Worlds Without Number+Yoon Suin Early Draft (Races)

This is a post I fucking swear I wrote and published yet just can't seem to ever find it any archive, which mean I most probably never wrote it: was it just a bad fever dream? Then again in this day and age, it seems like all of reality is a nightmare and a fever dream so what do I know? Anyway here are my firsr draft of garbled notes for 'translating' Yoon-Suin: The Purple Land into Worlds Without Numbers. This is made with the original version of Yoon-Suin in mind and is likely to change once the second edition is released.

These are outlines for the major 'races' present in Worlds Without Numbers+Yoon Suin as I attempt to reconcile the setting of both to the best of my abilities.

Playable Races: Slug-Man

Well, Slug-Person really as they are complete hermaphrodites. The so-called Slug-Men are a somewhat odd crossbreed of ancient demi-human strain and some long lost type of Outsiders, or at the very least this is what sages from beyond Yoon-Suin say on the matter. The Slug-Men consider themselves a distinct civilized race which predate modern human, descendants of great beings be they their true material ancestors or the gods. It doesn't really matter to the Slug-Men, who are the ruling caste of the Yellow City and have always been as far as they can recall.

They are thin of body and human-like in shape, with gangly limbs and a slightly flexible pseudo-skeleton which sticky slug-like flesh wrap around. Their skin is slimy and tend to hang loose, with those who are fat from opulence become massive masses of slimy folds. They are somewhat hunched, having a spine-keel as the axis of their body. Their faces are gooey and slug-like, with stubby stalks with eerily humanoid eyes at the end and their mouth-fold is a disturbing and hideous organ which function similar to both slug and humanoid anatomy. There are many other strange aspect to Slug-Men biology but these are considered somewhat impolite to discuss. While a smart and surprisingly hardy species, they are not particular known for their strength. Very few Slug-Men are Warriors due to their social Caste putting them high in any social hierarchy and they are a philosophically and intellectually inclined people who find the warrior's arts distasteful.

Level 1: Gain Connect and Know as bonus skill. Your Constitution or Intelligence modifier increases by +1 and your Dexterity modifier decreases by -1. You can see clearly in any light level above complete darkness. At the GM discretion you may take the Xenoblooded Foci, representing a Slug-Man's whose Outsider ancestry is more pronounced in their lineage.

Anakim

On most of Latter Earth, the Anakim are the dreaded hordes of primitive and savage humanoids, the twisted goblins and green skinned warriors. In the Purple Land, however, these living weapons of the Outsiders have either gone completely extinct or changed so drastically that hordes and clans of monstrous beast-like men are rather unknown. Perhaps this is due to some efficient purge long ago or perhaps it has something to do with the Yellow City's roots as some long-lost seat of Outsider power. Either way, there are very little of what we could recognize as orcs or goblins who live as war-like societies. Instead, the remaining Anakim have diverged into two distinct and fundamentally different breeds:

• The Asura and the likes of the Ogre Mages descend from a particularly potent and altered breed of Anakim, created and bred by a long lost Imperator. Transformed and empowered far beyond their base cousins, these magically potent demi-gods nonetheless still bear to this day many traits associated with the Anakim, such as a monstrous visage and unnatural skin tones. Where the Anak of old were brutish and short-lived, however, the Asura are potent beings with innate magical powers drawn from the legacy. They are known for their vicious temperament, love of combat and generally explosive demeanor. However, through enlightenment they can and must learn to control themselves and use their powers correctly less they become little more than bloodthirsty ogres with a thirst for battle. Asura are rare and their clans are always few in numbers, whereas the Anakim were once a race bred for explosive population growth.
• The other breed are the Ghost People and similar beings, sometimes also called Yeren, Ghost Ape, Goblin Apes, Ghost Beasts and more. The remaining Anak are creatures which have eschewed civilization entirely, having fled into the deepest wild either to avoid succumbing to The Hate or out of fear of mankind. These creatures are expert survivors, who have devolved into an often ape-like form and forgotten all of civilization. Now they hunt Lahag or mountain peaks, elusive ghost-like beasts who eat traveller who dare enter their territory.

Blighted

There are many kind of Blighted in the Purple Land, yet little of them is understood let alone their true nature, as the land is so old that much has faded into myths, leaving the people of the Purple Land to simply believe such creatures have always existed and have crafted a myriad fanciful myths to explain their true nature, including the belief that they are lower beings who were cursed to be reincarnated in a weakened, servile or animalistic form.

• Much like the Slug-Men, the Crab-Men are another race of demihuman-outsider crossbreed, although the Slug-Men would take offense at the idea of even being vaguely related to such horrible and lowly creatures. The Crab-Men are a form of Blighted, twisted far beyond the human form of their distant ancestors, infused with alien blood and features and now a completely distinct species.
• Tamasic Men, meanwhile, are different strains of subhuman creatures which combine the traits of Half-Men and animals. Common belief is that those who are slothful or negligent in life are reborn as a pathetic crossbreed of a miserable animal and a human being. The truth, however, is that these creatures were created in ancient times by long lost Imperator or similar beings from the population of ancient kingdoms who defied them. These dumb beasts have kept on breeding as some twisted eternal punishment.
• It is possible that other races of Yoon-Suin are, in actuality, Blighted as well but one must not assume this is always the case. Some may simply descend from people altered for different reasons, possibly willingly. Others have stabilized and developed, shaving off most of their Blight through the generations or learning to function with workarounds.

