Continuity Q&A / FAQ Threads?

I've already chattered with Ulrin and Ed concerning the location of Skuldhellir and it appears that the official word is that the setting is placed within the confines of an AU Dragonlands. That makes sense because it keeps in line with the interest of anthropomorphic creatures and medieval fantasy as well as avoiding all the necessary world building. It's already there!

That's fine 'cause for those of us who want to use it (namely nutters like me who thrive on an overdose of depth and detail) we have the bulk of all the reference we need right in one tidy location here. That just leaves a concern with trying to figure out exactly what differences make Skuldhellir and associated sister dreams set in the "Etlaverse" an alternate universe. I'm aware that not everyone needs or desires this knowledge, but I can't possible be the only one who does or would at least find use of it.

I think it would be extremely beneficial to the consistency and believability of the dream to have a source thread of just that kind of information. We could use a thread like this one for people to ask their questions, get the answers or decide on them if they don't have one, and continually compile them. The intent of this would not be to make the dream lore-heavy or strict, but simply to provide a pool of reference. They wouldn't be necessary to read.

Why?

A lot of roleplayers function on flexible characters and vague detail. It's part of what one might call a roleplaying style.

I thrive on a more elaborate method of madness.

This will allow us to make references of maps and specific places IC - a huge improvement for traveling and scholarly characters. It'll allow us to more decidedly tack down what a character does and doesn't know rather than leaving their knowledge pool so flexible that they may later be subject to retcon. A character can respond appropriately to certain kinds of individuals, events, objects, etc. without any worry of the roleplayer not knowing if that response made sense. These things are of a constant concern to me. I really want to know what my character knows.

Finally and most importantly, having an easy place to get answers allows us to avoid assertions that may lead to imposing large-scale assumptions on everyone else. This can be fine when it comes to declaring the existence of a weed, but one might want to consider getting epic dungeon master approval for the existence of an entire country, race, etc.

The obvious avoidance of this is to simply have your character come from another world, where you probably have all the reference you need to flesh out the history and knowledge of a character, but this isn't feasible for everyone to do. I'm still torn between trying to make Nicolae native and simply giving him his own planet derived from a concept I've had on the back burner for a while, and that decision is going to come down to if I can tailor him properly to the "Etlaverse". However, there is a lot I need to know in order to do that.

So! Even if this idea gets blown out of the water, I do have some questions still. BEHOLD.

What are the [major] geographical differences?

That is, what makes the "Etlaverse" notably different from what we see here: [x] [x]

Aside from, y'know, Etla. Where the heck is Creoso? Where is Mirandol?

Obviously, it would be important to note that one of the obvious major differences is that unlike the official canon, the "Etlaverse" is not self contained. We've got travelers from all kinds of worlds and dimensions which nukes the majority of limitations on characters. However, sophisticated technology and science doesn't seem to be allowed, so the applicable worlds and dimensions do seem to be limited by what sort of technological age they're in. The reasons for these might be worth exploring; something along the lines of only relative worlds being able to form proper paths of travel, who knows.

What species have been notably added to the planet as native?

I already know that this includes "human and humanoids", so basically we're looking at generic fantasyfare. However, a more decided list would be awesome.

Does this include feral versions of furre?

Obviously, this would make for an enormous difference. In the Dragonlands canon, there are no ferals - the closest thing are ferians, werecritters basically, which are still sentient. Carnivorous furre eat birds and fish and supposedly also lizards and insects. It is "sennibalism" to consume another sentient creature and so Nicolae yearning for a good steak is a clear problem unless there are stupid feral cows around.

...not that it would stop him from be a sennibalist or anything.

Is is mostly just generic fantasy races as a minority to the Dragonlands bestiary?

What are the limitations on native races?

You gotta have some! I suppose this is usually addressed in the stages of character approval, but a general idea would be cool.

Super-Special-Awesome tidbits [courtesy of Ed the Magnificent] that would go into a reference thread:

• Humans and humanoids are as commonplace as furres, and they get along for the most part.
  
• Skuldhellir acknowledges other dreams, namely Northkeep, Creoso and Mirandol.
  
• Magic is quite prevalent, but some races are distrustful of it. The dwarves, for example, have a vendetta against magic users and don't like them very much.
  
• Wyrmmes are not the vicious monsters they are in Dragonlands continuity. They are more noble and more akin to anthropomorphized D&D-type dragons. Of course, there ARE some old civilizations of wyrmmes that still follow the old, feral ways, but most of the wyrmmes here in Skuld are civil enough.

Obviously there is also the setting stuff found in "Hello, Skuldhellir!", but that's specific to the town and not necessarily the continuity as a whole. Still, all that could be transported to a new thread in its own section. Which would benefit from links to threads on specific continuity rulings like "Clothings!". I love me some organization.

I also love you guys! Now you remember why you didn't miss me, right? :D

The problem is that a large chunk of the continuity (mainly pertaining to stuff outside of our little geographic zone) is left untouched for a reason. I don't want to define Creoso and Mirandol by saying exactly where they are on a map. (I also wouldn't call this the "Etlaverse." I think LE is taking Etla in a different direction now.) I refuse to make a map of anything more than just a small chunk at a time. A) It boxes everything in and limits players. B) Where's the mystery! Mirandol and Creoso are __ days away by ship and more by land. I don't want to define it more than that since it's more to remember and... I dunno, I felt like my reins were far too tight with Northkeep, and it kicked my ass SO many times...

