Be me, DM

Setting doesn't have dragons (yet) but this one fits really great, thanks user.
Also, High ones are able to give their blood to humans via a ritual that extends their lifespan and allow them to use the same magic, that is very intuitive and not really codified with chants or strictly definite effects. These humans are named "demis" (as un demigods, sounds better in my language). They are treated very differently from a high one to another, Karobor putting them on a pedestal and Equimar seeing them simply as honourable citizen. High blood cannot be inherited.

Yo what language, if it's one I speak I might be able to do some that sound cool translated

Awesome names, I'm saving a lot of them.

French.
High Ones = Les Hauts.
Demis = Semi-hauts (raccourci en "semis")

>French

Sorry, no parlais.

I'll keep them in English, you get to translate on your own :P

Rava The Dissector

A man equally mage and warrior, he's called The Dissector for a peculiar habit of his. He dissects reality with a magical scalpel, cutting it up and extracting something that only him and his inner circle of servants can see. Afterwards, his servants stitch up the hole. He also wears a cloak which is said to be made of a piece of reality turned inside out.

He's considered to be among the more powerful High Ones, but his schemes tend to be played out over many years, making him appear very laidback or even passive.

Replace dragons with constructs / elementals / spirits of greed / dragon-equivilents I suppose? Or like, constructed dragon-golems

Seems quite awesome to me. Apart from the cloak, what kind of properties do his objects have ?

Thanks for trying anyway. Appreciated.

I was planning on doing that. Consider the guy being implemented.
You rock user.

Avara the Greedy or Collector
A High One who claims disinterest in the conflicts between others, tries to act as a sort of banker, someone who can guarantee protection of persons and objects. He evens parlays with small human kingdoms or groups, all in exchange for a cut, or for some powerful magic trinket that he can then trade up when someone else needs it.

The scalpel might be able to change shape depending on the situation.

And Rava being known as the Dissector, I imagine that he has a tendency in combat to go for a sudden finishing attack at an impossible angle (him being able to create literal shortcuts, by cutting reality), dissect people right there on the spot.

A no-nonsense guy.

Sevenfold Regret
Storm of Vengeance
Trollspeaker
Maximilien Robespierre
Chaos Actual
Lord of Hope
Life-Merchant
Lightning Spear
Ranger of the Western Marches
The Thing in the Lake
Spirit of Arete

>Maximilien Robespierre
>Nicknamed "The Absolute Madman"

"The one who walks upon the skies"
Cloud palace. Rains down lightning. Fights dragons.

Smoke Master
Fire Underground
Tree of Strange Fruit*
First among Equals
Endless Whisper
Wind of Change
Swift Justice
Blade of Spring
Sandstorm
Voice of Liberty
Golden-haired Arrax
Snakefriend

*google "strange fruit"

A bit similar to but I'll probably mix the two in some way, or maybe make them compete for economic power. Both would be interesting, so thanks a lot.

Noted. The guy fits perfectly, and I personally like the concept a lot. Thanks !

>Maximilien Robespierre

I mean, if you want to be subtle about it, he could be

The Demon Lawyer
Justice Denied
Speaker for the Downtrodden

Depends on how much you like him, I suppose.

I can imagine a nameless king-kind of High One endlessly fighting the equivalent of dragons the setting has. I'm starting to imagine a cool campaign about that.
I wish I had thought about that. You're well-inspired dear user.

Messeintes the Decadent

Used to be one of the most powerful high ones in terms of influence, but slowly descended into a lazy, lavish ruler after her peak, when several countries used to be under her indirect rule.
Over the decades her disdain for power grew, and she stopped honing her fighting skills to indulge in arts and luxury, waging war only when surges of nostalgia make her wish to get back to a distorted image of the great conqueror she once was.
Has become legendary for her warped paintings, which are said to curse the one she draws on the gigantic canvas she then exposes on the walls of her manor.

Lord of Black Iron
Lady in the Blue Tower
Master with Many Faces
General of Unending Warfare
Magister Militum per Orientem
Priest in Yellow Robes Sprayed with Blood
Mother of Sin
Father of Pride
Mistress of Many Arts
Final Answer
Purple Mystery
The Wolf of the White-Scale Massacre
Truthseeker

What about a pair of friendly rivals?

Sinara the Shaper of Flesh and Izar the Master of Metal. Each of them has set their mind on creating the deadliest thing possible, something that they can call a worthy companion. They are quite similar in their thirst for knowledge and creation but their methods are drastically different.

As the names imply, she believes that nature has given her all the tools and materials she needs and relies on flesh, bone and chitin to shape her armies and behemoths, but also all sorts of things that are useful for her followers. He on the other hand uses steel, glass and stone to create constructs of war. And like his sister gives the many byproducts of his work to his followers to ease their lives.

