Let's do a setting

> Minotaurs are stereotyped as being subservient to and inseparable from gnomes, they don't mind what people think of them as long as they're still paid the equivalent of a skilled artisan's wage.

> Gnomes breed slowly, and are widely persecuted for their magical ways, because of this, they are highly insular, living in impregnable vaults, and isolated towers, where other races are barred from entry, save those with both a legitimate reason to be there, and the willingness to sign a contract to do no harm to gnomes while in the settlement, under pain of eternal damnation.

Bullshit

That fucking armband is hideous. This shit is ridiculous.

>The goal of most minotaurs is to amass enough wealth to construct their labyrinth. What constitutes a labyrinth varies greatly from Minotaur to Minotaur.

>gnomes have developed complex manufacturing facilities to mass produce magical items and baubles. Most have access to a wide variety of spells and abilities but little understanding of how they work. These items are simple and reliable but usually inflexible - they only do one magical thing. Gnomes work diligently to keep magical theoretical lore difficult to attain for outsiders.

>a host of non-gnome magical tinkerers exist, seen as eccentric hedge-wizards. Gnomes tolerate the existence of these magical practitioners provide they don't reverse engineer or steal proprietary magic.

A minotaur that completes their labyrinth has a combination of spiritual enlightenment, and emotional bliss. These minotaur are revered elders who lack material want and find that in addition to never becoming physically lost, are never lost spiritually. They have an unshakable sense of self, and immense will power.

There is a dark side to this, an elder minotaur can become so detached from the material that they become a spiritual presence in their labyrinth; this is the leading theory for the number of dungeons that dot the landscape.

>Certain members of the Dehega claim that most if not all of gnomish magic comes from their god. These people are oestracized, treated as hypocrites trying to save face.

>remembering I had literally put in an NPC who was a gnome explorer who hired a minotaur stevedore for hauling luggage and equipment

the gnome was more of al old man mad scientist / benjamin franklin type, not a shortstack waifu
heh

> In ancient days, far beyond the memory of even the eldest of gnomes, there lived a short, stocky, and hairy folk, fond of booze, stone, and the crafts. They were known as Dwarves and at the height of their civilization, their fortresses could be found in every mountain, and wealth unimaginable was theirs. In their pride, they thought their ancestors to be above the gods themselves, and in their hubris, they desecrated the sacred shrines and holiest places, and declared themselves divine.
> In their fury, the gods rained countless calamities down on the dwarves such as had never been seen since the dawn of time. Fire rained from the heavens, unspeakable plague ravaged their households, their revered dead rose to feast upon them, and even the earth itself split open to consume them in its maw. When all was said and done, the time of the dwarves was done, and upon the whole of creation, above and below, not a one could be found.
> Now, the only sign of their passing are the ancient, shattered ruins of their monuments, and the hollowed timeless crypts that once held their kind.

>minotaurs who complete maze realize life is a maze. Seek to escape final maze of reality through meditation and martial discipline
>form monastic order on high mountaintops
>teach Kow fu.

This is a good setting.

>mfw I have completely unironically used my dead forts as dungeons for my players

> These monasteries are labyrinths of obscene scale and complexity, because monks carve out mazes instead of mediating to achieve spiritual enlightenment.

>Killing the Dwarves off as a race while letting Gnomes live.
Sickening.

> Having more than one industrious shortstack race

Disgusting

> Having only one shortstack race

Repugnant

So, the ideal is a half-dozen short races with varying degrees of industriousness all bordering the territory of burly minotaurs?

And these burly minotaurs become spiritual, disciplined monks as they grow up.
The stereotypical depiction of a raging minotaur is their equivalent of the punk scene.

This confuses the gnomes to no end

>No one truly knows where the Minotaurs actually come from. When asked the only reply they seem to give is "torwords the west"

In a great monastary far past the gnomish lands, the Great Horned Sage sat quietly, watching his students working through their forms. He no longer knew want in his heart, for he had completed his labyrinth long ago, now he watched his disciples and guided them along their own paths.

After some time, one student simply stopped, and walked to the far end of the room. None of the other students or masters questioned him, for they knew the look in his eyes; he had the spark of inspiration, the Final Desire.

He made his way to the wall and ran his hands over several masterwork tools, stopping at the ones that called to him. Removing the picks and shovels that he deemed correct, he walked towards the entrance of the temple, and all stepped aside; for to hinder a minotaur at this stage in their life was a dangerous action indeed.

The elder nodded his horns in farewell, the student would only return once finished. This journey could take him anywhere in the world, and even then he would have to have the strength to combat the Obsession, else his labyrinth would become corrupted and become a dungeon of violence and greed...

For several centuries the red dragons guild made a profit off of reselling gnomish scrolls.

