World building thread

>Witches.

>Rock-Men

>Bear-mounted Knights

>Demonic Juggalos

>Giants and their slave races.

>Witches (possibly Vietnam war witches pls?)
>Rock men
>Bear knights
>Demon clowns
>Giants

I got a good feeling about this one.

Well, trips confirms, 'Nam Witches.

What's the setting? What's the main source of conflict that guarantees these factions can't get along?

Okay,seems like a colorful cast
What type of setting is this?
Is it a low fantasy world?
High fantasy?
Is it a dying world?
Is it in sphess?
Also keep in mind that dubs still apply

Trips/bearfag will return once I've taken a shower.

High fantasy

Nah, done to death.

World War 2 Trench Warfare with Magic elements.

Think Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell with the right Amount of Valkyrie Chronicles.

I'll throw my rock-shaped hat in for WW2-analogue.

A bunch of shit that's been building up over the last century and then those FUCKING BEAR KNIGHTS think they can just amble into territory that the Rock-Men consider to be historically part of their domain.

No we weren't technically inhabiting it at the moment, what's your point

We have songs and shit about it.

>World War 2 Trench Warfare with Magic elements.
>I'll throw my rock-shaped hat in for WW2-analogue.
I think it should be a bit more regional.

These five factions vie for the control of the volcanic region known as "Pike's Pit", a massive collection of calderas that lies at the crossroads of three of the five factions: the bear knights, the rock men, and the giants. The clowns and the witches are also in the region for separate reasons.

The rock men want to reclaim what they see as there ancestoral land

The giants just want to enslave the rock men and bear knights to add them to there horde of dwarves,rat-folk,kobolds, harpies, and other exotic races

The bear knights want to purge the races they see as "unclean and corrupted"

The clowns and witchs are having a weird religion battle

Give it a rest guys Jesus, we've had to many of these recently

The bear knights - The Castellans - are opposed to the giants because, well slaves. They also dislike the rock men because the rock men hate dwarves and undead; both of which the Castellans tolerate. Thus, they try to hold Pike's Pit to deny the region to both.

>The clowns and witchs are having a weird religion battle
The witches despise demons and necromancy, both of which are the lifestyles of the clowns. Assuming clownanon doesn't have a name for them, I'd like to call them the Harlequin Houses.

...

The rock men-Ancinet race born before all others-wish to "re-take" pike's pit after they lost it in the 500 year war with the former dwarvish empire

The bear is the traditional and most well known mount of the Castellans, although it is not the most widely used due to its vicious and headstrong nature. Most Castellan men-at-arms ride the common horse or giant rams, which are more versatile than bears but still less suited for combat and snowy terrain. The only way to earn a bear is through an Teething Tournament, a biannual event where knights from across the holds come to the capital and attempt to break in a bear just reaching adulthood. Rounds end gruesomely, but those who walk away alive possess one of the most dangerous mounts.

Another popular mount is the wyvern, not just with the Castellans but with the witches, the Harlequin Houses, and the giants' slave races. Draconis Domesticus is a species of dragon used throughout the world to bring the battle to the skies, raining fire on the enemy and locking talons with enemy wyverns. The witches are well-known for possessing the most robust wyvern breeding program, while the Harlequins brute-force strength into their wyverns with demonic possession and necromancy. Rock men do not use wyverns or any flying creatures, because stones don't fly.

The giants are a fairly new race, a biproduct of the on-going war between the harlequins and the witchs

Originally desinged as a seige weapon the giants were considered a failed experiment and were promptly but to sleep

However, over several decades one giant awoken, from him,another 2 awoke, and from them 4 more rose

They gathered around one giant, he saw a vision of a world without war, a world were the weak ruled the strong, a age of the giant

>They gathered around one giant, he saw a vision of a world without war, a world were the weak ruled the strong, a age of the giant
>were the weak ruled the strong
You got those backwards?

Something in Pike's Pit brought the rock men into being a relatively short time ago (a few thousand years, at most).

That something is also what makes the region, a blasted and poisoned landscape unsuited for any life other than the rock men, so valuable to the other faction they're willing to wage war over it.

*factions

No idea what though. Help?

Fuck me
Yeah you're right

>No idea what though. Help?
For the witches and Harlequins, it's chock full of raw fuel for their magic, left over from the creation of the world.

The rock men, Castellans, and giants are fighting for it for a different reason. See the following:

>Rock men do not use wyverns or any flying creatures, because stones don't fly.

Rock guy here.

This is true.

