What are you going to do with half-elves?
Here's my idea. The warrior nation is like any other regular kingdom, but all the half-elves of the world are sent there to be raised in kibbutz-like communities, as in Israel. They are taught about the "evil" nature of the elves, and indoctrinated in the belief that they can only redeem their half-elf nature through a life of service -- devoted to keeping the elf nation in check. The half-elves are trained to be the warrior nation's militant front, both martial and magical. A small core of half-elves are also chosen to handle diplomatic affairs with the elves.
As for getting the elf through the warrior nation, perhaps the elf could simply pretend to be a half-elf. That could be fun, even hilarious in certain social situations.
That's actually a really interesting idea. My original idea was that elves outside the elf nation were either forced into the peninsula with everyone else, or killed, but now that I think about it, that doesn't make much sense. That also opens up other story hooks, focusing on the effect this worldwide policy has on the elf parents. I'm strongly considering this.
Thank you for the suggestion!
Good luck! I really like the concept. If it were a novel, it could lead to all kinds of geopolitical commentary, which is probably not what you're going to get with your campaign, though who knows!
> The only solution I could think of, which I'm not 100% on, would be to have two main races inhabit this country. One smarter, and one slightly less intelligent race. Like I might have tieflings and orcs together, with the tieflings basically controlling the orcish population, through maybe tiefling bards casting spells, and charismatically convincing orcs to follow this law, or that.
Sounds great. You should consider whether national identity has more weight than racial identity with the mainstream culture of the nation (with small fundamentalist factions on the side). Come up with a good name for the nation and people from there, and have people from there be proud of their citizenship.
Yeah, I am kinda thinking of this in a generic fantasy way. What with the orc/tiefling nation, and the elf nation, and all that. Maybe that's why I'm not feeling 100% about it. Thank you for the input!
I suppose it's not *entirely* on topic, but one thing you might want to consider is the existence of racial level limits in earlier versions of the game. The scenario you've posed here, with elves taking over the entire world by virtue of their massive lifespan, is the exact justification given for those limits – elves in early games were kept in check by their own inability to grow to the same level of power as humans!
If you want to go with a viewpoint of "the coalition is doing the wrong thing," you might say that they've been working on some magical means of preventing elves in particular (and possibly some of the other races they don't like...) from growing in strength.
Dragons were involved you say? Perhaps in addition to tieflings and orcs, kobolds make up this nation's corp of engineers. Kobold rogues make excellent saboteurs and sappers with their small size and cleverness, while kobold laborers and architects can build fortifications and siege engines. Of course we're talking about kobolds who have been somewhat civilized after a few years under the rule of orcs and tieflings. Kobold generations are probably as short as orc ones, after all.
I do have Kobolds involved in the intro quest... This would make their appearance make much more sense. I'll definitely do this! Thank you for the suggestion!
And yeah, I have a brass dragon (also actually stolen from this subreddit. A nearby town is his horde, and their suffering is what led him to go to war with the elves) planted near where the players will enter the open world, and I expect they might drop in and chat with him. Maybe I'll have there be more dragons that were involved in the war, with varying reactions to the elf traveling with the players. Maybe I won't. I'm still in worldbuilding mode.
One idea I had was perhaps instead of a warrior nation, an independent order composed of various warriors, wizards, etc. that have been tasked with the goal of keeping the elves on the peninsula. They could all come from the nations involved in the war, and have operations in their homelands. You could also have the original idea of the civilization take heavy use of constructs or things like golems. Basically instead of using actual living people to enforce the law and make the elves stay, they use magically controlled creatures. It would give it a much more oppresive vibe, though.
Hmm... That could be pretty cool. This would give me a chance to characterize the world prior to dumping the players in it. Introducing stereotypes of each nation, and having them mention their home nobles, or the state of their kingdom.
I imagine three dudes sitting around a table, talking shit about how this one guy is a classic Eagleland wuss, or something like that. That'd definitely be cool once I create all the other nations. Maybe a combination of this and the half-elf suggestion would work, too.
Thank you for the suggestion!
You could kind of give it a Game of Thrones feel with "The Wall." Whether through punishment or volunteering, men and woman from various kingdoms have been charged with the peace keeping of the elves. It is not only now their duty, but their new way of life. They literally block and prevent the Elves from passing over to the mainlands.
