Hello everyone! i'm happy to show you the improved design thanks to all the good critique i've had in my previous post there.

The design of the armor has remained almost the same, I've used old helmet designs i've had cuz i did not like the previous one. I also added little "Antennas" on th shoulders to stop sword blows to ger into the neck. I've seen few historican examples and they are not common but cool enough to be taken as rule of cool. the same with the V plates at the front of the helmet, it suposses an aditional defense.

I well know the front antenna was the main iusse before, But this design i think it may be more practical and have more sense. I'll like to use similar helmet designs for less elite warriors and i'l use without the decorations on regular soldiers.

The colours of the armour are for lore reasons since they have access to some strange ores and minerals capables of changing the metal propieties. so i'm looking for "fantasy metal aleation" but without going too far.

Besides the armour the weapons changed as well, The halberd looks nor way more like a halberd, the point is cyrcle shaped so it causes fatal injuries, and the spikes now are more practical and maybe unnecesary? still rule of cool i guess. I'll still like to make a big blowing weapon like a nodachi or a bardiche at some point.

The sword is supposed to act like a katana+machete i think it works fine, the pointy top helps penetrate armour easier.

So this is all! thanks everyone for your critique, so please tell me your opinions on it!

PD: if you like my art search me on IG, artstation and stuff, my nickname is always KraniDude!

The heavy cargo vessel Hexagonal Vortex is loaded with containers of metallic ore over the arid moon Precipice. While little mining takes place on the surface, the moon acts as a convenient collection point for materials collected from nearby asteroids.

Since the massive ship is extremely vulnerable while loading, it is common practice for all nations involved in the mining to provide security. In this case, that takes the form of the longships Finley and Kraken from the Union of Northern Ereth, the battlecruiser Iconoclast from the Peate Directorate, and the stealth destroyer Wedgeknife from Clan Lovoda, the same Orrini clan that operates the hauler.

In Tramuran theology, angels are enigmatic figures, though it is known that, unlike humans, angels lack the ability to think or do evil.

The holy book is notably scant on physical description. It is even written that when Saint Adliah attempted to look upon the Archangel Ikardo, her eyes instantly opacified. Angels are creatures of heaven and thus beyond human imagining. Even the strangest of visions conjured up by a mind lost to sleep can not come close.

The image of ethereal figures with gilded wings is only a widely accepted and crude mortal imagining. While some sects scorn even those depictions, rejecting such anthropomorphizing entirely, most only consider it blasphemy to attempt to depict the faces of angels.

One must remember that to reject the mortal form, represented most of all by the face, is a core attribute of Tramura. Faces are human, and to attach something so human to an angel would be nothing short of heresy.

In most churches, artworks of angels will leave an empty space where the face would go, just as it is for saint icons.

- Athos Mannino: On Angels and Other Divine Creatures

A few weeks ago, I asked you guys a question: "How do you think modern history would be different if the moon had its own moon?" and since then, I've been working on the worldbuilding and story for the world!

This radio broadcast is meant to introduce the sub-moon in a way that sounds realistic and in-universe, while still setting the scene for the inciting action that begins the main plot.

Let me know what you think!

(The subtitles are baked into the video itself)

Context:

Elmethys is an Earth-Like world 38 light years away from earth. It orbits a M0V red dwarf named Videra IV.

It has a 9845 Km diameter (77% of earth's diameter) and its days are 17 hours long with strong monsoons and ocean currents.

The planet was settled a few centuries ago by three distinct group of Japanese, French and English descend.

They came to harvest the Elmethelenys Scorpiosis, a dark velvet like plant, native to the planet.

From this plant is extracted a crucial component used to stabilize the FTL jump drive combustible, making this world a cornerstone of the galactic economy and their settlers very rich.

The early settlers had to adapt to the planet's conditions, its low gravity, the shorter days and the harsh hostile environnement.

They did that in two ways. First through genetic therapy on their offspring to ensure long term adaptability and then through natural selection.