He lives on/in a mountain with forges that are as large as small towns. She lives in a swamp at the foot of it, filled with strangely grown breeding vats. His city is one great machine. Hers a living organism. But both care little for humans unless they make themselves useful to them, and often use them in experiments to further their research, often ending in gruesome deaths or deformations of the subjects.

The reason for this arms race is a running bet between them who will be the first to build/grow the perfect creature/machine of war. To test it out, they regularly send their armies against each other on a field far off of their cities to avoid collateral damage. By now the whole area is devoid of life, partially glassed, poisonous or constantly burning, remnants of corpses and pieces of metal strewn around.

But they never attack each others city, lest it would sully their deal and they actually like each other. As such, if one of them gets attacked, the other rushes to aid. Together, their armies are the deadliest force in the world and if they wished, they could conquer most of it, unless the other High Ones unite to fight them back, but they don't really care to do so if they can instead watch how their toys tear each other apart.

What would you imagine for "Final Answer" ?
Most of these names are really good, I believe I can use most of them either to create new high ones or as secondary titles for already existing high ones.

You're the best, user. Those two will definitely appear in their neverending war.

Now let me add another element to the setting. Let's imagine a being starts to threaten the High Ones and raises an army of humans to conquer their land. How do these two react when the armies are at their door ?

Halochor the Contrived.
Somewhat of an aloof person by nature, she finds more of a fascination in the wilds and biology than she does in humanity. For a time she roamed the lands, drinking in natural beauty and attempting to recreate it herself, through forced molding of earth and nature. Her domain is wild and secluded, and striking in its outlandish and creative landscaping. She believes her art to be the most remarkable among her siblings, and has a sense of superiority, thinking their squables over territory and men to be meaningless.
She is a very mischievous and cruel High One at times, the sort that is like to play tricks on humans who wander across her path, simply for her own amusement. She particularly enjoys making them believe they are dreaming by showing them such outlanding things that they cannot believe it to be reality.
Legends of creatures spliced from one another mostly originated from her work, things like chimaeras or sphinxes, and she is always trying to concoct new and interesting ways to mash together animals.
She does host a small gathering of people, mostly as muses, some of which she may decide on a whim to get rid of or use in experiments. The majority are those of abstract mind who regard her as a goddess of the arts. Any normal-minded person would think her follower, and her, completely insane and her "art" utter nonsense. Similarly, her siblings feel the same and consider her completely loony.

Another greatly fitting character for the world of the setting.
Would you like to imagine some of the creatures she'd create ?

She's very fond of adding reptilian and avian features to things, because she likes feathers and bright color frills.
She tried slapping wings on a bunch of stuff, but only a few species settled into an equilibrium within local ecologies of their regions and survived extinction. When she creates a new species, she does so in a bit of an obsessive fury, spawning hundreds to see just how they will interact, and delighting in the natural order of survival.
Some of her most easily recognizeable are very large lizards with bright red, orange, or purple ridges of feathers along their spines and leg joints, lions with numerous snake-headed tails that are venomous, crows with small antlers (which tend to become adorned with all manner of shiny trinkets and baubles), rabbits with paws and eyes like a cat's for digging or climbing trees, watersnakes with a pair of wings set right behind their eyes and help propel their coiled strikes, bears with odd scaley fur that can change color like a chameleon (but don't seem to particularly make use of it, being bears and all), and foxes with peculiarly shaped legs like a frog's that allow them to jump even further while hunting or fleeing from predators, but make running steadily very awkward.
They all also feature intricate patterns or shapes across their scales, fur, or feathers, and are all brightly colorful, sometimes very out of place in their home environments.

Now I'm starting to like the idea more and more. The campaign will definitely swing by her garden.
What about plants or human experiments that you mentioned ?

The World Shaper.

He cares little for humans at all, and sees the other High Ones as a nuisance. All he cares about is terraforming local lands as art. He randomly travels around the globe looking for a 'good spot' and then creates bizzare landscapes. One is a a huge cylindrical tower of earth that has a vertical forest growing up its outsides, and it reaches up into a perpetual foggy cloud above. There are legends of some great treasure or paradise at the top, but none have ever reached it. Some say there some humans who have made villages in some of the trees. Simply one of the hundreds of terrain 'masterpieces' he has created. He does not take kindly when others interfere with his work or damage his art pieces.

