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GenericGuy
2011-04-03, 10:25 PM
Most fantasy worlds, despite having many sentient races, usually will have the humans being the “dominate” species. More often than not this is justified with a line saying “humans breed faster/have a higher population than all the other races.” So, I ask have any of you played a setting where humans were more of a middle unimportant race to the world and its destiny; or have you come up with your own reason, besides breeding like bunnies, for humanity to be the top dog in world politics?

Clarification: I’m looking for worlds where humanity is still present, just not as important as other races, and I’m not looking for worlds where humanity is singled out as being at the bottom of the barrel. More of in the middle between the extremes of “humanity F#$% Yeah” and “humanity F#$% YOU!” Or a more unique reason for why humanity is calling the shots.

Ajadea
2011-04-03, 11:24 PM
Humans in a homebrewed world I have don't really call the shots all over. Depending on the location, you are going to have humans, halflings, elves, dwarves, uldra, hobgoblins, drow, fey-descended halfling things, kobolds, fiends, or weird aberration desert things calling the shots.

Human superiority exists to a minor degree, but for a very specific reason: the goddess of mortality likes them. Humanity's kinda her pet project. When your entire race has been chosen by a greater deity who looks at Fate and tells it to bugger off, and it listens, you tend to be good at writing your own destiny, and therefore the destiny of others.

Halflings, hobgoblins, drow, and kobolds have similar superiority: Halflings are speculated to have minor reality-warping powers, and may or may not have originated from outside time. Fate pretty much can't touch them. Hobgoblins were not supposed to exist, but they fought the odds and dominated half a continent in record time, even with multiple gods sending people to murder them. They seem to be oblivious to Fate's existence. Drow raised their own empress to deityhood through sheer madness, badassery, determination, and belief, and now she won't let Fate screw her people over. Kobolds battled immortal dragons for their freedom, and won, so when Fate stands against them, they claw and stab it until it changes in their favor.

Zaydos
2011-04-03, 11:38 PM
In one I'm working on there are 12 planets (and n habitable moons/asteroids) and on some of these humans might be the main force but the trade capital is the dwarven homeworld (and magitech capital of the sphere), dwarves have the largest colonies on three of the worlds (and dominance on their homeworld) and the most asteroid bases of any race. They have colonies on every planet although those on the icy outermost planet and the jungle planet are not too large and dragons rule the Dragon World and beholders rule the aberration world.

Humans have notable colonies (not native to the sphere) on the desert world, the jungle world, the elf world, the dwarf world, and the idyllic world (though dwarves are the dominant force there).

Elves would be the second most powerful race actually with near total dominance on their homeworld, vying with lizardfolk as most powerful race on the jungle world, their aquatic kin dominating the watery world, and colonies on the dwarf world, idyllic world, and even the troll world though I didn't explicitly call them out.

If you count individual worlds:
Volcano: Dwarves (and gnomes) rule, followed by fire giants, dragons and finally humans.
Desert: Humans actually have this one; it's not resource rich enough for the dwarves/gnomes or forested enough for the elves.
Jungle: Elves, lizardfolk, humans of Athasian descent.
Elf: Elves, halflings, dwarves, gnomes, humans.
Dwarf: Dwarves, gnomes, elves, others (cosmopolitian).
Dragon: Dragons, their servants
Asteroid bombarded: Dwarves, minotaurs, goliaths.
Asteroid Belt 1: Monsters; dwarves are the most common miners but humanoids don't live on it.
Idyllic World: Dwarves, gnomes, elves, halflings, humans.
Water World: Sea elves, elves, gnomes, humans, dwarves.
Aberration World: Beholders, aberrations, dwarves and humans, other.
Troll World: Cloud giants, trolls, dwarves, elves, humans.
Icy World: Frost giants, dwarves, gnomes, elves, humans.
Asteroid Belt 2: Wizards (gnomes, dwarves, elves, humans).

