>>40589034
Nigg-- uh, I mean, orcs.

>>40589034

Catfish Merpeople

Giant Crawdads

Gatorfolk

Cannibal humans living in the moutains

Necromancers (particularly in Louisiana)

Swamp fey creatures

>>40589076
Giant crawdads? Where I'm from, we called them claw shrimp. Live real deep, big as a man.

>>40589034
Redneck lamia. What with the backwoods and swamps.

>>40589034
Incest.

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>>40589034
Redneck Trees

Inbred swamp hags.

Devils looks for souls to steal.

>>40589034
incest ogres... not really ogres but humans that fucked their relatives so much they appear and have the strength of ogres... with a few goblins... essentially a pink skinned hair version

>>40589182
>Ya got a purrty mouf, boy.

File: Scenic_Dunnsmouth.pdf (7.74 MB, PDF)

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>Dean Samson's lower half is be that of a spider, in essence making Dean a deformed spider centaur. Dean is very lonely and wants loving, any loving, with no concern for gender or species. Dean will always be armed with a board with a nail in it and has 5 Hit Dice.
>Following Joshua Duncaster will show that he has a second home, a hut built inside a seaside cave that is home to his other daughter, Jessica. Just 18 years old, Jessica would be stunningly beautiful were it not for the fact that her face is that of a spider. Jessica is dressed in a tattered blue silk night robe, never fully done up (much to her father’s annoyance) and a straw hat with a veil. She is unable to speak any form of Common Tongue and is aware that “outsiders” mean to do her harm.
>She will probably attempt to flee or hide unless an individual enters the cave alone. In this case she may try to subdue, trick or somehow capture them unaware. For she desperately wants to get pregnant and have babies…

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>>40589196
That is fucking bullshit. Because I would not be caught DEAD in GEORGIA.

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Redneck elves, of course.

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>>40589034
Alligators. You don't even need to change their statline, just make them about 5 feet longer. They're already fucking land dragons with bullet-resistant skin, give them an extra few feet and they're a serious threat to any person no matter how well armed.

Apemen are actually pretty commonly "spotted" in the swamp/big forest regions here, especially the Everglades and in Alabama (inb4 niggers).

Zombies. Real zombies, not that fake hollywood shit. People who are captured, tortured, ritually sacrificed and killed, before being brought to a poor imitation of life in complete and total service to their master. Often have their eyes and mouths sewn shut.

Demons and demonic creatures. Possessed animals are a common legend here in the Deep South, as are interactions with dark spirits in the hollers and backwoods areas where few men tread at night.

Giant mountain lions. Think tiger-sized.

Ghosts and Will o' the Wisps are very, very common legends, especially with regards to native lands or battlefields
.
Undead armies commanded by shamans. Burial mounds are common in the SE US, and a necromancer can utilize these mass graves to build a huge army of spooky skeletons through black magic.

Giant, man-eating boars. Oh wait, those already exist here.

Cottonmouths the size of small dragons, with acid venom and aggression scaled to match.

Alligator Gar are pretty mean freshwater predators.

cottonmouth lamias and toothy swamp mermaids

>>40589686
I'm only okay with this if they're also extremely aggressive and hide in any place that there's standing water.

Voodoo is the primary form of magic

Humanis Policlub

>>40589952
There be a lot more to Southern and Appalachian magics than voodoo, son.

You got your crossroad deals, your hex signs, your witch balls, your folk cures and curses.

The South has a rich history of superstitions and traditions that can lend a great deal of rich flavor to your games.

Someone get that one picture of the hunter with the giant bear. You know the one.

>>40590290

...details?

So like, deals with the devil?

>>40589715
mermaids are like innsmouth residents. Mermaids that got trapped in an ocean inlet that became a swamp, and became backwater mud-skipping sore-riddled xenophobes. They still consider themselves "real" mermaids though.

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>>40589686

>>40590348
Hoodoo, southern US folk magic. The deal with the devil is a small portion of what it entails. There is rootwork, anointing, candle magic, magical writing, laying tricks, foot track magic, mojo bags, box and bottle spells, love magic, protection, cleansing, and unjinxing spells to name a few.

>>40589577
Hell, in Alabama almost all our legends involve ghosts. There are more ghosts per square mile than people in some counties.

>>40590642

Isn't that just part of Voodoo?

How should Deep South classes work? All I know is that Clerics should be snake-handling Priests.

Setting idea from yesterday's World building thread:

Anonymous 06/13/15(Sat)01:14:08 No.40569250▶>>40569965 >>40570302
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We've been working on this over >>40564407 → #, and wanna get some other voices in on it to build another new /tg/ setting.

>set in a fantasy version of United States in pre-WW1 era
>North is civilized and where Humans live
>the farther south and west you go, the less civilized things become, and the more monsters and magic.
>Huge monstrous trains and steamboats run across the country, and serve as mobile castles/dungeons.
>Goatmen, Deer Women, Wendigos and Bell Witches roam the forests and mountains- some left behind by the natives (Elves? goblins?), others that hitched rides over on slave ships or with settlers.
>also shit like were-gators and buffalo
>swampland in south is full of toothy hillbilly swamp mermaids, colloquially called Muckers. Tails are strong like mudskippers, and can move slowly on land. Can commune with leeches, and live inside rotting sunken mansions. They use hoodoo rootwork magic.
>They are in a Hatfields/McCoys rivalry with Cottonmouth swamp lamias, who use voodoo swamp magic, and decorate areas they live in with bottles hanging from the trees.
>Basically all gameplay would be from the point of view of Northern adventurers going into the wild South and West. Essentially a Southern-Gothic-Fantasy setting.
>post-civil war, Southlands have been eviscerated. What few humans lived there were driven out or embraced mysticism and became reclusive xenophobed.

>>40590848

(Cont)


>classes are saber-and-pistol using soldiers, Jim Bowie/Daniel Boone Hunters, protestant-style priests, Trick Layers who use sticks, dirt, and things to make magic charms and traps (Mages?), and voodoo spirit channelers
>most magics evolved from slave religions in the south, and evolved further when Humans lost control of the south
>biggest city is a New Orleans type capital city, which keeps sinking and having more city built on top of the ruins- like Paris, it's bigger up-and-down than it is across.
>dead pirate ghosts are there, and their treasure, traps, and ships riddle the coasts.

>>40590770
No. Voodoo is a religion. American Voodoo is mostly West African spiritual beliefs mixed with Roman Catholicism. Hoodoo comes from some of the same magical pedigree and has a lot of Christian influence, but is not a religion. It's syncretic blend of European, African, Native, and depending on where you are even some Asian, magical traditions.

>>40590878
Voodoo is basically Hoodoo in pop culture. Usually, when they want to delineate the actual religion, they'll spell it Vodou or Vodoun. It's mostly Haitian.

>>40591707
There's like nine different spellings. And yes, Haiti is pretty much the place for Vodou.

Anyone remember playing the first Gabriel Knight? That one had a lot of voodoo and hoodoo info and stuff. Also Worf and Nigel Thornberry is in it.

>>40589034
Take a look at Native American mythology. Father Mosquito's really fun.

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>>40589034
Cajun crocodilian lizardfolk

>>40592537

Leatherhead

>>40590848
>>40590862

...Are... Are there black people?

>>40592660
Black moccasins, yeah.

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>>40592810

Wut

It's just weird to have a Deep South setting without the African influences.

It seems like a cool idea though. Louisiana Swamps, Alabama Ghost Hills like >>40590763, with a splash of Deadlands west of the missisipi

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>>40592537
>tattoo on scales

>>40590878

Asian folk-magic shit actually works really fucking well in the south.

Particularly the curses, like the one where you bury a jar full of carnivorous / venomous insects and come back a day later to find the sole survivor with all the combined malice of the others inside of it.

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>>40593044

>Upscaled Recombinant magic
>Dig a huge pit and get every kind of animal you can think of and throw them in
>Close the door and leave
>Come back a week later to see the hulking monstrosity that you created

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>>40593076
>>40593044

I now have a reason to do the Jar-of-Centipedes cult thing!

>>40593044

>swamp witches have shitloads of strings leading into swamp
>reel one in
>mason jar
>full of dead bugs
>unscrews lid, dumps on table, digs through bugs
>grabs one squirming pissed off beetle between dirty fingernails
>drops it in an old wine bottle, and gives it to PCs

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Damn, I've had this setting rattling around my head called American Knights. This thread makes me want to flesh it out more.

>>40589034
Oh man, didn't think someone would save my shitty drawing.

>>40593140

All your drawing does is make me want to construct a mermaid-bone farm in Dorf Fortress again.

