Let's create some Factions for a fantasy wargame. First 5 posts are the pantheon, dubs and trips overide a faction...

Do swords like that exist? My autism tells me all the small curve on the end does is make it a straight sword that can't stab.

>Do swords like that exist?

Alright, so far we have

-Bears
-Armored Knights
-Eldritch Spirit Dragon horrors
-Bronze Age not! Byzantine empire with powerful sorcerers who summon demons to aid the bronze armoured cataphracti.
-Not!Roman Empire led by !Caligula.

Let the setting be a dying world with the various factions desperately fighting to find a means of escaping the dying planet as the pale sun shines coldly and slowly flickers out and most of the world is covered by cold desert wastes.

The Eldritch Dragon Horrors are the only ones that can survive well enough in this world, but they need to feed on the life force of other beings, and oppose the other factions attempting to leave.

Advanced Songs of Blades and Heroes would actually run this rather well, especially since they just dropped Demon summoning rules in their new supplement.

I object: we have the Roman Empire in there twice. That's downright unfair.

dubs overrides.

Elven-Dwarven coalition.

Bears faction are a mainly bipedal matriarchal oligarchy. They have no centralized government, and exist as a lose confederation of fiefdoms. Primacy among leaders when two fiefdoms meet and/or cooperate is established through complex and nuanced biological, economic and social indicators that take decades to learn to recognize, but the system works as war between clans is exceedingly rare. Males are not truly integrated into their society, and are typically either self-reliant nomadic wanderers or a carefully segregated underclass, bred and raised for some specific purpose within any given clan (warriors, servants, craftsmen, etc)

Their civilization is based around "industrialized druidism." By using magic to bend nature to their whims, they can mass produce anything they want without need of formal technology or agriculture. Other races often associate this way of life with gluttony, as they are famous for the quantity and variety of food they indulge themselves in daily thanks to their ability to make everything from plants to bees overproduce at their whim, but their talent for crafting weapons, armor and structures from wood and stone and to domesticate powerful forest creatures is just as important.

This way of life does have a cost: plants, animals, even soil is "squeezed," of its very life-force by this unnatural overproduction over time, and this eventually leaves them completely barren. It is therefore essential to maintain their way of life that they raid other civilizations for fresh sources of nature to exploit, sometimes simply stealing plants and animals to replenish their homes, sometimes expanding or even moving wholesale to new territory. Rumors abound that in places their magic has totally exhausted life, undeath begins to appear and thrive. Such talk is always denied and quickly silenced.

Golems/Warforged

Gryphon riding Meso-American Elves.

Only if they are allied with dolphin-riding polynesian island elves.

Technologically advanced and evolved pigs who conquer to get new species and ingredients for their complicated meals. The most influential people are chefs. They may even breed other species for food.

Dominating another civilization means adopting their traditional dishes and 'improving' them according to their taste, but also including the local cuisine into their culture as well. An ever expanding empire of foodies.

Yeesh, is Moana really that good? It seems like Veeky Forums has been going on Polynesian lore for a while. alright, rolling for this to replace Caligula.

Seconding this. I'd play the fuck out of a Foodie empire.

Centaurs.

Actually, I haven't seen Moana, I just saw a pic of a sexy brown elf on a beach with a flower lei and grass skirt in an Elf Thread a while back and have thought that Island Elves would be really cool since then. Tropical Island Jungles and Coral Reefs are nature too darn it.

Alright, Centaurs replacing what?

No replacement, the Centaurs are a slave races to the eldritch dragons.

Centaur Cultists who worship Dragon Horrors? Works for me.

Rolling for the pigs

Alright, Now for lore. Probably going to replace Caligula with something else if dubs allow, but for now, Next 20 statements about ANY faction become true. dubs/trips overrides, Quads gets to pick the replacement faction.

This post is true about the bear faction.

Armored Knights are the remnants of a Templar order, and survived after the prophecy dictated by the writings of their order gave warning to the world's impending doom. They utilize magic and sword in equal measure, and consider themselves to be the only truly good force left in the world, though their governing of those under them is both spartan, and incredibly strict.

