Did I miss a post where you talked about how the Eladrin and Hill Elves relate?

I mean more than the obvious way that Eladrin are... eh... superelvish. I think that post was the first one where you've named 'em...

Two more houserules regarding Rituals:

1) Each gnostic tradition has a particular skill associated with its rituals. Logokratonics use Arcana, Psychomimetics use Religion, Sarxians use Nature. A gnostic who is trained in the correct tradition and using a ritual from that tradition can use the tradition's specialty skill instead of the one normally listed in the PHB. So, a Logokratonic gnostic casting the Logokratonic version of Hand of Fate (which normally uses Religion) can use his Arcana skill instead of Religion.

The only exception are the rituals that use the Heal skill. They always use Heal.

2) Make a skill check of the appropriate skill (casters may use specialty skills as listed above) before casting a ritual. If you succeed, you may reduce the cost of the components required to cast it by the result of the check (so a skill check of 25 reduces the cost of the ritual by 25 gp). The price may only be lowered to 0. If you fail, you must add the difference between your roll and the DC in gold pieces to the cost.

This hopefully takes some of the financial sting out of using rituals.

Quote from: SpikeDid I miss a post where you talked about how the Eladrin and Hill Elves relate?

I mean more than the obvious way that Eladrin are... eh... superelvish. I think that post was the first one where you've named 'em...

I mentioned them earlier when talking about Dwer Tor.

They don't relate. Eladrin are refugees from the distant south, having fled from a place called the Kingdom of the Falling Stars hundreds of years ago. Those who remember why refuse to talk about it. They assimilated into the society of Dwer Tor, and along with the Dwarves, form one of the two races that comprise the upper classes of that society. They have since flourished due to their magical and technical prowess, having brought with them many cunning innovations that bought the respect of Dwer society (including the Logokratonic gnostic tradition, as mentioned above, making the Dwarves far less reliant on Kaddish magical innovation).

Elves, meanwhile, are considered to be related more closely to men than Eladrin (because men and elves can breed together, while men and eladrin can't). Drow, if you recall, are merely soulforged elves who have undergone a process similar to the one that created tieflings (tieflings and drow can also interbreed, though they produce one or the other, rather than half-drow or somesuch).

I'm chucking out the common origin theory of elves/drow and eladrin because I've got no particular interest in it. Eladrin and elves are considered in-setting to look about as similar to one another as elves and men do. The lack of pupils, the different colours of hair and skin (elves and men are dark-haired and tend towards darker skin-colours in the Dawnlands, eladrin are pale and golden-haired), the otherworldly air that men and elves lack, etc. all add up.

I'm cool with that, I just wanted to know where you were coming from. Heck, I've always hated the 'universal elvish history' that D&D managed to slip into every setting... lazy bastiches...

Quote from: SpikeI'm cool with that, I just wanted to know where you were coming from. Heck, I've always hated the 'universal elvish history' that D&D managed to slip into every setting... lazy bastiches...

Yeah, so do I.

Places to Go, Things to Kill:

The Marching Dead

After the last war between man and elf, the bodies of the dead littered the plains. Every gulch and creekbed was stained red with blood. Neither side could bury the dead fast enough, even when they could find them. Too many had died in the trackless wastes.

It was only several decades later, when a column of zombies and skeletons carrying the banners of High Kaddish came marching out of the wastes and stopped to "drink" at the banks of the Death River that anyone realised that the unburied dead had come to life.

A panic gripped the Orthocracy over the threat of an undead army marching on the city, leading to a revolution, the destruction of over fifty temples, a grain famine, two new cults, and the rise of the Bentir oligarch dynasty. By the time this had settled, the undead had long since marched back out onto the plains without a single attack.

To this day, sightings of a column of soldiers carrying the banners of High Kaddish happen every few years. It is unknown who (or what) leads them or chooses their destinations. They march day and night, silently and in perfect formation, across desert and steppe that would kill living things. At least one person claims to have seen them "recruiting" at an ancient burial mound, dragging corpses from barrows and setting them into the ranks.

Places to Go, Things to Kill:

The Desert

There is only one desert, and it is incomprehensibly vast. The eastern edge of the plains gradually shades into it, until one reaches the Last River, where the rift valleys stop and the sand begins.

The Men From Across the Desert

The Men From Across the Desert are known by that title. They are black-skinned. Not dark brown (like a dwarf or a jungle halfling), but a true coal-black, with black irises on black pupils in their eyes. Only their hair and nails are different colours, though that may be dyed. A very rare few are piebald, and these seem to be their nobles and priests, but they do not discuss it with outsiders.

It is known that they have cities across the desert, though only the name of one is known - fabled Rhuap, which is said to be governed by gigantic godfish from beyond the stars.

The Pyramid Mountains

If a sharp-eyed scout stood at the Last River at dawn, he might see three short points jutting into the sun's rays far off into the east. Weeks away, they are three great pyramids as large as mountains. Each one is thousands of feet tall, covered in intricate and arcane designs. They were not built by the Dawnmen, nor the Men From Across the Desert, and they mark a desolate place where water is scarce and nothing will grow. On nights of the full moon, when everything else is shadowed, the pyramids reflect light from some unknown source, a dull red radiance.