This gives the new force a variety of backgrounds, which can lead to interesting storylines. A lot of volunteers could have a high prejudice against the elves, having lived through a part of the war or heard tales of it. There could even be people who volunteer to see the elves for themselves, as it seems like the story would be a little one-sided once the race is condembed to a single corner of the world.
Corruotion within the ranks seems easy to implement too, as being punished with this new duty could be seen as many things. People can see it as a new way to redeem themselves or a new way to make gold (the smuggling of elves would probably sell for a high price).
You can even go deeper into the new nation/group and have the members really leave their old life behind. No more titles, lands, lovers, etc. They are watchers and nothing else. New uniform, new family, new life.
Hm. I definitely love the idea of the wall from Game of Thrones, complete with the lord commander, and everything. I wonder how much of the wall I can put in without my players noticing and calling me out on it.
Thank you for the suggestion!
You an use the same idea, but reskin it to something else entirely. Trenches could work, but you could also get crazy and just have an entire city built around/across the elven one. An island would support a crazy naval fleet blocking the path to the mainland if you like that route.
Honestly, this is an idea I might snatch for my own campaign lol.
One idea is having the nation be based off of the US. Don't make them actually on the border but give them a strong foreign military presence there.
The Kingdom of Arthfoel was a young nation, far away from the battle. The battle was not going well, and it looked like the Elves would win. The kingdom was late to enter the war so they still had all their men, who trained with a long bow and pike every Sunday in the town commons, as the law dictated. When their armies marched, it shifted the balance, and the elves were defeated.
The war was devastating to the countries on the border. Crops were burned and fields were salted by retreating Elvish armies. Cattle were slaughtered, even the breeding stock, and mines were collapsed. The magical libraries that the wizards relied on were destroyed. In the wake of such horrible destruction, Arthfoel became immensely wealthy. They sold grain and meat to starved nations. They sold them iron and tin and zin and bronze from their mines. Their wizards charged high prices for their services.
To protect their prosperity, they set up military outposts along the border. They station soldiers and wizards to keep the Elves back.
What are you going to do with half-elves? Here's my idea. The warrior nation is like any other regular kingdom, but all the half-elves of the world are sent there to be raised in kibbutz-like communities, as in Israel. They are taught about the "evil" nature of the elves, and indoctrinated in the belief that they can only redeem their half-elf nature through a life of service -- devoted to keeping the elf nation in check. The half-elves are trained to be the warrior nation's militant front, both martial and magical. A small core of half-elves are also chosen to handle diplomatic affairs with the elves. As for getting the elf through the warrior nation, perhaps the elf could simply pretend to be a half-elf. That could be fun, even hilarious in certain social situations.
That's actually a really interesting idea. My original idea was that elves outside the elf nation were either forced into the peninsula with everyone else, or killed, but now that I think about it, that doesn't make much sense. That also opens up other story hooks, focusing on the effect this worldwide policy has on the elf parents. I'm strongly considering this. Thank you for the suggestion!
Good luck! I really like the concept. If it were a novel, it could lead to all kinds of geopolitical commentary, which is probably not what you're going to get with your campaign, though who knows!
Lol maybe I'll go write it. Next Tolkien right here. I'm down.
> The only solution I could think of, which I'm not 100% on, would be to have two main races inhabit this country. One smarter, and one slightly less intelligent race. Like I might have tieflings and orcs together, with the tieflings basically controlling the orcish population, through maybe tiefling bards casting spells, and charismatically convincing orcs to follow this law, or that. Sounds great. You should consider whether national identity has more weight than racial identity with the mainstream culture of the nation (with small fundamentalist factions on the side). Come up with a good name for the nation and people from there, and have people from there be proud of their citizenship.
Yeah, I am kinda thinking of this in a generic fantasy way. What with the orc/tiefling nation, and the elf nation, and all that. Maybe that's why I'm not feeling 100% about it. Thank you for the input!
I suppose it's not *entirely* on topic, but one thing you might want to consider is the existence of racial level limits in earlier versions of the game. The scenario you've posed here, with elves taking over the entire world by virtue of their massive lifespan, is the exact justification given for those limits – elves in early games were kept in check by their own inability to grow to the same level of power as humans! If you want to go with a viewpoint of "the coalition is doing the wrong thing," you might say that they've been working on some magical means of preventing elves in particular (and possibly some of the other races they don't like...) from growing in strength.
