worldbuilding

Fantasy needs monsters

When I got back into fantasy books a year or so ago, I noticed that there seems to be a quite pronounced scarcity of monsters and nonhuman humanoids in the vast majority of works. When you talk with people about Sword & Sorcery, many have a very firm stance that it has to be human-only and that you can’t maintain the structure, dynamics, and themes of the genre if you include elves, trolls, or dragonmen. Today I came across a short article on another site which I’ve read and very much liked a while back, by a person whose opinions and understanding of the workings of fantasy I usually very much agree with and respect. The main thought was that monsters should be very rare and be limited to the truly unnatural, with a very distinct separation from normal wildlife. And I very much agreed with it, since it helps to ensure that the encounter with an actual monster will be something special and that the audience feels like there’s really an extraordinary danger.

I now very much think that I was wrong about it. Much of contemporary fantasy could be accused of being mostly a fictionalized version of the middle ages with the occasional sprinkle of magic here and there, but very little fantastic elements as far as the plot is considered. But even that would not be correct as many of these worlds are really more like 20th century societies in fictional lands that use technology that superficially looks medieval. I mentioned the relationship of humans, nature, and the divine in my review of the academic book Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature, but I am going to lay it out again in this article that is directly at fantasy writers. The idea that nature is something that surrounds human cities and is separate from the human world, and that the divine aspect of the universe is located in a completely different place or dimension is very specific to modern western thought. It has been argued that the foundation for this is already found in the myth of the Garden of Eden, when humans were instructed by God to rule over all animals and plants, but it really developed to its current form through the ideas of Enlightenment and Humanism. (Which since the late 19th century got exported throughout the whole world together with the western education system and the modern principles and procedures of science that were based on that conception of the world, so it’s not strictly a European and North American thing anymore.) But in the kinds of societies after which almost all fantasy lands and cultures are modeled this whole concept fairly alien. Even in medieval Christianity, where the distinction between humans and animals was pretty clear, God was generally assumed to work directly in the everyday world, either actively or through agents. And the believe that there were other human-like people living in distant parts of the world was very widely spread. The land of the dog-headed men was a frequent topic among explorers and even the church had serious debates about what to do with them once their land is found. A quite common opinion was that they should be baptised and integrated into the church, just like all other humans. Assuming they are not already Christians.

Fantasy is obviously something you can’t do wrong. Pretty much every world imaginable can be well suited to be the setting for a certain kind of story. But lots of writers, and especially fans, make a pretty big deal of these worlds accurately portraying the technology of various historic periods and places. And often having fictional creatures around is perceived as being too fanciful and unrealistic. But at the same time there is generally no effort made at all to even somewhat approximate the way these people saw the world. We’ve had an interesting discussion at Fantasy Faction a while back about the possibility of “mythic fantasy”, and another one just last month about fantasy books in which religion and religious believes play an important part. (In both cases the search for existing works came up almost blank.) When you look at epics from antiquity and the proto-historic periods before it, it is very easy to see how very mucg similar they are to modern fantasy books, which have of course been very much inspired by them. But in those epics, the borders between human, nature, monster, and gods is often so thin and blurred that it’s not really there at all.

The book I mentioned above examines a small number of 20th century fantasy writers who went against that and deliberately set out to tie human concerns together with nature and the affairs of the gods. The gods don’t make any appearance in The Lord of the Rings, but it’s always clear that there are higher powers at work and that Sauron, Gandalf, and the elves are all major players in a conflict that is much greater than the kingdoms of man. In The Hobbit, Beorn is both a man and a bear, but different from either. You have eagles who are taking direct action in the struggle between mortals and immortals, and trees who walk and talk like humans. And of course all the talking spiders. Pretty much everything that Tolkien did was mindlessly copied countless times without understanding why he did it and what their purpose was. But this dissolving of the boundaries between humans, nature, and the divine was almost universally ignored, perhaps because it was too subtle to even notice without understanding it. There’s not really a lot of different creatures in Middle-Earth when you compare it to most roleplaying games and videogames, but all of them do not exist to create contrast between the natural and the unnatural, but to make such a distinction disappear. In European myths about fey beings, they always are as much part of nature as they are divine, and most of the time they also look very similar to humans. Even the classic fairytale witch is not just a regular old woman who knows a bit of magic, but also a monster. (Maybe I write an article about how the witch is the female counterpart of the ogre one day.) In any attempt to create “mythic fantasy”, the path into the world of spirits and magic should not lead through the wardrobe or the rabbit hole, but instead it needs to be identical with our own. In many mythologies, the Underworld is not another dimension, but an actual cave system that can be entered through any deep enough cave. To have fantasy that is in any way inspired by myth and tries to capture its essence, I think monsters are not just permissible, but mandatory. Without them and the dissolution of boundaries they present, any work can not go beyond the scope of pseudo-history.

