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[tornadofyr-journals]

Snert, a random goblin being forced to talk about the Goblin King

We have many Kings, yes, the goblins do.

There is Gem-in-Skull, who uses the words good.

There is Eater-of-Small-Ones, the strong n' huge.

There is even Flea-Picker, whose only lackey is his massive Rat-O-War.

But none of these compare to the True King, no.

Bo'Aui is beautiful, yes. He is cunning, yes.

But he is not kind, No! Bo'Aui cruel.

Bo'Aui a rat, a demon.

Evil, he is. And yet we love him.

An elf, on the subject of The Goblin King Bo'Aui's resemblance to his kin:

You would do well not to associate us with that fool, but your claims are not entirely unfounded. Look to the state of the world. Beings of great power, that claim godhood no less, roam these lands, and you other races have flocked to them like sheep. But our gods? Our gods have not debased themselves with this realm.

There was a time that Bo'Aui may have been in their number, but his presence here should tell you all you need to know about his standing among our people: he is an embarrassment, likely banished here for any number of reasons.

Objective Description:

Unlike the gods of other races, Bo'Aui looks nothing like the people that seek his patronage, appearing as an astoundingly beautiful and handsome elf. Cunning, beautiful, and cruel, Bo'Aui uses his Labyrinth as a plaything. He was once an Elven deity, but unlike the Dreamers, he sees Deomund as a gift, rather than a prison.

The Goblins were created for the same purpose as the Elves: Researching mortal dreams and psychology for Bo'Aui and the Dreamers.

But where the Dreamers merely wanted to know the highlights of human nature, Bo'Aui wanted to fundamentally understand humanity. Thus, his creations were not beautiful, graceful elves, they were the horrific, passionate goblins.

When Deomund was created, Bo'Aui rejoiced, for he could finally interact with mortals face to face.

While the Dreamers went into hibernation and isolation, Bo'Aui created his Labyrinth, a realm that connects to any cave goblins inhabit. There, he conducts torturous tests upon foolhardy adventurers and plays games with unlucky travelers.

With his time occupied by adventurers, he grants blessings to his most loyal goblins, making them goblin kings.

[tornadofyr-journals]

I think any good world should have 11 things for adventurers to find. Most of them are monsters, since they're easier to make interesting. These are specifically vague, in a way. Not unique or even special in your world, but engineered for your world.

Why eleven things instead of ten or twelve? So you can put them on a 2d6 chart, and see roughly how rare these things are in your world. Common things hover around the 5-9 range, while rarer stuff should be somewhere within 2-4 or 10-12.

If you use Random Encounter Tables, you can use your chart as the skeleton for your regional charts. For example, if you are in Deomund's Hills of Life region, you generally won't find worshippers of the halfling death goddess.

Here's an example for Deomund. Many of these will be expanded upon later. This, in a way, is a primer for Deomund. Kinda. This probably won't get the weirdest stuff.

2d6 Cool Things To Find In Deomund

2) A Minor God

There is an uncountable number of gods in Deomund. While some are known across the world, many have to fight for every worshipper they can get. Most godly realms have some minor demigods that seek protection and authority under a more powerful god that shares their domains and portfolio.

3) A Goblin War Party

There are many, many goblin kings, all of them unique. They travel with their hordes of minions, seeking to make a name for themselves.

4) A Clockwork Knight

Among the artificer community, one is not considered a master until they have created a clockwork knight. Meant to retrieve items for their creator, many clockwork knights develop an obsession with saving maidens and slaying dragons. Most artificers blame this on the book of fairy tales required to program a clockwork knight's personality. Few risk changing the book, though.

5) Members of the Concealed Clergy

While traveling, it is common to come across groups of identical figures wearing black robes and featureless masks made of gold. Not much is known about the Masked Saints, except that they offer membership to those who suffer.

6) A pilgrim traveling to their god’s realm

Since the gods walk the world alongside mortals, many young adults travel to meet their god. With the Meandering Road being completely reliable and safe, many pilgrims eschew travel using it, wanting to prove their faith.

7) A small altar to a god

While you can visit a godly realm before dying, many are more committed to keeping their families alive. Thus, many towns construct altars and shrines to the gods, believing it lets the gods know they exist.

8) An abandoned piece of crazy tech

Everyone knows that Deomund was created by a bunch of worlds combining. While most of those worlds had an almost identical level of technology, a few had much more advanced technology. Few know how to make more, but just about everyone can be trained to push a button or flip a switch.

9) An Envoy of Tanu

Robots created by Tanu, the many-bodied goddess of community, the envoys collect things for their creator. Constantly alone, many envoys seek friends and companions. Many find them, for the envoys were programmed to be able to adapt to any social environment.

10) Members of the Shining Legion

Led by Ilios, the armored god of justice, the Shining Legion is the largest army in all of Deomund. Despite being headquartered in the Glass Desert, the Shining Legion sends soldiers throughout the world.

