Ourworld

Ourworld is a collaborative effort between Peter, Nat, Dan, Daniel, Mal and Craig.

[This is a work in progress. Names & ideas are not yet finalised!]

Peter's Contribution:

Keltoi

The Keltoi

The History of the Keltoi

The ancient history of the Keltoi tells of the great ships of their ancestors coming ashore at what is now Caenid Bealach (Caenid Bay). From across the seas a great fleet hove to, crudely hewn ships crewed by a young and savage race with pinkish skin and wild red hair. They wear brass and war paint and bear strange designs upon their flesh. They sing harsh war songs and drink heavily. They wish to fight and kill and take the ancient lands from Laideann. This unwashed horde is led by GWYDDNO the Dog-Bull, leader of the Sons of the Dawn Tide who wishes to spread his people and his new beliefs to these shores. These warlike men took most of the land off the fat and rich Laideann Empire, a decadent and ancient people whose armies could not stand up to the lean and hungry Keltoi. Even as their marble cities burned, the Laideann held orgies and went about their corpulent ways. The Keltoi’s gutting and looting of Laideann drove the conquered into the northeastern pocket of the continent where the Keltoi let them languish in the steaming northern jungles.

Keltoi Spiritualism

The Keltoi do not formally worship any gods but they have a deep tradition of ancestor worship and revere the forces of nature. Most of their gods and demi-gods are mythical heroes. There are ancient tales of great Keltoi heroes being summoned from the spirit realms to help them in their times of greatest need. Their druids, who aren't religious in the strictest sense act as advisors, magistrates and sages and are greatly respected.

The Republic

Recently, from pressure groups in the capital and public opinion polls, the Kingdom has been dissolved and a Republic put in its place. King CINÁED abdicated and was quickly voted back as President Cinaed with very little diminished power but a Senate to answer to.

Keltoi Magitech

The Keltoi have a certain aptitude with magic and the harnessing of it for mechanical purposes. They utilise flame lances in war, and have great elemental turbines for that power their industrial machines. Their alchemical guns are feared and renowned. The three principal cities of the Republic are joined by a train network. Cities are filled with glowlamps and the rich and powerful are protected by guardian constructs. Even the poorest dockworker has glimpsed the mighty and terrifying iron juggernauts that lurk deep beneath the sea. Because their machines are powered by magic, not fossil fuels, Keltoi cities are surprisingly clean and hygienic and if the air is sometimes filled with static, then nobody complains. This wondrous magitech is restricted to the main cities on the east coast, and many a poor or provincial man has never glimpsed such things.

The Keltoi People

The Keltoi (both plural and singular) are a fair-skinned race with heights averaging 5’5-5’10. Their hair colours vary from black to almost blond, though a reddish brown is the commonest. A redhead is considered lucky. Eye colour also varies from brown to blue to green. They are a fierce people who are proud of their warrior tradition but have recently begun a period of enlightenment and self-reflection. The Republic’s inter-clan wars have almost stopped, though in the southern frontiers it is a different story. Other races consider them upstarts but cannot deny their spirit and drive. They are interested in the sciences, particular alchemy, which has aided their culture immensely in many fields. At peace, a Keltoi may hunt or fish or read or compose poetry or work at his trade as he wishes, though if there is a call to war, he will drop his farming tools and take up weapons to defend his home. Traditionally the Keltoi utilize claymores and various polearms, especially lochaber axes but in recent conflicts, the arquebus and field cannon have also seen use on the field. They tend towards the lighter armours since they prefer a more mobile warfare and the advent of alchemical guns has reinforced that point. The use of arcane magic on the battlefield is generally frowned upon and since the Agreement of Dun Hader, certain magics such as evocations are forbidden. This restriction however is not extended to non-Keltoi.

Racial Traits

Keltoi are humans and gain the standard human bonuses. They gain 1 extra skill point per level and an extra feat at level one. They consider firearms martial weapons.

Alignment

Keltoi cover the entire spectrum of human behaviour. However, very broadly, the average citizen of the Republic might be neutral or lawful neutral. They respect tradition and their clan and many quarrels are solved in duels.