Lord Raziere
2011-04-03, 11:42 PM
I have an idea for a setting called Zagoram where dragons rule the world....

but I haven't developed it yet.

Xuc Xac
2011-04-04, 12:59 AM
In the setting for Earthdawn, the dwarves are the dominant power. The "common tongue" is the dwarven language and dwarven currency is the default for trade.

Sarco_Phage
2011-04-04, 01:04 AM
My own justification for human domination is that for some reason, likely due to their own rather short lifespans, humans are aggressive, expansionist, and adventurous. I treat Orcs the same way.

RaginChangeling
2011-04-04, 01:19 AM
I played in a world that was dominated by three major powers; a Kobold Magocracy which was the most 'urban' and modernistic of the setting, a vaguely Mongolian-inspired group of Centaurs who ruled the plains and encroached on the 'civilized' Kobolds, and a wildly expansionist and xenophobic nation of Dwarves who widely practiced Necromancy and Golemcraft. Humans existed mostly as slaves in the Dwarven Empire, potential citizens in the Kobold Magocracy or as peasents to the Centaurs.

It worked because the Kobolds fulfilled both the 'ancient magic race' slot, having usurped the dragons and stolen their magic, as well as the 'quickly breeding' urbanized people. Dwarves were creepy totalitarian and xenophobic, they turned to Necromancy and Golemcraft to have military might and sacrificed everything about their culture for a full on war machine. The Centaurs were the 'outsiders', the treated people who surrendered pretty well and waged war against those who didn't effectively due to their speed. The only other races of note in the setting were humans, who were usually marginalized, Raptoran, who got to be the mystic people of the mountains, and Goblins who were mostly pirates. There was also a nation of Hadozee somewhere, but we never visited the rest of the world.

The best part was that humans were the native species in the area, most of the others arose because of the Dragons or came from across the seas.

Mastikator
2011-04-04, 01:22 AM
I justify human dominating by lifting the positive human aspects of cunning, boldness and ambition. The only way humans wouldn't dominate is if an even more powerful (not just quality but quantity!) race came forward and outcompeted the humans. No classical fantasy race is described this way (other than hobgoblins and orcs I guess).

zimmerwald1915
2011-04-04, 01:28 AM
I've had an idea bouncing around for a while, but which I've never had time to develop, in which humans are an ancient, nearly extinct precursor race.

Sarco_Phage
2011-04-04, 01:32 AM
I've had an idea bouncing around for a while, but which I've never had time to develop, in which humans are an ancient, nearly extinct precursor race.

Ooh, I've done that, except I had them as completely extinct.

Also, the surviving races main, the Gnomes, the Dragon lords, and the Tilapia had gross size discrepancies. The gnomes topped at about 4 ft, the Dragon Lords at about 12, and the Devil-Tilapia around 13-16.

The Gnomes, the direct descendants of the ancient precursor race, were a technologically inclined race under the heel of the Dragon lords for ages, ever since the Holy Sky-Emperor descended from Great Heaven to tame the World. The Dragon lords ranged from benevolent to tyrannical and generally were ludicrously capable mages and warriors. The Tilapia were an undersea race of craftsmen and innovators.

It was a weird setting.

Yora
2011-04-04, 01:42 AM
In my homebrew setting, humans are about the number 3 in the hierarchy, after elves and lizardfolk.
The reason they are actually within the area of the setting is that they were used extensively as mercenaries in the past. As elven warlords in long running conflicts, rebuilding your troops in just 10 to 20 years is awesome.

zimmerwald1915
2011-04-04, 01:46 AM
The Tilapia were an undersea race of craftsmen and innovators.

It was a weird setting.
It need hardly be said that it's weird if you've got a race named after (possibly descended from?) a not-particularly-noteworthy species of fish :smallsmile:

Sounds cool though.

nyarlathotep
2011-04-04, 01:51 AM
It my homebrew settings humans are usually in charge of sections of the world because they outbreed elves and dwarves are content to live in places other people don't want to live. Usually however non-human powers rule other sections of the world on their own personal merits (dragons, goblins, etc.) they just aren't native to the same regions humans are.

