Advent 2019:Calendar/5

Ok so today is races. Now the point of the worldbuilding exercise is to bring people away from 'Anglo-Saxon' fantasy (i.e. get people to stop writing about white men) and so I think that I have a little bit of a confession here. Now I have always done Europe because, thanks to Gove, that's the only place I really know about. Now I want to do other places, a personal favorite is China, but I've never really had the time or the energy. The only place I have ever really touched upon is Arabi and that's just some place I drew once, it isn't even in the new map! Now I am somewhat excused by the fact that my climate is also European and that skin tone is not uniform and I could probably find a token Arabin to plonk in a future story but I'm not sure that makes it any better. In fact I think that a European climate/culture and a west justified map are both things that I would probably not do again. (I defiantly would not do the later).

On the other hand I hate copying from real life. It should be fantasy and it is disappointing that I can recognise Illia, Leon, The Middle Mountains and Achthal, Narlwage, Scurwage, and even Athelron from real life (though I will concede that the elves and the dwarves are somewhat distinctive). The history is somewhat better, if just. Really I should grab some elements from Chinese culture if only because western mythology has been redone to death for the last several centuries. But it is what it is and I can't change it now. In truth the whole things is heavily cribbed from other settings I have seen (notably Warhammer though that is in turn another mongrel setting) and so I have more problems with its originality then just nicking the whole thing from Western European folk law.

Moving on
So I thought that I really ought to talk about the actual races found on Gaia given that I am worldbuilding not apologising for originality and western centrism, so here is a little bit of fleshing out of each of the different races. So talking about different races rather asks a question: why? Now originally it was just because fantasy needs races, let's ctrl+c ctrl+v some. But this has gone beyond that point, the races in Swords of Wrath now, IMHO, provide some level of depth to the setting by providing a option to engage with it from a perspective that is not distinctly human. They provide another set of nations and ask about blood and water, especially so in the case of elves. Actually if I am pleased with anyone it is the elves so let me talk a little about them.

Elves
The idea of elves as a long lived declining race cut off from humanity by their own unique set of ideologies is not new and while their history is to some extent unique it is still not particularly distinctive. What I think is unique about elves is their culture. Elven culture is radically affected by their long lives and low numbers allowing all elves to know one another and the resulting dedication to large extended families and their elders is rather unique. Now the other thing worth noting about elves is that they are split across multiple nations. Warhammer has dark elves and forest elves (though not an elven city) but only the dark elf-high elf dynamic remains even slightly similar (and that is skewed by a significantly less 'epic' athelron). The wood elves are the more aggressive ones, fiercely isolationist (ironically much more so than their sisteren across the sea) and have a dislike for dwarves, humans, other elves, and vampires. Even other 'water' creatures such as Shkumb get a hard time, they see them as slightly repugnant.

Khanhosen elves are unique because they get on well with other species, acting as something of a bridge. They are well integrated into a human city - though the overlap between the two jurisdictions remains in need of sorting out. They are a down to earth bunch, traders for the most part acting as a semi-regular part of the human trade network with contacts in Scroy-Noroy and Illia. They, unlike other elves, use currency and technology.

Scurwage elves are sort of evil. I generally tried to avoid Warhammer's good/bad split and they are a long way off Dark Elf evil but they are vindictive against their athelron outcasters and promote divisions in Euphoria, especially between the Narlwagians and the Leonese and Achthalians. They have some degree of trade with Khanhosen elves, though this is rarely on good terms and more born out of a necessity to get certain forms of food.

Athelron elves are the most elven bunch. Community orientated, as I mentioned on day 2 of this thing, they stand as the home none of the other elves want.

Dwarves
The Dwarven people also have an idea of extended family or 'clan' but as dwarven lifespans are shorter, clans grow faster and not everyone in a clan knows everyone else. However Dwarves have city-states in the form of strongholds which are united together under the high king and as such have, unlike the elves, the idea of sovereignty - people can do stuff in one way and others can do stuff in another way and that is just fine. And then their are guilds. Guilds span strongholds and clans regulating certain crafts and ensuring the best interests of its members are followed. These three, the triad of dwarven politics, mix together in one big incomprehensible political soup full of intrigue and plots.

Humans
Humans are an interesting breed in that they are of least importance