Plants she mostly uses as a tapestry for landscaping, architecture or ornamentation. Many of the flowers she invents truly are beautiful, some species actually bearing uniquely shaped and delicious fruits.
There are willows that drape with rows of dark red flowers from branch to tip, the petals of which are spaded and have a leathery thick texture. There are vines that grow thick like hardwood into lattaces on their own and are very sturdy, each plant forming its own unique shape, unlike any other, and as it ages the intricacies become more pronounced so the oldest of these vines is viewed as one would a finely-aged wine, its value is its age and unique subtleties. The fruits of some plants are not edible, and only meant for their forms or beauty, like one that has seed pods that are hard as stone and transluscent and there are thousands to a tree and catch light in brilliant ways.
Or aquatic plant life, stealing ocean biology and putting it in clear freshwater ponds is another thing she messes with, making mountain lakes with vast arrays of choral and seaweeds that flower as plants above water would.
Most of the plant life is less "absurd" than her animal creations.
Her human experiments result in races with animal and human qualities. Large men and women with buffalo horns that continue growing larger and heavier as they age, until eventually they are unable to move from the weight and are elevated culturally to village sages for the years they live, having their enormous curling horns propped up with wood scaffolds or stones. Or a race of gilled and webbed footed people, with tongues like frogs who live in the coves behind waterfalls and "catch" fish that fall down through the mists with their tongues (or simply dive for them).
Her other forays into things like harpies or merfolk may have gone extinct, but no one really knows.

You mean...Like Exalted?

Today, in anons that deserve a medal, I give you this fellow.
There's barely anything I won't shamelessly take.
Similar in appearance, but I had never heard of it. The cosmology and the general Idea are very different too.
but fuck you scared me with the idea that it was already done
Awesome ideas keep spawning one after another. Thanks to you too user.

>Awesome ideas keep spawning one after another. Thanks to you too user.

Happy to contribute. Best of luck with your setting.

The Cheesemancer of Avagantamos

Given a stupid title because of his ability to influence animals growth and health through magical means. Unfortunately the only animals around where he lives are livestock and thus all he really ever gets to do is create a massive amount of cheese.

For the buffalo race, once their horns get too heavy to move, they don't live more than a years, due to atrophy, but should one of them decide to cut off their horns to retain their freedom, such an act is considered cultural suicide, and they are exiled, but usually live much much longer lives.

Also, glad I could help and I hope your campaign is great. I've never run one but always wanted to with an original world I am slowly working on, so thinking about these kinds of things is awesome and gives me ideas for my own too!

>tfw economic powerhouse due to best benefits from livestock
>He'd rather be poor than have that stupid nickname

Taken for light-hearted campaigns (or maybe a powerful demi NPC).
I predict laughter. Thanks to you too.

Your ideas have been great so far user, I don't doubt you'll have an awesome setting.
I'd be glad to help you build your world, don't hesitate to make a thread or even discuss it in this one.

Final Answer is a High One that has not been seen since the first High Ones came. He was a great conquerer, making entire realms submit to him and his roving bands of demis.
Then something shifted in his mind and he began to scream, endlessly, ranting at the same time from a second mouth about the end to the wrongness of all things. After a brief war, he was sealed away in a vault on the moon, and there he remains, the Final Answer to when this world succeeds in the inevitable rebellion...

that's pretty neat.
I'm keeping the idea.

Well, I'm stealing your idea too. I habitually world build out of boredom, and changing your high ones into a worlds gods (from elsewhere, obviously) is just too good to pass up.

>Evrard The Shepherd
The only one of the bunch who doesn't have an enormous ego. Evrard has never had any lust for power or conquest. Evrard wants a quiet life.
He lives alone, on a small cabin on the hill, with his sheeps. He grows his own food, drinks the water of his own well, enjoy his own company.
Unless his quiet existence is threatened, he never make use of his arcanic powers. In fact, his closest neighbors have no idea that he could erase them from existence on a whim. Only those of his kind know of his existence, but they do not disturb him. In fact, so far the village he lives in has been avoided by all armies that passed by, except for one, dreadful occasion. No one has disturbed Evrard ever since.
He just wants a quiet life.

Xanther the Great Incandescent

A kind of pyromaniac High one that, like many of his siblings, tends to be a loner. However, contrary to others, he felt pain from that loneliness and seeked company that would fit his horrible temper.
Using his fire-based magic, he created his own family in the form of six of his children, Ember, Cinder, Arson, Flame, Torchlight, Redheart, each being at the same time his personal guard and the closest thing he has to loved ones.
With his children, he roams the country, occasionall pillaging a village, but avoiding fighting his siblings out of fear of losing his only creations.

>changing your high ones into a worlds gods

Oh yeah no I'm 100% using all the names I came up with as gods in my own campaign

Go ahead, I'm happy to provide good settings to people.
One of these days I'll end the novel I'm witing in this universe.

I'm a sucker for that kind of character.
Already had one who was not unlike this one, but I'm thinking of merging the concepts.

Vertagon the unseen

After his citizens tried to overthrow him he became extremely paranoid and retreated to his castle on a hill overlooking his city state. It is believed that he has never left his palace since, because no one has seen him after the revolt. The city is instead ruled by his advisor, who gets his instructions directly from Vertagon.
In truth however, Vertagon is now closer to his citizens than ever before, since he uses his shadow magic and shapeshifting abilities to wander undetected amongst his citizens. He learned of their great distrust towards him and their longing for a revolution.
Thus Vertagon, under a secret identity, started the militia group "the golden dawn", who are fighting against Vertagon's rule but unbeknownst to them led by their very enemy.
By leading both the "state" governed by his servants and the revolutanaries, governed by himself, Vertagon ensures his rule over his people, while still leaving them hope in the form of "the golden dawn".

