GitP Worldbuilding Project

[Dallas-Dakota]

@dallas: I have too many time consuming hobbies. Also I have an inferior complex in art.

First excuse, good. Second excuse: You had a friggen' cult devoted to your art.

I am not against humanoids at all. I just want them to be more than just stereotyped human with some minor cosmetic change. A sky-faring gnome culture may be doable, but a further dissemination of society must be discussed to make sure they aren't simply flying humans with awesome engineering skills. :)

Entirely seconded!
It'l just mean that we'l have to work them out more. Which would be a good idea anyway.

Also, there's barely any food up in the mountains. What do the gnomes eat? Without a food source the gnomes cannot have a large population. There fertility rate will naturally be low. How can they combat population decline? How did they expanded in the first place? What can do against marauding humans seeking their technology?
The sieging idea doesn't make sense, unless the other races also live on the mountains. You see, humans aren't terribly interested in living high up there when they already got the low areas, and the sea people that is suggested won't even have contact with these gnomes, much less fight against them. No contact = no point having additional races.

I see your point entirely, it was just a quick idea thrown out there.
Also technology, possibly. Humans can be rather greedy and such.
Trying to take over gnome cities/capturing scientists for their technology.
I'm not saying this should be canon, I'm throwing a idea out there.

What I propose is floating islands. Yes, floating islands. How do they float? Perhaps by a naturally occurring reaction that creates an anti-gravitational field. Or just justified by some form of world magical force that allows for floating islands. Whatever the case, this can be utilized by one of the proposed race to reach for the skies. Why are they sought after? Perhaps the said islands have a lot of these minerals that allow for easy flying, and better than the clockwork gizmo that are used initially. They may also have good land for colonization, and coupled with religion may be good excuse for conflict. "Won't humans have a hard time living up there, what with the wind, cold temperature and thin air?" Floating islands don't need to be that high up. A kilometre off the ground works well already. Where do they find the catalyst needed to make these odd alchemy-based anti-grav engines? Perhaps in the sea, where the sea people live.

It sounds like a good, though funky idea.
As your point with ''humans with cosmetic changes'' was, I say that anti-gravity, especially islands is very powerfull. We'd need to think it out more. I'm not saying no to it, I'm just saying we need to work it out more and see how it would work/be/end up.

Now I don't know how to make people fight with sea people if the mer people live undersea and humans live on land. There's simply no conflict of interest, and pollution's far from a problem in the proposed era. A lot of the stuff the humans make won't work in sea, and vice versa. I think an amphibious culture may work better in this case. Some sort of aqua-based race may be effective, because the sea can support a hypothetical vibrant culture. Agriculture and construction is doable. Metal working is a little difficult in the sea though, seeing as you can't really start a fire, besides volcanic vents. The water next to these vents are hot though, so it's not like creatures not regularly living next to them can survive.

Yes, making them amphibious might be better. Also possibly cold-blooded(reptiles)
So that they need to live near shorelines(Specific areas in the neighbourhood of volcanic vents(though not that close).
Being near the warm water, making them live in the fishing grounds of humans?

Ref: Eh? A combination of land, water and air? I'm not quite getting you.