>>40593139

Explain

>>40589034
Loup Garou

>>40589034

The goatman


>>40590348
This reminds me of those dirt-poor southern families who live in hugeass mansions and always talk about their ancestor who was some general in the Civil War

So, would Crocodile-men be the Elves to the Alligator-men's Humans?

Smaller, more lithe, less durable, faster, sharper defined features? Although they have shorter life-spans than Alligators...

>>40590348
>...details?
>So like, deals with the devil?

Crossroads deals are the traditional 'deals with the devil'. Making a deal with a stranger or a crooked man at a crossroads during a full moon. Deals with Old Scratch are common. As are tales of getting one over on the Devil, like in the song "Devil Came Down to Georgie"

Hex Signs originate in Pennsylvania with the Dutch, but I remember seeing them in the Southern Appalachians as kid. Said to be talismans by some, they are through to bring good harvest and ward off evil spirits. They are large, intricate circular designs displayed on barns. Pentagrams are common, but as are both Tree of Life and Floral patterns.

Witchballs, as used in the South, are made of horse or cow hair. Sometimes human. They are clumps of hair, rolled into a ball, sometimes with an image of the target in the middle. You throw them at people or livestock you wish to curse or kill. Supposedly they cause anything from mere misfortune to death by choking on hairballs. These are distinct from the glass witchballs of Europe, those are usually protective charms.

Of course there is so many different folk cure and curses I can't go into them all here. Appalachian magic folk magic, often called Granny Magic, was a mixture of older Scots-Irish and Cherokee traditions. If there was some a matter with your health or you had a problem with spirits, you'd send someone to fetch a granny. They knew what herbs to use, what rituals to preform, what offerings to make.

As you move out of the hills and towards the plantations of Georgie, Alabama, and Mississippi, you get more African traditions that were brought in with the slaves. This keeps us till you come towards the Bayou and hit gumbo pot of traditions down there.

Most of my knowledge is based on Appalachian traditions, if you can't tell. I'm a Tennessee boy, raised in the hills near the Smokies. I was born and raised in the foothills from parents similarly.

>>40593345

Crocs are exotic immigrants from the far east and africa.

Gatormen are natives.

They hate each other.

Leprechauns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

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>>40589577
>Alligators. You don't even need to change their statline, just make them about 5 feet longer. They're already fucking land dragons with bullet-resistant skin, give them an extra few feet and they're a serious threat to any person no matter how well armed.

Oh history, how I love you, giving us a Dire version!

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>>40589034
STRONG sense of civilization vs wild.
On the one side you've got a strong hierarchical class-based "civilized" society, complete with VERY OLD families, complete with hellfire clubs and satanic dark-magic lineages. (I just like the idea of devil-spawn southern gentlemen)

On the other side, you've got the wilds, ripe with ghosts, death, monsters, faeries, and ancient nature/voodo/native-american magical traditions, passed down from master to apprentice.

One is oppressive class-based, and built upon the backs of slaves and satanic-magic, but at-least provides safety to the common man.

One is based off of "white magic" and respects all life, but has no pterenses about protecting the weak from the ravages and monsters of the wild.
On the other hand

>>40593385

I'm from TN too, and I've never heard about any of this but the Hex Sign things.

Guess it's safe to say most magic in this setting would be charm-and-item based, and require prior preperation.

>>40593387

Would the Crocs be Chinamen expies, Irish expies, or Arab expies? They can't be niggers, those are Orcs.

I'm thinking Chinamen expies, just so I can have Croc-men martial artists, and it fits their narrower profile.

>>40593148
Do tell.

>>40593418
I've gone canoing with gators longer and bigger than my two man canoe. That image doesn't seem that far out there compared to real life.

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>>40593419
You should read Hellstorm

>>40593432

Make Crocs Arabs/Africans. Then have Cai-men in South America.

Make Lizardmen into the equivalent to Goblinoids.


I assume the Indians are Elves?

>>40593444

It's an old thing that is no longer applicable because Toady nerfed the value of Merfolk bones.

To put it simply, a raw Merfolk bone was once worth 500 monies, a master-carved one was worth 6000 monies average, when you slaughtered a merfolk, you got a full skeleton.

So naturally someone on Bay12 noticed this and set up a Fort on the coast of a Good-aligned ocean, designed a trap and prison system for Merfolk, captured them, bred them in large numbers, and then air-drowned any 9 out of 10 children to harvest for the bones because it took 12 years for them to mature to adult and the value of bones didn't change from infant to adult.

Dorf Fortress and CK2 are terrible games for terrible people, and that is why I love them.

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>>40589034
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Storythread
(number 78)

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>>40593153
Ok so imagine the Americas were colonized in the medieval age, low magic existed. You'd have Cajun and Creoles fighting bog monsters in the bayou, New England villagers needing heroes to rid them of the dreaded Wendigo, duelists quickdrawings swords in the Wild West, while having to deal with hostile natives and their magic.

Stuff like that. Not sure whether to keep the American political system as is, or have it so the USA is a kingdom with the states being duchies and counties having actual counts, etc.

>>40590362
>>40593700
>Swamp vore mermaid
This is fine

>>40590290
>>40593385
if this thread is still up later might have to storytime Hellboy: The Crooked Man

>>40593747
let's continue exploring this idea

>>40590362
Is it just me, or is the pointy-toothed one making the animu orgasm face?

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>>40594238

I think her eyes just have no pupils. Probably like Angler Fish eyes

>>40594299

Eh, I'd still fuck it, provided it wasn't a fatal attraction that is.

>>40594377

No, but you better be ready to marry into their family

>>40594401

Do I get to fuck her sisters?

Also possibly the resulting offspring?

>>40589034
On the North you have Chaos forces
on the South you get Law forces

Which are worse.

Deamons made of perfecty angled platonic solids. Destroying everything that is not perfect.
go read old WH fluff

>>40594413
Probably, they are Swamp-Folk Mermaids, not merfolk, Mermaids.

>>40589259
I just wanted to say thank you for the pdf

>>40589259

That seems tailor-made for incest fetishists.

And that is perfectly okay, even if it is not my fetish.

>>40593419
Something you have to remember about the South is that the hierarchical class system existed within socio-economic groups as well as between them.

>>40594562

You could have a city that was fairly well to do for itself that had "nobles" and people of well to do blood who made up all the money in the city but still wanted the feel of being royalty so they set up a psudo feudal society of sorts to fit their fantastic visions and life styles until they got cursed.

Now as ghosts they still try to live the fancy lives of princes and princesses they never could in the old world.

>>40590362
>>40593700
>>40594113
Tangetially related:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXn4eqKvT8I

So is this setting a Warhammer-style fictional setting, or is it the actual US with Fantasy stuff like Shadowrun?

>>40596599
I was thinking of a fantasy world inspired by American mythology/folklore, in the same vein of how most fantasy is based on medieval Europe.

>>40596674

Cool, so a fictional continent on a fantasy world, that's just progressed to... the 1900's?

>>40590290
...Witches have balls?

>>40596887
A little earlier I think.

>>40596999
Your trips have answered your own question.

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>>40593445
As a reference the green one at the bottom is a saltwater crocodile, which can get about 20 feet long

>>40593747
Sounds pretty cool, as do a lot of these >>40590862 >>40590848

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>>40593419
There's a section in here that could be of use.

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>>40593747
>Not sure whether to keep the American political system as is, or have it so the USA is a kingdom with the states being duchies and counties having actual counts, etc.
"What if George Washington became king?" is a commonly-discussed alternate history, so just have that setting's analogue accept the throne as King instead of establishing a republic.

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>>40592647

>>40594113
The second example is more like swamp vore naiades, given that they lack the fish-like lower body (and the picture is a painting decipting naiades). Same difference, though.

As a rule of thumb, never trust beautiful women found in the middle of the forest/swamp/sea. At best they will lead you astray, at worst they will fucking eat you.

Inbred banjo-savant bards.

I've got Deliverance on the mind.

>>40597965
If you're lucky they'll give you a sword, but do you really want to take the risk?

Actually that could be a good way for one of the Southern noble houses to get its power, either through skill or through some dark deal.

>>40597209
I think a highly variable system of titles would work best for nobility - Barons and Earls in some places, Colonels and Clan Chiefs in others. Knights and Captains both being valid social ranks, that sort of thing

Or you could, you know, just live in the South. It's pretty much an insane fantasy setting already.

>>40598130
>Actually that could be a good way for one of the Southern noble houses to get its power, either through skill or through some dark deal.
Deals with the Devil or other dark entities are pretty standard part of folklore, so it would certainly be fitting.

Could also be that the family cheated on the power they made the deal with, refusing to pay their end of the bargain, causing the power to curse them and the entire area they live in. To life the curse, they'd ahve to pay their due, which they'd obviously would be unwilling to do.