The inherent racism of Star Wars

I am as big a Star Wars fan as you can get before it gets insane and embarassing. But I am also highly critical of it and more than just willing to recognize its many flaws. And, oh dear, there’s so much of them. But one of the biggest ones is one I’ve almost never see discussed anywhere.

Star Wars, at it’s very essence, is fundamentally racist.

And this has nothing to do with Lando Calrissian or even Jar Jar Binks. People have complained about the Neimodians talking in a Japanese accent and being show as ruthless conquerors driven by greed, and I can understand that to some degree. And really, the makeover of Watto in Episode II is indeed the most racist shit I’ve ever seen outside of Nazi propaganda cartoons.

"All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental." — “All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

But no, I am not talking about that here. The problem I want to adress is at the same time less controversial but also much, much farther reaching. Many worlds in science fiction often get accused of being Planets of Hats, where the whole population really has only a single defining trait. Star Wars does that too. And very hard. And all the time. Even ignoring the accents of Neimodians and Gungans and any resemblance they may have to those found in some parts of the world, the entire worldbuilding of Star Wars is based on a way of percieving people and cultures that has a clear and unambigious term: Racism.

Racism, at its very core, is not specifically about discrimination or hatred or limited to any minorities. These are issues that result from racism. Racism itself is the idea that a group of people who share a common ancestry can easily be defined by a few traits that are shared among all of them. So if you have seen one person of that group, you know not only everything about that group, but also everything about every single member of that group. Racism is the idea that shared biological ancestry makes all people of that group the same in several fundamental traits.

And nowhere in fiction have I ever seen this principle applied so consistently and agressively. Though I think it neededs to be added, that this is primarily about the Expanded Universe, all the novels, comics, and videogames that build upon the movies. The movies themselves are relatively free of this since it is rare to ever see more than a single individual of any species other than humans. But in the EU it’s really bad. If you have one character of a species appearing in the movies, even in a really tiny role, that character is almost always turned into the universal archetype for the entire species in all subsequent works.

Take for example the Bith. The Bith really only appear for a few seconds and have no relevance to the plot. They are these guys.

The bar in which Luke and Obi-wan meet Han Solo and Chewbacca happens to have a band of Bith playing during the few minutes they stay at that place. Do we learn anything about these guys at all? No, nothing. Except that these are in a band that plays in a bar. As the EU is concerned, this is everything you need to know about the Bith. Because in the EU, the Bith are a species of performance artists and musicians. All of them. That’s what they are known for throughout the galaxy. When musicians get mentioned, very often they are Bith. It’s like the Bith have a monopoly on playing music for the whole galaxy.

Here we have a group of Jawas. In their natural environment. Shoting at droids to repair and sell them. Jawas have many appearnces throughout Star Wars, but in the movies themselves I believe they really only have one significant appearance. (Other than background dressing.) And they are always surrounded by metal scrap and working on salvaged machines. Most often traveling around in their huge brown, angular trucks. Because in the movies there was one group of Jawas who had such a big brown truck, wore brown robes, and apparently salvaged broken droids to make a living. One group of 10 or 20 individuals. And what they did on that one day instantly became the template for the entire culture and nature of the whole species. You have seen one Jawa, you have seen all Jawas.

