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So /tg/ we all know that most fantasy centers around a very Euro-centric population, with any other culture shown on the periphery if at all. There are of course exceptions but none the less, there's a lot of misrepresentation or under representation in fantasy material. So, I propose we play a game; 1) Point out a culture that you think would be awesome as the center of a fantasy work, 2) Tell me how you would work the culture you like in as the main culture of a setting and 3) Point out an example where one was successfully worked in RIGHT. Now, let us begin;

1) Classical Mesoamerica. They are so strange and foreign compared to any other culture at the time, it's a shame they aren't touched on more besides as (usually) lizardmen expies.

2) A game centered around the politics of the Mayan and Aztec city-states dealing with invasions of non-human races, Ancient Aliens style, set to the backdrop of deep, mysterious jungles filled with unknown dangers and mysterious ruins.

3) The Dunmer are, to me, one of the best fantasy examples of North African and Islamic culture in a way that's recognizable yet distinct. The styles unlike any other of the other races of men and mer, with an overtone of religious zealotry. I love it so much.


That being said, let's see what you got /tg/
>>
>>31959623
The Afrikaner culture of South Africa. Never once have I seen it done in any fantasy setting.
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>>31959623
North and West African cultures have a lot of cool history to work with.
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>>31959623

>1) Classical Mesoamerica. They are so strange and foreign compared to any other culture at the time, it's a shame they aren't touched on more besides as (usually) lizardmen expies.

>2) A game centered around the politics of the Mayan and Aztec city-states dealing with invasions of non-human races, Ancient Aliens style, set to the backdrop of deep, mysterious jungles filled with unknown dangers and mysterious ruins.

You're almost literally describing Tekumel here, broseph.


And as always, if you want settings with solid fantasy cultures you want Glorantha and Tekumel.
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>>31959904
mmmm Tekumel

It was the first setting I ever GM'd.
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>>31959623
1) The middle east during the Islamic Golden age.
2) Politics if you stay at home, adventuring if you go out as a merchant and visit other countries. Think Sinbad.
3)uhhh.... Al Quadim?
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>>31959623
There's a Swedish RPG called Coriolis which is basically just Dune with a crappy system.
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>muh underrepresented cultures

jesus fuck maybe people don't play games centered in different cultures because they don't know anything about them?
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>>31960091
what a shame.
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>>31960091

Just because you're an ignorant-ass dude doesn't mean that everybody is, brah.
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>>31960091
Personally, I like exploring new and interesting cultures.

But after a few sessions the novelty wears off.
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>>31960091
No-one here knows shit about middle ages Europe and that doesn't stop us from playing D&D
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>>31959623
In my setting I have a mix of aztec-mayan-babylonian-scythian cultures. I didn't do a lot of research, but it's not a very ambitious setting anyway.
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>>31959904
To be fair, I've only heard of Tekumal once and that was in the last week. One example does not a trend make.

Though they are awesome and I've loved every bit I've read about it, doesn't change the fact that Mesoamerica is pretty damn underrated for how advanced and intriguing it is.
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>>31959623
Maztica from 2e and Autocththonia seem plenty mesoamerican.
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>>31960091
>muh closeminded bigotry

I'm not saying it's unfair that they aren't represented, I could honestly give a shit about getting into a racial-rights argument on the internet, I'm just saying there's a wealth of cultures that usually go untapped in fantasy that could be used to easily add depth to otherwise bland and uninspired worlds.

Plus I'm not talking about straight expies, as I gave and example of the Dunmer who take North African/Middle Eastern culture and turn it on it's ear while still very obviously showing the influence. It's unique, it's fun, and it's different.

That being said, troll posts be trolling.
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>>31960392
Wow no one knows shit about the middle ages? That must explain why 10 minutes on the internet can easily tell me a huge amount of information on the culture, politics, and events of that time period.

>This is obviously sarcasm, in case you didn't catch that.
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>>31960825

Well, on the flipside, one absolutely fantastic and well thought out setting is better than most cultures get. Bit unfortunate, but you take what you get.
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>>31960602
Please, tell me more. I would love to hear about it. other custom settings are always intriguing for me.
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>>31960892
True, I love how ham that guy went on his setting, he obviously had a huge love and wealth of knowledge. It's a lot of fun and feels exactly like how a Maya themed system should feel. It's just a bit too.... IN SPESS for me sometimes, know what I mean?
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>>31960890
And that isn't true for other cultures?
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>>31960995
Wait, there has been a miscommunication. I misread the intent of the last comment, which actually agreed with the statement I was trying to make.

Mid-termed brain is mid-termed
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>>31960934

The dude literally was a professor of Urdu and South Asian studies with a doctorate in linguistics.

But yeah, the IN SPESS thing is pretty in your face, sure. That's why I like to describe Tekumel as Middle-Earth if Middle-Earth was a sword and planet setting.
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>>31961122
Yup. Wrote an entire freaking language. He's like Tolkein except with spess and Aztecs.

Makes sense, that seems like a really solid way to downplay the alieness and make it feel way more like a high-fantasy rather than a low-scifi setting.
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>>31959623
>under representation
I get what you are trying to say, but your wording is bullshit.
It implies that every historical society has some kind of "right" to appear once in a while as a fantasy counterpart culture and that authors are obliged to include or base around their works on rather rarely seized upon cultures as if some kind of quota had to be fulfilled.
However certain Mythologies and civilizations are simply far more interesting (e.g. Norse or Greek) than others (e.g. Native American or Aboriginal), still others are simply extremely difficult to portray for a western audience - Think of Empire of the Petal Throne, which is extremely elaborate and extensive, yet so hard to get into.

That touches another problem: In cases were a rather exotic culture is to be portrayed, it is often handled extremely badly.
An example for this would be pseudo Far East settings which have a small following of "weeaboo" fans but put off a lot of other people because their representation assumes the same profound familiarity that people (should) have with Norse, Greek and to a lesser extend Egyptian and Arabic myth and culture which isn't the case of course.

>Dunmer
>examples of North African and Islamic culture
That is wishful thinking on your part. Morrowind's dunmer are probably the single well-done fantasy culture that is not obviously based on one or two historical cultures (with maybe a few modifications) but an actual original fantasy society built from the ground up with references to a lot of real historic cultures.
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>>31960102
>>31960209
>>31960868
Replied right after reading the OP without checkign the thread, so see here:
>>31961646
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>>31961646
>not based on historical cultures
>references a lot of real historic culture
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>>31961759
>You
>Reading comprehension

It's like your image refers to yourself.
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>>31961810
>gets told
>"no u"
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>>31961646
Except that under-representation has no meaning towards "rights" of any kind. All it means is that, on a percentage of population vs. cultures/cultural influence on settings, there are cultures that have a much lower impact on most settings. There's a difference between me saying that they are under represented (meaning they just don't show up often) and saying they are biased against (giving it more racial or bigoted connotations). All I was saying is that they don't show up much.

Saying that any one culture is more interesting than any other is a completely personal value and cannot be used in an argument with any merit. You might find them more interesting, that does not make you the majority.

True, they often are poorly done. That makes me sad. That doesn't change the fact that most people really don't even try to touch any culture that exists in the southern hemisphere (Africa, South America, etc). Most Asian influenced fantasy cultures are poorly done, yet that doesn't stop people from trying.

Finally, I said that they draw influence, which they obviously do with their dress style, nomadic vs. settled conflict within a racially similar area, and extreme religious influence. That being said, they are unique. That doesn't change the fact that the influence is still there.
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>tfw still no good Inuit setting

Why can't I be rich and smart and have friends in the industry so I could make it happen?
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>>31961942
Inuits are dope as hell and I would love to see them done well in a setting.

Throw some ideas together and see if we can't /tg/ it into something.
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>>31961840
Again your post feels more appropriate relating to yourself.

But to keep you from going even more silly I will point out what I wrote:
Dunmer have so many abstract references to so many real world cultures and on top of that even completely original comcepts (which is pretty rare in fantasy) that is just wrong to say they were "based on North African and Islamic culture" - the former statement is especially retarded because it spans a few thousand years on a (big) continet.
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>>31962016
Again, their culture and appearance are very much based on it, though heavily mixed and remixed with other cultures as well as unique ideas from those crazy ES guys. I'm not saying you're wrong in that regard, I'm just saying that I am also not wrong.

This isn't a win/lose scenario, we can both be right. I'm just saying, the company I work for did the ESO limited edition art and physical lore book (for the Imperial Edition) and we were specifically given African and Middle Eastern pieces as reference art. It's there. There's also other cultures. I'm just saying that the Dunmer are the single best example of an accurate (or as close as accurate as can be in a unique fantasy setting) to those two cultures without being direct expies.
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>>31961646
>the single well-done fantasy culture that is not obviously based on one or two historical cultures
>an actual original fantasy society built from the ground up with references to a lot of real historic cultures.

Dudeseph, like four out of the five major cultures of Glorantha just called and they sound kinda upset. And that's only counting the human ones.
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>>31961993
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism_among_Eskimo_peoples
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_mythology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people

Let's brainstorm
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>>31962142
>>31961993
I'm proposing magical flying demon whales as hunting targets
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>>31962142
Let me wrap up some work and come back to you a bit later, until then feel free to start posting shit.

First thing is first though; walrus tusk weaponry. Non-metal weaponry is one of my favorite things in any fantasy settings. The Inuit have a wonderful plethora of this.
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>>31961877
>All I was saying is that they don't show up much
Ok, I admit I might have had a little too much of /pol/ as of late, it just seems to me that (also on /tg/) social justice discussion emerge not onyl where they belong (concerning the real world) but also where they don't belong (fantasy worlds).

