D&D Non-Christian Afterlife

Dungeons and Dragons has always had very Christian-inspired afterlives, demons, and devils. In 1st edition the realms were simply called Hades, Hell, Tartarus, etc. On the one hand, Christianity’s morbid fascination with eternal torment has provided a lot of material to work with. I myself mined Dante’s Inferno for geography in the image above. But, how do you reconcile that with a non-Christian pantheon of deities? I’ve already discussed devils and demons here, but this will be about Hell itself.

Dante’s Divine Comedy is all about a spiritual journey through the three afterlives with semi-divine guides. Whether he knew it or not, he was echoing an ancient Italian myth in his works. The Etruscans believed that, after one died, they had to journey to get to the afterlife. This is only recorded in mosaics inside of tombs, but it shows the soul crossing vast distances, even across waters, to get to their final destination. They’re accompanied by a variety of figures. Some are winged vanthi, some are torch-bearing culsans, and some are horrible blue-faced monsters brandishing spears, keys, or boat rudders. These figures guide the soul on their journey. A few are shown as defending the traveling soul from horrible snake-footed monsters intent on stopping them. In the end they arrive to their destination across the waters.

Combining this with the Inferno, we get a Hell that is compatible with a non-Christian theological framework for our D&D setting. The soul is transported from the grave to the crown of the afterlife by psychopomps. From there they walk through the layers of Hell as migrants, not prisoners, with devils acting as stewards, guides, and protectors. The devils themselves are somewhat divine, and are not native to the plane. The original inhabitants are the demons. Demons are both against the gods and mortal souls and will do whatever is in their power to stop them. They inhabit the wildest lower parts of Hell. Within the wilderness of Hell there are bastions of rest of the journeying souls in the form of devil marquis (border counts) and their fortified castles. The very lowest layer is the calm black lake of the dead. Here the dead will sail, either by paying the ferryman or making their own ships and sail off into the afterlife. Of which different cultures have their own opinions. The one thing everyone can agree on is that the entrance to the afterlife is in the West, beyond the horizon.

I’ll be using this for my 1st edition Monster Manual drawing project. How Lias will get to the afterlife… we’ll see.

Aquatic Races Round-Up

Kuo-Toa - Amphibious fish folk. Despite their piscine appearance, their life cycle most resembles frogs, starting off as indistinguishable from normal fish and then growing limbs, losing their tails until they’re approximately humanoid. Originally inhabited shorelines where they made settlements simultaneously in and out of water. Archaeology shows mud brick homes on land and in water, where younglings could swing alongside parents until they got their land legs. Then the sahuagin came. The stronger fish folk stole their territory, forcing them downwards.

Aquatic caves proved to be similar enough to the coastal environments they’d lived on, but brought about more dangers than benefits. Aboleths and mindflayers frequently raided their villages for slaves and experiments. Great monsters roamed the underdark constantly. The only benefits were better access to metals and the ability to trade with other subterranean races. All in all, modern kuo-toa are anxious creatures, worried about their continued privacy and safety. Traders and hunters leave their homes for months at a time to prevent anyone from tailing them back.

Locathah - Fish folk similar to the kuo-toa, but are almost exclusively aquatic. Cannot survive for very long away from water. This means, unlike sahuagin, they have very little access to metals. Hard to work metal underwater, after all. Live in shallow seas as hunter gatherers, using tools of bone and waterlogged wood. The nature of the ocean makes permanent sources of food in one discrete location impossible, so they follow schools of fish far distances. When metal sinks, locathah that find it prize it greatly. Tritons and sea elves trade with them for rare aquatic materials. Sahuagin raid to exterminate them for no good purpose.

Merfolk - Similar in fairies to most respects, being hidden creatures that pop their heads out to do stereotypical activities, like singing, combing their hair, or sunning on rocks. For most land dwellers these rare sightings, and refuse of their that washes up onto the shores, is all that they’ll ever know about merfolk.

Under the water, they have a reputation similar to elves. They like their privacy immensely and show up at portentous times to play some role in fate. Or, they’re so magical that fate bends around them. Mystical laws bind their will, making dealing with them a nightmare for the good ol’ salt of the sea traders.

Sahuagin - The largest population of marine folk, and the only true marine empire. Originally they came from open oceans, where they dwelt in the twilight zone, rising to the surface at night to hunt and plunder. Then, as if overnight, there was a grand cultural revolution, with warriors bearing bronze weapons taking supreme power, and four armed barons becoming common lords over all. Being able to breathe water and air, their main cities are beneath the waves. Strategic forts, the equivalent to castles and citadels, are located on sea shelves, while towns are in shallower waters. Coastal cities exist as well, primarily to guard their greatest treasure. See, they can gather and mine metal ore underwater, but need special stations on the coast to melt and work it. These buildings are round brick workshops, resembling huts at first glance. Blacksmiths work while inordinate numbers guard them, providing water to cool the hot workers. These are the sahuagin life blood, as without them, they would have no metal.

To keep their empire running long term, sahuagin have begun expressing interest in joining the trade networks around them. They provide fish, aquatic treasures, and amphibious slaves. Many are still reluctant to see them step up to the plate, seeing them as sea devils and pirates turned pawn shops.