And there are virtually no exceptions to this rule. Chewbacca can fix shapeships and droids and in his backstory he used to be an imperial slave. Pretty much all Wookies you’ll ever see are good with machines and the entire species has been enslaved by the Empire. And not just the empire. In the days of the Old Republic, 4,000 years before the Empire, they were being enslaved by the Czerca corporation. Once a slave, always a slave. The whole species.

All Sullustans are good pilots, all Bothans are spies or politicians, all Verpines and Sluisi are great mechanics, all Twi’lek women are strippers, all Trandoshans are bounty hunters, Rodian culture is all about hunting, all Gamoreans are mercenaries, all Hutts are criminal businessmen (…slugs), all Chiss are military geniuses, all Noghri are super stealthy assassins, all Ithorians are pacifistic, all Corellians are roguish pilots with a problem for authority, all humans from Tatooine are farmers. It goes on and on. (And, being Star Wars, on, and on, and on, and on…)

In the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, the basic concept of racism is an actual fact. If just see one member of a species for a few seconds, you know everything there is to know about the entire species and every single individual. I can understand how it happens on a single episode of Star Trek that visits a planet only once, which then is never appearing again. But when it happens over decades and is done by dozens of writers in completely different stories, I find it rather inexcuseable.

Honorable mention goes to my favorite Twi’lek Nawara Ven, who has the distinction of being not some sly gangster but a starfighter pilot/lawyer of unquestionable integrity. But then, being a lawyer does kind of put him into a similar niche as smugglers and spies. It’s just their nature, I guess…

Regions of the Ancient Lands (Part 2)

Valarn

Valarn is the land between the Tavir and Akai mountains, reaching from the coast of the Inner Sea far inland into the endless forests that dominate almost all of the northern Ancient Lands. It is the homeland of the Eylahen and also contains many settlements of skeyn in the foothills of the Tavirs in the east, as well as many small clans of Vanyar that have come down from the Akais in the west over the past centuries.

The Sakaya: Most Vanyar in Valarn were originally mercenaries who were hired to guard caravans transporting salt from the Akais to the ports of the Inner Sea and the elven lands. One particular of these mercenary groups were the warriors of the Sakaya, a religious order from the Akai Mountains who believe in always working on improving ones professional skills. In times of little threat to their communities by other clans of the mountains, their warriors often travel the Ancient Lands looking for work as mercenaries. About two centuries ago some groups decided not return to the mountains and share the money they earned with their monasteries, but to keep working as mercenaries permanently. And in times where work was scarce, they turned to raiding. While the Sakaya of the Akai Mountains greatly disapprove of this practice, the mercenary bands dropped almost all ties with them and since started to recruit their own new members and focus exclusively on increasing their skills as warriors, relying on tribute and ransom from local towns for anything else they need. These Sakaya are highly valued mercenaries by those who can afford their service and they changed the outcome of many wars between clans on the Inner Sea. But in the last century they have steadily increased in numbers and begun to make a habit starting small wars for their own benefit, which makes many of the chiefs and kings of Valarn very uneasy.

Keltir

Keltir is a vast and not clearly defined region within the endless forests north of Valarn. Few people live in this land, most being Eylahen or some smaller groups of Vanyar or skeyn, with a few groups of roaming kaas occasionally being seen.

Fey Courts: Ruins of old fey castles can be found almost everywhere in the Ancient Lands but except for the naga of Kemesh their builders have almost entirely disappeared from the world of mortals. Deep within the ancient forests of Keltir, not all of the old castles are abandoned and there are many stories of courts of shie that rule over them to this day.

Akai Mountains

The Akai Mountains are a large mountain range on the western coast of the Inner Sea, rising above the coastal plains only a few dozen miles from the sea and stretching far inland towards the west. These mountains have been a hiding place for the Vanyar for countless generations, as they were outside the range of both the shie in the north and the naga in the south during the time when the fey races ruled the world. Dispersed over a large and almost barren landscape and being only few in number, the Vanyar were little known to either the elves or the lizardmen until relatively recently. While today they are known as salt traders and mercenaries throughout the Inner Sea region, their mountainous homeland is still a dangerous wilderness with small fortified villages and almost no major towns other than the great monasteries of the Sakaya.

