Races of Aduria

[Osprey]

But how, oh how, do a human and ogre mate? Anyone? Especially if it's a human mother? She'd never carry such a thing to term and deliver it successfully, I'm fairly certain.

Also, half-ogre as "base" shock troop race is awfully strong compared to a 1st or 2nd level human warrior. Ouch.

I made Beastmen half-orogs in my version of Aduria. Unlike you, Raesene, orogs were one race I decided would be very cool as a native race of Aduria, and one that Azrai made extensive use of during his imperial heyday. And part of this was an extensive breeding program where orogs and humans mated. The human aspect offset the orogs' extreme sensitivity to light, toned down their aggression just a bit (to make them more managable in combined operations with human forces), and made them more tractable as trainable, obedient slave-soldiers. The beastman babies were born and raised as slave-soldiers, taught that they had only one function in life: to be perfect soldiers (obedient, unflinching, merciless). Units train together from infancy, so all slave-soldiers within a unit would be raised and trained together for a good 12-15 years (physical maturity, assuming all soldiers were born within a year or so of one another), at which point they became a very, very nasty elite assault unit.

Osprey

[irdeggman]

In 2nd ed there was actually a monster called beastmen IIRC. I know they carried over from the Mystara setting.

Oh by the way I'm not disagreeing with your concept of beastmen Ian, the logic makes perfect sense to me. I was only talking about introducing mongrelfolk as another of Azrai's experiments, most likely before he "perfected" the beastmen.

[Raesene Andu]

Originally posted by Osprey@Feb 9 2005, 02:27 AM
But how, oh how, do a human and ogre mate? Anyone? Especially if it's a human mother? She'd never carry such a thing to term and deliver it successfully, I'm fairly certain.

My beastmen aren't actually half-orges, they just have similar abilities. I made them transformed humans, loyal subjects of Azrai who were transformed by a ritual to become powerful warriors, the core of Azrai's legions. Over time Azrai's priests created enough of them for them to become a race in their own right and following the defeat of Azrai at Deismaar they settled in a mountainous region south-west of Mieres (former Vos lands) and remain there today as tribes of raiders who threaten the various empires around them.

I tried to make a real move away from the standard races with Aduria. So I didn't have any half-elves, elves, dwarves, goblins, or orogs. For various reason I considered them to all be Cerilian races.

Humans are obviously there because they came from Aduria to start with. Halfling I assumed would have turned up all over Aebrynis after they fled the Shadow World, so I put a variant of them in Aduria, although they have no actual lands to call their own.

Gnolls I made similar to goblins in Cerilia in that they are a basically trible race that is found across the continent, except in the far south and some of the more civilised lands. Any of the deserts or badlands were almost certain to have tribes of gnoll scavengers living in them though.

Wermics I placed as a tribal race found in the grasslands of Aduria, specifically the inland grasslands of the east coast directly south of Mieres where they a losely aligned empire of tribes that had an uneasy peace with the human cities of the east coast.

I also placed a new race of cat-humanoid hunters in jungles of southern Aduria and then gave them a history where they once controlled a vast empire, but it has since decayed, their secrets have been lost and they have slipped back into barbarism. Since they lived in the jungles I made them a fallen Mayan-type culture, complete with overgrown stone cities deep in the jungle.

I didn't include a Yuan-Ti empire, but instead made a new race who are effectivly scaled down Yuan-Ti abominations (snake bodies and heads, human-like torso and arms). They are sorcerer/priests who believe that they are the chosen servants of a dragon god who created them thousands of years ago. They rule the great desert from a fortress carved into an extinct volcano and fill the roll of the primary bad guys of the region.

Then I included a race of reptillian gypsies who wander the wastelands, grasslands, and deserts of central Aduria. They are another fallen race, who once controlled a vast peaceful empire that stretched across central Aduria. Their empire was destroyed by Azrai some time before Deismaar and their race thought lost. They reappeared about 500 years after deismaar, riding out of the wilderness with great wagons pulled by huge lizard creatures. Now they act as traders and merchants, who brave the wildland between human cities.