Tritons - Children of the sea gods, sometimes literally. The Triton from which they derive their name is equivalent to an angel beneath the waves. The race is his offspring, possessing quite a lot of sway in the sea. Meaning, their society sprung up already loaded with knowledge and metal treasures. They also have a bit of control over the waters themselves. Tend to inhabit green seas where vegetation is abundant for their underwater agriculture. Dugongs are farmed like cows. Their control of the water means they can create otherwise impossible air bubbles in their dwellings for curing and cooking meat and heating metal. As well as hosting air breathers, usually friends and lost sailors.

Aquatic Elves - Aside from the legendary gray elves, they are the most private and shy branch of the family. They hide themselves away as a form of religious acceptance of their fall from grace. [The elven equivalent of the Amish]. Their homes are located near coasts for ease of access and are actually contained in bubbles beneath the water. When tides recede and the moon is full, their illusion magic fails and the entrance is wide open. They farm land animals beneath the water, giving them odd characteristics. Aquatic elves sometimes leave in disguise to trade, often bringing valuable amber and pearls. Tend to live in the West, but there are some settlements as far into the White Sea as Oinotra and Inumiden.

Miscellaneous Races

Tieflings - Humanoids born under the influence of a devil, or demon. Said to be bastards by nature, with their mother either having trysts with the fiends or the seed being replaced during the moment of conception. Regarded as ill omens. Some rural people kill them, others sell them to slavers. Noble born tieflings survive, but are kept secret and hidden away.

Dragonborn - Like tieflings, they can be born to any humanoid parent. Some believe them to be blessed by gods with strength, or tainted by the parents’ greed during pregnancy. Whatever the case, they are not as feared as tieflings. Dragonborn may be raised among humans or left to fend for themselves, but almost all choose to leave one day. They prefer solitude and are better at living alone in the wilderness than most humanoids. Dragonseed do not get stir crazy or lonely as fast, and can tolerate much worse food. Hunters, skinners, and woodsmen are common occupations.

Lizardfolk - Usually found in swamps, as opposed to the marsh-dwelling bullywugs. The largest and most permanent population lives at the mouth of the Id and Ur, which is full of swampy and marshy land, frequently flooding. Makes for an unpredictable homeland, but perfect for the lizard tribes, who use it to hide from the humans who seek to exterminate them.

Aarocockra - Inhabit the high mountains of the Eastern Girdles. They live in great mansions carved into the very stone, unassailable to any that do not possess wings. They were said to be a gift from the gods, but the bird folk do not worship any. Instead they worship their ancestral spirits, the Garuda. A clan has made an island near Dilmun their home and act as a mercenary company for those with coin.

Kenku - Live in the jungles of the East. Little is known about their origins, as they live so deep in the dense wood. Some travelers speak of wooden homes built on top of the canopies, with roofs of horn and bone to keep off the rain. Their presence is mostly a nuisance, the Eastern equivalent to goblins, stealing and squatting near human dwellings. 

Kobolds - If the image attached is anything to go off of, you should know I like the first edition kobolds. While I can see how the dragon and dog versions got their origins, I prefer the oddly chimeric depictions. Which, of course, means there’s major changes to their lore, as modern d&d kobolds are almost exclusively draconic.

One story from d&d that I think is a good base is that of Garl Glittergold and the kobold god. Essentially, the kobold was guarding an important treasure and the gnome stole it from under their nose. For that, kobolds hate gnomes.

We establish the enmity, but also the character of the kobolds: they guard treasure and share something with gnomes. Given their origins as mine spirits, and gnome origins in this setting, it’s a no-brainer to make them earth-born as well. They believe they were created to guard the treasures of the earth, and every excursion upwards has only been met with disaster, reinforcing this belief. Kobolds want everyone to stay above ground, especially those damn gnomes. 

Goblinoids

What are goblins? I’ve written about the fluidity of the word goblin (along with elf and fairy) before. It’s generally the fantasy genera that sought to taxonomize these formerly interchangeable terms. And, with Monsters of the Multiverse, we see the heads of D&D recalling that and re-casting all the goblinoids as fairies.

However, I’d like to take the opposite stance here. In terms of folklore and history, it makes more sense. However, given the history of dungeons and dragons, along with the fantasy genre established by Tolkien, it doesn’t. Obviously this is the company trying to distance themselves from their previous decisions, aka making always evil creatures meant to be unabashedly slaughtered with no moral repercussions. That’s a good change. Making them into fairies ignores what makes them unique and what roots they do have besides the base material. If goliaths are the giant class humanoids and elves are the fairy class humanoids and genasi are the elemental class humanoids, I would posit that goblins and their kin are the monstrosity class humanoids. Not evil beings to be put down, but fearsome beings that really resemble nothing else in this world. Which is why I tend to prefer the more monstrous, chimeric depictions of old D&D art.

With that out of the way, let’s actually look at the goblinoids in this setting.

Hobgoblins - These guys are societal evil. Not born evil, but living in and contributing to a system that heavily revolves around slavery and war against weaker neighbors. Which makes them evil… about as evil as the humans they trade with. Yes, slavery does exist within this setting and humans do it as well. Hobgoblins are no more evil than they all are, which is to say, still evil on a grand scale. The only difference is that hobgoblins look a little weird. They are the dominant force in the North, maintaining an empire around the Black Sea (no, not that one). In their language, hob means home or city, and goblin means their species, or family. Hobgoblins are civilized.