>Something in Pike's Pit brought the rock men into being a relatively short time ago (a few thousand years, at most).
>That something is also what makes the region, a blasted and poisoned landscape unsuited for any life other than the rock men, so valuable to the other faction they're willing to wage war over it.
Fuck you we're not telling you shit

It's absolutely not the key to eternal life for you soft races, that's for sure

And it's not the source of power you fucking witches and clowns have been searching for to gain the upper hand in your wyrd war

It's just a really comfy spot now leave us alone and gtfo our rightfully-owned caldera

>And it's not the source of power you fucking witches and clowns have been searching for to gain the upper hand in your wyrd war
orly?
>Disbelief and lack of non-anime witch pictures intensifies

We cannot have multiple, non-conflicting reasons to fight?

Or even subfactions fighting for different things?

Suuure.

>Rock guy here.
>This is true.
Instead the largest rock men, the geotitans, use thunderclaps and literally tons of ground up rock to knock flyers out of the sky.

>We cannot have multiple, non-conflicting reasons to fight?
Sure why not?
>Or even subfactions fighting for different things?
Absolutely not! It's not like the Castellans can be fractious with some more concerned with defending the north than attacking the south, or the Harlequin houses having a mix of court politics and demonic undermining, or the giants having to deal with slave revolts every other year, or the witches not really enjoying a war overseas because it's magical fantasy Vietnam to them. To suggest otherwise is blasphemy and completely against the canon that we haven't established yet.

/sarcasm/

I meant that more as a general sort of focus, but I'm not excluding any smaller nuance like conflicting goals within parties. Wheels within wheels can only make things like the clowns more fun.

The Harlequin Houses have their origins in the far east, in an Empire whose name is long forgotten Because I can't think of a name right now, and it's not really important a thousand years later. The Empire's nobility was well known for its extravagance, but not so much for its philanthropy. Every week there was a party or ball in some mansion where everybody born higher than a peasant was invited, and where every noble showed their wealth in the most flamboyant manner conceivable. No self-respecting blue-blood dared show their face in public without first caking ten layers of makeup on it, and wearing anything less than the most frilly and colorful outfit was considered indecent exposure. Courtly life was just as much hidden under makeup, with complex plots unfolding out of sight to gain the favor of the Emperor.

Such avaricious lifestyle was not without its price, and it was the peasantry that footed the bill. Taxes pushed more families into poverty as the nobility's fashion sense grew. Revolt became the only solution to the aristocracy's greed, and the peasants took to it like hungry rats to a lying man's face. When the Empire faced destruction it did not surrender its lifestyle, but instead its souls. Desperate nobles looked in the Empire's oldest library for forbidden scriptures, and gleaned the secrets of the black arts. They made bargains with demons, exchanging the souls of the commoners they saw as cattle to preserve the lifestyle they saw as divine. They raised the dead and prolonged their own lives with necromancy. However, among those too fearful to explore such extreme options was the Imperial family, who perished in the rebellion just as knights possessed by devils and death burst into the throneroom. With the peasantry culled and the line of Emperors broken, all that remained were the noble houses who continued their lives of excess and intrigue, amplified by the lust of demons and the fear of death.

...

Sorry, thought your earlier reply was a rebuttal by way of "No, they have other reasons to fight."

Perhaps, because they don't have the peasantry or freemen to do the work of making stuff for them anymore, actual physical, untainted stuff becomes way more valuable to them than any magic item.

Like, a ten year old worn and tattered dress is the height of fashion, a footman's axe is a weapon of high nobility, etc.

They're rich in illusions and magic power, but poor in a strict sense of "how much stuff do I have, physically?" is what I'm trying to say.

>Perhaps, because they don't have the peasantry or freemen to do the work of making stuff for them anymore, actual physical, untainted stuff becomes way more valuable to them than any magic item.
>Like, a ten year old worn and tattered dress is the height of fashion, a footman's axe is a weapon of high nobility, etc.
>They're rich in illusions and magic power, but poor in a strict sense of "how much stuff do I have, physically?" is what I'm trying to say.
Eeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh...

I was thinking they just killed most of the peasantry and use the rest of them as cattle and slaves. It's a neat idea, but their whole deal is being flamboyant clowns.

>Their houses are divided between demon and undead

>Like, a ten year old worn and tattered dress is the height of fashion, a footman's axe is a weapon of high nobility, etc.
>They're rich in illusions and magic power, but poor in a strict sense of "how much stuff do I have, physically?" is what I'm trying to say.
I really like this

Trench warfare was WWI

The clowns have a sacred machine that compresses powerful spells into tables based on what is offered to it and what type of night it is. The clowns, upon finding and worshiping this machine, made it compress spells into playing cards, making the main weapon used by the faction enchanted playing card decks.