Tl;dr
Basically a manipulator leading both his forces and his enemies to make sure he isn't overthrown

Siam Of Uncanny Shenaniganry

A total trickster whose magic involves absurd luck and coincidence. Things he says as jest in some way end up become reality, and he likes meting out his own brand of justice with ironic fates for those he deems deserving. He very often poses as just a normal man, living an honest life, while cleverly pulling strings with his magic to make the most ridiculous things happen.
He is constantly playing pranks and attempting to undermine his brother's and sister's conquests, seeing them as a game to play with for his bemusement. He is a very curious fellow too, and investigates anything which piques his interest, in an almost childlike fashion, but with all the cleverness of someone who has had far too long to think about ways to mess with people.
He delighs in playing on people's expectations of a situation. He also holds grudges for a very long time if he feels he is being treated with ill intent, dispite being always being a joker (most often at other's expenses) himself.
Because of his ability with subterfuge, if he ever had reason to join in his siblings' rivalries, he would be a very dangerous and formidable opponent, but it is unlikely that would happen without some deep personal affront occuring.

Gallipoli Hubris, the Gluttonous

A morbidly obese man, his weight far beyond what a normal human body can support without collapsing. He is usually carried around by at least 18 good men in a massive palanquin.
To say that he is "gluttonous" would be an understatement. He is also sinful in every possible way. His domain is entirely built around his own amusement. He offer his people gladiator games, olympics, and feasts every now and then. In this way, he diverts their attention, and stay in power.

Awesome and extraordinarily well-fitting at the same time.
I'm going to have to extend the map of the continent to fit all these great fellows and I love it

Definitely funny and interesting. Any example of tricks he could have pulled on other high ones ?

I could work with that, though I'd try to give him some feats of sorts. Still a nice idea though.

The General of Unending Warfare is, like most of his kind, obsessed. In his case, it is war. Once a compatriot of Final Answer, he also enjoys his fully lethal wargames with Iora, and often buys (as much as the High Ones use something we would recognize as currency) troops from Sinatra and Izar. The relationship is often reciprocal, as his constantly roving army brings fresh materials and effectiveness back to both. If anywhere could be his home base, it would be the lowest slopes between the forges and the swamp.
He has no interest in conquering new lands, preferring to create massive wastelands and graveyards before moving on to the next area with his massive army of disciplined psychopaths.

About Hubris, then :
He might seem like a guy who only care about getting more fat and having a good laugh. But his kins have learned not to underestimate him.
You see, to sustain the appetite of this kind of monarch, you need a powerful state and an awful lot of money. Hubris built both over the centuries. His domain is the most rich in terms of luxury goods and fine foods, and even if everything goes straight to his belly, he make sure that his commoners do not have a worst life than others. Even if his army isn't so great, he can buy his way out of any conflict with his massive fortune. He didn't just create gladiator games because he thought it was so funny, you see. These games actually are a shared pastime, even for the most poor of his people, and a good way to get rid of political opposers. Entering the coliseum is free, and prostitution is legal. He apply "panem and circense" to the maximum, making sure everyone, especially him, is distracted.

+He could also use some form of mind-controlling magic to excite the worst out of his people, to make sure they believe that gladiator games are the funniest and most ethical way of spending the afternoon.

Eon the Skylord

An extremely violent High One who loved war and conquest.
His subjects suffered under his cruel and brutal reign. When the suffering became too much to bare a large portion of the population tried to flee. However, Eon's army comprised of incredibly loyal soldiers slaughtered their fellow people and stopped them from fleeing.
Enraged, Eon channeled all of his energy and lifted his city off the ground.
He now resides in his floating city with no possible escape for his subjects. The only connection to the rest of the world are his former royal guard, who have been transformed into an order of griffin riders. Only the people most loyal to Eon become griffin riders. Their main job is to trade with other states and keep Eon's floating city sustainable, though there are also reports of the griffin riders raiding little towns to gain ressources.

While the other states are happy Eon and the bulk of his army cannot reach them anymore, no one knows under which conditions the people in Eon's flying city have to life. Thus horrific tales about griffin riders abducting common folks and bringing them to the floating city to work as slaves have developed. And nobody knows how much truth there is to these tales...

The Red Menace, Ram, That Bastard or simply Why?!!!

