Other races in Cerilia

[Kzinssie]

So I've been interested in Birthright from a distance for quite some time, and I'm finally considering running a campaign in it at some point in the near future. The issue is, my group tends to really like "exotic" races, and this is one thing Birthright seems to lack. Are there any articles or guides for modifying the setting to incorporate races like Dragonborn, Gith, Thri-Kreen, Warforged, etc.? Any advice for how a DM would best do so?

[Arjan]

So I've been interested in Birthright from a distance for quite some time, and I'm finally considering running a campaign in it at some point in the near future. The issue is, my group tends to really like "exotic" races, and this is one thing Birthright seems to lack. Are there any articles or guides for modifying the setting to incorporate races like Dragonborn, Gith, Thri-Kreen, Warforged, etc.? Any advice for how a DM would best do so?

if they always have played exotic races, then the exotic races would be normal by now, meaning playing a human is quite exotic then :)

but you can always throw in an accident where a PC gets infected by an Azrai bloodline and the PC gets corrupted (mentally and visibly)

If i recall right there were some exotic races written up for Aduria by Ian Hoskins
http://www.birthright.net/forums/showwiki.php?title=User:Raesene_Empires_of_Blood

http://web.archive.org/web/20021021210529/http://www.geocities.com:80/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/8099/intro4.html

[Kzinssie]

In any case, in my own time I thought of some possible justifications for other races - sleeping on the subject, I decided any nonhuman races should at least be rare in Cerilia, on the level of Halflings at minimum and more often on the level of Elves and Dwarves. Anyway, surprisingly, one of the ones that came to me most easily was the mantis-like Thri-Kreen.

Any attempt to make Thri-Kreen a player race must, of course, look to Dark Sun for inspiration. In that setting, they were desert nomads with a strong tribal culture and racial memory, making them valuable allies for adventurers in spite of their completely alien mindsets. It also solidified the race's connection to desert. In Birthright, they could be easily located in the arid plains and steppes of Khinasi, where most humans regard them as little more than pack animals in spite of their simple weapons and tools. Of course, this isn't the case at all - Thri-Kreen have an advanced nomadic culture of their own, albeit one very different from the "civilized" kingdoms which dominate Cerilia. A possible campaign hook, whether there be Thri-Kreen player characters or otherwise, would be the Thri-Kreen suddenly revealing themselves to the other kingdoms to demand they stop incursion on their peoples' sovereign hunting grounds. Such a thing may very well manifest Regency in Kreen packleaders, and create a whole new wedge in Cerilia's political landscape.

Of course, psionics are also a large part of the Kreen legacy. The best way I can think to implement this is to keep it in line with Birthright's focus on bloodline powers - the strongest packleaders among the Kreen are those who manifest these strange powers through their bloodline, and it could also very well allow Kreen Regents to control Source holdings.

Any thoughts on this? Places I could improve?

[AndrewTall]

The obvious ways to add exotic races to my mind would be:

1. Offspring of awnsheghlien (possibly ehrsheghlien);
2. Late refugess from the shadow world/spirit world;
3. Victims of an incursion of the shadow world into Cerilia which left the inhabitants and possibly land warped;
4. People from another continent, Djapur is almost undescribed, Aduria isn't much better, the other continents are unknown, I did a small amount on stuff on 'lands of the utter west' but in practice explorers whose ship was driven far by a storm and wrecked on the shores of Cerilia could be anything you want;
5. The underdark - barely mentioned in BR aside from warlock of the stonecrowns and a few karamhul references but there's no reason it shouldn't be there;
6. Small tribes in barren places as you note with the thri-kreen.

You could if you wish throw in spelljammers and planewalkers - the latter possibly summoned by magic, or coming via the shadowworld (and possibly quite confused).

I would make the thri-kreen druids probably, but 3e psionics could work albeit make the game quite 'busy'.

The taladas boxed set (Dragonlance 2nd continent) is a great source of alternate views of the usual races if you can find it if you are interested in that sort of stuff, it has horse nomad elves, post-civilisation sidhe and pre-civilisation sidhe, minotaurs, etc.

Best of luck.

[Swashbuckler]

I've always favored yuan-ti and kobolds for conniving foils to the PC's dreams of wealth and conquest. Yuan-ti could easily be a race populous in Aduria since the BoMD, with their leadership as blooded scions of Azrai.

[Kzinssie]

Oddly, my biggest conceptual problem at this point is dragonborn - most races are easy enough to justify through the things Andrew listed, but dragons have such an important place in Birthright that it seems difficult to introduce a race so connected to them. I've considered taking cues from Dark Sun and Dragonlance and making them creations of an ancient wizard, but that seems like it would drive a pretty powerful wedge into the setting. Any thoughts on this?

[AndrewTall]

I would tie dragon born to the dragons, either a race of servants to dragons (possibly originally a different species that were changed by a dragon), or a draconian-style twisted mockery of dragons created by a shadow-world spirit.

Or you could have them as created by dragon's dreams in the spirit world, and now fleeing the spiritworld due to the spreading taint of shadow.

With any unusual race the issue is going to be deciding why they have left their homeland to mingle with other races, how members of the other races will react to them, etc.

I would expect a fair measure of fear/concern around dragonborn due to the legendary nature of dragons.

As the running joke in an earthdawn campaign I was I used to go "it's bad luck to hit an obsidiman, you're lucky I'm respectful of the fates, it could have got unfortunate for you with your attitude otherwise..." as various people decided that, no, really, they would just leave the hulking brute alone, it would be bad luck to teach it some manners.