11) One of Razelith's Creations

Many monsters can track their lineage back to Razelith, a triune goddess of magic, nature, and technology. Some gods even refer to Razelith as their mother.

12) A Dreamer's Burial Place

Considered by all to be the most powerful of the gods, the Dreamers are the spiteful creators of the Dream Elves. The Dreamers hate the world, and have buried themselves in trees and hills, rivers and caves. Their resting places attract monsters and wizards, for they radiate immense magical energy. Most people don't know about the Dreamers, and their children believe they somehow remained outside Deomund.

[tornadofyr-journals]

The Land We Share

The most normal world I've made.

There are only five canon playable races, but I allow small races to be reflavored kobolds and big races to be reskinned orcs.

Most powerful beings are named literally, with titles instead of real names. One of the human gods of honor is named Knight, for example.

The gods of Stability are dead, eaten by the demons and devils.

Elves are connected to Aberrations instead of Fey.

The world is slowly being conquered by two warlords: Cassius Martyr and Vinaar Swordsnapper. Once adventuring companions, now they seek to destroy each other.

The Great Game

The medium weird world

An epic fantasy world where the forces of Chaos have defeated the forces of Law. Kobolds and orcs fight for dominance of the world, scouring the land for the last strongholds of Law. Recently, humanity has emerged from the places the forces of Chaos have abandoned, and their presence has started to disrupt politics across the land.

Deomund

Weird world

Thousands of worlds fused together to make this world.

The gods walk the world and clockwork knights kill insect dragons.

Spirit World

World where physics are replaced with spirits

[tornadofyr-journals]

I love Orcs. They are the perfect starting monster horde. Here’s how I use them.

Orcs Never Stop Growing

A young orc is a goblin, an old orc is a giant.

As an orc ages, their growth slows, but it never stops.

All orcs are expected to be warriors. Goblins are trained to be strong and fast. Giants study mysticism and sorcery to improve themselves even more.

Orcish Skin-Dyes

Outsiders think that an orc’s skin color represents some form of caste system. This is only half true.

Orcish skin is gray as stone, but only the orcs know that.

Orcs dye their skin different colors as a declaration of intent and their role in a group. These roles are named after their gods.

Orcs are not stuck in a mantle. In fact, most orcs will wear all five in their lifetimes.

It is shameful to acknowledge the fact that orcs wear different mantles. It is even more shameful to show gray skin.

Orcish delegations consist of 9 orcs. Five wearing green dye, the other four each wearing a different color.

Green is the color of Earthquake. Those wearing the mantle of Earthquake never speak unless they are singing a war chant.

Red is the color of Wildfire. In times of peace, red orcs constantly imply that peace might end at any moment. In war, the mantle of Wildfire is worn by warriors who charge into battle with reckless abandon. Adventuring orcs are likely to use the Wildfire mantle if they are warriors.

Yellow is the color of Blight. Yellow orcs offer ritual combat as a way to resolve conflict, and act as assassins during war. 

White is the color of Blizzard. White orcs offer peace, and are never seen during times of war.

Blue is the color of Thunder. Thunder orcs coldly lead conversations, constantly judging non-orcs. In battle, the shamans take up the mantle of Thunder. Adventuring orcs are likely to use the Thunder mantle if they are casters.

Playing an orc

I don’t use Half-Races in my worlds. However, Player Orcs use the Half-Orc stats instead of the bad ones in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

When playing an orc, figure out which mantle you use, and how that works with your class and outlook.

[tornadofyr-journals]

Rukar the Soulless Slayer

From a headless priest of Rukar:

The divine realms shattered. This much is certain. We have evidence. The gods walk among us!

What, then, happens to us when we die?

Perhaps we stay within our corpse, rotting forever. Perhaps we go to an afterlife devoid of divinity. Perhaps we simply cease to exist!

Who wants to stop existing? Wouldn’t you rather live forever, continuing to feel the joy that life brings?

I hear what you say. “How can you celebrate when your head is pickled in a jar?”

And I answer, RUKAR!

Our Scarred Lord believes in life, he believes in joy, and above all, he believes in PASSION!

The reaper mourns while Rukar smiles, for his passion has conquered death.

Join us where death has lost, and live forever!

Objective Description:

Of all the gods, Rukar is one of the most feared. A soulless monster covered in scars, Rukar rules the Blood Wastes, where death has no grip. Not even dismemberment and decapitation can kill those living in the Blood Wastes. Entire towns have been bathed in blood after entering the Blood Wastes.

One of the few realms to move, the Blood Wastes follow Rukar, for many of its citizens should be long dead, only sustained by Rukar’s aura. Laws become useless when towns enter Rukar’s aura, causing the Blood Wastes to become ever more chaotic and teeming with slaughter.

Rukar’s priests are not organized in any way. Those who follow him generally seek to live forever, enjoy inflicting suffering, or both. Charismatic priests, often horrifically mutilated, are revered as demigods.

