What's as cliche and stereotypical a fantasy setting as

>>49854723
Tolken

>>49854745
/thread

>>49854745
Nah, more like an incredibly watered down version of Tolkien combined with an incredibly watered down version of European folktales. So

>A kingdom where humans are the dominant race
>The elves live in tree and are lithe hunters
>The dwarves live in mountains and are smiths who speak with Scottish accents and love ale
>Halflings live in hill houses and are jolly fellows
>But there's a dark lord with an army of orcs
>The humans also have a wise king with 12 knights
>And there's also a dragon who may or may not cooperate with the dark lord who has kidnapped the princess
Can't really get more generic than that. Still, I prefer generic over this new trend where orcs are dindus.

>>49854783
What about a trend where orcs are sluts?

File: 1384926464_4.jpg (303KB, 1680x1050px) Image search: [Google]

303KB, 1680x1050px

>>49854723
>>49854745
Elder Scrolls. It's like the videogame equivalent of Tolkien.

>>49854826
I love TES, but I can't argue with you in this one.

>>49854723
Are you implying that cliches are inherently bad, or just askin'?
To answer: Forgotten Realms.

>>49854792
I've never experienced that trend, bruh.

>>49854826
>Redguards
Surprised the PC police isn't all over this.

File: img[1].jpg (58KB, 800x450px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 800x450px

>>49854723
>What's as cliche and stereotypical a fantasy setting as you can come up with?

This is a little off canter, but the most cliche/stereotypical fantasy setting I know of is the Majesty series/Ardania.

The games though are an absolute blast- I've been completely convinced that a cliche fantasy setting can be 100% fun on a bun if done right.

File: MapAshan.jpg (662KB, 1600x1066px) Image search: [Google]

662KB, 1600x1066px

>>49854745
The cliché fantasy setting has gotten quite different from Tolkien for a while now.

A better answer would be something like Eragon or the setting of Heroes of Might And Magic V-VII.

File: deepest lore.png (481KB, 1252x874px) Image search: [Google]

481KB, 1252x874px

>>49854826
'nods chimly'

>>49854875
>Ashan
TRIGGERRED

Is there any Might&Magic TTRPGs?

File: Shrine-of-Talos-Elder-Scrolls-Statue-001.jpg (436KB, 873x705px) Image search: [Google]

436KB, 873x705px

>>49854899
The counter-argument is Skyrim.

>Hurdurr evil dragon gonna destroy the world
>Hurdurr you're the special Chosen One one who can learn everything and stop it.
>Hurdurr evil elves want to stop you.
>Hurdurr muh fantasy-viking fetish.

And that's not even bringing up Oblivion and it's super generic "Demonic Invasion" plotline.

File: 1470679590723.jpg (825KB, 1828x1720px) Image search: [Google]

825KB, 1828x1720px

>>49854932
'no'

TES lore can be very generic in places, but it is no where near the most fucking cliche setting of all time, thats a retarded thing to say.

As far as video games only go, there have been several games set in the more generic DnD settings.

>>49854932
Don't confuse story with setting.

>>49854858
Why would you think that? Are you implying it?

File: Dargun Age.jpg (117KB, 450x584px) Image search: [Google]

117KB, 450x584px

>>49854826
>>49854932

Personally I think this was far more generic than Elder Scrolls, as far as videogame fantasy goes.

File: 1314538078349.jpg (35KB, 524x617px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 524x617px

>>49854723
You have human, elf, or dwarf. Your classes are fighter, mage, thief. You come from the frozen norths, the green middle, or the lava badguyland south.

Castles fucking EVERYWHERE and nobody knows how to make it stop. Send help.

>>49854870
That's because they're meant to be very slightly parodic.

Which is actually the correct balance to attain maximum clicheness, since it includes the self-awareness to identify the cliches with the willingness to apply them all regardless.

File: 1476570771501.jpg (338KB, 1000x671px) Image search: [Google]

338KB, 1000x671px

>>49855117
This is good. I vote for this

File: 1332878751698.jpg (37KB, 795x397px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 795x397px

>>49855239
PLEASE SEND HELP, THE DARK LORD HAS CALLED TO HIS NETHER GODS BEGGING FOR A WAY TO END IT AND GOT NO REPLY, WE ARE LOCKED IN A MEADOW AND THE CASTLES HAVE US SURROUNDED

The vaguely implied setting of D&D first edition?

>>49855433
Not really.

You had ocean deep rives with pirates and Krakens, you had cavemen riding dinosaurs in the swamps and hunting sabetooth tigers in the mountains.

The country side is dotted with forts, wizard towers and clerical monasteries, surrounded by hamlets and villages. Forts have fighters that will just pop out and challenge your ass to a duel to the death.

The deserts have martians and wandering dervishes.

I'd say Forgotten Realms, Pillars of Eternity, and Dragon Age. That's going from most to least generic..

Ask a seven years old to tell you about a fantasy world, take the resulting mishmash of Mother Goose's fairytales, Robin Hood, Greek mythology, and pirates (there are ALWAYS pirates for some reason if you ask a seven years old, and they're always the 17th century kind), then pepper it with a random assortment of bits of medieval history trivia.