Sarco_Phage
2011-04-04, 01:52 AM
It was really weird, because they were technically direct decendants of Catfish, not Tilapia.

I might find my notes on the setting and post em here. I have way too many, including certain data on the ecosystems. :/

zimmerwald1915
2011-04-04, 01:58 AM
It was really weird, because they were technically direct decendants of Catfish, not Tilapia.

I might find my notes on the setting and post em here. I have way too many, including certain data on the ecosystems. :/
If you get 'round to it, would you mind PMing me the link? It sounds interesting.

Sarco_Phage
2011-04-04, 01:59 AM
No problem! :D

Kantolin
2011-04-04, 02:03 AM
I hardly ever have humans as top dogs, nor do I usually have humans at the bottom.

Closest I've come to that is presently, where humans aren't actually a race.

I frequently pick one typical linguistic feature and rename it to help with this. Had a lot of fun talking about dwarfoids, and monstrous dwarfoids, in one setting (Where dwarves had an obvious plurality)

Ogremindes
2011-04-04, 02:29 AM
When I've come to think about it, I've thought it odd that you've got a whole bunch of intelligent species that came about from a host of specific environments, and then humans, which are just everywhere. Seems like it'd make more sense to either have humans or the mass of other races, not both.

NowhereMan583
2011-04-04, 02:42 AM
The campaign I currently run is called "Age of Kobolds". Basically, the heroic ages of legend passed, and a fairly standard commerce-focused, human-dominated world arose -- and then that age passed as well, thanks to a meticulously planned, multi-pronged attack by a vast coalition of kobold tribes. Human civilization fell into decline, and at the time when the campaign takes place, the kobolds are the undisputed dominant race.

Milo v3
2011-04-04, 03:21 AM
Humans in my world (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Blades_Of_Keran_(3.5e_Campaign_Setting))are called Karmainians. They don't rule the world. They are Dunesti (also known as Exiled Elves) are the rulers of the most land but are in a war with the Karmainians.

Also the Karmainians are losing. They only have one nation, half has been taken over by Ranx's (Insect People) and Lizardfolk. The only other place with humans in it is dominated by Newesti (True Elves), Sarli (Cat-people), and Murderer's (Crow People).

Arty G
2011-04-04, 04:07 AM
Well, if you were to count video games then Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced and A2 have what are called Humes (basically Humans) and, even though the instruction booklet claims otherwise, they don't seem to outnumber any other race. The queen of that setting is Hume, but I'm pretty sure that the people wouldn't be outright against a leader of a different race and besides, most of her advisers are not Hume. Humes are just kind of... there, just like everyone else.

If we keep this in the realm of Tabletop games though and stick with a high-fantasy motif, then I did play a home brew 3.5 setting way back when where Halfings and Dwarves were the dominant races, the Elves were basically dying off and Humanity was just that race that thinks too highly of itself because they happen to be tall. I think it was explained that a race's dominance was based on how fast they could reproduce, but It was kind of implied that some manner of plague had something to do with the downfall of the Elves. I don't think that particular DM liked the Elves or Humans very much.

Serpentine
2011-04-04, 04:07 AM
The "default" continent of my world is mostly dominated by humans, although they are certainly far from the only major race, and they don't dominate everywhere - there's a region, for example, that is mostly occupied by gnomes (who, legend has it, drove out the goblins after whom their Islands were named, who populated the area before them).
On the other hand, my (pretty much on-hold...) current campaign is set on a continent where humans... Well, they might have a greater population than any one other race (maybe), but they are only one of dozens, which tend to be divided up somewhat by "kind". There is a city for "mammals" (with a particularly significant human and goblinoid population), one for "birds", one for "bugs", one for "fish", and one for "reptiles", all of which have their human and humanoid occupants, but few, if any, mostly-human communities that could be considered anything close to a city. Rather, they're mostly scattered villages and tribal groups. Many of the humans that are on this continent are the descendents - by various degrees - of people from the other one who were shipwrecked or otherwise travelled there from elsewhere.
It hasn't come up yet, but there's also a continent primarily occupied by giants of various kinds.
There's also a "dark" flip-side to the planet, but I haven't thought very much on what race/s dominate there.