Finally, I added in the Djin, who are similar to the Genasi from the FRCS for the most part.

[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Osprey@Feb 8 2005, 11:57 AM
But how, oh how, do a human and ogre mate? Anyone? Especially if it's a human mother? She'd never carry such a thing to term and deliver it successfully, I'm fairly certain.

Also, half-ogre as "base" shock troop race is awfully strong compared to a 1st or 2nd level human warrior. Ouch.

Half-ogres are a playable race in Races of Destiny. I'd have to check the write up to see how they mate or so.

In Dark Sun they had a race called Muls which were a result of a human and dwarf parents. Most of the time the mother died in child birth and Muls were sterile.

IIRC "Mother" was a half-Ogre in the Spider's Test.

[geeman]

At 12:09 PM 2/8/2005 +0100, Green Knight wrote:



>>I`m leery of centaurs and wemics or any "tauric" creatures existing on a

>>large, domain level scale controlling their own realms per se rather than

>>existing as populations within other civilizations, though that idea

>>seems popular with lots of folks. Those races just seem a bit too

>>powerful in regular D&D terms for inclusion in a continental expansion,

>>so unless they are going to be totally redefined as different from the

>>versions we have in 3e/3.5 I would keep them out. (It wouldn`t be that

>>difficult to redefine them, but people seem loathe to do that for some

>>reason, so if the option is a version that is close to the D&D write up

>>or not including them at all the latter choice seems more prudent.)

>

>I think I`ll try my hand at some down-powered versions of tauric

>creatures. I like both the cantaur and the wemic, but as you say thay are

>massively powerful and that would make little sense if they were to rule

>domains.



I look forward to your interpretations. I`m personally, a big fan of the

racial level stuff I`ve seen before and find such things apt for everything

right up to and including Cerilian humans because... well, they just seem

so darn _playable_. Gotta love that....



Gary

[geeman]

At 05:57 PM 2/8/2005 +0100, Osprey wrote:



> But how, oh how, do a human and ogre mate? Anyone?



Well, first the ogre comes home drunk from work.... (Old joke.)



>Especially if it`s a human mother? She`d never carry such a thing to term

>and deliver it successfully, I`m fairly certain.



I`m pretty ignorant of pre-natal situations, thankfully, but it seems to me

that many mammals are birthed at various stages of development, requiring

differing levels of post-natal care and all that malarky. Who knows how

big ogre infants are? Shaquil O`neal (SP?) is about ogre sized and he came

out of a pretty much normal sized human, didn`t he? (I`m equally ignorant

of glandular sports figures.)



If you`ve played the computer game Arcanum there`s a subplot in which the

gamer discovers a plot involving half-ogres being bred as a servant

race. The process, apparently, killed off a large percentage of the

mothers, but reached a point at which the population was sustainable. If

one is going to premise Azrai`s involvement in the development of a whole

race of half-ogre-like creatures then a program like that might be their

origins. Since Azrai has been gone for 1,500 years there`s room for just

about any later development of the race/culture of such creatures.



Gary

[Artemel]

irdeggman - IIRC "Mother" was a half-Ogre in the Spider's Test.

I think he was half-OROG actually. Almost positive. ~note to self~ must... grab... BR novels. Why oh why are they 60 miles away?

[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Artemel@Feb 16 2005, 11:03 AM

irdeggman - IIRC "Mother" was a half-Ogre in the Spider's Test.*

I think he was half-OROG actually. Almost positive. ~note to self~ must... grab... BR novels. Why oh why are they 60 miles away?

That was my original thought but some one pointed out to me I was mistaken and he was actually half-ogre. It had to do with when I wrote out a description of a half-orog as a PC race (not for the BRCS) and was basing it on Mother. Actually half-ogre makes a lot more sense considering the area and how mother behaved (he also wasn't afraid of light).

[Raesene Andu]

The novel is quite specific, it doesn't mention orge at all, it definitely says Orog. Pg. 116 if you want to check.