor race? The gods? The humans themselves? Raptors - Exactly! Packs could group together to form larger coalitions, and could even work their way up to the empire level if one of the land claimers has a mind to design dinosaur imperialists. Spiders - Ants are the obvious choice, I think. And eusocial sapients have kind of been done to death--the buggers from Ender's Game, the Klendathu bugs from Starship Troopers, the cho-ja from The Riftwar Saga, etc. I think communal spiders with a cross between arachnid savagery and human civilization would be treading relatively new ground. Mersaurs, or whatever they wind up being - We might consider giving the aquatics access to the best magic, given that their fluid medium would prohibit advanced technologies like fire or metal crafting.

I love the magical krill idea. I also like the idea of having two or three intercontinental races with a greater number of single-region, tribal creatures. Here would be my proposal for four primary races: Humans or a human-like species. The generic option, and probably most prevalent. A dinosaur species. Specifically, if we work in the magical krill idea, what would you guys think about a sapient raptor civilization with higher magical potential than humans? As apex predators, their bodies would historically have absorbed higher quantities of the krill, potentially allowing them to evolve a greater affinity to it. An underground species, potentially spider-like in nature. Someone mentioned caverns as a biome, and having sapient spiders (or other bugs) as subterranean imperialists could be pretty interesting. Brutal arachnid wars could be waged under the shell of the earth! An aquatic species. Maybe something like mermaids, but with a plesiosaur or dinosaur upper body? In any case, it might be neat to have at least one sapient species that calls the ocean's waters home.

Nothing definitive yet, but here are some personal opinions on my part. I like the idea of magic being an intrinsic property of the world that's hard to tap into. I think it would be neat to have various creatures and races with flamboyantly magical properties, but are limited by their biology in how they can use them. (i.e., a dragon could breath fire but could never figure out how to cast an illusion.) Ecologically speaking, I'd love to borrow from the prehistoric Earth. Could we have dinosaurs and other extinct megafauna with fantasy-sounding names? Platebacks instead of stegosaurs, crestdrakes instead of dilophosaurs, plunderclaws instead of raptors, etc? Contrary to media this wouldn't limit our large fauna to topical swamps, as there were dinosaurs in every biome imaginable that we could draw from.We could even give some extinct critters paranormal attributes, like super-potent poisons or firebreath if we're feeling particularly dramatic. I also love the idea of animals pulled out of context, like Mckeedee's floating jellyfish idea. That one in particular would work really well with the concept I was considering... As I expected, people are claiming practically every biome found on Earth, save a polar region. Personally I'd rather have natural transitions between climates as opposed to something magically screwy, simply as neat cookie-cutter biomes strikes me as a tad contrived. I'm open to anything though.(And to be clear, I'm not claiming any position of authority or moderation in this world. I see this as a democratic project.) Where sapient races are concerned, I'm personally in love with the idea of a world popping its seams with unique intelligent races. Would it be chaotic? Abso-sparking-lutely. Would it be entertaining? Speaking from experience, yes.I will also say that I'm not opposed to a race that's stronger than all the others, as long as it has the majority approval of other creators and doesn't exert too stifling an influence on the rest of the world. For instance, if there were nigh-invincible frost giants living at the North Pole, that could produce interesting results in the southern races as they build great walls and armies to defend themselves from the north. I don't want to set any hard-and-fast rules just yet. Technologically speaking, I don't want to set a cap on it, but I think that anything much above Renaissance-era tech would run the risk of putting the world too firmly under the thumb of a single culture, unless all races had modern-day weapons and arsenals. That would run the risk of stifling other players' creativity and vision for the world, however.

I think it'd be neat to have magic that's mainly concentrated in the bodies of a few magical beings, intelligent or otherwise. Maybe magic could be closely connected to life in some way. I also would like a mountain range--I have a loose concept for a race that would operate from a mountain city. Maybe we could be neighbors?

Greetings, Sharders and creators! The King of the Kobolds here, speaking from an undisclosed pocket universe. (Don't try to track me. I have more Cerberi standing watch than you could count.) In this post I brought up a potential project for the worldbuilders among us. The project aims to create a functional fantasy setting through collaborative effort, with various members working together to flesh out different regions of a magical world. There are no requirements save a zeal for creation and an active imagination. There are few rules, save for the following: Try to stick to the C.O.P. system whenever possible. For those unaware, "C.O.P." stands for cool, original, and plausible. Obviously plausibility has different meanings for different people where fantasy is concerned, but unless everyone wants to create a deliberately ludicrous Wonderland let's try to be reasonable. (Bear in mind that a deliberately ludicrous Wonderland is not off the table, should everyone want one.) Once regions are available and you have claimed one, please refrain from spreading your creations to adjacent lands without the consent of their claimers. This is just to prevent one person from creating a race of indestructible vampire dragons that take over the world and leave no room for anyone else. Have fun, or else. To join, just state your interest below. Here are a few questions for us to ponder before getting started: Will magic be abundant or rare in this new world? Will the climate and background ecology resemble that of Earth, or will it be entirely different? What kind of biomes do people want access to? I've contacted a cartographer who might be available to help with maps, and I'm sure it'd be helpful to this individual to have an idea of what regions are in the highest demand. The world of Diaemus rises! EDIT: SOME IMPORTANT LINKS: Diaemus Wiki Early Climate Map of Diaemus The Three Most Abundant Races of Diaemus A Color Guide to Lumuoles, Magical Microorganisms Rachnyx Document Discussing the Theory of Lumuoles Other Diaemus Project threads: Biology (List of species, guidelines for wildlife, etc.) Cartography (Geographic and political maps of Diaemus)

Well sure, if you want to set an epic fantasy world on a map that looks like this.