>>40598231

How about

>last days of civil war
>southern gentry families, in a last ditch power grab, make deals with the devil
>south is now a demonic playground, nearly sealed-off from north
>the family's bloodlines are tied to demons; only killing their whole bloodlines and households could cleanse the curse, House of Usher style

>>40598152
Bigoted yankee detected

>>40596582
Hot. But those people are complete idiots. If the procedure is to have two people in the room at all times, you damn well keep two people in the room. Or at least require two people to be present to open the door.

>>40598231
I don't know the Lady of the Lake was pretty willing, and giving a sword and "ownership" of the swamp in return for bringing in travellers seems like a pretty good deal for everyone involved - maybe the original noble managed to win over the power in some fashion, to get such a deal.

>>40598290
Certainly could be good for a few families, trading their souls for "victory" of some sort

>>40598130
>Actually that could be a good way for one of the Southern noble houses to get its power, either through skill or through some dark deal.
Keep the swamp vore mermaids fed and [swamp magic bullshit] keeps noble house in power?

>>40598752

I'd assume Swamp Mermaids are a separate thing.

Just an alligator.

https://fordtheatrereunion.bandcamp.com/track/alligator

Mad men of the cloth, controlling their flocks of sheep through fear and hysteria. Seriously, just listen to some Southern Gothic and oddball Americana gypsy tunes for all the inspiration you need on the Deep South.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKqwEr55frQ&list=RDEMDKcXfTxwTkzlxizYoWzHfQ

Attend a Rainbow Gathering. That shit is fucking weird and can help too, if you're interested in a slightly more... immersive approach.

>>40597209
>>40598130
Having an actual nobility system and fiefdoms really messes with the social structure of the South though.

Tangetially related, since they're not about the right area, but I think the themes of these songs would fit the setting very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1hUf4qYwbM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xohmUNBvtvQ

>>40598833

Plantations and sharecroppers?

>>40598793
Most Rainbow Gatherings haven't taken place in the South. Only six, eight if you count West Virginia, since 1972.

Ghosts are a huge part of Southern Folklore, I lived in Savannah for a few years, and almost everyone had a ghost story back there

>>40598777
Giving sacrifices to whatever dark supernatural creatures dwell in the swamp in exhange of their blessing would be fitting, though. Could be devils, swamp spirits, sirens, whatever.

>>40598752
That's one way, might be better to have a swamp spirit and let the swamp vore mermaids be another danger.

>>40598833
How so? I thought there was an almost aristocratic system in place already?

>>40598833
It really doesn't.

If you weren't part if the 5 or so percent who actually owned slaves you worked for the people who did. Voting was restricted to landowning white males, and since slace owners owned a mighty portion of the arable land in the South, voting was restricted basically to slave owners and the people who profited from selling their goods.

Virtually everyone else was a slave or a sharecropper. So the landed nobility and serfdom angle works pretty well.

>>40598899
>implying

Nigga, I just spent 4 days with one in the Kentucky backwoods. It's a cult, but stupefyingly interesting.

I know:
>Kentucky
>South

I feel there is little difference, however.

>>40598889
Basically you need to have the upper classes dominate political power, but have to rely on the lower classes to keep the at power. You also need the concept of Southern gentry fluid and economic. Your family name might still get you invited to parties, but you're still gonna have to sell your land when you can't pay your bills. Connections are equally important. A well-connected but poor man can often get things done faster and more to his liking than a rich man without friends. And you'll see this played out at every economic level. The poorest of hicks will still have hick families who make a few more dollars a month looking down on everyone else and throwing their weight around. And that slightly less poor hick family might have owned half the county a few generations ago and lost it all to indolence, madness, and general reprobate behavior. Loss and decline are massive concepts in Southern mentality, culture, and mythology.

>>40599039
Sounds like it'd work fine - even with the poor people having the attitude, it still transfers, with things like esquires and yeomen.
As long as you play up the need for connections it sounds like it'd be great.

Loss and decline works for almost all noble systems, it's at least as old as the Patricians of Rome (who I believe the Southerners looked at with a lot of respect, being a "noble" slave-owning culture)

>>40599039

>Loss and decline are massive concepts in Southern mentality, culture, and mythology.

This. I think this is what seems so interesting about a setting like this.

It's a society that's declined so far it's turned inward and is eating itself alive while trying to maintain an air of civility and respectability.

Manners, honor, and perceived cultural sleights are serious fucking business, you're likely to get challenged to duels constantly by people with nothing to loose- all the while the underclasses are piecing together bits of magic from trash and half-remembered bits of foreign religion.

Plus Mark Twain style riverboats that are dens of excess separate from "proper" society... There's lots of cool shit that can be done.

Gotta say, if we could get some more voices in on this, this seems like a /tg/ setting that could go somewhere

>>40589034

In my setting? Elves? Elves and Fey.

Although, the main continent I play in my setting is on the southern Hemisphere, so it's colder the further South you go. So, in addition to you Elves and Fey, you get things like Silver Dragons living near the glaciers.

>>40599219
So definitely a darker setting, with lots of horror elements?

>>40598954
Sharecropping is post-slavery. All land ownership requirements for voting had been ended by 1856. 1.5% of all free persons owned slaves, but 8% of all American families owned at least one slave, 33% for just the South. Pre-Civil War you had a lot of independent farmers; even during the height of sharecropping you still had 64% of white farmers and 15% of black farmers being independent.

>>40599219
>Gotta say, if we could get some more voices in on this, this seems like a /tg/ setting that could go somewhere
Definitely. American folklore is very interesting, being a combination of native faith and beliefs of a dozen different immigrant groups, and the whole "fallen glory" thing is one of my favourite tropes.

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>>40599219

Oooooh, yes, did somebody say fucking around with one of my favorite unloved settings?

You have my banjo.

>>40599257

That's what it seems like. I'm seeing something like Deadlands with a more VtM-style focus on communication.

Plus most BBEG battles would probably end up being duels of honer, which would be sweet.

>>40599195
Rome is a good way to look at it. The classical Southern gentry were a republican aristocracy, bound not by tithe or feudal obligation but by economic interests, social connections, and a culture that won't hesitate to shun or sabotage someone who acts in an improper manner.

>>40592537
Giant bara croc-men?

Adding some Southern lore.

Here in Louisiana there's a figure called Madame Grand Doigts(Madame Long Fingers). A horrible old crone with long, spindly fingers who visits children New Year's night to either leave them a treat if they were good or eat them if they were bad.

>>40591796
So I take it, it pays well to have friends on the other side, as it were.

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>>40589034
Alligators
Giant crawfish
All manner of saltwater life in the island chain backwaters
Redneck community of half elves
Old school fae living in the deep backwoods
Lots of insects, like clouds of them.

>>40594195
do it man.

>>40599328
>Your climatic fight with the BBEG is getting him drunk at a party, then putting a sack on his head and beating him to death before tossing him in the swamp.
>Six sessions later you have to burn down his plantation home, cotton warehouse, and stables to force his family to sell their land so that a portion of the contract he signed with the dark man on his deathbed is nullified and he's no longer an invincible undead monster wearing the skin of a man.

>>40589577
>army of spooky skeletons

My god.

>>40599219
>>40593419

So, we have a declined society holding on the appearance of their past glory, build heavily on old, old family lines, slowly rotting from the inside due to corropution and beset outside by untamed wilderness full of nasty creatures and various supernatural beings. Families who'se ancestors once made a deal with some evil entity in an effort to maintain their glory, sins of the past returning to haunt the present, sinister strangers coming into towns and spreading chaos, crossroad devils, voodoo priests, man-eating swamp mermaids and other supernatural entities.

This would make a really cool setting.

>>40599219
>>40599328
So would this be a setting that's the actual South + Magic and Spooky stuff, or one that's a world that's very much like the South?

>>40599478
And no one really wants to talk about. They'd rather just continue about their day with a heavy presence left unsaid until things get so bad they're forced into action. Said action usually targets someone or thing unrelated, but the barbarism makes them feel better about themselves.

>>40599499
Both. It's actual South + magic and spooky, with a fuckton of classical fantasy added to it.

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>>40589034
Bored, vampire gentry with armies of slaves fueling their debauched lifestyle.

>>40599499
I prefer the second option, as it allows for more freedom in making the setting. Or you could have it very heavily diverge from the normal world, like in Deadlands.

>>40599478

Families being maintained by age patriarchs straining under the weight of a curse they've undertaken, while their families and lands whither and decay around them. But stubborn men, too far gone and eaten with pride to let themselves go- the kind of men who, on bad nights, wear their dusty Confederate uniforms and scream at ghosts of long-dead enemies while their families suffer.