There’s no specific theme for this region yet.

Baikat

Baikat is the land of the Red River, which runs south from the Akai Mountains and then turns east towards the Inner Sea. Even though Baikat is a very flat land with few major hills or mountains, it lies well above the coastal lowlands and recieves only little rain. It’s mostly dry grass and shrubs with occasional forests of small hardy trees, but some parts consist only of bare clay or gravel. The Red River has carved a huge canyon that cuts deep into the otherwise almost featureless land and contains the vast majority of all water in the region. The canyon is so deep that even though the land drops quite steeply as it approaches the coast, ships can travel up the river all the way from the sea to the feet of the Akai Mountains. There are many caves in the canyon walls, many of which have been made into villages, fortresses, or shrines. The coast on the eastern edge of Baikal is very different from the highland plains, consisting of the massive Kuremo swamp at the mouth of the Red River. During the summer rains, most rain falls on these swamplands and few clouds make it to the top of the cliffs that form the border to the highlands. The highlands are the homeland of the Ruyaki, especially south of the Red River, while the northern section has become home to smaller groups of Vanyar.

Again, sadly no strong theme for the region yet.

Mahiri Jungles

The Mahiri Jungles begin south of Baikat and form the westernmost part of the southern coast of the Inner Sea. Along the coast the Yagashi have several major ports that are important centers of trade, but the culture heart of the tribe is deep within the jungles, based around vast temple cities.

Alchemical Wonders: The Mahiri Jungles are full of rare plants and stange insects found nowhere else in the Ancient Lands, many of which are extremely valuable for alchemists. They are an important source of wealth for many of the powerful merchant families on the coast and there is a very strong competition over control of both the trade and their sources.

The Red Goddess: One of the temple cities in the Mahiri Jungles is ruled by its deity itself. The Red Goddess is a powerful red skinned shie who has ruled over her domain far longer than any of the oldest Yagashi who serve her. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren form a powerful caste of priest-administrators whose influence reaches far beyond the borders of this land.

Sarhat

Sarhat is the greatest kingdom found anywhere in the Ancient Lands and the only country of its kind. Once part of the lands ruled by the naga, the lizardfolk slaves of the western cities rebelled almost a thousand years ago, succesfully driving the naga to the east into Kemesh and creating their own kingdom as the Mayaka.

The Royal Guard: In addition to the vast armies of warriors, the king of Sarhat also has command over a strong force of elite warriors who guard his palace and the capital city, but are also frequently send on special tasks related to protecting the kingdom from its enemies, which is mostly the naga of Kemesh but also dissenters against the dominant Temple of the Sun. Sometimes these tasks lead members of the guard to other regions of the Ancient Lands as well.

Suvanea

The islands of Suvanea lie between the Inner Sea and the ocean, southeast from Senkand and north of Kemesh and Sarhat. Consisting of thousands of often very small islands, the region is home both to the Gandju lizardmen and the Amakari humans. As neither tribe is very numerous or builds any large towns or cities, there is not a lot of trade going on in the region and the waters are difficult to navigate for sailors used mostly to traveling between cities on the coast.

Pirates: The waters of Suvanea are full small islands and reefs, making it very easy for ships to get lost or running on ground. It is not only Gandju and Amakari who plunder the wrecks, but there are also many bands of pirates from other lands using the islands as hidden camps and hunting grounds. Most of them are Keyren or Yagashi, but many ships have highly mixed crews including Neshanen, Amakari, Gandju, and recently also some Vanyar.