>Saying that any one culture is more interesting than any other is a completely personal value
To some extend, but there is a remainder of objectivity left in almost everything and Mythologies are no exception:
Aboriginal Myth is not to be dismissed but there is just so much in Ancient Greek legend and society to seize upon so it is no wonder that the latter is approached far, far more often.


In conclusion I want to point out - and I think every fa/tg/uy can agree upon - that the best fantasy cultures are those that are not copies of one real world counterpart or an incoherent mash-up of two, but those that draw little details from various sources and merge them in a fitting way (of which, as was stated, Kirkbride's dunmer are a rare example).
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>>31962179
Isn't that god in Rance?
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>>31962179
So much yes.
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>>31961993
Just play an Elderscrolls RP as a Skaal

or Avatar: Last Airbender themed as a South Pole native
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>>31959623
Is there actually anything well-made/good/etc. based on "viking" era Britain, Scandinavia and/or Eastern Europe?
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>>31962271

>Ok, I admit I might have had a little too much of /pol/ as of late

Damn right you have. Stop seeing tumblr behind every bush, please. It's getting annoying when people start some shitstorm because someone used some word that triggers people like you.
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>>31962271
Their has been a lot of /pol/ influenced shitposts all over /tg/ lately. I hold you no ill will my friend.

Eh, I think it depends. It very much helps that the Greeks actually wrote down their myths and weren't reluctant to share them with outsiders. This is not always the case with cultures, especially with extremely insular, tribal cultures. It's there, we just don't have access to it.

Definitely. I should have clarified I meant as an INFLUENCED group (dunmer), not as a copy of the culture(s) mentioned. ES is way more complicated than that and I'm sure we could spend hours picking out influences in every race, I'm just saying those two are maybe the two most prominent or aesthetically influential.
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>>31962390
I honestly think the Nord/Skaal relationships in ES accurately depict Norse/Samii relationships; nominally they influence each other, but they try to stay the fuck away from each other and both have very unique cultures.
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>>31962390

They're not exactly based on vikings, but the Orlanthi fron Glorantha definitely are influenced by Norse culture.
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>>31962142
Also;

Adding a more Norse-themed, expansionist outsiders as a major threat, coming in search of resource/slaves/new lands. We could incorporate a lot of stuff into a setting like this.
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>>31962550
Can I be a slaving raiding expansionist?
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I've always thought Native North American, Russian/Eastern European, Middle Eastern, Ancient Mesopotamian, Greco-Roman, and sub-continental Indian are grossly under-represented, despite having tons of cool monsters, magical concepts, and cultural elements.
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>>31962104
> I'm not saying you're wrong in that regard, I'm just saying that I am also not wrong
>This isn't a win/lose scenario, we can both be right.
>Began discussion with ad hominem

Surely you do can point out what went wrong anon, don't you?

> I'm just saying, the company I work for did the ESO limited edition art and physical lore book (for the Imperial Edition) and we were specifically given African and Middle Eastern pieces as reference art.

Please compare Morrowind's original Dunmer (pic fucking related) to the undisputed bullshit that is ESO - that is simply not just a mix of North Africa and Islam, that is an entirely original aesthetic.
I can also image very well that the people in charge of ESO do not appreciate inventive design like that and try their best to streamline it for the according market (which ironically would appreciate a little more originalty, I am sure).
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>>31962582
Yes.
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>>31962401
>that triggers people like you
Hehe, how ironic.

But see
>as of late, it just seems to me that (also on /tg/) social justice discussion emerge not onyl where they belong (concerning the real world) but also where they don't belong (fantasy worlds)
It's not entirely without reason
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>>31962626
Sweet.
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>What is Glorantha?
Glorantha is fucking great. Best setting I've seen in a long ass time

As for under representation, I find that Non-Humans are never given the treatment they deserve.
Non human cultures are almost always bad expies of other IRL cultures.
Because they're just humans only shorter.

>Each race that isn't humans has only 1 nation/culture
>Humans have 17965 nations

Ugh.

Only slightly related. Sorry.
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>>31962607
Dude, I don't know how many times I have to keep saying it.

I am not saying that they are an expy of North African culture.

I am not saying that they are and expy of Islamic Middle Eastern culture.

I am saying that culturally and aeshetically (picture fucking relevant, that art is (a) drawn in a very Middle Eastern style and (2) Ordinator armor looks like a lot of traditional wear of the Egypt/Middle East) reminiscent to those two cultures, along with a NUMBER or others, as well as being one of the only well-done fantasy cultures with even a little bit of influence to those two cultures.

Again, I'm not trying to say you are wrong. You are right, they do have a huge range of influences and many very unique ideas as well, I am just saying that, out of all of the real world influences, those are the two that are most prominent.

Please dude, this isn't going to go anywhere. I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm both of us are correct.
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>>31962682
Raid on and worship a death god.
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>>31962318
>>31962459
Aren't Skaal still basically Nords though?

>>31962792
I will drink from their skulls!
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>>31962673
>Hehe, how ironic.

Thank you, it's nice to see one's efforts being appreciated.

>But see
>>as of late, it just seems to me that (also on /tg/) social justice discussion emerge not onyl where they belong (concerning the real world) but also where they don't belong (fantasy worlds)
>It's not entirely without reason

Who cares? i don't give a damn as long as they don't start a shitstorm that fucks up some interesting thread. By the same principle, flipping out because someone used a word could very well cause a shitstorm that fucks up some interesting thread. So kindly don't do it.
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>>31962815
Not if I remember correctly, I believe they are another race of man that has intermingled to the point of homogeneity (appearance wise) with the Nords (which would make the statement accurate, as that has happened with the Sami) or possibly they are a more traditional group of Nords that still live in the way that the original Nedes did. I'm not positive either way but I think either of those ideas are likely to be correct.
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>>31962754
>As for under representation, I find that Non-Humans are never given the treatment they deserve.

Incidentally Glorantha is pretty good about this too. I really like the lore for the Mostali, for example.
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>>31962770
>I am saying that culturally and aeshetically (picture fucking relevant, that art is (a) drawn in a very Middle Eastern style and (2) Ordinator armor looks like a lot of traditional wear of the Egypt/Middle East) reminiscent to those two cultures, along with a NUMBER or others, as well as being one of the only well-done fantasy cultures with even a little bit of influence to those two cultures.

That is fair and acknowleged, however arguing with the fact that the fucking ESO devs of all people, which don't know about or care for the Elder Scrolls' lore or aesthetic in the slightest only gave you north african and middle eastern sources as inspiration is not.
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>>31962916
I think the problem is that it's really, really hard for a human to think in a manner similar to a non-human, let alone make a culture without being too strongly influenced by real-world cultures. Humans just love drawing parallels way too much.
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I've never seen a Fantasy RPG based off of the various Hindu mythos.

And it fucking hurts me. Because these gods are some shit.
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>>31962962
It's rather hard to create something truly new without it being silly in some fashion.
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>>31962828
Fair enough.
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>>31962957
We didn't get it from the devs, it was from the art team which was largely directed by Bethesda as opposed to the story or setting mechanics, which were more directed by Zenimax.

But anyways, let's drop it. We have come to mutual agreement on most of the points and further discussion will only hurt progress.

Best part of /tg/? We can actually go somewhere with our discussions and walk away better for it.
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>>31962963
They are indeed some of the original shit. Most pure depiction of the Indo-European gods that went on to create Germanic and Greek mythos.
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>>31963015
see
>>31962998
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>>31962963

Yeah, Hindu myth really is undervalued. It's got everything you could want for a classic fantasy setting. Hideous demons, non-human species, a vast variety of gods, a distinctive cultural look and feel.

Plus, the Indians had fucking CRAZY weapons, like that one sword that was a razor-bladed metal ribbon used like a whip.
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>>31962963
>Tried to use Hindu stuff for my setting
>Try to read about it
>What the fuck am I reading?
>Why has it been around this long?
>My white brain can't keep track of all of these names
>Is...is it even a religion?
>It's polytheistic AND monotheistic AND agnostic AT THE SAME TIME?
>Are all the gods the same God?
>How did Vishnu do that
>What is a Brahman
>I thought they did reincarnation
>Oh god this so confusing

>tfw too white to understand Hinduism's incredible complexity
I'll never have Indian Dwarfs ;_;
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>>31963112
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>>31963244
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>>31963216

Man, why have Indian dwarfs when you could just have Vanaras, Garudas, or Nagas?
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>>31963365
I usually feel like Elves make the best use of Hindu mythology. Old, repetitive and convoluted as fuck.
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>>31963395

What I'm saying, is why not use the actual non-human races of Indian myth, instead of forcing it onto dwarves or elves or whatever?
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>>31963365
(Because I'm a scrub)
It was going to be a mix of Hindu and Buddhist for a culture of dwarfs that lived on top of their mountains instead of under them.
Basically what people think of when they hear Tibetan Monks, but hairy and short, and with more mysticism.

I don't know very much about Eastern cultures.
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>>31963456
You could go that route but to me doing so makes them a much more obvious expy, as it is literally just ripping out a piece of the whole and adding the rest to it. It can work, and is totally legitimate practice to do, it's just not to everyone's taste.
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>>31963511
Eastern cultures are hard. It's terrifying that they are more like ours than Southern hemisphere cultures are.
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>>31963511

Well, as far as the Indiana are concerned, you've got three basic non-human races.