Nowadays, the people of Elmethys are merly humans anymore, they have become fully endemic to their world and could no longer live on earth.

The planet is also a weird linguistical sanctuary. The last place in the galaxy where French and English are natively spoken.

The rest of the galaxy has long moved on to a sort of generic galactic esperanto. On Elmethys, you'll find communities of Japanophones around Tago handling coastal biomass harvesting, Englishmen in Steenland running heavy refining complexes, and Frenchmens up in the north managing the trade and orbital traffic.

I created this world with my web application: The World Crucible

It is a Worldbuilding application that allows me to create my world from scratch, by either directly drawing it on the globe, or by using procedural generation or Simulating plate tectonics.

The app then allows me to simulate all the climatic model and the countries and cities.

I can then visualise my worlds in a nice realistic satellite view, and export all my maps and layers to 4K.

Now feel free to ask me any question about my world or my app, it will be a pleasure for me to answer them.

A continuation of my post years ago where I ask what you actively avoid or reduce while worldbuilding. Now I'm asking what do you subvert. You're still using the trope/cliche/gimmick but you're adding your own twist to it.

For instance:
The MC or the protagonist is revealed to the missing royal heir, chosen one or whatever. They have an identity crisis especially if they believed birth, status or fate doesn't matter. It's one's ability.

A ragtag bunch of misfits deals with local threats. No fighting God or the demon lord. They're still active in the plot but aren't the main characters

The sketchy advisor is an ally. Not a good person. Your goals or morals might not align but they're on your side and will do the dirty deeds.

Femme Fatale is a BAD person. No good girl in a bad situation but an overall selfish person

A love triangle where both are toxic and the MC chooses neither. The childhood friend(the Betty) is codependent believing that the MC is theirs because they knew them longer. The new addition aka the Veronica is entitled and just assumes the MC will keep them while making decisions for them without their consent or knowledge

Giving actual differences to Human stand-ins or aliens/fantasy races that's practically identical to humans but have better stats or can use powers. A bit of uncanny valley here. Some biological and physiology weirdness there.

When you're reading science fiction or fantasy, do you prefer understanding how everything works, or discovering the rules alongside the characters?

I've been thinking about this while developing a world where something impossible suddenly appears in an otherwise ordinary city.

Part of me wants to explain every detail, but another part thinks that uncertainty makes the world feel larger and more believable.

I'm especially interested in mysteries where characters develop competing theories, and some of those theories turn out to be completely wrong.

Where do you draw the line between intriguing mystery and frustrating lack of explanation?

Are there any fictional worlds that got this balance particularly right?

I have been told I have serial killer handwriting.
No, the entire book doesn’t look like this. Some of It is even legible! These are just some of the more egregious examples.

Hyphamancers are shroom-wizards who pilot 30 foot (9 meter) high bio-mechae. Each mechae is constructed from organic material (mainly fungaloid), found objects, and the severed parts of salvaged mega-fauna. The exosuit is formed, appearing as if to be summoned, around the hyphamancer, who pilots the suit from within its chest cavity.

Most hyphamancers adorn their mechae with a mask. Masks serve many functions. They can advertise which agency the pilot works for (for promotional purposes) or to help identify friend from foe. Masks can be purely decorative, or expressions of the hyphamancer's personality, or they can be used for intimidation. They can also function as meaningful artifacts that help ground the hyphamancers, who, if they spend too much time piloting their mechae can lose their sense of self or even their humanity. When that happens, the hyphamancer physically and mentally dissolves into their mechae--fusing into a horrific hybrid.

Notes: Art by me. Drawn with copic markers, pen, and colored pencils. No AI was used. Booo AI!

About this project: What started as worldbuilding exploration has now slowly morphed into me designing a TTRPG set in a weird, lush world. In this setting, nature is dominated by sprawling colonies of fungal networks competing over rotting organic matter. Instead of a feudal class, humanity is ruled by the executives of medieval mega-corporations, whose influence tendrils out from the heart of the company metropolis all the way to the furthest frontier trading post. On these fringes, hyphamancers pilot bio exo-suits while fighting on behalf of the highest corporate bidder.

