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Post by gamedave on Jan 20, 2016 15:39:54 GMT -5
GOBLINS
Goblins are not officially counted as one of the races of Humankind nor as citizens of the Empire...but that does not mean they are not liable to taxes and levies. When it is convenient for those in power to treat goblins as humans and citizens, they are treated that way, despite their lack of formal legal status. On the other hand, when it is convenient to treat them as vermin, they may be subject to ruthless extermination campaigns. For the most part, however, humans and Imperials are content to mainly ignore goblins living in the fringes of society - so long as they know their place...
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Post by gamedave on Jan 20, 2016 15:51:33 GMT -5
ORCS
Orcs were created by dark wizards in service to the Empire, designed to be perfect, disposable soldiers. The first orcs were bred to serve as auxiliaries to the Imperial Legions, and they are all technically slaves owned by the Empire. However, over the centuries, populations of functionally free orcs have spread throughout the Empire. A lone orc is occasionally liable to being press-ganged into service with an undermanned Legion, but an orc travelling with humans is generally left alone. A group of orcs travelling together might be accosted as dangerous trouble-makers, or avoided as being more trouble than they are worth...
It also does not help their reputation in the Empire that a persistent rumor among both orcs and humans has it that an "Orc King" strangled the Emperor. Some rumors claim that the Orc King seized the Imperial Throne, while others claim that the Orc King escaped to the Wilds where he is raising an army of beastmen and orc exiles, and still others claim that the Orc King roams the Empire, inciting orcish rebellions and raising an army to strike from within...
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Post by gamedave on Jan 20, 2016 15:57:51 GMT -5
THE WILDS
Beyond the borders of the Empire lay the Wilds, and untamed wilderness filled with dangerous beasts and fell monsters. The Empire has shrunken since its golden age, and continues to shrink, as the Wilds inexorably advance towards the center of the Empire and the Imperial City.
The Wilds are more than simply the absence of human settlement. The Wilds are an almost palpable presence, seemingly guided by an unfathomable intelligence determined to overrun and obliterate all of human civilization. Shadow lays deeply across the Wilds, and the animal and plant life within it are...wrong. Too large, too vicious, too cunning, too hostile (even the plants!) for mere nature run amok. The Wilds are something else, a primal Chaos that constantly threatens to engulf humanity.
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Post by gamedave on Jan 20, 2016 16:02:47 GMT -5
THE FROZEN WASTES
To the north of the Empire are the Frozen Wastes. A mix of seemingly endless frozen tundra and vast glaciers, swept by constant, howling winds, the Frozen Wastes are completely inhospitable to any human habitation. However, strange...things lurk in the ice and cold. Things that are inimically hostile to humanity, and, indeed, to anything with warm blood.
At the same time, buried under the ice are fantastical ruins of an earlier, greater Age. Some of these ruins appear to be from a fallen human civilization, most of them...not. The lure of the secrets and lost technology locked in the ice of the Frozen Wastes has lured many adventurers and fortune hunters to their icy dooms...
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Post by gamedave on Jan 20, 2016 16:06:37 GMT -5
THE DESOLATION
To the south of the Empire lays the vast desert known as the Desolation. The Desolation is no mere sandy desert - it is a region utterly inimical to any form of life. Its "sand" is more akin to dust - the dust of decayed bones. The ruins of an ancient human civilization occasionally peek forth from the rolling dunes. These vestiges of an Age long gone all appear to be tombs, often filled with exotic riches. But while nothing lives in the Desolation, there are things within the tombs that still move...
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