| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| keftiu |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 03:31:54
Where have people put the shifters, kalashtar, changelings, and warforged? I know shifters got some incidental love in 4e (a Dragon article I barely remember, the FRCG putting them in Dambrath, and the NCS suggesting some Uthgardt are shifters), but I think that’s the full extent of canon.
I’ve been toying with the population of Samarach partly becoming changelings with the Spellplague; they’re implied to be heavily spellscarred, and I assume being infused with wild illusion magic is a novel way to introduce the race.
Anything else, either official or done at your tables? |
| 19 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Baltas |
Posted - 30 Jan 2020 : 20:46:54
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by keftiu
The Gondsmen are a product of magical artifice, aren’t they? Making one requires arcane ability; they aren’t just a robot.
They were both mechanical and magical. Warforged are not mechanical at all.
Actually Warforged have mechanical parts - aside from their skeleton (which a mechanical structure already), they have artificial muscles (made out of wood or leather fibers), and an artificial circulatory system - while these are made in imitation of flesh counterparts, they are still can fall under the definition of mechanical components. And while these are made from organic components, these are still artificially made into a muscle-like mechanism.
Artificial muscles are present in robots and cyborgs, like quite visibly in Alita's Berserker body in Battle Angel: Alita, even kinda resembling a Warforged:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/8b/51/438b51fffad22c2d1985b443fd036087.jpg
https://www.toyorigin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alita-battle-angel-alita-1-6-scale-figure-hot-toys-mms-img10.jpg
So because of this, I still think Warforged are still in part mechanical.
[EDIT]
Gondsmen are also stated to be made of metal and wood, which actually similar of how Warforged were made, to the point one could easily frame them as a variation of them. It's also notable, the article in Dragon #371 how Warforged could integrated into Faerun, outright shown as one of Warforged origins as being created on Lantan (further tying them to Gondsmen). (with the Red Wizard and forgotten wizard experiment origins, could be chalked up as them copying Lanthan's magic and technology, with 4th one as just coming from Eberron.)
[END EDIT]
quote:
Originally posted by TheIriaeban
Anyone happen to know when Tempus defeated Garagos and took over as the God of War? Because what Wooly is saying made me think that the Warforged COULD also be something that Garagos inspired as an insurance policy. Think about it, Warforged are living beings and as such would count as followers and Garagos could have foreseen the impending fight with Tempus. So, someone wants/needs lots of soldiers in a short time and if Garagos is defeated, an instant supply of followers you can churn out rapidly would guarantee you will be around. I have read that Garagos was worshiped in Netheril so that means Garagos could have been more than just a demi-power during that war.
Garagos, during his prime when he was worshiped in Netheril, was actually a Greater Deity, if he used the name Targus then (of which the name Garagos seems to be a corruption of.) |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 30 Jan 2020 : 15:50:05
Anyone happen to know when Tempus defeated Garagos and took over as the God of War? Because what Wooly is saying made me think that the Warforged COULD also be something that Garagos inspired as an insurance policy. Think about it, Warforged are living beings and as such would count as followers and Garagos could have foreseen the impending fight with Tempus. So, someone wants/needs lots of soldiers in a short time and if Garagos is defeated, an instant supply of followers you can churn out rapidly would guarantee you will be around. I have read that Garagos was worshiped in Netheril so that means Garagos could have been more than just a demi-power during that war. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 30 Jan 2020 : 10:37:26
quote:
Originally posted by keftiu
The Gondsmen are a product of magical artifice, aren’t they? Making one requires arcane ability; they aren’t just a robot.
They were both mechanical and magical. Warforged are not mechanical at all. |
| keftiu |
Posted - 30 Jan 2020 : 05:59:12
The Gondsmen are a product of magical artifice, aren’t they? Making one requires arcane ability; they aren’t just a robot. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 30 Jan 2020 : 04:16:37
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
Warforged is easy.
Lantan and they are created by worshipers of Gond and especially Gnomes. :D
To me, that's too simple. Warforged are magical creations, not technological ones, so for me that rules out Gond, Lantan, and gnomes.
And warforged are a product of war -- outside of a war, there's no real justification for trying to mass-produce constructs, intelligent or no.
And there simply haven't been too many wars in the Realms that would justify such an endeavor.
That's why my livegolems are a product of the Narfell-Raumathar conflict. It's canon that the Raumathari were using constructs, so we've got the building blocks right there, in established Realmslore. My livegolems are basically an extrapolation of existing lore. |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 29 Jan 2020 : 22:13:57
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
Warforged is easy.
Lantan and they are created by worshipers of Gond and especially Gnomes. :D
See, now that makes me think of a warforged/gnome team like Master Blaster in Mad Max.  |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 29 Jan 2020 : 22:05:46
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by TheIriaeban
Has anyone "backported" the Warforged into 2e?
The backstory for my versions of the warforged would work for any edition.
I've not done any of the work on the stats, though -- I was just concerned about the backstory.
Quick and dirty attempt
Warforged +2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
Race Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Warforged 9/18 9/18 9/18 3/18 3/14 3/12
Class limits
Cleric 4
Fighter 15
Wizard 12
Thief 12
I was debating doing unlimited for Fighter, since that is what they were designed for but I decided to leave that as a human only thing. Level 15 (possibly 18 with high Str score) isn't too bad for most campaigns.