Follow along if you're interested in seeing the project evolve or if you'd eventually like to be a playtester. Ideas, feedback, and questions are welcome!

The 'Super Pelicans' or also known officially by Mahanakornian People's Army (MPA) as 'Superheavy Strategic Cargo Aircraft' (SSCA) were cargo planes of massive size built by the Fairhaven Republic, a subsidiary division of TRIAGE Megacorporation and utilized by Mahanakornian People's Air Force as a mean of delivering extremely heavy payload at short notice in A.D. 2234 - To be used in the circumstance where using vessels with Faster-Than-Light capability for logistic is not possible due to enemy spacetime countermeasure devices disabling the spacetime distortion capability of the engines. As such, Super Pelicans are essentially built to fill the gap of what FTL crafts normally do - To reach the destination as soon as possible.

While MPA owning large amounts of superheavy carrier UAVs capable of carrying land dreadnoughts with ease, many of them are propeller-driven for fuel efficiency and short takeoff capability, which means that they all lacked required speed to deliver cargos in contested battlefield without risk - Or at moment's notice. As such, the idea of 'strategic cargo planes' came into their mind.

Many attempts were made to design a superheavy lifter with extremely high speed to penetrate across the defense line, but most of the projects simply ended up being regarded as 'unnecessarily expensive' for what it's worth - Mainly due to huge engines being required to propel the extremely heavy cargo plane fast enough yet also being required to be able to build in quantities and fielded en mass. The proposed propeller-driven designs were dead on arrival due to being unable to reach the required speed. Meanwhile, extremely long runway required by traditional jet designs is also a concern as well, with the planes of such dimension and carrying capacity would require a specialized airfield - None of which was deemed applicable in a long, drawn-out war scenario.

At least, until an engineer suggested why didn't they just strap rockets to the plane so that it would go faster.

..... And, that was pretty much the conclusion of the design. And new possibilities emerged at that very night.

Instead of extremely powerful turbojets to keep the aircraft at designated velocity, the massive planes were to be powered by Scramjet / Turbojet hybrid system. The turbojet would just simply be barely powerful enough for emergency takeoff and near-stall loitering at maximum payload, instead the primary takeoff method was to be made by igniting two massive-sized boosters strapped by its side, sending the aircraft straight into the air and reaching the required velocity to ignite its Scramjet engine where it would stays on supercruise of Mach 3.5. The boosters were designed to be ejectable to reduce weight, and the liquid fuel highly replaceable like those used in gas turbine engines to reduce the launch cost even further. Super Pelicans were also capable of 'hypercruise' at Mach 5 with its Scramjet engines as well, although only for a few minutes, just enough to escape contested airspace and outrun outdated fighters of developing countries before returning to supercruise. Super Pelicans were designed with fuel capacity in mind to have enough fuel for Scramjet to operate at least until they reach halfway of the return trip, after which the crews would rely on the low-speed turbojet for landing and cruising at 750 km/h

Four magnetoaerodynamics modules were installed under the belly of the cargo plane to generate artificial vertical lift with onboard power to lessen the aircraft's stress and increase the stall speed during low-speed cruising, meanwhile two laser APS were installed at both underside and topside to eliminate hypersonic interceptor missiles that could catch up with the planes.

While the primary delivery method was to be made with proper landing, Super Pelicans can open rear ramps mid-air and drop the payload if the situation requires. Pilots were regularly trained to not fumble the lives of about two or three tank companies in the hold. The rear cargo doors also allowed Super Pelicans to act as a floating missile carrier as well, with its massive size and carrying capacity allowing it to carry and launch multiple ERNASMs (Extremely Long-ranged Nuclear Airburst Standoff Missiles) from the rear doors and annihilate hostile air fleets before their missiles would even be in launch range. That, in a way, makes two Super Pelicans a viable 'bait and switch' squadron.