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>>40599478
>Families who'se ancestors once made a deal with some evil entity in an effort to maintain their glory, sins of the past returning to haunt the present, sinister strangers coming into towns and spreading chaos, crossroad devils, voodoo priests, man-eating swamp mermaids and other supernatural entities.
This is how I tiefling.

>>40599545
Okay, that's cool. So there is New Orleans, Kentucky, Appalachia, existing places?

And one last question (and I appologise for my ignorance in this topic)... is Texas the South?

>>40599573
We've pretty much been running it Deadlands style with a bit of DnD.

Malifaux has its own fantasy Bayou if you want to pilfer some ideas from there.

The jist of it is that swamp goblins were mostly feral and dumb until humans came along. Goblins were fascinated by them and started to steal clothes and guns to become more like people, and once some of the smarter ones figured out how to make stills they could actually start creating cohesive groups backed by the promise of moonshine.

There's also giant pigs as vicious and mean as boars but around twice the size, man-sized mosquitos, animated trees that fight off settlers, weird fish people, and a few other things I'm forgetting.

>>40599624
Yes, no matter how much they say otherwise.

In all seriousness, East Texas is a part of the South. The dividing point is Houston.

>>40599499
actual South + Magic and Spooky stuff
+ lots of historical events/ figures to draw from
+ well established geography
+ long history of horrific events
- requires a certain amount of research
- slavery is a pretty sensitive topic
- difficult to incorporate more fantastical elements (eg elves)
a world that's very much like the South
+ less limitations on what can or can not be included
+ less likely to descend into argumets about what caused the civil war
- inventing from whole cloth will make getting a satisfying atmosphere harder

>>40589096
I once heard a tale from my grandpa about a monster catfish with a mouth as big as a car trunk that once lived at the bottom of a lake.

Some divers were doing routine matinance on some underwater cables or on the
when one of them saw in the murky darkness, what looked to be a trunk of a car, slowly opening and closing in the underwater current.
Fearing that someone had driven their car into the lake, both divers swam over to investigate.
It wasnt a car

I later asked my dad about it and he said that he heard similar stories when he was growing up. About gigantic catfish that lived in the lakes and rivers near where he lived that were large enough to eat a man.

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>>40599624

Confederate states.

I assume we'll get out west later, but IMO I'd say there's something real bad out there, to focus the setting on making the North an isolated pocket of civilization in a hostile land.

So as for the Southlands, I guess there's about three areas to focus on:

>Appalachian hills and forests
>Swampland
>texas

>>40599561
anne rice pls

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>>40599624
There's a difference between "the south" and "The South." Texas and Oklahoma are the former but not the latter. The "former glory lost" part is important: Texas during the Civil War was just a bunch of empty farmland filled with natives and cowboys and not really all that important. Texas today is one of the US' most powerful states, so they went in the opposite direction. So while they have plenty of cultural similarities, it really isn't the same when you're looking at it from the point of view as >>40599478 >>40599587

Oklahoma considers themselves Texas' little brother with more natives and a fierce sibling rivalry. The South is their wacky cousins and uncles that they're kinda embarrassed about.

I'd also borrow more than a few things from Lovecraft's book. Though he was from New England (which is about as non-South as you can get), some of his recurring themes fit in the Deep South horror as well.
The corruption running in blood, of example. Your great-great-great grandfather made some deals with something less than human, and it taints your family line to this day. Finding you have some non-human blood in your family, the effects of which begin to manifest in you. In general, stuff from "Rats in the Walls" and "Shadows over Innsmouth". Or the cultists in "Call of Cthulhu" who worshipping something living in the Lousiana swamp.

Plus a Nyarlathotep makes a good "mysterious sinister stranger" type character, who shows up in a town and leaves behind only madness and death.

>>40599767
ye gods.

>>40599784
The West needs to be a separate project, there's too much of it. Or we could just leave it like the North and have it be a mysterious Other.

>>40599478
Sorry to bring my /mu/ shit in here, but hey, mood and setting-related musics? Sorry for live upload qualities but that's what you get with smaller bands.

Don't forget the stories of the abandoned and alone, with nobody to help them. Rotten men and women that would throw their children away without thought, forcing them into sorrow and desperate means to simply survive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm0uNVxYL8I

Or the lamentations of the poor and ne'er-do-wells on the chain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMhd4yHpW4

>>40599767
Those are real. Catfish, like Goldfish, can grow as big as their environments will sustain.

Japan has myths of being built on a giant earthquake-causing catfish.

>>40599761
I'd say just keep it "broad strokes" to real history, so we can just make shit up, and just assume fantasy races were always kinda there.

>>40599645
You have this as a setting, or do you just mean the conversation?

>>40599478
Most of the old families have a curse - some sold the souls of their firstborn hereafter to a dark man at a crossroads, some drink the blood of their slaves while others treat with their gods. Hungry swamp-dwellers, mealevolent spirits and the twisted fae, there are many in this land that would offer power to the unwary, and the patriarchs and immigrant chiefs moving into the new and deadly world struck deals left and right, and in the centuries since have piled upon those bargains with countless sins and evil acts, stubbornly digging themselves deeper as what tawdry glories they achieved fade and decay under the merciless sun

>>40600014
The conversation.

>>40600014
Keep in mind that an important part of Southern magical thinking is that powerful curses can be forced upon families, bloodlines, even the land itself by others.

>>40599784
>>40599865
What about something like >>40598290 - the South is somewhat sealed off - not 100%, you could still walk in and out, people come and go, but for the most part there's almost no transfer?

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>>40589577
Here in SC, Lake Murray covers an area that was once a small town. Pic related is a sonar image of a house at the bottom of the lake.
Near the town there was also a graveyard. When the dam was being built and before the whole town was flooded. They moved the grave stones but left the bodies. I've heard many stories of swimmers getting dragged to the dark depths by the spirits that rest beneath the lake.

There are also ruins of B-25 bombers that are at the bottom of the lake because one of the islands, named "Bomb Island", was used to train bomber pilots during WWII. Most of the wrecks have been salvaged but I think there are some that are still down there. The brought one up a couple years ago. http://www.lakemurray-sc.com/lakemurrayb25.html

I've also heard stories of people bringing up dummy bombs with their anchors near the island.

>Louisiana/New Orleans
A land covered in wretched swamps and tortured forests where light refuses to touch the earth. The swamps are filled with a dark, thick, slippery fluid that clings to objects and trees exist in a foreign form that borders of life and death.
Deeper into this coiled land lies a city, a city of blasphemous rituals and magic where life and death bound into mockeries of one another. Rotten ingredients and sinful currencies are exchanged for unnatural knowledge and forbidden pleasures bought from cackling hosts in evil services that give praise to forgotten lords. The corrupting energies, left over from these performances, are left to sink into the surrounding lands further twisting it around a form of mock mortality.
Worse still are the mysterious scaled things that are said to dwell within the heart of the surrounding swamplands and the indescribable horrors these beings themselves call gods. Horrors that no man, sane or otherwise, dare say exist. Whose unearthly croaks and gurgles can be heard coming from the bottom of those pools of black ink.

>>40599624
It's the South, but not the Deep South.

That runs from New Orleans to through the Carolinas, I believe.

>>40600182
River boats and the few rail lines are the only practical methods of long distance travel. Anything else and you're lucky to make 100 miles a day in a best case scenario.

>>40600261
Deep South includes all of Louisiana.

>>40600202
Reminds me of a Swamp Thing story about underwater town that got flooded after a damn burst (turns out vampires can't stand running water, but stagnant, unmoving water is perfectly fine), and emerge to drag people into the depths. Also, since this was during Alan Moore's run, there was some weird bullshit about them breeding a new generation of aquatic vampires that for some reason look like viperfish with arms and legs.

Actually, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing is also a great inspiration, being largely set in Lousiana and featuring towns of weird supernatural bullshit (especially the "American Gothic" arc).

>>40589034
Redneck Elder Things, still angry about the Shoggoth rebellion.

>>40600268
>100 miles a day
Isn't that pretty good?
Or is this my british sense of distance speaking?

Isolating magic, if we were to go that route, could be a the source of a number of "upstart" nobles, who paid a terrible price to halt the Unions armies en masse at the border (smaller bodies of troops still managed to get through in places) and now brag that they "saved" the south, when all they actually did was drag it out?

ITT a whole bunch of people who have never ever been in the South

Actual normal people live here, you know. They work in offices and bitch about traffic and mow their lawns. I get that mining it for an RPG setting doesn't want that but still.

>>40589182
>IMPROVED ANAL PLUNDERING

>>40600467
Sshh, anon. Let the yanks think we're all swamp-dwelling inbred racists. It keeps their snooty asses out.