Most of the time looks like a muscular humanoid with golden hair and blue eyes clad in red clothes. Rarely wears armor or uses weapons.
As far as anyone knows he doesn't care much about land, wealth and even comfort. What he cares about is things that are impossible or seemingly impossible to achieve no matter how much power you throw at them. One of his pet projects is finding a human capable to take on High Ones and win. For that purpose he alienated at least half of continent against himself. While he rarely kills due to anyone potentially being the one he looks for the trail of destruction that he leaves in his wake is long and pretty impressive. He got nickname Ram after smashing gates of a castle with his forehead.
Overall he is an annoying, grating and unpleasant individual that can show up at any place and make everything worse. Even if you think that it can't be any worse he'll grin and show you how it is done.
Getting wrapped up in one of his projects is a sure way to an early grave or an insane asylum. Unless you'll become strong enough to beat him.

The relations between the high ones are probably the thing I enjoy writing the most.
Once I find a first ame I'll implement him. I really like the concept.
Fleshes out the character a bit, that's pretty neat.
I also would have imagined that he used the massive amount of food he consumes as a means of stockpiling energy, making him a way scarier foe than his appearance would make one believe. It would make him the High One with the greatest amount of magical energy at his disposal.
Absolutely great. I have no truly "always warring characters" apart from Iora, and this one's really neat. I'm taking it.

Very, very good. It's the best character possible for the way the setting will turn. Posting how it will be evolving in in a few minutes.

Thanks to all anons for awesome ideas !

Though the world is based around a domination, more or less discreet, of the high ones, I mostly intend to challenge them with the rise of a monotheistic religion founded by a man named "the Saint".
What happens is that, basically, a man with extraordinary natural abilities is born in a regular village, and, while still young, starts to think based on the examples he knows that the High Ones should be driven out of human territory. Though he would be able to assassinate several by himself, he wouldn't be able to face several of them alone, and thus creates a church bent on letting humans live freely and in peace, through war against the unfair rulers of men.
I intend to make him die halfway through his project at age 33, but still having severely crippled the side of the high ones, killing Messeintes, Equimar, Iora as well as several others that I haven't named in this thread in the process.
This event, spanning around two decades, triggers the rise of Armonda as leader of his kin and between a third and half the humans of the continent, crowned by several of his siblings.

I was interested in how the high ones would react to this event, after suffering heavy losses and being forced to overcome their selfish and lonely nature... or not, and embrace their fall at the hands of the Humans.

The Wandering Doll-maker
A high one that travels with his mobile workshop searching for the means to create a construct with true life. The doll-maker's workshop is a construct itself that senses it's master's location and slowly plods along following him. Think the luggage from Terry Pratchet's Discworld but the size of a small house and considerably slower. It's much larger on the inside and has been known to perform amazing feats in order to catch up with its owner. Whilst he has a small army of construct servitors and spies his true pride is his failed, but increasingly sophisticated, attempts to create artificial life. These are the only constructs that he treats as his children. The doll-maker educates and raises his children like any parent with overly ambitious plans for his kids that they inevitably can't live up to and eventually becomes disapointed in them and tries to create a more sophisticated life-like model. He often sends his children on errands and adventures hoping that new experiences will force them to develop personalities but his experiments have been failures this far. He is a master of clockwork, metallurgy, alchemy, and is a a dabbler in almost every other crafting discipline. His creations are beautiful in an otherworldly and ethereal sense often having well crafted porcelain faces or wooden frames. Some are more human-like with false flesh but their faces usually fall short of convincing. Constructs other than his children get considerably less care in their construction and are usually constructed for a certain purpose such as defense or spying, or occasionally to be sold to other high ones or to human countries as war machines. Many of these are still beautiful in a minimalist sense. It's thought that the wandering doll-maker began his quest in an effort to revive a deceased loved one or child. However in the centuries since he began his quest he seems to have changed his goal to creation of new life.

No idea, I just wanted to let you know that "High Ones" sounds just fine. This ever escalating arms race of "epic" or "serious" names for stuff needs to end. At a certain point, it's just stilted and ridiculous when your plot lynch is something like "Myshjirdna, the Death of Ten-Thousand Stars Culminates unto Him" or some shit. There is sensation of mystery and awe in understatement sometimes.

How about
the father and mother of a thousand mages

One of my favourite characters so far. I like having even the mighty and fearful rulers to have an emotional backstory, especially when it doesn't tell too much.
It's mysterious and subtle, honestly I love it.

Thanks mate. Most of the names I use for concepts are simple because of the reasons you cited (High Ones, the Saint, the Beasts of the Forest), I was only worried about how it sounded when translated into English.

Sounds vaguely familiar.

I like the K6BD style names: it especially works well with a culture that focuses on formality and the idea of you are your name.
>Mysh Jirdna, The Culmination Of Ten Thousand Sacrificed Stars
I fixes that name into something more reasonably over the top.

For info's sake do the high ones reproduce? Is there always a small number of them or could they in theory overpopulate? How long do they live? Do they ever shack up?

Thanks. It also gives room for plenty of npcs in the form of his creations. I imagine that the newer ones are close to human, and probably can pass for an autistic human if not examined too closely. They are trying to develop free will, though, frustratingly, only because their master told them to. He would probably be thrilled if one of his creations were able to defy him.