Goblins - Which, conversely, means goblins are uncivilized. Biologically, I see goblins as a related species of hobgoblins. In the original monster manual, it says hobbos have bright blue or red noses, but otherwise look like larger goblins. I would use this to argue that they are related, but that goblins are a paedomorphic branch of the species. They evolved in response to harsher conditions and low food resources, not developing into their full adult size, until the became genetically distinct and just flat out cannot become “adults”. Goblins aren’t all babies though, they still have the cognitive ability of adults and can look old with time. They just don’t grow taller than five feet and can’t get big bright noses. Because of this, hobbos treat them as lesser than themselves. Goblin towns and villages are raided for slaves enough that most have trouble recalling a time when they had their own culture, not at odds with the hobgoblins.

Bugbear - In contrast, bugbears also live in small settlements and are raided by hobgoblins, but are not driven to such extremes. They are relatives, but distant ones. Hobbos and gobbos lost their fur and great size, similar to humanoids. Bugbears didn’t, and as a result live where few can, in the deep wilderness and farther North. They live in bands or tribes doing what they want. Their distance from the southern hobgoblins allows them to do as they please. When raids are carried out, they tend to get bloody, as bugbears fight dirty and hard. 

Orcs and Gnolls

Orcs - Another creation of Tolkien’s, meant to be a horde of enemies. Digital and regular ink has been spilled in tons about them, their meaning, the symbolism behind them, and the implications of some of their descriptions in-text. Let’s not re-hash all of that.

In fitting with old D&D, orcs are supposed to be barbaric monsters found in groups of up to the hundreds. Why? The barbarism is easy to explain at least. Humans already consider other humans barbarians due to cultural differences and a perceived sense of violence and primitiveness within those groups. Orcs would be no different. They live without many of the amenities of (medieval) modern life, so they have to rely on hunting and war, living in relative squalor. But, and this is a big sticking point for this world-building, orcs don’t do slaves. We’ll talk more about this in the culture posts later. Still, why do they arrive in bands to raid people?

This is both a biological and cultural answer: orcs reproduce similarly to other creatures, having offspring in numbers of 5-6. However, the sex ratio is skewed towards males, meaning there’s 1 female born for every 5 males. Biologically females orcs are spoiled for choice when it comes to picking a husband, and they cannot have mixed paternities like other animals. Thus they weed out the weaker males by initiating a challenge: go abroad, fight cool people, bring back cool stuff. Bachelors, young and old, leave their homelands to prove themselves and meet the expectations of their potential brides. The further from home one goes, the better they’ll appear, right? Most of those young orcs are going to die and their bones will never be brought back. Those that do come back are not guaranteed to succeed and so may have to go on multiple raiding missions. It also incentivizes orc women to see young men as disposable and not worthy of attention or care, since they’ll probably be dead in a few years. This strikes something also present in Tolkien’s work that sometimes gets left out: the tragedy of the orcs. Just like certain institutions in our modern world, the prevailing cultural beliefs of orcs motivates them to throw their lives away in search of value while the group that controls that value neglect those seeking it. ‘S fucked up.

Gnolls - Gnolls are weird. Since the beginning they’ve been portrayed as hyena-demon people, but almost nothing about them uses that. The name gnoll is just a combination of gnome and troll. Gnolls are the same raiding, tribal society as goblins and orcs. There are hyena monsters out there in folklore, but everything about gnolls makes them into another large group of evil monsters, rather than the succubus-like kishi or the cannibalistic kaftar.

Instead of changing them irreparably, there is a sort of similar being that can be used as a basis for gnolls: cynocephali. Dog-headed people from old tall-tales about foreign parts. Of course, hyenas aren’t dogs, they’re members of the feliform branch of the Carnivoran tree, but it’s not like they’ll actually be called that. In Herodotus’ Histories, the cynocephali have a lot of world-building, like that they can’t communicate with people via words so they use sign language, and that when the Indian king goes to war they send a legion to go with him, mostly made of archers.

We’ll go with this as a basis, and to show something important about gnolls: they can’t talk with us. The reason people are so easy to vilify them (disregarding the hyena heads) and why gnolls are so willing to attack people is that there is a massive communication barrier. Gnolls don’t have the vocal equipment to communicate with humanoids. Sometimes they’re wary, distant neighbors, sometimes they’re enemies. And sometimes, they actually get along enough to make a system for communicating with each other and prosper together. Well, together-ish.

We’ll talk more about the culture world-building stuff later, but briefly: gnolls were the first big group of monstrous humanoids to spread out. At the same time as the first humans popping up, gnolls came in to antagonize them in their shared homeland of the South.

Enormous Creatures

Giant Animals - What’s with all the big beasties running around! It seems like almost every species (at least, every recognizable species) has a giant variety of it in D&D. Where did they come from? The simple answer is literally: a wizard did it. Some wizard cast the enlarge spell on an animal, forgot about it, and now they’re a natural species. But is that enough? Would a handful of wizards (magic-users in general being rare in this setting) have the power to create a fundamental ecological phenomenon? I think not, and since this is my setting that’s that.

