Ancestries: First Thoughts

Today’s post is a workshop on some ancestries I’ve been thinking about, mostly in the lore and worldbuilding sense rather than mechanics. I have some robust ideas for a few ancestries and a kernel of an idea for others, so I am definitely looking for your feedback! 

Goblins

I love the idea of having goblins in the game as the main small ancestry. Sure, I could go with halflings or gnomes, but I get a sense of recklessness and danger when I think of goblins that fits with the world I’m imagining. For me, it’s much easier to envision a goblin leaping off an airship, swords drawn, to plummet down onto the black of a gigantic beast than to imagine a halfling or gnome doing the same. 

At this moment, Draw Steel does not have a playable goblin ancestry. One might come out later, and MCDM mentioned they would like to look into the idea of letting a player control three goblins as one player character. That sounds pretty awesome, and I hope they get that to work, but I can’t wait that long. I need to come up with my own goblins or take something they have and rename it. That got me thinking about the polder, Draw Steel’s version of a halfling, which can turn into a shadow. That’s inspiring! I thought, what if I take the polder and call it a goblin? That's easy enough, but is it cool and interesting? Well, here’s some lore I came up with. Let me know what you think! 

Scholars aren’t sure how or when the goblins made their way to the Dead Realm (a dark mirror realm filled with the souls of the dead that have nowhere to go), but everyone agrees that they reemerged into the Skies of Mor-ladron, appearing in the deepest shadows of Hilean in the 87th year of the eternal reign of Lady Tristessa. The near century they spent in that horrid place before entering Hilean changed them, allowing them to take on aspects of shadow. They also brought knowledge of Black Ash sorcery (shadow subclass). The magic allows them and anyone who learns it to use the Dead Realm as a way to travel from point to point in an instant. Goblins are about three feet tall with skin in varying shades of green, but those bloodlines that have been more touched by the shadow may have tints of gray or blue. 

These days, goblins are a part of all walks of life. You’ll find goblins throughout the Skies of Mor-ladron, from the nobility to running merchant guilds and criminal organizations. Many nobles prize goblins as servants for their ability to literally remain out of sight. 

I think that's a compelling way to introduce goblins’ abilities (well, duh, I made it) and tie in some world lore and class abilities. What do you think? Does it inspire? Should I make any tweaks? Should I just try to create a more generic goblin? 

Wode Elves 

The wode elf art for Draw Steel has been so cool that I really wanted to include them in Skies, and having wood elves gave me an idea that solves my lumber problem. The elves will live in the largest swathe of forest in the skies, called (for now) the Green Isle. This situation allows for some twists to the typical depiction of nature-leaning elves. Often, they get an indigenous or hippy theme, which is fine, but I want to explore a broader range of possibilities. 

The fact that the wode elves own, say, 90% of the forests in the skies means they have a lot of leverage and should be powerful and wealthy. I have started thinking of them as the lumber barons. While some elves live in the deep wode in the center of the isle, many live on the outskirts and work in the lumber industry. They use their close ties to nature in their endeavors, and practice or give lip service to the old ways. Subterfuge and espionage are common among the baronies as they seek to learn or hide the different powers of the Green (nature magic, one of the choices for the elementalist class) that can speed up growth and, therefore, production. Wode elves practice some sort of magically enhanced sustainability, as they are wise enough to realize that if the trees disappear, so does their influence. 

None of the ancestries in Skies have super-long life spans, although some would live longer than humans. If humans live 80 years on average, then some other ancestries might live to an average of 120. I am still deciding whether the wode elves are in the 80-year or the 120-year bracket. (There is also a 60-year bracket; I think the goblins and fungorians will probably go here.)

What do you think about this take on the wode elves? Does it give them enough depth? Should I make them more traditional? Are there other ideas you think would be fun to implement for the wode elves?  

Rulers/Citizens of Empyrean and a Flying Ancestry

Now, we come to the part I’m struggling with the most, so any ideas or thoughts would be much appreciated. I’ll try to describe my thoughts as succinctly as possible. 

As described in the previous blog post, Empyrean is ruled by powerful magi. Anything can change, but I want those magi to share an ancestry with the major population group in the city. So, I want to come up with an arcane or supernaturally aligned ancestry, something easy to envision as producing powerful mages. I also want an ancestry that can fly. These don't have to be the same, but they did initially start that way. 

My first idea was to have high elves with wings. That concept could fit both requirements, and I might end up using that. Having two elvish ancestries rubs me the wrong way, though, so I’m exploring other options. I also thought about having this combo ancestry be dragonkin. Dragonkin can have wings, and dragons are tied to magic. The only real downside would be needing to change my dragon lore (in Skies, dragons are more like animals than intelligent beings—unless they spend decades amassing a magical hoard and absorbing the power). 

Lately, I have been enamored with the idea of making a half-giant ancestry with a grasp of the arcane or psionics. (The fungorians currently have the monopoly on psionics, so maybe it would be good to have another group that can use it, or perhaps I’ll change the fungorians; I’m not sure.) Having a large ancestry focused on the supernatural could be interesting, but coming up with mechanics has been challenging. How much of their magic is a choice vs. an inherent part of them? A lot of the mechanics showcase bigger characters’ size, so how does the supernatural flavor come into play? I considered using the orcs’ bloodfyre (magical blood that causes their veins to glow when blood is split, empowering them) and changing it to arcaneblood or something like that. 

This is where I am, stuck in the middle of a few ideas, trying to decide which way to go. Let me know if you have any thoughts on what flying ancestry I could add, if you have any ideas for an arcane ancestry, or if you can see how to make the giants work. 

What’s Next

I’m not sure where we’ll go next! Maybe I’ll spend some more time musing on ancestry, or create a draft of the timeline. Or maybe something random like the hippogriffs will catch my attention, again. We’ll find out next week!