Tieflings: Why do we hate them, again?

Basically this.

Oh right. Its because they've been used so poorly and were reduced to some 'cute cosplay' race. The Tiefling, especially in its current form (since 4th edition) has diverged more and more from the original intent, which was a rare offshoot of human families cursed with fiendish blood but too mortal to be true half-fiends. The modern version, meanwhile, is a mostly coherent race which breed true and has a much more consistent appearance. They are also quite mocked in old school circles due to them being associated with the imagery of modern players doing their Tiefling as some sad misunderstood oppressed minority group. They basically are a darker Half-Elf and a sexier Half-Orc, all wrapped in a nice little package of looking more fantastical and exotic, right?

You're doing Tieflings all wrong.

Tieflings are to Humans what Drows are to regular Elves. If Tiefling are to be treated as a true-breeding race, then this requires changing them. D&D 4e did it right with giving them an empire but somewhat screwed this up by having it be destroyed already. So what is the modern concept of the race, really; Tieflings are, simply put, a stable offshoot of human bloodlines infused with fiendish blood.

The solution to making this take on the Tieflings 'cool' is not to humanize them but, rather, returned to defining them by their inhumanity. They are more than human but also less than human. They are everything which defines the human race in most fantasy settings but pushed to a darker, more inhuman extremes.

Its amazing how much mileage one can get out of race by not really changing their core, established lore but rather looking at it differently. Once you examine a race and go back to the basics of the fantasy genre, so much of it click into place. If you want to cut to the meat and potatoes and not read this long ramble, Tieflings are basically just Melniboneans or Dark Elves. They very much fit within that same archetype and could even replace any type of dark elves within a setting if one felt so inclined to have a race that is powerful, organized, evil, dangerous and magically inclined without the baggage of either being elves or the certain other connotations that make people annoyed.

Tieflings History and Nature

Like these guys, but with horns.

Everything that makes a Tiefling what it is, every single vice? These things already exist in humanity and always did. The slivers of fiendish influence in their blood does not make them evil per se. Rather, it simply amplifies and magnifies all the best and worst qualities of humanity. It is this amplified nature which ultimately brings them back to their fiendish roots, as superior ambition, pride and hubris will invariably drive most Tieflings to evil, although some of them are indeed demented monsters with a twisted mind. As with humans, Tiefling exist in all shape, sizes and quality: some are very smart, some are very dumb. However within each of them burns the fires of ambition which has always propelled mankind forward. The desire for more. The desire to compete. To excel. To conquer. The fiendish blood inside them isn't alone in making them evil. It merely nurture a seed which has always been there, which are all too human desires.

Humans in many fantasy setting are often defined by their ambition and their sheer drive, even when they find themselves coming short next to other races which may be more gifted in certain areas, such as magic or physical might. These positive qualities to constantly strive for more, this ambition? This is the very thing which led to the creation of the Tiefling race and the eternal damnation of all those who descend from their bloodlines. When the great god-kings of old realized their kingdoms would never be at peace, that there was always a greater power and more to be found next door, many could simply not take it. Neither could the greatest arch mages or high priests. Humanity has limitations, as do all things but it is human nature to desire more. To be more and to be greater. That is how great men, who could have once gone down in history as paragons of humanity sold their souls to lower powers simply because they had the all too human flaw of not being able to understand their limitations. They saw it as some great injustice or even more blasphemously, as the gods somehow 'holding down' humanity.

And so, many time across history, this pattern repeated itself. At the peak of their power or at their darkest hour, great heroes of mankind fell prey to the promises of power offered by lower powers. They surrendered their humanity and allowed dark powers to completely consume them, giving them greater might and even a partial form of immortality. Their most direct servants and descendants inherited a portion of this power as they were transformed. The dark pacts couldn't claim entire nations, but they could certainly taint parts of it. And so, several times across history, strains of a dark race were born. Still partially human but carrying within them a horrific taint.

Presenting Tiefling Cultures

Nota Tiefling, but pretty close.

I won't go into the details of whatever complex societies Tiefling could form, as that truly depend on a world's specific history. What is important is to coat the society in the right imagery. Understand Tieflings do not see themselves as a 'monster race', especially not on the same level as orcs or ogres. From their point of view, they firmly belong in the category of the intelligent and civilized folks such as their once-relatives the humans, the elves or dwarves. If anything, Tieflings see themselves as rather superior to all of these. They are, from their point of view, free of many of the petty weaknesses of other races. This, of course, plays in the races' sheer hubris which they inherited from their human ancestors. 

Most of all, Tieflings see themselves with a bloated self importance. They are the center of the world or at least percieve themselves as such. In their minds, the average fantasy setting isn't really some human-centric wilderness with many a decaying Tiefling empire or maybe scattered warrior clans. No no, see, that's the human delusion. To the Tiefling, THEY are the civilized folks, the beacon of civilization and peace in a world full of monsters and mad wizards. When Tiefling adventurers are encountered from a far away land, they see themselves as a plucky band of explorers (with maybe a few token members of other races) who most definitely aren't robbing tombs for riches but, rather, returning priceless artifacts to civilization!

