5e Americana

If OP is going anywhere near the Pine Barrens with his party, they're gonna have a bad time.

Elves/half-elves should really have more of a grip on the old south.
All of that antebellum pride and honorable superiority complex really suits them.

Never been to those parts. I was trying to make the Elves have thick enough accents that it's basically another language so I put them up north.

Eerie is. Undead , gnomes with failed experiments, rusted Dwarven industry. Muls.

What's in Canada then?

This is great. Noted. I figured high elves would be more of Eastern elites.

Maybe the huge metro areas are Tiefling kingdoms or something demonically influenced.

There's really not a lot there despite the physical space of the borders.

Frozen undead

Where do you think the kind, industrious, Dwarves hail from?

The Boston to Washington Megalopolis would work.

>american setting
>european fantasy races
>not pukwudgies, sasquatches, fastachee, and wendigo

is there a fantasy setting with legit (native- or otherwise) american folklore races and stuff in it? would like to escape elves and dwarves and halflings desu

>>american setting
>>european fantasy races
>>not pukwudgies, sasquatches, fastachee, and wendigo

that's probably because the concept of "america" came from europeans, was built and settled by europeans, and became a world power mainly because of european-descended people

>Drow
>Not in detroit
>One job OP

Closest would be Deadlands, which is more about the Wild West with spooky shit than fantasy shit. So the Wendigos, Sasquatches and Pukwudgies would fuck your shit up.

Good news is no elves or goblins (but yes to gremlins)

I'm using this. Revised map is incoming.

i like the tone of american folklore a lot more than the european equivalents though. like that movie the vvitch that came out recently, where it's disjointed settlements where society is broken into far-between areas and the wilderness is deadly. i love idea of an unsettled fantasy land where shit like the roanoke colony is a fact of life.

always thought weird west stuff was kinda neat, but i haven't really ever had a huge interest in western settings. i really kinda prefer the pacific northwestern cryptids, the lousiana ghosts and voodoo, and the new mexican aliens a lot more.

Dead Man's Hand, but it's a Frank Trollman joint.

neat

lumberjack folklore is good for american creatures too, there is some intense weird in there
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters

(OP)
I made some revisions.Keep the suggestions coming.

The Mega-Metropolitan Zone from DC to Boston is going to be demonically influenced, causing a problem for nearby elves. Its corruption can be felt in the Midwest and caused the fall of Gnomish society, literally, into the Underdark. The ensuing panic caused more religious Humans to head west following a prophet or prophets saying that the west shall be theirs, including the Southwest. As we wait, the Jersey Devil grows in power.

I kinda like the idea of antebellum Elves fighting a holy war against demons and an ethical war for slavery and anti-race mixing.

Halflings are now superstitious pioneer settlers that keep having mysterious kidnappings and whatnot from various American supernatural monsters. Plenty of room for old timey horror.

I need more for the Pacific Northwest though.

This is a goldmine.

The Pacific Northwest is full of mountains and woodlands, as well as being one of the last bits of mainland America to be colonized or settled. There are really only two cities worth anything in the Pacific Northwest, and the rest is mostly worthless. Also hipsters, lots and lots of hipsters.

Half-Elves are the hipsters, hippies, punks, and general malcontents that live in the Pacific Northwest. They had to abandon their homelands because neither humans or elves really wanted them. They're theoretically superior to both, having long lives but also being able to grow beards, but they tend to just live in their own little foggy hugbox.

>-West Coast (Seattle, Portland, Rain)
>>Drow
Kinky lunatics with an economy that hinges around equal parts fishing and the production of magical items and commerce.

They can grow beards and do, to show that they can.

They also are obsessed with the artisan-ship of their forebears and make bespoke everything. Home of too many bards and way too many food carts with artesanal pickles.

>West coast
>Drow

Damn right we're Drow now fucking bend over backwards for us

I like it. Although you could probably spread the orcs out more in the southern states, places like Mississippi and Louisiana. The thought of Cajun orcs makes me smile.

abandoned goldrush towns would be a good place to stick tommyknocker civilizations too, imo. miners used to attribute all sorts of weird shit that happened to them.

woodlands? that's gumberoo country.

Leaf pls.

I go with frozen undead and wasteland as well.

Venture not into the far North, traveller
That way lies weeaboos

>Seattle is Menzoberranzan

So what's Pornland?

How is an entire region all half-elves? Blanda up?

Wait, so does this mean Mike and Jay are Dwarfs?

>most of the west coast is forest
>drow
[confusion]

>"Out West" and Southwest
>not going with (Northern) Rockies and Deseret

They're alcoholics so yes

BRILLIANT!

Jay is a dwarf IRL

>short
>dear
>obsessed with weird violence

You mean halflings, ogres, gnomes, and demons?

>Appalachia
>Wood Elves
like hell it's wood elves, the central Appalachians is dotted with coal mines and poverty. That's dwarf country.