>>40600467
It's supposed to be a setting based on American (specifically souther) folklore. Same as how most fantasy is based on medieval European mythology (or rather a bastardisation of Tolkien's stuff, which is inspired by European mythology). The fact that modenr Europe has people working in offices and mowing lawns doesn't have anything to do with fantasy settings.

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>>40599767
Catfish never stop growing.

I'm an industrial electrician. I specialize in power plants and electrical power generation. The Jocassee Hydroelectric Dam in South Carolina is fed by lake Jocassee. It's one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the united states.

Starting in the early 90's, the plant began experiencing sudden major problems with one of it's water intakes. The intake would just suddenly clog, resulting in a near complete stoppage of water flow.

The intakes are just big grates located near the floor of lake Jocassee, about 300 feet below the surface. The grates had never clogged in 20+ years of operation.

The first time: they closed off the intake, and sent a diver to investigate... The diver found nothing, the intakes were re-opened, and there was no additional problem.

A few weeks later, the exact same thing happened. Again, they shut off the intake, and sent a diver to investigate... and again, they found nothing.

After the third time, they sent a diver without shutting the intake off. Within minutes of going down, the diver came straight back to the surface. There was an enormous catfish stuck on the intake. Large enough to block off a 24" intake pipe almost completely.

So, a simple solution was devised: They built a little raised "cage" and fit it over the intake pipe, and installed one over each. Never had that problem again.

Of course, that was almost 25 years ago, and nobody's caught that catfish yet...

>>40600467
No, I thought it was full of swamp mermaids and curses.

If you're on a chinese shadow puppet board then where you live probably has things like offices and normal people, but that doesn't stop you from adding to a setting based on where you are from

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>>40593139
>>40593747
Another idea I have for my American Knights concept.
The Ku Klux Klan is an eldritch cult with the same mythological rank hierarchy, except the Grand Dragon is literally a Lovecraftian cosmic serpent-beast they are trying to summon to purge the kingdom of colored folk and non-Protestants.

>>40600770
Seriously, the KKK were fantasy neckbeards before fantasy neckbeards were a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan_titles_and_vocabulary

>>40600770
>>40600795
Ok so maybe not a literal grand dragon, since that's an actual rank, but some kind of eldritch netherbeast.

>>40600758
That's all well and good except that it's becoming overtly ridiculous.

>>40600795
Well, they originally started out a club for wealthy southern gentlemen, with silly rituals and rank names for shits and giggles. They only turned into a black people lynching hate group later.

>>40600896
Uh...

Wereboars.

>>40600463
Stagecoaches ranged between 5 and 12 miles per hour. For example, it is 177 miles between my hometown in Alabama and the University of New Orleans where I spent my freshman year of college. In a car it took me three hours to travel between them. Assuming a 12 hour traveling day with zero stops, highly unlikely, it would have taken me: on a stagecoach that averaged eight miles per hour, two days. On a horse with a four-beat walk traveling 4 miles an hour it would have taken me four days. Walking at 3 miles an hour would have taken me five days.

>>40600795
Holy shit your right, this is kinda cool.
>Wrecking Crew - an action squad commissioned to take physical action against enemies and wayward members of the Klan. Depending on time and organization, these groups consisted of 5 to 8 members and were authorized either by the klokann, the Exalted Cyclops and/or the Kludd. Sometimes led by the Nighthawk. An action taken by the crew is wrecked. Some names used by wrecking crews include "Secret Six", "Ass-tear Squad" and "Holy terrors"

>Invisible Empire - this designation included both the Klans geographical domain - up to "the whole world" - but also in a "spiritual sense" all the secrets and workings of the order. All things outside this empire were designated the Alien World and non-members Aliens. The Klan was a military organization and its commander in chief was the Imperial Wizard, whose power was supreme "within the limits of this constitution" and whose edicts, decisions and rulings were binding on all members of the order. He had a staff of Fifteen Genii. The Empire had an assembly or convention known as a Klonvokation.

>>40600770
There's also the Knights of the Golden Circle, but they're less cult-like.

>>40600883
Speak for yourself, I find it kinda funny exaggerating all these local legends

>>40600906
He's somewhat correct. The KKK started out as a group for CSA vets to bitch about losing the war. The original version of the Klan was a group of similar and loosely affiliated but not organized groups sharing a name that used violence to terrorize freedmen, Reconstructionist, and anyone they felt violated social order. That Klan only lasted a decade or so at the most.

The second KKK is the one everyone is familiar with; it didn't start until 1915 and has more in common with 19th century nativist ideology than the original KKK's revenge mentality. The second KKK was heavily prohibitionist and anti-Catholic.

>>40601118
Really? I feel like most people think they're one and the same

>>40601095
Now this is some good shit

>>40601156
Best to thing of the Klan as having three "generations." First-gen Klan was the social groups turned revenge societies, second-gen Klan was the nativist fraternal order/business group, third-gen Klan, the Klan of the fifties and sixties, has the organization of the first-gen, the structure of the second, and combines their ideologies. It should be noted that each generation went into decline after about ten years of operation. However, there is continuity between the groups, just that they were marginalized during the inter-periods.

>>40600971
Which is assuming a fairly well maintained road, a road a that doesn't need to circumvent landscape features, favourable weather, and the existence of contiguous roads at all. And thats even before you account for the potential supernatural obstacles you might encounter.

>>40601299
Correct. It's pretty much assuming a perfect scenario.

>>40600883
Hence why I think it's best to make it a full-on fantasy setting that's based on the folklore, rather than the actual south USA but where the supernatural stuff from the folklore is true. It allows for more freedom to adapt stuff, and avoids having to tie things to real-life things.

Though including some events inspired by real life in order to get the correct feel of the setting is good. Like the area of the setting has been colonised relatively recently, and still has large areas of wildreness and a population tracing from multiple cultures, and there having been a war equivalent to the American civil war that resulted in the old ruling families losing much of their power (to bring the whole "fallen glory" astethic, and because being bitter about losing the war was a big part of the immediately postbellum south psyche).

>>40601339
That is what we're doing. About the only direct real life stuff that isn't an analogue is geography, which I think makes it a lot easier since it means everyone is using the same map.

>>40599802

I imagine a fantasy Texas would basically be a forming nation from frontier separate from the Southlands, built by settlers from the South and Elsewhere in the plains.

Disjointed, argues heavily with each other, but closer to the gods than to demons, united by the struggle of forming a true civilization for themselves and a constant vigilance against an eldritch Empire of Blood to the deserts south of them.

>>40601536
Except Mexico had been far removed from the Aztecs by then. I'd love to see a Mexican republic led by a charismatic dictator with lots of remnant Aztec stuff filtered through Catholic mysticism.

>>40592861
As in water moccasins, an extremely poisonous aquatic snake.

>>40601806
That'd be good. The not!Europeans fought the not!Aztecs who worshipped an eldritch god of blood sacrifice. While their temples and writings were destroyed, bits of their folklore survive and merged with the invaders' religion. Later some powerhungry dictator digs up some surviving fragments of the old texts and uses the rituals contained within for his own ends.

>>40601918
I was thinking more of dark rituals being given a different coat of paint and not talked about much in polite society.

>Why it's tradition to kill prisoners on Easter Eve, so that Jesus might be reborn into a more Holy world. Now enough about such dreadful things, I hear you recently returned from a tour of Europe.

>>40601417
Yeah, that does kind of make sense, just so there's less ambiguity over where things are.

>>40602384
Yeah, it can be difficult to get people on the same page over 4chan so sticking it to real world geography helps immensely.

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>>40599478
>>40599587
>>40600014
>>40599219


Although, you have to be careful to not make the civilized sorcerers, for all their faults, out to be PURE bad-guys, oppressing voodoo and nature magic etc... Even in the real world, the further south you go in the US, the more NATURE WANTS TO FUCKING KILL YOU, until you get to the Florida Everglades, at which point you're basically in Australia-tier deadly wilderness.

I'd imagine that this effect is strengthened in a fantasy setting, to the point where "the patriarchs and their world is corrupt and crumbling, but the world outside is anathema to human existence.

As>>40599512 pointed out, most people just want to live their lives and survive. Old-man DuBois might not care about you from up in his lofty masion, but at least he has SOME vested interest in people staying alive. Brer Rabbit, on the other hand, does not care about you, or your kin, or your soul, and thinks it would hilarious to trap all of the above in his Tar-Baby and eat them.

>>40602466
Except that depending on where you are those houngans, mambos, root doctors, and witch women are the civilized sorcerers.

>>40602466
That's pretty much how I envisioned it. The society is crumbling and oftentimes extremly corrupt, with the powerful families basically owning the law, but the wilderness is fucking scary, and will kill anybody not prepared. And that's not even taking into the account the various nasty supernatural creatures thta lurk there. One of the reason these people stay in power is because people can't exactly pack up and leave, since they'll be eaten by alligators/giant catfish/swamp vore mermaids the moment they wander too far into the wilderness. Even if you don't like them, the old families are keeping the wilderness from overrunning the civilization, even if this may be because they've made some deals with nasty supernatural beings (which the general public wouldn't be aware of anyway).

