Cultue, Traits, and Evolution

[WB - Water's Blessing]

The one thing that has remained constant across the many iterations of the meta-plot is the culture of the many peoples of the diaspora. However, they have often found themselves pushed in different directions than they originally were situated in in the base BR setting. So, one idea I thought I might float would be considering revising some of the human cultural trait values between this game and the next one to reflect how cultures have grown and changed in the thousands of years we have covered in the meta-plot. It could be that we revise what gets the +1 and the -1, or we could add in a second pair of +1/-1 to reflect how the cultures have changed. Or, alternately, it could be that we reflect that idea by humans starting with one or two NWPs depending on their culture, since humans don't otherwise get racial traits like the non-human races. For example, if most of the Basarji wind up living in mountains, maybe mountaineering becomes a cultural trait for Basarji in the next game, or swimming for Brechts if they mostly live on islands.

Related to this idea, I thought that at least some non-human races (especially goblins) might also see a similar evolution, especially given their shorter lifespans. At the very least, I think we've seen at least a nod towards two distinct goblinoid cultures at different times - Skelk-like warrior goblins and the more cultured Rhyelian goblins. Perhaps some goblin communities could be evolving towards being hobgoblins or something like that?

Finally, when talking about ancient languages, we tend to focus on human languages. However, I think it would make sense to have at least a few non-human ancient languages. Draconic could possibly be seen as an ancient language by this time. But, I think some PC races could also have ancient languages, like goblin for sure and maybe gnollish if it has a written component. Elves might even have ancient languages by this time, like Seelie and Unseelie, and halflings could have Cellwair as an ancient language if it's not something widely spoken by halflings today.

Just tossing out a few ideas that came to me before I forget them.

[TH - The Hunt]

Yeah, it's weird for Vos to continue getting +1 str, -1 int when people keep playing them as peaceful and erudite, hahaha. I don't think the other humans have been played against type so much, though.

For elves, only four generations have passed, so I don't think new languages would make sense. On the other hand, the majority of 'Sidhelien' have been played in ways that are wildly incompatible with the nature of Birthright elves, so it seems to me something should be going on under the hood, there.

[WB - Water's Blessing]

Well, if the Unseelie empire has been wiped out by the reset, its dialect could still constitute an ancient language if it was a separate language from regular Sidhelein.

[CSF - Flint]

I love the idea of tweaking the numbers for races between games based on the behaviour of the last campaign's players. Might have to wait and see what subrace the shadow eats this time around first though!

[TH - The Hunt]

That doesn't have to be a foregone conclusion, you know.

[DM Juan]

Hegemonic-Unseelie was it's own language (or at least dialect, since Sidhe and Unseelie could understand each other), so it could constitute an ancient language at this point. There are no strictly unseelie, anymore.

[CIC - Duke Cicero]

Hypothetically, when the Rjurik were wiped out, were all people with Rjurik genetic heritage wiped out? What happened to half-elves whose human half was Rjurik? In theory, if two such people had children, there would be a chance the child would come out full-Rjurik.

Trying to reverse-engineer the Rjurik people could (if not totally a non-starter) be a really interesting goal for a character in a future game (or, I suppose, this one if anyone finds themselves lacking goals still). Maybe requiring a library V and finding some scions with Rjurik ancestors and blood history to piece back together Rjurik culture, taking particular NWPs, research actions to track down viable candidates for the breeding program, building or finding a temple willing to offer some sort of divine protection from the Shadow immediately snuffing out any attempt to undo its work, etc etc ...

[DM Juan]

The Masetians were sort of re-engineered in the Diaspora 1, when they were wiped out in the previous incarnation. There is a history to suggest it can be attempted.

You do not think you can accomplish it via Elves who happened to descend from Half-Elf Rjurik.
However, careful breeding of humans, and cultural milieu could result is a pseudo-Rjurik peoples.
That would not be a project for a short lived human, but maybe a human with Great Longlife, or maybe an Elf who thinks of Humans as Dogs, and wants to recreate their favorite pet-breed....

[JB - Jana Boulderbrew]

Isn’t there a Rjurik champion amongst the lot of great captains?

[TH - The Hunt]

Yes. I'm not sure what happens if someone tries to use returned heroes from the outer planes for breeding purposes.