Khorboth Khronicles

The ideas which became Cosmia were hatched many years ago. I shared many with Zyrlyn who added some of his own input. I tried to run the Champions of the South game in the poorly-developed proto-world. At that point, I already had the basic plot outline for the game, but it flopped with no real wold to back it up. I think we made it through 3 sessions before aborting that one. My ideas percolated and stewed for the intervening years, even having a short-lived unsatisfying solo campaign (at least that one finished). As the Champions of the South campaign was getting close to kickoff, I arranged a weekend with Fragile Sound to cement the ideas and draw a map. As you can see from the results, she’s a good artist; I’m not.

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Wooly mammoths:

Just like the ice-age critter from Earth.

Dragons:

Animal intellect, and mean. Dragons are large, lizard-like creatures with four clawed legs and large wings. They kill wooly mammoths, but cannot generally carry them without serious effort. They breathe fire and are generally unpleasant. They periodically travel to the badlands east of Tam to eat limestone. Nobody’s sure why they do this, but it’s a good idea to stay out of their way when they are doing so. Dragons are an uncommon sight, but not unheard of in the skies of Tam and northern Amiram.

Rocs:

Big birds. Really big. No, bigger than that. They kill wooly mammoths, carry them away, and eat them on the wing or when perched on a high rock ledge. They periodically travel to the sea to hunt whales. Small whales, but still they dive and come up with a whale. Rocs are uncommon, but not rare in the skies of Amiram and Leotia. Approaching a Roc while it has landed to eat its catch is an unpleasant way to commit suicide.

Dragons and Rocs:

They are natural enemies. Sometimes they see each other in the skies over Amiram. They invariably attack on sight, and fight fiercely. The rocs’ size makes up for the dragons’ fire, and the two are evenly matched. If the roc wounds the dragon, it will usually leave the looser alive on the ground considering it irrelevant. The dragon, on the other hand, will come in for the kill if it wounds the roc. Either way, this is a bad place to be as a wounded animal tends to strike at anything moving near it. Orcs consider it a great honor to kill a dragon and only slightly lesser to kill a roc, so usually one or more tribes show up to give it their best. Usually, the Orcs succeed with heavy casualties.

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*Not Playable*

About all that unifies Kobolds is their scales and population growth.  They have a gestation period of about 3 months and grow to maturity in 6.  To compound this, they have litters.  Generally small, weak, and barely more intelligent than animals, Kobolds don’t seem to be much of a threat.  Individually, they are not.  They quickly adapt to any new environment with their scales changing color to match the surrounding land in 2 or 3 generations.  Similarly, other adaptations are made.  Desert Kobolds have better eyesight and need less water while Jungle Kobolds have long arms and good claws for climbing.  About every 2 years, a large group of Kobolds outgrows their habitat and attacks the human lands en masse.  These millions of Kobolds are defeated, but never without loss.  Most sentient creatures consider it their duty to kill any Kobolds they see and track down any nearby nests in order to prevent an attack.

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*Not Playable*

Orcs feel no pain. None at all. Averaging 6’6”, Orcs are powerfully built and imposing. Dark green skin, black blood, upturned noses, and protruding tusks add to their fierce appearance. Frequently scarred from previous combat, they are less than skilled, but very fierce warriors. They show only slightly less intelligence than humans surviving as nomads raiding the more civilized folk and hunting as they go. Orcs show no drive to settle and farm, seeing themselves as superior to all those they can kill. A single Orc will almost certainly kill one human though the Orc may die as well. Orcs are dealt with using units of humans in concert, as Orcs tend to only think of individual combat. All attempts to recruit Orcs into an army have met with abject failure.

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Any two races can breed, but their offspring are never fertile.  These are derisively called Mules by many.  The combination of abilities seems random and individualized.