Rather, I see them as a response to humans. In the setting humans are meant to be consumers that destroy and change for their own purposes. Giant animals are the counter to them: animals that will fight against human greed. It gives all the small, overlooked animals a fighting chance, which is why there’s no such thing as giant bears or elephants: they’re big enough to protect themselves. Whether this was the gods’ idea or the earth itself is hard to say.

The process for “making” a giant animal is taken from Japanese folklore. When an animal reaches a certain (long) age, it undergoes a transformation. This involves becoming large, but also becoming physically able to defend itself and its smaller version from enemies. A giant bat might become raptorial, a giant elk might have permanent antlesr as hard as steel, or a giant skunk might spray acidic or flammable chemicals rather than stink. The most important thing is protection. Whether they live with or adjacent to their smaller relatives, giant animals will do whatever it takes to protect them. They have slightly more than a normal animal’s intellect. Some are even able to converse intelligently.  

Ents and Hobbits...er....

Treants - Unlike elves and dwarfs, who have a bit of plausible deniability from folklore and mythology, treants are explicitly taken from the works of Tolkien. To the point that there was a need for a legally distinct name for them, as “ent” is owned and copyrighted. What is lost in these translations is, I think, the good part of ents. They are basically a sort of giant (I believe ent is derived from eotan) that shepherd trees like sheep until they become almost indistinguishable from them. Most iterations of treants play them out as simply human-like trees.

Treants are a race of giants, but ones mostly ambivalent to the cosmological order. While it would be tempting to have them play a role like Silvanus or Leshy, this ambivalence is in itself a little intriguing. They have no positive or negative relationships with others, save that they treat their “flocks” with care. They are slow, but not dimwitted, keeping to themselves. During their long periods of dormancy they hear the whispers from Mother Earth. Whether they pay her mind or not is anyone’s guess. Treants come from her, having stone-like bones and mud-like blood. As time goes on, their curly hair tangles and becomes infested with lichen and algae, and the lines in their skin run deep, making them appear tree-like.

Halflings - Or, let’s be frank, hobbits. Hobbits are in the same boat as ents, see above. In the world of Middle Earth, hobbits are most often likened to humans. However, in terms of their origins and general nature, they seem to fit the bill of elves and fairies more. Elves are derived from the “high” mythology and epic sagas that Tolkien so loved, while hobbits/halflings are derived from “low” folklore. The idea of another race of people, generally smaller than us, living beneath the Earth, invisible to most, is ubiquitous across Western Europe. And heck, even the world.

Does this make halflings fairies? Sort of. I would consider the the fairy version of the penguin or ostrich. They lost many of the fantastical qualities that define fairies in favor of living shorter but more productive material lives. This meshes well with the innate luck that halflings tend to possess, and the fact that the original monster manual calls leprechauns “a species of halfling with strong pixie strain”.

Where does that place them in this setting? Well, halflings are just that: small and overlooked. People are broadly sure that there must be halflings cities and villages somewhere, but even their closest neighbors have never seen them in person. Unless the halflings themselves invited them in. It’s not invisibility like true fairies possess, rather a sort of wide-spread inconspicuousness. Those that live far away might even consider them a tall-tale until one shows up in their tavern one day.

Elveses

Elves - I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say d&d cribbed a lot of their elves from Tolkien. However, most of this is surface level: the aesthetics, the bows and arrows, the knowledgeable mysticism. For this setting, I am cribbing the sadness of the elves, how they’ve fallen from grace and are on their way out. In this regard, the Scandinavian idea that the hidden folk are fallen angels is also utilized.

Essentially, the elves are descended from a tribe of people, or gods, who were thrown out of their version of ‘heaven’. They sailed from the Western Ocean until they landed on Calydon (aka Elf-Land) and had to live as mortals. Their immortality is gone, though they still live incredibly long lives, and though they have greater foresight than others, they are no longer privy to the secrets of fate. The immense power and centrality of divinity is lost to them - forever. The different types of elves developed due to their response to this falling. The aquatic elves sought to hide themselves and their shame, so they went beneath the waves. The dark elves rebelled against it, thinking it wasn’t their fault, that the blame lies in the unfairness of the world. The wood elves sought to protect what they were given rather than try to reclaim lost glory, which is why they live in the forests and live relatively primitive lives. The high elves see themselves in a much more dramatic sense. It’s their duty to teach those that will come after them and guide them. Here we get the many Tolkien-esque elves, who act as oracles and mentors to others. They also invaded Oinotra to teach them their ways, so make of that what you will. Finally, the gray elves, or the fairies, disappeared into the wilds. Though one may encounter them, they are changed beyond recognition. They’ve regained their immortality, but can no longer be considered elves.

Being so long-lived, the elves have a good memory, but not a perfect one. They believe in a dramatic fall, that once their progenitors, the Van, landed on Calydon, they split off immediately. This is not the case. For about two thousand years, the Van acted as a collected unit rather than splintering off immediately. Archaeology supports a great expansion from Calydon, all the way to the Hinterlands. They were a much more cohesive culture than the elves believe, and what caused them to fracture is unknown. Essentially, the elven “religion” is driven not by historical fact but their own cultural myth. Think of the story of Exodus.