>Tri-State area is Demons/Tieflings
>mfw this isn't wrong

>Tiny cowboy rancher halflings
>Tiny horses
How are we not talking about this

The south seems more like halflings. Hospitable and friendly, but they're more than capable of keeping grudges and acting on it beneath all that Southern Hospitality.

Northeast coast seem more gnome or goblinoid. Frenetic, quick-talking and always up to something.

Give Texas back its rightful clay. I don't know why in every setting that has it independent they shrink it when that is likely the opposite of what would happen. Many of its surrounding states have sworn to succeed with Texas. At least give back the panhandle.

>succeed
fucking autocorrect

Maybe Wood Elf territory can be the northeast, their mythology can mix in a bunch of Lovecraft and Steven King stuff to represent the demonic presence to their south. I like the idea of Appalachian Dwarves, but what would replace them in the Great Lakes area? What race could fit the stereotype?

Why would you went through panhandle?

Right on the border of half elves and goblins

Central Kentucky is just the midwest. Things don't get southern till like Winchester

For some reason Demons/Tieflings taking up a whole region sits badly with me. It's like a whole region of Changelings or Revenants. I mean it's OP's setting, but these guys are supposed to be particularly rare.

But user if you lived here you would know that it's true.

Well it's an evil area. I'm thinking almost Eye of Terror.

I live there, I'm from NY. We're assholes but we're not Tiefling edgy. I'd go with gnomes if you're going standard races or goblins if we're going monster races.

Dwarves below, wood elves above.

The wood elves can be real Hatfield and McCoy types with generations long grudges longer than any nation state.

Dwarves are typical miners, structured into companies that they devote their lives to.

>making Texas smaller

Is Hawaii and Alaska included?

NY is ok. I'm talking about places like Newark and Philly.

I feel like Vegas and the immediate surrounding area should be different somehow. Can't exactly figure out who should be in charge though. Besides plenty of succubi.

Here's a somewhat better map, though I wish Texas was a little larger.

>Algonquin
>covers almost the entirety of Iroquois territory
???

I'd put the Dwarves in the Rocky Mountains.

I'd put Dwarves in the Southwest desu. Hopi cliff dwellings are rad.

Most Americans aren't natives, though. Most of us are either British, Italian, or German ancestry.

Actually the largest ethnic groups in the USA are Germans, Blacks, Irish, Mexican, English, Italian, Polish, French, Scottish, Scots-Irish in that order (I cut it off after they got less than 5 million).

businessinsider.com/largest-ethnic-groups-in-america-2013-8

The ? is DFW.

So that's pretty apt

Huh, guess you're right.

Also skinw-.

Nevermind, we don't talk about those.

>Lake Erie is now a Severely Fucked area
does that mean that the Cuyahoga River is now some kind of flaming poison demon water pit?

>southern belle high elves.

I want this. I want this so badly now.

>Slavery
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

Do you mean presently or...

You don't want to have a civil war in your setting?

>half-anything for Southern gentry

Ain't no miscegenation here, son.

You know what we're gonna do? Skeletons. Why? Because the South will rise again.

We are going to have plantations with bone white columns, with slaves who will spend all day making bone meal, the cash crop of the skeleton plantation system. You know how we're going to make that bone meal, right? We're going to have our slaves have their arms and legs chopped off. And then you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna give them potions to grow them back.

Yep. That's right. Living non-skeleton slaves will spend their entire lives having limbs amputated then forcibly regrown so we can chop them off again. And we're gonna make them grind the bone meal out of their own limbs.

The Confederacy of Skeletal States.

In spooky lands where I was born, early on one frost morn, look away, look away, look away.

>My hometown is smack dab in the middle of Goblin territory.
welp

>mormon halflings

what happens with them

They don't drink coffee or eat chocolate and eventually launch a generation ship larger than anything halflings have ever built.

How are Half-Orcs in SoCal while Orcs are in Florida?

Native Americans can be Tengu.

thunderbird tribes

Tried my best to translate it over. Have to go to bed but have fun with it.

The South being high elf territory actually makes a lot of sense.

>Hospitable and friendly
>Yet haughty and proud of lineage /culture to a fault at times
>Tends to look down their noses at races they perceive as lesser
>Rigid social hierarchy
>Nobility is important in their society(Southern upper class of old attempted to emulate English aristocracy)
>Wealthy agrarian society with stately architecture

Also they pretend to be all aristocratic and "high born" but they're only half, at best

Why is Veeky Forums so full of this shit?

It's the same things but with hats.

You people are creatively bankrupt, I wouldn't care if it didn't occupy this board.

There is nothing new under the sun, etc. etc.

The real mystery is why you're such a salty barnacle, user. Did you have a bad day?

>tfw Dragonborn and surrounded by high elves.
Neat

It's a brand new day, people! Let's get back to work!

I've made a few updates and due to the length of the backstory I've got for each region, I'm gonna have to break it into a couple posts.

That said, here's the revised map. I've added a little more detail on the west coast and filled in a couple more things. Still not sure how I got wood elves on the west coast but whatever.