Kemesh

Kemesh is a remote land seen by very few people from other parts of the Ancient Lands. East of Sarhat and south of Suvanea, it is what remains of the once vast kingdoms of naga who once ruled over all the lands south of the Inner Sea. Today they are few in number but still have large numbers of Suji slaves. It is a land of wonder and there are countless tall tales about it in the ports around the Inner Sea, but very little is really known for certain

Regions of the Ancient Lands (Part 1)

In its current form the Ancient Lands consist of 16 that are described in some detail. They only cover about 10% of the map of the region but are home the the majority of the population. Each region can be seen as an individual mini-setting in a way, but unlike a considerable number of kitchen sink settings they are not made in a vacuum. Most tribes are found in more than just one region and they are all deeply connected by culture and trade, even if they are separated by hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness or open sea. The goal for each region is to provide a strong cultural environment as well as a template for landscapes and wildlives, including several example settlements and adventuring sites that help estabish the tone of the region and can also be put directly into an adventure. But in the end, most settlements in the Ancient Lands are highly independent and connected to their immediate neighbors, with only few major cultural or political centers. With the regions being mostly defined by themes and culture instead of specific centers of power where all the important things are happening, it would be futile to attempt to cover everything, and also pointless.

Which each region I want to provide a few ideas for adventure hooks and also campaign structure that give a good impression what they are for and how they are meant to be used. In effect, the regions of the Ancient Lands are structured more like planets in Space Opera games like Star Wars or Stars Without Number, and less like a campaign sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons. The following are the ideas as I currently have them:

Venlad

Venlad is the distant northern land of the Mari who catch fish and hunt seals and whales on the coasts and herd reindeer on the tundra. Most visitors are traders who come to the few larger ports to trade goods from the south for pelts, dried fish, whalebone, and walrus tusks.

I want to do something with the spirits of winter and cold, but no clear idea for adventure hooks yet.

Yakun

This is the homeland of the kaas, a race of tall and strong beastmen. It consists of large subarctic forests and is surrounded by steep mountains and jagged hills. There are also some town and fortresses of skeyn and Keyren on the southern borders of this land.

I also don’t have any specifics for the main plot hooks yet, other than kaas clans getting into wars with each other.

Witchfens

The Witchfens are a large moor south of Yakun and west of Revand. There are a few rocky hills and small clusters of birches in a few places, but mostly it’s just and endless land of shrubs and bogs, prone to frequent rain and often covered by fog. Only the Kaska make their homes in this dreary land, as they believe something below the waters is keeping away the angry spirits that have sworn eternal revenge against them for a terrible blasphemy in the past.

Trailing Raiders: The Kaska are very poor people and barely get by surviving in this land by hunting and growing a few meager crops. Bands of raiders often sneak into Revand and Yakun to get whatever weapons, food, cloth, and slaves they can before returning swiftly into the fens. Only the bravest heroes dare following them into the thick fogs to rescue prisoners or retrieve stolen relics.

Spirits of the Fens: The Witchfens are a strange land inhabited by even stranger spirits. Many believe the dark pools that dot the landscape to lead to the Underworld and that there are many demons mingling with the spirits. The clans of the Kaska have made pacts with these dark spirits to protect them from the wrath of their old gods, but even they don’t know exactly what powers they are dealing with.

Revand

Revand is a stretch of coast north of the Tavir Mountains, sparsely inhabited by the descendants of the Keyren who didn’t leave for the islands of Halond to the east. The land lies in the shadow of the mountains in more than one sense, as they are almost permanently shrouded by a misty haze that obscures the sun even on a clear day. Strange creatures are often found in the great rivers that come down from the mountains and few people live far from the coast where the forest are lightest and a steady breeze from the sea keeps the air clean. The deeper one travels into the forest, the darker and gloomier they get, and dangerous creatures can be found in large numbers.

Tombs of the Ancestors: Very few ruins of old fey castles are found in Revand and even on the coast there are not many traces of the naga, which might be one of the reasons why the ancestors of the Keyren lived in this unwelcoming place. But deeper within the forests are the tombs of ancient elves, build with the most primitive methods but often withstanding the passing of the ages with remarkably little damage. The elves living on the coast avoid going anywhere near them as many are haunted by wights.

From the Deeps: Something about the gloom of Revand seems to be strangely attracting to creatures from the sea, especially the lagura fishmen. They are often seen roaming the beaches at night and can be quite a danger to smaller fishing villages.

Death in the Water: The people Revand generally avoid drinking the water from the large rivers that flow from the Tavir Mountains and don’t swim in it until absolutely necessary. But sometimes the water becomes much more foul than usual, spreading illness and noxious fumes along their banks. Traveling up the river by boat to discover and put and end to to the sources of these blights is something even the most seasoned warriors rarely dare to attempt.