The Leagues of Druids

Druids (D&D wizards) tend to group into small clubs and collectives for their own mutual benefit, though they are not obliged to, and sometimes meet for councils to vote on important matters at the yearly Wizardmoot. While technically subservient to the central government, they are given nearly unlimited autonomy in matters pertaining to wizardry and all matters arcane including magical transport, trade, penalties for misuse, registration, membership fees and such. The wizards are all terribly British about everything and vote on everything and generally don't get a lot done, though they do drink a lot of fortified wines and discuss obscure personal philosophies and literature. Once every 30 months the shamans from the tribes meet. autumn or spring equinox, and yes, the only contact between the countries is via the "councils of the wise". The shamans have asked their brother wizards to keep the knowledge of "the peoples" from the humans as a whole Examples of the more populous groups of druids include:

• The League of Reasonable Men • The Gentleman’s Society • The Rationalist Club • Reform Club • Society for Advancement of Literary Awareness • The Oak Club

The vast majority of members are wizards, though any class is welcome. However, to be on the small council or the council of elders, you have to be a wizard. The most appropriate prestige classes are Archmage, Loremaster and Guildmage.

How the Keltoi see the other races:

Ailokim: The Keltoi do not understand the Ailokim. An old race, they are long-lived but frail, cowardly hiding behind their considerable magics and their Umberkim slaves.

Dwarves: The Keltoi have little contact with the Dwarves and their only real contact is in the trade of weapons of war and metals.

Goliaths: Few Keltoi know anything accurate about the Goliaths. Due to their inaccessibility, the paucity of resources and their reclusive nature, Keltoi usually ignore their existence. The druids have some contact with them at the Moots, but that is almost the entire extent of their contact.

Laideann:

Lizardmen: The Keltoi consider these creatures, when they think of them at all, as nothing more than animals. If they ever hinder Keltoi development, they are slaughtered en masse.

Northern City States The Keltoi see the Northerners as too clever by half. They see their constant political maneouvering as frivolous and uncivilised and tolerate them only because of their strong trade ties.

Summer Islanders While culturally alien to the Islanders, the Keltoi have an odd respect for the laid back folk of the Summer Isles. While they consider them lazy, they also respect their innate egalitarian natures and generous hospitality.

Teleri (Sea Elves): The Keltoi have a grudging respect for the Teleri because of their skill in naval warfare and magic. They dearly wish to discover the secret of their enchanted ships and have offered preposterous sums of money to attain it, in order to ‘explore’ the western hemisphere.

Umberkim The Keltoi have little contact with the slave race beholden to the Ailokim. They keep a respecful distance in their conflicts, preferring to shoot them at range. However, in recent times, there has been no great trouble with the Ailokim so the Umberkim are distant from their minds.

How Other Races see the Keltoi:

Teleri: The Teleri have a long history of trade with the Keltoi as one of the few civilized Empires on Erland trading knowledge, magic, Teleri jewelry and anything which happens to be around. While some of the elders in The City have reservations about their “explorations”, most see them as good source of money and civilized pleasures.

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Northern City States

The Northern City States are a loose collection of states covering a geographically small but politically and economically powerful area. As the name suggests, they are a group of city states which are clustered around a great river. They bicker and fight amongst themselves constantly and always vie for the upperhand in their endless trade wars and political manoeuverings. The princial cities in the area are:

Talic Theocracy

Led by the High Priest Lucius, the Theocracy dominates the Law and culture. There is significant prejudice against people who are not of the church and priests are given fair leeway in their activities, e.g., they don’t pay taxes. Lucius is a relatively conservative, academic, reasonable man with no head for politics and intrigue, preferring to delve into complex issues of doctrine, which is precisely why the Council of Priests elected him. He does not rock the boat and generally agrees on whatever the Priests put forth. Father Talis is the head of the investigation into church corruption and is a dour, soft-spoken and introverted fellow. He is quietly ruthlessly efficient and has enough ‘information’ on various priests and lay officials to keep them in line, whether it’s true or not. He of course justifies this for the ‘continued stability of the church’. He is capable of quite monstrous acts in the name of his faith and continues his crusade against corruption and evil with a kind of calm and calculating fanaticism. Even when directly ordered not to do something, he will twist the intent and do it anyway, completely convinced that he knows better. He never loses sleep over his deeds because of his utter conviction of his beliefs. He has never been implicated in his deeds because of his scrupulous and almost anally retentive planning, though many people have a vaguely uneasy feeling about him.