Dwarfs

Dwarfs - I’ve written a lot about dwarfs. Almost too much. So much so that I know the role that dwarfs play in folklore is so disconnected to the fantasy dwarf that making connections between the two is hard. Dwarfs could either be antisocial, mischievous, and honestly more like folkloric goblins and ghosts, or one of the numerous little folk living beneath the rocks. Or anything in between. Folklore laughs in the face of taxonomy. So, aside from the bare bones Eddic traits, our dwarfs are going to be mostly bog-standard. Give or take a few odd bogs.

The first thing to know about dwarfs is that they have no sexual dimorphism. Males and females look the same, except for the few months after their year long pregnancies when the nurse. Even then, dwarfin clothing is thick and lumpy enough to hide breasts. To dwarfs, there is no gender, there’s dwarfs and non-dwarfs. In their religion, the god Moradin carved all dwarfs by hand from stone. This, along with the immense metal deposits in the West, pretty much sealed their fascination with making things from raw materials. In the trade network, they are among the biggest suppliers of raw goods to humans and elves.

Hill dwarfs are your most typical, and numerous, dwarf. They live in clans which have lords and a high king overseeing those lords, though he is mostly an arbitrator without much power. Dwarfs without clans are equivalent to serfs “renting” land to live on.

Mountain dwarfs live in places with little arable land, so they don’t have the resources available to waste time on serfdom. Their dangerous lands also engender superstition and a double-sided fear and fascination with magic. Hill dwarfs are damningly practical and don’t have time for wizards. The mountaineers don’t mine as much, but have lots of wood and animal resources.

Finally, duergar are the descendants of hill dwarf serfs who got fed up and left underground. There they found the svirfneblin, who taught them how to make a living subterraneously, as well as introducing their religion. Duergar despise hill dwarfs and anything similar to serfdom. They’ve made quick enemies with the drow because of that. With their strange magic and ancient name, duergar are the closest thing to folkloric dwarfs we have, though are still people with their own lives rather than spirits.

Gnomes

Gnomes - Taking cues from their use as earth elementals by Paracelsus, and my own design when I did my first daily d&d drawings, making them into secretive monks.

The gnomes believe they were born directly from the Earth. This is not unusual in this world, where spontaneous generation is an observed phenomenon (at least in supernatural creatures). However, unlike the people of Cecropia, the gnomes are a little obsessed with it. Their culture is built around this belief. All of their homes are constructed as close to the Earth as possible. The richest among them live deep below it, while the poorest live in one story shacks above it.

Gnomish religion is a sort of monasticism, where initiates give up seeing the sunlight forever to live at the lowest depths. Gnomish dungeons are religious structures built like reverse towers: deep and straight, spiraling downwards to the lowest levels where the monks listen to the whispers of their mother earth. Gnomes are secretive around outsiders, but not unkind.

The svirfneblins are a sort of ethnoreligion. And an extreme one at that. They believe that living aboveground itself is antithetical to their earthly origin. You should have your ceiling and floor be Earth, not just the floor. They live completely underground, with only the poor and criminals going aboveground.

They are extremely secretive and shun outsiders. Their homes are hidden. A combination of no exposure to sunlight and drinking a mixture called “blood of Ge”, aka diluted silver, they have that unhealthy bluish gray skin tone. But, their health is not impacted by this as it is for grimlocks.

Svirfneblin have spread their religion to both dwarfs (duergar) and humans (grimlocks). Obviously one species took to it better than the other.

D&D Monsters

Monsters - Perhaps the broadest category of this list. In fifth edition, all the monsters are designated under the monstrosity category. But, because we’re working without that creature type framework (instead treating it as an invention of philosophers to divide the world into understandable chunks), it once again becomes a full list. My own idea for dividing monsters is based on ideas presented beforehand about gods and titans. Gods are the second or younger generation of divinities and are thus disconnected from the primordial aspect of creation. Titans and giants spring forth from the primordial element wholly and are steeped within it. They can create new life as easy as shaping clay into statues. With this division, we can now look at the monsters.

The first sort of monsters are the ones we’re most familiar with: gryphons, minotaurs, chimeras, gorgons, mermaids, all of their sort are in this category. One thing you might notice about all of those is that they’re all chimeras; mix and matches of different “whole” creatures. This is on purpose. They were all created by the gods, and because they gods cannot make life whole-clothe, they had to combine elements from existing creatures. Which isn’t to say that one day a lion and eagle were grabbed by hands from the heavens and smushed together. The species were created from thin air, but the minds that shaped them did not have the originality to create something entirely unique. Why the gods created them is up to religious interpretation, or myths and folk-tales. They all happened so long ago that no one alive can remember when they weren’t around and why they came to be.