>>40602755
>Now fellas, I knows ya'll upset about me takin' a kid and feeding it to ma swamp mermaid mistress every second full moon. An' I knows all ya'll colored folk ain't too happy how I killed Mammy Freeman and ate her brains for her conjurin' power, but here me out. Ain't I been good to ya?
>Gotcha all jobs harvestin' ma suga cane, pay ya'll half in paper money 'stead a scrip, an give whisky and cigars every Christmas. An ain't it my hex signs carved in ta trees stoppin' dose swamp elves and udda nasties from snatch you and your folk up at night?
>Now why don't ya'll put down them weapons and come 'round back; I'll slaughter a hog or two and we can have us some good eatin' and talk 'bout this like gentlemen.

>>40602466
Yeah, that makes sense - up in the mountains you'll freeze, in the swamps you'll drown and all over there's wild animals.

And then there's the other inhabitants of the land - some fae and spirits choose to hunt humans rather than deal with them, and then there's supernatural monsters and so on too.

It's one of the reasons the patriarchs made the deals in the first place, to push back against overwhelming nature, they really did need a hand

>>40603057
It should be a trade off. The deals are the easy route, the one that leaves you with tidy accounting in books of human skin. You don't need magic to survive or thrive, it just equalizes the playing field should you require it. The deals put you at the top of the wheel of fortune at the cost of crushing everything, even your own future, underneath.

>>40600883

>Tolkien's such a hack! There were no pastoral farm villages of little men fighting brutal industrialization!
>Fucking Lovecraft! There's not THAT many monstrosities dredged out of the coastal waters! And we don't fuck fish THAT much!

Dude, Southern Gothic literature focuses on all the same shit this thread does sans the fantasy stuff.

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>>40589061
Ha Haaa!

Just how "fantasy" are we going to make this, though? I mean, having supernatural beings like crossroad devils, swamp mermaids etc. is a given, but aside from those, is the setting populated by just humans, or do the traditional fantasy races like elves and orcs make an appearance? On the other hand, ou could easily use elves as the analogy of the natives as so on, but that may have unfortunate implications (ie. making the black people into orcs).

>>40603208
It's like black people calling each other nigga vs when white people do it.

So far as Magic and religion, here's what I've got:

>Not!Voodoo is brought in as bits and pieces of old slave religions, and is basically "spirit" magic. Deals with parlaying and making trades with Loa from the other side. You have to offer them something, but mostly as long as you're respecting them they're willing to think about helping you.
>Demons are bad shit; they're outright malicious spirits from a different place than Voodoo spirits. Anything you get from them comes at an exceptional cost. Just want to get in to our world and fuck it up.
>Christianity/clerical magic is like old school wrath-of-god shit. Priests shout out fire-and-brimstone sermons to call down actual hellfire and command snakes. Christianity is less common in the Southlands than IRL, as much of the aouth has turned to small community cults and folk religions
>There's also non-aligned charms and things, like Hex Signs and trick laying, which are basically utility magic. They're considered part of nature, instead of being from spirits or gods.

>>40603588

I'm from the south. I can say whatever I want about it.

And I can say it'd be way more fun if it was full of confederate occultists, ghost swamps, and big-tittied swamp mermaids.

>>40603768
>implying it isn't

We'll get 'em Yankees next time, boys

>>40589034
Dwarves.

You know, I really like those old bigass paddleboats they used to have. They feel like something that should be an important part of a setting like this, though what roles would they have exactly.
Given how the land is mostly swamps filled with dangerous animals and nasty supernatural creatures, riverboats would probably be the best way to travel between cities, as maintaining a road network would be very hard. The biggest ones could also be almost like floating towns. They would exist outside the communities ruled by the old families, and would be considered dens of immorality and inquiety, but would also be more liberal than the very xenophobic towns.

>>40603995
And also very vulnerable to corruption and madness...

>>40603768
>And I can say it'd be way more fun if it was full of confederate occultists, ghost swamps, and big-tittied swamp mermaids.
As a Georgian I'm seconding this

>down in Louisiana bayous
>huge plantation house, half sunken into the swamp
>Mermaids live here
>during the war, when the south was lost, the landscape was warped- part of what changed landlocked coastal waters, trapping them inside.
>as the water turned putrid, so did they; tails growing strong and slimy for moving through the muck and crawling on land, eyes growing stronger for seeing in the dark, and their jaws and teeth adapting to a more predatory diet
>answer to an elder matriarch, "Ma (something),"
>all still view themselves as "true" Mermaids, beautiful maidens of the sea- though they are now twisted, lesioned swamp witches to everyone else, who know them as "Muckers"
>inside their rotting manor, they decorate with the finest things they can salvage- mismatched and chipped dishes, dryrotting silks, tarnished mirrors... All reflecting their nature as once beautiful things, twisted into something else, and trying in vain to hold onto the illusion they have not lost anything.
>practice hexes and commune with leeches
>many of the girls are actively trying to "trap themselves a husband," through whatever means. Occasionally unwilling suitors become dinner instead.
>have a long-standing feud with the Cottonmouths, black-scaled water nagas whose ancestors came from Haiti, with a heritage of communing with spirits

Is it the Rockies or the Appalachians that are said to have the cannibal clans?

>>40603154
Yeah, but how many wouldn't take up the offer?
It's pretty tempting

Obviously there should be some normal people, both in the lower orders and some in the aristocracy - they struggle, toil, and whatever their sins, they are at least of a mundane nature.

>>40603995

There's been some ideas on this. I totally agree.

>>40590848
>Huge monstrous trains and steamboats run across the country, and serve as mobile castles/dungeons.

>>40599219
>Plus Mark Twain style riverboats that are dens of excess separate from "proper" society... There's lots of cool shit that can be done.

>>40600268
>River boats and the few rail lines are the only practical methods of long distance travel. Anything else and you're lucky to make 100 miles a day in a best case scenario.
Short of the Mississippi and coasts, the Southlands are mostly inaccessible. And sometimes boats don't come back, or worse, they come back wrong...

>>40604348
Appalachians have hillbillies, which are pretty much like rednecks, except in the mountains. Cannibal hillbillies show up in fiction time to time.

>>40589034
Grand Wizards.

>>40604348

Poor people have little influence, so are less enticing to demons. They're more likely to just kill or quickly burn out someone they can't use.

The big old houses had plenty to offer- and now they're bloodlines are permanent highways right into the human world.

>>40604284
So, Deep Ones.

>>40604192
Tell me, have you joined the many that have become ensnared by the black tincture?
Its syrupy devilry has spread far through this land, binding thousands in a dark communion as the pedallers travel from town to town, enticing the unwary with the sweet death - first refreshing and revitalising, but slowly rotting all who drink from within, luring them to Atlanta as the addiction takes hold.

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>>40604534

Basically, but more of pic related than worshipping ocean fish.

So if eeeverything is this fucked up...what's stopping the demons, say, from just wrecking everyone's shit forever?

>>40604517
Yeah, with the poor, outside of some old clans and their feuds, and the occasional individual of note, they won't be people the demons would look at to make a deal.

>>40604448
Ah, thanks.

>>40602976
I love this fluff. Keep going.

>>40604702
I figure the demons (or devils, if we're assuming DnD-style cosmology; these are the kinds that make contracts and deals rather than random destruction) have pretty strict rules on what they're able and unable to do. They can't interact with the mortal world directly unless summoned at specific times and places, and their contracts clearly state the price (although it's not their fault if the mortal doesn't read the fine print...). So they can't just show up and wreck everything.
Also, I'd imagine they have no desire to wreck everybody's shit. "helping" people in exchange of their souls, or the soul of every firstborn of their family is a better long-term strategy. In fact, they'd probably be the ones helping to make sure everything stays fucked up enough that people are willing to make deals with them, but not so fucked up that everybody dies.

>>40604560
Not as much as I used to in the past
I think I know what you're talking about, but I might not be getting the reference

>>40604702

They still aren't an actual part of our world; they're like a pissed off Idea overlayed onto the material world. You might feel it, but it can't do much to you.

When there was the big shakedown in the War, you had multiple demons unleashing so much power by forcing their way out of Hell it warped the continent, but now that they're here, they've found out that they're lacking a key element of actually doing shit in our world: bodies.

So they're hovering around their fettered bloodlines, taking their hate out on them, while scheming in different ways: some are trying to breed themselves a human body, some are manipulating communities into cults for influence, etc.