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This section is Dan's. Ailokim

This section is Nat's

Goliaths

The Goliaths

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History The history of the goliaths is something of a mystery, since few other races paid them much heed, and since they do not mark time on a calendar as such, meaning that their oral histories do not say “in 1328 Akmenhe defeated the Red hand tribes” instead recording it as “it was a harsh winter the year Akmenhe, son of Uhnamen the squirrel brother, defeated the red hand tribes”. What can be safely surmised is that they have been inhabiting the great northern plains for more than a thousand years , because many of there stories refer to the time “before the corruption fell from the skies”, referring to , of course, the fall of the meteorites that marked the coming of the abominations over 11 hundred years ago.

Religion The goliaths do not worship gods per se, instead paying homage to a series of “totems” with each tribe and individual, having a totem, which acts as heir intermediary to the world of the spirits. While most people feel at some level in touch with the whispers from their own totem, through dreams and omens, the opinions of tribal shamans, who act as healer/councilor/advisor are often sought, especially when the omens are hard to interpret

The Moots

Once every 18 months, on alternating winter and summer solstices the shamans of the various tribes travel to the shores of the inland sea, to hold meeting to discuss goings on.

Goliath technology The goliaths can best be described as Neolithic, using stone tools for the vast majority of their endeavors. The live for the most part in conical tents made from titanotherium or other hides, wear treated animal hides for clothing and use weapons made from wood or stone. Although they will trade with other races for jewelry, especially prizing teleri filigree , few make appropriately sized tools for the goliaths, so the goliaths have little interest in them.

The Goliath People The Goliath are a dark-skinned race, ranging from a slate grey , through brown to an almost red, with distinct bands of differing pigmentation around the face and chest. They tower over the other races with heights averaging 6’10-7’6 being the norm. In addition to their great stature they are powerfully built, with massive shoulders and muscular arms and legs. Their hair colour is invariably a bluish black and very thick and straight... In many ways the most striking feature of the goliaths is their eyes, whose irises range in colour from gold, green, hazel, blue, red and violet. What makes their eyes particularly striking, however, is that both the iris and “whites” of their eyes vary in colour drastically depending on the goliath in question’s mood. This means that anyone familiar with goliaths gains a +4 on any sense motive checks involving the giants.

They are quiet people who are proud of their traditions, many of which seem odd to other races. One of the most important traditions that they uphold is the principal of “non-violence” (it should be noted here that their conception of such isn’t quite what other races might mean by the term, they are also a somewhat “rough and tumble” race). The Goliaths inhabit a harsh land, filled with many potential dangers (aberrations for instance) the summers are lean, and the winters are vicious. As a result of these many dangers, goliaths are all too aware how dangerous life can be, and go to great lengths not to perform any action that would place another in greater danger. One example of how this manifests is in their approach to tribal warfare (they are peaceful people, not living saints). When two tribes come into conflict, say, over a hunting ground both feel they are entitled to hunt upon, then a “war” often ensues. These wars , however, are fought with non lethal weapons; bare fists, crops and nets. Those rendered unconscious, caught in nets or even tripped by the crops consider themselves to have been “defeated” and withdraw from the conflict. Such a withdrawal brings with it a great sense of shame, however, which leads to another tradition of the goliaths.

Goliaths are very touchy about their “honour” (which for them means something along the lines of “being a productive member of society”) anything that detracts from their honour causes them great anxiety , which the will go to great lengths to assuage. The strongest action a goliath can take in this realm is to publicly announce that they will work of an obligation they have amassed, either setting a length of time, or some discreet task (such as digging a well or some such) . The causes of this might be a man who had a broken leg, who was cared for by others, or a warrior defeated in battle. In this last case, the debt is usually (read: always) paid to the victor or the victor’s tribe. This results in what might appear to outsiders to be slavery, but is in fact voluntary on the part of the “slave” , and if one was to call it slavery to a goliath, they would fist be confused, and then offended and outraged at the affront.