The other sort are monsters like owlbears (original flavor), bulettes, otyugh, umber hulks, oozes, etc. Creatures that are not like anything else in the world. Some may have resemblances and be tentatively placed in some groups, but none came about by divine creation. All of these monsters come from the primordial aspect of the world. Whether belched from the earth or sea, they appeared without any instruction from the powers above. Which, as said before, does mean spontaneous generation of life does exist in this setting. At least for the weird stuff, not fish and clams and mice. No one being can be directly held responsible for them. This does not mean, however, that stories like “a wizard did it” won’t circulate. It’s hard to prove or disprove anything about monsters like this. Why were they created? Some may say that the primordial aspect (your Gaia or Tiamat) is angry at the gods and births them to destroy their works. Monsters are not born malevolent, however. They may just be the newest forms of life presented by mother nature without any of that pesky evolution to get in the way. Or maybe they did evolve, and no one noticed until they started coming for people’s crops.

DA EART

A map of my (very clearly based on real life) D&D map for my side-project.

As you can see, a lot of the stuff talked about in previous posts are there: the cardinal directions, the center of the world, and the real-world endonyms of various cultures, as well as some made-up creations when those are a bit too similar to the real thing. And, of course, the yellow snake ‘round the world.

A cookie to those who guess the origins behind some of those names!

Cardinal Directions

As stated in the introduction to this setting, there is a division of the world into the four cardinal directions: North, East, South, and West. These are both cultural, geographical, and supernatural distinctions. Each direction has a guardian deity associated with it. These aren’t deities in the sense that they’re worshiped, but because they guard and represent the fundamental forces of nature. This comes from both the Greek concept of the four winds, and, much more obviously, the Chinese concept of the Four Symbols. Like some other myths and beings, these are an anomaly: present in all cultures, even ones miles apart, due to their undeniable existence. Minor variations exist though, such as the Westerners usually anthropomorphizing them, or the people of the Center worshiping them in earnest, as each has equal power where they live. If encountered, they are akin to symbols and visions rather than enormous boss monsters. No force can subjugate them to one’s will, not even the gods.

Azure Dragon of the East - Guardian of the Eastern Wind, which brings the rains of Spring. Associated with the element of wood, which is plentiful in the East due to its great monsoons feeding the many plants. Seen at dawn, riding the winds over the green-blue seas.

Black Turtle of the North - Guardian of the Northern Wind, which brings the snow and hail of Winter. Associated with the element of water, found everywhere below and above-ground in the Northern reaches. Seen at midnight beneath the glass-still waters of lakes with a snake wrapped around its soft shell.

Vermilion Bird of the South - Guardian of the Southern Wind, which brings the heat of Summer. Associated with the element of fire, which burns the brush of the grasslands with every turn of the sun. Seen at midday as a mirage above the desert heat.

White Tiger of the West - Guardian of the Western Wind, which brings the fogs and chills of Autumn. Associated with the element of metal, found in its greatest abundancy within the West’s mantle. Seen at dusk stalking between sentinel pines, searching for ghosts in their barrows.

Humans in D&D Settings

Humans - Oh boy. What separates humans from every other race? All too often humans are presented as the “default” in fantasy world. They are the most dominant, the most populous, and the most diverse. The Doylist answer is simple. We’re humans. Everyone playing the game is a human. We know ourselves, or at least we think we do, so it’s easy to slip ourselves into these worlds. Diversity is little more complicated of an answer. From the perspective of a person playing a game, it would be unfair to say, “Humans exist, but only in these phenotypes. Want to play an East Asian looking character? Too bad.” We can all (hopefully) recognize the flaw in that. Especially when worlds exist, like mine, the very clearly crib off of existing cultures. So that’s the Doylist answer and the boring one. If we have that answer and those rules, we need a Watsonian justification for them.

To do this, let’s look at Prometheus. The Greek gods, as well as other cultural deities, are present in this world, just under different names. I won’t talk about myths very much because they kind of give this away. The myth of Prometheus, or in-universe Premisla [Macedonian for “forethought”], however, is present in its entirety. It is present in all human cultures almost unchanged. The titan (or giant, or whatever, just a precursor tribe to the gods) was a leal friend of the gods, but broke this when he gave humans the secret of fire. In retribution, he was chained to a mountaintop to be forever picked at by eagles. Now, this isn’t a punishment as we understand it. I, personally, am critical of the idea of eternal punishment*, but that’s not the point for Premisla. The point is is that he’s chained up there so he won’t do it again. But why go through the trouble? What’s so dangerous about giving humans fire? And why did he only give humans fire? Elfs, dwarfs, halflings, orcs, they all have the intellectual and material means to make fire, and do.

Premisla didn’t just give humans the means to make fire. He gave them fire, physically, but he also gave them a fire in their hearts. He gave them a passion, a burning hunger, for more. Humans desire horizons to cross, towers to build, songs to sing, barren land to settle. They cannot sit still and enjoy what they have, they always want more. In this world, elfs have been living in roughly the same territories, barring some major ethnic migrations, for millions of years. Their total population across the world is around 50,000. It’s not exact, but it oscillates around this number. That’s just how many elfs there’s supposed to be. They have no grand ambitions to conquer and spread, they’re fine where they are. It’s the same for all races, except humans. Humans were around that same figure before Premisla came, hanging around the fields and forests of the South. They had no great plans to move out. Then, they got that fire in their hearts, and suddenly everything around them looked so empty. So much space wasted, so many things that could be better. This human desire is neither wholly positive nor negative. It just is. Humans improve their lives and make things better for themselves, but they also consume so much that they create wastelands in their wake. And, one day, when humans cover every inch of the world, this hunger will be their downfall. The downfall of them and who knows how many others alongside them.