Art by Ahmed Aldoori

Of course, most powerful Tiefling rules are still indebted to fiends, serving the lower powers of whatever hellish dimension their ancestors made pact with. This, mind you, doesn't really appear to be all that strange or sinister to Tieflings, especially with generations upon generation of their culture building and expanding on this. They serve the lower powers, who reward them. If anything, from their point of view, the Tiefling's way of serving their dark masters is more noble. After all, demons and their ilk can and will reward you with magical powers and arcane secrets provided you serve them well. Meanwhile, what can mortal kings and petty gods truly offer? Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven and all that. Let the weaker men and elves worship oft-silent gods who promise maybe an afterlife, when Tieflings can rise with their ambition, claiming crowns and crushing kingdoms underneath their heels, being showered in gold, wine and of course the comfort of concubines and/or boytoys.

Tiefling certainly have an association with sexuality (if one is fine with bringing that to their game table) but the same taint applies as with everything else. Tiefling sexuality is not a pretty topic and most relationships tend to end as some master/servant or abuser/abused. The best Tiefling couples are those who can manage to be equal partners, constantly testing and hurting each others so they can become stronger or perish. Its all quite masochistic, really.

In spite of their often monstrous features, or because of them, many Tieflings can become object of lust from people who find their stranger traits to be 'alluring' or 'exotic'. While some Tieflings are indeed ugly or monstrous, many of them carry within them the allure and potent physical presence of many of the more deceptively beautiful fiends. Unfortunately for many, this fact is usually more often than not exploited by Tieflings, as is their 'sad and tragic' origin. Being open minded around a Tiefling, to open oneself to them and to show interest is a surefire way to die. Most of them don't see human as worthy opponents, let alone as something to love (a word which, by itself, does not translate to their language well as love and obsessive urges=same thing in their dialect of Fiendish Tongues+Common).

4e Tiefling art

Despite seeing themselves as a cultured and civilized people, few other races truly ever bother interacting willingly with Tieflings. While they claim to praise certain values which may seem fine or appealing, such as beauty, power, ambition or 'loyalty' (which is also different in meaning for them, as loyalty is a conditional term for them), their culture remain tainted by their fiendish influence and remain utterly unpalatable to most other races. Tiefling sports are invariably horrific blood games or even a form of ritualized hunt. Their art is grotesque and degenerate, favoring flesh and bone interwoven with beautiful gems and precious metal. To Tiefling this is 'natural' and speak of the profound, almost mystical beauty of the juxtaposition of violence, pain, love and wonder. To a sane person, a Tiefling artist is a psychopath with sick tastes. The Tiefling, meanwhile, doesn't seem to take kindly to being called a monster because he has a refined taste of painting exclusively with the blood of different sentient races.

The way Tieflings see the other races isn't really all that different from how hegemonistic and imperialistic cultures saw their neighbors. Their superiorty is self evident in their noble bearing, the fine lines of their faces, their sharp fangs, glowing eyes and the complex and varied forms of their horns. Any Tiefling simply has to look their history or even in a mirror to see it self-evident they are a master race and everything else is just ugly. They can turn to their culture and history and see it as self-evident that they are a more enlightened people which have cast aside the yoke of cruel or uncaring gods in favor of a harsh but fair new master, one which values the only things that truly matter in life: power and survival.

So what are Tieflings, then? How do you use them? Simple, they are the dark mirror to humans. They are also the evil and vaguely exotic foreign power which people fear and despise because of their supposed witch ways and worshipping demons, only in their case it is 100% true and more. They are the cruel conquerors, the degenerate empire of sorcerers and the monsters with harem of beautiful women and monsters alike. They are disgusting, vile, base people who are blinded by the idea they are somehow a morally kind.

Random World Redux: Orcs

This isn't the first time I've tried to rework orcs on this blog, given they are currently one of the most contentious monsters around these days. This is a remake/expansion of my original take on the Orcs for the then-random world, before it got canned and reworked into something less tied to a map.

Orcish Nature and Origins

Where do Orcs come from, anyway, and what are they really? Well, simply put orcs are a form of artificial life, roughly analogous to an homunculus albeit gifted with much greater bodies and minds (even if that mind can often come short compared to a human or elf). Their origins are shrouded in myths and tall tales and many 'crops' of orcs are very much removed from these mythical roots, being the creation of human beings. Through some of the foulest magical and alchemical process known to man, the creation of orcs is a blasphemous act of defiance against creation and any gods out there as filthy mud, blood, grime, bile and more is poured into a flesh pit and given something approximating life and a mind but not quite gifted with anything resembling a true mind and soul.

Orc Biology

Art by John Owe

Orcs are unnatural creatures, a pale and hideous imitation of life and humanity. While their bodies approximate biological process but only barely. Orcs are sexless and ageless beings, born as adult from their flesh pits identical to how they will spend the rest of their life, barring the most limited of mental changes an orc can gain. If one was to cut an orc open and examine its body before it rapidly decays into foul grime and fluids they would find mostly all organs found in a human, yet each is an unnatural counterfeit.