Another area that probably deserves some mention is the fact that the goliath’s plains have the highest incidence of abominations in the world. This is due for the most part to the fact that the greatest number of meteorites from the meteor shower 11 hundred years ago that brought the abominations fell on or around the goliath lands. The goliaths are a people who regard themselves as caretakers of the natural world, and , as such, hunt down mercilessly all the abominations that exist within their lands.

Traditionally the Goliaths utilize weapons appropriate to their hunter/gatherer lifestyles, bows with flint tipped arrows (or obsidian where they can get it) spears, stone knives and axes. These last require some description, as they are, for all that they are made from stone, finely crafted tools. Surprisingly sharp, and balanced for throwing, they are an excellent multi purpose tool. In addition , however, many of them feature a small bowel on the reverse of the blade, and a hollow haft, allowing them to double as pipes for the communal or ritual smoking of tobacco. Another implement that requires some discussion is the totem pole. The shamans carve two sorts of totem poles. The first is the pole that serves as a religious focus of a whole village or tribe, the other is the pole that serves as a focus for the shaman’s “personal” totem his bond with the spirit world. These poles are often intricately carved, and are of works of art in their own right, and serve as something of a badge of office for the shamans. It should be noted , however, that shamans are not above using these spiritual icons as tools of destruction should the need arise... Indeed, as one foolish Keltoi explorer was heard to say while recovering onboard a ship en rout back to XXXX “He hit me… with a tree!”

As far as protective devices go, Goliaths will wear leather, re-enforced leather, hide, bone and wooden armours. There are a few family heirloom suits of stone-plate that exist, but they are rare to say the least. In war they will utilize leather tower shields for protection.

How the Goliaths see the other races:

Ailokim: the Goliaths know little to nothing of the Ailokim, save a few stories learned through the dwarves and from the Keltoi Druids, and these stories, containing as they do tales of slavery of an entire race, and the slaughter of children for crimes not yet committed, appalls them more than they can express.

Dwarves: The Goliaths are politely standoffish to the dwarves, assuming that if the “stunted folk of the mountains” wished closer relations, then they would come out of their caverns and say so. Since they have not the goliaths assume they wish to be left alone, and respect their wishes. The exception to this is the Dwarves of the lonely Mountain, who are united with the tribes around them in their ongoing struggles against abominations, and this shared foe has led to closer relations, extending to limited interaction and a certain amount of barter.

Keltoi: Few Goliaths know anything accurate about the Keltoi. Due to their fact that the Keltoi have made little effort to visit the northern continent. The druids have some contact with them at the Moots, but that is almost the entire extent of their interaction. It should be noted that the councils of the wise have requested their brother druids to not advertise the existence of the goliaths to the Keltoi, for they are a peoples that prefer to live today as they did last yesterday, and one thing that is obvious about the “little folk not as small as the mountain folk” is that they are agents of change

Laideann: The Laideann are unknown to the goliaths

Lizardmen: The Goliaths have little contact with the Lizardmen, but what contact they have is surprisingly peaceful. This is in no small part due to the fact that the two cultures religions have much overlap, and due to the fact that all shamans must venture into the rain wilds in order to find the tree that will serve as their first totem pole. This necessity means that the council of the wise has gone to great lengths to develop peaceful relations with the lizard men Teleri: The Goliaths do not have much contact with the Sea Gypsies, not having any ports where they would come to trade. That being said, the Sea elves do land on the rough shores of he great plains to make repairs or re stock water casks. When this occurs local tribes will eagerly trade for teleri goods, prizing especially he jewelry that the Goliaths marvel at, for its delicacy almost as much as its beauty.

