User blog:Ralok/Races of Jeeb

The world of Jeeb is like that of many other fantasy worlds, filled with many different species that all inhabit one world. Some people find worlds like this unrealistic and silly, working from the assumption that in a world where multiple sapient species evolved one would inevitably wipe out all the others.

I have personally never believed that this idea in fiction should be treated as a strict rule. Even if you did take it as a strict rule you have to admit that in fantasy worlds the different species are usually more similar to races rather than species... although there are exceptions.

This introduces its own problematic elements, with some races having innate bonuses over others. Especially when it comes to intelligence and behavior, the very presence of Half-orcs as one of the default player races is because the creators thought it was to ridiculous that an orc would be civilized enough to integrate into society.

I wanted to take a good look at each of the races on Jeeb and what is known about them, and I wanted to write up some ideas that I had about how they could be made distinct from other settings in the D&D universe.

As always, my ideas are my ideas and are just fan fiction... they aren't canon, this is just my blog so don't take anything I am saying here seriously.

Tieflings
I wanted to look at tieflings first because I find them to be relatively fascinating. Tieflings are demonic looking, possessing horns, tails, and red skin.

While the party members may think Tieflings a bit odd so far in neither Heroes and Halfwits or Twits and Crits (as far as I have watched) has there been any real reaction to them from NPCs. It is also worth noting that outside a dwelling in the newest episodes there was a statue of a Tiefling, presented along with others as one of the primary races of this world.

Early in Heroes and Halfwits, Gus joked that a Tiefling Bard was stereotypical. His joke clearly seemed to be aimed at the fact that Tieflings are one of the newer races in D&D and don't have many stereotypes attached to them, but between H&H, Harmonquest, and folklore of demonic entities playing fiddles and the paranoid delusions of people that rock music was the music of the devil... yeah Tiefling bard seems like a pretty solid stereotype.

In most campaign settings Tieflings are presented as a strain of humanity with demonic heritage. Not actually being an actual race, but just individuals with whatever demonic feature the player wants to impose upon them. They arent really a race in the sense that other races are, I think that this should be different in Heroes and Halfwits.

In my opinion Tieflings should be a native peoples that lived simple lives until their homelands were conquered by Einland. Existing to show the dark side of this imperial nation, Tieflings would be scattered and broken. Living in small nomadic communities and caravans across the lands that they used to rule.

Bioligically they are pretty much just a race of humans, whether they have actual demonic heritage would be up for debate. But I cant help but imagine that they would be the victims of propaganda to an extent to keep people from siding with them against the government.

Dragonborn (and Kobolds)
Dragonborn are an interesting races in the Dungeons and Dragons lore, they don't exist in every campaign, and they fill the "beast race" niche you find in many fantasy worlds. But they aren't quite as simplistic as "lizard men" or "catfolk" or anything like that.

In the lore Dragonborn are a lot like Tieflings, except with draconic heritage in their humanoid line instead of demonic. What I find curious about this though is that there also exists "half dragons" in the lore, and for whatever reason the sterility of half dragons is stressed in the Monster Manual... leaving the origins of Dragonborn confusing in the mythos of D&D.

On Jeeb the dragonborn are considered one of the primary races of the world (as indicated by the statues), and they seem to live more fleeting lives than that of the other races, as evidenced by the mythos Michael and Frank have built around the species.

Being so unique, it makes the Dragonborn a bit difficult to place into the world, especially with the existence of the near-identical in concept and appearance "kobolds."

So to make the Dragonborn make sense you have to connect the Dragons, Kobolds, and Dragonborn. I would make the Dragonborn supersoldiers from Einland, the creation of some form of magic user to create superior super strong soldier for a war several generations before the story takes place.

As a reward for their service to the people of Einland they would have probably been given a homeland of some sort, maybe a particularly large island? The dragonborn would desire greatly to form their own culture and become their own people, and thus would often avoid venturing out into the greater world, preferring to stay at home and add to their culture.

Dragons would have odd opinions of Dragonborn, some would view them as abominations, some wouldnt care much to distinguish them from half dragons (which are sterile and would often find their way to the dragon born homeland to live in peace). There would likely be cults of dragon worshiping dragonborn scattered about as well.

So where do kobolds come into this? The descendants of dragonborn from that first war a combination of discarded rejects, and dragonborn simply left for dead on the battlefield.

Orcs
Half-orcs are one of my least favorite aspects of the Dungeons and Dragons experience. With developers and players alike being so caught up in the idea that orcs would be so unintelligent and violent that they couldn't exist in normal society.

It makes me extremely uncomfortable.

I feel like a bit more could be done to justify the existence of half-orcs in this world, as well as rope in an explanation of the savagry and barbarism of orcs (as seen in Twits and Crits). My idea would be that there was a massive plague that affected all known Orcs, a plague that makes them infertile with their own kind...

The current generation of Orcs being the lasts generation of Orcs, their culture would be carried on by half-bloods. Most Orc women would remain within their homelands raising the next generation of Orcs that are largely half human, many of the remaining male orcs would descend into barbarism going out into the world and trying to make it pay for what was done to them.

Perhaps this is why Orcs would associate themselves with Goblins, as they are a related race that they are still fertile with? And perhaps it is these crossbreeds that result in the other goblin races such as hobgoblins and bugbears? (if those exist on Jeeb)

Elves
Aside from Drow (Dark Elves) the elvish races seem to be extremely Rare on Jeeb, the only Elf that springs to mind is the ghostly Pallas found in the cave network beneath Jackal Heart. They were apparently found on Pavloni minor. Albus cant really be taken into account considering his backstory.

I typically dislike elves in fantasy, and the fact that Elves seem largely rare and elusive in this universe works for me. I imagine that they inhabit extreme environments that other races prefer not to inhabit, using magic to compensate for the problems posed by these extreme places.

Perhaps jeebs equivelent of wood elves inhabit the deepest deserts, the equivalent of high evles inhabiting the arctic regions. And of course there are the drow (which I applaud for having a different skin tone than is normal for drow) who inhabit Jeebs underdark... which in some ways is probably more dangerous and extreme than deserts or arctic.

Gnomes
So far Gnomes have only appeared in the Horde Mode christmas special... and it needs to be kept that way, they didnt appear as one of the statues that depicted the major races, and I hope to god that they never appear canonically within this world.

Gnomes in my opinion are the most worthless race in the entirerty of Dungeons and Dragons, their niche exists as a pastiche combination of halflings, elves, and dwarves.

Gnomes are just so useless... But they exist, at least in the form of dreams.I think that it is in the dreams that they must remain, perhaps at some point in time every citizen of Jeeb has dreamed of gnomes?

A race that all have this collective memory of, but no proof of their existence in the physical world. Perhaps some gnomish machination drove the gnomes into the world of dreams long ago, perhap they exist on another world? proping the dreams of Jeebs people in preperation for a massive invasion at some point?

Dwarves
I love me some dwarves, but they always confuse the heck out of me in settings that include an Underdark or similar environments. They are a subterranean race that lives in mountains and stuff, so why is it their caverns seem rarely connected to the underdark, and that their relations with such races seem rare?

I have no idea how dwarves should be handled on Jeeb, or how they should be different from typical fantasy fiction.

Humans
I like the way humans have been handled thus far. I like that the ones from Einland seem to generally have paler skin tones than the humans from the Jackal Heart region... it adds a touch of realism to the setting.

Myconids
Mushroom people, don't ask why I just think it would be neat if they came to this world via spores carried by a meteor from a shattered moon of Rala.