For those of you complaining about the map, that won't change until I get things nailed down a little bit more.

For those of you Texans complaining that Texas is too small, something something compensation.

The next post will start to go over changes I've made.

Let's start with the most important event that has occurred in Americanus' history

-East Coast (DC, Boston, NJ, NYC area)
>For hundreds of years, goblins had total control over this land and in it they built an impressive society.
>Cities that rose defiantly against the sky, industry chugging away along the coast, trade flowing freely.
>Goblins are always known to be loud, boisterous and shifty.
>238 years ago, a portal to the Abyss was opened. Nobody knows how or why, but it tore a pit deep into the center of the Metrogoblitan area.
>Demons poured out of the rift, and the cities were abandoned. Most Goblins made it south, where they met an unkind fate with their neighboring High Elves.
>Still the swirling malevolent maelstrom spins above the ruins of the once great Goblin cities, spitting out fresh evil for the nearby Americanians.

Let's move down south some

-Deep South
>The Elves settled here millennia ago, creating a very structured hierarchy. Back then they were one people and were proud of their lack of division.This hierarchy is something they stick to, something they are proud of like nothing else.
>Their pride was tarnished by the industry loving cretins to the northeast. And when the rotten yanks were laid low, some of the southern Elves beamed with pride at their new status.
>The south had risen to prominence 238 years ago. With an influx of higher, clever population in the form of Goblinoids, the Elves were able to nearly triple their output. The landed gentry profit greatly and huge differences start to appear between them and their poorer Wood Elf cousins.
>Wood Elves start to be driven to the hills while the High Elves turn their attention to the new threat where they once had rivals.
>An ongoing holy war ensues and the resources it takes to fight a perpetual hellhole demolished the High Elven economy for most people in the region. In order to fill the gaps, the High Elven gentry turned to their new wards.
>In order to pay their debts of protection to the Elves, Goblins were now being conscripted into labor.
>After the war and the economy stabilized, this conscription continued onward. Currently, the majority of the Goblin population lives in slavery under than hands of nigh-immortal masters.
>This hatred of race-dilution and need for stable labor supplies has made the High Elves unbelievably intolerant of anything green or furry. They have to fight against the ethical "nonsense" spewed from humans to the north saying that perpetual enslavement is not Americanian.

(Goblinoid perspective)
>For 8 generations we have worked for the same master
>Perhaps he is a devil, too, he will not die.
>My family has made it safe to the coast. The elves will not go near the coast. I do not know why.
>I miss them.

>Still not sure how I got wood elves on the west coast but whatever.

Fortuitously I can come up with backstories at the drop of a hat. Here's a suggestion:

The elven lands of East Coast were much larger millennia ago, before humans and orcs, once stretching across nearly the entire continent east of the Mississippi, all of it deep, ceaseless greenwood.

But the elves were also correspondingly more arrogant and prideful. During this time the idea of the "purity of the elven race" came into vogue, particularly in what would eventually become Dixie. This went hand-in-hand with advances in understanding of magic. The elven kingdoms were gradually becoming magocracies, building huge edifices to their own glory, eventually reaching the point of tearing down the forests in Dixie in order to construct monoliths and leylines - and countless statues to their own power.

The most-remembered fallout of this was several of the noble houses turning to demonic pacts to increase their power even further, eventually transforming them into drow. However, a number of elves, from across the spectrum of elvish culture (including some nobles) but mostly the lower classes, instead rejected this turn to elvish superiority over nature and high magic. Arrogant in their own way still, they believed that the purity of the elven race was found in the past, not the future; their ancestors, roaming the woodlands as hunter-gatherers.

Thus, over time, did the wood elves evolve, in conclaves far from the influence of the high elves and dark elves. The largest concentration in the days of yore could be found in Maine, but some of the wood elves went even further afield, seeking pristine new forests untouched by high or dark magic. These elves eventually found their way to Cascadia, where they remain to this day.

-The Northeast
>Since the maelstrom opened the Gnomes of the nearby Northeast have tried to avoid getting within 100 miles of the spiral of evil
>For the most part staying in the colder Northern regions have permitted them some safety, though they occasionally have to push back incursions
>Some goblins have made it here and are welcome. Naturally, being able to see eye-to-eye with their hosts has given them a little more freedom than their southern counterparts.
>The gnomes focus nearly entirely on their industry, known for shipbuilding and navigation, they are the naval power of the east coast.
>From the Appalachians, some Half-elves have settled. Having been rejected by even their Wood elf parents, they have nothing to do but live in the forests and facilitate the growing industry. Many have turned to forestry to provide materials to the local economy.
>Naturally, being this close to an evil influence also increases the chances of a tainted birth. Many Tieflings are born here and remain here, often alone in the cold hills. Some take gnomish ships to far away lands.

>Dixie

From here on out, the south is called Pixie. Because fun.

Dragonborn seem more Mormon-y than halflings.