If there's one thing Demons have, it's time.

>>40604702
>>40604971
Also, while this would be a horror-inspired setting, I don't think it would be all fucked up all the time. Yes, the wilderness is a big swamp filled with both natural and supernatural dangers, and things are a lot worse than they were before the Great War, but most people living in the towns and cities would still have normal lives. Dealing with the supernatural beings would be quite common, if not publicly spoken of, but would probably mostly take form of relatively mundane things (making hex signs to ward off evil spirits, offering part of your cath to the swamp mermaids so they don't attack your fishermen, etc.). Old families with dark secrets and fiendish deals would be fairly common in the setting, but not every town has a mayor sacrifing newborn to devils and stuff.

>>40604702
Because they don't WANT to wreck everyone's shit forever. They LIKE things this way, with everyone owing them favors/souls/whatever, for their own nefarious ends.

>>40589034
Witches, fishpeople and elves.

God damn elves and their damn booze bootlegging and their silly little guitars.

>>40605025
Yes, it was Coke, if that's what you were thinking

>>40604702
And lose their supply of souls?
And source of amusement?

Generally they're not just sources of wanton destruction, wrecking everyone's shit (if they even can) has nothing on tempting and seducing

>>40604127
mmm not really.
Dire situations breed purity if nothing else, it's comfort that breeds corruption.

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>>40593418
If you're going to go with Dire Gators, go for Purussaurus.

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>>40606072
Why not Deinosuchus?

>>40606072
>>40606303
Why not both?

>>40600729
BBEG rides a gigantic ancient monster-catfish.

YES.

>>40600529
Amen

>>40605481
>Yes, it was Coke, if that's what you were thinking
Good, used to drink about three a day, not so anymore

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>>40606072
>>40606303

Read >>40593044. Now apply that to alligators.

Sure, there's some big gators down in the bayous. They grow 'em big down in the Southlands. But sometimes so much hate and bad juju seeps down under the muck that they come out bigger and meaner than any animal has a right to be.

Smart bastards. Mean ones. Gators with the Devil in 'em.

In other fantasy worlds you've got big majestic dragons. Here, you've got big meaty monsters made of muscle and jaws- and they could be right underneath you at almost any time.

>>40599767
In medieval Germany we already had tales of huge catfish monsters
They can get really big in reality too
My favourite fish probably

>>40593483

Ah, I remember Toadys revulsion.

Then I staretd next to seven dire badgers. Karma I guess.

>>40606755
Fuck, I mean there's a bulletproof serial killer crocodile in today's world, I'd hate to see what a magic-powered one would be like.

Mind you, that'd be a hell of a curse to wish upon someone, to be stalked by a beast more at home basking on the banks of the Styx, as long as a bus and with patience only a cold-blooded reptile can really have

>>40602976
fucking at least get your colloquialisms straight, otherwise, gj

>>40602976
What this guy should've done is made it seem like some sort of huge honor to be chosen to protect the town by giving themself to the swamp mermaid. Family gets some recompense for his Noble Sacrifice or whatever, pity change really for him but enough to sway the townsfolk.

>>40609020
I wrote the thing in five minutes, I'm not looking for perfect vernacular translation just the right kind of feel. Plus the stereotypical Southern accent comes from specific geographical region of the South and isn't shared by everyone.

>>40609177
That'd be great. Southern charismatic preaching combined with sin-eating and good old fashioned confidence tricks.

>>40599767
Those aren't just stories. Like others have said, given time and space a catfish will basically just never stop growing, same for a good portion of the carp family. The myth of maneating catfish is believed to be a result of people dumping corpses into large bodies of water, and the catfish being bottom feeders, learning to identify all humanoid shapes as corpses and thus food, prompting them to try and eat any humanoid they find in their waters.

>>40609423
just saying, if you're going for a southern feel, at least get it right so the actual southerns don't bitch you out. Like i mentioned before... good job regardless, even more so for a 5 min work.

also
>>40604348
>>40604448
that cannibalistic shit is mostly from the fucking rockies, stories like the Donner party are what most people recognize as in regards to cannibalism in the us, thanks to the appearance in popular media over the years. and those people did it out of desperation in dire situations for sustenance. eat your buddy or starve while freezing to death.

Although, admittedly, the practice of "breaking the bread" was a thing here in the Smokies for generations, and has never really received much media attention after the early part of the 20th century. It seems that the practice tends to be pretty much unknown for the most part, even in areas where it was openly practiced at one time.

For those that don't know, "Breaking the Bread" was a direct derivation from the Christian practice of the Lord's Supper. "Take this in remembrance of me". Except that those viewing the practice were not breaking bread to remember Jesus. The family would honor the dead relative by eating a portion of their flesh. The practice was largely abandoned in the early to mid 20th century when government record keeping and the standardization of burial regulations became more widespread. I know for fact that the practice still exists but it is seen as an "old timers" sort of tradition and is very rare now. Important to realize that this was not done for sustenance and while technically it is a cannibalistic ritual the practice is seen as deeply spiritual and highly sacred. Even the families that still practice save the rite for their most cherished loved ones. It is a highly secretive practice in modern times.

I just feel the need to point out that there are massive and distinct differences in rockies hillbillies and southern Appalachian hillbillies.

>>40599383

So....Baba Yaga of the new world, or maybe she's related to her.

>>40610181
I am an actual Southerner.

Plus the subsistence cannibalism by the stranded parties in the Rockies wasn't a case of "Winter's here, better kill and eat Dave." They would eat someone after they died naturally or would draw lots between themselves like sailors.

>ctrl + f
>Boo Hag
>0 results
i smell me some Yankees ITT

>>40610425
No one cares about the Gullah, especially not property developers.

>>40610425
I've lived in the South my whole life and have never heard of such.

>>40610325
never said either of those wasn't the case.

My apologies for implicating that you weren't an "actual southerner." The gripe I had with your little story stemmed from your spelling the contraction of "you" and "all". Y'all not ya'll. And no, that's not a regional differentiation. But I'm being autistic about the proper spelling of an idiom, so I guess that makes me an idiot really.

>>40589099
Sounds sexy as hel, especially if it's that coon ass accent.
Hello new subclass of fetish.

>>40610512
well THAT'S obvious
>>40610575
cool stories behind the Boo-Hags and Boo-Daddy's. You should look them up. What do you think the Witches' Keyhole is for at the top of the chimney in old plantation homes?

>>40610624
No, that's fair enough. I don't use or write y'all so I made a mistake.

>>40589577
>muh gators
Ain't got shit on a salt-water crocodile you damn pansy yanks, try taking one of those on.

>>40610643
Cajun snakegirls, anon. They like to cook fried shiken and hold festivals in the spring to celebrate the equinox, and their matriarchal society is based on woman's magic, and they live in buildings on stilts in the swamp, or on houseboats, so they have somewhere warm and dry to nest at night.

>>40610850
>Gator
>Southern animal
>"Yanks"

Wait, what?

>>40611210
Probably an Australian shitposting.

>>40611280

Pity poor ANZACistan. They still imagine they deserve two countries.

>>40598152
It's really not that bad (in Louisiana). Sure, we got 15 foot gar, and I've snagged 3 alligators while catfishing, and once a month I go down to the river and shoot Cottonmouths, and occasionally you find human bones rising up from the ground since there's at least 500 feet of clay soil between the surface and the bedrock almost everywhere, and it's totally possible to get killed by roving packs of wild pigs, and there's paddle boat casinos everywhere, and the law says you can carry any knife however you choose, so long as it's not an automatic opener, but none of it's that odd, is it?

>>40611428
...is Louisiana just a fucking post apocalyptic swamp wasteland?

>>40599590
That'd be how tiefling is supposed to be done. None of that "earning redemption bullshit.

>>40599784
The west could be populated with native American legends. Skinwalkers, spirits of the earth, thunderbirds, and Coyote in all his many forms, all actively fighting the encroachment of civilization. When the very grass reaches up to strangle you, you don't go somewhere.

>>40611280
>If it's not /pol/ it's Australia.
I believe it.

Back on topic: The Boo-Hag sounds pretty terrifying, but if they do it in your sleep you just wake up a little tired? At first I thought that was pretty lame, but in the context of the setting I could see it having a pretty ghastly effect. The population of a little hamlet being drained husks of their real selves, constantly being forced to feed the hags. They aren't entirely sure of what happens at night, and they did discover the broom trick, but whoever ends up using it always ends up with some unfortunate event befalling them. The exhaustion is just something they've resigned themselves to. Meanwhile the hags ward the village to keep the lethal creatures away from their food source, giving everyone a reason to stay.

Now I'm imaging a skinless woman howling and scratching at a mucker that tried eating one of its favoured young fisherman that came home after dark. After hearing the screams, and hearing the story from the young man covered in blood that isn't all his own, people make sure to hurry home before the sun goes down.

