Lands of the Barbarian Kings

[Yora]

The Pathfinder Linguistics skill only mentions writings, but I don't see why it wouldn't also apply to spoken words. Written words have the advantage of ignoring accent (and I've talked with people who use perfect english grammar, but are almost invomprehensible the first few days you are dealing with them), but when you're face to face with a speaker you have lots of more ways to make yourself understood, so I'd say it's evening out and the DCs are the same for written and spoken language.

"You must be trained to use this skill, but you can always attempt to read archaic and strange forms of your own racial bonus languages."
I think treating other languages of your language group as "archaic and strange forms" of languages you speak.
"The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing. If the check succeeds, you understand the general content of a piece of writing about one page long (or the equivalent). If the check fails, make a DC 5 Wisdom check to see if you avoid drawing a false conclusion about the text."

Rogues have Linguistics as a class skill and in the PF system you can put ranks normally into them, even if it's not a class skill. With the number of languages known being based on ranks, learning languages is fairly easy and I intend rogues to be quite common.

So regarding Language Groups:

• Wood Elven Languages (Northern, Western, Southern, and Islands)
• Dark Elven Languages (Highland, Coastal, Northern)
• Naga Languages (City Lizardfolk, Jungle Lizardfolk, Naga)
• Dragon Languages (Draconic, Island Lizardfolk)
• Spiritworld Languages (Auran, Aquan, Ignan, Sylvan, Terran)
• Mountain Languages (Mountain Gnome, Forest Gnome, Giant, Human Northmen)
• Abyssal
• Goblin

Kaas languages I have to consider later.
For humans, I have three cultures in mind with one being a recent newcommer from a different part of the world, and the other two being at home in completely different parts of the Barbarian Lands. Making the Northmen language a variant of gnome and giant seems rather plausible, as they are a very small people with those other races as neighbors. It's also kinda cool.
Which leaves the Islander Humans with a completely unique language, but I think this might actually not be a bad thing. There are a couple of real world languages that really don't match with anything in the surrounding area, like Hungarian or Japanese. Having those canoe barbarians with their own unique language could be quite interesting.

[Omeganaut]

That seems like it would work really well to me. I'm glad I could help!

[Yora]

Generic NPCs

This may not be that exciting, but I think it's an important part to establish the role and importance of the PCs in the world. I'll not post all the complete stat blocks here, but I intend to write them all up later as a library of NPCs to reach into every time you need some generic warriors or NPCs you never expected to are suddenly getting involved in a fight.
These are stats for all the people you'll never bother to name and whom the PCs will usually meet only once. Also keep in mind that 4th to 8th level is the intended level range for "heroic" characters like Conan or Obi-Wan. The theoretical maximum level of 10th is reserved for the great generals and world famous monster slayers. Six CR 1 enemies (like Warrior 3) make a good encounter for four 6th level characters. And being surrounded by eight Elite Warriors (CR 2) might be a situation in which lying down their weapons might be a good idea. Even though many of the generic warriors presented here may look flimsy, PCs are usually outnumbered, often significantly, which can get really tight for them really quickly.

Servants and Commonfolk
Commoner (Commoner 1): The most basic of all NPCs. Commoners are the ordinary people living on farms or working as servants in castles. They are the people who cook, clean, and perform all the other untrained tasks. Most have the Skill Focus (Craft) feat for something like cooking or sewing, but no other relevant stats.
CR 1/4; standard equipment: dagger.
Laborer (Commoner 2): Laborer are tougher and sturdier than basic commoners, as they are used to hard work, like working on the fields, as lumberjacks, or as miners. However, they lack any actual combat training or experience.
CR 1/3; standard equipment: club, sickle, or spear; sling.
Farmer (Commoner 2/Expert 1): These NPCs are usually the owners of farms and their grown up sons, as well as innkeepers and foremen on construction or logging sites, merchants, and other people who have some specialized knowledge but are not craftsmen.
CR 1/2; standard equipment: club or spear; sling.
Apprentice (Expert 1): While apprentices have learned the basics of a craft, they lack experience and many of them are still quite young and have at most seen a brawl or two in a tavern.
CR 1/3; standard equipment: dagger.
Craftsmen (Expert 2): These people are the ordinary craftsmen like blacksmiths, carpenters, fletchers, wheelmakers, and so on. Two or three of them can be found in almost any village of notable size.
CR 1/2; standard equipment: dagger or short sword.
Master Craftsmen (Expert 3): These Masters of their trade are relatively rare and known as the best in their craft beyond their home town or village. They are the ones who get called for specialized work or masterwork equipment.
CR 1; standard equipment: masterwork dagger or short sword.

Warriors
Recruit (Warrior 1): These young men and occasional women have learned the basics of combat and now their way with their equipment, but most are lacking any real combat experience and they are only met outside their villages together with groups of more experienced warriors.
CR 1/3; standard equipment: leather armor, dagger; (1) spear and two javelins or (2) shortbow.
Warrior (Warrior 2): This is the standard soldier or warrior in most parts of the Barbarian Lands.They are well trained and have some experience with fighting and killing. Most warriors wear leather or hide armor and carry a spear or more rarely a battleaxe and a shield. Many also have a few throwing axes or javelins with them.
CR 1/2; standard equipment: leather or hide armor, dagger; (1) spear and two javelins, (2) battleaxe and light shield, or (3) shortbow.
Archer/Hunter (Expert 1/Warrior 1): Like regular warriors, these men and women have some experience in battle, but tend to favor more indirect ways to face their opponents. In an addition to short- or longbows, they usually travel with lighter gear and have some basic skills in tracking and stealth. They are often also the sentries and hunters of their village and roam the edges of the wilderness on the lookout for strangers and intruders.
CR 1/2; standard equipment: leather or hide armor; dagger or short sword; longbow.
Veteran (Warrior 3): These warriors are men who have seen many battles and usually killed their fair share of men. They command more respect than the ordinary people of their villages and people think twice about starting fights with them. Veterans often can afford to wear heavy leather armor or even chain shirts, and occasionally carry swords or two-handed axes and clubs.
CR 1; standard equipment: heavy leather or chain shirt; dagger or handaxe; (1) spear, (2) greataxe, (3) battleaxe and heavy shield, or (4) longsword and heavy shield.
Scout (Ranger 1/Warrior 1): Like hunters, scouts are trained in tracking and stealth, but are more remarkable and skilled individuals. Many villages have only two or three scouts among their warriors and they are often send on special missions to spy on possible enemies or to ambush lone travelers.
CR 1; standard equipment: leather armor or chain shirt, dagger; handaxe or short sword; shortbow.
Patrol Leader (Warrior 4): Even among veteran warriors there are those who stand out and have proven themselves of being able to take charge. These warriors are usually the biggest and toughest men in a group and more often in command than not.
CR 2; standard equipment: chain shirt or chainmail, dagger, (1) mwk spear, (2) mwk glaive, (3) mwk greataxe, (4) mwk longsword and heavy shield, or (5) mwk battleaxe and heavy shield.
Elite Warriors (Fighter 1/Warrior 2): Unlike most warriors, these men are professional soldiers. They have recieved much more formal training and are usually much better equiped. Elite Warriors are rarely found in villages or nomadic bands, but encountered more often in towns and castles, as the personal troups of a chieftain or wealthy sub-chief. Elite warriors usually wear chain shirts, scale armor, or chainmail armor and are often equiped with swords and composite bows.
CR 2; standard equipment: scale armor or chainmail, dagger or handaxe, (1) longsword and heavy shield, (2) battleaxe and heavy shield, or (3) spear; (1) composite longbow or (2) two javelins.
Elite Veteran (Fighter 2/Warrior 2): Even among the elite troops, there are many who are both tougher and more experienced than their peers. They are usually charged with guarding the most important places and people and in battle fight directly at the side of the chieftain.
CR 3; standard equipment: mwk scale armor or mwk chainmail, dagger or handaxe, (1) mwk longsword and heavy shield, (2) mwk battleaxe and heavy shield, (3) mwk spear, (4) mwk glaive, or (5) mwk greataxe; (1) composite longbow or (2) two javelins.

