The World & Races of Atyria

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Edahsrevlis
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The World & Races of Atyria

Post by Edahsrevlis »

Atyria is the name (likely placeholder) of the world I hope to create for an MMORPG video game.

I'm interested in appraisals of the concept and feedback/suggestions about the world's races and natural history.

The philosophy of the narrative:
1. The player races selected are intended to appeal to a wide audience of gamers.
2. The world is realistic. It avoids cognitively dissonant gaming staples like hitpoints and repeatable quests.
3. A balance between innovation & accessibility (meaning how easy the game/world is to learn and understand) is important, so renaming things like "elves" and "goblins" is just confusing to a player, despite being more unique.
4. Freedom of action and player agency (similar to Dungeons & Dragons).
5. All NPCs are players. OPCs (Offline Player Characters) are already being explored by the upcoming game Chronicles of Elyria.

Target audience:
Hardcore gamers (people who play many hours in a small collection of games)
As opposed to:
Casual gamers (people who play casual games or play infrequently)
Core gamers (people who explore and purchase a wider variety of games)


Technology disclaimer: The features of the game are not feasible with current tech, but may be within 5-10 years.

World
A naturally evolved planet in our own scientific universe, with one exception: a chi-like life energy exists and is accessible to create magic.
Most races are naturally evolved, but some are the result of magical experimentation on other races.
Geography and political history will be outlined soon.

Society is Feudal/Medieval, unsurprisingly. I haven't decided on the exact dimensions of the explorable world, but enough space for 9 capital cities (1000 players each), 29 other cities (500 each), 117 towns (250 each), and about 230 miscellaneous villages (~50 each). They're about 1 mile (20 minute walk) apart on average. I will soon plot these in photoshop to get a better feel.
Game Context:
The cities will be underscaled population-wise. A 1000-player capital city will represent a capital city of about 10,000-15,000 people in the actual narrative. Time moves more swiftly, so 1 year in real life is about 55 game years (hopefully one of the only cognitively dissonant things about the experience).

Magic
My approach to magic is similar to that of Eragon, where spells are cast by channeling inner energy, like "chi", that resides in all living things. The amount of energy needed to cast a spell is derived from the physical work done to achieve the same effect. Energy can be stored in gems and other for later withdrawal and use.
Spells are largely limited to lifting and moving objects, enhancing senses, creating wards/barriers, blasts of heat/energy, and other things achievable by scientific means. The dark school of necromancy is just an extension of manipulating life energy to reanimate the dead or extend one's own lifespan.
Game Context:
Magic is flexible. The approach taken in Eragon was very compelling. If you can tell the magic what to do grammatically, it will happen if there is enough energy to sustain it. Overexerting yourself can kill you. However, using language or incantations to flexibly power magic would be a nightmare to put in a game. In both Eragon and Harry Potter, magic can be cast without incantations, but words help to focus the magic and prevent distraction and mis-casting. The game will just rely on wordless magic.
Words and chants are wonderful flavor though, so they may still be included in divine rituals and such.


Gods
Game Context:
They exist invisibly. Players build favor with them which are stored in the form of invisible points. They occasionally come to the aid of a player by thwarting an incoming arrow or other subtle divine intervention. Players with unusually high divine favor may earn custom story events at the will of the Gods (who are represented by paid Narrative Designers behind the scenes) or specially enchanted items, akin to Perseus' helm, boots, and shield. In extremely rare cases, a God may expose themselves to players.
Narrative Context:
"Gods" are large but of varying description, able to sustain permanent flight and invisibility magic, capable of extremely powerful spells. I imagine they were the dominant race on an alien planet (Planet X) across the galaxy which itself was capable of magic. The magic of the God-race was developed, practiced, refined, and amplified over time, until eventually their worshippers either turned on them or ran short in supply. A number of them (10-50) began channeling a powerful spell to escape their planet and teleport across the galaxy to Atyria. They may have guided the evolution of the Proto-elves and either imbued or taught them the use of magic.