Halond

Halond is a land of numerous islands, many miles off the coast of Revand in the Northern Sea. Several of the larger islands in the south have been settled by Keyren who now far outnumber their kin on the mainland. It is a land of short and mild summers and cold rainy winters, covered mostly by trees but also having several mountain ranges that most visitors would not expect.

Lords of the Sea: Many of the gods worshipped by the Keyren seem strange to other peoples of the Ancient Lands and barely recognizable as the same ones worshipped in other lands. Many of the smaller islands have small shrines to spirits of the sea and not all of them are build and visited by the elves. Many of the more remote villages have frequent contact with strange creatures from the sea not usually seen or known in civilized regions.

Merchant Lords: Even though scarce in valuable resources, Halond has become a very rich land due to the merchant ships that travel all across the Inner and Northern Seas and as far as Venlad and Sarhat. The captains and the owners of these ships are very influential people and not just in their homeland. Few people have as much control over trade in the Ancient Lands as the merchant lords in distant Halond.

The Arkean Islands

The Arkeans are a small group of rocky islands east of Senkand and the Tavir Mountains. Ships traveling between Revand and Senkand avoid getting anywhere near them as they are covered in the ruins of an old civilization of naga. Usually scholars and treasure hunters from all over the Ancient Lands would come flying to such a place to rid it of its ancient treasures, but the Arkeans are well known as a place ravaged and devastated by sorcery. Nobody knows what happened to the sorcerers who once lived there and whether they abandoned the place or were all killed in some terrible release of sorcery. Either way, the islands are almost inhabitable today, still being firmly in the grip of the Corruption caused by huge amounts of sorcerous magic after more than a thousand years. Anyone who gets near their rocky shores immediately feels their strength draining from them, breathing becoming painful and bones starting to ache. Few who explored these ruins stayed for more than a few days and many have been killed by the ghouls and wraiths of those who came before them much faster than by the Corruption itself.

Quest for Power: In recent decades sorcerers from Senkand have started to become more interested in the ruins that cover the island and confident that their powers can protect them from both the Corruption and the undead. Though their spies the naga of Kemesh have become aware of this increased interest and many of them have their own plans to reclaim the secrets of their ancient kin before they fall into elven hands.

Tavir Mountains

The Tavir Mountains are of the main mountain ranges of the Ancient Lands, separating the two coastal lands of Revand and Senkand. Many of the mountains are volcanoes and earthquakes and eruptions of toxic fumes are common in the region. It is commonly accepted throughout the Ancient Lands that many of these vents lead all the way down into the Underworld and many encounters with ash, rock, and tar demons are very compelling evidence that this is correct. Despite all these dangers there are considerable numbers of people living in the mountains. These hillfolk appear to be the descendants of Neshanen, Eylahen, and Keyren who have been intermingling for countless generations, and also include many half-elves descended from Vanyar and possibly Kaska mercenaries who escaped from battles in the surroundig lands. These hill people avoid most contact with people from the lowlands and a fierce enemies of both druids and sorcerers and worship the spirits of the Underworld as gods.

Rise of Demons: The Tavir Mountains are most likely the most demon haunted place in the Ancient Lands. Both the Druids and sorcerers from Senkand have considerable interest in this region, though for completely opposite reasons. Both groups frequently send agents and expeditions into the mountains to learn more about the demons and the effects of magic seeping up from the ground. The local hillfolk tend to be hostile to either, as they see them as enemies of their gods.

Senkand

The land of the Neshanen is one of the most advanced places in the Ancient Lands in building, trade, learning, and magic. Most people live near the coast as the land at the foot of the Tavir Mountains is poorly suited for farming. There are more than a dozen port cities and towns in this region and it’s location between the Inner Sea and the Northlands makes it a major center for trade.

Sorcerer Lords: Though sorcerers are not usually ruling the cities of the Neshanen, they have a far greater amount of power in this land than anywhere else outside the naga citadels of Kemesh. Most sorcerers come from important families whose wealth serves them well in recovering ancient relics and the creation of great magical wonders. Many people in the courts of Senkand see sorcery as a great potential source for future wealth and power and there is no clear separation between the aristocracy and the sorcerous societies in this land.