The Vanara are monkey men, servants of the god Hanuman. They live in the jungles, are tricksters with a love of practical jokes, but are also great warriors.

Naga are sometimes villainous snake-people who live in lakes and rivers, usually in jeweled palaces on the riverbeds.

The Garuda is a giant bird man, the steed of Vishnu. In some myths he fathered an antire race of lesser bird-men. He and all his descendants hate the Naga, and vice versa, and garudas usually feed on snakes.
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>>31963640

The thing to keep in mind about Eastern cultures is that they often don't fit into the same fantasy framework. Traditional Chinese myth (and to some extent Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian) doesn't really have gods, spirits, monsters, and non human races in the same way.

Instead, most of their gods are deified humans, while demons, spirits, creatures and monsters are immortal and magical versions of humans, animals, or the spirits of the dead.

In sort, every magical being in Chinese myth is just an immortal animal or person.
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>>31963216
That's what you have when mythology and religion was developed for few thousand years without throwing out older stuff.
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>>31963767

>in short*

I should mention, there are a few exceptions, obviously, like the dragon or the feng huang.
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>>31959623
The mediterranean and far east during the age of imperialism. No white PCs allowed.

Also, holy fuck, Bronze Age middle east also. I've been thinking about making a Twelve Tribes setting so I can play dungeons and dragons instead actually having a seder
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>>31963864
People should always remember non-white=/=non-indo-european, which always seems to be a forgotten fact.

Both of those times are great. One set around events/timelines roughly analogous to the Trojan Wars would be crazy cool (did you know Troy was actually located in Turkey?).

The Bronze Age in general is pretty awesome. Sword and Sandals is my shit.
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>you will never enjoy reading about foreign cultures and religions as much as some people in this thread
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>>31963767
I disagree, Exalted showed that you could have a very heavily East Asian influenced spiritual world that is both compelling and interesting. You just have to have a heaven that works as a celestial bureaucracy and not as a more western interpretation of the afterlife.

Also, Sun Wukong and his boulder egg would like a quick conversation with you.
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>>31963974
>Bronze Age
My nigga

Glorantha is bronze age (iron is rare and poisonous to Elves and Trolls. Bronze can be mined as an alloy).
RuneQuest 6e assumes by default a bronze age/early-iron age game.
RuneQuest in general is pretty good for making games where culture matters.

(I just wish my group and I had the patience for its complex combat)
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>>31964220
>(I just wish my group and I had the patience for its complex combat)

Try HeroQuest 2. It's really simple and it's got some fucking excellent sourcebooks for Glorantha.
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Is it bad world building if I just pick 2 or more cultures and historical events/eras at random and then mash the together until I get something that almost makes sense?
I got sorta state sanctioned Norse Polytheism that the traditional barbarian Norse-expies hate. Culture is based around barbarians clans-turned-merchant-houses with city-states similar to medieval/Renaissance Italy.
But like, with long boats. And oracle-women.
High King Not Constantine unified the foreign barbarian belief system into an organized church.

I just thought having the Christianity of the setting be polytheistic would be cool.
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>>31964094

I'm not saying you can't make a Eastern-themed fantasy setting, I'm just saying it's naturally very different from the normal Euro-centric model.

As for Sun Wukong, yeah, he's an exception, though he does sort of fit both the "animal becomes divine/demonic/magic being" motif. There's also some cases of inanimate objects becoming immortal beings, and he sorta fits with that as well.
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>>31962754
>As for under representation, I find that Non-Humans are never given the treatment they deserve.

What about the witcher? Particularly the first two books which are basically deconstructions of fairy tales and give non-humans hella character.
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>>31960907
Sure.
It's a bit HFY-ish to be honest. The premise is that after a big crises part of humanity was forced to leave earth on huge colony ships. These ships managed to found 2 planets and create 3 nations. 1st one was Ursa which was a big, cold planet with avian alien (obviously mayan) remnants. Totally not Eastern Europe. 2nd planet was Andra and there settled totally-not-Persians and an obligatory tree loving faction.

On Earth a new age of prosperity came. Eventually scientist started dabbling in occult and managed to contact a cohort of ancient spirits living in/on the planet. These spirits were willing to work with humanity to achieve common goals. Together they estabilish a powerful empire which quickly spreads through the solar system (including partial terraforming of Mars). Then they decide to conquer those colonies I mentioned earlier.
The terran civilisation is mostly babylonian in feel, featuring powerful demons, often merging with warriors to create avatars (I forgot Indian influence). Magic and astrology were rediscovered and are very potent. Terrans fight with serrated swords called macanas.
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>>31964372
Never read it.
Sounds cool.

It's a video game, right?
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>>31964319
True true, it's difficult for most Western people to wrap brains around non-Western ideas, just because that's how brains work.

Fair enough, he is sort of in a strange in-between place.

>>31964393
Sounds dope, a bit like the opposite of the setting I have been working on.
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>>31964496
It's a video game as well as a book series.
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>>31964496
Also. Started out as a series of Polish novels deconstructing fairy tales with your typical eastern European alcoholic dourness.

It eventually morphed into something more, which is where the games take their story line from.

Honestly, I'd put it on the level of ASOIAF, but like... east block style. And less focused on grand politics, and more on philosophy and characters motivations, rather than actions.
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>>31964580
A lot of my favorite fantasy and scifi actually comes from Eastern Europe. Daywatch, Witcher, STALKER, Metro, etc.

All are great and pretty innovative,
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>>31964736
Excellent taste
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>>31965280
There's something about alcohol and depression that is just a breeding ground for quality fantasy works.

Must be the desire for escape (with no hope for it).
>>
Bumpo
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>>31961942
>>31962142
>>31962179
>>31962582

Huddle time; did anyone come up with anything good for the Inuit setting? I found out that apparently the Inuit have stories about a race of half-dog half-humans that they competed with, which is pretty dope. Could make a good non-human race.
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>>31963974
>Sword and Sandals
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>>31970023
Thank you, thank you.

On that note, does anyone know of a good Conan TTRPG? I know there's some... less than reputable ones out there.
>>
>>31963216
As a Hindu:, first lesson:treating Hinduism as a single religion leads to a world of pain. It is the amalgation of the beliefs of about a billion people with no unified religious heirarchy or text(The bible, Koran, pope, tanakh etc). It is like trying to take all sects of Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Mormonism and trying to mash it into a unified whole. Doesn't work.

Take bits and pieces, a lot easier to manage and incorporate. As for dwarves, I suggest going for the mahabaratha and picking factions.
>>
>>31968323
Basically, what we have is nomadic hunter tribes, magical dog-people (eternal rivals) and intruding city-building, Nordic metal men (they steal your kids and enslave them), forced to band together against killer whale demons.
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>>31970275
Quallupilluit are trolls that have minor weather powers. This gets worse in groups.They migrate near years end and it is believed that they follow the storms and herald three months of night and fighting. In actuality, it is the other way around the storms follow them.
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>>31970275
Oh god the killer whale demons.

How did the world begin? I was thinking that the main hunter-god slayed a giant walrus, carved a great knife/sword from it's tusk, and divided it's body into the land and sea from it's blood (their interpretation of creation).

The city-building people worship death, war, and thunder, practice ritual scarification, tattooing and piercings. They use rough iron tools, which are a rarity to the nomadic people who only have access to Native Iron.

What do we do with the dog people?
>>
>>31970345
Sort of like the increasing power of an Ork WAGH?

How do the interact with all the other people? do they get along with the dog-people (Adlet)? The new, war-like invaders? Or do they not get along with anyone
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>>31970363
The dog people have two species diurnal and nocturnal and it is believed the dark walkers prey on any foolish enough to hunt in the night. In recent times there has been a tenuous alliance, as it means having guards 24/7 in dangerous times, but stories are still told.
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>>31970345
Also, just looked up those fucks. They are terrifying as hell.
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>>31970363
They're a kind of friendly rivals, like Welsh and English (on the Welsh side of the stick though, they're losing influence and land)
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>>31970399
I imagine other races viewing them as more a yearly force of nature than a civilized species. No idea what they are internally though.
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>>31970412
The nocturnal have darker patterns and are much more wolf-like than the diurnal Adlet, who are taller than the average human (though smaller than the strange invaders), though on average much lighter. The nocturnal ones are much heavier set, with long, lanky fur and glowing eyes.
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>>31970399
It'd be easily justifiable if they don't actually interact with people in any other way than brutally killing them on accident. They don't understand what "people" are and that their powers kill them. The fact that the invaders can actually fight and kill Quallupilluit is what makes them so dangerous.
>>
>>31970465
>>31970479
hivemind

>>31970475
Can your player character be one?
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>>31970475
A lot of the violent reactions in the past have been due to use of fire. Sudden lights cause pain to nightwalkers. (Imagine turning on a flashlight into night vision). The resulting violent reactions are understandable.

While the nightwalkers look more feral, they have one of the oldest boatmaming and navigating traditions due to their sharper eyesight and knowledge of the stars.
>>
>>31970465
So they show up and people are kind of like "FUCKGETOUTOFTHEWAY."