Bandits and Pirates
Bandit (Rogue 1/Warrior 1): Though there are generally few lone travelers on the roads who have anything worth stealing, there are still many bands of thugs and outcasts living outside the towns and villages, surviving on anything they can steal. Even though they often seem very shabby, those who survive being exilded from their clans are usually made of sterner stuff and can often keep up with trained warriors without much problem.
CR 1; standard equipment: leather or hide armor, dagger or handaxe; spear or shortbow.
Bandit Veteran (Rogue 1/Warrior 2): These bandits are a bit more tougher than the average ones. They often have slightly better equipment as well.
CR 2; standard equipment: hide or scale armor, dagger or handaxe, (1) spear, (2) battleaxe and light shield, (3) short sword and light shield, or (4) shortbow.
Bandit Elite (Fighter 2/Rogue 2): Not all bandits are simply outcasts, exiled from their villages for being thieves or just a general nuisance. Some of them are former soldiers of high rank and standing, who had to flee after the death of their chieftain and their clan came under control of a former enemy. Some easily find a new home in another clan, but there are also always some who end up as criminals, and they are often the most dangerous kinds of bandits. Many of them still have their old weapons and armor, or have taken them from other warriors they have killed on remote roads.
CR 3; standard equipment: chain shirt or scale armor, dagger or handaxe, (1) glaive, (2) greataxe, (3) battleaxe and heavy shield, (4) longsword and heavy shield, or (5) composite longbow.
Bandit Leader/Pirate Captain (Fighter 3/Rogue 2): In most bandit gangs, there is usually one individual who towers among all the others in both physical size as well as visciousness and greed. There is usually only one such man in any band, as they would soon come to clash which would leave all but one of them dead. Many bandit leaders wear chain shirts or masterwork scale armor and wield masterwork weapons and shields.
CR 4; standard equipment: mwk chain shirt or mwk scale armor, handaxe or dagger; (1) mwk glaive, (2) mwk longsword and heavy shield, (3) mwk battleaxe and heavy shield, or (4) mwk composite longbow and short sword.

[Cieyrin]

Interesting collection of NPCs, though I don't see an easy transition from Clan Warrior to Elite Bandit.

[Swooper]

I just ran into this thread earlier today and read it all. Great stuff. A lot of this setting is amazingly similar to what I have planned (though not nearly so extensively) for the next game I will run, I'm definitely nicking a few ideas (like your implementation of animism, the tribes/clans structure of society and the lower-tech equipment available) from you if you don't mind.

Looking forward to reading more specifics about organizations now. *Subscribes to thread*

[Yora]

More settings like this means more stuff that I can use for myself.

It seems to me that almost all fiction that does something similar is rather trashy. Most are cheesy 80s movies and Dark Sun. There should be a lot more like that.
Also check out the thread by Wyntonian, he seems to be something similar.

Interesting collection of NPCs, though I don't see an easy transition from Clan Warrior to Elite Bandit.

You mean it's not simply adding levels to a Ftr1/War2? Yes, but it's not something the players will ever notice and I think from that point upward you can start with PC-class only characters.
Or do you mean the ingame transition from a member of a clan to an outcast criminal?

[Cieyrin]

More settings like this means more stuff that I can use for myself.

It seems to me that almost all fiction that does something similar is rather trashy. Most are cheesy 80s movies and Dark Sun. There should be a lot more like that.
Also check out the thread by Wyntonian, he seems to be something similar.

You mean it's not simply adding levels to a Ftr1/War2? Yes, but it's not something the players will ever notice and I think from that point upward you can start with PC-class only characters.
Or do you mean the ingame transition from a member of a clan to an outcast criminal?

Kinda a bit of both, I suppose. It's sort of one of my peeves if tiers of characters can't transition from barely experienced to veteran, as the vet suddenly has a different build and sucks at what the fresh recruit is supposedly trained to do. Kinda the same here, as suddenly their combat skills atrophy and they gain sneaky skills and stabby skills. It's sort of a disconnect, y'know?

Also, I like Dark Sun.

[Yora]

But I don't want to only have NPCs that all have 4 levels in warrior. And since you don't know if someone will become a heroic character after he has already done great things, setting one point were characters are just entirely made out of PC classes seems the way to go.
Or think of the Elite Bandits as Elite Soldiers who converted their warrior levels to PC class levels.

[Cieyrin]

But I don't want to only have NPCs that all have 4 levels in warrior. And since you don't know if someone will become a heroic character after he has already done great things, setting one point were characters are just entirely made out of PC classes seems the way to go.
Or think of the Elite Bandits as Elite Soldiers who converted their warrior levels to PC class levels.

Hmm, fair enough, I suppose. It's not like it will affect the PC's perspective, since that's all on the other side of the screen from them.

[Yora]

Clan Structure and Social Ranks

This is going to be a big one.
There are about 20 different cultures in the Barbarian Lands, based on the assumption that an ethnic group consists of people who share the same language. As a cultural scientist, I want them all to be unique and different with their own individual customs and so on. Nothing too fancy, but something more complex than a uniform society shared by all people based on a butchered victorian concept of the middle ages mixed with modern western values.
The clan based model of society is shared among all cultures with only minor differences that make each of them unique. For the "default" model, I take the human Vandren people here, since they are the major human culture.
I may eventually make specific guides for all 20 odd cultures like "Races of Faerûn" but for now short notes on how things are different in some other cultures will have to suffice.

Households and Families
The terms household and family are mostly interchangeable, but have a few important differences.
A household is a group that consists of all people living together on a property and being represented in legal matters by the head of the household. They don't neccessarily have to live in the same building or building complex and in large households its common that some servants live in smaller huts some distance away from the main farmstead as shepherds or charcoal makers and rarely, if ever visit the main buildings.
A family consists of the head of the household (called the patriarch or matriarch) and all relatives (by blood or adoption) who live on the property.
The main difference is that hired servants or slaves are members of the household, but not of the family. The difference is minor though, as both groups are represented by the head of the family in all legal affairs.