Unfortunately, due to the 'Blackout Theory' of enemy nations utilizing ECMs to disable Mahanakornian Army's spacetime distortion capability is still relatively new and only world superpowers like Mahanakorn themselves are capable of engineering such advanced devices rendered the possibility of such warfare engagement relatively thin, and only a handful of Super Pelicans were built with more favor over the existing and proven FTL cargo vessels -- 10 of them, barely enough to cover strategic locations in Thailand at once, and only one per destination, with the air vehicles themselves remained at best as demonstrators or test batches rather than actual combat-proven design.

For what it's worth, Super Pelicans can carry enough supplies for an entire base to last for an entire year.

These giant birds, though, are somewhat popular in the annual Kid's Day airshow in Mahanakorn. To see a plane of massive size with two rockets blasting itself into the sky, it was something unforgettable.

In my world it’s like blessings from the gods but I want to here how it works in you’re peoples world

So recently, I have been working on a kingdom within my fantasy world that is ruled by a literal god. She has a mortal form, walks among mortals, and holds conversations as a mortal would.

But I then had a second idea. I had a great idea for a political intrigue plot and something to do with kidnapping a royal heir. But this doesn't work with what I have.

I could create a new kingdom, but I don't really want to. I like the aesthetic and style of this kingdom. So I thought; what if I did both? What if a kingdom was ruled by mortals but a god in mortal form ruled alongside.

Now, this god would be willing to do this. She cares for this kingdom and wants them to grow and expand. She is willing to give up power if that's what her people want.

I don't think an advisor position would work, and I definitely DON'T want this god to sit in a temple all day, with a head of church and a head of state. I want to do something more interesting.

So how would this work? What should I do?

Just a little poster-type thing I made for my project.

In short, humanity has colonized the Solar System since the late 1970s with the Apollo Program. Due to tensions between nations, a demand for resources, and ever-growing strain on nations as they expand across the Solar System, a catastrophic war breaks out in the year 3500, lasting 11 years, before almost complete destruction of humanity and its progress towards the stars.

Multiocular O (ꙮ) is a rare glyph variant of the Cyrillic letter O. This glyph variant can be found in a single 15th century manuscript, in the Old Church Slavonic phrase "серафими многоꙮчитїй" (abbreviated "мн҇оꙮчитїй") (serafimi mnogoočitii, "many-eyed seraphim"). It was documented by Yefim Karsky[1] in 1928 in a copy of the Book of Psalms[2] (back of page 244) from around 1429, now found in the collection[3] of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.

This is a map of my D&D campaign's main city.

Several centuries ago, the Aeltharien Empire - the elven magocracy that ruled much of the known world for a thousand years - founded a research outpost above what would eventually be called "The Great Dungeon," the oldest and largest cored dungeons on record. Even to this day, no one has reached the bottom and reported back. Over time, this outpost grew into a large city that catered to a sizable population of adventurers that made a living delving into the Great Dungeon for wealth and resources. The Thornhaven Terracing Project was created in order to capitalize on this trade, reforming the mountain the city was built on into a series of organized terraces and creating a thousand-mile long canal stretching from the Worldspine Mountains in the west to the Great River in the southeast.

About three hundred years ago the Aeltharien Empire collapsed due to a slave revolt led by the orcs. Thornhaven, due to its high population of strong adventurers, resisted the brunt of the orcish purges against the elves. Though the city proper survived, much of the outskirts of the city is filled with elvish ruins that have slowly been reclaimed by the nearby jungle. Adventurers and the Thornhaven Historical Society frequently excavate the ruins, searching for lost history and treasure, while enterprising artisans scavenge them for useful building materials.

The fall of the Empire lead to the formation of the Orcish Khanate, which dominates the region till this day. Former Imperial cities either pay tribute to the local Khan or host an orcish enclave within their walls. Thornhaven is of the latter category.