Skaven
2011-04-04, 04:50 AM
Human superiority exists to a minor degree, but for a very specific reason: the goddess of mortality likes them.

Where does that come from?

I'm torn between facepalming and headdesking at the notion if this was ever wrote into the books, then I just throw in http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MostWritersAreHuman and shake my head.

Sarco_Phage
2011-04-04, 04:56 AM
I'm torn between facepalming and headdesking at the notion if this was ever wrote into the books, then I just throw in http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MostWritersAreHuman and shake my head.

Actually, I see it as a point against humans. "They need divine intervention to prosper, hah! Weaklings."

LansXero
2011-04-04, 07:32 AM
in Age of Wonders there are about a dozen races; Humans arent the strongest or the most special, but they sack and burn the ancient elven capital because they take the dwarven's technology and turn it to warfare uses, as well as elven magic. They are a lot more agresive and determined to expand than the other long-lived races, and also took advantage of the overall inocence and naivety of the world. Too bad they end up making the world suck. Sort of.

dsmiles
2011-04-04, 07:34 AM
Most fantasy worlds, despite having many sentient races, usually will have the humans being the “dominate” species. More often than not this is justified with a line saying “humans breed faster/have a higher population than all the other races.” So, I ask have any of you played a setting where humans were more of a middle unimportant race to the world and its destiny; or have you come up with your own reason, besides breeding like bunnies, for humanity to be the top dog in world politics?
In my homebrew campaign world, humanity just suffered a massive arcane cataclysm (someone researched the Far Realm a just a wee bit too much :smallwink:). Their race has been decimated, since they were primarily living within 100 miles of where the incident occurred, and the area has been tainted. There are four races that have combined to form a single empire and are now the dominant race (politically, socially, and martially). Dragonborn, Wolfen (obviously, a canine race), Ferrire (a feline race), and Minotaur (duh) are the four dominant races, with Minotaur being more populous than the other races (indiviually, not collectively).
Dwarves are the dominant race when it comes to technology, followed by goblins (not very far behind, just more steam-oriented than the dwarves' clockwork tech).
Orcs and most of the remaining humans are scattered, living on the fringes of civilization as nomadic hunter-gatherers. The rest of the humans are secluded in their wizards' towers (still) researching (gods only know why).

Ajadea
2011-04-04, 11:06 AM
Where does that come from?

I'm torn between facepalming and headdesking at the notion if this was ever wrote into the books, then I just throw in http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MostWritersAreHuman and shake my head.

My world. She kinda sort of got bored of watching a bunch of fey watch grass grow, kidnapped some apes, and made some humans. And hey, humans are pretty crazy beings sometimes. She thinks the race as a whole is rather amusing, and she did make them. So she keeps them alive, makes sure that they can have the level of impact on the world she wants them to, and makes Fate shut up about the fact that she's messing with it.

When you get down to it, she's a bit immature, and fills a similar role to PCs; breaking the plot destiny into tiny little pieces while the DM Fate tries its best to keep it all coherent and keep the world from accidentally blowing up.

Endarire
2011-04-04, 06:43 PM
In my current setting, humans, elves, and dwarves (HED) were the major reasons the western continent exploded. The remaining races and nations deem racism against these races as necessary for survival, though some HED are high-ranking officials in the remaining trade houses.

Orcs rule the world. Smart orcs, mind you. Go go orc Artificers!