As you can tell from the title of this blog, I adhere to the concepts of Darwin's Theory of Evolution and the advancements science had made in the theory since then. That in no way means I fail to appreciate the social and religious efforts to understand our place in the universe. Creating a alternate world of magic and myth brings any such appreciation to the fore.
Let us image that I was highly enamored with one ideology to the point I wanted to mold the imagined world in that view alone. It might be cool to have heroes that lived and died in honor of one mythos in a world where everyone either revered the true gods or were enemies. Dune might be an example of this type of concept. I liked Dune, but I don't recall many non-human races. Throw in a few dozen non-human races. Would all these races follow the teachings of the Orange Bible? I would hope not. Cultures that are not different in ideology, have no relevance.
One ideology for all cultures implies that no other perception of reality is feasible, or that one culture has successfully dominated the rest. Christianity has attempted to systematically dominate the western hemisphere of our world. This was achieved by many means, which I will not detail here. Even at the highest point of power for the Catholic Church, the Christian faith was divided into numerous sub-groups. Today, one would be hard pressed to identify every church that has adopted a variation of Christianity. No one ideology has ever dominated the entire human civilization, and it would not make sense for one to.
Of course, Christianity and all the other faiths of our world do not have spirits granting powerful spells (in a game mechanic sense). It is the nature of social groups to stratify, it should be recognized that every spirit that still communed with its followers and empowered their priests would be revered, even if a stronger force intervened. The stronger force would, more often than not, supplant the weaker over time, but the weaker would have more staying power among the faithful.
The Romans viewed other pagan gods in terms of their own set, which was essentially the gods of the Greeks. When they conquered other peoples, it seems they attempted to rename the gods of the defeated to their own. Later, after they adopted Christianity, they 'decreed' changes that changed pagan festivals to christian holidays in a very determined manner. It is hard to identify what would have happened if these defeated cultures still had strong communion with their gods.
I bring this up now because spirits, heroes and gods will be the main identifiers of cultures (after race). It would not seem right that a tribe of goblins would worship elven gods, but it should be clear that all goblins do not worship the same god. Elves would not either. In fact, it should be that even when large groups of elves worship the same god, there will be various factions that worship that same deity differently. Naturally, the variations will make for many interesting stories and adventures.
I encourage variation. It takes more work for the gamemaster, but it should pay dividends in the end.
This sort of thing is not the standard D&D fare, and you may find it too cumbersome for your world. As we discuss the origins of the various races and their cultures, I will point out why the variations make sense. Our own western culture marks many of its most important events by these schisms, and the cultures of our magical world will also be marked by the power struggles of the Priest-King-Gods and the factions they create. Remember that spiritual power is reflexive in this game system, so the more followers one has, the more powerful they become. Egos will clash. Belief systems will clash. Races will clash. War is always the final argument.
Switching gears, anthropologists on our world strongly believe that humans originated from the African Continent, coming out of Africa in at least two major waves in the distant past, as we have found fossils that show migrations of pre-Homo sapiens. How many divergent species of proto-human rose and fell before the the dominate strain won out is not clear at all. Moreover, as all life on our Earth comes from one original spark billions of years ago and all life here is related by this, so I recommend that all life on our alternate world is related in this way. Clearly, each culture/race will be too preoccupied to discover this, much less to admit this to themselves.
Magic, the subtle chaotic force, will be what pushes so much variation in the backwaters of time. The question becomes not where they came from but where did they end up when they rose to sentience. Our own ancient human cultures first rose around the middle east and spread from there because agriculture and the domestication of animals made these places favorable, but a magical world could have other spots that favored growth of other races. It stands to reason that human expansion would be dulled somewhat due to so much competition. This is not to say these races are all in contact. Some races could find very distant homes from the first human civilizations.
It is an interesting dilemma. The first major migration from Africa could have happened 100 million years before this cultural development, so time is not a real issue until we define who rises first. Also, humans are a very recent addition to North and South America, which becomes interesting if other races develop seafaring first.
In my own world, the dwarven race worship the Dragons, and a particularly clever dragon transports his dwarven followers to the gold-rich areas of Central and South America. Even though the human culture is there already, the dragon and dwarves make a strong case for supremacy.
Magic is a game changer. Modes of transportation change because of it, but more importantly, all forces that effect survival are changed to a degree by magic. When farmers can pray for more crops or for more herd animals to be born, the surplus of resources causes a quicker rise of skilled laborers and civilization in general. Of course, all the magical beasts and other races keep growth in check, but we have to define how.
In my world, I chose Dragons as the first sentient race. Magically spawned from the dinosaur age, these creatures have since given rise to an intelligent variety of the the species. They develop language and learn to develop a symbiotic relationship with the nearby dwarves. Dwarven language is a direct offshoot of draconic. Dwarves benefit from this advancement and serve the Dragon-Gods. Not to mention there is a sharp decline in the local giant population. I am intentionally skipping several developmental steps of my world, but choosing the first races to ascend has a ripple effect on their neighbors.
In another part of my world, an ancestor gives rise to fairies, sprites, elves and all the sylvan ilk. Can elves produce children with humans? Could half-elves be a regression of elves that can mate with humans? Shall we call them the Irish? Sorry, I could not resist.
In actuality, my world has the sylvan cultures rising on an island, and elves take the lead in sea travel. The human cultures they first interact with become influenced by them. I originally have nine races of elves populating my world. Again, variance is more true to reality and hopefully more interesting. In any case, elves are third to rise.
Orcs are fourth to rise
Humans are fifth
This is not to say humans are less intelligent, when they get it going as a civilization, than those before them. In fact, their ability to adapt and learn is a big strength.
Back to the Irish. Any cultures we take from our history have to have a reasonable origin on our alternate earth, but they are a comfortable short-cut.
Reading this back, I know I skipped around a bit. There are so many considerations that it can be a bit much. The main point is that all the non-human races rose from ancestors of a migration around 100 million years ago out of Africa, and they are all very different now. Modern humans migrated out of Africa about 20,000 yrs ago on my alternate earth and were limited in their successful migration patterns. Consequently, all the human cultures of our earth will not be represented.
In turn, the migrations of the non-human races will be taken into account along with their cultural impacts on each other. The rise and fall of past civilizations will be considered up to the present day of our campaign world. Power groups will be defined and important resources identified. The evolution of Magic Use will also be studied, allowing more spells and rituals to be identified and added to game play. Demonstrating this process will show why most magic is not generic, but culturally based. Once we have magic in place, we will be ready to playtest.
On a playtest note, I only plan to develop one human culture for characters to come from. As that group travels, I'll develop the other cultures and allow additional character choices.
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