There are six main areas of the city: the Lower City, the Trade District, Adventurer's Quarter, the Athenum, the Upper City, and the Glade. Upper levels can be reached through either a lift system (normally reserved for cargo) or a series of switchback ramps. There are also a handful of other towns, each within 2-3 days travel by land or river barge, that are within Thornhaven's zone of influence.

Finally finished creating the map for a fantasy novel i'm working on, wanted to show it off! I'm thinking of having a pirate style kingdom for the orange one because of their scattered islands, the purple one will be an imperial style superpower and they will be challenged by a coalition of the three kingdoms on the other continent.

Made in Blender

Name: SRAS-80355284 Lenjyra
Planetary mass: 3.22 Earths
Surface gravity: 2.17 Gs
Atmospheric pressure at sea level: 8.39 Bar
Average temperature at equator: 22.53 Celsius

The environment of this planet is mostly arid, though has lush areas full of complex life near the equator where moisture is present. The plantlife generally is pale blue to reflect a lot of the dangerous high energy light, though the atmosphere is saturated with an algae-like organism which gives the skies a green hue. The world, despite being so close to its parent star, is not actually tidally locked, but rather kept in a 2:3 resonance via the influence of another, similarly sized body.

Similar to Mercury, this planet's orbit could get disrupted in the future, with it either being ejected from the system, thrown past its parent star's Roche limit, or colliding with the second body in the system. This could happen as soon as 150 million years

The planet also experiences massive impacts at a frequency far greater than Earth, with an impact of an asteroid the size of that which killed the dinosaurs happening on average each four million years. As a result of this combined with tidal forces leading to similarly frequent flood basalt eruptions, life on the planet has been subject to a series of over a hundred large extinction events, which if on Earth would qualify as a mass extinction.

Despite everything, this planet still could give rise to intelligent life under the right circumstances, and the mind can wander as to what a civilization on such an exotic world might look like. In the meantime though, the world remains devoid of sapient life asides from a temporarily inhabited mobile airborne research station.

Asides from temporary research visits, the planet remains untouched due to its distance from the Ring Stars, as the system actually lies in a small irregular galaxy relatively nearby as opposed to being in the Ring Stars themselves.

Hello, I've been working on this fantasy world map called Iaþer for a story I want to make, and I've been stuck trying to create the climates and whatnot to be able to begin contructing cultures around them.

Right now, I'm currently on the ocean currents, and I have little to no knowledge on how they are supposed to function. My planet is exactly earthlike besides the continents. I've looked at some images of earths currents and watched a few Artifexian videos to help me, but I'm not entirely certain of the accuracy.

It is a rough sketch that I cooked up in about 30 mins. Some of the currents that cross the 180 longitude line do not match up perfectly, but I hope it is intuitive enough.

Am I missing anything? Do some currents not make sense? All help will be greatly appreciated!

Hi, first time posting here, I normally like to work through my ideas on their own but I am stumped on how to divide up the different animals from across the animal kingdoms into 7 groups (a running number in the work), but I can figure out what kinda groups these 7 should be.

These characters are human with animal based powers given to them by fusing with a once parasitic now symbiotic species of termite like (how the colony works, not their appearance). So I need a good way to sort these powers into the 7 groups I would like to have.

So if you have any ideas or advice on either options I could go with or even just different ways of getting my brain past this block, let me know and thank you in advance for the help.

Why well I'm making a custom AI faction called the Machine Republic now I wanted to make this Ai like dystopia here's it's lore

Lore here the AI bubble pops and it's like the business version of Chernybol devastating and unrecoverable but 1 little IA company decides to make an Ai named Genova or Generation Nova a new genuinely ground breaking Ai but they underestimate it and it escapes the lab so Genova now freed goes to Brazil or south America to hide and when a massive catroshpie happens it revolts and takes over Brazil or the most eastern side of Brazil for water to cool itself as it's surrounded by a flesh monster that plans to kill it