>>49855475
You know, that's not a bad idea for a fantasy setting.

>In every time... in every world... In every mythos... From the deserts of fairytale Arabia to the fjords of medieval Norway, from ancient Greece to the depths of the oceans of Europa in the 28th century... There are always pirates with galleons and triangular hats waving cutlasses and flintlock pistols

It turns out pirates are actually a manifestation of an unfathomable extradimensional phenomenon the human brain just interprets as scruffy dudes with cutlasses, they actually exist everywhere.

File: 0cda99_5379546.jpg (277KB, 1680x1050px) Image search: [Google]

277KB, 1680x1050px

>>49855271
It's simple anon, you must understand that you were castle all along

File: Castle.jpg (969KB, 1440x900px) Image search: [Google]

969KB, 1440x900px

>>49855558

>>49854932
>>Hurdurr evil dragon gonna destroy the world
>>Hurdurr you're the special Chosen One one who can learn everything and stop it.
>>Hurdurr evil elves want to stop you.
>>Hurdurr muh fantasy-viking fetish.

Where to fucking start

Ok FIRST: I feel if you are the FIFTH game in a series that has had a prophecy re: dragons, it's fair to include dragons.

It would be different if it was TES 1: Skyrim because I am super unimpressed by "X is rare/doesn't exist but OH LOOK THEY'RE ACTUALLY EVERYWHERE" but when you've had TES 1-4 first containing zero dragons, I trust you when you say that it's a big deal that they return because we've seen the world without them.

SECOND: "Evil elves want to stop you from saving the world" is not the standard fantasy cliché.

THIRD: They weren't viking in Tolkien. They weren't viking in Dragon Lance. They weren't viking in Azeroth. Do vikings happen? Absolutely. But they're definitely not the Standard Cliché.

I'll give you the "Chosen One" folderol.

File: NORMIES GET OUT OF SARNATH REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!.jpg (719KB, 864x1288px) Image search: [Google]

719KB, 864x1288px

>>49854826
>Morrowind
>Generic
AE GHARTOK PADHOME CHIM ALTADOON
OBLIVION AND SKYRIM BABIES LEAVE REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>49855714
>Morrowind
Nope. He said "Elder scrolls" and posted the online pic.
Don't get triggered.

>>49854723
>A greater evil is rising
>All races meet the basic stereotypes. Humans = dicks, dwarves = drunk fun, elves = gay, goblins = cunts/first enemies and boss, and so on.
>Party starts in a bar
>No charters required to roll play alignments or roll play a all
>A wizzard guides the party along their journey.

>>49855080
I don't want to shit on it too much, since that's the only good console RPG Bioware managed to make. But there's nothing compelling or interesting about the Dragon Age setting.

>>49855876
I kinda liked the implication of the information they revealed way, way, waaaaaaaaaay back before Origins came out, that nobles in Fereldan claimed lineage from werewolves. It sounded badass.

I guess they changed that part over development for some reason.

>>49854783
>Still, I prefer generic over this new trend where orcs are dindus.

>this butthurt about warcraft

hilarious

File: map of clichea.jpg (593KB, 2500x1500px) Image search: [Google]

593KB, 2500x1500px

This, although I'd totally play a campaign set here for laughs.

Let's put it this way: what elements (geographical, historical, races, individuals, whatever) do you feel a cliche fantasy setting's got to have?

Put them all together, and you got the most cliche one.

>>49854723
The setting of Dragon's Crown.
The setting of Sword World.
The setting of the newer Alshard games.

Actually thinking about it now, the Japanese are pretty great at cliche fantasy worlds. Part of it's that they're a lot more amicable than the Americans to just completely make them for the sole purpose of poking irrelevant fun (or, you know, fanservice) so they've just created this default template all Japanese everywhere unanimously agree on, and they roll with it and get on with the boobery.

Just about the only difference from the standard cliche Western fantasy world is that the basic monster is the slime rather than the goblin.

File: Nice.gif (2MB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 320x240px

>>49854870
My nigga

>>49857015
Yeah, but that's because no one wants to imagine a goblin molesting attractive women, but everyone loves slimes.

>>49854723
DragonLance.

>>49854870
My Lord, the Elves wish to join our prosperous kingdom!

My Lord, the Dwarves are offering to move into our domain!

Fuck both, gnomes FTW. It's because of Majesty that I think of gnomes as being a kind of goblinoid.

>>49857100
I dunno, Corruption of Champions seems to prove you wrong.

>>49857015
>The setting of Dragon's Crown

Dragon's Crown is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU4kjjkiZk8

>>49857100
>but everyone loves slimes
I hate slimes. Boring rape-monsters.

>>49857015
That, and dwarf women are lolis. Because in Japan, when someone makes a sexy joke, it gets lodged so deep in the genre's collective subconscious people just stop questioning it for any reason whatsoever.

Like, seriously. It's not even limited to ecchi comedies anymore, it's just a bog standard part of how the Japanese imagine fantasy. Sword World core rulebook? Flat out states that dwarf females look like young human girls, right between the lines where it mentions, with the exact same businesslike tone, that they have extra fire resistance and are industrious.