I imagine them as a clan-based matriarchy, living most of the year in the hills and mountains and herd groups of mountain goats. When the other races encounter them it's during their rutting season, where they come down to the rich (comparatively) lowlands to mate and fatten up for the coming year. Females direct the clan while males are used more as beasts of burden and guards for the settlements.
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>>31970275
Okay, fa/tg/uys, are the Norsemen actually literally made out of iron in this setting or do they just wear the armor?
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>>31970493
It would be like something you buy in to, sort of like a secret society. It involves taking on a fraction of the Adlet protector deity's soul, which changes you into a much more aggressive form.
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>>31970536
I imagine they're seen as being made of iron due to heavy use of piercing and due to the fact that the natives literally have no idea what metal armor is, so they think it might be a part of them (which would make sense as they rarely interact peacefully, no chance to see them outside of their armor).
>>
>We rpg.net now?
I mean, I'm okay with this. Spears of the Dawn is cool.
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>>31970542
Oh, I completely forgot about the "shared souls" thing, that's awesome.

Do Norsemen have souls/anirniit?

>>31970556
I mean, this IS a fantasy setting with weather orcs, it could absolutely work though
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>>31970275
Magic in setting could be pact based. The most common way being to make a promise to one of the spirits that inhabit the world. However, more mundane promises could still work if the people had enough conviction and followed through. Gaining power from a promise to protect your family, or to always be respectful to those you hunted.
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>>31970603
Boom! Magic system.
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>>31970595
Oh totally, if that is seen as being cooler then they definitely should be made (at least partially) of metal.

No, Odin holds them all and doles them out to warriors who please him enough.
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>>31970603
So like gifts from W:tA? You get more magic by making bargains with more spirits? Do you lose something by binding with the spirit? (likeyoursoul.jpg)
>>
My drow are quasi-aztecs who live in giant trees. These trees (which are also their gods and are basically Cthulhu) spring directly out of the deepest ocean, and the drow cruise around on undead bone-and-flesh barges raiding Oceanic civilizations for captives.

High elves from this region are More Differenter Aztecs who worship a feathered-serpent-sun-god. The sun hates drow on a personal level, and the cthulhu-trees are only a few thousand years away from being able to pull the sun out of the sky and offer the drow a bridge to the stars.
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>>31970673
Humanity (i.e. WIS lowered, -X tp Persuasion)
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>>31970673
I imagine there would be consequences for not holding up your end of the deal. Make a pact with the spirit of medicine and leave someone to die, spirit won't like you and makes you sick. promise to protect your comrades and falter and your strength drains away.
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>>31970690

>Crazy monster trees that literally can get so big as to bridge the gap of space.

I love it. Yggdrasil is just a young sapling.
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>>31970700
>>31970709

So, synthesis of the two; when you break your end of the bargain the spirit carves out a piece of your soul (larger for the more important spirits), leaving them empty and more likely to be inhabited by malign spirits. The more they lose, the more animalistic and savage they become until they are little more than beasts, terrible monsters that inhabit the frigid wastelands.

And that, my friend, is how you get Wendigo
>>
By the way, thank you guys. There's nothing more to make a man feel proud than to see his thread succeed and actually get shit done. Thank you all.
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>>31970761
Brilliant.
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>>31970761
A lot of the minor spirits will let you do something to get your soul back, usually something big. The more powerful spirits know that they are more powerful and are much harder if not impossible to appease.
There can also be very powerful spirits of natural features who's gifts only work locally, but can do terrifyingly awesome things. These pacts are passed down and reestablished from descendant to descendent in some settlements, resulting in a kind of hierarchy.
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>>31963974
I'm mostly just sad that people think tons of iron age and 'classical' stuff are bronze age. The only parts of greek history that were bronze age are the Illiad and Oddesey, and that's only history in the sense that some greeks fought some trojans.
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>>31970801
It usually is either something extremely difficult, recovering some lost relic of the spirit, etc, or that increases the domain of the spirit (setting fire for fire spirits, sacrificing blood for warrior spirits, giving a portion of your prey for a year to hunter spirits). The only way to recover your spirit from a truly powerful spirit is to do something that will be talked about for generations in myth, and is seen as almost impossible to do.

So the local pacts are sort of like the Master of the Mountain from Mushi-shi; it is either limited to only that specific area, or makes it physically impossible to leave the area without breaking down due to the spiritual pressures involved.
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>>31970819
It probably has to do with the fact that we really don't have any solid history from the Bronze Age besides some very basic inscriptions that don't tell us a whole lot (baring Egypt, India, Babylon, and China of course, who had some writings but not a lot of the things we are looking for). It's so shrouded in mystery, which is probably why it has such a huge draw to it.
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>>31970861
Also, weapons have spirits that bond more and more with the wielder as it is used. Ancestral weapons have the power of generations of use behind it and can be truly devastating things when in the hands of it's intended wielder.
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>>31959623
Honestly, it's not even that Eurocentric. It's England-And-France Centric.

I'm running a game based on Medievel Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and it could be on the moon for all my players care.
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>>31970952
Oh, wait, I forgot. Some games also throw in some Northern Italy in there.
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>>31970861
As everything has the same life essence as it were, there are implicit pacts people naturally form with their comrades, friends and family. These things can keep a soul here longer before their souls are collected and can aid warriors seeking the same cause long after they are gone. Old warriors have been known to make pacts to carry on causes for their comrades at arms.

In game terms, PCs that die/get knocked out/etc still have some form of influence on the game (until they are collected/make a new character). See paranoia's perversion points for the general idea.
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>>31970974
Some (especially in recent years) also have some pretty heavy Norse/Germanic influences due to rising popularity.

Which I honestly love (being a Norse man) but it also brings a LOT of homogeneity in gaming culture.
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>>31970892
We can translate mycenean, because it's greek with a different script, but we can't translate minoan. And writing was extant in Europe, if less common. The mesopotamians wrote down everything, to an infuriating degree. We have thousands of tablets about everything, even boring ass financial records. We have trilingual peace treaties, literature, astronomy, all sorts of shit.
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>>31970976
This could let them for gestalt beings after death, binding their souls/essences together with their close comrades to make sure they are reshaped into a single new being or spirit. This isn't even limited to humans or the other souled-races; spirits that find themselves grown close to mortals can choose to cast of their divinity for the chance of reincarnation as a new being, though they usually only do this with mortals who have spent a long, LONG time with them and have a very personal bond with them, whether as a group or individual.

This is why the invaders are so terrifying; they DON'T feel this at all. They can't make pacts, instead having a completely unrelated form of magic. They don't feel the companionship that the natives do as their souls intertwine. In fact it's incomprehensible to the natives why the invaders fight, or do anything. They gain no spiritual (in their eyes) fulfillment from their activities, only brief physical rewards.
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>>31963112
>>31963244
>mfw I can suddenly read dunmeri

Oh, that's neat. Thanks, /tg/!
>>
>>31971058
But that's the problem; the cultures that had writing used it ALL THE GODDAMN TIME! Most of our texts from them are financial records -_- It doesn't help that the Library of Ashiburnapal(sp) got destroyed, just like the great Mayan libraries got burned by the conquistadors (it might have been the Inca, but one of them had huge libraries of myth, astrology, science, etc recorded meticulously on corded and knotted belts. The conqs burned it since it was pagan).
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>>31971061
I fear that last part may stray a bit far into the noble savage trope, but sans that I really like the idea of gestalting and born "part-spirits"
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>>31971095
You could easily remedy that by making the invaders inhuman robot-things, that don't need souls because they're technically not even alive. Maybe they're punished human souls trapped in armored bodies that can only conquer?
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>>31971095
It's purely from the native's point of view. The invaders actually do have huge motivation, seeking glory and the chance of winning an exalted soul from their gods that allows them a lot more power, and can let them gain entry into their halls. The natives just have no idea of how to even begin understanding it, exactly like how the invaders have no idea how to bond with the spirits of the new, queer land.
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>>31971095
>noble savage

There are elements of less developed cultures which Western/European culture admires and does not emulate, there's nothing wrong with that, just get over it. "Noble savage" isn't a trope unless it's one-dimensional, at which point anything could be a trope.
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>>31971154
>less developed

Define "developed".
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>>31971154
>>31971173
Let's not start this please.

It's two different cultures with two different outlooks on spirituality and interacting with the spiritual world.
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>>31971095
>>31971061

No, dude, that last part is EXCELLENT. That is EXACTLY how culture shock works, some dudes come in who don't share any of your values and don't want from life what you want from life and of course they're going to look like monsters.
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>>31971154
I didn't mean to come off as social justice. Just wanted to make sure the conquerors had some motivation and fleshing instead of just being metal/armoured conquerors that were not bonded to the land unlike the natives.
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>>31971173

Technologically, basically, we can talk about a specific culture if that's easier.

My point is that shying away from nobility in your 'savages" because you are afraid that it's a "trope" is cowardly design.
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>>31971190
>>31971095
>>31971154
>>31971173

Please see >>31971124
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>>31971190
Listen to this guy, m80s. So, how about -apart from clashes with the invaders- raid-like hunts as your basic "random" encounter?
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>>31971092
Incans used the qipu knots, Mayans had the library, but yeah. Libraries are pretty good at getting destroyed.

We actually do have a pretty complete picture of much of the ancient near east because their clay tablets would actually harden when burnt. They did write down comparatively little mythology or literature though.
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>>31971092
Fuckin Spaniards. Not even once
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>>31971195

Sure, fleshing out the conquerors is worthy of another hour or two of discussion, that's a fair point.

But saying, "our culture revolves around this community of spirits, outside aggressors who don't have that are inhuman and terrifying to us", that's a good jumping-off point.