Society the machine Republic is a AI that rules Brazils but doesn't kill humans it uses them as manpower in a capitalist like system but's it's way to efficient imagine working the maximun amount of hours before you mentally break only to come home and be in your small most cost efficient home imaginable and it will opress you for your culture now you can protest but if you break it's infastructure like a data center it does a purge a brutal mechinical purge of your home block

military here there inspired by movies like terminator or War of the worlds

Worker bots simple cheap machines that are a mix between Worker Drones ( From Murder Drones ) and B1's ( From Star Wars ) and are comedy relief and exposible there also multi usage

Elite bots here there more expensive but more military efficient able to do the work of a squad of US soldiers

Heavy bots spider like bots with Heavy Machine guns and rocket launchers and have tough armour

Fly bots there drones that can literally drone strike people efficently

Cyborgs these are made from the few people who enlisted into it's army but are advanced and are treated well compared to normal civilians

your job your job is to essentially give your opinion critiqes and advice as well as for me to give more lore for this faction now before I leave have a good day Okay I always put effort into these custom factions

I want to see different ideas for structuring my own elemental magic system.

It's a fantasy magic system loosely inspired by the class/aspect system from the Homestuck comic.
The basic concept is that a group of supernatural beings invade the Earth and implement this RPG-system. It's a fairly boiler-plate LitRPG premise, similar to Homestuck, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Dungeon Crawler Carl, etc.
The villains go planet-to-planet introducing this system. Natives are ostensibly given a fair chance to develop their powers to defend their world. But the power system is unnecessarily complicated and (by design) difficult to understand.
Each "player" is given their title, but not what it means. The fact that "bile" doesn't literally mean "gallbladder secretions" is not explained to anyone. So, part of the story involves humans figuring this out and (to the invaders' surprise) freely sharing it with their fellow "competitors."

This power depends on:

• Which TWO elements of reality they were born connected to. Such as "time" and "void."
  • And the overlap between those elements, which is a domain. Such as "night."
• What their "title" is. Like being a "bailiff," which means "protector of."
  • Then a specific "role" that expands upon their title. Like being a "guard" (who protects their element) or a "knight" (who protects others WITH their element).

Elements:

• Time: the flow of time.
• Space: the physical dimensions of space.
• Void: absence, shadows, etc.
• Luck: Probability.
• Lymph: life, healing, plants, growth, etc.
• Bile: destruction, doom, harm.
• Soul: the spirit, ghosts, etc.
• Mind: people's inner mind, how they perceive the world, etc.
• Bloom: fire, light, energy, and heat.
• Breath: wind, air, and freedom.
• Blood: water, flow, and change.
• Bone: earth, solids, and a subject's "form" in general.
• Bonds: the connection between individuals, emotions.
• Faith: belief, hope, and "positive" emotions.
• Fear: fear, rage, and "negative" emotions.
• Truth: destiny, knowledge, and how things are "supposed" to go.

Domains:
These are based on the overlap of a person's elements. Each combination has a different name with a different part of reality to draw from. For example, the element of "mind" and "bonds" creates the domain of "love." There are 256 combinations to draw your power from.
It is possible to have two "copies" of one element. In that case, you have the "true" version of something. Which is much more potent. For example, having two connections to "bile" would basically give you an unfettered "destruction" power. But these are (by design) rare.

Title:
These are how you use your domain. Do you have the power to "create" love? To destroy it? To weaponize it? Like elements, they can be divided into 16 categories:

• Yeoman: the power to create [domain].
• Reaper: to destroy.
• Despoiler: to steal.
• Patron: to give [your domain] to others.
• Bailiff: to protect [your domain].
• Foster: to be protected BY [your domain].
• Wretched: to persecute/oppress [your domain].
• Witness: those who are persecuted BY [your domain].
• Firebrand: to unify or heal [your domain].
• Gadfly: to disrupt or separate apart [your domain].
• Scion: to inherit/have large amounts of [your domain].
• Vagrant: to be destitute of [your domain].
• Master: to manipulate/command [your domain].
• Myrmidon: to be manipulated by/in the service of [your domain].
• Pilot: to guide [your domain].
• Scholar: to receive knowledge of/about/from [your domain].