Clan Origins
In theory, a clan is a group of people who share a common ancestor, who was the original founder of the clan. In practice however, adoption of adults into other families as a way to change political affiliation is very common and in regard to social issues, this ideal relationship is completely equal to actual blood relationship. Most cultures don't have different terms for an adopted son or a stepfather. The only difference is that adopted children always come after biological children when it comes to inheritance.
In most cases, a new clan is founded by a powerful person of great notoriety by proclaiming the establishment of a new clan. In most cases, this is the result of a group splitting off from an older clan due to many reasons. This proclaimation is usually immeidately followed by the founder adopting the heads of the other families of the groups as adopted children, which makes these families branches of the founding family. In fact, a new clan usually requires at least two to three hundred individuals to be recognized as a clan by other clans in the area. Smaller groups are usually not considered to be able to provide enough security that they will be able to uphold their part of an alliance or pay reparations for crimes commited by their people. In theory, the founder can adopt anyone into his family and therefore the clan, but in practice the original families are almost always from the same ethnic group and clans conssting of several races are pretty much unknown (except for a few individuals who are members of a household by the majority race). A noteable exception are the Vandren, who created a completely new social structure when they first arrived in a large migration from the lands in the west. During the migration, existing social groups split and formed into new ones, often regardless of the original clan and ethnic identity of the families. The existing Vandren clans of today were almost all founded during the migration or shortly after they settled in the Barbarian Lands. Since the history of a clan usually starts with the founder, very few is known about social structure and ethnicities of the humans before they became the modern Vandren and the identity of a family before it became part of the current is regarded as completely irrelevant. After about five centuries, pretty much everything that happened before the foundings has been forgotten.
Other origin stories for older clans exist as well. With the oldest existing clans, it is not uncommon that the founder is said to be a spirit or another powerful creature. There are a few clans founded by dragons and their half-dragon children in which the founder is still alive and the clans chieftain.

Joining a Clan
Though clan membership is supposed to be based on ancestry, leaving a clan and joining another one is not that uncommon. There are two primary ways in which people can join a clan. Marriage and Adoption.
When people of two different clans marry, their clan membership (and that of any of their children, regardles of parentage) is determined by which household they are going to live with. It is more common that a wife joins the household of her husbands family, but especially in families with many sons its not uncommon to send them to live with their wives families. This also is quite common among high ranking families who use it to strengthen alliances by having one of their sons live at the allies home.
Individuals can also be adopted into a family as children of the head of the household, which automatically makes them members of the households clan. Such a person will live with the new family and treated as a family member in all legal matters, so it is not something that is done lightly by the heads of families. Such an adoption only affects the single individual, who then loses all former affiliation to any clan or household. People who are married can bring their wife or husband into the family as it is common for all married members of the family and any children are usually admited as well (which also counts for adopted children).
Entire existing families can join a new clan and maintain their status only if the head of the family is adopted by the clans chieftain. In larger clans, this right can also be extended to the sub-chiefs, who can exercise it to their descretion. The new family will then immediately establish a new household seperate from the chieftains, which frees the chieftain of any special legal obligations that don't apply to all families of the clan. Chieftains usually don't make this descision lightly, as such new families usually still have personal ties to their old clans which could become a liability to the clan, but in some cases also highly beneficial. In most cases, this is done as an award to warriors that have performed great services for the clan.

Rank and Status
Generally there are five tiers of social status that a person can have. Noble, clansman, freeman, slave, and outcast. Most people do not have a concept of high birth or castes, or anything like that, and instead personal merit is places in very high regard. However, a persons station is always identical with the station of his family and moving up or down a rank usually affects the entire household, so political issues also play a big role.
The highest rank are the nobles. They usually consists of the clans chieftains and sub-chiefs, as well as all family members of their household. Being a member of these noble families does not provide any special rights or previleges, but is the source of great prestige and usually goes hand in hand with wealth and power. People of noble status are often treated with greater respect, since any wrongs commited against them might be regarded as an attack or insult against the chieftains family, which can have very grave consequences. Clearly defined noble families with special rights and functions are common only among the lizardfolk and dark elves. Kaas and the Northmen humans lack this class entirely.
Below the nobles are the clansmen. Clansmen are all people who belong to the families of the clan. All nobles are also clansmen, which is their "official" status. Clanspeople have all the standard rights and previleges within the clan. They can own property in the clans territory as head of a household and be part of councils and vote in the elections of council members.
In addition the the clansmen there are often also many families of freemen. Freemen are not member of the clan, but have been given the permission to live on the clans territory and recieve the clans protection by the chieftain. However, freemen can not own property and either have to rent land to farm from clansmen, or work as servants in clansmen households (or for other wealthy freemen). In addition, freemen lack many of the other rights that clansmen have. Freemen can neither vote for, nor be part of councils, and chieftains can much easier remove them from the clans land and protection, than it would to exile clansmen. Also, having to rent land from clansmen or pay a fee to the chieftain to farm unclaimed land in the clans territory means that it is much harder to ever expand a farm beyond what is needed for the own survival and become wealthy. However, freemen living in clan territory still benefit from the protection of the clans warriors and can use the markets of town to sell their surpluses or find work as craftsmen, so very few try to survive in villages that are not affiliated with a clan. In many lands, freemen make up for about 20 to 30% of the population. In some cases clan families that become too poor and small have to start working as servants for other households. While nominally still clansmen, their social status effectivly becomes that of freemen.
At the lowest level are the slaves. Slavery is quite different among the cultures of the Barbarian Lands. For example the wood elves don't have slavery at all and in gnome lands it takes a form of temporary indentured servitude. In Vandren clans, all slaves belong to the chieftain. Other clansmen and freeman can not own slaves. However, it is very common that slaves are permanently rented to households or given for free as rewards for great services to the chieftain and the clan. Such masters have only limited rights to punish the slaves in their care as they are still the chieftains property, but at any time can a slave be send back and a new one requested, which for a slave who caused his master too much trouble usually means ending up in quarries or mines. If a slave claims to be abused by his master, he can bring it before the village council which then decides if it will inform the chieftain. How much success such a plea has varies by a wide margin between clans and often villages as well. But in most cases slaves live very much as freemen servants, whose payment consists mostly of meals and a place to sleep. In any case, working on a farm is alway better than being send back to the chieftain for being a troublemaker.
In addition, there is a fifth group, which many consider outcasts. While some of these people are freemen who are not under the protection of any clan, most of them have been exiled from their clans or are the descendants of these exiles. Without any clan to back them up, these people are pretty much without any rights. Very few people will hire them or adopt them into their families, so many of them become bandits and pirates.

[SpaceBadger]

Like the froggy dude in the current ad banner says, "The awesome does not stop!"

Thanks, Yora, you are an inspiration and I've enjoyed reading your stuff here.

[Yora]

And still, I'm still working on the basic framework without any clear ideas for actual locations and people. It's like making a painting by starting from the edges and working myself to the center.
But at least that should prevent the whole thing about being dominated by a small group of powerful NPCs and worldshaping events in which players don't play any part.

I have a pretty good idea who is who and where everyone lives and how, but so far it's all completely static. Nobody has any reason not to stay home and do anything but shooing away wild animals and bandits from the villages.
To get things to become dynamic, you need people with conflicting interests. Both organizations and conflicts define a setting, and they are both extremely closely linked. The problem is, that I just can't come up with any reasons for conflict that are not based on someone being stupidly evil in an almost comical sense. Sure, Lord "I want to conquer the world" and the evil Archwizard "I want to unleash a horde of demons" would work, but they are just stupid and boring.Elves fighting orcs for thousands of years, because that's what they do, isn't any better.

That's what I like so much about Dragon Age. Everyone has good reason to hate each other and not leaving each other alone: The Mages hate the Templars, because they hold their leashes. The Templars hate rogue mages, because they are just waiting to be possesed by demons. The Fereldans hate Orlesians, because they had occupied their country. The Dalish hate humans because they were held as slaves. Humans hate the Dalish because they sneak through the forests and piss everyone off whom they meet. The Qunari just conquer places, so everyone fights them. And the Chantry hates everyone.
Getting something like that, where most of the major conflicts make a lot of sense when seen from the perspective of the participants, is where I eventually want to get to. And I think once you have three or four such conflicts in place, additional parties get involved almost all by themselves and you end up with one big, highly rewarding cluster****. But setting the whole thing into motion is where I can't seem to make any progress.