>Long ago, the dragons realised the tiny, nondragon races might eventually wear them down by sheer weight of numbers and incorporated into scale-color-based guilds with byzantine rules and bizarre structure. The bright side of this is one of the primary services offered is protection, both from the guild's own depredations and from the depredations of other guilds. A great many of the more 'civilised' areas have a mutually assured destruction contract with an entire guild coming forth to lay waste to whatever manages to destroy the country.
Scale color is completely hereditary, crossbreeds are ostracised or killed, and a secret dragon illuminati controls all the fractious guilds.

Only the highest ranked guild members are even aware of the existence of true dragons. Most guilds prefer to keep the identity of their leadership a secret, to deter "undesirables", as such they primarily rely on their dragonborn, kobold and goblinoid servents for most guild management.

Though the gnome enclaves have a general soft hold on enchanted items and academies, one of the primary boons the Dragon Guilds can grant is an infusion of blood, giving the recipient innate sorcerous might. Initiates are tested thoroughly for loyalty, though there's always some rogue dragons or thieves. Mutations are a common side effect, and it's hypothesized (Mostly by academics) that this is where the dragonborn and kobolds came from in the first place.
To maintain their trade secrets, academic research into the uses of "dragonfire elixir" is deliberately stunted. The gnomish enclaves have the longest-running destruction contract with multiple guilds, and in exchange the methodology of the "elixir" is kept secret and weapons that could actually threaten a true dragon are kept tightly controlled and watched bitch, you know they have secret stockpiles, they're not stupid

Dwarves are believed to have branched into numerous distinct subspecies following their exodus from the dark places of the world.

The first are the common gnomes we know of.

The second are creatures of advanced magical ability that tend to live solitary, almost hermetic lives. These gnomes descend from the priestly caste of Dwarves, those who did not put their ancestors before their gods, and foresaw the fall of their race. These dwaves migrated in search of the lands told to them in legends -- a golden island at the end of the rainbow, where green rubies would grow on the Rocks of Sham.

Another, the so-called 'Liminal' dwarves, remained on the edge, either guarding the surface against that which chased them out, or having fallen into the thrall of it. They're supposed to be deathly pale, extremely hairy, and have gigantic eyes. There have been no confirmed sightings, but popular culture attributes them with a mastery of strange magics, the power to become invisible and move without sound, and a hunger for sapient flesh or blood.

The creation of undead constructs is currently a point of contention among several gnomish academics. Several deep folk claim that they constitute as a type of enchanted item, and as such cannot be made by non deep folk. These claims are usually denied by the magus association.

That's not even getting into the question of sapient undead, who require either extremely illegal soul-binding rituals or unprofitable periods of instruction and tutelage to make the new magical intelligence imprint interface correctly with the body.
Current laws give them little to no autonomy, and more than one researcher has been murdered by their own creation.
It's mainly an academic question because of the highly competitive labor market.

What are these supposed to be?

There have been some rumours that there may even be a subspecies of gnomes that have arisen in recent centuries.

It is not known when this migration occurred, but these particular gnomes seem to have left their homelands to found communities within magical fungal groves. This subtype of gnome feasts exclusively on the fungi which surrounds their village, which has thus turned their skin blue and shrunk them down to a height of a gnomish child once fully grown. These gnomes even construct their homes out of the fungus, which may also have contributed to their rapid decrease in size.

Interestingly, communities seem to have only one female and one elder. Elders are denoted by their red clothes and beard, which differentiates them from others, who wear white and are clean shaven.

Little bit svirfneblin, little bit Gray, little bit morlock.

It is said that, deep beneath the sea, lies several relics of the world's caretakers. Creatures that have for the most part abandoned this plane of existence. The relics range in power significantly, though the price stays the same, a complete loss of ones sense of self and a desire to lead the world torwords "the right path".

may i suggest reading a book or two you mumbling idiot

Legend has it of the one dwarf who dug to the underworld. When he got there, he thought it was a nice place. When he went back up he was so depressed that he insulted the king to his face so that he could be executed and live there forever.

An immensely influential gnomish inventor has spent a fortune trying to find a practical usage for edible swords.

Gnomish cities have particularly high walls to fend off trolls. Trolls consider gnomes to be a delicacy and frequent trollish raids on Gnomish cities are very common during the Autumn as the trolls prepare for hibernation. Thanks to the high walls, the trolls are seen more like seasonal bad weather than monstrous attackers, but that is very recent in history.
In the past, trolls would capture gnomes and trade them with other troll tribes for a heavy price. To catch a gnome alive is now every troll's dream, for it will bring not only wealth, but status.
There are some gnomish cities which are believed to have been founded as breeding farms for trolls. Whilst there is substantial evidence to support this, the gnomes insist that it isn't true. This may be rooted in their evolution from dwarves, who were very proud and would not want to admit to once being livestock.

