Working up the Ganthian bible: Part II

Races, Whats this you say?

Races in Ganth and How I'm gonna handle 'em.

Well I have had a few changes of heart as to how I would be writing up my races, and which races would be PC and which would not be.

Then the question leads to "Should non-standard races have NPC stats or monster stats?"

I am gonna go with Monster stats.

Reason is it makes work for me much easier.

Next up, "What about the number of playable races?"

Answer; maybe 6 not including human races, plus whatever sub races I need.

But lets chat here a bit, can we?

Race...

Defined by Mr. Webster...

Click to see the whole definition.

So we have this, but then lets look at the bane of school teachers across the globe...

Wikipedia...

Too small? Click to go to the article itself.

And now I have a problem with race, look I know it is a bit silly but in both cases, race is purely a "Human-centric" ideal. Race is also a bit of an outdated term when it comes to science in general. I mean it is almost offensive.

So do I call it a race, well if I would assume that regardless of shape, or form and intelligent life form is composed of Mind, Body and Soul, well then I would say that Race may fit, as race better divides each of the unique life forms on Ganth. But what if a creature lacks one of the three fundamentals of "Life", Mind, Body or Soul. then I don't know.

I know I may be getting a little metaphysical, but Ganth is Fantasy and High Fantasy at that. In looking at Humanity as it relates to us, in a Christian sense, we are Mind, Body and Soul, a trinity of sorts, and something I want to explore with Ganth.

Man or Human as it would be in Ganth id divided into two separate groups, The Line of Theed and the Line of Nin. Theed being the man with a Living Soul and Nin being man with a Lesser or Dying Soul. Theed lives on regardless of his Death, either to be renewed in the next World or to be transcended,  depending on ones deity or belief  Nin however does not live on, after death the soul dies, or becomes a part of something else, to be reincarnated into something else or just cease to be.

Nin are older having decended from ancient lines that survived the ending of the First World, a period ancient beyond memory. Nin was created by old god, elder things. Theed however are a creation of the current World, one could say Age, but I like World, the Children of Adir the Most High God.

However that may be debated by current theologians of Ganth, it is something to be considered, as to the state of the Soul and what it is to be "Human".

But what is Human, and could that be applied to other "races" in Ganth, lets look at the term Human;

Webster would you mind?

Of course click to go to Mr. Webster's site.

And so here we go, by definition all my Fantasy races could be considered Human if I was to design them as such. And should I? It makes more work for me, but it also gets it out of my head and into the World Wide Web. So is a Dwarf, Human? An Elf?

Is the line of Theed greater or lesser to the Line of Nin?

I have struggled with this, I know that may seem silly but I have. How do I handle the higher forms of near human or demihuman races in Ganth. Do the races interbreed, do they deal with Racism or what ever you may call it when dwarfs hate elves, and while we are at it "Do dwarves hate elves?"

It is something I want to hash out.

When I first was thinking about writing this blog I went through a period of several years wanting Ganth to be Human only. No other intelligent life forms. I really wanted this. But as I hashed out ideas I found myself really wanting to have orks....I really like orks, and well you cant have orks without elves, then dwarves and so on and so forth....

Ugh...its a freaking trap. 

So what was I gonna do?

I don't want cookie cutter races, that is boring, and I don't have to worry about getting to far out there 'cause well Ganth is mine and I'm not here to impress a buyer. So give each race my own twist, Humans, Non-Humans, Demi-humans and Humanoids...that's alot of humans.

I have touched on races here and there, given hits, wrote on Goblins and Orcs (orks...whatever....) and well I need to dig deeper.

Seven Great races, that is it no more no less, sure their are several more intelligent races, but in all of Ganth the seven great races hold eternal sway over the fate and form of Ganth. Other races come and go, from distant planets or other planes of existence, but the Seven Great are all that have ever truly called Ganth home.

And to begin, Man. Man as in what we are, Humans, but not Human, because I have decided so. In Ganth the base line race, the greatest of the seven is Man. And he will be called Man.