What I have so far is "Some sorcerers like to make contact with demons from the Void to research new ways magic can be used. Most other people think that's crazy and only lures evil demons to possess mortal and cause huge chaos and destruction". I think it's possible to expand on that without making the whole setting about a looming demon invasion (I so much hate demon invasions) and branching off into conflicts about entirely different issues. But right now, I feel stuck.

[SpaceBadger]

Hmm, well, if something changes the status quo in big ways, not everyone is going to like it. Maybe consider your cool setting as you have described it so far as "the way things were until..." and throw in one or more big changes to upset the established order. How about some population pressure, some disaster that is forcing a new group to move into this area. Or look to the latter days of the Roman Empire (Western) when there were chain-reactions of populaton movement: the Huns pressured the Slavs who pressured the Visigoths who crossed the boundary rivers and invaded Roman territory (I may have gotten those tribes wrong, but you get the idea).

This isn't something that a group of adventurers can really fight against, it is just a changed situation, and then you figure out how the change affects different groups in your setting and how they react and that gives you something like those motivations you were talking about in Dragon Age.

[Yora]

The Vandren ere very much inspired by Goths and Huns, but so far I only have them settle down peacefully on the edges of settled areas. But there should really be a huge number of problems arising from over a million people suddenly arriving on the doorstep. I've planned for them to already have settled down and a new status quo being accepted by everyone, but there's still a lot of room for lingering conflicts that date back to that time.

Thking of it, there are actually quite a lot potential sources for bigger conflicts:
Wood Elves vs. Dark Elves: I had planned to make it a point of wood and dark elven identity, that the wood elves consider their culture to be based on knowledge given to them by the fey people before they left the Mortal World, and that Dark elves praise themselves of having discovered these things by exploring abandoned ruins on their own initiative. Both sides think they have a greater origin and the other side was kind of cheating. No idea how to turn that into actual conflict, but it should provide some underlying tension.
Free Lizardfolk vs. Naga: Lizardfolk civilization evolved from lizardfolk enslaved by the naga. In the western parts of the Jungle, the lizardfolk overthrew their masters four thousand years ago, but in the east there are still many naga kings commanding large hordes of lizardfolk slaves. The huge timeframe is a minor problem, but I think there's still a great potential for conflicts between free lizardfolk and lizardfolk slaves and their naga masters.
Vandren vs. Wood Elves: The Vandren showed up 500 years ago and are now here to stay. This would have resulted in many conflicts, some very old elves may even have experienced themselves.
Cultists of the Ancients: Some villages worship ancient spirits from the Underworld as gods. Most other people believe their are insane and worshipping horrible monsters that should not be disturbed.
Warlocks vs. Shamans: Warlocks deal with demons to gain magical knowledge and power. Most shamans regard that as something that will always end with some sorcerers being possessed and turning into raging monsters.

[Swooper]

Let's see, I have some ideas for you...

You could tune the Vandren to be more aggressive and warlike, so that when they arrived they didn't just quietly settle down in an uninhabited corner of the map and start growing potatoes - maybe they raided and pillaged other tribes' lands and drove them off, and claimed those lands as their own? Some of those other tribes probably still want their ancestral lands back.

The demon-mongering sorcerers would, in a more advanced world, call for an order of paladins or witch-hunters to hunt them down, but in this one... how about a (secret?) order of shamans that fight demonic influence? They could be linked to the guardians of the five crystals in the Crystal Caverns, somehow. You could also have them hunt cultists of the Ancients, though the source of that corruption is different the result is sort of similar.

The barbarian kings themselves should probably be a source of conflict as well. If I was a barbarian king, my main hobby would probably be to enlarge my turf. Sometimes peacefully, by negotiating with isolated clans. Sometimes forcefully. I bet either method would piss someone off, maybe another barbarian king, maybe a whole tribe of dwarves who want me to back off.

Resources are, of course, a classic reason to fight. Fertile valleys, ore-rich mountains, slaves and so on.

...I hope this helped

[Omeganaut]

One option is religious conflict. I don't mean just evil cults, I mean crusades and infidel and heretics and other such crazy things. Religion is a powerful tool, and while it can give people hope, it also divides people into good and bad.

Tribes will also have rivalries and alliances based on where they came from, past wrongs, greater threats, and old kindnesses. Every tribe will have a nearby rival, a nearby ally, a far-away rival and a far-away ally, plus be part of a larger cultural group that they have general friendly feelings towards. Then there will be some distrust for other races unless that tribe has had a good experience with one or more members of that race, in which case they will probably be friendly. I'd suggest waiting until your players have to deal with a clan to specifically lay out their prejudices to avoid over-complication, but take it one or two at a time and it will be awesome.

[Othniel Edden]

There must also be natural ambitions among peoples. Rivalries generated within tribes. Exploit the new and rising warrior who thinks that their chief gave up something that belongs to their tribe, and is willing and able to take it back by force or stealth, even as to break a treaty. The young warrior gathers around him others of a like mind, and the chief either protects the young warrior, leading to war, or attempts to punish him, causing a rift in the tribe, leading to at least political unrest. Maybe those around him flee, and seek the leadership of another tribe to unseat their chief, or there is a coup, or exile. The new dynamic causes tensions to rise, and this spills over into other concerns.

[Yora]

I think we're getting close to the juicy part. Though I don't intend this to be an elven setting, it was from the very beginning (some 8 years ago) planned as a world set at the beginning of the golden age of elven and dwarven kingdoms, that pretty much every human-focused setting since Middle-Earth had, when dragons and giants were plenty and humans more of a footnote among the savage people. Thinking too much of the Vandren as the people to introduce players to the setting was probably part of what got me stuck with getting the setting where I want it to. Maybe design it top-down and later have the players discover the world bottom-up.

3 Generic Wood Elf Clans

The key word here is "generic". I am not sure I will actually include these clans into the final setting or maybe in a different form, but I want them primarily to showcase what one can expect in any part of the Barbarian Lands.
The setting for these three clans is a large valley somewhere in the great central forest that shows up on pretty much every map I make. When you think of the High Forest, Mirkwood, or Ashenvale, you're already quite close.
There are in all about 4 million wood elves in the Barbarian Lands, which costitute about one third of the entire civilized population or is about the population of Ireland or New Zealand.
A clan is about 40,000 people on average, making it roughly 100 clans of wood elves, of which 30 or so make up for the people speaking the "Northern Wood Elf" language, from which the three clans presented here are taken.

Wolf Clan
Population: 50,000
Settlements: 2 Towns, 50 villages
Warriors: 5,000
Shamans: 250
Witches: 100
Sub-Chiefs: 8

Chieftain: Yeven Silvermane (Male Wood Elf Fighter 2/Ranger 5)
Shaman: Anerin Brightstar (Male Wood Elf Oracle of Nature 7)

The Wolf Clan is one of the younger of the wood elven clans, having been established just over 300 years ago by a commander of the Boar Clan who assembled many of the clans remaining villages and some of the remnants of the Crescent Moon Clan behind him and secured their territory against other chieftains at the end of the Merchant Wars. Since the founding, all chieftains have made their court in the old capitol of the Crescent Moon Clan, which today is a village of 1,400 elves and build around the remains of an ancient fortress, with the current castle incorporating much of the old keep into its walls.
The clans fortune is to a great deal based on the silver mines near the border to Wyvern Clan territory and Wolf coins and jewlry is found in many parts of the region.