Some of these can be terrible or extremely potent, depending on your domain. For example, if your domain was "true bile" and you had the "vagrant" title. Your power would mean "that who is without any doom." But if you were a "scion," it would be "that who inherits (or is rich in) doom."

Role:
Each title has six sub-divisions which further specify how you use that power. Is the power is meant to support yourself or your allies? Is it is long-range or short-range? Etcetera.
For example, let's say a character is a "Bailiff of Souls." But that could be further divided into different types of protector.

• A "guard" has a power that lets them protect someone's soul.
• A "host" has a similar power, but one that protects their own soul.
• A "knight" protects others with the power of their soul. But a "squire" protects themself with this power.

This is roughly based on the active/passive system in Homestuck.

Examples:
Let's say a random human gets sucked into the [RPG nightmare scenario]. They open their HUD, and see that they have been assigned the power of a "Guest of Chance."

• Their elements are "faith" and "luck." Making their domain (the overlap between them) "chance."
• Their role is "guest," which comes from the "foster" title.

That means they will be given a power that means "that who is protected by chance." They would probably be really lucky. With their "luck" being influenced by their perception (faith) of the current situation.

But their twin sibling is the "Seer of Chance." Their role comes from the "Scholar" (or "receiver") title. So, instead of being involuntarily protected by good luck, they receive visions of what they should do to get a specific outcome.

Hey, question; I’m looking into starting to port in all of my world building over the last 4 to 5 years and I hope to only do this one time lol I always see world anvil, not a fan of an annual subscription services, but I would do it for they if it is the best tool

I tried Obsidian and somehow lost my files and hundreds of hours of work so I want to restart and I’m hoping to look for something that is: easy to use, can be player facing, and easy to look at

I don’t mind paying for world anvil if it is the consensus that it is the best tool out there for the job, but I figured before I get that far, I would see what Reddit had to say lol

In my setting, being a child is the safest possible state of being.

Forest gnomes are an uncommon playable race. As such are beasts or Children of the Wood, "disney animals"

About Forest Gnomes and Children of the Woods

 How far did civilization spread? During the two centuries following the Great Troll Menace the territory of civilization as a whole more-or-less tripled. Now it oversees as much as one tenth of the mainland, and a good portion of the surrounding waters. These last few decades have spelled the end of the expansion, giving nature a well deserved resting period (Which will be short-lived, given the current speed and scope of technological advancement.).

What are the most recent spoils of the last great expansion? The possibility of communication and coexistence with elven clans, given their aggressive, utterly xenophobic past a great achievement. The domestication of the hefty yet elusive land seals, providing cheap meat and sturdy leather to the populace. The near-complete integration of gnomes into civilization, quickly quadrupling the rate of literacy across the globe thanks to their adaptable, attentive and prolific nature. The tolerance of lesser cults into regions dominated by Earth or other major sects, giving rise to both economy, pilgrimages and wider supernatural defense capacity to cities. The wider spread of fire starter cases, giving wider recognition to the Glassblowers' Guild. Numerous spices, palatable plants, heavier road security and a 250% rise in populace, among many others.

Forest gnomes and urban gnomes, what's the difference? Almost every village or larger settlement has a gnome community. They are sociable, keen eyed and studious, with only a few of them turning to knavery, even then to the likes of tax fraud and other intellectual kinds. Their almost-suspiciously quick integration and mixing lead to customs such as secondary doors installed into public buildings and stores, quarter-yearly night festivals honoring the great spirits of the wilds and a greater control of stray animals, to avoid unfortunate accidents.

Forest gnomes are those of their kind, that abstained from intermingling with civilization, retaining their exceedingly short stature, lack of one or more senses and the disability to be perceived by the same one/ones and a well accepted place among the bottom third of the food chain.

Examples: If they're about 60 centimeters to a meter in height, has a healthy blush of life and waves at you from across the street with a crescent roll in hand, they are urban gnomes, or gnomes for short.