Art: 

Batman: Last Knight On Earth

Incubus from Kill Six Billion Demons

Zon-Kuthon from Golarion (Pathfinder’s Default Setting)

[tornadofyr-journals]

Demon Lords

The Choirbreaker

The greatest of the Demon Lords, the Choirbreaker was once able to make angels fall with only a word. Ages ago, his voice was stolen by a mortal hero. Legend speaks of the Harp of Damnation that the thief created.

The Hellswarm

Demon Lord of Insects, the Hellswarm is comprised of many minor demons that sacrificed their individuality for power. The Hellswarm's Queen has been slain many times throughout the ages, but the swarm survived. Some say that all insects are spies for the Hellswarm.

The Withering Defiler

The Withering Defiler possesses mortal paladins and corrupts them. She is one of the few demon lords who has mastered the art of possession.

The Inferno Prince

Unable to transmute his hellfire into another element, the Inferno Prince is feared for his power to negate his rivals’ powers using his superior hellfire.

[tornadofyr-journals]

Hellfire

Mortals have Souls, Fiends have Hellfire. The most basic way to determine a fiend’s relative power is the amount of hellfire they can produce. The demon lords and devil kings eventually learn Hellfire’s greatest secret: The power to transmute it into other things. Diseases, insects, necromantic power, all can be made by Hellfire. The Withering Defiler, the Hellswarm, and the Choirbreaker, all mighty demon lords in their own right, fear the power of Master Hellfire, who discovered the art of reversing transmutation.

Holy Frost

Mortals have Souls, Fiends have Hellfire, Angels have Holy Frost. Unlike souls and hellfire, Holy Frost cannot be molded by an angel. Instead, it molds them, slowly covering their individuality in a layer of cold, emotionless judgement.

Young angels are passionate, ready to fix the world their dead creator left them. These are the Dinosaur Angels I talked about last post. They believe it is their destiny to change the world so it doesn’t need to be changed further.

As they grow more experienced, they realized that the humans they are meant to protect don't care about Stability. In fact, humans actively fight against it. Humans are short-lived, after all.

This allows their Holy Frost to guide them, empower them. The angel becomes less unique, more uniform. Dinosaurs, specifically, begin to metamorphose into a humanoid form. If they use a weapon, it starts glowing with a cold blue light. They become more judgmental, more cynical, no longer believing they can change the world.

Eventually, their Holy Frost begins to manifest on their wings, removing their symbolic ability to see new horizons. The angel has now become a Frozen Paragon.

All Frozen Paragons are perfectly identical. A sword radiating cold, frozen wings, and an icy halo.

Heaven is at the top of a cold mountain in the center of the North Pole. There are massive blocks of ice there. Those are the last remnants of the Frozen Paragons that migrated to Heaven to escape a world they judged unfit for them.

If you enter heaven, pray that it never stops snowing.

[tornadofyr-journals]

Dinosaurs should be terrifying

Dinosaurs, in modern media, are for children. Land Before Time, Dinosaur Train, stuff like that. Jurassic Park is the closest thing we have to adult entertainment involving Dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs, in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, are pretty weak. A Tyrannosaurus Rex has a CR of 8, which is the same as Frost Giant, which are the middle of the Giants.

Look at the size differential here.

You should be scared to fight these massive beasts. They can outrun you in both speed and endurance. Their teeth are bigger than shortswords. We make fun of their tiny arms, but that just proves they only need two to be monstrous.

And let's not forget the herbivores, like the Ankylosaurus and the Triceratops. Tails covered in a material harder than human bones. Horns longer than Spears.

I might have been a bit hyperbolic, but if you're reading this, you probably want cool stuff, not realism.

Angels should be terrifying

When you read the word "Angel", you probably envision a pretty winged person. Biblical Angels are nothing like that. Four heads, wings covering both their eyes and feet, wheels of fire, and more.

There is a reason angels always introduced themselves with "Do Not Be Afraid". The shepherds had a reason to be frightened.

In the middle ages, occult texts made note that you should never attract the notice of an angel, much less summon one. If you did, they would kill you for practicing profane arts.

Angels should be less Cupid and more

This deserves a "Do Not Be Afraid", doesn't it?

What Happens If You Combine Them?

We've established two things.

Dinosaurs should be terrifying.

Angels should be terrifying.

Many fantasy worlds still have dinosaurs, somehow.

You can summon Angels, once you are powerful enough.

Maybe, these two things are related?

Now, we have Dinosaur Angels. Massive beasts committed to protecting Good and destroying, and in some cases, eating, Evil.

My World's interpretation

In my world, the god of Stability is dead, killed by the first demons and devils. That god's remaining divine energy creates the angels.

One of the faces of Stability was the Dinosaur. In Hixvar, they revered the dinosaurs as the great beast kings.

After Stability was slain, the dinosaurs quickly went extinct. When the angels began being made manifest, many of them took the form of dinosaurs.

Zealous fiend-slayers, the Dinosaur Angels are the most common form of angel.