>>40611743
That's a pretty good direction for them to go in. Boo-hags with their own "rabbit pen". That's kinda trippy. Don't overlook the skinwalker aspect of those bitches. They can alter appearance as need arises.

>>40611476
St. Charles LA reporting in.
Yes, yes it is.

>>40603768
...but we do have Confederate occultists and big tittied swamp women, which is close. Come to Louisiana.

>>40603995
We still have them. The casinos have to do all of their actual gambling on them.

>>40611000
Sounds sexy as hell. I hallucinated a lamia cuddling me last time I dropped acid, too. If only.... Not like there's many swamps in this part of Louisiana, though.

I'm shreveport. There's a distinct lack of werewolves here.

>>40611476
And me, the one you replied to, in shreveport, as north as you can get in our state, and yes, it basically is. Like, fallout with super corrupt politicians.
And flooding now.

>>40613174
>There's a distinct lack of werewolves here.
>Cajun werewolf girls
I'm fine with this also

>>40613572
I was just referencing TruBlood. I moved here in 2010, and was sorta hoping there'd be a pack. I know it's not real, but I still keep hoping.

>>40592537
>Crocodilian lizardfolk
>crocodilian
>lizard

By definition, being one precludes being the other.

>>40590290
>You got your crossroad deals
>Not Voodoo

Papa Legba frowns upon your stupidity.

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>>40589034
Man, I'm getting this horrifying image of a fey run southern manor house. The entire thing is staffed by human slaves and all the happiness in slavery tropes? They're completely accurate here.

>>40604127
40Kids go and stay go.

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>>40589338
>Elf girls with southern-belle accents running around in Daisy Dukes.

I really love the whole Fantasy Americana aspect of this. Does anyone have any good ideas of where to find more of it?

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>>40590848
>>40589338
>>40614278
>>40614401
Elven Southern Belles

> Well, Miss Springrunner! And how is the fairest flower of the South?
>Senator Starbreeze, that's the prettiest thing been said to me since I left Louisiana. I sure been gettin' pow'ful homesick.
>She sure is getting pow'ful Southern.
>I do declare...

>>40599802
>>40599624
>>40599784

I've lived in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. And as a Yankee I got more respect than most Texans did from the locals. They got the "Bless your Heart" treatment. Probably because they understood my deep loathing hatred for Ohio, being from Michigan. I wouldn't consider Texas the Deep South. That's everything east of the Mississippi. South? sure, but not THE south.

Fun fact, Sam Houston advocated against leaving the Union, and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. He was quietly "retired" over that.

>>40611990
>>40613204
Oh, you know what we forgot to mention? The mother fucking mahogany wasps.

I dunno what they're really called, but these fucks are 3 inches long, fast as hell, and more territorial than anything with an exoskeleton has a right to be. I've heard of one chasing someone for a quarter mile. Their only redeeming trait is that they're solitary nesters, so you don't have to worry about hives.

>>40615104
>you don't have to worry about hives.
Here, at least.

There's also some wasps that are very good at recognising faces, and that's not at all horrifying

>>40615229
>There's also some wasps that are very good at recognising faces, and that's not at all horrifying
Yes it bloody well is!

>>40615104
>>40615229
Stop making me absolutely terrified holy shit

>>40615293
What he Bloody Well Said!

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>>40615259
>>40615229
Most bees can too..
They naturally go for the face, especially the eyes, on any animal when they're/their hive is attacked.

>>40615229

Wasps are small-time.

Yellowjackets are the true evil

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>>40615333
>They naturally go for the face, especially the eyes, on any animal when they're/their hive is attacked.

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>>40615336

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>>40615380

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>>40615401
For comparison to a bee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1eAM8CChc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNqzNJVA0w

>>40615004

As a Texan, we should have listened to him. The Confederacy did shit-all for us overall. So fuck the South.

Archived, http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/40589034/

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>>40615336
Those are just types of wasp

>>40615380
These are worse - they prey on tarantulas, and have the second most painful sting of any insect, after the Bullet ant.

And they can be found in the US

>>40615437
Yeah, the North effectively blockaded Texas on the Mississippi and made them irrelevant real quick. Only a few Texan units actually saw combat because they got over the river before the blockade was set up.

It was probably good for Texas too, they didn't have to deal with carpetbaggers and other post-war shenanigans. I had family on both sides of the war, so reunions are cray-cray.

>>40615484
Oh look, it is the insect the cazadore was based on.

>>40615004
>deep loathing hatred for ohio

But ohio is where cedar point, kalahari and the drew carey show were from, as a michigander you must realize how shitty Michigan is when ohio is our go to vacation place.

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>>40615484
I live in Arizona, I've seen bigger ones.

Thankfully they are quite timid.

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>>40615380
I saw one of those last summer in Nikko. I thought it was a bird at first. Then I noticed the yellow and decided on a different path.

>CTRL-F "kudzu"
>no results

This shit would be in your fantasy world. As an inexorable, creeping destruction that cannot be eradicated, only temporarily discouraged by aggressive application of fire. Eventually, it will carpet the entire realm in a suffocating blanket of green.

>>40615336
Well, the ones we're talking about are paper wasps, according to the orkin website, though they say it's a social nester, which I haven't personally seen.

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>>40615526

>>40615518
You're supposed to bypass ohio and head to Kentucky.

>>40615518
Eh? Tired of the UP? I'd rather go to the middle of bumfuck Wisconsin before I'd go to Ohio.

>disclaimer: ex-Minnesotan

>>40615567
Ohio does apparently have the best raves in the US, if that's your thing.

>>40615539
And we don't really notice kudzu because all of the plant life around here does that.

>>40615539
Kudzu was brought in from japan right or am I thinking of something else?
Anyone know what year?

>>40615596
Kudzu is from Africa, I think

>>40615608
But it's not the first time I've been wrong, and it won't be the last. Brought from Japan for the 1876 continental exposition

>>40615596
>>40615608
>Kudzu was introduced to the United States as an ornamental bush and an effortless and efficient shade producer at the Philadelphia Continental Exposition in 1876. In the 1930s and '40s, the vine was rebranded as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. Southern farmers were given about eight dollars an hour to sow topsoil with the invasive vine. The cultivation covered over one million acres of kudzu

Nothing like a little Monday-morning quarterbacking. But I guess they're working on ways to turn that shit into biofuel.

It's from asia. The name comes from "kuzu" which is the Japanese name for it. (Japanese arrowroot)

>>40615585

Or maroon one's self on Mackinac Island.

Fuck, I'd rather take a boat to Isle Royale in the middle of November than go to ohio.

>>40615526
Bigger wasps?
Fuck no.

Arizona's way out west for the Deep South, right?

>>40615667
Yea, and too dry for most of the aggressive ones.

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>>40615667
It is. Arizona and New Mexico is where all the spaghetti westerns that claim to take place in Texas/Oklahoma are filmed.

Arizona is Australia Jr. when it comes to wildlife and environment. Pictured. What we use to kill wasps in Arizona.

>when things went tits-up in the South, one side effect was haphazard mutation of its residents.
>perhaps it was an expression of a touched bloodline, perhaps it was simply reflecting something in their nature, but some people became what we'd likely call Elves- tall and lanky, with too-perfect faces that make them all look as if they're wearing particularly detailed identical masks.
>they appeared in many of the upper class families. Though still treated with suspicion, elves are considered a sign of "good breeding" in a family.
>then again, there are those who say that people don't become Elves- they just get replaced by them...

Mountain illithids!

Or maybe they'd be from the north...

>>40615725
>strangely, elves appeared in great numbers amongst Native American populations, where many are respected warriors.
>of course, there were other "touched" people; there's rumors of twisted, deformed people with too many teeth gone feral out in the hills, whose ravenous appetites and impartial palates lead them to devour any type of meat they get their hands on.

>now, none of them like to talk about it, but those cannibalistic hill men and your standard gentleman Elves are one in the same. Like pigs, an Elf not in a domestic situation or seat of power quickly grows wild to suit their position.
>those blood-crazed hillbillies are just those from poor families who happened to become Elves.

>>40615838
Honestly, I'd rather not have elves in the setting at all. They don't fit with the general theme of decay we've been building. There's plenty of other unnatural ways for individuals to live longer, that are more twisted and fit with the "house of gold, built upon rotting pilings"

someone is going to need to make a new thread soon, this one is dying

>>40616053

Somebody copy all the ideas from here into an OP

>>40616099
It's been archived.

New thread >>40616324

>>40615638
Yeah, the south's environment is really similar to SE China and Japan, so plants from there readily grow here wild when introduced. Plenty of flower species and things.