Oak Clan
Population: 40,000
Settlements: 2 Towns, 40 villages
Warriors: 4,000
Shamans: 200
Witches: 90
Sub-Chiefs: 6

Chieftain: Elren Firehair (Female Wood Elf Expert 3/Oracle of Nature 2)
Shaman: Sarel the Stout (Male Wood Elf Oracle of Nature 8)

The Oak Clan is one of the ancient clans of the northern elves, its origins going back into the mists of prehistory. The heart of the clans land is a small town of just over 1,000 elves, that consists mostly of small longhouses. At the northern end of the village stands a mighty oak tree whose spirit is the primary god of the clan. For a radius of 100 feet around the trees trunk the gound is sacred to the clan and may only be entered by the towns shamans.
A few days travel to the south lies the clans primary trade town, which at 1,200 people is the third largest settlement in the valley. The chieftain usually spends the month after harvest in the town to recieve requests from messengers of the sub-chiefs, who have come with the merchants visiting the market. The Oak Clan is well known for its small but effective farms and even merchants from the Wolf and Wyvern clans come to the fall market to buy some of the more difficult to grow crops.

Wyvern Clan
Population: 35,000
Settlements: 1 Town, 35 villages
Warriors: 4,000
Shamans: 175
Witches: 60
Sub-Chiefs: 5

Chieftain: Teven Wyvernspur (Male Wood Elf Barbarian 2/Fighter 6)
Shaman: Keran the Black (Male Wood Elf Oracle of Wind 6)

The Wyvern Clans origins go back for over a thousand years, and it endured throughout the many generations of the Merchant Wars, its warriors distinguishing themselves through many battles. When the wars swept through the valley, the Wyvern Clan had made considerable progress in driving back the warriors of the Crescent Moon Clan and conquering their lands, only to be denied the highly valuable silver mines in the western hills of the valley when the clans remants joined the new Wolf Clan. The Wyvern Clans two small mines produce only meager profits and are more for appearance, but the Wolf Clans mining operations expanding very close to Wyvern territory in recent years have made the Wyvern chieftain challenge the exact position of the border. Having Wyvern warriors sneak around in what is considered Wolf territory and spying on Wolf mining camps does not sit well with the Wolf leaders at all, but so far clashes between scouting parties have not resulted in any deaths.

I'll expand on these tomorrow, but I'm getting too tired now for any more great ideas.

[Yora]

And some crunch again:

Going through the spell lists, I noticed that there are a lot of spells that pretty much every oracle would need to know when the rare occasion comes up, while of the other spells about half just are really bad choices for oracles and sorcerers to learn.

The first category is mostly removing long-lasting effects and divinations:
Alarm, Animate Dead, Arcane Lock, Augury, Break Enchantment, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Commune, Contact Other Plane, Divination, Dream, Lesser Geas, Gentle Repose, Glyph of Warding, Identify, Imbue with Spell Ability, Locate Creature, Locate Object, Mage's Private Sanctum, Mark of Justice, Obscure Object, Permanency, Lesser Planar Ally, Lesser Planar Binding, Plane Shift, Raise Dead, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Restoration, Lesser Restoration, Scrying, Sending, Speak with Dead, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep
These can all be changed to incantations or rituals, or something in that way. Probably easiest by making it an 8 hour meditation period after which the spellcaster has to expend a spell slot of the appropriate level. Pretty much just as if a cleric or wizard had made a slot empty for the spell and rested to prepare it. And since all oracles in their right minds will spontaneously cast cure spells, this frees up a lot of spell slots for actually interesting spells.

The second thing is, that about half the remaining spells really aren't so great that you would learn them to the exclusion of other much more useful spells. However, in Pathfinder, you can create magic items without meeting all prerequisites, which includes spells that are replicated, as long as the item is not a potion, spell trigger, or spell completion item. But you can still create command word items that replicate the spells. So you still can have your gloves of stone shape or your gem of daylight, even though there would probably very few people who could cast these spells as spell known.
And here's the kicker: Getting the spells from an item does count as meeting the prerequisite of being able to cast the spell. So with yout gem of daylight, you could create wands of daylight. However, this drived the price of a wand of daylight from 13,500 gp up to 21,600 gp, about +50%. Or the price for a scroll from 450 gp up to 774 gp. But hey, being able to cast utility spells that would otherwise be impossible to get? Still a good deal.

[Cieyrin]

I disagree with Alarm, Clairvoyance/Clairaudience and Gentle Repose being rituals, as those lose a lot of utility if it takes 8 hours to get off, as the situation where Alarm is useful would generally have passed by the you got it going a lot of the time. Clairvoyance/Clairaudience is meant for quick, inaccurate divinations at short ranges, not full out scrying of seeing people or places for long periods so you can see guard schedules and see what they have for lunch. It also already has a casting time of 10 minutes, as is. Gentle Repose is more border but it's so you can extend Raise Dead window of opportunity if you don't have an Oracle of power or you don't want to do it in the middle of enemy territory.

What I would recommend is, if adamant about ritualizing them, make the ritual prep dependent on the power of the spell in question, something like requiring 1 hour or 10 minutes per spell level. I'd also make rituals a function of the ranks of Spellcraft, so if casters want to know them, they'll study and as they gain ranks in Spellcraft, they learn new rituals of greater power and flexibility alongside more direct applications of their magical studies.

[Yora]

Good point. Reducing the amount of time for in-field utility powers to 10 minutes seems sensible. Spellcraft check clearly needs to be included, and I guess some type of expensive material component.

[Swooper]

While I agree with turning non-combat spells like those you listed into rituals*, eight hours seems as a very harsh casting time. Consider the players - are the non-casting ones going to want to just twiddle their thumbs while the oracle casts an eight-hour sending spell to get a message to the chieftain? If they're anything like my group, probably not. And if they do wander off and get into trouble, the oracle is left out.

I'd suggest cutting most of the ritual casting times down to about one hour, two or three at most for the powerful ones (like Lesser Planar Binding) and, as Cieyrin suggested, ten minutes for the on-the-field utility ones (might want to add Locate Creature/Object to that list, as they're similar to Clairvoyance in usage and range).

*Making usable ritual rules to replace non-combat spells is on my own homebrew-to-do list, even.

EDIT: Be very careful about using skill checks to cast any kind of spells directly - skill modifiers are notoriously easy to boost to ridiculous levels. Probably safest to base it off of skill ranks (and class skill bonus perhaps) only, as there's pretty much no way to circumvent those.

[Yora]

Organization: The Black Tower

Headquarters: The Black Tower.
Members: 70 (7 archmages, 28 sorcerers, 35 apprentices) plus 300 guards and servants.
Hierarchy: Order.
Leader: The seven Archmages.
Races: 70% wood elves, 20% humans, 6% half-elves, 4% gnomes
Religion: None.
Secrecy: Medium. The Black Tower works openly but does not share the exact nature of their activities.
Symbol: None.

The Black Tower is an organization of mostly wood elven and some human sorcerers, as well as a small number of gnomes. The tower that serves as their home and base of opperations is a massive keep located on the slopes of a large hill overlooking a lake in the southern parts of the Northern Wood Elf lands. It is made out of black stone and stands 60 meters high from the ground floor to the floor on the top, but rises more than 200 meters over the surrounding landsacpe. The tower sits next to a small courtyard that is surrounded by a thick wall made from the same black stone and holds the fortresses stables and workshop. In addition, there are large dungeons dug into the rock below the tower that house all kinds of storerooms, but very few people know them to their full extend. It's unknown who had build the tower or when, but it's current residents have made it their home for the last six centuries.
There is a small temple to the Sun and the Moon in a smaller yard on the side of the hill above the main couryard, but the sorcerers are not particular involved in any religious activity.

