The Kith
Alv, Sidhe, Svartalv, and Dverger

Believed to be permutations of humanity brought about by the presence of magic, these creatures are the Oldest of the Kith.

Alv
Typically bearing striking Nordic features, including tall, wiry frames, sinewy muscles, and platinum blonde hair, the Alv feature long, drawn faces with very small, almost slit-like noses and rather long, pointed ears. Alv are amoung the most talented at Gramarye, and have a high attenuation to magic.

Alv prefer to work with magic in it's more natural state, rather than reconstituted from Sigil or Arcanocoal, and so have strong ties to areas of Old Magic (deep, old-growth forests, swamps, peat bogs, etc). It's believed that prolonged exposure over generations to these early high-magic areas was the reason they diverged from Humans, though there is only nominal proof.

In keeping with their Norse and Germanic ancestry most Alv continue to favour thrown weapons and melee combat when not utilizing Gramarye.


Sidhe
The Sidhe (pronounced 'ZHEE') are elfin beings related to the Alv, likely the same race simply separated by distance. They hail primarily from Britannia and southern Europe. Features amoung the Sidhe are roughly the same as the Alv, though their hair tends to fall in colors of brilliant copper red or gold.

While Sidhe do not have any particular affection for technology in general, they are quite taken with gunpowder, and firearms have replaced their slings and bows of old. Most Sidhe are highly adept marksmen.

>magic exists

And I've moved on.

Svartalv
Svartalv are thought to be a permutation that came about as the result of abandoning the "Old magic" way in favour of arcanocoal, which was more abundant than Sigil in ages past. Svartalv share the same sinewy bodies of the Alv, but they are generally shorter, squat, and hunched. Their skin is exceedingly pale, almost bluish in hue, and they have coarse black hair.

Svartalv have a natural predilection to arcanocoal, and they are skilled at metalworking and forging. Most have adapted to the industrial age, and they can be seen scurrying over the pipes and ductwork of any of a variety of factories or plants.

Dverger
Most historians dispute Dverger being an actual separate race. Rather, they're simply a subset of the Svartalv that never left the caves. Dverger are even more squat and thickly built than the Svartalv, almost dumpy in appearance. They have the same deathly pallor and black hair, though they're rarely seen. Dverger spend most of their times in mines, digging for ores, minerals, gems and precious metals, and of course Arcanocoal.

Grubs
Also called "goblins" by the whimsically minded, Grubs are a mutation of human caused by exposure to Arcanocoal. Children were often employed in a variety of early industrial jobs because their small size, natural dexterity, and utter fearlessness made them ideal for a number of tasks that adults were ill suited to (or at least too smart to try).

The saturation of Arcanocoal smoke and sigil fumes in these early industrial buildings poisoned many of the children. The ones who showed a natural resistance to the toxic effects of Magic Pollution, though, began to show other signs of change. These warped children never actually grew in size, their height stunted. Their bodies remained hairless, save for their heads, and their skin grew a sickly green or grey and mottled. Even as adults, they remain around three feet tall. Small and physically slight, they are still incredibly dexterous and sharp-minded, and immune to the many dangerous effects of Sigil poisoning.

Several generations later, their unique mutation continues to breed true resulting in a whole new race.

Trollock
The result of repeated sigil poisoning from Arcanocoal, Trollocks were those who became more and more resistant to it over time(as opposed to the usual reaction of becoming more sensitive). Trollocks (taken from mythical trolls) are able to absorb the magic from raw Arconcoal and Sigil Crude and infuse their bodies with it. They generally grow to impressive heights, between seven and eight feet, with bulging muscles to match. They are incredibly physically hale and hearty, perfect human specimens, though they usually take on a charcoal grey skin tone.

The downside, though, is their dependence on magic. They require an almost daily intake of concentrated magic via Sigil or coal, so most never leave the small mining communities.