But yes, that's just the outsider perspective on the second culture, seen from within of course it will have its own human drives and flaws and such, defining a faction by how their enemies see them and leaving it there is the definition of 2-dimensional characterization.
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>>31971195
Also I like the idea of the conquerors trying to win exalted souls from their gods. Would there be examples of people who had succeeded, or would that be a strictly after death thing.
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>>31971222
I think we can allow ourselves to focus more on the natives than on the invaders, because we already know how a proper Viking acts and what his motivation is.
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>>31971212
That would make sense, a lot of clashes between the other ethnic/tribal groups native to the area, or defending against raids from the other cultures. That and hunting monsters that might threaten the village, fighting against dark sorcerers, and making sure the local ecosystem of the spirits run smoothly.

>>31971214
It's the whole "why write down the stuff that everyone's mother/father tells them while growing up, everyone is always going to know this?" mindset that a lot of cultures get towards their own mythology. Most of the things we know about mythology are not direct stories but references to or allegories of relating to epic poetry. It's a lot of inference. There are, of course, always exceptions.
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>>31971220
My girlfriend (she's Filipino) agrees aggressively and is making sure I tell you that right now.
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While we're at it, post inspo pics
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>>31971222
I agree it makes a good jumping point and focusing more on the natives as

>>31971232

said makes sense. So what makes these iron men a huge problem, besides their armour. Their seeming to fight for no greater purpose makes them alien, what makes them a threat?
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>>31971261
This what you get by google searching "Quallupilluit"

(1/2)
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>>31971268
>what makes them a threat

they wantonly kill Quallupilluit (which endangers the climate and spirit world) and other spirit beings without even knowing what they're doing. This makes the greater spirits angry at all humans and lashing out against the natives as well

>>31971277
(2/2)
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>>31971299
Oh god my English is slipping. Anyway, shamans (1/3)
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>>31971225
They would essential be the leaders of the warbands that come and invade. Would make excellent late-game bosses before more crazy spirit stuff (I see journeys through the spiritual realms as being the late-late-end game of the setting). Essential it would go; invader foot soldier>Kill a number of enemies/complete number of tasks>gain soul, begin to develop more of a unique personality> learn sorcery, create warband> set out raiding, trading, and settling. Once you die and you 1) have a soul and 2) have done enough glorious stuff ON TOP of what is required to gain a soul, you have a chance to join the gods in their halls and gain eternal enjoyment in feasting and warring against the god's spiritual enemies.

Examples; Skaali One-Eye. Bane of the Tiqulamut tribe, his warband captured nearly half of the tribes populace before their neighbors came to their aid. He can take control of the creatures of the wild and fill them with a bloodlust to match his own, as well as using them to scout and gather intelligence. He was granted a soul directly by the All-Father after slaying an ancient and terrible Wendigo in the new lands.
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>>31971312
(2/3)
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>>31971315
pretty based

>>31971319
(3/3)

In this setting, do masks make you seem like more of an equal to the spirits?
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>>31971268
Their iron weapon seems to give some sort of soul-sickness to those struck by them, as well as being much, much sharper and deadlier than non-magical native weaponry. On average they are larger and stronger, though not as agile. They don't know the land well but this hardly seems to slow them down as they have beast-like endurance and seem to be able to forge through the thickest of wilds.

I.E. they are big and powerful and have an upper hand in technology. They don't have numbers or speeds, as well as being pretty susceptible to guerrilla attacks and light skirmishes.
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>>31971299
Groups of Quallupilluit have started attacking the invaders during the winter migration, sticking around and causing massive blizzards. There is word that many tribes are gathering in the mountains for an attack, incidentally making a storm larger than even the oldest remember seeing
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>>31971331
It's like removing your ego as a man; most spirits do not have faces in the way that men do and it's seen as very presumptuous to present yourself with one. It's like saying "look at me, I'm so unique and important," which the spirits very much do not agree with, what with us being so unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
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>>31971013
True, but a lot of the Norse stuff I see in fantasy is just a thin layer applied over generic fantasy setting (like Skyrim).

There's very little I see attempting to engage in the breadth or depth of Norse culture (Which is fuckhueg. I'm trying to tackle a little piece of it with this setting and it's a lot) and there's a lot out there just using the cliches everyone knows about the Norse to put a slight twist on their generic fantasy.
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>>31971354
The iron skin of the Eastern Men greatly disturbs them. It is not of the land, it does not belong here. For the first time in known history, the Quall' have strayed from their tried and trusted paths and actually taken notice of the world around them. And they are not pleased.
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Weapons and tools
1/?
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>>31971380
2/?
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>>31971354
Not only that, the Adlet are being pushed out of their traditional homelands by the invaders, leading them to having to spread more aggressively into the native's lands. This is causing huge tensions between what has always been more of a rivalry than outright aggression. The Nightbreed (the nocturnal subspecies) have been whipped into a frenzy and are attacking much more frequently and with little discrimination; their spirit-half is telling them humans are to blame, so they attack any humans they can.

Also, is there a place where we could compile this stuff as a group? I think we have enough stuff that it might actually make sense to make the jump and start really laying down the law.
>>
>>31971368
Trust me, I could talk for hours about how much I love Norse culture. Don't even get me started on the boss-ass cultural values and Nithing. (as an example; do you know what Saint Olaf, the Norwegian saint's miracle was? He killed a man in a single punch for beating a slave girl.)
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>>31971372
And this is terrifying. This is the first time since the great mountains rained fire and anger on the land that the Quall have moved from their pattern of migration. Many elders fear something similar might be in store; maybe even worse.
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>>31959623
Been working on a Mesoamerican animist setting (magical power is derived from spirits of the land rather than omniscient deities or draconic blood). So far my favorite thing about it is switching the kobolds out for poison dart frogs.

It's funny because poison.

Any suggestions?
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>>31971386
3/?
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>>31971435
4/?
>>
Are there any examples of Polynesia and the pacific in fantasy? Doesn't have to be its own setting can be part of broader setting.
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>>31971428
I've been working on something similar, though approaching it more from an ancient aliens influenced sort of thing.

I'm not sure, it would be useful to have more info on your ideas before suggesting anything. It might be useful to have deities more representative of cultural groups than actually spiritually-active beings, more like a set of venerated ancestors that are treated as paragons to strive towards being like.
>>
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>>31971443
5/?

BTW, I'm making a pastebin of all this in here so we don't lose it. Someone might need it.

>>31971447
Bionicle
>>
>>31962963
some of the stuff in the rig vedas reads like a mix between a preflight checklist, a how to load and arm aircraft munitions and ordinance, and final fantasy, the old good ones.

and sitchins stuff about the gods, keep them as gods withoutthe alien stuff, fucking with each other and humans is pure spurdo and DOLAN star in fear and loathing level insanity.
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>>31971455
Do you know if there's any site we might be able to start an actual forum discussion of this for? Or even just a place where we could all throw in our two-cents without losing all the progress we have made?
>>
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>>31971455
6/?
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>>31971466
dunno m8

>>31971474
7/7
>>
Main materials used by the Natives;

Bone
Walrus and Whale Ivory
Stone
Meteoric Iron
Obsidian traded from the south

For clothing;
Leather
Fur
Bark and rough plant fiber

For Housing;
Leather covers stretched over collapsible bone/wood frames
Ice houses
>>
>http://pastebin.com/j65nP6pL

Here it is
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>>31971490
Dope.
>>
>>31964736
the nightwatch series is fucking awesome, i wish he would either sign off to make some RPG sourcebooks about watch stations in other countries or novels about different watches.

like there was a mention of a christmas card sent to the moscow nightwatch from a single man nightwatch station in nebraska.
>>
>>31971455
I tossed it on suptg just in case.

Also, thoughts about having inupa: northern giants who are not very well known. they are usually identified by weapons or tools left behind by them. there has been talk of trying to ally with them to chase away the conquerors
>>
>>31971524
I would eat that shit up so fast and such dick for seconds. Such an under appreciated series.
>>
Afraid that a particular culture is misrepresented? Dying to see them in print? Want to do an inspired culture with complete justice? Email me.
>>
>>31971531
when I found the whole series had been translated, I BOUGHT THE MOTHERFUCKERS.

Yes, I bought them.

and I would gladly do it again.

the movies are breddy gud too.
>>
>>31971530
They're very rare, very old, and very dangerous. There's maybe a thousand left, as they cannot breed. They were hand - made by the creator god from the teeth of the walrus he slayed to make the world. He left them as watchers and protectors in case of dire emergencies. The problem is; trying to convince a near - immortal giant that is one of the last of his kind and has seen millenia of strife that this problem is more important than whatever he is doing at the time.

That, or they're an extremely isolationist group that had a beef with the natives due to some slight that humans have long since forgotten. Getting help would require great deeds in their service to bridge the generations of distrust.
>>
>>31970216
>take all sects of Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Mormonism and trying to mash it into a unified whole.
now THERE is an idea for a mythic setting
>>
>>31971410
Daaaaaaaaamn. Now I know what my next monk will be.
>>
>>31959689
How exactly would you pull that off in a fantasy setting? I'm South African and I just do not see it.
>>
>misrepresentation or under representation in fantasy material

Who gives a shit? If you want to make a setting based around a culture other then traditional European fantasy then go ahead, just don't do it out of spite.
>>
>>31971724
>what is this entire thread?

pls
>>
Some appropriate music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O_0NA-PGFs
>>
If this thread is still up when I have done all my duties for the day I will drawfag, because goddamn! there's some cool shit in here.
(isnt all eskimo poop cool? BABUM PSH)
>>
>>31971745
I believe in you, drawfriend. We can always make a new Fred tho
>>
>>31971761
Fred can never be replaced...
>>
I'm so proud of my little thread, trucking on for over twelve hours now :,D

Thanks for all the great input guys, all the contributions have been great and it feels like we really got something good going. I need to hit the hay, I have a Logic midterm to take in the morning -_- I will be back to comment around 8-9 AM. Don't let a good thing die!