To go with the "world is dying, everyone is fighting to get out," bit, the Bear lands are isolated islands of the old world artificially kept alive by their druidic prowess. The majority of their population is ignorant of the fact that most of the world has become barren wasteland by the efforts of the matriarchs to stop civilization from descending into total anarchy.

The expense of maintaining their lifestyle in terms of the lifeforce they extract from their islands of nature is inflating exponentially as the world around them continues to die, and raids for replacement raw materials are becoming more frequent and more desperate. To buy themselves time, the matriarchs are reviving the ancient practice of hibernation to slow down the consumption of resources, but this is leading to new problems in terms of manpower shortages and brain drain, as at any given time their most brilliant minds or most productive workers might be sleeping to ensure the illusion of normalcy can be preserved for that much longer.

The nomadic males have more and more difficulty surviving in the wastelands, with several subspecies unsuited for cold and less-than-plentiful food dying out entirely, but are also more and more important to the matriarchs, as they are the best way to scout for new sources of raw nature, and thus are causing certain subtle societal changes between the sexes. Time will tell if this causes the anarchy their grand deception is attempting to avoid.

Also those undead their magic create as a byproduct are getting more numerous and more troublesome as a result of the above problems and their refusal to pump the breaks on their way of life. Who knew?

Eldritch Dragon Horrors/Centaurs desire the slow death and destruction of every faction, as they treat their lives as a fuel source. Their current goal is to smash all resistance from all sides, then treat them as Cattle. They're directly opposed to the bear faction, and mainly focus on the conflict with them, as they wish to force the druidic magic into overdrive, milking the life magic for all it's worth.

The centaurs may or may not be practitioners of Necromancy, in an attempt to swell their numbers opposing the Bear force.

Yes they do. They are german swords. It's called a kriegsmesser.

Undead started off as a byproduct, but eventually some gained Sentience, and formed their own faction, which, if duns allow, replace !Caligula. Ruled by a council of Undead Minotaur Liches.

The actual civilization which the Templars belonged too could not survive the world's swing towards frozen oblivion. Once a grand, sprawling kingdom and a virtual arcadian paradise where even the lowest serf could enjoy a sunny day in the fields because he knew the local inn had a hot stew and a cold brew waiting for him, the Templars were considered lunatics on the absolute fringe of society with their talk of Armageddon. When the end came and their King and Lords could do nothing as all went to ruin, only the Templars and those who ran to them for sanctuary survived, the grim knowledge that they had been right all along providing cold comfort.

The survivors take refuge around a handful of massive stone Fortress Cathedrals, which rise from the wastes like gleaming spires forged from pure hope. They and those in close proximity are protected by powerful magic from the wasteland allowing some food to be grown, some animals raised, some forges fired in relative peace. The towns are ramshackle and the people poor, as almost all resources go to the Order's Knights. However, this is out of necessity rather than tyranny, and the knights take their obligation as shepherds of the last spark of their people very seriously. The law is MORE strict on those in power than those without, and abuse of the common folk is not tolerated in the slightest.

Their government is a Small Council headed by the order's Grand Master, who refuses to be named king of establish a nobility. The heads of various groups within the order all sit on the council, and they are advised by another council of Mayors from each town around their citadels on commonfolk matters, though the Mayors have little power. The two highest ranking knights below the Master are the Grand Justicar, head of the courts, and the Master Pathfinder, leader of the knights who guard the roads between fortresses, considered the most vital soldiers in the army.

Since there was no dubs, Undead should be a field hazard of some kind, something that naturally happens on this horrible dead world because so many are already gone and the armies just have to deal with when the pop up in the middle of a battle.

Bears have a mechanic where they have a higher chance of spawning undead, and Dragons/Centaurs have units that can manipulate undead when they spawn, as well as a basic undead meat grinder unit that's cheap but not very useful for anything except dying to preserve more important guys.

You. I like you.