Races
Image

Racial summaries:
Spoiler:
Humans: Short lifespans. All the strengths and pitfalls you'd expect of a human race. Reliable but unremarkable save for their deeds. They reproduce relatively fast, being a relatively passionate race. As a result, they were also used as the basis for several magically engineered races.
Elves: Among the longest lifespans, elves are predisposed to magic and grow naturally more fortified in physical strength with age. A young elf, younger than 70, will be physically somewhat weaker than most humans, but then begin to surpass them. The oldest elves are also the strongest. At peaks of 350 years, they are not immortal but would certainly seem so to most races. They are more reserved and measured in their decisions, as mistakes can haunt them for quite a long time. They reproduce somewhat slowly, to the extent that if they warred a lot, they would likely go extinct.
Quarrans: Derived (currently) from the Elvish meaning "four-arm", these are magically engineered elves of larger stature and with four arms. They were created by Elves in ancient wars against the large trolls, when trolls were more common, as natural elves did not match their might and hurting large things with magic is as difficult as hurting them by other means.
Seraphs: Humans with wings. They were created by some of the earliest human magicians (under the supervision of fae) as not much more than a portrait of vanity. Their wings are quite beautiful but not entirely functional as adults, being too heavy to fly. For this reason, they are often enchanted at birth - if the family can afford it - with a spell that provides minor levitation at will to compliment their flapping, drawing from their lifeforce as power. This means they can fly but tire faster when they do.
Fauns: Humans again tried to create enhanced versions of themselves, this time with the endurance of goats, and of course their legs. They were meant to be more productive both as citizens and soldiers in ancient wars. They are, in part, but are also somewhat fickle and their restless temperament does not make them suited to mingle with humans. They reproduce fairly often but with a greater ratio of males to females. The males are somewhat foolhardy though, so they aren't as populous as you'd expect.
Centaurs: Magical engineering gone right. Centaurs were created from human stock in a joint human-elf endeavor in past wars. They are strong and intelligent, but with a wild nature. Being sentient, asking to mount one even for symbiotic combat purposes did not often go well for the asker.

Merfolk: A marine mammal descended from prehistoric proto-elves. The shore-dwelling variety lives in semi-aquatic cities similar to Venice or Middle-Earth's Laketown. The prevalence of rivers, lakes and seas in the region gives merfolk claim over many trade routes. They are heavily mercantile for this reason. The largest capital on the continent is the coastal mermish city of Lreilral.
Merfolk tails (example) still contain ancestral leg bones with large webbed toes forming the fin at the end, but their heels receded into the tail overtime. A landwalking spell is commonly used to temporarily split their tail fins and allow them to walk awkwardly for a time before returning to heal in the water. Rarely, an extensive series of transformational spells is used to acquire permanent functional legs.
They rarely live longer than 140 years. They reproduce somewhat often but spend most of gestation in a sac in the water and there are frequent complications. Female infants are slightly more common than male and the species tends toward polygyny.

Fae: The fae are faeries. Males are as tall as 3 feet, while females are rarely 2.5 feet. They evolved before modern elves and are extremely gifted with magic, especially transformative, such as the kind used to give a live merperson legs. Being small does have its disadvantages though, and their population has significantly dwindled overtime. They tend to keep far away from the settlements of other races, so it is difficult to know how few there are. I'm considering making them even smaller but not sure.
Dwarves: Stout, bearded, isolationist, industrious, and enterprising. Most dwarf cities lack a poor class, due to plentiful opportunity. They supply a great deal of timber and raw minerals, including refining valuable gemstones commonly used to store magic.
Imps: Imps are a thick-skinned offshoot of fae with reptilian features. They are slightly larger than fae. The details of their evolution are ambiguous but some suspect a divine hand. They are the more conniving race and have a tendency toward evil. They are not uncommon in the ranks of the "evil" races but may also be found in the company of members of other races, who they may likely take advantage of at one point or another. They are opportunistic and have questionable concept of loyalty.
Trolls: Evolved by a gigantism mutation from imps, accompanied by deformation and mentally deficiency. As the mutated race grew, imps oversaw their evolution and restored some intelligence to the race. Some. They still have a tendency toward violence even amongst themselves and are nearing extinction as a result. Trolls very commonly give birth to twins, who unfortunately commonly kill one another.
Orcs: Orcs range from 5 to 5.5 feet and have leathery skin. Like all descendants of imps, they are predisposed to aggression. They may have lifespans comparable to humans, but they tend to die much earlier.
Goblins: Goblins are nearly the same size as their extinct ancestor, the "Gorc", which was larger than imps, ranging from 4.5 to 5 feet. They are as intelligent as humans, better with magic, and not quite as physically aggressive as orcs. They are commonly aligned with orcs in conflict, however, and have similar mortality rates. They habitually form "squads" of 3-4 goblins to whom they remain bonded for life. A long-lived goblin squad is often equal to an equivalent number of another race in combat, having developed martial chemistry. A squad may include a female mate, if she was part of the squad before marriage.