And it isn't like I usually allow dimension-hopping. It's not supposed to be common or normal in any way, and it's just a coincidence that the only dimension-hoppers we've seen come from similar tech levels. I prefer to think that all the backstories that people have for their characters take place on this planet... which is why I want it as undefined as possible. Only the area immediately around the dream's location can be defined. (Unless we did the pocket dimension like we did with NK. That worked really nicely, actually, and I do feel bad about nuking it. T_T)

And we may say that our style of dwarves (IE, the dwarves from Baertheim, since this isn't a biological thing, but rather a cultural one) are distrustful of magic, but not all of them are, and I'd be totally open to a player saying their dwarf is from a magic-loving city. Wyrmmes CAN be vicious monsters, but they might not be... and the vicious ones aren't necessarily from the "old" civilizations. The same goes for other magical races like vampires. Each person defines what strengths and weaknesses their own personal kind of vampire has, and if it's balanced, I don't really care. If two vamps are different, it just means they're different kinds of vamps. That's how I explain most racial differences. You're right, though--for some things it IS a big difference, such as with the presence of "feral" mammals.

But you're definitely right about having a thread, wiki, or almanac of some kind (or all of the above) on our chunk of the setting (Skuldhellir and the small surrounding area, Baertheim, Hat City) would be good. Maybe a FAQ thread where people post and discuss concerns, and then when mediators answer those questions, they archive them on a page! I've been wanting to do more of a setting page, but I haven't gotten around to it.

And, as a note, the info page's skeleton can be found here: http://skuldhellir.webs.com/info.htm

I added a 'Misc' section too, in case the stuff discussed in the thread can't find a home on one of the other pages! But as you can see, the emphasis is on the town itself and its surrounding areas. I've just been too busy to fill it out. But I'm starting to now!

I already answered most of your remaining questions on Furcadia, but I'll do so here again for the benefit of other folks!

SPECIES:
Pmuch anything you'd find in fantasy goes; plenty of sentient races like the furres, humans, dwarves, fairies and elves, and more obscure creatures like elementals--there are ferals of every kind just like there are in the real world, as evidenced by the shepherd in the dream and the reindeer rider! Then there's creatures that sit in between, usually magical, like the dragons of D&D, unicorns, phoenixes and gryphons that look and act feral but are quite sentient. Magic is prevalent, so constructs such as golems are not unheard of.

The easiest setting to compare ourselves to in terms of species is the basic Dungeons and Dragons one. It contains all of these creatures (except the furres) and more.

On that note, the world is probably not unfamiliar with strange, new species, due to lack of advanced transportation. Skuldhellir surely hasn't seen everything yet, and characters from other planes, dimensions or planets with peculiarities will be reacted to, but not much more than if they had simply been a species that hadn't been discovered on the planet yet. Many creatures might be rumored to exist but never spotted until a PC comes along playing one.

To sum that up, you can pretty much be anything so long as it does not leave the realm of fantasy, and you will be, more or less, reacted to in the same way. True, 'feral' unicorns will be met with awe and wonder; beholders and mind-flayers will cause fright. On that note, you also have the right to have your character know a little bit about any stock fantasy species that turns up in character. The level of detail depends on how likely you think your character is to have heard rumors or researched said species. There're some things everyone knows, like the fact that werewolves die upon contact with silver--but then there's beasts like otyughs that're far more obscure and less well-known. Use your better judgement when it comes to this sort of thing.

Needless to say, though, if it's a made up species, you will probably want to ask the player about things like that.

THE FERAL DEALIO:
Feral versions of furres exist, and they are also eaten as food. The furres probably see the connection to themselves as about as strong as that between humans and monkies. Naturally, herbivorous furres would never eat meat, and carnivorous furres wouldn't be eating ferals that correspond to their species anyway.

GEOGRAPHY:
This is entirely debatable. While I like to believe that we are on a map that's based roughly around the Olde World of the Dragonlands, nothing has been officially set in stone yet. Northkeep was once on the Isle of Etla, which was purported to, indeed, be on a map of an AU Dragonlands, so I think it would make the most sense if Skuldhellir was, too, even if we nix Etla or rename it and move it somewhere else. (I personally think SH and Baertheim should be up around Albion, the Dragonlands' equivalent to Scotland, since the weather matches and this also concurs with one large dwarven stereotype.)

Even if we don't go into GREAT detail with geography--after all, it's a medieval setting, and the entire world can't have been discovered yet, and this provides plenty of flexibility in and of itself--it'd be nice if we laid down some deets concerning the basics of the continent Skuld is on. The Olde World was my first choice, since plenty of the characters I see appear to be from parts of it, and it's also close enough to real life geography to be a good fantasy base without requiring too much extensive study. (They have weird names, but they match IRL places in pretty much every other way, including language, which is really handy.)

Well I don't know shit about any of these things. I was pulled here cause of Ed, and now this structure makes me have to and find out :C

*Is totally going to go OCD over this mess and end up forgetting about RPing and developing his characters. Zooms off*