>>31971745
You are the greatest of elegen/tg/entlemen, both for your (future) inspired drawfaggery and your gallant use of puns.

Oh, also if the thread does die, please make feel free to make another one, or I will when I get up. I might as well just use a trip on it since this seems like it's going to be a thing for awhile.
>>
>>31970215

Just use Barbarians of Lemuria and refluff it.
>>
Hell, I got to sleep for a couple of hours and /tg/ has already come up with a pretty good structure for an interesting fantasy society. This is why I love this place.

So anybody interested in discussing the invaders? I have some knowledge of Norse culture, but I'd like some other perspectives here.

First of all, I'd say that the greatest difference between the natives and the invaders would be that the former are a traditional tribal society with traditional tribal calues, i.e. in-group cooperation is completely necessary while out-group competition over scarce resources is as well.

However, the invaders are not like this. Theirs is a legalistic society, where the most important men aren't the chieftains, but the lawmen. Furthermore they don't show the usual pattern of cooperation and competition, for example old friends can come to blows or even kill each other over honour or for settling disputes, which would be near unthinkable in native society. While the natives don't know much, what they have seen further reinforces the image of the invaders as inhuman and frightening.

As for the invaders, the natives are mere savages who don't respect the Law and can't be reasoned with. While the warriors won't necessarily admit it the natives are frightening too, more like shadowy spirits in the shape of men able to appear from nowhere and kill for apparently no reason. They don't have a shred of honour and no respect for the virtues of proper society. Who's to say that the invaders haven't tried to contact the natives to establish trading opportunities and the like, but the natives quite naturally didn't know what was up and reacted badly, thus reinforcing the image of the natives as dishonorable savages in the minds of the invaders?
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>>31971820
Alas, the drawing will have to be postponed to a later date as I returned to my desk to find a friendly reminder regarding some writing I have yet to finish.
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There's a cool suptg thread about different cultures (particularly island ones) and their lore.
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>>31971697
Reclusive, xenophobic culture fighting for independence from their parent nations.
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>>31971697
>can't see your own culture in fantasy
You uncultured, unimaginative swine.
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>>31959623
>Under representation

That would imply that representing culture is the goal of fantasy roleplaying games. Which is silly.

I agree with what you're trying to say, which is that other cultures don't really have RPGs devoted to them.

I don't agree with your assertion that there is a representation issue since it's not something that's forced and it isn't something that was originally a focus anyway. It rose out of literature popular with RPG players at the time and it stuck as iconic. Nothing insidious about it.
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>>31972206

The invaders, as a seafaring society in which raids or expeditions can last months, ritually - and practically, if need be - consume both their own dead and the dead of their enemies. To wear the skin of a relative or enemy is a great honour to their memory, else the skin wouldn't be worth taking. This is not seen as something repulsive among them, as their conceptions of what is good and what is not is intimately tied to their concept of justice, which can only apply to the living, as beings with a will. The morale effect of this on the natives is substantial, and escaped prisoners of the invaders often attest to their being forced to consume the flesh of their murdered friends, in reality an attempt of the invaders to feed their captives.

The problem here is that native traditions dictate that cannibalism, along with murder, causes spiritual pollution which cannot be cleansed, and so many of these unfortunate men are either executed by their community, or go insane out of fear and guilt, and regress to cannibal monsters anyway, vindicating the stories.

Another factor contributing to the perceived inhumanity of the invaders was the total silence which preceded their arrival. This is due to the structure of the invader's society; there are three castes, the yrls, ceorls and thralls, and the second of these is the source of the problem. Without a binding oath (contract) to an yrl, a ceorl is free to raid and kill as he likes, and the fact that a thrall can bind himself to a ceorl in this way means that most of them have sufficient numbers within their household to man a warship, which doubles as a fishing vessel. These independent captains, protected by Law from the yrls' power so long as they keep the Law themselves, are so numerous that they descend in great swarms ahead of the main fleet, scouring entire coastlines of sentient life in search of food, loot and glory, and unintentionally preparing said land for colonisation.
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>>31960995
Not really. Its a huge pain in the ass to try and do internet research on sub-Saharan African cultures. A lot of native cultures in the new world as well. Something about oral traditions being mauled and replaced pretty much wholesale.

Anthropology wasn't really a big science back in the 1600's.
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>>31972498
read the thread, you philistine.
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>>31972505
I said I agreed with it, didn't I? Calm your tits.
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>>31972502

Eh, I'm not entirely sure about the cannibalism part. In fact, I'd see it as more likely that the natives would have to resort to cannibalism due to the extreme climate.

Also I'd think that the first contact would be less about roving and pillaging and more about a few hardy explorers setting up shop in the new world, and the existence of the invaders would slowly spread as loose rumours among the natives. I'd think that this would actually make the arrival of the invaders in force even more jarring, as the absurd rumors you've heard suddenly materialize and proceed to fuck you up.
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>>31972618

Why are they invading if the land they are moving to barely has enough to feed its original inhabitants? If they are coming in large numbers, then its plausible they left their original homelands due to famine or because all the arable land is already owned by other more powerful lords.

I could totally see it beginning as just a last resort or ritual thing, then slowly becoming more and more acceptable over a prolonged period as food scarcity becomes sharper, and if you are migrating to a new land by boat, from a place where there's no food, then eating crew members who die on the journey isn't so far-fetched. Besides, having the natives be cannibals is cliche.
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>>31972498

It doesn't imply that at all. The goal of fantasy RPGs is to be awesome, and there's a lot of awesome shit that is rarely if every tapped for inspiration, while other (admittedly also awesome) stuff is way overused.

Nothing in that post or the rest of the thread remotely implies any sort of inclusivist agenda. I know you aren't actually protesting anything here, that's cool, we're cool, I'm just saying that you're totally jumping at shadows.
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>>31972659
It might be an even bigger problem for the natives if (some of) the invaders come there because they're outlaws in their homes.

But will there really be anything valuable for the invaders to take? Any green land, artifacts, treasures, resources, etc?
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>>31972502

I 100% support cannibal vikings.

>>31972674

Even if these lands are used to capacity by the natives, that's -sustainable- capacity, there might be all kinds of reasons for the new guys to come in and take shit. Maybe their livestock love the plant life there (and eat the ground bare). Maybe they're good at large-scale hunting, running whole herds of reindeer into dead ends and slaughtering them. They could be whalers or trappers. The basic point being that they have an "eat what you find" mentality which is supported by their lifestyle of always moving.
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>>31972659
>Why are they invading if the land they are moving to barely has enough to feed its original inhabitants?

Valuable trade goods such as, say, furs and Narwhal horns. Same as the reason why anhybody bothered colonizing places like northern Canada in the first place.

>If they are coming in large numbers, then its plausible they left their original homelands due to famine or because all the arable land is already owned by other more powerful lords.

This is possible, but it's also plausible that a lot of them are just trying to make a quick buck. Or maybe the losing side of a political struggle had to flee to the New World and is now trying to do some smash and grab in order to build up funds in order to make a political comeback in the Old Country? This could lead to factionalization among the invaders between the people who want to settle down and make a sustainable living and the people who are trying to rob as much as possible before fucking off back home.
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>>31972674

They may just be coming in force for the most basic goods, like fabrics, timber, meat and bone. Value is irrelevant to them because everything is in short supply. Metal is an extremely precious resource for them, and wielding a steel sword is a symbol of high status, so if the natives work metal, they're gettin' eaten for that alone. Most raiders wear armour of shell or bone, and some of the leaders carry strange coral blades, which are sharper and as durable as their steel counterparts, but steel is prized for its appearance.
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Bump for goodest thread. How do the women fare in our little setting?
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>>31973480
I imagine that with the climate as harsh as it is, your role is more based on your ability than gender. If you are strong enough to hunt, you hunt. If you gather eggs and plants, you do so. If you build...well get to that.

So far as marriage, it would be considered as much a union of families as it would the two people involved.
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>>31973661
>your role is more based on your ability than gender.

Ability is very much determined by sex though, and less harsh environments (like what we've created for ourselves today in the western world) seem to bring more equality between the sexes rather than less.

I don't really have any knowledge of how it was for the inuits though, so you could be right for all I know.
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>>31973709
>lelelel -4 Str

okay, so we got that out of the way. Let's all read up on Inuit society again and then post about it
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>>31973661
Who else wants Norse shieldmaidens to appear?
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>>31973724
>lelelel -4 Str

I was just pointing out the flaw in his/your argument, take it easy.
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>>31973742
Not me
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>>31973750
Wouldn't less harsh environments remove the need for both men and women to work as hard as they can, thereby making it possible for women to degenerate into the -4 Str beings of 1700-today?
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>>31973709
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_women

There are definitely trends in what work tends to be done by what gender, but baring childbirth there is no real division as to men and women's work. Yes men tend to hunt more, but female hunters are not unusual.(section on sexual division of labor)

That and the fact that it makes it slightly harder for female players to approach the setting if adventuring, hunting and the general things one does in campaigns are regarded as -not for females- in society.
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>>31973761
Pleb.
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>>31973781
She looks about as fit as I did before I started going to the gym, congratulations.