The resulting creature tend to be short and wiry, but a few of them are large and muscular or even fat. Every single orc is completely and utterly hideous, a mockery of men. What form this take vary from orc to orc and batch to batch but hideously ugly facial features, warty skin, unnatural skin tone and missing or malformed features are the norm. While most orcs are born functional enough to not be crippled, they all sport disgusting deformities. Some have thick bony brows while others have no nose except for a pair of slits. Fingers tend to be crooked, ending in yellow or black nails or no nails at all, teeth jagged and rotten. They can be either bald or very hairy. Their skin is often an earthy tone or a pale white, but these are not the natural and human skin tones we know that range from a pale pinkish beige to ebony. No, rather, orcs have the color of mud and shit or the pale discolored slimy colors of some monstrous slug or perhaps piebald or worse Others will have jaundiced skin or grey wrinkled, almost necrotized skin that slowly flake off yet somehow never completely peel off. Fingers and feet tend toward having four, three or six toes and not always the same amount between the feet and hands. Some orcs are a form of symbiote, with colonies of worms, insects or spiders living inside their foul skin, hair or stomach with little detriment to the orc's health. Moss and algae growing on them can sometimes create the association with fungi, but these creatures are not fungi at all.

In spite of their ugly, hunched and hideous bodies these creatures are quite spry and strong. Their smaller size belies a strong grip which, when combined with a high resistance to pain, make the creature much stronger and tougher than its thin or crooked frame would imply. Orcs are created to be minions and warriors and so these creatures are invariably gifted with the strength and endurance required. Orcish grip is a lot like getting manhandled and mauled by a crazy ape that overdosed on drugs. Not to mention simply being around orcs or covered in their foul-smelling, tar-black blood is a surefire way to catch many diseases, some of which may have never been recorded simply because they are new and fermented inside the orc's body almost like a depraved form of internal alchemy.

Orcs don't age, be it physically or mentally. Technically their lifespan is infinite but in practice most will die in combat or become crippled by wounds sustained in combat and, for lack of a better term, recycled by their comrades to be sent back into the vats and flesh-pits. Orcs are sexless and lack any reproductive organs or the associated urges and stories of orc pillage involving assault isn't done out of any sexual urges but purely because orcs can and it offend humans, as well as having a psychological toll. Beautiful women kidnapped by orcs are more likely to end as lunch or part of some communal torture game than abused. As for their biology, orcs don't have any sexual organs therefore trying to hit them in the groin has little effects, as all they have is a rudimentary hole which excrete whatever their bodies didn't process.

Giant Orcs do exist and are believed to be a fluke or a deliberate attempt at orc flesh crafting. These creatures tend to be larger, stronger but also dumber and mechanically similar to Ogres, albeit with all orc traits applied. Many of the smaller orcs will enslave their larger, more deficient brethren to use as slave labor and/or battle mount.

Orc Psychology and Society

Art by Matthew Carter

Since these are not natural creatures, nothing about orc mentality make any sense to a rational human. Since they are a soulless automaton bred only for war and violence, orcs simply have no other desires beyond violence, malice and chaos. While they are capable of organizing (and indeed, many orcs crave a master as some built in programming), any society they form has little culture beyond simply a loose but functional pecking order and distribution of roles to make their army/clan function. The inhuman intellect from beyond the veil of mortality that inhabit each orc's head is devious, but primitive. The resulting creature has simply no desire or ambitions beyond its base function.

The orcs simply are poor learner because every orc is 'born' with mostly everything it need to function and the inhuman mind that inhabit their soulless body has no desires for anything outside of it. Aspirations, art, poetry, personal growth and desire are meaningless to something hat is not truly alive. Because orcs cannot truly create, they copy what they find and mimic any behavior they can learn from humans. These limited nuggets of orcish culture are especially common a generation or two removed from an orc clan having been created as minions for some would-be conqueror who can distill his ideals and military tactics to a group of leaders. The more removed from its roots an orc band is, the less coherent is become. Orcs aren't spellcasters either, but for some reason they are able to recreate the rituals which birthed them, almost as if whatever malign cosmic influence animate their husk is attempting to spread like a disease.

While animals innately dislike orcs (as they are not natural at all), they nonetheless like having war mounts and companion beasts as these make hunting and killing easier. The foulest, most hideous beasts found in the depth of caves or the deepest marshes make suitable allies for them, such as giant bats, giant bugs, giant toads or giant lamprey-worms. The bigger, the uglier and nastier the better. Orcish beastmasters are the closest the race has to beings capable of understanding a non-orcish being and, even then, it is only an understanding of how to exploit or abuse.

Random World Redux: The Other Monsters

Some further thoughts on the monster lore I'm reusing from the Random World.

