Terrible Campaign Ideas: Bankslund

Terrible Campaign Ideas: Bankslund
The characters belong to a tribe of stone tech hunters and gatherers where wizards use cliff faces and cave art and bark for spell books. There are some inter tribal battles and trouble with giant lizards and carniverous flightless birds to fight or domesticate (also diprotodon giant wombats). Tribes worship giant magical snake spirits and other totem animal spirits.

Magical beast men and animal changelings roam in the taboo places.

A strange sailing ship of advance orcs arrive who try to trade steel and communicate then leave.

Years later orc fleet returns with convict prisoners of war intent on settling. The tribes might unite or try to make a deal but more orcs and their strange beasts like wolves and riding boars arrive and it becomes obvious they are not leaving.  Players might try to make peace but a Orc scientist declares humans not sentient and a plague breaks out. Tribes wage guerrilla war and struggle to unite. Even if a treaty is made and the orc governor declares killing and robbing humans is wrong many orcs keep trying to do bad things. A few orcs are hung for murder and orcs become sneakier and many racist official orcs help organised massacres. Orcs introduce their devils and demons to the land. Half orcs are bred to help track and hunt humans, they worship demons and break sacred taboos. The best humans can do is to learn to fight guns, possibly steal guns and perhaps flee beyond the frontier. Later a gold rush starts and orcs and goblinoids and trolls flood the land with steel and guns.

I haven't thought of a happy or heroic ending.

Perhaps elves and dwarves wage war on orcs or players can muster supernatural aid to drive orcs back to orcland. Whatever happens humans will have changed and characters will have shaped the destiny slightly of their people.

Maybe i could write the terrible fantasy novel Australia has been looking for.

Sadly this is pretty realistic and Australian history mostly covered up and willfully forgotten. "I didn't do it so not my problem" is pretty common reaction here. "I just live on the land and enjoy the benefits of the people who did" would be better response. And it is still happening daily. Land rights for natives have just been robbed and given to mining multinationals. Mortality and prison rates still high. Children still taken away at increasingly high rates. Etc

This is good stuff
http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/04/21/8-war-heroes-you-didnt-learn-about-school
http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/ - whole tv series
Look up "dreamtime stories" on youtube for lots of myths mostly about people being punished and mutilated for breaking taboos