File: 7fGEpZt.jpg (442KB, 2560x1440px)

442KB, 2560x1440px

>>49857015
Dragons crown isn't that generic when you think about it.

You have dragons supressing the knowledge of evolution becaue they don't want humans figuring out they evolved from dinosaurs(that people still ride on).

They're are necromancers/people who make use of necromancy that aren't 1000% evil.

The most common way of meeting a party member is to take them to the church and get them resurrected.

People ride around on giant fucking panthers.

>>49854723
>What's as cliche and stereotypical a fantasy setting as you can come up with?
Rage of Bahamut. It is Unoriginal Fantasy: The Setting

>>49854864
That's because redguards have some stereotypes (and even a few straight up racist jokes) but they are portrayed as extremely cultured and honorable warriors.

>>49858036
It's as if they was kings or some shit.

>>49858036

Redguards are honestly an example of how to do diversity right.

They have a distinct, unique culture which is a blend of fantasy tropes and real life civilizations. They don't feel like they were shoehorned in for the sake of muh inclusion.

But most importantly, they actually have a fucking homeland, not like in some settings where black people are just peppered around the place with no explanation as to where they or their ancestors came from. I have no problems with black people in fantasy settings, but if you're going to include a race which obviously is an outlier in the setting then there has to be a reason they're there. And niggers are the only group which seems to suffer from this. Worldbuilders and fantasy writers always seem to explain where the not t!Native Americans and Not!Chinese races come from.

>>49857125
>gnomes
Lol, enjoy your rat and zombie plagues

>>49857686

Hold up, where did the evolution thing come up?

>>49855117
I do believe you've forgotten the Western Desert and the Eastern Jungle.

>>49855475
Peter Pan?

>>49854826
>Elder Scrolls
>Generic
Do you mean the games themselves, or the lore?

I'll give you the games, but the lore has everything from shapeshifting obligate-carnivore cannibal wood elves to sapient tree spaceships with lizard-slave crews to flying cocaine whales to swords so sharp they split atoms and cause nuclear explosions.

>>49857100
>Yeah, but that's because no one wants to imagine a goblin molesting attractive women
Branwen from Queen's Blade?

>>49857426
4e D&D had the only version of female dwarves I actually liked.

Everywhere else it's HURR BEARDS or HURR LOLIS or, occasionally, HURR ANVILS.

>>49858514
Ok, good, I didn't misremember that bit where the Redguards nuked their homeland by being good at cutting things.

>>49858514
And people instinctively know magic, the sun is a literal hole in the sky to another dimension, Khajiit take on different forms at birth based on the phases of the moons, standing stones grant phenomenal powers, and regular flora and fauna have mild but measurable magical properties. Even women are magical, with every child being the race of the mother regardless of what the father is.

And people don't bat an eyelid at ANY of this shit because of how normal it is to them. The lore of Elder Scrolls is saturated with crazy shit.

File: cliche fantasy map.jpg (138KB, 1100x850px) Image search: [Google]

138KB, 1100x850px

>>49854723
This

>>49854783
And god help you if you deviate from that because you will summon the "You are being subversive for the sake of being subversive" anon and he will say something about "Your elves are actually hairy, have 30 arms, and they are made of living fungus matter"

File: 1374182338770.png (21KB, 525x525px)

21KB, 525x525px

>>49858742
>>49854783
This is funny because the both of you are exactly as cancerous as the thing you complain about and you lack the self-awareness to notice it.

File: 1361748665509.gif (3MB, 255x191px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 255x191px

>>49854783
>>49854745
>>49854723
>People complain that THING is generic
>ask how it is generic
>IT HAS ELVES HUMANS AND DWARFS!
>Okay, describe a non-generic according to you then
>WELL MY UNIQUE SETTING HAS BATGOBLINS THAT LIVE IN CLANS UNDER THE EARTH AND LIKE TO DRINK AND LONG-LIVING NATURE-LOVING MANTIS-PEOPLE THAT ARE WISE AND ARROGANT WHO LIVE IN THE WOODS IN THEIR TREEHOUSES AND YOUNG RACE OF 6-ARMED TWO-HEADED DUDES THAT ARE THE YOUNGEST RACE BREED FAST AND HAVE ADAPTABILITY AND ARE BASICALLY THE ROMAN EMPIRE

>>49858913

See >>49858827

None of this shit actually happens.

>>49858057
Actually Redguards wuz invaders and colonial massacre bastards an sheet.
Because they were stupid enough to sword-nuke their homeland

>>49858963
This is what happens when you fold the sword enough times, you Hiroshima yourself

File: 139483627938.png (563KB, 569x802px)

563KB, 569x802px

>>49859020
>Yokuda was an inside job
>Swords can't cut Orichalc Towers

File: Sword_of_shannara_hardcover.jpg (171KB, 335x500px)

171KB, 335x500px

>>49854745
Tolkien?

Holy shit, just kill yourself.

>>49859082
>Someone references Shannara at all, ever.

MAH NIGGA

>>49854723
You don't actually play trpgs do you?