Aberrations, The Man-Made Monsters

Pathfinder's Otyugh

The successor to the random world is fairly low on Lovecraftian inspiration, as I've long lamented that Lovecraftian concepts and ideas are somewhat overused especially when it come to the Old Ones and all manners of tentacle monsters. That said, what is a good dungeon without a horribly, slimy beast of the chthonian depths? What about hideous crossbreed abominations of nature created by wicked sorcerers for their experiments or amusement? Surely there is room for this, right? Well yes, there is!

Call them 'Aberrations' or 'Monstrosities' but it doesn't matter. These creatures are born of magic gone amok, especially magic which is used to warp flesh and combine species in ways which are just plain ungodly. There are countless evil wizards in history who experiment with some truly disgusting things in an attempt to breed a new type of minion or monster. While Orcs are a particularly stable breed, not all experiments are as successful. Those which start from warping an already-living creature in particular can produce some particularly unstable and monstrous creatures which often retain the ability to breed with their kind. As a result, some horrific experiments have bred true, at least in some limited capacity. Many of these creatures produce stillbirths or, worse, offspring's which are even more warped and foul than them.

Undead, the Cast Off Shells

Wight from D&D 3rd edition.

Undead occupy an odd place in my head. I absolutely adore them for all the obvious horror they induce and there is no denying they are among the most simplistically gruesome monsters that exist. However, in the previous and original incarnation of the Rand World, Undead were established to have a certain level of rarity. This is because the modern conception of the Undead in fantasy has increasingly been tainted by many elements 20th century of pop culture as opposed to more proper folkloric roots. In particular, most Undead in D&D tend to have the ability to turn those they kill into another of their kind. While this does have some basis, the modern concept is heavily rooted in American cinema's modern flesh-eating zombie and in modern Vampires.

An undead is never a complete being. If they were, they wouldn't be undead. While this may bring to mind the lack of a body of a ghostly undead or lack of mind of the baseline zombie, it is a bit more complex than that or a lack of a pulse. What birth the True Undead, as opposed to the Animated Undead create by spells such as basic zombies and skeletons, must be a confluence of events. Undead are born of a particularly troubled minds and, often, either sudden or particularly tragic deaths. These creatures are generally defined by an all consuming need or desire, such as needing blood, flesh or the warmth of the living to use some basic examples. Others are controlled by the need or urge to either complete a task or prevent someone from completing a task which invariably ties into the circumstances of the Undead's death. The disturbing thing about the Undead is that what animate them isn't really, entirely the person's soul even if theological debates still rages on the matter. However, by itself a person doesn't simply have the power to transcend the veil between life and death, as such power is obviously beyond the ability of mortals. Thus while the circumstances of the creation of a True Undead is from human matters, there exist dark, unformed powers within the world and beyond it which provide the spark of unlife. While the creature was once a living human, its corpse or materialized spirit has become the vessel for a greater (well, arguably, a lower) power. Some believe that Undead which remain in the world for a long time eventually fade and become nothing but spirits, hollowed out of their original humanity and join the ranks of creatures such as goblin-spirits and demons.

Some Undead, however, were never human to begin with. Or, rather, their bodies were human but not the mind existing inside their rotting form. If most Undead are the discarded but still animate husk of humans slowly hollowed out of their true selves, some are more unfortunate. With the bodies left somewhere unhallowed or forgotten (but the mind/soul without much to be angry about and meeting its fate), the body become a vessel to darker powers which animate the corpse and warps it into some monstrous goblin-ghost or demonic ghoul with truly disturbing forms and/or powers. These creatures may attempt to fake being the person the corpse belonged to but they not. They are an alien intellect driven by some truly vile thoughts.

Dragons, the Old Serpent Beasts of Chaos

Dragonlord Kolaghan by Jaime Jones

Dragons are a particularly ancient breed of chimeric monsters born of chaos, or at least this is generally an agreed upon understanding of what they are. While there are many pseudo reptilian or serpentine beasts upon the world, the True Dragons are a particularly ancient breed of monsters spawned from primordial chaos. Common traits include great size, wings (or, sometimes, a stranger mean of flight), usually poisonous blood and/or breath and the ability to exhale chaotic energies often in the form of some elemental breath weapon. They are intelligent creatures for the most part, but they tend toward being extremely violent and destructive as well as greedy.

No one has ever seen a young dragon, at least not in the current age. It is speculated that all Dragons either were created from the same or were born into the world in some cycle. Others speculate that dragon reproductive cycle, if it exist, is extremely long and complex. Ultimate it is unknown how or if dragon breed but ancient text do refer to smaller or younger, foolhardy dragons being slain by the mythical founders of nations and similar figures. Other truly ancient text refer to ancient dragons as being young in their time, meaning they do apparently age and grow to some extent. Perhaps it is that the last generation of Dragons has already been born and no future generation can exist or ever will exist, with the youngest of dragons being already several centuries old or more with truly ancient dragons being extremely rare beings who have seen the very birth of the world and now sleep at the bottom of its ocean or in ancient caves or volcanoes. Or perhaps they are all dead safe the youngest and weakest of their kind.