That is why the gods chained up Premisla. He changed the game. He didn’t hurt or help the gods, but he changed the trajectory of the very planet. Why on Earth would they want to let him have the chance to do it again? We’ll get to the different human cultures later.

*Elaborated more on in the Underworld section, whenever I get to that. Essentially, I don’t like the idea of someone like Sisyphus or Tantalus or everyone in Hell being punished eternally in the afterlife. They’re already dead, so what is the punishment meant to do? Punishments are meant to prevent undesirable behavior from cropping up again, but they’re already dead. And if the punishment goes on for eternity, they’ll never demonstrate the ability to stop that behavior. My solution is instead voluntary. Look at Sisyphus: he tried to escape death twice. Once, when he was meant to die at 30, he fought Death off. He lived another thirty years, becoming a 60 year old man. When Death came again, he tricked his way out of the Underworld and fought off Death once more when he was discovered. He lived another thirty years, becoming a 90 year old man. At this point he was weak and could no longer leave his bed, relying on his wife and slaves. Death came for him and he could not fight, he could not trick his way out of it. He got to the Underworld, and the gods there gave him a deal: if he could roll a boulder up a very steep hill, he could leave the Underworld and Death would never again come for him. And thus we get the famous Sisyphean punishment. But, the language is important here: he was given a choice. Where retellings of Greek mythology (like Percy Jackson or Hades) fall flat, in my opinion, is that they present Sisyphus as being a prisoner to this torment. The furies watch him and if he ever stops they whip him back to work. I don’t think this works as well as a free Sisyphus does. The reason Sisyphus is an “eternal” prisoner here is because every time the boulder rolls down that hill, he goes and does it all again. This gets at the heart of the “Sisyphean” task. He’s doing it all despite it being futile. He will never get that rock up the hill. He will never be immortal. Even if he does get it, he knows, from prior experience, what it’ll be like to go back. He will just get older and older, becoming more feeble and reliant on those around him, in constant, dull pain from his aging body. A human being trying to become immortal is just as useless as what he’s doing now. And, one day, Sisyphus comes to this realization. He’ll look at the boulder at the bottom of the hill and walk away from it, disappearing into the asphodels with all of the other dead. He was always free to, from the moment he arrived. He just forced himself to keep doing it because he was so hell-bent on his mission. Oh boy this got longer than I thought it would.

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Fairies and Homunculi

Fairies - This one is going to be more difficult. Since we don’t have a Western European analogue among the humans, being taken by the elfs and dwarfs, the idea of the fairy is instead focused on the Southern and Eastern European ideas. So no “courts”, no Feywild, just a bunch of unassociated weirdos. In this case, making them comparable to the Greek daimon is helpful, being spirits but also physical.

Intermediate spirits between the immortal, numinous gods and mortals. Unlike angels and devils, they sit closer to the mortal end of this spectrum. Fairies eat, sleep, reproduce, and have their own lives and cultures, even if they aren’t very social. At the same time, they are capable of marvels, able to disappear entirely, traverse vast distances without physically passing through them, and in general sit on the boundary between the known and unknown. Fairies live at the edge of the forest, they sit between the living and the dead, they are uncomfortably between masculine and feminine, and man and beast. Peripheral, liminal, weird; all are good terms for fairies, both for their strangeness and their supernatural foreknowledge.

Homunculus - The smallest sort of spirit there is, some are even smaller than amoebas. People have known of them based on theories and magical rites that use them, but only recently have they been seen via magnified glass tubes. They are a ubiquitous spirit that form the very bottom of the spiritual hierarchy. The effects and supernatural activity they bring about are so minor as to be undetectable by us. Larger spirits absorb them like an aerial plankton. Not quite eating them, as they’re spirits and have no matter, but getting what little power resides within them. When looking at them, they are so small that they have no color cells, being totally translucent. Curiously, they look a little humanoid, with two arms and legs, a face with two eyes and a nose and mouth. Aside from that, they vary wildly in appearance.

The reason everyone knows about them is because of the larger homunculi that wizards and alchemists create. Leave a jar of air (which should contain a large number of homunculi) and give it some sort of magical reagent. The homunculi will absorb the power and begin to grow. In doing so, they absorb their less powerful cousins until one remains. After getting a few more transfusions of power, usually the wizard’s own blood, it will grow into what most recognize as a homunculus. During growth its body develops, going from a microbe to a nearly infant sized creature. They’re still fragile, and most keep them in jars when not in use. During the growth period they may develop new body parts due to the accelerated maturation. Infusing one’s own power (and cells) into the homunculus makes it almost an extension of oneself. Useful as a familiar, but some people say they can eventually grow in power to the point where they overtake their creator.

Some believe fairies developed from homunculi, or that they’re a special variety of fairy that evolved to be microscopic. Others say they’re the base state of the mortal soul, and within every embryo is a homunculus.

Gods and Titans

Gods - Gods are... a bit complicated. They vary wildly from religion to religion, region to region. So I'll be talking in broad swathes here.