Also, rolling for Lamia/Snakemen/Lizardmen to be the replacement faction for !Caligula.

NYET

Spider-people

For a replacement faction I'll roll for a religious faction of fanatics and cultists who want to rid the world of all magic and anything non-human. They believe the world is dying because of these outsiders and seek to rid of them.

actually, scratch chance of spawning, there are automatically a certain number of undead hazards on the field after you set up your troops that you have to deal with. Bears have to spawn extras that only affect them or move toward them or something. Dragons/Centaurs can still manipulate them in some way if they bring the right unit.

MAYBE consider an additional rule where more undead can spawn later. Possibly certain kinds of magic attract them, so they represent a risk vs reward for using certain spells?

The Armoured Knights are a group of men who have forsaken their civilian lives to serve a greater cause. They know no leisure or pleasure, only war. They are on an ever lasting crusade to find a new home for their people. The only escape from their lifestyle is an honorable death.

Alright, with that, our factions are now:

-Bears
-Armored Knights
-Eldritch Spirit Dragon horrors with their Centaur underlings
-Bronze Age not! Byzantine empire with powerful sorcerers who summon demons to aid the bronze armoured cataphracti.
-Reptile Clan.

None of this is set in stone if dubs or trips change things, though I'm pretty sure Bears, Knights, and Dragons are probably the best factions, probably in that order.

New Faction: A Revolutionary Republic of Drow who only recently overthrew their old feudal leaders in favor of a Democratically elected council. They believe that democracy is the way of the future and seek to build a new home based off of their new tenants of Drow rights.

Is it a hopelessly naive and sometimes tragic revolution?

Also, only 8 statements have been made for lore. 12 remain.

Rolling to make all bears into Sir Bearington.

The not Byzantines are called the Visamti. They're economy is based off of slave labor and they have dominated the world for hundreds of years. They are ruled by an Archon. The current Archon has lived for 300 years, using blood magic and demonic allies to keep him alive. There are many in the court who seek to overthrow him and put his great great great great great granddaughter on the throne, but he knows of all conspiracies before they ever gain enough traction to be successful.

Absolutely! Their current regime is obviously just an ironic parallel of the old one.

Oh my, I know what to watch while I wait on my flight.

The not Byzantines have also conquered massive swaths of land from other kingdoms in the past. Most of the outlying provinces are incredibly disloyal and poised to rise up in revolution. The only thing keeping them back are a group of incredibly powerful Battle Mages known as 'the Archon's Fist". They are fiercely loyal to the Archon and it is said that a single one of them could stand strong against an army.

Well, we just replaced Caligula with Reptiles.

Bear Lore got awesome though. I seriously want to play as these guys.

To help desensitize recruits from the horrors that await them, the Templars administer drugs and use magical means to bend the minds of all their soldiers. This has turned them into veritable killing machines with no sense of sympathy or mercy. They train all day in their high mountain fortresses, the last remnants of a once mighty northern kingdom. They know their heritage and they are more than willing to fight for it.

Their destination is a three-spoked wheel that looms over the night sky. This wheel contains a hint of light in its center that implies warmth and hope. All the factions have different, sometimes competing methods of reaching the wheel.

Wait, like the not-Romans are secretly ruled by lizardmen type of reptiles?

love that confident / determined expression

Nah, Byzantine and Roman was too similar, so we dropped it in favor of a different faction.

The reptiles were once a Visamtian slave race, but rebelled and now wander the world in vast nomadic mounted hordes, like the Mongols of earth. They depend on horse archery, high mobility, skirmishing tactics, tamed monsters, and overwhelming firepower to defeat their foes. On flat terrain, they are almost unstoppable, though they are mediocre when it comes to attacking fixed fortifications and formations. The lizardmen and their mounts are highly adapted to life in the wastes, and their technology is simple and primitive, allowing them to field enormous armies.

What's the settings technology level?

Mutated and sadistic Knights Templar inspo coming through

...