When roused from their slumber, dragons are often little more than flying demons of fire and fury. Few artistic depiction of them truly convey their terrifying neither, too: the many jagged horns or crests upon their heads, their amalgam bodies with traits of a variety of beasts, covered in the scales of a snake, crocodile or shark. Their breath is so foul it can kill a man. Their stomach has enough room to swallow entire herds and, indeed, dragons can even often dislocate their jaws like a serpent to swallow large animals or even other dragons, some say. The eldest of dragons can flap their wings and call upon fire storms, acid rains, thunder and rain which tears away at cities or hailstorms in the middle of a hot summer.

Random World Redux: Once Again, Monsters

From 2018 to 2019 I worked on a setting I dubbed the Random World. It started off as a bit of a random experiment, using a randomly generated fantasy setting map and drawing inspiration from the scattering of meaningless name of locales. Over time it evolved as some more concepts were bolted on and expanded. While the so-called Random World is dead as a project, the key ideas of how monsters were to be handled, designed and presented remained in my head and to this day remain my favorite take on the classic monsters of the Monster Manual (and similar books). While definitely not the most original, it is perhaps the take I am most personally happy in terms of my own presentation of these concepts. This is a re-affirmation, expansion and refresh of these previously outlined ideas as well as some new concepts added since.

The Great Unknown and Dark

Art by Alexander Solomin

Greatly detailed setting mythologies were not what I thought about for the random world and this has not changed for any spiritual successor. This successor to the so-called Random World retain the usual flair of basic assumptions one expect of the original Dungeons & Dragons: that the world is a vast place, full of wilderness, monsters, ruins and that civilization exist as scant oasis of civilization. The presence of ruins and long lost artifacts more or less imply an almost post apocalyptic sense, that the world was once this great place which has fallen and/or decayed. Mankind's grip on the world has slipped, allowing the dark and primordial powers to slowly overtake the land.

These powers have many names and are ascribed to many mythologies and folklore but such definition does not truly matter. They are the things in the darkness, the fallen angels, the gods (false, forgotten, old or otherwise) and inscrutable fae. It is the collective host of all powers which range from indifferent to Man to completely anthetical to its nature and civilization. They are creatures of myth and legend and the monsters from beyond this world just as much as they can be restless spirits of ancestral graves and sacred sites. At best, these powers can be appeased or cajoled but never truly tamed. These are powers which Druids and Warlocks make pacts with and while they aren't inherently evil, they are still something which Man see with fear or awe. It is not the power of kind protector gods or ancestral spirits, for that is a different power, a slice of the immortal things which Man has shaped and been shaped by but it is not the same. Not completely, anyway.

Many monsters of this newly conceptualized successor to the Random World are truly unique. While there are some species of monsters which breed true, a capital-M Monster is often a terrifying, semi unique being, some creature of darkness or the wilderness which lurks at the bottom of the lake or hidden in the mist. These creatures are not truly alive (but functionally and mechanically may as well be, obviously). They are twisted things, born of a mimicry of the natural world. The head of a lion, the legs of a crocodile and the wings of a bat while a human head may exist at the tip of its tale as it wail in terror, trying to lure people to it thinking it is someone in danger. Others are moss monsters or rocky terrors, elemental forces given life. These creatures are not truly alive, not truly thinking. They are akin to an interface which unknowable powers exert their will upon the world. Thus, the needs and methods of feeding of a monster might make no sense in a naturalist way of thinking. They are the chimera of myth or the bogeyman stalking in the dark. Consider them, in a sense, closer to the Japanese yokai than some of the monsters of classic Tabletop Fantasy.

Goblins

Art by Gonzalo Kenny

The 'goblin' family is one of the three major 'families' of humanoid monsters of this unnamed, conceptual world. Goblinkind consist of a myriad of strange and bizarre creatures which appear to be vaguely humanoid and akin to people, but only just barely. They embody a side of that-which-is-not-human by being creatures of deceit, trickery, magic and the dark and foul places of the world. Goblins range from spirit-like creatures incarnated in a physical form to the classical, stunted humanoid we would recognize as a traditional goblinoid. Their ranks are further bolstered by all manner of creatures, monsters, bogeymen, pixies, tricksters, witches and hags and more which may appear human or be able to fake humanity but clearly are not and never were. Their realm are deep, dark primordial forests, abandoned ruins, dark caves, giant fungus-realms and strange locations which exist aside from our world, intersecting with it but not truly of it.

Of the supernatural beings, Goblin-kind are generally the weakest in terms of raw physical power and more often than not lacking in size, even if exceptions do exist. As with other supernatural beings their form is a mimicry of the world, even if the form of humans is one which they nearly always incorporate on some level, as most if not all goblins are humanoid. Among the most mortal of goblin-kind are creatures which are almost human, but not quite: perhaps descended of some disgusting admixture of human and inhuman blood or, perhaps, descendant of ancient people who chose not civilization and humanity but rather stayed in the dark and primordial world. These creatures are what one could recognize as akin to Gnomes and Dwarves, as well as Halflings (even if these categories may not exist, they are used as an example). They are short, stunted creatures which produce offspring, age and die but not in a way truly like us human. These creatures do form communities here and there but, as a general rule, tend to dislike outsiders. These are, naturally, the forest home of strange bearded gnomes who cultivate mushrooms or the hidden under city of Dwarves, who mine ever deeper into the earth with every passing day.