In general, fantasy uses polytheistic religions, but base it from a very Abrahamic framework. Gods are absolute, (some) love their worshipers and expect love in return, they work in a very good/evil dynamic, there's concepts of sin taken straight from Christianity, etc. Just look at Game of Thrones. In the place of that, this world is based on the framework of pre-Christian religions. Since the focus is mainly on the Aegean, it'll be mostly the Greek ones.

As supernatural beings, gods represent something. In their case, they represent aspects of the world that either benefit humans or come from humans. Rain, agriculture, the sea, the institutions of society like marriage, hospitality, war, and I could go on forever. They all are inherently tied to things we want or need. Worship is therefore transactional. The gods have something we want, so we give them something in return. Honor, sacrifices, and votive offerings. There is no expectation of morality from them. Aside from the obvious (the goddess of marriage shouldn't sleep around), gods are not expected to be good or kind. You don't worship them because you like them, you worship them because they provide you a service. Many people hate gods of war and curse their names while still giving them worship, because you want them on your side.

Of course, this isn't universal. There are people that genuinely love or are enamored with the idea/character of a god (see Clerics). There are also gods that aren't worshiped, whether because they don't provide any useful service, the concept they represent is so integral to the universe that they don't need to be worshiped (think Nyx or Gaia or Ouranos), or they don't want to be worshiped. All depends.

In a polytheistic society, all of the gods are worshiped by society as a whole. Individuals don't have to do this, they may follow one or two gods in particular. Or they may only worship one god when they need something. For instance, a father who is also a sailor worships Zeus and Poseidon; one as a role-model and guide for being a father (and therefore head of household) and one to keep himself safe at sea. One day he might see a woman he likes, so he goes to the temple of Aphrodite, gives her a nice gift, and meets the woman to flirt with her tomorrow. Going back to society, holidays and festivals are inherently religious, so it's expected for people to be involved with them. You might never worship Artemis, but you should probably participate on her festival day. One because it's your obligation, and two because it's probably fun.

Sometimes the worship of gods are stratified based on class or work. The upper-class and aristocracy might worship one god, which is exclusive to them. And again, those people probably wouldn't worship the commonfolk's gods, who provide safety and agricultural health.

And sometimes, one god can have many different forms. Going back to Zeus, he was the god who represented kings, fathers, hospitality, and law. One version of Zeus may be worshiped by the upper-class. Another may be worshiped by fathers/families in general. Society as a whole worships the hospitality Zeus, usually by having a statue or small altar near a hearth where visitors would sit around. And finally Zeus would be invoked during court proceedings. The god is a tree, with many smaller branches for different responsibilities. This isn't even delving into cults (where one god in particular is worshiped), heroes (humans who are dead but still worshiped), and syncretization.

Where do atheists stand in this society? Trying to deny a god is a bit hard. Unlike the Christian God, who is so far spread out that He becomes, in a way, "thin" and therefore difficult to see in day to day life, the gods have specific, concrete observances. Thor is thunder, Ra is the sun, Poseidon is the sea and earthquakes. In a supernatural world, there is also no room to doubt magic and miracles. Instead, atheists would be more concerned with the social implications of gods. Worship would be targeted. The atheist might say, "it is unfair that we must rely on the gods to get good things. Our relationship with them is inequitable: the possess all the power and we are expected to be reliant upon them." Of course, in a society with philosophers, they generally argue among each other and don't change society.

Titans - Though the Greek name is used, this name will be used to refer to the other gods. Seen in Norse, Hindu, and, of course, Greek mythologies. If we imagine gods to be split into tribes like humans, these are the tribe adjacent to the "god" tribe. They are the older of the two and more connected to the primordial powers that birthed them. Before the rule of gods, the titans had their place as rulers of the cosmos. Then the gods were either born or came from elsewhere, and the two fought. The gods won and subjugated the titans. Some were imprisoned, some were integrated into the gods' tribe.

This process is very similar to what happened in many ancient societies, especially around the Mediterranean. If two cities came to fight, the losers would be killed or enslaved. Their women would be either enslaved or married into the conquering city. The titans are thus a divine representation of the older tribe doomed to lose as the universe changed around them. Unlike their human counterparts though, the titans have the upper hand. By being defeated, the gods sealed their fate, and have created a new cycle in which they play. One day the gods too shall be overthrown and conquered by a new tribe, possibly of their own creation.

Titans are present either within the homes and domains of other gods or within the underworld. From our world, titans like Helios and Oceanus threw their lot in with the gods, or Olympians, and have retained all their titles and powers. Others, like Atlas and Kronos, were restricted to some prison. The underworld is the lazy answer, but it's also simple to place them there.

Just because fate sees the titans as losers, doesn't mean people do. Saturn was worshiped by the Romans the same as any other god. He, and eventually Kronos, were given the domain of Elysium by Zeus, releasing him from his bonds. So, in truth, many of the things that were discussed about gods could be applied here.

But, for a D&D setting we need an active and dynamic world, so we move to the Hindu side of things with the Asuras. Some titans are still abroad in the world, and fight against the gods the same as the giants and demons. Worship of these guys would be taboo as they are seen as in conflict with the gods. Still though, morally they are not negative, like demons, but neutral. Who wouldn't rage against the dying of the light?