Have finished a 12 page post apoc adventure on Patreon. Mostly writing my 80page homebrew rules at the moment and playing cave dnd now. Mostly thinking post apoc and will be doing some more this format a5 zine format.
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This List is for Abhumans who have no beast or elemental blood but more than human. If you take out the beast from a beastfolk what do you have left? Evil wizards wanted to know and some of these happened. Others happened to isolated peoples under the influence of magic. On Xor or in the past may have existed and could be recreated again. All humans are larger than common men 7 foot they see in the dark well and can leap. Others have other abilities as they go up a level. Some may become wizards or priests later. Pliny the elder responsible for a few. I did this as an example of using my human bx class for reskinning and subtypes. Also because I want to use this in my stone age sorcery game (still my only game running due to shut-in). It's partly a look at alternate ideas for main peoples in a campaign.
At least one bunch of humans has decreed all these abhumans are grotesque abominations made only to hold space before proper humans arrive. Some call them protohumanoids. I like the term Plinian races for some.
d20 Post Classical Abhumans
Researching the Pliny Elders "Monstrous Races"
Europeans believed in them for thousands of years on or beyond the frontier...
Monsters as boundary-defying beings define normalcy
monsters as portrayals of disabled, gender different or foreign
monsters in natural history as gross distortions of natural history
and you thought orcs were a mess read all this
https://blogs.stockton.edu/artofideology/2018/01/22/on-the-plinian-races-and-the-monsters-of-the-natural-history/
https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/03/28/the-unexpected-relevance-of-medieval-monsters/
https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft338nb20q&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e517&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol
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This List is for Abhumans who have no beast or elemental blood but more than human. If you take out the beast from a beastfolk what do you have left? Evil wizards wanted to know and some of these happened. Others happened to isolated peoples under the influence of magic. On Xor or in the past may have existed and could be recreated again. All humans are larger than common men 7 foot they see in the dark well and can leap. Others have other abilities as they go up a level. Some may become wizards or priests later. Pliny the elder responsible for a few. I did this as an example of using my human bx class for reskinning and subtypes. Also because I want to use this in my stone age sorcery game (still my only game running due to shut-in). It's partly a look at alternate ideas for main peoples in a campaign.
At least one bunch of humans has decreed all these abhumans are grotesque abominations made only to hold space before proper humans arrive. Some call them protohumanoids. I like the term Plinian races for some.
d20 Post Classical Abhumans
1 Cyclops folk - one eyes hairy humanoids vary in technology, kin of giants or orcs?
2 WIld folk - orange haired forest people kin to orungytangs
3 Yeti folk - white-furred ape folk also known as white apes
4 Cave folk - thick set shorter stronger humanoids dwell in caves
5 Headless folk - acephali or blemmyesheadless folk with fave in chest
6 Monopod folk - huge single leg and foot, can use as shade laying on back
8 Horned folk - race of wild men with horns, accepted in past now shunned
9 Hairy folk - wild hairy folk of wilds sometimes alone or families
10 Androgini folk - have functional characteristics of males and females
11 Mouthless folk - hairy all over, fed from the smell and shun terrible odours
12 Dog Head folk- Cynophail dog headed folk gain d6 1 range firebreath at 6th lv
13 Bicephili -2 headed folk heads may have different sexual orientation or features
14 Monkey folk - hairy arboreal monkey folk with tails, baboons are common
15 Ape folk - more upright chimp or gorilla kin ape folk
16 Lemur folk - come in many varieties with a strange gait and jumping motion
17 Birdfoot folk - have scaly ostrich-like folk
18 Fish folk - Icthiophagi are fish hybrid abhumans often hostile to humans
14 Monkey folk - hairy arboreal monkey folk with tails, baboons are common
15 Ape folk - more upright chimp or gorilla kin ape folk
16 Lemur folk - come in many varieties with a strange gait and jumping motion
17 Birdfoot folk - have scaly ostrich-like folk
18 Fish folk - Icthiophagi are fish hybrid abhumans often hostile to humans
19 Faun - goat legs from waste down, with small horns, well liked by old religion
20 Centaur - horse from waist down and human waiste up
These will be on an abhuman list one day
Barbarians
Orc
Amazons
20 Centaur - horse from waist down and human waiste up
These will be on an abhuman list one day
Barbarians
Orc
Amazons
Researching the Pliny Elders "Monstrous Races"
Europeans believed in them for thousands of years on or beyond the frontier...
Monsters as boundary-defying beings define normalcy
monsters as portrayals of disabled, gender different or foreign
monsters in natural history as gross distortions of natural history
and you thought orcs were a mess read all this
https://blogs.stockton.edu/artofideology/2018/01/22/on-the-plinian-races-and-the-monsters-of-the-natural-history/
https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/03/28/the-unexpected-relevance-of-medieval-monsters/
https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft338nb20q&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e517&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol
I'm glad to see you populating your wilds with some of the more humanish and forgotten mythical races. The Wood Wooses, Dog Head Men, No Head Men etc are somewhat left out of most fantasy settings now a day, which is a shame. As adding them might have the effect of introducing them back to popular and outside popular culture.
ReplyDeleteAs an anecdote, I believe that C S Lewis heavilly using Greek Mythological Creatures (Centaurs, Minotaurs, Fauns, Satyrs, Dryads etc) is the main reason those critters show up so often in other wise Medieval European Style Fantasy Settings.
Classics were established as part of western culture but many of these beings in ancient near east thousands of years before that. Artists used classical themes as did poets and many other creatives so i think cs lewis typical rather than pioneer
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