Art by Christophe Young

One thing which is not known to humans except perhaps those who have lived amongst goblins or to sages is that while it initially appear that attractive goblins are better innate spellcaster it is actually the opposite: better spellcasters are simply better at reshaping their own nature to reflect their own decadence and egocentric needs to command attention. As such, many ethereal and beautiful 'fae lords' are little more than disgusting goblins under a veneer of beauty. These creatures often oversee courts of lesser goblin-creatures or even other, less understood beings. Others eschew such veneer of beauty and revel in their goblin nature, becoming grotesquely obese goblin kings or wicked hags. While they may act refine or completely insane or even stupid, these creatures are invariably gifted with great and terrible power, as well as a level of intelligence or persuasion few mortals can ever compare to. Never assume their form to be true. Never assume their words to be true. Never assume you have outsmarted 'that dumb goblin'. In fact, when it come to goblins assume very little.

Trolls

Art by Greg Rutkowski

The opposite side of the goblins are the trolls, which include the rank of all manners of hideous brutes, troll, ogres, giants and more. Where goblins are physically lacking but generally tricksters, the trolls are large and powerful but no less magical. Indeed, the magical nature of trolls manifest in the form of their boundless power, strength, durability and even, yes in some cases, regeneration. Where goblins are the shadows in the woods, the vermin in the earth and moonlit magic the trolls are an ancient, mighty and oak or an unbreakable stone. They are creatures of the raging storm and howling winter winds. Troll-kind too stride across the untamed wilderness but they are not subtle creatures. They are wild, powerful, sometimes (but not always!) dim witted and most important of all they are untamed and free. Troll-kind tend to be more solitary, with each troll claiming a territory where it just wander around breaking stuff, eating cattle or maybe just sleeping until they forget to wake up, becoming boulders until accidentally awakened.

Trolls with particularly strong magical abilities do exist and they are called Troll Wyrd. Creatures of chaos, Troll Wyrd tend to be physically bizarre even by troll standard, exhibiting bold colors or truly outrageous mutations. They can be as dumb as a rock or gifted with a truly stunning intellect but generally are plagued by being completely and utterly insane by mortal standards. The magic of troll wyrd is invariably flashy and destructive, with focus on vivid and iconic spell effects such as creating fire, lighting bolts, polymorphing others or stranger effects such as rains of explosive frogs. A few others have more subtle, but no less destructive magic as they have been known to warp fate in some spectacular ways such as making arrows bounce off their skin by sheer accident and then, somehow, spin backward and fly into the eye of whoever shot the arrow! In spite of the danger they represent, many Magic User seek out particularly infamous or gifted Troll Wyrd, as they can sometime become known as eccentric hermits which are privy to secret or bizarre forms of magic no one has ever heard of.

Art by Markus Neidel

The link between human and troll-kind are creatures one would recognize as Ogres. These creatures are flesh and blood and mortal, but they share the unnatural vitality, size and appetite of their troll ancestors. Ogres tend to be much more 'human' than goblin-kind and perhaps a little too human. Ogres have a fairly nasty tendency to exhibit the worst qualities of humanity given unnatural power and appetite to grow. They tend to be particularly greedy, always hungry, prone to intense acts of violence and generally driven by raw hedonistic desire. This can make ogres decent mercenaries, however, since they can be easily controlled by giving them food, wine or women. Of course, control usually only last as long as one is able to keep the ogre content and the creature will generally either get bored, tired or fly into a rage if one cannot give the goods. The wyrds of ogre-kind are what is known as an Ogre Mage and everything previously outlined on the matter of wyrd applies. Approach with caution and expect the worst.

Orcs

Artist Unknown

While they may outwardly resemble goblins or trolls, in truth orcs are neither. Their creation is some lost myth (or not) and whatever version may survive is likely not the complete truth. It speak of ambitious, power hungry would-be demiurges who sought to create life and conquer all realms. Through some dark pacts with forgotten entities, they acquired the knowledge to create life itself so they may raise great armies to conquer all the known world. These creatures would be soldiers and workers, born and bred only to toil or to pillage for their dark master. Through a fusion of dark magic, blood, filth and more the orcs were born, cast from a mold of mud and bile.

Physically, most orcs are shorter than human (but not as short as goblin-kind) and are invariably hideous parodies of humanity whose small stature and twisted form belies surprising physical strength. The form they take and what deformities plague them vary from orc to orc but they common features include missing body parts or over exaggerated body parts, warty or slimy skin and a mouth full of crooked teeth. Some group of orcs may display common physical traits which physically mark them as member of a specific group but some groups may consist of entirely different orcish types. They have no parent, no children and no true biological sex and are instead born in 'batches' where orcs emerge from the same flesh-pit or slime field, fully grown as adults and ready to serve their dark master. These creatures, being a parody of life and humanity, lack a true soul; while they are intelligent, orcs lack the ability to develop anything beyond a facsimile of a particularly crass, violent and/or cowardly nature. Whatever inhabit the mind of an orc is not a true soul or conscience but some twisted thing perhaps ripped from the ether and infused into a puppet of filth and violence.

