Requiem Aeternam

I’ve added a brief description of the four main races inhabiting Coriander: Humans, Halflings, Elves, and Krychnari. If the last one doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t be surprised. It’s not a traditional fantasy race. In fact, it’s my version of a Dungeons and Dragons race, the Kenku (you can find a brief write up about the DnD version here).

Now, these four races are not the only races which inhabit the greater world around Coriander. There remains an indeterminate number of races which exist throughout the continent. I think there are far too many intelligent races in the Dungeons and Dragons universe for a realistic fantasy setting (there’s already about 30 different races in the current edition), but there are a few interesting races not normally found in high-fantasy that I’d like to use.

So far I know goblins (possibly the whole goblinoid family consisting of orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins) will be included. They live under the mountains bordering Coriander and occasionaly goblin raiding parties will attack smaller towns or unwary travellers.

Dwarfs seem too iconic to leave out. But I think in this world they have been mostly driven out of the mountains by the goblin races and instead travel in bands like gypsies selling precious stones and clever mechanical devices, possibly piloting ever popular steampunkish airships. The other option I am considering is to have dwarfs be not a distinct race, but the clumsy misshapen result of unions between halflings and larger races.

Besides that, I’m not sure what to include. So far I’m leaving out races of draconic heritage like kobolds (possibly too similar to goblins) and dragonborns, not to mention dragons themselves.

Giants are another race that may be easy to include without feeling like there are too many random races.

What about faeries? Doppelgangers? Minotaurs? Centaurs? Trolls? (Trolls and giants, or just one or the other?)Mer-people? Selkies?

Griffins have been suggested as well, but I think I would place them in the realm of animals rather than sentient races.

In other news, I’m hoping to have a satisfactory map of the continent that Coriander is on ready soon and then a more specific map focusing on Coriander itself. If anyone knows of any really good free online photo editors that might be helpful for making a cool map, let me know.

As always, suggestions and feedback on any aspect of Coriander is welcome ^_^

I just published a new WordPress Page which will become home to the city-state of Coriander and its neighboring regions. One of my favorite things about Lord of the Rings is the world that Tolkien created, and I’ve always wanted to the same thing. I’ve been drawing made-up maps and making up names for as long as I can remember; now I actually have a place to write it all down and keep it!

There’s not really much there right now; it’s pretty skeletal, but at least you can see some of the things I want to work with. I’m not really sure in what order I’ll work on different items, but the next item of business will probably be a map and basic geographical description of the region.

I hope everyone finds it interesting. I look forward to suggestions from people too