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Umli have near-perfect balance.  They live in mountains, usually above dwarven kingdoms, and consider a single rope to be a good enough all-weather bridge.  They are the least human looking, with flat, enlarged noses and jet-black skin.  A typical Umli male is 5′4″ while the female is 4′10″.  Umli lifespan extends to 50 or 60 years.  A very traditional culture, they have limited trade with dwarves, and shun contact with others, particularly humans.  They live as hunter-gatherers in high alpine wilderness and will not accept any other lifestyle.  While Umli accept that other races are simply different and not superior or inferior, they find half-breeds to be vile abominations.  They will attack and kill any such being on sight including all humanoid half-breeds as well as mules and any other crossbred animals.

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Halflings can stand atop anything organic, even if it cannot physically support their weight.  They can run atop wheat and jump from branch to branch without bending them.  This does not work when they wear shoes or boots, which they rarely do.  Small, wiry, and hardy, men stand 4′6″ with women closer to 4′.  Thin, with pointy ears, many people feel that they are just short elves, but the differences in complexion are clear with the ruddy, tanned complexion and dark hair.  Halflings rarely live past 150.  The society is steeped in mysticism and very earth-based.  Halflings, in general, feel a great connection to growing things of all sorts and make excellent farmers.  They trade with humans for all tools and items that don’t grow.

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Elves do not age past maturity and will not die of natural causes.  They are immune to disease.  The typical elf stands about 7′ tall, has blue eyes and blonde hair.  They tend toward very thin, almost emaciated and are not physically tough.  They tend to take a VERY long view and see all other animals as transient

High Elves are the most “civilized” and the most arrogant.  Their society is heavily magical and encourages higher thought and magical development.  Tradition dictates activity and obviates the necessity of laws for them.  Laws exist for the humans.  They see that their gods have given the world order.  The Lesser Gods serve the Greater Gods.  Elves serve the Lesser Gods.  Humans serve Elves.  Orcs, Kobolds, Umli, and Halflings (obviously of Human manufacture) serve Humans.  They haven’t figured out where Dwarves figure into this, but are confidant that their scholars will determine this within the next few millennia.

Grey Elves ply the seas.  Their ships appear to be made of a single, perfectly carved, piece of wood.  They are called “grey” because their eyes are grey rather than blue.  They are less arrogant than the High Elves, but more obnoxious to the humans.  They too see the order of the world.  Each of the lesser races has their own niche within the world with Elves as the overseers designated by the Gods.  While they do not try to kill off the Humans who have obviously bred too much, they do try to convince them not to have children and keep them from expanding.  They tend to espouse these views when in human ports to anybody who will listen.  Usually, Grey Elves bring exotic goods at low prices, so they are tolerated.

Wood Elf society is very loose and is based upon the individual following his nature.  There are no laws, courts, or restraints except where necessary to deal with non-elves.  They see that the order of the world is inevitable.  Elves are clearly the superior form of life, and it’s only a matter of time before they come out on top.  They will simply let things take their course.

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Dwarves can instantly analyze the composition of any inorganic object they can hold.  They also have a near-perfect grasp of angles and distances, figuring exact measurements by eyeball easily.  Short and stocky, they average 4′9″ for men and women.  They typically live 300-500 years.

Their religion is ditheistic with two equally powerful gods each with many aspects (think Taoist 10,000 faces) that try to pull a dwarf one way or another.  Either you are doing good at the direction of the All-Mother or you are doing evil at the behest of the Devourer.  Everything is seen as one way or the other with the priests as the final arbiters.  The priests have declared that to use material in mechanical applications is the work of the All-Mother, but destroying material through chemistry is the draw of the Devourer.  As such, they have very intricate machines, with all the physical, mechanical cleverness you can think of, but no advanced chemistry beyond metallurgy.  They tend to view all other races as interesting, but ultimately meaningless in the scheme of their gods who only care about Dwarves.

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Generally more innovative than the others races and more adaptable, common Humans should require little explanation to my players.

High Men have the blood of the ancient magic users in their blood. Taller, more powerful, and longer-lived than most Humans, they tend to be more magical. The last remnants of that culture are seen in the elite of Chelesanth. They are uniformly blonde and have blue eyes. They tend toward arrogance.

Mixed Men are the result of the dilution of the gene pool of the High men. They are about halfway between the other two and have spread far. With no culture of their own, they tend to be leaders of the common men.

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