Man:
Like I have mentioned we have the line of Theed and the Line of Nin, it fixes a problem for me. The problem being I wanted to have two "races' of Man. Man is diverse, more so when I throw in a race of Man that is not of this World, but an older World.

Nin founded Wynter the cradle of Man, the home of Man. Nin are what one may see as a High Man, or a Greater Man, they are my Melnibone. Nin have lost their gods, their creators, and so their Eternal Living Soul is Dying, with in the next thousand years or so, they will be gone.

Theed are not a copy of Nin so much as a improvement, it may be said that Man has always existed and will always exist in some form or another. And so Adir, who may or may not be the original creator of Man, again something Ganthian Theologian debate long into the night, Formed Theed in his likeness, with is attributes and qualities.

Nin is a Child of Chaos, Theed a Force of Law. Together they are Man, regardless of the different origins. They can intermingle, interbreed, they are the same in all accounts, except the status of the Soul.

Orc:
To be truthful orcs are my all time favorite, and yes they are a playable race, oh the shame of it all, I'm ruining D&D ain't I?

I have covered Orcs before so I won't go into detail to much here. I also have a second article on orcs soon to be posted, with rules on playing orcs in Ganth plus mutation tables.

Orc is called Prynn in their own tongue  and many an orc prides himself in that. Orcs are not goblins nor are they related to the Fey, they are shaped by Chaos, almost the living embodiment of Chaos on the Material plane.

Orcs where created not by any god, but where birth from the bubbling swirls of chaos it self. In this World Orcs where first to range across the whole of Ganth, they killed and slaughter, ever savage, ever destructive.

Dwarf:
Dwarves are difficult to deal with, first of they seem to be ingrained in fantasy litature to be Nordic in some such way. Even in odd fantasy tales they still seem to be always the same. So do I change that? It is a hard question to ask.

I want then to be uniquely Ganthian. They need to fit into the flow of Ganth, and they need to be different in some way from other dwarves of other fantasies.

So I don't have any real thoughts as of yet, as to what I need to do with dwarves.

Religious fanatics?

Staunch Militaristic Communist?

Xenophobic racists bent on Genocide and purity of the race?

or something less extreme?

To be truthful I ran this by my buddy Sean, and the Communist thing just might work.

Elf:
In my goblin article I have covered elves, I also mentioned then in my Crusaders and Cults articles. Elves are broken down into four subraces, each ruling over realms in the Fey that share the temperament of the four seasons.

The Autumn elves are a cursed race, the Spring Elves lost and rejected, the Winter are haughty and dire and the Summer, are more or less oppressed by Man.

Elves hate every one, have spawned goblin kind and are not the righteous "saviors" some fantasy depicts them as. They are flawed, imperfect and miserable.

Elves have no gods, other than those they adopt from other races, they were once in the distant past a creation of Nature itself, as a guardian and maintainer of the Natural order but some great sin has removed that from their present station in life.

Elves have a chance that they can be redeemed but it may not come, several hundred years ago, Summer and Winter elves set in motion plans to upset Man and a prophecy that a "savior" of types of all of Ganth would come, leading all life into a Golden Age, a new World.

The Elves had that "savior" murdered and now do their best to insure he is never remembered nor that he comes back in some unknown way.

Giants:

Oh boy, do I dig giants, but as a playable race I have given this some thought and yes I want it to happen.

Giants are split into four clans each holding sway over the four traditional elements. Fire Giants, Stone Giants, Frost Giants and  Storm Giants. I would assume their elements are clear to each of you.

Each clan has several sub races to include both Trolls and ogres, this may or may not change.

Finally I have talked it over with my buddy Sean and we both like the Idea of a type of Cyclops being a playable race.

The Trevarii, or the People are ancient some think they may be older than the Nin, in that they may have come from the World, before the World the Nin lived in. The Trevarii are very much like Cyclops, with one eyes, however they are shorter ranging in at only 7 to 8 feat tall. Think of them as Germanic folk also, not Greek.

Anyway thats enough for now, more to come soon.

ERIC!