Quendi (a brief introduction to elves)

Quendi (elves)

Once a proud and prosperous people, the Quendi are a shadow of what they once were. Once they freely roamed all the surface lands, and even the seas. This has changed drastically, as they now are largely found only in large forests where they can survive and thrive without encountering other humanoids.

Though there are other ‘species’ of elf, most surfacers have only encountered the Quendi. Considered by some to be “True Elves”, most Quendi try to live quiet, peaceful lives in seclusion from other races.

The Quendi are migratory, and travel in clans ranging from five to thirty families. These families are led by a shaman, and literally live off the land. Most elves are experienced in the druidic arts, and are capable of creating dwelling places out of nearly any living flora, with the most powerful able to create entire living mansions.

Elves tend to wear leather clothing decorated with bone and natural inks. Though experts at crafting simple weapons from the land around them, most elves have taken up using steel and iron weapons they’ve traded for, purchased, or acquired in battle. Some families may even possess heirloom weapons that date back to the wars against the dwarves.

Height: 4-5’

Fair hair/fair skin, generally eyes of green or hazel.

Mechanically, the Quendi function as standard elves in the Core Rule Book.

More to follow...

An Old New World

As an incentive to spend more time devoted to creative endeavors, this page has failed. This has been for numerous reasons that I won’t even begin to address, but in one of these, this page might find new life. This post may be “too long, didn’t read”, and I won’t be offended if you skip to the bottom line: I am dusting off my old world, and this page will now largely be devoted to gaming material. Primarily, it will function as a sort of [insert preferred epic type font] “Campaign Setting” core book.

This world was first drafted when I was 17, and fairly new to gaming. It was a chance to further explore options open to me as a new DM, and a chance to create games unrestricted by worlds I was unfamiliar with, and allow players to feel that their characters were leaving their mark. I confess: I stole a lot.

The world was called Sostegaria (bonus points for those who know the reference; no cheating), and was envisioned as a FAR future planet earth, where our myths and legends had returned. Arcane forces returned to the earth, and technology failed. Due to severe limitations in available resources, players adventured Millennium after the ‘event’, with our present only existing in their legends. I had envisioned one day sitting down, and creating an adventure that would allow players to rediscover ‘modern’ technology. It never happened.

In practice, it was a fairly generic fantasy world. I pulled many aspects that appealed to me from video games, movies, and other RPG settings (such as using Kenders instead of traditional halflings), while also inserting aspects that I knew appealed to my group (such as using Drow). I had spent hours creating dozens of NPC’s that could drop in and out of the party (for when I only had two players), or allow a sense of permanence to the city they were visiting. Now the mechanics behind all those NPC are outdated.

So here we are. For almost two decades, I have wanted to run a game that was epic in scope. And for nearly as long, this world has remained dormant. I am massively altering certain sections, fleshing out others, and delving into some previously unexplored areas. This means that materials may be posted in no particular order, and may be further revised over time (although basic concepts should remain unaltered).

As I have already dropped one core aspect of the original design, my original title for the setting has been scrapped. I also no longer feel right using the name Sostegaria, as it no longer matches my image for this world.

So what does this mean?

1. For the time being, the world is simply: Earth

2. Is this still our Earth? Perhaps. As far as players are concerned, there is no idea or evidence that their world is built upon the destruction of another.

3. Am I still stealing? Certainly. But now I’m at least trying to be subtle about it.

[note that this is a rough idea of the world layout, as the core drawing that I am working from is 17 years old, and not even the original. This is good enough that the characters would recognize it, and be able to locate certain key geographic/social points. In this map, the green lines are the edges of nations joined by a common culture, while red indicates individual nations within a culture.]