Well, going by , if we're actually making this thing playable, then it's about at classic fantasy level, but with guns. Also steam tech is an option if their next supplement drops.

Are there guns? If so the Templars have guns.

The Bears' plan to escape from their dying world is to hold the line. When the world started to die they began desperate research looking for answers, and by a stroke of luck or genius they discovered a once-an-eon celestial event was on the near horizon, an alignment of stars and planets that would make the natural essence of their world and the natural essence of another, verdant world far across the celestial void perfectly resonate with each other. When that moment comes, the dying world and the new world will become, in a cosmic sense, the exact same place. If in that moment their most powerful druids can perform a certain ritual, once the resonance ends the bear's entire civilization will find its lands transubstantiated to the new world, with the wasteland left behind.

The keys to this ritual are the Primal Fulcrums, powerful natural essences which take the forms of plants, animals, lakes and other avatars of "pure," nature. The bears will do anything to keep these Fulcrums alive, because if too many are lost before the appointed day, their ritual cannot work and they are doomed. Their efforts to maintain the illusion of normalcy are as much rooted in hiding the identities and locations of the Fulcrums within their lands as they are in preserving their people and way of life to arrive at their new home intact.

Wizards!

All factions have wizard. just different focuses on casting.

There ARE Guns.

I think we have a good baser of factions.

what are some features that would make this game unique?

New faction now that we have a bit of background lore:

The remnants of the Kingdom the Templars spawned from. They were forced to give up massive amounts of territory but have been able to hang on to one important and fertile river delta with several populous cities on it. They were rivals of the Visamti from before the end times, but now are pretty self contained and isolated. Due to the horrific state of the world they have become very religious. Almost no magic exists within their society from the inquisitions and the Arch-Bishop holds almost more power than the King.

...

Are we using ASoBH? if so, we can just modify from that.

The Templars are seen almost as if they aren't humans any more. The surviving humans of the north think they are evil mutants and avoid them at all costs.

If they're mutants why not base them on knights of st Lazarus?

The power of the eldritch dragons degrades their centaur servants, and those closest to the all-but-dormant dragons are the most twisted. But the centaurs, a proud people, loathe this descent. Driven by the dual goals of their unwavering devotion to their masters and their self-loathing at their ever-devolving existence, the centaurs seek out these Primal Fulcrums. To find one and consume it not only furthers their masters' goal of prevent the lesser races from fleeing this world, but the pure essence contained in the Fulcrums counteracts the eldritch dragons' effect on the centaurs, restoring their original forms. If only for a short time.

Well, now we know how to create a decent setting. Build Factions, not Race/Class/Setting bullshit.

Motherfucking Bears for the win!!!

I've been thinking more like crazy mutant Teutons but why not

Since there isn't a name for the Knights let's go with the Order of the Bloodied Fist. Any objections?

From this it seems like the Vismati lands are some of the most fertile remaining on the planet, as there isn't much to indicate they are struggling with the apocalypse. Conversely, the Templar territories in the north and the Bear's lands most be some of the most-dead land, since the bears are only keeping "islands," of forest alive through magic while the Templars operate out of isolated cathedrals and mountain fortresses while their most important troops protect the roads between them.

The bears are probably dire enemies of the Vismati since if their land is the most fertile its the best place to replenish their used up nature. The Templars might be sort-of-allies with the bears since their are self-sufficient but don't have enough resources for the Bears to look to them as a target for raiding, and if the bear's plan is to just survive long enough to get out via magic they won't be getting in the way of whatever the Templar's plan is.

The Dragons and their Centaur slaves of course simply subsist on life force via blackest magics, so they can live in the bleakest, deadest land. They might have a pseudo-alliance with the Vismati. The Archon gets a win-win by lessening the food/shelter burden in a dying world by paying the Dragons off with slaves, while the Dragons go after the bears for him. The Vismati probably also hate the Templars since their precursor kingdom was their greatest rival, and so sabotage them at every turn and help the Dragons feed on them to preserve their own people.

Naturally the Hun Lizards just fuck everyone up all day, and yet also merc themselves out to the highest bidder.