Northern City States these people are not known to the goliaths

Summer Islanders these people are not known to the goliaths

Umberkim The mere mention of these pitiable folk will reduce a goliath to quiet tears, for the conception that any sentient , anywhere , could enslave an entire race, is so mind bendingly wrong that the goliaths experience it as personal shame

How Other Races see the goliaths: Feel free to fill this out guys Goblinoids_and_surrounds

The Goblin Lands and the Serpent Archipelago

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The archipelago is what remains of the once mighty continent of “Bhendia” which sank into the sea over a thousand years ago. The culture was Indian/south east asian with a religion much like Hindu/Buddhism. They had rigid caste system which was as follows

Brahman :Priests Kshatriya: ruler, warrior, landowner Shudra: artisans, agriculturalists Vaishya: merchants Harijan :"outside" the caste system

The Harijan was almost entirely made up of Goblinoid slaves of the Naga and Yuan’ti who formed the bulk of the society. When the continent sank into the sea, the Goblinoids were lead to freedom by a figure who became their first Emperor, and once free of the oppression of the snake peoples, promptly set about recreating the culture with the Hobgoblins as the Brahmin and Kshatriya , the bugbears as the agriculturalists and the goblins as the artisans, Vaishya and Harijan… It just sucks to be a Goblin.

The Goblinoids still come into frequent contact with the degenerate remnants of the snake peoples, however, slithering amongst the stone ruins of their once mighty temple cities. The most salient aspect of the Goblinoids is the Kshatriya caste’s approach to war, indeed to conflict of any kind. They spend huge amounts of time mastering the use of the composite shortbow which they use from the back of war chariots, and the various polearms that they use when the melee has begun.Instead of the +4 on hide and move checks, hobgoblins gain +1 to hit with any polearm with which they are proficient Goblin weapons Composite short bow Sword gauntlet Katar Glaive Trident Ranseur Trident Nagamaki Naginata Vajra (1d6, x2, 1lbs, piercing) Goblin armours Footman’s (+3,+5,-1, 15%,light,20lbs) Leather Scale Lamelar vest (+5 , +3, -4, 30%,medium,35lbs) Lamelar and laced scale (+7,+2, -6, 40%,heavy, 45lbs)

Goblins have very little in the way of decent metal in their lands, and have established rudimentary trade with the Dwarves to obtain high quality metal armours.

How the Goblins see other races

Goliaths : The Goblins pay the Goliaths little official heed, proclaiming boldly that any culture that has not mastered the use of the wheel deserves no notice. That being said they are very polite when crossing goliath lands to trade with the dwarves of the lonely mountain…

Dwarves: The goblinoids would dearly like to look down their collective noses at the stunted folk, but the dwarve’s craftmenship of weapons and mastery of metallurgy forces a certain dour respect from the islanders.

Lizardmen : The lizardmen have very little to do with the Goblins, but they remind the goblens just a little too much of their ancient enemies for the goblins to ever reguard them any more warmly than with paranoic hostility

Teleri : The Goblins histories say that when cursed Bvendia sank beneath the waves of the turquoise sea, it was the Teleri that ferried the Goblin folk to their new home in arcourdance with a pact made between the teleri and the first emperor , Jimmu. Weather this was actually the case or not, the Goblinoids regard the Teleri with a slightly simpering awe.

Other than these folk, the Goblinoids have vertualy no contact with any other peoples, being somewhat isolationist in outlook.

Dwarves

The Dwarves of the World Spine Mountains, and the Lonely Mountain.

The first, last and most important fact about the Dwarves: they have no soul. All other things flow from this fact. A Dwarf is an animated Dwarven body, to speak otherwise is to lie. What then animates a dwarven body? His name. An unnamed Dwarf is a corpse, and that is really all there is to say on the matter.

This has some rather serious ramifications for the mountain folk. Most notably they canot be ressurected , for this involves finding a soul which has fled its earthly home and entreating it to take up residence once more, and since there is no resident to appeal to, no resurrection may be had. Indeed, any magic that requires a Dwarves’ consciousness to function independently from his body (such as astral projection for instance) will, quite simply, fail. There are also more subtle ramifications of the Dwarves' unity of mind and body, not least of which is a Dwarves' extreme difficulty dealing with, or indeed even understanding , abstraction.

See Also

Ourworld
Societies	Keltoi, Laideann, Ailokim, Teleri, Goliaths, Goblinoids_and_surrounds, Dwarves, Orcs, Ashlands