Creating a world inspired by Morrowind

Morrowind is one of the truly amazing RPGs among videogames. Over the last 20 years there probably have been hundreds of fantasy videogames, but Morrowind has always been in a category of its own. Even when you look at fantasy works in other mediums, it’s still something very unusual and quite unique. Most recently Skyrim has had a huge impact as the last game of the Elder Scrolls series, but as pretty as the world of that game is, it’s still mostly pretty ordinary European-style medieval fantasy, with Vikings driving out the Roman Empire from their land and some dragons and elves for good measure. Nothing we havn’t seen a thousand times before. But Morrowind, even being set on the same planet and right next door, is a place very much unlike anything else in fantasy. The most similar setting I can think of would be the AD&D world Dark Sun, and you might also consider the venerable common ancestor of all heroic fantasy and space opera Barsoom from A Princess of Mars.

Very obviously on first glance is that Morrowind and these other settings have very unique landscapes and wildlives, as I had mentioned two weeks back. The plants look different and there are many common animals that are not seen as monsters but are completely unlike any animal we have on earth. (Or at least in Europe and North America.) And even more, there is also a noticable absence of almost any animals we are familiar with. But that is only on the very surface and only affects how the world looks. While the visuals in Morrowind look great, it is not all there is to it and this element is mostly irrelevant for stories or campaign settings. Strange looking animals and plants don’t make a difference by themselves in regards to how the world and the people in it tick.

I’ve been discussing this topic with other people over the last weeks and it resulted in quite a number of very great thoughts, realizations, and discoveries about what you can do to create a world that feels similar to Morrowind without being a direct copy of it. And even if that’s not your intention, any single one of these should be useful as a starting point to making your work more unique and different from the standard medieval European fantasy.

Continue reading “Creating a world inspired by Morrowind”

Who kicked the dogs out?

Someone in a forum asked for fantasy novels set in a world with a style similar to the old videogame Morrowind (so far we’re mostly drawing blanks) and that got me thinking some more about that particular setting again. Back when I was 18 I thought it was a bit daring in how different it is from “proper fantasy” and it was ultimately the gameplay of the series that never got me really deeply invested in the game. But the setting and particularly it’s aesthetics stuck with me ever since and these days I hold it in very high esteem precisely because it’s so different.

While the stuff I had been working with before I nailed down the original concept for the Ancient Lands was pretty generic standard fantasy stuff and I am not ditching everything of that just because it’s generic, I very quickly got excited about the idea of also drawing inspirations from some very nonstandard works to create a somewhat unique style for my own world. Among Morrowind and Star Wars, there’s also the two classic and very quirky Dungeons & Dragons settings Dark Sun and Planescape, the continent Kalimdor from Warcraft III and Xen’drik from Eberron, and at least visually I am very taken with the John Carter movie. And thinking about what makes Morrowind so unique and interesting that could be found in unrelated fantasy novels also got me to start looking for what things these settings have in common that I might incorporate directly into my own setting.

And one very destinctive thing thing is that not only the environments look somewhat otherworldly, the wildlife is also completely different from what we have in Europe and North America. There are no dogs and wolves. Also no bears and no wild pigs. And people don’t keep horses, cows, and sheep. I already created a good number of animal-like creatures, mostly based on reptiles and insects, many of which can serve quite similar roles. So how about kicking out the dogs? And the wolves and the horses, and the sheep? Horses would be the biggest immediate change as far as players are concerned, but being all forests, mountains, and islands they didn’t really have much of a prominent presence in the setting to begin with. Usually “nonstandard fantasy” means not having elves and dwarves and giving people guns. (Yes, not only is there such a thing as “standard fantasy”, there’s also “standard nonstandard fantasy”.) But going the opposite direction and taking even more real world elements out of the setting and replacing them with more made up things might actually be a really interesting direction to explore. It worked for Dark Sun and Planescape, and those are probably the two best settings ever done for RPGs.