>>31973773
It's rather that you could see it like this: A harsh environment means everyone has to do what they are the absolute best at. Men are fitter than women, meaning they become more valuable warriors, ploughers, hunters and other things that require strength and other things considered male attributes, which in turn means that they shouldn't waste too much time knitting clothes, plucking berries, etc. if there is hard work to do.
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>>31973816
>It's rather that you could see it like this: A harsh environment means everyone has to do what they are the absolute best at. Men are fitter than women, meaning they become more valuable warriors, ploughers, hunters and other things that require strength and other things considered male attributes, which in turn means that they shouldn't waste too much time knitting clothes, plucking berries, etc. if there is hard work to do.
But this other work still has to do be done by someone*
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>>31960868
>It's bigotry to not know about other cultures or not particularly care about them

Liberal pls
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>>31973816
And to think the thread was looking so promising until you niggers showed up.
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>>31973838
>responding to posts from 16 hours ago just to invoke the liberal boogeyman

>>>/pol/
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>>31973839
S-sorry
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>>31973854

>You can't call bullshit out because I agree with it

>>>/reddit/
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>>31971567
I like the idea of having to mend generations of distrust. Perhaps Greater giants as guardians exist, but only those who have heard many stories would know about them.

I also like the idea of a warrior being known because he can actually wield giant weapons.
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>>31959623

Basic problem: Fantasy draws its impact from archetype.

We are only exposed early age to archetypes in our culture. We all know what demons are since being children but outside of precocious D&D players no one knows what an efreet is till they are far older. This means the resonance of a trope is going to be less, the stranger the cultural origin (relative to the reader/player). That's why authors continually boomerang back to those hated and beloved archetypes. They resonate, they work.

If I were going to do this I would pick a culture that has already 'crosspollinated' my own. Japanese is the best pick as the crossover between Japanese and Western culture has been amplified by media in recent decades. Concepts like the samuri, ninja, the wandering buddhist monk, and qi are now fairly archetypal. Still when you get into things like kitsune, kappa, and tanuki, you're walking on thin ice. Not saying it can't be done, but whenever you write without archetype in fantasy you work with one arm tied behind your back. Sometimes this results in epic win and the creation of new archetypes. Most of the time it's just fail.
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>>31974044

It should also be added that to the extent that we are exposed to archetypes outside our culture, those archetypes are usually painfully simplified and distorted. This is why even when fantasy does touch on nonwestern cultures it presents them in this superficial and simplistic fashion. It is appealing to archetypes, like the Westerner's concept of what a samuri is, which are already superficial and simplistic.
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It saddens me that you never hear about the Hindu deities in anything that involves Gods.

Exception being American Gods.

I suppose you can fluff it as the whole "they still receive worship and therefore don't turn get weak" but it's still kinda sad.
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>>31974196

That's because the Hindu deities are freaking insane. They resonate poorly outside of their native India because they are so alien to outsiders. Not saying they aren't awesome, but this is the reason. It is one of the reasons why Buddhism spread out of India, but Hinduism never could.
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>>31974253
It seems to be more that the backlog of stories and frameworks required to understand them are ridiculously large. I grew up in Hinduism so it isn't a problem for me, but it doesn't have an approachable -core- like Buddhism does for westerners and has a mythological framework that shares very little with the western schools of thought. It is similar to why nonjews don't really look into the midrash and philosophical discourses about the tanakh spanning centuries.
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>>31974324
That and Hinduism doesn't really have a primary religious text to serve as a starting point for the west. If you want to learn about Christianity, you go to the bible. while Hinduism has the two famous epics of the Ramayana and mahabaratha (and the bagavath githa which is a chapter in the latter), and the Vedas which are more an instruction manual than anything....well you see the issue. Toss into that hundreds of philosophical schools that have been arguing for thousands of years, local village personifications and rituals, the stories of the muhgal era, the separation between north and south and the fact that the west had little to do with the philosophical discourse in the subcontinent...and you get a really hard to approach mythos. Trust me, it is worth it. The stories are epic though. start with the mahabaratha and associated stories.
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>>31974324

>it doesn't have an approachable -core-

I think you may be right about this. It's a huge, complicated network of stories and beliefs. Religions which get popular tend to have that, but they ALSO have a central idea or story that you can put in a three page pamphlet and slip under people's doors.
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>>31974384
Honestly a campaign/setting set during the pandava kaurava war would be epic.
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>>31974478
But that's the thing about Hinduism, it DOESN'T have a central theme.

There's so many different versions of Hindu thought that you can't reliably sum it up.
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>>31959623
>So /tg/ we all know that most fantasy centers around a very Euro-centric population,

No it doesn't. I have never read a fantasy where in a genuinely european/western culture is meaningfully represented, what we see is Tolkien rehashed poorly for the last 60 years. Sure there might be western government systems and architecture alluded to but the heart of the various cultures, their strong sense of religious duty and charity, their presuppositions on the good and natural order of the world and society, the idyllic and pastoral lifestyle of the common people, are entirely unmentioned.

The moment fantasy became an established genre it set out to be little more than a subversion of the things it was supposedly trying to pay homage to ignoring all of the most important crucual aspects of western-culture.

Fantasy is no more euro-centric than the existence of white-people is euro-centric.

That all being said

1) Post-Colonial America. You want to talk about the High Middle Ages? Fuck that shit, let's go High-Enlightenment. A confederate union of farmer-republics populated by citizen-soldiers prone to rebellion as much as to common defense.

2) The savage woodlanders of the great untamed lands to the west, a race of tall, swift, brooding beastmen, threaten the frontier of the republic, conducting raids and massacring towns and farmers in a centuries long blood feud. To answer the cries for justice (and to quell threats of rebellion) the Federal government puts together a small army of militiamen to go out and broker peace with the woodlanders, and failing that, to wipe them out, lest the republic tear itself apart. Alternatively the players can lead their army in rebellion, someone was going to eventually anyhow.

3) Vox Day's The Throne of Bones, is the best portrayel of a Fantasy Rome (and probably a Fantasy Christian civilization) I have ever read.
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>>31974506

Right, which is why it hasn't spread the way the others have.
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>>31974637
Also the reason why it won't be going away anytime soon. It might spread slowly, but it sticks really hard. I would like to see at least tenative stories involving the mythos, there is so much potential.
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>>31959623
The Mongols and their Empire seem pretty under represented, few materials have been able to capture their culture, and warfare.
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>>31972659
Their god commands them to to conquer the entire world. For them warfare is a form of worship and conquering new lands like building cathedrals.
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I don't see a lot done with South East Asian stuff.
Or Australian.
Or pre-christian Eastern Europe.
Or pre-islam Arabia
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>>31972206

I don't see them like that, as bringers of law or even following laws in the way that we think of. Their driving force is Glory, as that is how they gain a soul and a chance at their idea of an afterlife. The people in charge are those that either have the force of personality or arms to work up a warband and lead them successfully; if the leader fails it's likely that his subordinates will turn on him.
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>>31970690
Are we going with this for the Inuit setting, because I really like it conceptually and whats more having our norsemen constantly at war with a nation filled with tree gods would explain why they haven't already swept the Inuit types off the face of the earth.
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>>31972498

We have already had this discussion.

The statement is not about some mandatory, numerical, PC driven "racial rights in muh tg" thing.

It's a pure numerical thing. Most people in the world are not white. Yet it is rare to find a human culture at the core of a fantasy setting that is anything OTHER than white. So we are talking about how to do it well.

We covered this, like, at 4 yesterday.
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>>31959623

Here's a thought. Instead of moving horizontally, to a different extant culture, move vertically, to different extinct culture. If Jung is right, they should still resonate and the success of stories like Clan of the Cave Bear seems to support this. Draw on extinct animals like aurochs, mammoths, sabercats, direwolves, and shortnosed bears which humans once coexisted with. For religion and magic turn to animism which resonates universally across cultures because we were all, at one point in history, animists.
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>>31972674

"outlaws" have essentially gone native in the eyes of the invaders, and are actually the invaders that are playable by PC's in a mixed group

Okay, OP here. I did a lot of thinking when I was supposed to be doing a lot of sleeping so let's get on this.

>>31972206
I really like the bases of this idea, cannibalism is a part of the invaders but only on a high level; subordinates will consume the flesh of a warleader in an attempt to gain their soul, and in fact if the warleader is smart enough he can set it up so that this in fact does happen. This is not to the benefit of the subordinate, as the warleader's spirit overwhelms the soulless' body and allows the warleader to essentially force himself to be reborn. This is used when they fear they are at risk of not getting into the halls of their gods post-death and takes a huge amount of preparation and forethought.

Again, I don't think it's appropriate to describe law as any real force in the culture. They aren't lawless but "law" is essentially whatever the warleaders say and due to 1) the oaths that bind ceorl to a yrl make it very hard for them not follow orders and 2) they have very little in their own of free will to begin with, I feel like set laws are just too unnecessary to make them important in the society as a whole. Great idea, just feels unfitting for what we have already established.

>>31974043
I was actually thinking the same thing, the lesser giants are sort of like a mass-produced version of the greater giants, given the ability to reproduce but having only a fraction of the original's strength and age, which is still immense compared to humans. The gods made the lesser giants after the death of the first Greater giants. They saw their creations, given enough time, where fleeting and gave them the ability to create more themselves so that they can always exist and would never be lonely.