The lizardmen's legends have no progenitor gods. Instead, the myths hold that through the slaughter of all men, the lizard race shall collectively ascend to godhood and assume the power to defeat the eldritch dragons and make the world anew. The Order of the Bloodied Fist, with its mutant men, is the great enemy of the lizardmen, as they fear that the Order's new men could perhaps prove insurmountable and prevent their prophesied godhood.

First off I want to say that I am amazed by how quickly we came up with an actually interesting and fairly original setting. I would play the fuck out of this game.

Bloodied Fist sounds a little off for a faction that foresaw the end times through prophecies and now lives as completely ascetic hyper-spartan drug-decencatized crusaders who stand between people who fear them and total annihilation.

I think they need something that implies coldness, but also strength, and hope but also a certain fatalistic inevitability. The Stone Hand? The Fading Light? The Distant Storm?

Mutant Knight vs Mongol Lizard bowl confirmed. Get hype.

OP here.
Probably because A) we almost never create a Wargame setting, just RPG settings, and B) the First X things are true method is way faster than Dubs only, Dice rolls, or popular vote. Keeping the thread moving tends to create better results. I mean, the Bears guy probably thought it was going to be a joke, right? Instead we took it seriously and something pretty cool came out of it.

I like The Order of the Fading Light a lot.

As for their plan, maybe they have some sort of prophecy about ridding the world of evil to uncover a new home. They're all about their everlasting crusade because they see it as their only hope of survival.

...

Why not, Preservers Of Zelthen's Light, with Zelthen's being the Order's monotheistic deity of Justice, Honor, and Light? Instead of casters, Templar have Priests of Zethen, who can call on the God to perform miracles involving cleansing beams of holy light, heavenly smiting, temporary buffs to Templar unit's stats, and debuffs for their opponents.

Zelthen's blessing keeps the Templar lands fertile against the decay, and, while he is a benevolent God, he is also righteous, and demands that the Preservers cleanse the world of evil. With every foe slain, Zelthen grows in power, and the Preservers come ever closer to salvation.

Thoughts? I think it's a nice counter to the Eldritch Dragons and Byzantine Demon Blood mages. To fit the setting, maybe Zelthen is alien and unknowable, completely and intolerably hating each and everything that goes against his vision of a new world with an unimaginable intensity, but he undoubtedly, (at least, to the Preservers) genuinely loves and cares his followers in equal measure. Their mutations are vaguely angelic blessings, tendrils of light, glowing eyes, a perfectly symmetrical form, and so on. This also gives Preserver players the excuse to shout DEUS VULT instead of waaagh or for the emperor.

I think the dubs have it.

k whatever.

That sounds awesome. They're the grim and slightly inhuman wardens of something actually good and positive.

The Bears scoff at the Lizardmen's concept of apotheosis, as their studies of nature and magic have proven CONCLUSIVESLY (by bear reckoning at least) that something like a god is impossible within the cosmic order. That being said, since the Lizards are out to kill MEN rather than bears, they don't fret over them too much and are more than willing to employ them to help with their own ends. After all, if they want to become gods by destroying all humans and "remake," this dying world, they are free too... as soon as the bears are gone to their new home.

Zelthen's Light preserve us all.

Thanks, I also made this,

post. I think it would be interesting if the Preservers and Kingdom remnants have extremely powerful, and ridiculously rare steam mechs that they don't understand, leftover from the days before the decay.

Despite the fact that the world is so clearly on the brink of collapse, the Archon is still mostly concerned with dominating the other factions. He doesn't even want to find a new home, he just wants to fuck his rivals. Maybe this is part of the reason that there is disloyalty in his realm. A lot of people see that the rest of the world is dying and want to actually do something to preserve themselves, but the Archon will not hear it.

Praise be to Archon Keralian. May his reign last another millenium.