Ruler of the shattered Earth.

More of a brute than the other high ones, he tends to specialise in Magic that focuses on dominating the very ground beneath us, He was given the title for decimating his own kingdom with earthquakes that would shatter villages, castles and even mountains.

Sylvaria the Riveting Seamstress

It's not sexist to think that the first thing most women or flamboyant gay men would do the moment they were all powerfully magical is use said magic to create jaw dropping fashion designs for themselves. Espescially if they were as inherently light hearted as your arch mages seem to be.

youtube.com/watch?v=bDCUa9pKLcs

You mention the importance of an emotional backstory, and I realised my suggestion has nothing that implies a personality so here goes.

>Rava The Dissector
>A man equally mage and warrior, he's called The Dissector for a peculiar habit of his. He dissects reality with a magical scalpel, cutting it up and extracting something that only him and his inner circle of servants can see. Afterwards, his servants stitch up the hole. He also wears a cloak which is said to be made of a piece of reality turned inside out.
He is booksmart and streetwise. Perhaps in his youth, he wasn't as fortunate as most other High Ones - a street urchin living off pickpocketing and backalley knife fights. His interest in dissecting reality points to a desire for esoteric and metaphysical knowledge. He is perhaps still trying to escape the past by trying to go beyond their world.
>He's considered to be among the more powerful High Ones, but his schemes tend to be played out over many years, making him appear very laidback or even passive.
What others might see as weakness or absentmindness is considered patience and preparation in Rava's eyes.

>The scalpel might be able to change shape depending on the situation.
>And Rava being known as the Dissector, I imagine that he has a tendency in combat to go for a sudden finishing attack at an impossible angle (him being able to create literal shortcuts, by cutting reality), dissect people right there on the spot.
>A no-nonsense guy.
Rava has good combat skills, and powerful spatial and shapeshifting magic to supplement it. But he takes no enjoyment out of fights. It is a last resort, violent and deadly.

So here we have a character obsessed with mobility and progress. Social mobility, intellectual growth, and spatial mobility. We can see why he might be among the most powerful High Ones, but we can also see that what makes him so powerful, also isolates him from other High Ones. And humans too. And the world itself.

In short tropes, basically a mix of Oliver Twist, Griffith, Papillon and dr. Crawfort Tillinghast.

Hooray for 30 second before leaving for work ideas.

Are you leaf or frog?
>Les Hauts
Not meant to offend, but it's pretty weak even compared to its English equivalent...
Maybe try "Les Eleves" (Risen)?

There's a lot to be said for a short and punchy title. It tells you how large they loom in the setting and the lives of the people who have to live in it, that their name is an everyday word.

Running a campaign like this in English I'd probably just call them the Lords. And I might actually steal your idea, OP, because it's a neat concept.

Kremith the Reaver
Appearance: Kremith appears as a faceless, genderless 6' human body. It's skin is translucent and it's organs and blood can be seen by the naked eye.

Fighting style: Kremith is a master of illusion magic and silent assassination. Wide variety of stealth enhancing and perception manipulating spells while using daggers to actually harm targets. Will usually run from a fight if spotted before launching an ambush to plan a new approach.

It is obsessed with "the perfect kill" where the targets die without ever realising they were in danger. The only pattern of targets is that every victim had good security. In every appearance it is seen wielding an simple iron dagger with a stylized skull carved into the handle. These daggers are left stabbed into the corpse of it's victim and the sign that kremith was the killer.

Reavers - Human Followers: Kremith has never been known to speak to humans or high ones, however he does choose followers known to the world as Reavers. These humans are the most skilled assassins in the world. Those who complete a skilled kill of a target will sometimes wake the next day with a pair of 'reaver' daggers lying on their chest. These daggers are simple iron marked with a skull. Their wielder is gifted with nightvision, muffled movement, superhuman reflexes, and are nearly invisible when moving through darkness or shadow. These abilities become stronger the more kills a reaver performs. If a dagger is lost or broken that human is shortly found dead. Any follower who goes after 'easy' kills eventually is also found dead.

Sigmund, the Father
Sigmund is incredibly religious. He uses the religion he founded to conquer and unite many peoples. His warriors fight more fiercly than those of other kingdoms because they fight for their very souls. It is likely he holds the largest kingdom since historically religion was the glue of civilization.
Alternatively he could be a monk that simply cares about spreading the tenets of his religion through travel and miracles.

They are unable to reproduce unless they shapeshift into another species, but then their descendents will be from that species and won't have any high one trait.
For the ~1000 years they had been around, none of them had died, so they weren't bothered by the idea of disappearing.
They are immortal in the elvish sense. The first to die was killed by the Saint.