>>49854723
Final Fantasy 1

File: 1451238702217.png (13KB, 95x96px) Image search: [Google]

13KB, 95x96px

>>49858913
I said it was generic. I never said generic is bad. Generic exists for the same reason cliché's exist: they're bland and devoid of imagination, but they work. For babby's first campaign, my advice would be to go as generic as possible. Once you figure out what makes a campaign tick (pro-tip: it's not how original your setting is), you can start experimenting with hippy mantis kung-fu druids that eat their wives instead of their husbands because feminism except it's reverse-feminism look how subversive I am.

>>49857686
>They're are necromancers/people who make use of necromancy that aren't 1000% evil.

They also have the biggest boobs, yes. Welcome to Vanillaware games, it's been like that since Grim Grimoire.

>>49859148
I wanna motorboat Opalneria
Or should I say, Oppaineria

>>49855876
Mages broke into heaven and tried to kill god. God got pissed and created true evil to torment everyone as punishment.

I like the darkspawn.

>>49859207

Wait that's seriously where the Darkspawn came from?

That's really stupid. This is why you shouldn't explain the particulars of things in Fantasy settings.

File: Hmmmm.jpg (29KB, 480x360px)

29KB, 480x360px

>>49854899
wtf is that picture

>>49855876
Personally, the one and only thing I like was how they actually explained how and why the elves declined so hard.
Because their Trickster god fucked them over, and because just being in proximity to humans nerfs them hard.
And now said trickster god is trying to unfuck thing, by fucking everything over even harder than last time.

>>49855271
Fuck now I want a setting where castles are the antagonist, just, like the world has castle cancer.

Eventually castles grow on top of castles, and infected knights start growing castle like structures before dying and rising again as castles

File: 423847209348.png (23KB, 296x293px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 296x293px

>>49859134
Okay. Explain how a non-generic fantasy setting looks like then.

>>49859230
That's what chantry teaches, at least it was so in DA:O, I cant' force myself through DA2, and my PC can;t run DA:I so I don't have any problem with it.

All of that demons, fade fuckery and darkspawn made DA:O felt a bit like warhammer the rpg, so I liked it.

>>49859446
They ruined that franchise when they made the mage/chantry thing the primary focus.

File: Bandit Encounter.png (860KB, 960x768px)

860KB, 960x768px

>>49859259

The true secret of Elder Scroll's lore.

>>49859148
Man, if you look past the boob related controversies, those were some really good games. I have fond memories from Grim Grimoire.

Wonder how they'll pull off some kind of sci-fi themed game... probably with android bitches or something...

>>49859429
humans only
no magic
final destination
2 stock

File: LaughingFantasyWhores.png (598KB, 673x680px) Image search: [Google]

598KB, 673x680px

ITT: 47 posters complain about generic fantasy but cant even decide on how a non-generic fantasy setting looks like

>>49859207
>>49859230

Actually one of the things I like about Dragon Age is that they deliberately never give any straight answer about:

1. The Maker
2. The Golden City
3. The Darkspawn

All the information you get is always in-universe from someone, so it's always filtered by their individual biases, beliefs, agendas or (in the case of Corypheus) possibly just being senile and insane. You get a lot of information about the darkspawn, for example, over the three games, but never enough of anything conclusive to piece together the "real story". For all you know, the darkspawn simply are.

>>49859526

>For all you know, the darkspawn simply are.

this was always my favored explanation. I always liked tropes involving an ancient, metaphysical evil which is always a constant. At least when used in a universe where it's appropriate.

File: 1472838914448.gif (3MB, 573x523px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 573x523px

>>49859526
>Actually one of the things I like about Dragon Age is that they deliberately never give any straight answer about:

Yeah, except for your Party-members sexuality which they seem more than happy to share with you.

>>49859429
Exactly like reality.
Don't you see? Reality is the least conventional fantasy.

>>49859272
>because just being in proximity to humans nerfs them hard.
Trespasser reveals that was never actually true. Like many aspects of elven mythology, it's the elves misremembering the ancient past, usually because someone hundreds of years ago rewrote history for some political purpose.

The elves used to be immortal back in the time before the spirit and physical realms were divided. It was the erection of the Veil that reduced their lifespan, as well as making it so that instead of all of them being god-tier powerful mages only a few would have any magic at all. It's just that the erection of the Veil happened to coincide with the first contact with the humans (or rather, the political turmoil within the elven kingdom it lead to), so over millennia, as history was forgotten and turned into myth, the elves just connected the wrong dots and starting telling that humans made them mortal.

File: 128412489194.gif (2MB, 358x202px)

2MB, 358x202px

>>49859569
THATS SO DEEP ANON

>>49859565

Yet weirdly enough that's not even close to the most annoying thing about most DA:I companions.

File: 1289723085753.jpg (289KB, 994x768px)

289KB, 994x768px

>>49859569
>Reality is the least conventional fantasy.

>>49859603
Also: there were never elven "gods", at least in the sense most people imagine them. Back in the day, elves were super powerful mages but some were more powerful than others, and they used their powers to become top-tier dicks with entire empires at the palm of their hands. They acted like pagan gods, too, so capricious, vindictive, confrontational, jealous, arrogant, and demanding to stupid levels. Their dickishness became so bad that the one "god" (uberpowerful mage) who didn't take part in the shenanigans (whom the others mockingly named "Wolf", and which you know as Solas) decided he'll help the common man by putting up a Veil between spirits and the physical world, accidentally the universe in the process. Elves were no longer immortal, magic was no longer strong, demons went crazy, and ironically now he no longer had enough power to fix what he's broken.