Carnids (Felid & Canid): A furry race descended from proto-elves. They evolved in highly hostile environments and became stronger and more feral as a result. Their intelligence is often weighed down by instinctual habits. Two distinct races are canids, resembling wolves, and felids, resembling cats. They summon magical energy slower than most races so magicians are less common or less proficient.
Gargoyles: Gargoyles were created by the fae from carnid stock as shock troops in the Troll Wars, as quarrans were for the elves. They were selectively bred for size and given bat-like wings. They store large amounts of life energy but can't manipulate it for spellcasting very easily. A complimentary levitation spell is often placed at birth, as with seraphs. The most remarkable gift given to them by the fae is a form of stasis, which allows them to halt biological processes and harden nearly to stone to restore lifeforce faster, which almost completely halts aging. Unfortunately, the process takes some time to activate and is regulated by an internal timer to determine when they will emerge, as they are not conscious in stasis and can't break free at will. Gargoyles may, for strategic reasons, consent to a spell controlled by another else to release them early by magic. They are not completely invincible in this form, so it is common practice to have protective enchantments and wards on their person.

Evolutionary notes: Proto-elves had tails from their ancestors. Elves and merfolk lost this trait while carnids and fae kept it. Fae tails are less pronounced and they will sometimes remove their tails at birth, while imps tend to keep theirs. Dwarves and imp descendants also lost tail traits. Proto-elves basically represent the Homo genus of this world, all sentient life is descended from them.
My chart is likely missing evolutionary steps and has no timeline yet. This is my first draft.
Societal notes: Imps, Trolls, Goblins, and Orcs commonly have kinship and intermingle. Other races do not commonly live amongst one another, with the exception that coastal merfolk cities are inviting of other races for commercial reasons. Gargoyles, Quarrans, Centaurs, Fauns, and Seraphs typically resent their creator races. Seraphs actually feel superior to grounded humans. Gargoyles don't resent their source race (carnids), but by their unusual nature are often isolated from all other races physically and emotionally.

Wraiths: Not strictly a race, these are the corrupted lifeforms of necromancers who refused to die and instead undergo transformations that keep them alive via magic. It requires high energy, however, so they often kill to extract life energy, living a vampiric existence. They are extremely rare and are most often Human, Goblin, or the occasional power-mad Imp.

Image
It's a lot to read, but give me tips and feedback, especially on the races. Very new to worldbuilding. Any suggestions for evolutionary flow, culture, additional playable races, etc.
Would also love to hear what your top 3 race picks would be if you could play this game. :)
Last edited by Edahsrevlis on 24 May 2017 08:39, edited 2 times in total.
Edahsrevlis
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by Edahsrevlis »

Playable race poll. Vote if you don't mind. :)
https://strawpoll.com/cf2d2wa
Leader Desslok
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by Leader Desslok »

I actually really like this, the only problem for me perhaps being keeping track of all these races. Also, your population is very low.
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Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
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And drinking largely sobers us again.
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Edahsrevlis
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by Edahsrevlis »

I've finally drafted my initial map and placed every existing city on it. I intend for sailing of ships and possibly some form of naval combat but I'm not sure at what point sailors would start exploring beyond the reaches of this section of continent. Right now, all of these villages (the players) are cut off from further exploration mainly by environmental dangers, making it unnecessary to flesh out the rest of the world at this time. Each small village is usually about an 8 hour walk from the next city or village. This is probably too far but I'll adjust the continent size soon.

What I do imagine is each capital-sized city being barely 15,000. Approximately London in the 1100s? Any tips for extrapolating populations from there?

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elemtilas
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by elemtilas »

Edahsrevlis wrote:I've finally drafted my initial map and placed every existing city on it. I intend for sailing of ships and possibly some form of naval combat but I'm not sure at what point sailors would start exploring beyond the reaches of this section of continent. Right now, all of these villages (the players) are cut off from further exploration mainly by environmental dangers, making it unnecessary to flesh out the rest of the world at this time. Each small village is usually about an 8 hour walk from the next city or village. This is probably too far but I'll adjust the continent size soon.

What I do imagine is each capital-sized city being barely 15,000. Approximately London in the 1100s? Any tips for extrapolating populations from there?
Spoiler:
Image
Nice map! Not a lot of civilisation going on the west, by the looks! Also, I'd bet those little port cities down southwest of Kangjesh do a brisk transshippment business between the Western and Outer Seas!

I think most of the big English tows of that era had at most 3000 to 5000 inhabitants.
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Axiem
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by Axiem »

Edahsrevlis wrote: What I do imagine is each capital-sized city being barely 15,000. Approximately London in the 1100s? Any tips for extrapolating populations from there?
It's not quite what you're looking for, but it might help: Medieval Demographics Made Easy.
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alynnidalar
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Re: The World & Races of Atyria

Post by alynnidalar »

And a sort of followup/response: Notes on Medieval Population Geography.

(also linked at the beginning of that article are a couple of articles on the demographics of Westeros, from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones--veeeery interesting if you like that sort of thing)
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