Well, I have no idea what to do for a map. Not unless y'all are fine with the Donjon Fractal World generator.

Huh. And here as me thinking I'd get a non-committal "I guess" or so before getting totally ignored. I wouldn't mind starting a thread for it--I'm thinking this will be a pretty loose effort with little in the way of rules, so there wouldn't be much in the way of moderation. Just a basic map showing all the biomes, and then a free pass to anyone who signs up. How does Diaemus sound as the name of the world?

@Twi: Sorry, I don't have any resources on that particular topic. It's rare to find anything that treats the issue with the rationality it warrants. Anyways, looking through an old composition book, I stumbled across the fantasy setting my brothers and I toyed with a few years ago. We stole heavily from the stereotypical fantasy races that Tolkien established, but other than that I can look back with pride at the effort we poured into it. (And besides, though it might sound blasphemous to other Sanderfans I happen to adore the stock fantasy races. ) The way it worked is that I and each of my three brothers was given access to one quarter of the world of Sebjaran, and given free rein to design magical creatures and races inhabiting the region. Through the entire process we discussed the other corners of the world and tried to figure out the geopolitics of Sebjaran. The races from Sebjaran, from memory: Dwarves: Stocky bearded blacksmiths, with absolutely no twists of any kind added to them. Shameful. Gnomes: Short, cantankerous tinkerers who built steam-powered gadgets. Also stereotypical, but later on we discussed giving them rugged purple feathers and making them an underground bird-like race. Giants: Huge, barbarous humanoids with no culture and barely any intelligence. More like big animals than a proper race. Elves: Divided into the High Elves (extinct and left purposefully vague), the Wood Elves (who were roving hunter-gatherers in a jungle with only basic illusion magic to aid them) and the Frost Elves (who lived in the far north and were basically a cross between Inuits and the Huns.) Pretty generic. Calamar: These were where the world started to get interesting. (And I'm not just saying that because I came up with them.) Huge, bulky land lobsters covered in green fur that was actually an algae that bonded to their insides. The algae was potently magical, giving the Calamar the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. My comp book even hints in a few places that the algae was responsible for their ascension to sapience in the first place. The Calamar held a cruel and powerful empire, and though originally native to another planet, their colony on Sebjaran was massively successful. They were responsible for exterminating the High Elves and driving the Wood Elves into a scattered existence in the forests. Humans: About as generic as you can get, am I right? Though intriguingly, humans on Sebjaran were long extinct, and in an inversion of the usual fantasy tropes, they were the mysterious race of ancients whose might and glory even the High Elves could never replicate. Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, and Giants were all directly descended from them. Orcs, Goblins, and Ogres: On Sebjaran, humanity's extinction is implied to have something to do with what was called the Green Plague, a terrible magical ailment which mutated humanoids into deranged monsters with green skin and a lust for violence. Orcs were the descendants of humans infected with the Plague, who passed it onto their children each generation and lived in the crumbling ruins of once-great human strongholds. Goblins were dwarves infected with the same strain, and Ogres were the terrible result of a Giant succumbing to the illness. Rumors abounded of Elves infected with the strain and forming cruel communes in the depths of the Mortus Desert. Skiiv: Sapient squirrels that lived in forests all over Sebjaran. Entirely squirrel-like in physical features, these little animals scurried around the branches chattering about the epic history of the world and the deep arcane arts. They were ancient and wise, but utterly uninterested in forming civilizations or technologies of any kind. Pilaski: The undisputed monarchs of the Pole, the Pilaski were anthropomorphic penguins with fingers on their flippers and a keen knack for magic. They dwelt in magnificent cities in the depths of glaciers, with homes and weapons carved of solid ice. Pilaski archmages had leopard seals, orcas, and Arctic sharks as familiars who helped them achieve great feats of sorcery. Kobolds: My favorite of Sebjaran's inhabitants, even then. Squat, hairless primates ambiguously related to humans, Kobolds had suckers on their hands and feet that let them effortlessly scamper up sheer surfaces. The King of the Kobolds held court in one of many magnificent underground cities, which could cling to the walls or ceilings of subterranean caverns as easily as they could the floor. Desmod: Substantially less jolly residents of the subterranean world, Desmod were giant humanoid vampire bats that lived in giant telepathic hives. We never developed them much, which is a real shame. Proteus: The foulest, most demonic of Sebjaran's natives. These were giant anthropomorphic olms with feathery gills as red as blood. They wielded long fiery whips which almost seemed to have minds of their own, and they regularly rounded up slaves to drag into the deep depths for nameless, unspeakable atrocities. There was also something called a Slevi, which my comp book lists in as equally a dreadful manner as the Proteus but neglects to describe. I can't remember what it was, which is frustrating me to no end. Anyway, that's the world of Sebjaran! We had a lot of fun as kids toying with it and roleplaying (in our flat childish manner) as its inhabitants. Just testing the waters, but what would Sharders think about doing something similar here? Starting a project for a fantasy setting where different members design different corners of the world, bringing them together into a cohesive and awesome whole?

There is nothing better than a lawn full of chickens scratching and pecking at the dirt. Nothing.

Silver-Quill, without a doubt.

There's a hierarchy of terrifying underwear, you see. Shiny Sparkle measures a 7.4. CorpseMaker is an 11, Steelheart is a whopping 30.2, and there is currently no number large enough for Nighthound.

It's a wonder she goes out in clothes at all.

Biblical songs sung for the sole purpose of committing adultery don't count. By the way, is Shiny's blouse still buttoned down from the night before? I have to ask because Deathwish will take a hearty interest in her "fawns."

I'm pretty sure Obliteration is only interested in women who know at least one verse from the book of Revelation.

Mizzy's type is scrawny <20 year-olds who take too long to write their RP posts. Or at least, it is in my headcanon.