Though the members of the order are all sorcerers, they consider themselves scholars first, politicans second, and mages only third. Their primary concern is knowledge, both academic and political, and large portions of the tower consist of libraries and archives. While learning is their primary occupation, the sorcerers are also always very well informed about whats going on in the outside world and many suspsect that they know a lot more about what's happening in the castles of kings and chieftains than they are letting on. Most of the time they are simply observing, but they are frequently gaining insight into possible threats that have so far remained unnoticed by the general population. As a result they often venture outside in the surrounding lands to investigate strange occurances and bring warnings to local rulers when they deem it appropriate. Their reputation with the powerful is mixed. While their services and knowledge are greatly appreciated, most people in positions of power are not too fond of their tendency to sneak around in places they don't belong and asking questions that should not concern them.
However, the sorcerers of the Black Tower are not just an order dedicated to preserve peace and prevent disaster. Most of their activities also serve to increase their power and wealth. While they don't use outright extortion, they are not above using some blackmail to convince powerful people to cooperate with their requests.

While the sorcerers demand strict adherance to their rules, individual members act with a high degree of freedom. The archmages rarely deny any requests to provide money and equipment to any sorcerers who wish to leave the tower to investigate something that could be important to their interests. When the archmages send sorcerers on special missions, they are usually free to see it done in any way they consider appropriate and neccessary.
The archmages are all sorcerers of 8th or higher level. Sorcerers are 4th to 7th level and apprentices 1st to 3rd level. Apprentices sometimes accompany sorcerers on their investigations or errands, but most members of the Black Tower encountered outside the keep are sorcerers. In the Black Tower blood magic is forbidden and any practice of demonic magic reason for expulsion and exile. In severe cases dealing with demons can even be punished by death, but this has happened only five times in all of the orders history.

--

Since this is the very first organization, it is still lacking relationships to other groups.

[Yora]

Organization: The Earth Children

Headquarters: None.
Members: est. 40,000
Hierarchy: Loose. The Earth Children consists of several mostly independend clan groups.
Leader: Clan chieftains and shamans.
Races: Oreads.
Religion: The Earth Spirit
Secrecy: Low.
Symbol: None.

The Earth Children are one of the many people who migrated from the western plains into the Barbarian Lands, but split off from the Vandren early on and instead of following the Great River Valley turned north towards the Border Hills and directly into the Great Forest. The existance of this group has only become widely known in the last 200 years. What happened in the more than three centuries between that is completely unknown outside their people and a well kept secret of their shamans and lorekeepers. All that can clearly be said is, that the Earth Children today carry the essence of the earth within their blood. Many of them stand two meters tall and are exceptionally strong. Their skin is the color of a deep earthen tan and most have brown eyes so dark they appear almost black. Many of the smaller ones can easily pass as humans, but at closer examination the blood of earth spirits in their lineage becomes evident.

The Earth Children are by far the largest single group of planetouched anywhere in the Barbarian Lands. Today the five clans live in an area of rugged hills deep in the heart of the Great Forest, relatively isolated from other people. They have allied themselves with many groups of hill giants in the area (like stone giants, with size and strength between ogres and standard hill giants) and some people have suspected that there is some of the giant blood in the Earth Children as well. Also, some scholars have voiced doubt that three centuries would have been enough to spread to spread the blood of earth spirits throughout the entire population if it had been introduced by just a few children being born or fathered by Shaitans. Powerful magic must have been at work to change the entire group, or even just major parts of it, to completely remove any pure blooded humans in such a short time. This most probably has something do with the fact that pretty much all of the Earth Children worship the Earth Spirit, with only some limited offerings to local spirits and no priests of the other major gods.

While the Earth Children live in a rather isolated and remote area, many of the young warriors and ocasionally shamans travel to the edges of the Great Forest, where most settlements are concentrated. Even though they are a relatively small people, when meeting oreasd anywhere in the Barbarian Lands, they are more likely to be Earth Children warriors than singular descendants of Shaitans from other places. The Earth Children are no big talkers, but far from being brutish fools. Many are highly perceptive and not easily fooled. Most are warriors, barbarians, rangers, or oracles. Fighters are less common and sorcerers pretty much nonexistant, but there's also a considerable number of rogues who use their slightly brutish appearance to trick others into underestimating their cunning.

In their homeland, the Earth Children live both above and below ground. Villages dug or carved directly into the hills are the most common form of settlement. Only in a few places to huts made from wood make up the majority of buildings, and only one of the clans has settlements that lie entirely underground without any strucures open to the surface world. The role of Shamans is even greater than in many other people and the number of oracles within a group can be as high as one in ten. All earth children shamans have the Stone mystery. The goals of the Earth Children are mostly a mystery. With their giant allies, there are very few threats to their homeland and they don't have any long standing conflicts with other clans. However, few believe that they send their warriors to travel the Barbarian Lands only as a means to gain experience and that they try to gather as much knowledge of the outside world as they can for a purpose.

[Yora]

Some light crunch again:

Bloodlines and Mysteries

Bloodlines and Mysteries are like domains for sorcerers and oracles in Pathfinder. All such characters have one. Which one a character can chose one is limited by the cosmilogy of the setting.

Bloodlines
In the Barbarian Lands, a sorcerers bloodline isn't actually inherited, but rather represents his specialization in sorcery. Bloodlines can be switches at later points, when a sorcerer gets initiated into a new kind of magic. To keep things simple, such sorcerers simply lose all benefits from the old bloodline and gain all from their new one. Bonus spells known and bloodline feats are swaped.
The two most common bloodlines for sorcerers are Elements and Spirit. The Element bloodline represents a strong focus on the four primal energies, while the spirit bloodline is more focused on life energy and dealing with spirits. The Ancients and Demons bloodline are very rare and represent sorcerers who have made pacts with demons and ancient spirits from the underworld to learn new magical powers.

Ancients: The ancients are a group of extremely old spirits that reside deep in the earth and have not changed as the world above became a different place over the eons. The Ancient bloodline is identical to the Aberrant bloodline.
Demons: Sorcerers who make pacts with demons and become warlocks adapt the Demon bloodline. The Demon bloodline is similar to the Abyssal bloodline, but sorcerers gain Knowledge (demons) as a bonus skill and Skill Focus (Knowledge [demons]) as a bloodline feat instead of Knowledge (planes).
Elements: Elemental sorcerers specialize on one of the four elements, air, earth, water, and fire. Sorcerers with the Elements bloodline gain Knowledge (spirits) as a bonus skill and Skill Focus (Knowledge [spirits]) as a bloodline feat instead of Knowledge (planes).
Spirits: Sorcerers with the Spirit bloodline have greater knowledge about spirits and their magic. The Spirit bloodline is similar to the Fey bloodline, but sorcerers gain tree stride as a bonus spell known instead of awaken.

Mysteries
The seven mysteries match the six great gods as well as nature in general. There are only very few religious orders, but oracles being trained and living in the same shrine or temple usually all follow the same mystery, Nature being by far the most common, followed by flame, heavens, and waves. In practice, most oracles are allied with a local spirit, which has some kind of connection to one mystery, but usually no direct relationship with the greater gods.

