Elves And Dragons And Gods, Oh My!

An assortment of short bits of worldbuilding, sort of 'filling in the gaps'.

Dragons. My last two D20 campaigns were chock-full of the things, and it's hard to imagine the game without them -- It's Dungeons & DRAGONS, after all! However, I wanted to get away from them for a bit, without writing them out entirely. Thus, this backdrop, which lets me bring them in if I need them, allows for interesting dragon-based classes and races, but which keeps the great beasties themselves out of the way. For now.

Elves -- I like to define at least a bit of culture for each of the main races. I don't veer too far from the established norms, as I dislike change for the sake of change. ("My dwarves are nine feet tall, beardless, and hate mountains -- but they're still dwarves!") So elves are still artsy-fartsy tree hugging wizard-warriors, but they're also a little alien and withdrawn, reinventing themselves every few decades when the ennui of existence grows too much. I think this also adds some great plot hooks for both PCs and NPCs. The PC might have to deal with friends, or descendants of friends, who knew him in a "former life", while the party might seek out a great Elf general, the finest warrior of his generation, only to find he's now a first level rogue who has only dim memories of that former life and no desire to return to it.

Gods -- I like gods, at least in works of fantasy and imagination, where they belong. D&Dish gods, very mechanistic and defined, appeal to my marginally Asbergers sensibilities. I always loved the racial gods from old issues of Dragon, gods made from the whole cloth to fit the worlds of gaming, not reality. Since I needed to provide background for Warforged in my world, I wanted at least one deity for them. (I think I need at least one more, come to think of it, but here's the first.) Also, having established "Name, The Verb Of Name" for one Warforged god, I can make sure the others follow that pattern. Always good.

Dragons
Dragons are not fairy-tales in Arith -- they are creature of undisputed historical fact, and their actions shaped the world to the point of the Crush and beyond. However, the actual sighting of a dragon is something no living Arithian -- at least, those of the Free Peoples -- can honestly claim to have done. The dragons were unquestioned lords of the world in the dimmest recesses of history, long before the Magewars, the fall of Skallidane, or the founding of the Alliance Of Free Kingdoms. Even after they fell from total lordship, they were still mighty powers in the world, both in their natural forms and as disguised wanderers passing among many races. It was a long, slow, process by which the true dragons bred less and less with their own kind, and fewer and fewer of their young grew to maturity. The eldest dragons, weary of their petty games and wary of their powerful foes, retreated more and more from the world, finding the darkest and most foreboding of places in which to dwell and dream. No one knows how many of the elder wyrms live still, or where they sleep, but many fear the great tragedy of the Crush has awakened them, and they have begun to once more move upon the world. Others claim this is nonsense, fear mongering in a world which has no shortage of real fears.

Certainly, the dragontainted are well known -- from half-dragons born from seemingly normal human parents, to sorcerors, to dragonfire adepts, to stranger hybrids and odd creatures -- but the great beasts themselves? They belong, thankfully to an earlier time.

Elves
The elves of Arith are among the oldest of the Free Peoples, though certainly not the oldest sapient species. They are long-lived beings who dwell in environments which carefully blend natural beauty and civilized comfort. They once ruled over vast empires, long before the first Magewar, but now are a somewhat diminished race, gathered into a few large woodland cities and countless small settlements and villages. The elves produce many skilled individuals, but few great heroes -- but those who do exist are great indeed.

The Long Sleep
Elves live for centuries, but very few spend all, or even most, of that time in asingle pursuit. After a few decades of life, an Elf will grow weary, and develop a deep sense of ennui and indifference. All joy flees from existence; food is bland, lovemaking tiring, even life-and-death struggles begin to pall. At this time, the elf enters what is known as the Long Sleep, where they enter into a coma-like state, needing nothing but air to survive. (Obviously, they do this in safe surroundings -- usually a sacred hall in a larger Elvish community). The Long Sleep lasts for 6-10 years. When the elf awakes, he is reborn in spirit. While he retains, in part, all of his old memories, he has lost much of his learning. In essence, he emerges with no class levels, and begins life anew, studying different arts than he did before. The dreams of the Long Sleep serve to show him new paths in life, and he might emerge with a different alignment. While still technically the same person, he thinks of himself as one reborn, and often ignores old friendships and commitments, as if they belonged to another. (Elf law dictates this is so -- marriages end when one spouse enters the Long Sleep, and debts are forgiven as if the debtor had died. Laws of other cultures are not so understanding.)


Govar, The Forger Of Souls
Part of what helped the Warforged escape their bondage and become free-willed beings was the slow evolution of a religious consciousness. Since they were formed with souls -- or at least, fragments of souls -- they had the capacity to understand the concepts of higher planes and higher beings. As with all such issues, it is uncertain if their desire for a deity created one from raw god-stuff, or if they attracted some being from elsewhere in the multiverse who took on the form they wished him to have. Either way, the first god of the Warforged was Govar the Forger Of Souls.

Divine Rank: 15
Symbol: A blue smith's hammer
Home Plane: Mechanus
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Law, Creation, War, Warforged
Worshippers: Warforged
Cleric Alignment: Any
Domains: Law, Creation, War, Warforged
Favored Weapon: Warhammer

Description
Govar appears as a massive mithral and adamantine Warforged, thirty feet high, swinging a warhammer composed of solidified incarnum. He wears a simple tunic woven of prismatic fiber, and his eyes are deep pools of golden light.

Dogma
Govar preaches obedience to rightful authority, honor in duty, service to the race, and liberation. Unlike many Lawful gods, Govar believes that it can never be right to own another sapient being, no matter the cause. His clerics oppose any form of slavery and will use any means at their disposal (preferably lawful ones) to end it. Buying slaves and freeing them, attacking slave vessels, or ambushing slave caravans and liberating their 'cargo' are all noble acts according to Govar.

Clergy And Temples
Only Warforged are clerics of Govar. Because they are few in number, there are very few freestanding temples to him. Rather, a group of Warforged will dedicate a portion of their workplace, home, or barracks to a shrine to Govar.