Trolls themselves show distinct signs of stagnation, having apparently frozen the entire race in a genetic deadend but rendering every member immortal. There cannot be more than thirteen thousand (ish) trolls at any given time, and any given piece of flesh can grow into a new troll given enough time and nutrients, assuming there's a free soul.
Though possessed of a collective racial memory, it gets patchy the more members have died, and the Great Purges have regressed the troll civilisation back to tribal barbarism.

Trolls are more or less universally hostile torwords creatures smaller than them, but lacking any desire or need to eat, they usually just end up torturing the creature, with childlike fascination.

Seeing as a good half of the races of SETTINGNAME tend to be less than four feet tall, this is rather a problem. Troll hunting is an unpleasant, if necessary job, and winter troll hunting is the most dangerous- Though they begin asleep, any waking must be made up for in calories, meaning winter trolls are much more aggressive and predatory.

The goal of troll hunting is not to kill the troll, as that is a nearly impossible task, but rather to incapacitate him long enough for him to be permenately contained.

Although trolls hibernate, they are easily woken. A troll waking from hibernation is twice as savage as a troll any other time, and a troll who's woken early is twice as savage once again.
Troll hunters are held with the highest regard, often rewarded greatly with lofty houses and concubines once they retire, but few ever do, for most die on hunts.
To combat the trolls, recent innovations in golemancy have come about through gnomic ingenuity. These golems assist the trollhunters whilst ranging. They are designed to be smaller than most trolls, but they are capable of fending them off physically.

With the help of this new golem technology, the killing of trolls has become more common of late than it has been in the past. Many traditionalist hunters do not like this practice, as they are aware that trolls are just acting on instinct like wild animals. However, those who have lost friends and family members to troll attacks are less sympathetic to the creatures and support such culls.

The art of golem making is a fairly costly endeavour, as such most are either owned by a dragons guild or a member of the Magus council.

Come winter, they are leased to the troll hunters. Since troll hunting is such a respected and well paid profession, the best hunters can easily afford a golem companion. Many others lease the help of minotaurs.

Troll hunters are often hired to escort caravans across the red rock ridge, a place known for its particularly large troll population.

It is not unheard of for troll hunters to occasionaly be hired by those with more money than common sense to capture a troll for their mengarie.

>Cow tails for getting rid of flies around ass
>Tail incredibly long
>Can clearly wipe and take care of own business
People tend to forget that cows don't wipe, and they have those massive shitblast ass stains around their junk, but the question here is is how this translates to a creature with an unnecessarily long tail capable of wearing a loincloth and has the capcity to wipe. Where the logistics and fundamentals of hygiene here? I know squatting is more common in fantasy defecating which is healthier overall, but then height, build and how the intestines work come into mind, as Bovines and Equines have that industrial grade shit crushing, so whatever is going on in a Minotaur doesn't have the space for that, so we can only guess at some pretty vestigal hybrid shit going on for substitute bio-functions.

An astute observation.

The primary form of currency used in trades are gnomish silver wheels.

Gnomish golden wheels are also used, but typically aren't exchanged on anything less valuable than the trade of land, vast quantities of goods, or powerful items.

Gnomish copper wheels exist as well, but are so worthless they're almost never manufactured, let alone spent.

The Dwarven crypts were sealed and Dwarven homes remain hidden in mountain passes. The riches and technology they've amassed goes unknown and undone for centuries, perhaps millenia, and few know if the dwarves existence outside of scholars and practitioners of the arcane arts. Many magics have been left behind but are kept under close watch by the gnomes.

Since Sai the dwarves have survived, and kept the secret of immortality, but remain reclusive and still convinced of their divinity, hiding in small mountain homes and automated keeps hidden deep in the wilderness.

Hatreds towards them run deep fire their blasphemy to the gods

The highest echelon odd minotaurs know their origin from the Deep Maze, a labyrinth that starches hundreds of miles down with a single exit on the rocky coast of an ocean bluff. They were born of the sea, and it's cool docile nature coarses through them. The maze has been sealed after a great exodus, which the minotaurs no longer know the reason for, due to the "such is life" nature of the minotaurs.

The minotaurs have always felt belonging near oceans, coasts, and cliffs, but their only known lineage back to where they come from is personified in the maze.

>humans are more sensitive to magical items and magical effects (chance to naturally detect magical items and other magical effects within 30 ft and chance to take additional damage from magical attacks)
a player accused me of stealing this from matt colville, which was how i was introduced to matt colville
>tieflings, aasimar, half-elfs (and all other human bred hybrids) have some sort of (minor) deformity due to, basically what i previously explained

Many types of aasimar and tiefling exist, aligned to polarities of their virtue or vice. Wrathful tieflings will have parts of their body or face covered in fire. Lustful ones will have soft skin and some large appendage. Gluttonous ones have rolls of fat that do not weigh them down. Aasimar have wings, beacons of light, wisened wrinkles, or glowing blood depending on what type of kindness they value most.

Traveling in between the planes without special permission is strictly forbidden. Failure to comply with these laws can lead to a very long trip in the black flames.