Dark Tapestry: The Dark Tapestry mystery is the domain of spirits of night and shadows. It is also a very common mystery for oracles serving the Ancients.
Flame: Flame is mostly chosen by oracles serving the Sun, most of which are lizardfolk.
Heavens: The Heavens mystery is the domain of the Moon, but also of a few spirits of the night.
Nature: The Nature mystery is the most common mystery for local spirits of the land and their shamans.
Stone: The Stone mystery is the domain of the Earth Deity, as well as mountain and underground spirits, including some of the Ancients.
Wind: The Wind mystery is the domain of the Sky, as well as spirits of the winds. Oracles of the Wind are rare, most live in remote mountains or at seashores.
Waves: The Waves mystery is the domain of the Ocean, but also of spirits of rivers and lakes. Oralces of the Waves are very common in all lands close to the sea and among the aquatic races.

[Cieyrin]

Would Wildblooded Sorcerers be permissable, where they have somewhat corrupted teachings to learn their talents from and thus gain the alternate blessings? For reference: Brutal (Abyssal), Primal (Elemental), Sylvan (Fey), Warped (Aberration)

[Yora]

Typical! I brew up three of the greatest pieces of fluff, and nobody says anything.
I post the smallest and most boring piece of crunch, and a comment arrives within minutes.

Crunch is easier to comment on, since you can provide additional technical information that I might have missed, while fluff is purely creative work that is subject to personal taste. And yes, I am actually the kind of person who just irgnores it when someone doesn't like the things I do.
Yet, it is really comments on the fluff I am after. Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas to the fluff sections as well. I'm really comming up with things as I go, which isn't nearly as fast as I'd like to. Anything that can get me new ideas for where I could expand on new things, or how to connect existing pieces would be very welcome.

I'm not personally a fan of Alternate Class Features, but since I am rebuilding the bloodlines anyway, this is one point where extra premade options actually come in very handy. However, the Wildblooded bloodlines all seem quite lame to me. The fluff for all is okay, but they all seem quite a bit weaker to me than the standard traits.
The animal companion is a nice idea, but I wonder if it might even be too much, even as an optional feature.
The crossblooded archetype is a really nice idea, but it hits a sorcerer where it really hurts. One less spell known at every level? Damn, that's really ugly expensive for those tiny benefits. Maybe making it 1 less spell known at the highest level known to the sorcerer at the point of adding a second bloodline to an existing one and completely scrapping the penalty to will saves would make it salvagable.

[Yora]

Picking up the issue of access to highly situational spells again.

Spell Rituals and Magic Items

Spell Rituals

Sometimes oracles and sorcerers have need of a spell which they do not know. When buying a scroll for a particularly rare spell is not an option, spellcasters can instead attempt to cast the spell as a ritual. Performing a spell ritual is very similar to creating a magic item, with the same cost in material components and time as creating a single use, use-activated wondrous item. At the end of the ritual, the spell immediately becomes effective, regardless of the casting time of the spell that is mimicked.

Ritual Cost: Spell level x caster level x 20 gp, plus expensive material components.
Spellcraft DC: 10 + caster level
Casting Time: 1 day for every 1,000 gp, which translates to 1 hour per 125 gp. A caster can only work on the ritual for 8 hours a day, with the same limitations as for crafting magic items.

{table=head]Spell Level | Cost | Spellcraft DC | Casting Time
1st level spell | 20 gp | 11 | 10 minutes
2nd level spell | 160 gp | 14 | 1 hour
3rd level spell | 360 gp | 16 | 3 hours
4th level spell | 640 gp | 18 | 5 hours
5th level spell | 1,000 gp | 20 | 8 hours
6th level spell | 1,440 gp | 22 | 12 hours
7th level spell | 1,960 gp | 24 | 16 hours[/table]

This whole process is pretty much the same thing as crafting a single use, use-activated wondrous item while skipping the part of using a standard action to activate the item at the end of the creation process.
The only aspect in which this is different is the lack of an Item Creation Feat. Requiring a feat to use spell rituals would make the entire thing moot, as it is meant as an easy solution for when you really need a spell you just don't have. The price is slightly cheaper than buying a scroll, but you can't sell a ritual or pack it away to use as a standard action at a later point. Also you have make the Spellcraft check, which should have about a failure chance of 25% for most characters.
Spell rituals are used mostly for spells like remove curse, remove blindness/deafness, break enchantment, contact other plane, or planar ally. When summoning spirits or demons, a spellcaster can combine planar binding, protection from demons, and dimensional anchor into a single ritual that adds the casting time and ritual costs together, but requires seperate Spellcraft checks for each effect. If the check for any one effect fails, the other effects might still become effective, potentially summoning an uncontrolled creatures.
While 6th level spells are extremely rare and no humanoid spellcaster can cast 7th level spell, they are still listed to determine casting times, DCs, and costs for unique rituals that duplicate their effects. The DC of 24 and almost 2,000 gp in cost make them major efforts for 8th or 10th level characters, though.

Spellstones
When the long casting time of a spell ritual makes a spell unusable, you can also create a magic gemstone that can be activated as a standard action by crushing it in the hand, throwing it at the ground, or at another creature. A spellstone can be used by anyone, but is twice as expensive as a scroll of the same spell.

Ritual Cost: Spell level x caster level x 20 gp, plus expensive material components.
Spellcraft DC: 10 + caster level
Casting Time: 1 day for every 1,000 gp, which translates to 1 hour per 125 gp. A caster can only work on the ritual for 8 hours a day, with the same limitations as for crafting magic items.

{table=head]Spell Level | Cost | Spellcraft DC | Crafting Time
1st level spell | 25 gp | 11 | 10 minutes
2nd level spell | 200 gp | 14 | 1 hour
3rd level spell | 450 gp | 16 | 4 hours
4th level spell | 800 gp | 18 | 6 hours
5th level spell | 1,250 gp | 20 | 10 hours
6th level spell | 1,800 gp | 22 | 15 hours
7th level spell | 2,450 gp | 24 | 20 hours[/table]

Creating spellstones requires the Craft Wondrous Item, but unlike creating a scroll or wand, the creater does not need to know the spell. Spellstones are very often used for spells like dimensional anchor, dismissal, or hold portal, that are very rarely needed, but can be life saving in some situations. When a spellcaster in an isolated location expects to need them, but can not gain a scroll in time, creating a spellstone is often an easy, but expensive solution.

Magic Items
Also a list of all standard magic items, that are available. Based on the starting wealth for 10th level characters and the assumption that a new character can't have any item more expensive than 25% of his wealth, with sets the limit for the most expensive items at 12,000 gp. Turns out PF has a different table, with sets the limit at 15,500 gp. Which is just fine with me.
Everything that needs a caster level of 11th or higher is, by definition, a lesser artifact. +3 weapons are possible, but too expensive to be "standard treasure".