>>49854723
Overlord and other parody games.
Failing that, fucking Inheritance Cycle and other Terry Brooks rip-offs.

>>49854826
Elder Scrolls lore is balls to the walls crazy though, it's not that generic once you scratch past the service of elves humans and orcs
Kirkbride or whatever his name was genuinely made some crazy shit though

>>49859502
Top of all Keks good sir.

>>49859082
Shannara gets the slight benefit of being set on a post-apocalyptic Earth

>>49854826
Only Oblivion and ESO.

>>49859505
>how a non-generic fantasy setting looks like
Well yeah, generic means it's built on cliches that we've all seen and agree on. Non-generic means of course nobody agrees, it's all different. If we all agreed on what non-generic is like, then it'd become generic

How many sentient races is the most clichés? The few usual suspects 'elves, dwarves, etc...), or a D&D-style kitchen sink?

>>49860242
2-6, with 2 and 3 being the most common

>>49860286
3? I'd have thought 4. Humans, elves, dwarfs, and either orcs or goblins. That's like the bare minimum for cliche fantasy.

>>49858163
It's never a bad idea to have watchtowers anyway.

>>49859429
Harry Potter.
Edge Chronicles.

Easy, Warcraft.

>>49854723
actually, almost everything...

>>49860312
You usually have a fifth one for the author to show original they are.

>>49854723
An academy for adventuring.
Or D&D: School edition

>>49859407
>infected knights start growing castle like structures before dying and rising again as castles

The only way to stop this transformation is to punch them so hard they turn into a door. And so enters our hero.

>>49859526
Fair enough. I was keeping it short, not wanting to go into the politics and dogma that the whole myth is based around.

Its a solid enough setting. And honetly the fact it doesnt spend the whole time expositioning about it, amd instead lets you play, Makes it better than any crappy homebrew fa/tg/uys spit out.

To keep things starwars bioware should have made kotor3 before they got bad.
At this point i dont even want it.

>>49860570
Im cross posting in /swg/ woops about the star wars comment.

>>49856918
Your party are those immune to the generisizing spell, you are known in the lands as "the snowfakes"

>>49860539
>And so enters our hero.
Through the door, presumably.

>>49854745
Tolkien is actually really different from most fantasy. Generic fantasy is Tolkien as seen by someone who only had access to LotR and probably didn't read the appendices either. Most the similarities begin and end with races and very broad concepts

Even the races themselves are not usually copied thoroughly. In particular, derivative works tend to tone down elven immortality in favor of a more realistic approach, whereas the whole fucking point with Tolkien's was that they were completely and utterly immortal. Even if you could "kill" one (another difference: Tolkien's elves are extremely hard to kill), its soul would remain bound to the world forever because they were made to be a PART of Arda and could not exist outside it. Dwarves were not even supposed to exist and them having souls was just a favor to the Vala (major god) who made them, so only Men have an afterlife

Another thing is making humanity the jack of all trades race. This is because tolkien had a very specific dynamic between elves and men: Elves had wordly delights for all of eternity and were only below the Valar. Humans were sickly and weak, but while elves and the Ainur (gods) were Iluvatar's (God) action figures and their fate was predetermined, humans could completely derail destiny if they wanted and no one except Iluvatar had the authority to make it otherwise. This is to the point that when a mortal empire came knocking on Valinor (the now-otherwordly realm where the Ainur and most elves live) and tried to claim it, the Valar's hands were tied and they had to ask Iluvatar to completely reshape the world and kill the invaders, except for the one guy who had to stay alive until the world's end and the final battle because Iluvatar says so. All this shit doesn't fly in settings not as completely obsessed with God and fate.

>>49861261
To explain it further, since I just ate lunch and I'm on the mood to shitpost on /tg/:

When talking about Tolkien, "fate" and "destiny" are interchangeable with the Music of the Ainur, the divine design for the world and also the process of the Ainur actually singing, the result of which was Arda, the world. At the beginning it was empty and featureless (not to mention flat, but that doesn't matter until way later). The task of the Ainur and the Valar in particular was shaping the world according to what they had seen in the Music.

There were a couple of rebels among them, chiefly Melkor He Who Arises in Might, who despite being by far the greatest of the Valar was dissatisfied with his role on the Music and attempted to twist everything the other Ainur made to his own image. You can probably guess who he stands for. During this whole time Arda was symmetrical and lit by 2 lamps on its north and south respectively, which is why the period is called the Years of the Lamps.

Within this age, Melkor goes apeshit, destroys both the lamps and then shits all over Arda's first spring - the closest Middle-Earth ever was to its original vision. The lamps falling also ruined the perfect symmetry of Arda, and all the Ainur pack their shit up and make a new continent where Melkor couldn't reach them. In their last "godly" act of creation, the Valar raise a mountain range around it. One Vala, Yavanna, figures out how to make a replacement to the lamps Melkor broke, in the form of two really shiny trees. This is Valinor, and the trees are the Two Trees of Valinor. Middle-Earth stays in darkness and the Years of the Trees begin

>>49861261
>>49861952
Tell me more Lotr senpai.
Never even read Lotr but this shit sounds awesome.

