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Entromancer
Senior Scribe
USA
388 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Oct 2014 : 14:42:35
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I keep coming back to the Realms for the depth and breadth of its campaign and storyline possibilities. Dragons have always been one of my favorite aspects of the Realms.
I am looking to diversity my campaign a bit by having the Realms' sentient, sapient nonhuman races being entirely scalykind: kobolds, dragonborn, yuan-ti, sahuagin with the idea that these peoples are somehow related to the dragons, hydras, and sea serpents that were once widespread throughout Toril. Aesthetically, the scalykind would have some morphological and physiological differences depending on their preferred environment.
My playgroup enjoys having some sort of justification for my decisions. This is where I'd like your help. I'm thinking of using biological realism. It makes more sense that the nonhuman races would share some traits with the dominant species of Toril, which would initially be the Thunderbeasts. At this point in history, the primordial are a dominant power on Toril and thus worshipped by the primitive human tribes across Toril.
Humans use the primordial shamanism to enslave the Thunderbeasts, sending them into areas of nature destabilized by the presence of the primordials for magic-infused metals and animals. As human civilization begins to grown, the primordials stop granting their human shamans access to their magic. A few individuals across Toril take up arms against some of the primordials in a quest to retake what the primordials ripped away. These humans are the ones that come to gain godlike status among humankind. In retaking the magic of the primordials, the devotion shown to these humans gives them the curse of godhood; being forced to hold humankind's hand rather than let it grow free from the influence of deities.
When the primordials withdrew their favor from humankind, they instead gave it to the Thunderbeasts. The gifts--viewed as a rape by some of the Thunderbeasts in that the primordials forced themselves upon the Thunderbeasts, robbing the Thunderbeasts of agency and soul--began to change the Thunderbeasts, giving rise to the kobolds, dragonborn, and sahuagin. Those Thunderbeasts that resented the primordials, believing them to be rapists, took the gifts given and defected against the primordials, allying with those humans that were deified as gods in their triumph against the primordials.
These rogue Thunderbeasts gained the favor of the primordials, and were in turn granted access to the Elemental Chaos, wherein the raw energies transmogrified them into dragons, hydras and serpents. The dragons, hydras and serpents returned to Toril, enraged at the primordials, and worked with scalykind and the deified humans to forge great machines that would harness the raw magic of the primordials; these machines were used to trap the primordials in the Elemental Chaos and came to be called "mythals."
So we come to present day Toril: humans, scalykind, dragons, hydras, sea serpents populating the plane alongside genasi--the genasi being the offspring of the deified humans--and the usual slew of non sentient, non sapient Realms species. Most of these are Thunderbeast throwbacks, mutations arising from the raw magic of the dragons, hydras, sea serpents and primordials.
Does this history validate the use of scalykind in lieu of the various factions of elves, dwarves, goblins etc?
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"...the will is everything. The will to act."--Ra's Al Ghul
"Suffering builds character."--Talia Al Ghul |
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SaMoCon
Senior Scribe
USA
403 Posts |
Posted - 15 Nov 2014 : 21:27:27
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Entromancer, it is a fantasy world and the logic of the history you created is as valid as the canon FRCS. The justification you made seems more than reasonable to me as backdrop for your game as intended. If your players didn't say "Cool! Let's do this!" when they heard your pitch then you have an uphill battle on your hands. Correct me if I'm wrong but the push back from your players might be that they like the Realms as is. What I would be concerned with is that the players' reasons for balking in the first place are not aired out amongst all of you and resolved.
The players asking you to justify your approach is just an obstacle they placed in your way. Why did they place that obstacle? "Because they don't want to play that," is a little too simple and abrupt of an answer but not that far from the truth. They don't need to be convinced that there is a rational explanation for having your way. You need to assure them that where your leading will fulfill their sense of fun. Since you are not a mind reader (you're not a mind reader, are you?), you will need to talk to each player about their notion of fun and how they feel your ideas endanger that fun.
Take this approach and I guarantee that the game will not fail because of your flavor changes to the setting. Execution of the game... well, that's up to you and your players. Good luck and have fun! |
Make the best use of the system that's there, then modify the mechanics that don't allow you to have the fun you are looking for. |
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Cherrypicking Realmslore for my Campaign