Rather than a single path for the civilization to escape, the hook for the Vismati is that their Royal Family is full to burting with wanna-be Archons who all have their own plan, be it escape, rebuilding or alliance to help one of the other factions succeed. The Archon continues to play his little game of thrones, putting much of his energy into manipulating the factions who want to usurp him against each other.

If any one faction ever gained enough power that their plan seemed to have a chance to succeed, it would certainly mean chaos and perhaps full-blown revolution. The Archon means for this never to happen. The people pray it will, whether his descendants motives be pure or not, because all they want to salvation before the wastes stop being some far away problem and start consuming their homes.

OP here, I'm keeping all of this bookmarked and will compile it into a document in case we decide to have another thread building onto this. For now I'll let the discussion flow, as it doesn't seem to need my help, but we could set up a rough map of the world. Maybe fool around with this generator until we have something we like:

donjon.bin.sh/world/

Antique Palette with Mercator seems to work the best, but whatever you feel the fuck like doing is great.

The Lizardmen's scales are either pale gray or an almost ghostly shade of white, allowing them to blend in with the faded white desert sands with ease.

Lizardmen women do not have mamillian breasts, as they're lizards. Males and female Lizardmen are almost completely identical in every aspect beside their reproductive organs, and they lay eggs. Their eggs are small, durable, and don't need much maintenance, allowing the nomadic Lizardmen to transport them in crude hutch wagons?

Lizardmen are capable of reproducing with Humans to produce Lizardmen offspring with their Lizardman parent's genetic information. This lends credence to the notion that Lizardmen are the superior species, and many Lizardmen, (and women,) see sexual dominance over Humans as a borderline sacred duty.

While many Lizardmen tribes find it repulsive, some Lizardmen tribes make a practice or raping and enslaving Humans, to ensure that they die out in one generation and serve their betters. This practice has led to some intertribal strife and conflict, and causes Humans to fear the Lizardmen even more. It also ties in with their Mongol/Hun influences.

Please excuse the accidental question mark on the second paragraph.

The Archon doesn't care if all life ceases to exist. It is in his interest to keep everyone away from survival while the world crumbles around them. He is literally the W O R S T

While the reptile hordes are nomadic, they do maintain several monasteries that supposedly serve to ensure that the species does indeed, ascend into godhood once the Prophecy has been completed. Here, thousands of monks toil away in meditation and ritual, preparing for the moment when they can finally rise to the heavens and usher in a new age of gods. Of course, as many of the clan fear, the sacking of a monastery may slow down or falsify the Prophecy completely.

Recently, many monks have begun divining new minor prophecies that seem to increase in frequency as more mannish blood is spilled.

As the Lizardmen prey directly on their charges, the Zelthan Knights see them as the greatest evil on the planet, and the most important target of the Endless Crusade. Even worse than the Dragons/Centaurs, as they represent the corruption of life and anti-life, more esoteric evils, the Lizardmen CHOOSE and REVEL in their evil ways without the excuse of some external influence or total incompatibility with normal living things.

Even when the lizards target the Vismati or the kingdom remnants, the templars are willing to ride out and face them so long as their own people are not endangered by the act. The fact that the bears willingly ignore the Lizard's nature and sometimes employ them causes great friction between them and the knights, even though logically every Lizard army the bears employ to go after another faction is one guaranteed not to be harming the Templar or their people due to their vaguely friendly relations.

Certain scholars see great irony in the conflict between Lizard and Knight, as both seek the more noble path of the world's rebirth rather than hoping to abandon it for a new home as the bears and most Vismati Princes and Princesses do. They are both people of great faith, one in a god whom will save them and the other in the prospects of becoming gods to find salvation. In a way, both agree on the necessity of humanity's extinction in this destroyed world, one by seeing the act as the means to salvation and the other by seeing the necessity of becoming something more (and less) than human to survive and have the strength to bring about rebirth. If their ideals and hatreds were not so bone-deep, perhaps these two could find a strange kinship at the end of all things... but that isn't possible.

I like this one.

I like the idea of the lizardmen as this mercurial faction. Since they were a slave race of the Visamti though wouldn't there be some hatred there?