Spoiler

Show

Magic Armor
+1 Armor or Shield (+1)
+2 Armor or Shield (+2)
+3 Armor or Shield (+3)
+1 Shield of Arrow Deflection (+2)
+2 Shield of Arrow Deflection (+3)
+1 Bashing Shield (+2)
+2 Bashing Shield (+3)
+1 Light Fortification Armor (+2)
+2 Light Fortification Armor (+3)
Lesser Energy Resistance (5) (+6,000 gp)
Shadow Armor (+3,750 gp)
+1 Trapwarding Armor (+2)
+2 Trapwarding Armor (+3)

Magic Weapons
+1 weapon (+1)
+2 weapon (+2)
+1 Bane Weapon (+2)
+1 Defending Weapon (+2)
+1 Weapon of Distance (+2)
+1 Flaming Weapon (+2)
+1 Frost Weapon (+2)
+1 Ghost Touch Weapon (+2)
+1 Keen Weapon (+2)
+1 Weapon of Mighty Cleaving (+2)
+1 Returning Weapon (+2)
+1 Seeking Weapon (+2)
+1 Shock Weapon (+2)
+1 Weapon of Throwing (+2)

Potions
Level 0 (25 gp)
1st Level (50 gp)
2nd Level (400 gp)
3rd Level (900 gp)

Rings
Protection +1 (2,000 gp)
Feather Falling (2,200 gp)
Sustenance (2,500 gp)
Climbing (2,500 gp)
Jumping (2,500 gp)
Swimming (2,500 gp)
Counterspells (4,000 gp)
Lesser Energy Resistance (5) (4,000 gp)
Mind Shielding (8,000 gp)
Protection +2 (8,000 gp)
Ring of the Ram (8,600 gp)
Improved Climbing (10,000 gp)
Improved Jumping (10,000 gp)
Improved Swimming (10,000 gp)
Animal Friendship (10,800 gp)
Minor Energy Resistance (10) (12,000 gp)
Cameleon Power (12,700 gp)
Water walking (15,000 gp)

Scrolls
Level 0 (12.5 gp)
1st Level (25 gp)
2nd Level (200 gp)
3rd Level (450 gp)
4th Level (800 gp)
5th Level (1,250 gp)

Wands
Level 0 (375 gp)
1st Level (750 gp)
2nd Level (6,000 gp)
3rd Level (13,500 gp)

Wondrous Items
Bracers of armor +1 (1,000 gp)
Cloak of resistance +1 (1,000 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type I (1,650 gp)
Dust of appearance (1,800 gp)
Hat of disguise (1,800 gp)
Amulet of natural armor +1 (2,000 gp)
Horn of fog (2,000 gp)
Elemental gem (2,250 gp)
Boots of elvenkind (2,500 gp)
Boots of the winterlands (2,500 gp)
Cloak of elvenkind (2,500 gp)
Eyes of the eagle (2,500 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type II (2,700 gp)
Stone of alarm (2,700 gp)
Horseshoes of speed (3,000 gp)
Lesser Pendant of Enlarge Spell* (3,000 gp)
Lesser Pendant of Extend Spell* (3,000 gp)
Lesser Pendant of Silent Spell* (3,000 gp)
Rope of climbing (3,000 gp)
Dust of disappearance (3,500 gp)
Figurine of wondrous power, silver raven (3,800 gp)
Belt of giant strength +2 (4,000 gp)
Belt of incredible dexterity +2 (4,000 gp)
Belt of mighty constitution +2 (4,000 gp)
Bracers of armor +2 (4,000 gp)
Cloak of resistance +2 (4,000 gp)
Gloves of arrow snaring (4,000 gp)
Headband of alluring charisma +2 (4,000 gp)
Headband of inspired wisdom +2 (4,000 gp)
Headband of vast intelligence +2 (4,000 gp)
Restorative ointment (4,000 gp)
Stone salve (4,000 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type III (4,350 gp)
Circlet of persuasion (4,500 gp)
Slippers of spider climbing (4,800 gp)
Amulet of mighty fists +1 (5,000 gp)
Bracers of archery, lesser (5,000 gp)
Vest of escape (5,200 gp)
Eversmoking bottle (5,400 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type IV (5,400 gp)
Boots of striding and springing (5,500 gp)
Wind fan (5,500 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type V (5,850 gp)
Horseshoes of a zephyr (6,000 gp)
Gloves of swimming and climbing (6,250 gp)
Crown of blasting, minor (6,480 gp)
Cloak of the manta ray (7,200 gp)
Bottle of air (7,250 gp)
Periapt of health (7,400 gp)
Boots of levitation (7,500 gp)
Amulet of natural armor +2 (8,000 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type VI (8,100 gp)
Necklace of fireballs type VII (8,700 gp)
Bracers of armor +3 (9,000 gp)
Cloak of resistance +3 (9,000 gp)
Decanter of endless water (9,000 gp)
Lesser Pendant of Empower Spell* (9,000 gp)
Necklace of adaptation (9,000 gp)
Figurine of wondrous power, serpentine owl (9,100 gp)
Belt of physical might +2 (10,000 gp)
Figurine of wondrous power, bronze griffon (10,000 gp)
Figurine of wondrous power, ebony fly (10,000 gp)
Headband of mental prowess +2 (10,000 gp)
Cape of the mountebank (10,080 gp)
Pendant of Enlarge Spell* (11,000 gp)
Pendant of Extend Spell* (11,000 gp)
Pendant of Silent Spell* (11,000 gp)
Boots of speed (12,000 gp)
Goggles of night (12,000 gp)
Medallion of thoughts (12,000 gp)
Gem of Brightness (13,000 gp)
Cloak of Arachnida (14,000 gp)
Lesser Pendant of Maximize Spell* (14,000 gp)
Periapt of Wound Closure (14,900 gp)
Pearl of the Sirines (15,300 gp)
Figurine of wondrous power, onyx dog (15,500 gp)

* Like metamagic rods, but must be worn on the body, usually a pendant around the neck.

Since Minor Energy Resistance is at the very top of all enchantments at 12,000 gp, I also introduced Lesser Energy Resistance which grants resistance 5 and assumes a caster level of 1st, even though the spell used to create it is normally a 2nd level spell.

[Cieyrin]

I'm liking the look of rituals and spellstones as a solution to the spells known limit of non-prepared casters, they seem balanced fairly well.

I am wondering about 4th level wands and 6th level scrolls, though. Is it just the cost that prevents that? I'd also think some staffs and rods would still be available, as there are a couple of staves and rods that are below the 10th level WBL to be feasible, at least in the APG. Metamagic rods and staves would seem to me be part and parcel to high level sorcerers and oracles for extending their abilities and they fit in the paradigm you have here on magic items. Especially if the staves are customized or adapted to the Barbarian Lands, like having staves keyed to the spells known of specific mysteries or bloodlines. I could throw up some examples later, if that'd be permissible?

[Yora]

4th level wands are well above the gp limit at 24,000 gp. And unlike other very expensive items, these are expendable items that will become worthless sticks within a few years, while other items of that price range will provide permanent benefits for decades or even centuries. It just seems a huge waste of valuable resources to me.
But I am considering to drop that arbitrary limitation that you can only create wands with 50 charges. 10 or 5 charge wands would make a lot more sense at this level range.

Regarding scrolls, I consider 11th level character to be epic, with only a few dozens such individuals showing up in the history of the Barbarian Lands. While 12th level casters could easily make scrolls of 6th level spells, they would be much too rare to have a regular market price. Not quite minor artifacts, but close.

Rods are weird. Except for metamagic rods, immovable rods, which are more like wondrous items, and rods of wonder, which are plain nonsense, there are only four types of rods under 18,000 gp, three of which are completely overpriced junk.
From readinf it, the metamagic rods don't seem that bad, but I think they would work much better as more mystical wondrous items. Tusks and claws of forests gods, worn as a necklace, or shards of magical crystal strapped to the back of the hand. But I think I'd rather not have rods as a seperate category of items.

Staves are also a mixed thing. While they are good and can be reacharged easily, they are still damn expensive. Also, any staff within the price range would be a custom item, with unlimited possibilities of what spells to add and at what caster level and the like. So I didn't list any.
Since you probably only ever want to make a single staff ever, for your personal use, having an extra feat seems stupid. I think substituting Craft Staff with having both Craft Wand and Craft Wondroud Item seems much more practical.