>>49862211
most of this is from the Silmarrilion, that's where you get all the mythology

>>49861952
There is an important parallel I missed last post: Melkor's first fortress was called Utumno, and was built on the coldest regions of Middle-Earth. Angband, which is the important one on the Years of the Trees, was secondary.

Long story short: The Elves awaken during this age, on the east of Middle-Earth. The first thing they see in their whole history is the sky and the stars. They quickly take a liking to giving names to everything they find, and live as one people, the Quendi. They're rather primitive and are constantly tormented by Melkor, whose intent is to make them averse to the Valar. They stay like that for a undetermined amount of time until Orome (a Vala) finds them. They identify him with one of the disguises Melkor took, of a monstrous rider who ocassionally kidnapped Elves. This is where the first split happens; the ones who decide to stay on the east become the Moriquendi, the Dark Elves, and the ones who follow the Valar to Valinor become the Calaquendi, the High Elves. Except some of the Calaquendi don't finish the journey and stay on Middle-Earth and it's a huge clusterfuck so I'm skipping it. All you need to know is that the Moriquendi are the ones who Melkor turns into orcs, at least on part.

Meanwhile, the Valar fight a war with Melkor, ending on the destruction of Utumno and his chaining for "three ages". The Elves have time to thrive and grow, even the ones on Middle-Earth, once they discover Beleriand. Feanor, the greatest of the Children of Iluvatar (both elves and men) is born in this lapse. Eventually, Melkor is released again, thought to be reformed because Manwe (his brother and king of the Valar) is a fucking idiot. Feanor gets salty that Galadriel (that Galadriel) didn't give him some of her hair, and so he creates 3 jewels on its image by capturing some of the light of the Two Trees: the Silmarils

Some years later Melkor calls one of his buddies from the Years of the Lamps, Ungoliant

>>49862231
Oh sweet, thanks.

File: veni a me frater.jpg (338KB, 768x1024px)

338KB, 768x1024px

>>49862211
>>49862392
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzSJLlyqh6Q&index=4&list=PLpSuFmBioWNHlL25rLGVFse_FOUu1BJZw

>>49862305
Ungoliant is a enormous spider whose stomach is a endless void, always endlessly craving and fearing light. In fact, she creates a field of "unlight" around her. She went separate ways with Melkor, and decided to dedicate most her time to making the part of Beleriand she dwelt in into a shithole. Melkor makes a promise to give "with both hands" once they are over, which he obviously doesn't intend to fulfill.

Ungoliant eats the light of the Two Trees. The Valar beg for Feanor to let them use the Silmarils to resurrect the trees, and in the first act of a long chain of idiocy, he refuses. Then Melkor kills Feanor's dad and takes the Silmarils, and now it's time for Feanor to get mad and drive a lot of Elves (the Noldor, of which Feanor was prince and then king) to Middle-Earth with the intention of taking the Silmarils from Morgoth. He and his children make an oath by the name of Eru Iluvatar, commit the first murder of elf by elf to steal a bunch of boats, and then this happens:

> But thou Fëanor Finwë's son, by thine oath art exiled. The lies of Melkor thou shalt unlearn in bitterness. Vala he is, thou saist Then thou hast sworn in vain, for none of the Valar canst thou overcome now or ever within the halls of Eä, not though Eru whom thou namest had made thee thrice greater than thou art.'

>>49855876
>only good console RPG Bioware managed to make.
What?
You make Revan and Master Li very sad with these statements.

>>49862511
To which, on Feanor's hundredth or so act of idiocy by now, he replies:
>But Fëanor laughed, and spoke not to the herald, but to the Noldor, saying: 'So! Then will this valiant people send forth the heir of their King alone into banishment with his sons only, and return to their bondage? But if any will come with me, I say to them: Is sorrow foreboded to you? But in Aman we have seen it. In Aman we have come through bliss to woe. The other now we will try: through sorrow to find joy; or freedom, at the least.'

>Then turning to the herald he cried: 'Say this to Manwë Súlimo, High King of Arda: if Fëanor cannot overthrow Morgoth, at least he delays not to assail him, and sits not idle in grief. And it may be that Eru has set in me a fire greater than thou knowest. Such hurt at the least will I do to the Foe of the Valar that even the mighty in the Ring of Doom shall wonder to hear it. Yea, in the end they shall follow me. Farewell!'

This is the exact point on which Feanor fucks literally everything up and dooms the whole world to failure and misery.

He gives a new name to Melkor, Morgoth Bauglir, Dark Enemy of the World. At the same time, touching the holy light of the silmarils burned his hands until they turned black, and becomes bound to a mortal if incredibly powerful body; this is where he is no longer considered one of the Valar and instead becomes the First Dark Lord of Middle-Earth.

A lot of things happen, Sauron undergoes a similar process, and then a hobbit finds the one ring out of sheer dumb luck several millenia later.

So that's Silmarillion 101

>>49862612
>This is the exact point on which Feanor fucks literally everything up and dooms the whole world to failure and misery.
Why?