Of some note are a group of females referred to as Trollops, which are the result of prostitutes and other ladies of an entertainment nature who are repeatedly exposed to small amounts Sigil during the course of their affairs with the miners and refinery workers. Those resistant to Sigil Poisoning will exhibit the same Trollock like reactions: growing in height and muscle tone and displaying dark gray skin, though the reaction is generally far less pronounced than Full Trollocks.

Isn't there already an arcane wild west setting out there? Deadlands or something?

Comments, thoughts, Suggestions?

Other than >>7743364, of course, is there anyone with a problem with the idea of blending in magic? In my mind there's no way to have a diesel or steampunk world without either incorporating magic, or handwaving away so much real science that you may as well say "a wizard did it".

>>7743416
Yes, there's Deadlands. However, Deadlands is a more horror-themed setting (all of the powers come from demons who want to destroy the earth, and anyone who gets strong enough to possibly fight the demons off are hunted and executed by an evil, undead gunslinging reaper).

My idea is more of a Classical Fantasy setting rebuilt in a slightly tweaked version of the American Wild West. The Expansionist period is a surprisingly adept analog of the typical fantasy setting (towns and cities are anchors of civilization in uncharted, untamed wilds where small handful of brave individuals forge new lives and wealth out of the chaos) so it seemed an interesting fit to me, and something that might be fun to explore.

Pretty cool.

If you don't have some sort of dieselpunk train-lookin' Warforged race, I'mma find and hurt you.

>>7745492

This. Magic + Trains = Awesome

>>7746235

Or you could just play Deadlands, and fuck the devil with a gatling shotgun powered by the souls of the dead.

>>7746898

I'm all in favor of homebrewing. You should play the game you want to play!

(hint: you want to play Deadlands. Seriously, it's fantastic.)

>>7746898
But what if you want to play a diesel powered Goblin gunslinger with immense amounts of Elsewhere'd automail?

kinda reminds me of this one dnd supliment setting that i saw once. There was this portal opened to the wild west and the advent of technology ment that magic was slowly dying and as a result there were no caster classes, except the ones in the supliment. It seemed pretty cool, except for the race it included. They were werewolf native americans that were stupid overpowered. I played a orc with a hand cannon. good times.

>>7746967

Then you should play houseruled Deadlands. Gin up some stat adjustments for your fantasy races, and use the Deadlands system. It takes a little learning, but it's a solid system, and very good for odd Westerns.

>>7747008
But doesn't the whole thing go against the Deadlands feel? I mean, he could easily do it with Savage Worlds which, if I remember correctly, is the current base system for Deadlands, but demanding that he use Deadlands outright is pretty presumptuous.

If someone wanted to play a low-magic fantasy horror game with no non-human races, would you suggest that he just play Ravenloft instead?

>>7746935
>>7747008

First off, I adore Deadlands. It's a great setting, but the mood it's geared for doesn't capture what I'm looking at here...

This is primarily a setting idea, rather than something I'd create a whole new system around (I'm planning to run my test game in Savage Worlds, anyway, so it's essentially "Deadlands" already). I was primarily looking for input and ideas on how to expand the world concept and mesh the fantasy and diesel tech elements better.

Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear on that part...

>>7747088
>>7747128

I prefer the old Deadlands system to Savage Worlds, which I feel is too simple and give PCs too much mechanical advantage.

I suggested using Deadlands because it already has boatloads of mad scientist devices, guns, zombies and gribblies, different kinds of magic, vehicles, and so forth already statted up. You want magic unt trains? Here be magic unt trains, ready for usink.

>>7747386
Actually, I'm pretty much the opposite. I like the Effort Savage Worlds went to in hemming up the lose, baggy edges of the system to make things more streamlined, particularly combat which always felt a little more like a chore in the earlier Deadlands system(the depth was nice, but the extra layers of complexity made for much more book-keeping).

But, to each his own, I suppose.

>>7747598

Yeah, my group and I are all simulationfags; we actually modded combat to make it more realistic and even more complicated.