[geeman]

In addition to the things noted by Andrew, one of the things that occasionally happens in BR is that an awnsheghlien will spawn dramatically, creating a limited population of creatures that could be the "standard" creatures in other settings. So, for instance, the hydrakin (spawn of the awnshegh, the Hydra) in the Harrowmarsh could be lizard men if the DM were so inclined.

So, if one wanted to do thri-kreen in BR, one of the nice flavourful ways to introduce them would be to have an awnshegh from which they are derived. You could do that in any number of ways, but I'm picturing a kind of "queen mother" of a "swarm" sort of deal in Khinasi desert. (The Tarvan Waste seems apt.) Queen Mantis. The Green Mother. The Sand Widow. (A references to the sexual cannibalism of the preying mantis, which could also be a rather interesting plot/character issue. She devours her lovers, committing an act of bizarre bloodtheft.)

That would make all the thri-kreen scions, and there could be minor awnsheghlien within that community that were more like other insects.

[Thelandrin]

That's really a clever idea, Gary. :D

[AndrewTall]

The interesting question would then be whether originally the thri-kreen awnsheghlien was an insect which devoured a scion of Azrai, similar to the Sphinx, or if they were a human/sidhe/etc who became insectlike through the corruption of Azrai. The latter are often more tragic figures, while the former tend to be more bestial.

I think of some poor scion of azrai staked out in the desert to die being devoured by a colony of insects - which could of course mean that there is, or at least was, a number of awnsheghlien at the outset, with offspring then following to multiply their numbers.

[geeman]

That's really a clever idea, Gary. :D

Thanks.


The interesting question would then be whether originally the thri-kreen awnsheghlien was an insect which devoured a scion of Azrai, similar to the Sphinx, or if they were a human/sidhe/etc who became insectlike through the corruption of Azrai. The latter are often more tragic figures, while the former tend to be more bestial.

I think of some poor scion of azrai staked out in the desert to die being devoured by a colony of insects - which could of course mean that there is, or at least was, a number of awnsheghlien at the outset, with offspring then following to multiply their numbers.

I like it. The Hive of Azrai. The Swarm of Azrai.

I like backstory/origin stories for awnsheghlien that tweak the existing materials a bit into a new area--and that have their own drama. Any particular awnshegh could be an "elevated creature" or a "degenerate mortal" if you will, but it could be some combination thereof. A scion of Azrai "lost" or "abandoned" in the dessert who winds up feeding on insects to survive could take on insect-like qualities and/or his death could transfer his bloodline to the creature that strikes the "killing blow" or just eats his heart. A typical act of bloodtheft/transfer involves a stab through the heart or a ritual, but in a background story one could tweak that a bit.

People do eat insects in various parts of the world. I have a memory from some documentary I saw years ago that several types of locust are even kosher.

Or a scion of Azrai might die in the desert and be eaten by scavenger insects, his bloodline transferred to one in some divine freak accident (the power of the gods does tend to wander where it may...) and "evolve" that insect to monstrous proportions, and maybe spawning both intelligent insect offspring (thri-kreen) and monstrous ones (various giant vermin with blood abilities.)

[Sorontar]

My secondary character used to be a goblin druid who specialised in insects. If I had thought about it more I could have made him a hivemaster but he had been mainly breeding giant beetles before he became a druid.

Anyway, a character like him could become Awnshegh and take on an insectoid form in a similar way to the Spider. That would then give him some class powers as well as Awnshegh attacks and skills, and a history relating to breeding. Over the years, he could be the cause of tainting himself and those he "cares" for.

Yes, I have eaten crickets. The chocolate coating helped.

Sorontar

[Fizz]

So, if one wanted to do thri-kreen in BR, one of the nice flavourful ways to introduce them would be to have an awnshegh from which they are derived. You could do that in any number of ways, but I'm picturing a kind of "queen mother" of a "swarm" sort of deal in Khinasi desert. (The Tarvan Waste seems apt.) Queen Mantis. The Green Mother. The Sand Widow. (A references to the sexual cannibalism of the preying mantis, which could also be a rather interesting plot/character issue. She devours her lovers, committing an act of bizarre bloodtheft.

I agree with Thelandrin- this is a really good idea. It lets you expand to some "exotic" races while staying loyal to the themes and tenets of the setting. I may steal this someday. :)

-Fizz

[Fizz]

Any thoughts on this? Places I could improve?

The one thing i would say is make sure you keep the thri-kreen balanced. Coming from Dark Sun, where the power level is bit higher, you don't want this race to outshine the others. Running amok across Cerilia might be bad. :) They're inherently tougher than other humanoids, so they should have something to balance that: limited numbers perhaps, disadvantages when not in hot dry climate, etc.

Of course, the end goal is to have fun. So long as that happens, one cannot be critical. :)

-Fizz

[arpig2]

Djapur is almost undescribed
I have been working on detailing Djapar. It isn't ready for publication yet, but if anybody is interested in the details, just write me. and I can give you a rough outline.
As far as the Dragonborn, I have them living on the Dragon Isles located between Cerilia and Djapar.

[Thelandrin]

If you play up the changes in the standard races, they could seem quite exotic nonetheless. Xenophobic, immortal, priest-hating feyl compulsively lawful, anti-magical rock spirits who ghost through mountain passes as quickly as men do paved roads; alien half-sidhe with a foot in both worlds and the ability to command magic that normally only those blessed by the gods can manage.

You could even re-fluff tieflings as the last of the humans still fleeing from the Shadow two millennia on, yet carrying the cursed mark of the Betrayer and being spurned by all who see it, despite their noble intentions.