Many modern orc infestations were born of the hubris of lords of old who too sought to conquer but were constantly met with the limitations of a standing army. In their desire for power, many wicked individuals turned to magic to find a solution: first perhaps employing court or battle wizard or making pacts with fae. Yet the simplest solution is simply to create soldiers. Orcs are warriors devoid of conscience. Unfortunately for the world, many of them survived the wars they waged and, worse, in some parts of the world managed to go into hiding and slowly find ways to make more of their kind. A rare few orcs manage to acquire a soul by consuming it, fusing the true powers of a soul with their alien orc un-nature. Orcish soul-eaters are monsters who stand above their peer as black knights or would-be dark lords, eager to consume the flesh and soul of particularly strong or special individuals so they are able to fill their gullet with soul-stuff, enhancing their power and intellect.

Art by Anato Finnstark

Finally, even fouler are rumors of Orc-Men. Since orcs are sexless being, it seem somewhat ridiculous to think 'half orcs' could exist. Instead, Orc-Men are vile sorcerers and warlocks who seek to extend their natural lifespan by becoming more like the near-immortal orcs, slowly replacing more and more of their flesh and nature with the stuff of orc slime vats and flesh pits. While it is true the process can greatly extend one's lifespan, the cost of such a process is too much. Damnation is inevitable as humanity is slowly peeled and rots away. While in theory many of these Orc-Men could become great lords among the orcs, many of them eventually lose their identity and nature and degenerate, becoming no different than the baseline orcs.

Random Chimera (Remake)

Riptide Chimera by Ryan Barger.

Sometimes, one must look back at their old work and realize that while seeing any kind of growth is nice there are times where its okay to go back and redo something or to expand upon it. Such is the case with my old blogpost about randomly generated Chimeras. The original stuck a bit too much to the classic Greek design. These tables continue in the trend, but come with extra entries to further make a monstrous, implausible mashup of animals.

Chimeras, by their very nature, are implausible creatures. Dragon, wyvern and owlbears can rationalized to some extent as plausible creatures but the Chimera is a monstrosity spawned of the imagination with simply no basis in reality. While there may be some creatures in real life which appear chimeric in nature (see: Platypus) they do not truly possess the body part of multiple animals. The mythical chimera, meanwhile, laughs at any biological plausibility.

1d8	Impossible Shape
1-2	Chimera Classic: The chimera’s shape is the classic quadrupedal form, usually with three heads. It has a 50% chance of having wings. Optionally you may roll on the Predator Head or Herbivore Head tables.
3	Aquatic Chimera: This chimera has the body of a sea-dwelling creature and three heads. Roll on the Aquatic Creature (either in Predator or Herbivore chart) table and, optionally, on the Predator Head or Herbivore Head tables.
4	Flying Chimera: This chimera has the body of something flying, with the forelimbs replaced by the matching (or not) wings of said beast. Roll on the Flying Creature table and, optionally, on the Predator Head or Herbivore Head tables.
5	Bipedal Chimera: This chimera is bipedal, with its upper body being akin to either a human or some ape-like creature at least in form. It has opposable thumbs and can wield weapons (crudely). Optionally you may roll on the Predator Head or Herbivore Head tables.
6	Serpentine Chimera: This chimera has either no hind legs and only a serpent tail and/or a head at the end of the tail or the body of a snake and its multiple heads. You may optionally roll on the Predator Head or Herbivore Head tables.
7	Lesser Chimera: This chimera combines less animals/monsters. Reroll on this table, ignoring any result of 7 or 8. Then remove either the Predator Head or the Herbivore Head. For example, a lesser Aquatic Chimera would be sea creature+predator+dragon head.
8	Abominable Chimera: This chimera is an absolute nightmare, stranger and more dreadful than any other of its kind in form. Roll on the Abominable Chimera table.

1d4	Abominable Chimera
1	Hydra-Like: The chimera’s various heads are hydra-like, sitting on multiple scaly necks. It has no snake head part.
2	Inverted: The creature has the body of the Herbivore and the head of a snake and/or dragon, while the tail has the Predator head at the end of it.
3	Draconic: The creature has the body of its Herbivore and Predator parts (one is forelimbs, one is hind limbs) mix and matched, with multiple draconic or serpentine heads.
4	Apex Predator: Replace the Herbivore part with another Predator but from a different column.

1d10	Predator Head
	Land Creature	Sea Creature	Flying Creature
1	Tiger	Great White Shark	Eagle
2	Lynx	Hammerhead Shark
3	Jaguar	Goblin Shark	Hawk
4	Puma	Crocodile
5	Hyena	Mosasaur	Owl
6	Bear	Orca
7	Wolf	Beluga	Heron
8	Lizard	Eel	Pelican
9	Badger	Snapping Turtle	Bat
10	Wolverine	Manta Ray	Dragonfly

1d8	Herbivore Head
	Land Creature	Sea Creature	Flying Creature
1	Goat	Manatee	Eagle
2	Auroch
3	Elk	Hippopotamus	Hawk
4	Elephant
5	Rhinoceros	Whale	Owl
6	Moose
7	Horse	Fish	Bat
8	Swine		Flying Squirrel