Here's an idea:

>Varekor, the Ravager/Destroyer/Sunderer
Varekor gas a pathological hatred of other High Ones. He hate hate hates them- perhaps he was betrayed, or shunned, or something happened to make him this way, but he's made it his life's goal to hunt down other High Ones and kill them.

e h Instead of focusing all of his power on having a proper domain, he roams from place to place keeping only his accrued personal power to crush defenses, destroy supply lines, that kind of thing. He shapeshifts nearly constantly and eternally, usually in the form of large monsters or otherwise dominant creatures. One day he's a horned, muscled beastman, the next he's a giant lizard with scales so thick that only the sharpest blades and strongest spells can pierce through, and the third he's an enormous, winged bat/manta ray cross creature.

Now and then, when he comes across a hunter or human adventurer of some kind, Varekor gives them a 'test'. Usually by giving a token attempt to kill the human. If the human survives, Varekor offers them power in exchange for servitude. Though sometimes he'll make the offer without making a test of some kind, usually if he notices a human fighting against impossible odds.

The 'power' he gives them is that he uses his magic and experience with monsters to shapeshift them into a much more impressive shape- such as dragons, monsters, or even just making them a 'perfect' human with the strength of ten men and reflexes as fast as a snakebite. Then he uses them as weapons against the other High Ones.

Oh, and if they reject the offer, he'll usually give them a slight hint of power anyway. Not a lot, but he'll make them more fit, a bit stronger, that kind of thing. Though he always sets them up for sabotage somehow, just in case they end up subservient to another High One somehow. Something like coiling a familiar around their hearts.

Neat concept, I hadn't thought about it. May be the inspiration for a country the PC could go through.
I keep him. Thanks !

It's not sexist and it's pretty on-point. It's part of their entertainment. I intend to merge her with another character that I have simply named "the dancer", though your name's probably the one I'll keep.

Don't worry, your character was fine. I imagined him bitter and enraged in fights, but yet being calm when needed and indeed very intelligent while also having an ulterior motive.
Though what you added was by no means bad.

Frog. My players said "Hauts" was fine, and fitted the way the world was built. Risen would imply they were once weaker, or even humans, when actually it's not the case. But suggestions are appreciated.

Go ahead. As long as I can get around writing the novels I plan before someone else gets he idea.
Being copied is the best compliment anyway, so thx.

Neat character, has its particularities without being gimmick. I like its features (faceless and genderless, smaller than the average high ones), so definitely implemented.

The idea isn't bad by any means, but unfortunately gods aren't known in the universe, and high ones have exterminated almost all form of religion since they appeared, as they see themselves as being the only thing above needed by humans.
The one who brings religion and miracles to humans will be the Saint of Men, and I based his character around the idea that the high ones don't understand his power or even motives.

Great idea, I don't know what to say, it's perfect.

>tfw my setting will be made of at least half High Ones made by anons
>and everything went better than expected

I also envision Varekor using his powers- since he focuses on shapeshifting and 'transmutation'- to cripple certain High One's minions and have his own minions take their place, looking and acting exactly like them, ready to explode into monstrosities whenever the High One lowers their guard.

I figure that something like werewolves would be Varekor's work, as would certain races of intelligent monsters- they're entire communities of his formerly-human minions, completely transformed and reshaped. He's got clans of monstrosities or orcs or goblins hiding in the forests, who have worshipped him as their creator for generations.

I don't know if adding goblins and orcs would be wise, but I'd greatly enjoy being able to add a lot of monstruosities to the world - and that gives humans all the more reasons to try and overthrow the high ones.
The guy is definitely added.

>Merry Mad Monarch of the Nation of Nothing

Has long since lost his marbles to senility and forgetfulness. Fortunately, his last clear memory seems to have been a good one, since he seems to always be in a cheery mood. He believes himself a king, but he has no subjects. Too bad his memory doesn't last long enough to realize it.

>My many marvelous subjects surely stay busy as bees to bestow bounty upon our glorious, glamorous, and guilded nation of nobles!

He also has a thing for alliteration.

I'd love to imagine him as having brief outbursts of sanity that make him look like this is all an act.
A bit like Hannibal in Drifters.

Menkvar the Ruined Conqueror

Once a great ruler, Menkvar abandoned his kingdom of nomads to explore the farthest lands of the world. For decades he was absent, his people desperately trying to fend of invaders without the help of their lord and most powerful warrior. But he wouldn't come back.
Somewhere deep in the West, Menkvar discovered something he would never speak about. When he came back, years after having be seen last, he had changed. Swiftly, he got back to his people, waging a quick and extraordinarily efficient war against Iora and Rava who had taken his land. Aided by the mighty horsemen of the tribes he led, he began to storm every country south of his, claiming he would unify the land for a greater purpose, against a terrifying menace.
For one of the few times in history, he created an alliance between High Ones. Two alliances even, several choosing to fight against the one who wished to take away their power.
His mistake was to interfere in the war between Izar and Sinara. The crushing defeat he suffered at the hands of the siblings left an opening in his strategy, allowing Armonda to strike him down.
Eternally wounded by the anti-magic gauntlet, Menkvar is stuck in a neverending agony, barely able to heal himself from the wound, still open after centuries. Never leaving his crumbling castle held together by the descendants of humans who followed him in his dream, he laments about not being able to save a divided world he only wished to protect.