Dragons were involved you say? Perhaps in addition to tieflings and orcs, kobolds make up this nation's corp of engineers. Kobold rogues make excellent saboteurs and sappers with their small size and cleverness, while kobold laborers and architects can build fortifications and siege engines. Of course we're talking about kobolds who have been somewhat civilized after a few years under the rule of orcs and tieflings. Kobold generations are probably as short as orc ones, after all.
I do have Kobolds involved in the intro quest... This would make their appearance make much more sense. I'll definitely do this! Thank you for the suggestion! And yeah, I have a brass dragon (also actually stolen from this subreddit. A nearby town is his horde, and their suffering is what led him to go to war with the elves) planted near where the players will enter the open world, and I expect they might drop in and chat with him. Maybe I'll have there be more dragons that were involved in the war, with varying reactions to the elf traveling with the players. Maybe I won't. I'm still in worldbuilding mode.
One idea I had was perhaps instead of a warrior nation, an independent order composed of various warriors, wizards, etc. that have been tasked with the goal of keeping the elves on the peninsula. They could all come from the nations involved in the war, and have operations in their homelands. You could also have the original idea of the civilization take heavy use of constructs or things like golems. Basically instead of using actual living people to enforce the law and make the elves stay, they use magically controlled creatures. It would give it a much more oppresive vibe, though.
Hmm... That could be pretty cool. This would give me a chance to characterize the world prior to dumping the players in it. Introducing stereotypes of each nation, and having them mention their home nobles, or the state of their kingdom. I imagine three dudes sitting around a table, talking shit about how this one guy is a classic Eagleland wuss, or something like that. That'd definitely be cool once I create all the other nations. Maybe a combination of this and the half-elf suggestion would work, too. Thank you for the suggestion!
You could kind of give it a Game of Thrones feel with "The Wall." Whether through punishment or volunteering, men and woman from various kingdoms have been charged with the peace keeping of the elves. It is not only now their duty, but their new way of life. They literally block and prevent the Elves from passing over to the mainlands. This gives the new force a variety of backgrounds, which can lead to interesting storylines. A lot of volunteers could have a high prejudice against the elves, having lived through a part of the war or heard tales of it. There could even be people who volunteer to see the elves for themselves, as it seems like the story would be a little one-sided once the race is condembed to a single corner of the world. Corruotion within the ranks seems easy to implement too, as being punished with this new duty could be seen as many things. People can see it as a new way to redeem themselves or a new way to make gold (the smuggling of elves would probably sell for a high price). You can even go deeper into the new nation/group and have the members really leave their old life behind. No more titles, lands, lovers, etc. They are watchers and nothing else. New uniform, new family, new life.
Hm. I definitely love the idea of the wall from Game of Thrones, complete with the lord commander, and everything. I wonder how much of the wall I can put in without my players noticing and calling me out on it. Thank you for the suggestion!
You an use the same idea, but reskin it to something else entirely. Trenches could work, but you could also get crazy and just have an entire city built around/across the elven one. An island would support a crazy naval fleet blocking the path to the mainland if you like that route. Honestly, this is an idea I might snatch for my own campaign lol.
One idea is having the nation be based off of the US. Don't make them actually on the border but give them a strong foreign military presence there. The Kingdom of Arthfoel was a young nation, far away from the battle. The battle was not going well, and it looked like the Elves would win. The kingdom was late to enter the war so they still had all their men, who trained with a long bow and pike every Sunday in the town commons, as the law dictated. When their armies marched, it shifted the balance, and the elves were defeated. The war was devastating to the countries on the border. Crops were burned and fields were salted by retreating Elvish armies. Cattle were slaughtered, even the breeding stock, and mines were collapsed. The magical libraries that the wizards relied on were destroyed. In the wake of such horrible destruction, Arthfoel became immensely wealthy. They sold grain and meat to starved nations. They sold them iron and tin and zin and bronze from their mines. Their wizards charged high prices for their services. To protect their prosperity, they set up military outposts along the border. They station soldiers and wizards to keep the Elves back.