And that's how we get childbirth.
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>>31974812
I don't quite like this. part of the feel is that the artic is harsh and you do what you can and enter pacts,apease all the spirits you can and rely on skill, inner strength and wits to survive. having tree gods one can rely on seems to take away from that and make it more native american.
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>>31975096

Megafauna are still extent in the Inuit setting. They are one of the primary sources of food and material. They also make bomb spirits. Thank you for making this great idea apparent to me.
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>>31975162
The tree gods are almost totally irrelevant to the setting, the're so far away from the main stage, they're more just flavor, something the scarred war veteran tells tales about to disbelieving crowds of locales in exchange for booze and a meal.
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>>31964561
Now you got me curious. Can you give me a short rundown?
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>>31975144

Anyways, continuing from here.

The invaders primarily come from 3 major clans, made up by a number of warbands made up of coerl and led by a yrl. Each clan has a clan leader, a magyrl. the 3 major clans are;

Clan Hungering Wolf: Their banner is a red field with a grey wolf, who's mouth stretches from the earth to the heavens. They are led by Hasylf Skraelsbane, a whip of a man known for his ferocity and speed in battle.

Clan Fire Giant: Their banner is a white field with a red giant, wreathed in flames, standing on a black pile of ash and bone. They are the most destructive of the clans, taking few prisoners and more often than not burning native villages to the ground. They are lead by Bjorulf Flametongue, who is huge even by the invader's standards. He's also a huge bastard. The only reason he hasn't been killed is due to his massive strength (and matching massive ax).

Clan Great Serpent: Their banner is a black field with a silver serpent, twisted around and consuming a blue orb. They are lead by Lagrn Flamehair. Incredibly cunning, her's is the only clan reliably able to not get jumped by natives, taking the time to learn the terrain and prepare for ambushes. This clan seems to be more interested in acquiring goods then captives.
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On the matter of the natives; I imagine them to be tribal and semi-nomadic, settling in for about 6 months during the more abundant seasons and follow herds of caribou during the winters. Men are in charge of hunting and fighting (as hunting provides good practice to war) and are led by an elected chief. Women make clothing, fish, gather fruits, veggies, and nuts, and are in charge of interacting with spirits other than those spirits centered around hunting that the hunters commune with. Each tribe has a wise woman, taught by the last, who leads them when not at war, and always when dealing with threats of a spiritual nature.

Men and women are largely treated equally. Men are more suited for hunting, so they hunt. Women are less arrogant and hot headed then men so they deal with the touchy spirits.
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>>31975354

Essentially the main group of Mayan themed humans were conquered by invading lizard-men. With the help of very tall, odd looking strangers who gave them "magic" they were able to throw of the chain of the lizard men. Basic run down; two alien races crashed on the planet and are causing problems with the natives. One is less dicky than the other.
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>>31975388
How long has this conflict been going on? Is it a recent development or has it been going on for generations? Has the scale be constant, has it been escalating or has it waxed and waned?
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>>31975535
Not very long, I image maybe a year or two. That's why there isn't just a hoard of invaders and they're still trying to settle in. In the year or so they managed to make a pretty big mess of everything, upsetting what was already an extremely precarious balance to begin with.
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>>31959623
>2) A game centered around the politics of the Mayan and Aztec city-states dealing with invasions of non-human races, Ancient Aliens style, set to the backdrop of deep, mysterious jungles filled with unknown dangers and mysterious ruins.
OH MAN you've just reminded me of a crazy story, give it a listen.
Alternate history where the Aztecs beat back the spaniards and maintained control of the continent into modern times.

http://escapepod.org/2011/09/30/ep312_night_bird_soaring/
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>>31975524
Interesting pitch, immediately runs into the problem of "Why do the aliens give a fuck?"
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>>31975682
They crash landed and are stuck with no way of producing an ftl capable ship. They were antagonistic towards each other pre-crash and are just continuing their rivalry here.
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>>31975664
So are they vanguards for a larger colonial/invasion force or are they more just oportunistic adventures?
Do they have the backing of an organised society or is the the whole culture just loosely affiliated tribal nations?
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>>31975665
Which they probably would have done if it wasn't for that dick smallpox.
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Get this book.

It's great.
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>>31975728
It's likely that more are going to follow once word of new lands ripe with glory and conquest are known.

I imagine they are mostly loose clans, with ever higher leaders going up all the way to the highest yrl, who (nominally) controls all the clans. Their gods are the ones that push them to conquest, they are just more than happy to oblige.
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>>31975524
>>31975712
This sounds like nothing I've seen before. Simple, but I can easily imagine a great campaign ran in this setting. These tall men are of particular interest to me, what is their relation to lizardmen?
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If we're set on Inuit then meteoric iron should definitely be a thing. It's above and beyond the most useful material available in that landscape for weapons and there are archaeological examples of Inuits recovering meteoric iron and using it as spear heads.

Also climate should be a major deal. It was the little ice age which drove the Norse out of Greenland and favored native arctic people over Europeans. Likewise, climatic warming can lead to devastation. Climate change could be a major plot driver in the story.
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>>31975841

Antagonistic. They have had a rivalry in the large scheme of things for a long time. This takes place a handful of generations AFTER the shipwrecking of the aliums, so they themselves honestly don't understand their own tech.

The tall ones are essential this world's reply to Atlantians; they look just human enough (though are decidedly inhuman when looked at long enough) to be not instantly attacked out of fear of another conquering race, and have a similar sort of story (their ship crashed in the ocean and has slowly been sinking. The influx of them in the human lands is due to the fact most of it is completely uninhabitable now).

Like that, don't even get me started on the death-worshiping cenote dwellers.
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>>31975924

See >>31971489

Their greatest and most sacred weapons are Meteoric Iron, which is also much more "pure" (i.e. it doesn't cause soul sickness to those wounded with it) than the iron tools used by the invaders.
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>>31959623

I'd like to see some arguments as to why do you think dunmer are examples of north african or islamic culture. Like what era of history are you even talking about?
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>>31975989

I meant more aesthetically and how their culture is put together, with major conflict between the nomadic and settled peoples, even though they are ultimately the same race. That and the settled Dunmer have a huge religious subtext to their society with a sense of religious duty behind a lot of actions, which makes perfect sense what with the fact that they KNOW their gods exist and are just a jump, hop and skip away by siltstrider.

Like I said earlier, it's not so much that they are great, well done expies of those two cultures, more that they do a really good job of taking those cultures on as influences and successfully working them into other, unique ideas of their own. Which is always the best thing to do.
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>>31975989

Also, this is really just personal opinion and you are more than welcome not to agree with it.
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Going to go and take my midterm, will be back in about 1 1/2 hours. Gotta love jobs where you can browse 4chan in your off time.
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>>31976049
>how their culture is put together, with major conflict between the nomadic and settled peoples, even though they are ultimately the same race. That and the settled Dunmer have a huge religious subtext to their society with a sense of religious duty behind a lot of actions, which makes perfect sense what with the fact that they KNOW their gods exist

Yeaaah.. naah. I think this could actually be twisted to relate to a ridiculous amount of different cultures of various eras.

As to the aesthetics I agree to a degree, because of cloaks and sandstorms. But that's about it.
I have been thinking ancient persia and india myself.
Have seen some arguments for them being inspired of even farther eastern cultures.
But they certainly are one of the more interesting messes of culture in TES.
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>>31976275
Like I said, personal opinions. I just find those to be the two most prominent to me.
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>>31959623
My experience is that most players don't really like games centered around too alien cultures. And, when they like them, they like a very specific alien culture that, normally, is different for every player in the group. This is because inmersion is very important in a RPG, and most players have problems with that if the mainstream culture of the world isn't a culture that they know well. So the players normally want to be in a world that reflects a culture that aready dominates the media (basically knights, vikings and, to a lesser degree, samurais).

The other cultures are in the peripheria to have variety and to allow a player to have a character from an alien culture in a not-so-alien environment.
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>>31976440
Totes. But this thread isn't about that. It's about which cultures you personally want to see and see done well.

A lot of tgers have problems dealing with their own social norms, let alone learning an entirely new group of them. This is more discussing those who are very much into the knitch of being super into cultures completely unlike our own.

But that's why the internet is great, it let's us weirdos get together and make things like an Inuit inspired invasion epic.
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>>31976535
Also, capthcha relevent. REWARD DNGRM
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>>31976535
btw I'm totally stealing this idea and making a novel out of it
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>>31976558
Do it. Post it here later and give at least some credit to Fenrang (I swear half the posts are mine, I am a bit obsessive)
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>>31976558
Not if I steal these ideas first!
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Good news; I'm back.
Bad news; definitely bombed my logic test.

Anyways, anyone have any new ideas/questions? Development seems to have slowed a bit, I will try working on the other 3 races when. I get to my comp (Quall, Adlet, and Giants)
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>>31976937
I think it's time to round up all the ideas everyone's had so far and then start a new thread dedicated to the setting to get some fresh ideas in.
>>
Pre - meeting bump.
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>>31977308
Cool, I will do that. Can someone update the pastebin with everything we have made so far and I will kick it off (I will namefag it for simplicity).
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>>31977448
Link to pastebin?
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>>31959623
Created new thread dedicated to the Inuit setting, link here

>>31977592
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>>31977491
http://pastebin.com/j65nP6pL here you go.
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>>31975950
>don't even get me started on the death-worshiping cenote dwellers.
I won't. I like how you avoided some boring tropes.
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>>31978212
>canttellifcomplimentorinsult.jpg



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