Loose History

I need to read up on some Finnic lore before I do a workup of the history, at least deep history. I want to avoid cataclysmic type events since they appear in about every setting it seems like. At best I may use periods of deep winter (or even other seasons) to shake things up. Also I plan on molding all races into the history as equally as I can rather than having a very human centric history. In particular I want to play up some racial tensions, namely the Halflings who routinely rally up the other races to thwart the effects the humans are having upon the future. Dwarves will be a bit more internally divided with various sects vying for control of the last remnants of clockwork technology. Elves will be a mixed bag with lots of tensions amongst lots of factions.

I am loosely basing the recent history of the humans on the Three Kingdoms era in China, though on a lesser scale rather than having millions of inhabitants. Backstabbing eunuchs, rebellious wizards, assassin-doctors, battles of wit with fate of empires at stake, and of course some downright brutal warfare - it is hard to compete with the shit people actually did when you try to create something original. Also I think some of the events can reflect what I am trying to do with the humans in general; small, vicious creatures with little regard beyond whatever motive is in front of their nose.

That said, I see some parallels with this history and where the other demi-humans could fit in well. In particular the prescient vision of the Halflings. Also areas where Finnic lore will match up nicely and my statute on superstition and bloodlines. And so, I have at least three major Human realms in mind with about a dozen small (human and demi humans) ones intermingling with them. Here is one such realm I have in mind:

Cias Lynnm - The western empire was eventually undone by a year-long revolt based upon the wizardly teachings of Caphias Mennoc. He taught the peasantry foreign concepts of equality, fairness and non-oppression which were left unchecked too long by the local lords. The peasantry rose against their militant masters, the Southrom lords. Although the rebellion was eventually put down, its teaching remained and eventually settled in the ruined provinces of remote west, where Caphias himself and those who survived the revolt fled. Although Caphias is since dead, his teachings have held on stubbornly further fracturing the remains of the western empires. Lorda Lynnm, a boy of supernatural wisdom and unmatched charisma came to the realm in this a period of anarchy and formed a civilized core wherein a rule of law was set and the nation of Cias Lynnm was officially formed. His dream is clear, peace and prosperity, and the Halflings in particular have taken an interest in him, although it is not sure why. Unfortunately the neighbors to Cias Lynnm do not want to have anything to do with a realm of free men who can waddle along side their noble brethren unabated, and so the realm is very restricted with supplies.

This will be one of the smaller realms, not one of the big three, and would be a decent place as any to start a game up. I will probably end up writing 20 or 30 such realms by the time this is completed in May/June, at least I hope so. I think a lot of the realms will write themselves for the most part. I may have some issues with the Halflings, but perhaps they will be the most mysterious of the bunch intentionally. The Elf and Dwarf realms will be on a similiar scale to the humans and I amjudging how much I want to interweave with the humans them at this point.