Alignments of Monvesia 3: Temperaments Across Orbimond

RETCON NOTE:  The creation of this post has caused the two previous installments of the series to be edited--both "Alignments of Monvesia: Temperaments" and "Alignments of Monvesia 2: Codifying Perception."

While the basis of human religious tradition, the Temperaments of the Monvesia campaign setting are universal concepts that races throughout Orbimond accept as being representative of the basic attitudes of intelligent beings.  From a cosmological standpoint, they represent the six spheres that form the world itself.  On a legendary level, they correspond to the colors of dragons and even the ancient giant races.  In daily life, temperaments are associated with race, birth date, occupation, and the like.

Geographic Temperament

Nothing in Monvesia is free from temperamental association--not even its geography.  Even each geo-political region of Orbimond is associated with one temperament or another.  These are:

• Altruist Fuhon, a land where people are concerned with Honor.
• Materialist Prace, where the Drajan Empire is both church and state.
• Dynamist Ombo, a place where natural law trumps civilization.
• Idealist Henjal, the cultural center of psionic traditions.
• Vitalist Xahaca, which is subject to the whims of the Frenetic Ocean.
• Nihisit Raviq, home to the Desolation of the HMDJVNW.

The Crown is not listed above, for it is mostly uninhabited.  Races of the Crown are associated with a nearby region (neanderthals and duergar with Prace, firbolgs with Henjal).

Halflings of Prace, Henjal, & the Crown

RECTON NOTE: This posts revises and replaces "Halflings of Monvesia."  Much of the lore of Halflings has been updated.

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Language Analog: Basque
Inspiration:  Hobbits from the Tolkien Legendarium, Kender from Dragonlance (vaguely)

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Tainted Counterpart: none
Temperamental Association: Altruism

Names:  See Basque Names.

The first halflings were encountered in Prace over 100 years ago.  Based on their susceptibility to nipweed, it was assumed that they were distantly related to rakasta.  This assumption would later lead to a belief that halflings were un-tainted boggarts--a goblin-like creature often found associating with gnolls.  If this were the case, then halflings would have been the only species to have cured themselves from the Taint--after separating from their tainted parent race.  Experiments on this possibility, howevever, proved fruitless.

RETCON NOTE:  Boggarts are nothing more than juvenile gnolls.

Gazetteer: Dragon Island

Orbimond is the Material Plane of the Monvesia campaign setting.  Its northern hemisphere is dominated by a single continent.  Both the vanara and the elves call this landmass Dragon Island, in reference to the ancient beings that were once the dominant life form:  Tirakantivu in the vanaran language, or Lohikäärmettä in the elvish.

Dragon Island is divided by natural features into three sub-continents:  Prace, Raviq, and Henjal.  Each of these embodies a classic adventure setting of fantasy gaming.  Prace is home to quasi-European cultures and quintessential gaming races (human, elf, dwarf, etc.).  Raviq is home to desert civilizations built along fertile rivers, a style of play sometimes called "Arabian adventures."  In Henjal, honor, powers of the mind, and the art of hand-to-hand combat are central to its cultures, mimicking the "Oriental adventures" of past editions.

Polar projection of Orbimond, showing
Dragon Island in the northern hemisphere.

Monvesia By Any Other Name

RETCON NOTE:  Several posts have been modified to incorporate the new names and naming conventions presented below.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet ...

William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet Act II Scene 2

Monvesia is the name I have used for this campaign setting as a whole since its inception.  However, the crude map posted earlier shows that the territory I've been exploring is part of a much larger world.  As my vision of this world expands, incomplete settings from the past have started to fold into it.

In the past, I had developed a top-down setting that included three major world regions--though I never developed much local flavor.  I realized that the world of Monvesia is also built on a similar fashion: the Monvesien valley, the Forest of Vines, and Desolation are iconic locations in three, distinct subcontinents of a larger landmass.  I have chosen, therefore, to take the names of these subcontinents from that earlier setting:  with the Monvesien valley in Prace, the Forest of Vines in Henjal, and Desolation in Raviq.

These three subcontinents represent different archetypes of fantasy gaming:  Prace for eurocentic fantasy adventures, Henjal for "Oriental" adventures, and Raviq for "Arabian" adventures.  Crossover between the worlds is not only possible, but both encouraged and expected.

Other Races in Monvesia?

This post supersedes a portion of "Other Non-Humans of Monvesia."

Part of what makes a campaign setting unique is not only what races are included in the setting, but also which races are excluded.  Several new race options have been introduced in sourcebooks and "Unearthed Arcana" articles.  Some races, either common to most D&D worlds, or unique to some, may not have a place in Monvesia.

I had introduced a rating system for aversion in "Creatures NOT of Monvesia," so will use that again here.  Some of these races may be considered for inclusion in the setting in the furture, should there be a need for it.

Lizardfolk of Henjal

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Language Analog: Lizardfolk speak dialects of the monster language Draconic, which has no real-world analog.
Inspiration: Traditional lizardfolk from the various editions of D&D.

Lizardfolk, in BD&D, are just a monster.  I had not considered their overall place in the world when I made them the inhabitants of the Temple of Akhnaphar.  Their presentation in that adventure is "explained" here.  

They are presented as a playable race in 5th edition in Volo's Guide to Monsters. As lizardfolk are rare, lizardfolk player characters are very rare.

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Tainted Counterpart:  Troglodytes

Temperamental Association:  TBD

Names (Any Gender):  See naming conventions in Volo's Guide to Monsters.