The Barrels

When the Men From Across the Desert come, they sometimes bear with them large barrels of water - barrels so large they need wagons to transport them and ten men to unload them. Yet strangely, the men do not drink from these barrels, carrying other supplies to sustain themselves.  Nor do they let outsiders handle or inspect the contents of these barrels. They do not return with them, though what they go is unknown.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrinegigantic godfish from beyond the stars.

I don't know if you meant "goldfish" or "godfish" but thinking of it as both... OMFG. Like a giant misshapen blob floating in the air surrounded by billowing fins and sporting two of those bulbous, protruding eyes goldfish sometimes get...

...it's crazy.

Quote from: beejazzI don't know if you meant "goldfish" or "godfish" but thinking of it as both... OMFG. Like a giant misshapen blob floating in the air surrounded by billowing fins and sporting two of those bulbous, protruding eyes goldfish sometimes get...

...it's crazy.

Just imagine this 12 ft. long, with tentacles and psychic powers:
http://blufiles.storage.msn.com/y1pYV19ObCryUqb_cXvQPrkhwpYXyzwEJFGfk-2irY3MjnEDpXwF8a4As_WMDBbY1jjv6KBXiIAAfI

Places to Go, Things to Kill: (Donations?)

The Stone Heads

Scattered throughout the (Dawnlands?) are giant statuary carvings, free standing lithic structures in the form of stylized heads. Only in extremely rare locations are there more than one within sight. It is believed by most that each head is unique, though all share a basic form.  While they do not radiate magic, many strange effects are said to occur around them, from the way the wind sometimes makes it sound as if they speak, to prophetic dreams or visions many report.

No one knows how long the Stone Heads have been present, or who carved them, much less what purpose they served. Each culture of the (dawnlands?) has their own bodies of superstition. Some think they are cursed, and avoid them, others believe they bring good luck, or that they should be given offerings to the nameless Gods (or Daemons?) they may represent to avoid offending those beings.  

None have been moved, and only legends speak of any being destroyed, typically with a warning that great plagues befell those who attempted such deeds.  Only one is believed to lie within the bounds of a city, rumors speak of a hidden room in a temple or palace where only the king, or perhaps high priest may go, where visions guide the people of that nation (it varies with the telling) to greatness or the depths of villiany (again, it depends upon the telling).  Most are in remote places, far from civilization, or the resources a community would need.



Rather than poke at your various ideas I thought I'd pass one your way and see if you wanted it...

Thanks mate, it's great stuff and fits well. It actually matches really well with a scene I've got planned for an adventure that I unfortunately have to be secret about because my soon-to-be PCs read this thread periodically.

Glad to be of service. Giant stone heads are never out of place in my expirence....

Monsters of the Plains:

Gnolls

Gnolls are both a boon and a bane for the plains. They are indiscriminate killers who breed quickly and are unable to sustain their own population through farming or ranching. Fortunately, the gnollish willingness to eat anything and their berserker bravery means that their hunting parties expend their lives killing many monsters that would otherwise terrorise their plains.

Gnolls are the third most common intelligent race after men and elves on the plains, and venerate the Stone Pack, just as men and elves do. However, they also worship demons and devils, and gnollish warlock-priests interpret almost every earthquake, tremor or landslide as a sign from the Stone Pack for jihad.

Aberrations

A common belief in the Dawnlands is that falling stars are the returning souls of the ancient dead. As they fall, they undergo a purifying journey which burns away their sins. If the returning soul was too awful though, not all of its sins may be burnt away before it returns. Instead of sublimating into spirit, it  continues to burn until it strikes the earth. The sins break apart from one another and become great slithering abominations of tentacles and slime.

Aberrations are often found in craters, caves, and other dark, unclean places near meteor impacts. They can also be summoned by evil gnostics, especially star-pact warlocks, who call to the ancient and corrupt dead to send a piece of their vile natures back to the world once more.

Y'know... I've always felt Gnolls got short shrift in the D&Dverse.  I mean, as monsters they are cooler than orcs (one word: Flindbars!) in so many ways. As a 'people' they always felt like they had so much more potential too.  I would have loved to see them balanced in the 3E manual as a playable race (they really don't NEED an ECL/monsterous levels to be effective opposition), and if anyone had asked me (not that they did...) I would have preferred gnolls to dragonborn for 4E.

But I'm crazy, so what do I know.

Gnolls, as a culture, just strike me as having more potential than Orcs or even Goblinoids as the 'savage other'. They can be evil and monsterous without actually being 'EVIL ', because in some ways they are more alien.  Gnolls have a reason to be animalistic scavengers who think of other intelligent species as edible.  Orcs? They are just 'Ugly strong dudes that go on mindless rampages and have babies to cause Paladins to get headaches'.

Um... I'll go park my horse over there...

Hobgoblins and gnolls are my two favourite humanoid opponents in the D&D-verse.

Idea: Gnolls and Hill Elves are often allies, with gnolls having once been the clients of the Hill Elves in their glorious past. With the fall of that civilisation, the gnolls have reverted to barbarism, and it was the cultural interchange there that made the modern Hill Elves superstitious cannibals. Both groups are hostile to the Kadiz, and small populations of elves and gnolls can each be found in the others' territories.