New Looks and Takes and Makovers

'Listen!'
'Listen to the Wind! Listen to Crackling Fire! Listen to the Groan of the Mountain! Listen to my Voice! Listen and you will See through the Smoke! See the Old Ways of our Forefathers! See the Glory of our Clan! See the Might of our Race!'
—Horn-Of-Plenty, Shaman of the Thorondrim Minotaurs, leading his people in the Khuugrad

The First Ones, The Kan-Yow, are the only non constructed beings to know the face of their Creator God. They were born as the world was being made. Tutored by their God (Kanchiyonnaho), they developed a perfect society immersed in the magic of the world. The Kan-Yow breathed magic, they are saturated with it, and they are bound to it as the world itself. As the Gods have withdrawn from the Mythic Lands, as the blessing of Time has graced the World, they have become the guardians of The Magic and The World.

Elementals have been around for a long time. In many games they unveiled their impressive powers, and reflected their mystical origin no one cared about. It is time for a remake.

Recycling the dead for the greater good since 1704

They were formidable even before they learned how to use weapons.

Nahactl, the Wanderer

Few are the sons of men who have come to understand the ways of the Volgotoi, the huge warrior race commonly referred to as Ogres.

Twin-aspected aliens, the Kel’Regar are strange creatures, and their alien society, strange technology, and lithe bodies evoking the images of elves in some humans.

A misunderstood and much maligned race, goblinoids are a much more complex and sophisticated people than any human has ever given them credit for.

Strange plant-creatures from Rosetta II, the Rosahomin are, for a small portion of their lives, roughly humanoid creatures, fully sentient, and capable of interacting with the galaxy.

'Sigh. Another mysterious, highly skilled assassin, with a difficult child hood and black clothes. Oh. This one has knives in his belt, not his boot. Well, at least it is not a Drow. '

The Sundar family name was one spoken with honor and reverence. None were ever spoke ill of, and should a question arise of their honor and integrity it was quickly set right by those who knew them. Now they are a fallen noble family of disgraced knights who are fearless, emotionless, and uncaring for anything other than own survival and vengence.

These people could exist on a world with mythical elves, as they are not another race… they are humans. They are an ethnic group that is far removed from “normal” human stock. They have many traits (physical and cultural) that make them very different. Given Lyran culture and ways, if the Lyrans “went away”, a few hundred years later people would think of Lyrans the same way as we think of Elves… some strange mythical peoples.

Gene-engineered for deep-space, the Salvorathan resemble nothing quite so much as the legendary ‘dwarf’.

New Takes on Classic Magic Items

What follows is an passage from the journal of the famous Beastiographer Laans Torier

'Many have said the Old Men of the mountain were mere myths, or had been wiped out by the Theosians many years ago, but I am staking my reputation on the fact that they do in fact still exist!'

New and different types of infernal fiends. Give all the demons, devils and other evil creatures you can imagine.

Let me just say I HATE DROW. The DnD anti-elves really annoy the heck out of me. They are annoying two hit die monsters. They have become hugely popular because of some well written DnD fiction books. Yet, they don't make sense. So lets try again.

Loathsome creatures born of magic gone hideously awry, the trolls of Kuramen are little more than ever-hungry masses of cancerous tissue.

I'm bored of dwarves. So, I'm trying to create my own dwarves. I've decided to call them the Duerga. Here's my basic ideas, and I'll flesh them out later, hopefully with your help.

Though each drone possesses little intelligence of its own, together, they are the Kth'k'k'kt, who span the stars.

Deep in the mountains, beyond where the trails end, one can find collossal stairways and long, cliffside roads, massive arched bridges and huge vaulted tunnels, spanning thousands of miles. These roads, though seemingly deserted, are closely watched by their creators, the reclusive and strange Iothun ('yoh-thoon').

A new Take on Dwarves should hit the following key points Short (After all Dwarf means a short person), Underground (traditional living arrangements), Artificers (Maker of things, use of forge), and Good Combatant. They don’t have to be short vikings.

Since the New Look At Dwarves was such a success, I decided that I would try an overhaul of another fantasy standard which I find boring, the Orcs. I'm using the Orcs only as a very loose base.

Whether in pencil-and-paper, or on the computer (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), we've been plagued by the gnome stereotype of foolish inventor and chaotic law-infringing businessman. I guess it's time to change that. I've decided to throw a bone: help me make the gnomes a race worth featuring in an RPG.

Descended from humanity, the orcs of Kuramen are a far cry from the bloodthirsty savages of many other worlds.

I would be willing, yes glad, to see a battle every day during my life.
George Armstrong Custer

...And then the evil necromancer killed everyone and made them into zombies to do really evil things. I mean really evil, kicking puppies, eating kittens and making lewd sexual gestures at unsuspecting shoppers at Wal-Mart. Yeah and he had a severed head for a hat and was eating a sandwich made out of real lady-fingers...

When looking for an Orc substitute in a campaign, one should think about just a violent ethnic group of people. Huns, Goths, Visigoths, Franks, and Mongols, have all the same campaign effect of Orcs and other “monster races” that fight in large groups/ hordes. And it has the added bonus of people not being able take the moral high ground when they kill an intelligent being… because it is a people… not just a worthless Orc.

Undead are, simply put, among the most horrific things one can think of. Can you imagine anything more frightening than a being which is dead and yet still walks? Can you imagine the horror of being faced by the hollow shell of being, a hollow shell which must feed?

I was spending some time reading some Rune Quest, Changeling, and Castle Falkenstein material and remembered why I hated most of the Trolls found in the majority of “Psuedo Medival, Eurpoeanesk Fantasies”. So once again, I charged up my rant muscles and….

Few men truly know the Earth Children and their enigmatic rulers, the Loresingers. These keepers of ancient secrets are among the greatest allies, and the most subtle enemies, that humanity could ever know.

Bursting with an incredible, terrible complexity, the Oraki are a powerful breed of mechanoids, once that blurs the line between machine and man from the other direction.