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| shades of eternity |
Posted - 29 Jan 2020 : 19:47:57
Warforged is easy.
Lantan and they are created by worshipers of Gond and especially Gnomes. :D |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Jan 2020 : 19:18:13
quote:
Originally posted by TheIriaeban
Has anyone "backported" the Warforged into 2e?
The backstory for my versions of the warforged would work for any edition.
I've not done any of the work on the stats, though -- I was just concerned about the backstory. |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 28 Jan 2020 : 18:25:28
Has anyone "backported" the Warforged into 2e? |
| Baltas |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 15:46:23
After thinking about it, Kalashtar and Quori could be connected to Demiplane of Nightmares, the Region of Dreams, or even the Night Parade:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Demiplane_of_Nightmares
https://mimir.planewalker.com/encyclopedia/region-dreams
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Plane_of_Dreams
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Night_Parade
|
| TomCosta |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 14:45:13
Shifters were populated in the Realms during 4E in Dambrath and other places where there were large lycanthrope populations, essentially they were half-lycanthropes. |
| BadCatMan |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 11:40:51
I did something with kalashtar in the Realms for a PC background (after I let myself be persuaded that 3.5 soulknifes were unplayable without them). I reflavoured them as reincarnations or atavisms of old Jhaamdathan psionics users. I adapted for lore here:
https://candlekeep.fandom.com/wiki/User:BadCatMan/Hooked_on_Psionics/Order_of_the_Bladewright
The basal golems of the little-known Realms-set game Blood & Magic basically are warforged, several years early:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Basal_golem |
| keftiu |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 07:26:25
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by keftiu
-Ancient Imaskari or Raumathari creations.
-Psiforged (a rare subrace made with psionic crystals) could be Jhaamdathi constructs.
Check out the links I posted. I went in both of these directions: livegolems are from the ancient Nar-Rauthamar war, and eidelar are Jhaamdathi psionicists who put their consciousnesses into crystalline bodies.
I like these a lot! The eidelar are similar to an idea I had for Realmsian shardminds, of them as Jhaamdathi psionic archives becoming sentient. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 05:16:40
quote:
Originally posted by keftiu
-Ancient Imaskari or Raumathari creations.
-Psiforged (a rare subrace made with psionic crystals) could be Jhaamdathi constructs.
Check out the links I posted. I went in both of these directions: livegolems are from the ancient Nar-Rauthamar war, and eidelar are Jhaamdathi psionicists who put their consciousnesses into crystalline bodies. |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 05:04:49
One of the Nether Scrolls covers constructs. Maybe someone studied that and was able to make one of those forge-thingies that is needed to make the Warforged? That could explain how they are in the Realms. Perhaps it was in Hlondath as an aid in the Crown against the Scepter War. The war ended in 308 and the forge-thingy was completed in 329 just before the city had to be evacuated because of the encroachment of Annauroch. |
| keftiu |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 04:44:50
Warforged ideas I’ve kicked around:
-Lantanese innovations, or possibly literally just the clockwork Gondsmen.
-Ancient Imaskari or Raumathari creations.
-Psiforged (a rare subrace made with psionic crystals) could be Jhaamdathi constructs.
I’m not sure they need a war to justify, just arcane artificers who want to create life and/or servants. |
| Baltas |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 04:38:04
With Changelings, they could be half-doppelgangers or Doppelgangers brought up by another race, as 5th Edition Monster Manual suggested:
quote:
Changelings.
Doppelgangers are too lazy or selfinterested to raise their young. They assume attractive
male forms and seduce women, leaving them to raise
their progeny. A doppelganger child appears to be a
normal member of its mother's species until it reaches
adolescence, at which point it discovers its true nature
and is driven to seek out its kind to join them.
My idea though is that Changelings could be another type of Doppelganger (more akin in psychology/mentality to humans demi-humans and humanoids to better blend in) created by the created by the Batrachi, possibly Haask the Batrachi-Doppleganger:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Haask,_Voice_of_Hargut
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| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 26 Jan 2020 : 04:08:45
I have nothing for kalashtar...
Changelings could be the results of ancient magical manipulation, or they could be descendants of half-doppelgangers. Either way, I'd have them extremely rare, with maybe a dozen in a city the size of Waterdeep.
Shifters could be descendants of lycanthropes who didn't get enough of the lycanthrope blood for a full change -- the Eber-whatsit backstory, with the purge of werecritters, isn't really necessary. Alternatively, a shifter could be the offspring of a cursed lycanthrope -- I, personally, have never like the D&D idea that cursed lycanthropes would have more cursed lycanthropes as offspring. Going this route, maybe it would take two shifters having kids to make a natural lycanthrope... Another idea is a cursed lycanthrope who manages to overcome the curse, and has shifter abilities as a consequence.
Warforged are a bit more tricky than shifters or changelings, though. Warforged are the results of what is essentially a fantasy version of World War I. That doesn't work as readily in the Realms. There have been some major wars, but nothing as large as the Last War.
So here's what I've come up with... Each one includes a sample (non-statted) NPC.
Living Constructs of the Realms, part 1: Livegolems
Living Constructs of the Realms, part 2: Elfbane golems
Living Constructs of the Realms, part 3: Eidelar
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