[bloviate]

You can send me private messages or post to this thread if you have something to propose.

However, in order to prevent people from wasting their time, I should state that I favour predominantly human worlds. Non-human races of custom design are not appealing to me, although if they are fleshed out well, this is not set in stone. Some example races I can visualise due to their established place in fantasy settings I am familiar with are elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres, goblins and hobgoblins. Although I do find elves and dwarves rather unexciting and would prefer they were taken in interesting directions from the standard.

The creators on my MUD also tended to find elves disinteresting, so with their encouragement I wrote up a variant of elves for us to use which gave them a darker slant. I am not a writer so it is just a few sections of text I whipped together. We never got to the point where we fleshed out human civilisations in the world. Here it is for the sake of example.

Cut and pastes of old setting related posts:

In the distant past it is known there was an empire of the Eldar race,
with magic as a basic part of society. How its ruin came about is
unknown but many thousands of years have passed since then.
Today, the only remnants of the Eldar race can be found in the
stagnant and regressed people known as Elves.

Where I was going to go next with the elves was that they had
stagnated from a glorious society where most of everyday life is
made easy by the perhaps what would be considered wasteful
overuse of magic. Somewhere along the line from their proposed
ancestors it all took a wrong path and they grew lazy and vain
considering themselves to be a higher form of life than others.

- Perhaps ruins are still around, long past looted or perhaps too
dangerous to loot.

- Maybe a current city is built overtop the ruins of an Eldar city, and
below the current city and its sewers, the remnants of an Eldar
complex can be found.

- Can use the Eldar race as justification for otherwise wondrous things
that still remain. Like a sky city found way up amongst the clouds,
once an island torn from the earth/sea with powerfull magics, now one
of the few still thriving centers of Elven civilisation.

What magic exists in other societies at the current point in time in our
world is derived from what was somehow handed down to them from the Eldar.

What types of magic are there?
-----------------------------

I'd like to suggest that we have three differing types.

o pure faith
----------

Invoked by reciting a prayer to the deity worshipped. Prayers have to be
learnt to be used and are not magically realised. There is no way of
modifying prayers to affect different results, prayers are just a method
used to cause an effect at the whim of the relevant deity. Perhaps if not
recited correctly, prayers may not work or may work with a lesser effect,
after all this does follow on from the part where prayers are a fixed
method for gaining a given effect.

o partial faith
-------------

While the recipient may not worship the relevant deity per se, they are
granted the ability to invoke magic sourced from that deity in some way.
Perhaps so long as the recipient doesn't go against the deity and has
the required skill/knowledge to use draw from the deity. Not a lot of
thought has been put into the detail of partial magic at this stage,
but perhaps these ideas might be used in the development.

- If a pure magic user or priest were cut off their source of magic,
another deity might step in and decide to for their reasons cause the
desired effect to happen.

- There might be a deity that lets its worshippers draw on his power
using a combination of the methods of pure magic and pure faith.

o pure magic
----------

This is power drawn from a source (not a deity) used to cause a desired
effect. Still got to work out where it comes from. While the Eldar race
had the almost unimaginable level of ability needed to cause any effect
at will, the understanding and raw ability possessed by the Eldar race
no longer exists in any known form. Current practitioners of magic have a
limited or non-existant understanding of the workings of their chosen
technique and perform it for the most part at a rote level. This means that
a given spell known by more than one practitioner would most likely be the
exact same spell technique wise, as there is no real understanding of how
a given spell works that could be used to modify or adapt it possibly
resulting in alternate versions.

The perfect Eldar master could achieve a desired effect with but a thought,
this potentially provided an almost godlike power - only limited by the
talent, skill and endurance/constitution of the master. But there was also
the danger that a normal thought could accidently be invoked in this manner
if perfect control was not maintained.

This godlike ability some of the Eldar masters had, had no need of
abstractions or intermediate means to help achieve the effect and ensure
that exactly that which was desired, was what actually happened. But, less
skilled Eldar did have such a need; while having the inherent racial ability
but not the raw talent of the masters, they needed those abstractions and
intermediate means. Many differing kinds of intermediate means evolved into
use out of need from uncountable possibilities, as physical expressions of
magic able to achieve a desired effect in a set safe way if methods were
adhered to. A written form of magic capable of storing an expression of
magic was developed, enabling physical expressions of magic to be specified
for later reference after perhaps being laboriously researched. Even some of
the masters adopted their own intermediate means, runes they literally drew
into the very substance of the air in front of them was the most common,
intermediate means like these indirectly effected their desires rather than
the more dangerous direct method.

The way the intermediate means worked was that they were actual physical
forms of magical expression, capable with the right knowledge of being used
to express almost any desired result. While what the masters appeared to
draw in mid-air appeared to be runes, they were actually an effective spell
when completed. Likewise the current traditional form of spell, with the
possible components and the vocal incantation. Not that presence of
components is mandatory, if the researcher of the spell is skilled enough,
they can develop a version without the need. However, it takes a lot more
time and skill to research a version without physical objects as components.
If use of a spell containing components is at a skilled level, this can never
mean that the components can be left out - they are an essential part of the
spell and as crucial to its form as any magical syllable in the incantation.
Spells containing components also tend to be safer, leading to most magic
users actually preferring those versions. The reason for this is that with
physical components, the incantation is shorter with less to stuff up, so
the spells are considered easier so long as the component part is rendered
correctly of course. Obviously, novice magic users are taught the component
version as they can develop their casting skill with less danger.

It is worth noting that there are of course as mentioned other possible
alternative forms of magical expression and most likely many variations on
the already mentioned forms. The mentioned runar form was what was evolved
into use by the masters and the traditional spell form evolved for general
use by some of the more benevolent masters for use by the other less skilled
Eldar to survive as the primary form of pure magic.

--

What form does elven life take today? The inherent racial ability having
dwindled to a microscopic level compared to what it once was, magic use
amongst the elves is crude at best. Slowly as this happened, where once
magic eased their lifes now slaves take its place. Slavery is an accepted part
of their life, with at least one slave market in every city.

As for the pointy ears? For looks of elves, I propose that they are as ?
stated still humanoid, but yet inhuman to look at while eerily beautiful in a
cold-hearted and cruel sort of way. Perhaps taller, skinnier and spindlier than
humans. Pointy ears, do we want them folks?

--

Perhaps they keep to themselves in their decadent lifestyles, human
bandits and whatnot bring slaves they've acquired, raided or whatever to
the elven cities. It would be rare for an elf to leave the city or want
to, except for perhaps hunting parties.

Would elves be set upon if they enter a mainly human city? Well, since
the elves stick to themselves and it would be rare if not unknown for a
slave to escape them - or for the bandits to talk as if they advertised
the elves the slavery might come to light, then its not inconceivable to
say that they would not be set upon. In fact they would be accepted, but
of course people would stare and keep a distance due to the cold cruel
sneer of disdain they would have on their faces at having to mingle with
lesser beings. Even an elf not sneering would still have their racial
cold and cruel look.

--

> OK, so who are the slaves?

Well, we can go either way. A subservient humanoid race bred for the
purpose, perhaps not unlike humonculouses; Or, just people captured and
put into bondage. I like the first, as it allows us to keep Elves as a
relatively unknown race since slavery doesn't make them visible.