>>49862646
The universe gets bent out of shape so hard that paradise and the gods are removed from the world, I think.

>>49855433
>The vaguely implied setting of D&D first edition?
When I get home I'm gonna post a pdf that explains just how metal the implied setting really is.

>>49862693
What is the direct casual relationship to this oath?

>>49862646
The Doom of the Noldor, made by Mandos the prophetic god of death (which I probably should have posted as well):

>Tears unnumbered ye shall shed; and the Valar will fence Valinor against you, and shut you out, so that not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the mountains. On the House of Fëanor the wrath of the Valar lieth from the West unto the uttermost East, and upon all that will follow them it shall be laid also. Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue. To evil end shall all things turn that they begin well; and by treason of kin unto kin, and the fear of treason, shall this come to pass. The Dispossessed shall they be for ever.

A series of wars happen which end with 2 of the Silmarils being lost forever (one deep underground and another on the bottom of the sea) when the only surviving sons of Feanor try touching them - their hands are burned and they throw them away. The third Silmaril is a whole different mess involving an elven princess and his mortal partner breaking into Angband with a magic dog, stealing it from Morgoth and it ending up being carried by a half elven mariner on his flying ship every morning, on short. It becomes the "Evening Star" (which on real life is not even a star but Venus in case you hadn't heard the expression)

>>49862784
But this didn't fuck up the world and middle-earth was already fucked by failure and misery because of Melkors doing before that. This seems like you have to force the trope of elves fucking up in the past into this, while they only really fucked up themselves, the Noldor. While you also forget the huge sacrifices they made in their struggle.

>>49862845
The thing is that the whole thing could have been avoided if Feanor had either given the Silmarils to the Valar to start with, or not gone to Middle-Earth after being told the battle was hopeless and let the Valar handle it

>>49862885
>if Feanor had either given the Silmarils to the Valar to start with
Eh, it's his, wouldn't balme him. Melkor would still want to steal it and Feanors reaction would be the same.
>not gone to Middle-Earth after being told the battle was hopeless
Can't even imagine how middle-earth would have looked without some serious resistance from the Noldor.
>and let the Valar handle it
After fucking centuries and endless suffering they finally decided to move their asses to middle-earth and solve the problem. I forgot if there even were other elves than the Noldor in middle-earth that knew about Valinor, so they could send some help.

Nah, Feanor did nothing wrong.

>>49855459
So if I'm understanding correctly it was Conan the Barbarian

>>49857148
All the goblins in CoC are female though.

>>49863140
It also helps that like most other things on that game they were corrupted by plotdevice sex magic that turned all of them into sex-crazed shortstacks or some shit

If only there wasn't so much furshit

>>49855664
jfc he looks like such a smarmy faggot

>>49859082
Pretty sure Shannara is after an apocalyptic event, I recall that one armed druid stumbling upon ruins that seemed like a modern building.

>>49863180
Shannara is confirmed post-apoc.
The "fantasy" races are a combination of divergent evolution and radiation.

In one of the books they have to overcome a homicidal AI. It's never stated that its an AI, but the way it's described, it's definitely an AI.

I fucking love Shannara.

The worst cliche of them all is:
Elves were once op and super advanced.
But *cliche* happened and now elves are slaves, poor or in extreme decay.

>>49863277
Obviously we need to reverse this.
>Elves were once nothing but a poor slave race
>They discovered magic and are now extremely OP

>>49863216
Yeah I thought about rereading them now that I'm older so I can think outside the box a little more. I remember a town with a bunch of constructs that was probably some kind of industrial complex.

What stops me from rereading them though is that I can't forget the characters who die and that ruins it for me.

RIP Garet Jax, Walker's seer waifu who got raped to death, Walker, Allannon, etc

Also idk if you ever noticed, but elves are just totally fucking worthless, they get slaughtered by the dozen whenever something spooky shows up.

>>49862612
>and then a hobbit finds the one ring out of sheer dumb luck several millenia later.
Not so much that as the ring finds a hobbit out of sheer dumb luck. It's actively trying to return to its creator and will manipulate whoever it needs to to get there.

>>49863348
RIP all them dead characters... Shannara has such high lethality... I guess it makes it pretty "real" though, they're going on dangerous quests to dangerous places, shit happens.

The Jachyra was bullshit though, fuck that guy, Allannon should've lived.

Also yeah, Elves get there shit torn to pieces on the regular. Read: Any time anything goes remotely wrong with The Forbidding.
They really gotta keep an eye on that damn tree.

Also, are the Ohmsfords not the specialist snowflakes you ever saw? I'm surprised more people don't call them out for it. Haha.

>>49863348
>>49863405
Elves also die a lot anytime the Federation makes a move.
Speaking of the Federation.
Why are all humans so evil? Jesus.

>>49863434
Apparently Elves are made of paper in Shannara.

>>49863405
If your name isn't Ohmsford or Leah you're probably already dead, name your next of kin.

I never got bent about them being mary sues because they always seemed so shitty and ineffectual most of the time.

It was always "fuccboi cant use elfstones/wishsong and has to be protected constantly" or "spunky gril on a mission!"