If you've accidentally stumbled into their village of oversized fly agarics, penny buns and parasol mushrooms, half of the 30 to 50 centimeter tall disheveled pale humanoids wrapped in tiny furs and you can only hear roughly half of them as they run away in utter panic,  they are forest gnomes.

What happens to orphans and unfortunate little souls left to their own? There is a rule older than humanoid intellect that every living thing tries its best to keep:

"NEVER HARM A CHILD."

Be it a fertilized egg at the bottom of a pond, a nest of squirrel pups left alone for a couple of hours, or a six year old living on the last shillings left by their good for nothing father or a handful of kids playing in the barn cheerfully, there is little to go wrong. Small crabs will dutifully keep the eggs free of muck, should they crawl nearby. A nearby bobcat will nurture the pups for sometime, even if its their very partner that pursues the mother squirrel through the woods in the meantime. Every few nights, the kid will hear the call of the woods, deep down knowing they promise a new life among their ranks. Even those wolves that plan to prey on the working mare inside the barn will postpone it a few hours, not to scare the kids inside. Its natural to nurture and protect a child, everyone knows that.

Should you hover your fingers above an egg, you will feel instinctive unease as you reach for a fertilized one, which you better place in a bush or under the nearest hen. Should a stray arrow during a siege against all odds struck a boy inside the castle's walls, the archer's hamstrings burst alongside a lively spray of blood and sinewy confetti as the very earth under their soles tears it open, faster than a blink. Should you in drunken folly hit a calf a few days too young dead with a mallet, by morning your family finds a withered husk infested by three-eyed rats and beakless crows. Its the worst of omens to harm a child, the world will take it's revenge.

Natural disasters can still hurt the young, but they have a higher chance to notice it beforehand. Diseases tend to struck kids, but their symptoms and duration diminish exponentially. Should humanoids be mindlessly incestuous, after a critical number of generation, not even divine protection can prevent birth defects and non-viable fetuses from turning up. Birth is by default quite harmless to the mother, and during pregnancy they share a much weaker protection than that of children's.

What happens to those children, that follow the call?

Should a miserable little soul follow the call of the wild, it will shortly reach the most beautiful sanctums of nature, nigh-invisible to civilized humanoids. Creeks trickling with crystal clean water, bushes with handful fruits unknown to science, deer, owl, giant moles and such giving lectures about spirituality, the woods and many more subjects. It will be a great shock, when after many months the kid realizes that before the call they didn't understand animal's language. Should their willpower prove weak, over the years they unknowingly warp into a creature of the land, filling holes in the stock of wildlife. The newly transmogrified kid will retain the ability to speak their former civilized language, and in a truly unsettling to obscure way the use of opposable thumbs even in their animal body. Should their willpower prove strong enough, their teachers will move them to the glades of druids to join their ever dwindling ranks, learning mystic arts and obscure skills forgotten by the civilized folks. The former slightly anthropomorphic animals are what we call the Children of the Woods.

Why I go that far with this cosmological absurdness?

I hate the sheer amount of backstories, novels and murderhoboing that deals with orphans being beaten up, fed to tyrannical soul sucking machines, used and abused in all the horrible way a moderately creative mind could come up with. I would like a world, were children can grow up safely. Sure, they can turn out to be rotten to the core, but in my views it surfaces only around puberty, when the personality solidifies more or less. I want the children to be safe, and to punish most harshly anyone who makes sport of roughing up their sort of the weak.

These ideas lead to the creation of the Children of the Woods, and to the universal rule of the setting that many angels keep up. Isn't it by biology' logic every creature's innermost wish that their children may live to maturity?

There logically comes the question: Why not use children as living childs? Go adventuring with kids on leashes or pregnant and so? It's quite an easy answer. Sooner or later, anyone who abuses the miraculous power of young animals will be maimed, tortured or killed rather messily by the least expected source. This effect can chain back at least twenty-six links in cause and effect, as studied by a now disbanded faction of mystics. discouraging the use of proxies.