You better make a followup thread when you finish the setting/run a game in it.

I image he is pretty psychologically fucked up. If he wants to kill fellow High Ones, that means he has been trying for 1000 years - and failing for 1000 years.

That can't be healthy.

I made about three sessions in the prototype of the setting that mostly featured Iora, Armonda and another one I haven't posted yet.
The players were a human slave of Iora, a necromancer and a hunter secretly serving Karobor and had to find Armonda in the forest of a country in the middle of a war.
If you want I can greentext it when I come back from work.

Toké the Glutton.

Toké is looked down upon by most of the other high ones. He lives for eating. For some reason he has chosen to take the form of a 3 meter tall and heavily obese human. He rules over a small country, but he spends most of his time consuming various dishes which his many servants prepare for him with the magic that he bestows upon them.
Many seek to dine with Toké because of the culinary experiences that he offers, and the stories he tell of old times.
This is why many of the high ones dislike him. He has a habit of revealing the oldest secrets of the high ones when he dines with guests.
However, many have tried to kill Toké, especially through poisoning, but without any results. Some suspect that this is because of the magically prepared food which he eats. Consuming large quantities of magiv everyday has essentially made him almost immortal.

He's a good addition to the glutton made by that other user.
I hadn't thought about a high one hated for revealing old secrets, that's actually a very good plot point, and surprisingly fits the glutton trope.
I'm saving another cool character, thanks user.

His pathological hatred can be more recent (he could have been isolated for the best part of the first centuries and discovering he had siblings later on).
Also, he could not want to cross the line and only fuck up their kingdoms and creations, though I admit it'd be a bit strange to let one go if he had the opportunity.
I'm also thinking it'd be very difficult to kill magic beings so powerful that would have many ways to regenerate.

Talking about how difficult it would be to kill a High One, I just had a shower idea of some really fucking evil conqueror type High One that got "dissected" by Rava, and now he's basically a sentient tub of blood and organs being carried around by his servants, running a formerly great empire controlled through telepathic powers. He's still trying to find some pieces of his body that Rava scattered across the land. It's whispered that his bodyparts allow for normal humans to gain special powers. Of course, if he finds out that you're using one of his bodyparts, and knows your location, you just became another telepathic mind-slave in his network.

Might be able to combine it with a High One that didn't exactly get "fleshed out"... Get it... *wink*

Honestly I won't need to combine it, it's already a very interesting concept for a character.
I'm thinking of having him losing some ribs (due to reality shortcuts), a hand, a finger, and an eye, and having them act as rings of power from Lotr, rather than a sentient tube.

That would give the man a bit more... Backbone *wink*

Fraid the dark wanderer

Fraid above all loves drama, he shapeshiftes often and in strange forms filled vague symbolism, the only recurring factors are some sort of cutting implement and a general air of dessication, examples include a filthy and ragged barber with a rusty shaving knife, a near death starving horse with a broken longsword clenched in his teeth, a statue of a saint worn away into a ghoulish figure or a field of the intermingled corpses of soldiers, speaking in unison.

Fraid will often target important or well loved humans, he has no land of his own and instead sneaks about in the wilds and in the lands of the other high ones, common targets consist of prettiest girl in town, the sickly son of the king, the well-loved priest, he'll send death threats in the form of some sort of prophecy or insane messenger, sometimes he'll act as an obstacle on a hero's quest or journey., "answer my riddles three, should you win i shall let you pass, should you fail i shall eat your brain." or the likes.

I'm a sucker for a drama-loving High One, this one is great.
It's also something I lack, which is non-entirely human high ones.
My only question is what would his motivation be, and if he'd only ever act as a living adventure for loved people ?

maybe he's disconected from the world? he's always been a brooder and after thinking about the world too much he'd more or less begun to disregard all life and death, instead he just follows his passion for drama, people arent people to him, just characters in a scene or a book. including himself ofcourse, he's utterly lacking in a deep personality and instead just models himself after whatever night-terror or enemy-archetype strikes his fancy.

or maybe something like he feels that all humans and high ones (all sentients) have something at thier very core in common, and by re-creating certain scenes or situations he feels he gains greater insight into thier "hearts"

either way his thought process has been warped by time and too much thought, he believes all truth is subjective and therefore follows only his own truth, he's disconnected from the world and acts mostly on whim rather than reasons or any defined goal.

cont. and while he mostly acts as a "living adventure" he believes adventure and the likes is something that just happens, he primarily lives an antagonistic role because that's what he enjoys playing most, he might reluctantly even give aid should the "hero" manage to trick or seduce him with whatever mock "goal" he has at the time.