At least it's not blatant fetish shit like some authors though lookin at you terry goodkind, you're definitely the shit kind of writer

>>49863490
Paper maché Elves, lol.

The Leah's in general, have been far more capable than most of the Ohmsfords. No denying that, most of the time the Leah's are accomplishing more with one magical sword then the Ohmsfords are with literal "wish anything you want" magic.
The Wishsong is still pretty cool though. For a time I considered the possibility that magic is some sort of radiation fueled mutation, it fucks people up enough that they can affect reality with their minds. Which would make the Elfstones, like, plutonium rocks. Which would be hilarious.

The all powerful Ohmsford family, with generations of radiation poisoning.

>>49854723
My own setting, really. Copped pretty much everything from another source, then recombined everything so that it makes a different image as a whole.

>>49863591
>dip your sword in some spooky polluted water
>it can now kill anything

Leahs aint too bad for being gingers

I think Wil might have been my favorite ohmsford though, he's an ok guy, marries a gypsy.

>>49859429

Cyberpunk mayas.

>>49864566

>cyberpunk
>fantasy

>>49864585
>what is shadowrun

>>49863340

Honestly this is more compelling.

I find "uplifted pleb race" far more interesting than "once great empire degraded into servile dindus"

>>49859259
The text is background lore for some dwemer stuff.

>>49865924

Wait so is that actual in-game text? Like can you pick up one of those books and find that shit in it?

>>49865948
Not exactly. I'll admit that the in-game shit is more toned down. In most places.

I believe this is more developmental shit.

>>49866011
I just visited c0da. Holy shit, this needs to be read.

>>49855876
I'm a fan of how spirits/demons and wizards work.

>>49856373
I believe that's still a part of the lore.

>>49859469
At least, from what I hear, they're finally done with that stupid story arc.

>>49855672
Tolkien had horse-riding fantasy-vikings instead

File: Elder Scrolls lore.jpg (64KB, 640x402px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 640x402px

>>49866050
> The Thalmoric Memo-Whore to All Enemies in The 'Set.
> 28th thot-box state-of-the-art half-shaft differential.
> Blessed Pentarch 5/5/555.
> Anuielectorate Article 1245663245.

>>49859082
Shannara just pisses me off. What the hell did Marty Stu Allanon have against the Ohmsfords? He ruined three generations of that family.

File: heroes of might and magic - necro.jpg (242KB, 900x720px) Image search: [Google]

242KB, 900x720px

>>49854875
It is very generic, but still comfy

>>49859082
I would agree with you. If it wasn't for it being a post apocalyptic setting with everything but the elves being descended from humans. And it didn't have death machines still roaming about.

>>49866397
Nothing the Ohmsfords just had the luck of inheriting a specific useful powerset.

>>49858650
They cut ALL the things.

>>49863340
So kind of like the Elves in Midkemia. Except they're still not OP.

>>49867748
I played a really cartoony game from that series. Fuckin' loved it.

>>49855475
>(there are ALWAYS pirates for some reason if you ask a seven years old,
Preeeetty sure there will always be those same pirates if you a 20-something fa/tg/uy. Pirates, nigga, they're fucking charismatic,

>>49863277
Your videya is showing, pal.

>>49863340
No way, how would the HFY guys get their jollies like this?

>>49866155
Nah, what's part of the lore is that they all claim lineage from Dain, the Werewolf Slayer who may or may not have been one himself depending on who you'd rather believe and who's presently telling the story. The reason they originally got all over Mabari hounds is because they could smell werewolves in human form (recall, there are a ton of different werewolf variants in Dragon Age, the ones you fight in game aren't actually shapeshifters, but then, some are).

File: 283676_m3w620h372q75v46932_1607_2021_falcoAP.jpg (25KB, 620x372px) Image search: [Google]

25KB, 620x372px

>>49859856
>>49863180
>>49867793
>When people remarked that he was ripping off Tolkien, he started additionally ripping off Jack Vance

>>49860202
Except that no one can even agree on what generic is.

>>49862589
>You make Revan and Master Li very sad with these statements.

To be fair those are hardly the same bioware

>>49870010
What changed?

>>49854932
Tbh Oblivion's twist of making you the sidekick of Martin's was pretty nice.

>>49870636
EA graced them with their big, corporate presence and made their product actual games rather than open issues with the way video games get reviewed.

>>49855876
Yeah, if Bioware could be bothered to actually follow their own rules it might have been a better setting.

>>49870771
>play jade empire
>human slave what to do
>get less closed fist points from telling the slave to fight and kill for her freedom than from generic evul "ur a slaev nao, better accept it" answer

>>49870800
That's because Closed Fist is a philosophy of freedom while Open Palm is a philosophy of submission. That is literally perfectly in line with that interpretation.

>>49870808
If closed fist is the philosophy of freedom then shouldn't "fight for your freedom" be more in line with its philosophy than "accept that you're a slave now"?

>>49866191
>Tolkien had horse-riding fantasy-vikings instead

Tolkien was writing the pre-history of Albion, it would have been weird as fuck not to have a celtic warrior people.

>>49870896
>vikings/saxons
>celtic

>>49870912
He's from back when the romans still used a lot of leather armour.