The Other Races

The non-PC races will likely be an eclectic mix of traditional B/X critters along with a smattering of Finnic lore and my own home brew stuff. I can not resist inserting Shrub Gnomes and Giant Fleas after all. I have decided that the races of Finnic lore will probably be the supernatural world races, that is races that been unchanged for many eons and are practically one with the world. These races will largely be spirits, and be the primary cause of supernatural events. Some examples:

Hiisi - Tutelary spirits that are goblin-esk, usually watching over sacred groves and woods.
Anteo - When Giants die they roam the earth as rotting corpses, very malign spirits.
Iku - Your standard river monster that will snatch you when your not looking.
Immatar - Daughters of air and creativity. Benign spirits, usually.
Kalevope - Giants who cut down trees and meadows endlessly. Why they have forest issues? Who knows.
Lemepo - Fertility spirits that are commonly sacrificed too by the peasantry.
Menninkaine - Gnomish tricker spirits, one of the few that can not be bribed.
Nakki - Spirits of stagnant water, and incredibly vile and vicious. For this reason stagnate water is almost always avoided.
Pekklo - Spirits of brewing, clearly sacrificed to by the peasantry.
Piru - Creepy spirits that love nothing more than to jump on someones back and scare the crap out of them. Oddly enough they are good luck if they do so in a sauna.
Tuoni - Messenger of death, usually the last thing one sees while alive.
Vainomoin - Spirit of the voice; singing, chanting an so forth. Often beckoned by magical incantations, be careful Mages.

So that is a few to get going. Now the B/X races such as Kobolds, Goblins, Bugbears and what have you will not be supernatural at all. I am inclined to make these races wrought during one of the many endless seasons. I eluded to this in the Elf section "It is rumored that in a 32 year long winter that a coven of sullen elves never recovered, and stayed the deepest of purples with coal eyes and stark hair" - and there you go, Dark Elves. I also eluded that humans were infact wrought into the world the same way. Perhaps humans were simply divergent Elves from a eon ago, I find this perfectly acceptable lore, though I will naturally leave it a mystery instead of fact.

The same can easily be done with Kobold and the like. Estaoculus, the Summer of Eyes, will already play a core role in the development of Bloodlines. I see no reason why previous endless-seasons would likewise have a dramatic effect. In time I suspect some bits of this lore will leak out in various adventures, game play and whatever else I end up writing. Still, in the Valley of Blue Snails setting this sort of thing should at least be lore to the demi-humans. None of this should really effect Kobolds or Goblins much, but I may insert my own twist here and there. Myconids would be a great inclusion from last great season, the 4 year Autumn, The Great Rot. That and I just like Myconids.

How will the seasons effect things? A general guideline:

Autumn - Decay, rotting, harvest, and a bit of darkness. Not quite as dreary as winter however.
Winter - Sullen, lifeless, ice/cold, loss of color. Clearly a lot of bad things can come from a years long winter.
Spring - Life, growth, abundance, variety. A good area to include any 'giant' creature.
Summer - Growth, light, sun, and heat. Perhaps the most difficult to derive something from, I shall dwell upon it.

A third class of races will be available, and that is simply your natural ones that do not need a particular rhyme or reason to hang out. These will be your carnivorous apes, dragons, gorgons, dinos, and so forth. There will also be your one of a kind monsters, but these could be from any of the above channels.

I am leaning to do away with Demons, Devils and Angels. There will be servants of gods, but these will mostly be out of the realm of PCs. I will probably use various entities that are pre-deity, but these are so alien in intellect it would really be impossible to do much useful with them. Occasionally one could get loose or some crazy wizard would contact one. On that note I am still up in the air about top of the food chain type of critters.