Basic Agriculture
Basic Metallurgy
Basic Fishing/Boating
Basic Building
Basic Governance
Basic Mining
Basic Animal Husbandry
Basic Learning and Development
Basic Warfare
Basic Magical Development (subjected to traits/points)

Playable Races DnD 5e:

Different races available than below based on the "rule of cool" but they should all be from DnD.

Aarakocra
Aasimar
Bugbear
Centaur
Changeling
Dwarf
Elf
Firbolg
Genasi
Gnome
Goblins
Humans
Lizardfolk
Fairy
Goliath
Orcs
Leonin
Halflings
Kobold
Kenku
Loxodon
Minotaur
Plasmoid
Satyr
Tabaxi
Thri-kreen
Tiefling
Tortle
Tritons
Vedalken
Warforged
Lupin
List of different races - Decided on a case-by-case basis

2 NP (1 NP if specialised tech, your pro): Learn a new idea or technology. This idea or technology should be reasonably attainable from the people’s present culture and level of technology.
1+ NP: Build a new village / increase your population by a number appropriate to the current age. Roughly 100 people per NP during stone age and then that number will be multiplied by 10 each age.
2 NP (1 NP if magic specialisation): Increase your understanding of your people’s magic. This new understanding of magic should be reasonably attainable from the people’s present culture and environment.
5 NP: Have your nation’s inhabitants develop a basic magical system. Advanced magical systems require more than 5 points. This magical system should be explained via IC with pros and cons. Subjected to plane traits which might state that magic doesn’t exist in your plane which would mean this isn’t an option to you.

Government Form:
Disparate Flocks: the harpies are in no way unified, living in nomadic tribes or on disparate islands, and thus there is no central authority in the realm.

Demographics:
Harpies: Harpies are vaguely humanoid beings with the torso and heads of humans, and the wings, legs and tails of birds. Plumage color wise harpies are a mix of varicose pale hues on the underside and a darker hue such as black or blue on top for camouflage purposes.

They have an index finger and thumb on each wing, similar to bats, although even more pronounced such that they are usable, and their feet are softly feathered, sport large talons on their 4 ties, and are considerably more hand-like than a bird, with dexterity to match. The legs are also very flexible, allowing a harpy to stand either with a human stature, or an avian one.

Sexual dimorphism is low, with both sexes appearing relatively androgynous to other humanoid species.

Racial Traits:

• Pro: bird-like anatomy - Harpies are able to fly with some effort, and can also glid great distances using thermal drafts such as the ones that are common on their home plane. They also lay eggs, which reduces the physical disruption that bearing children causes (and the ability to use fire to warm the eggs has done even more so).
• Con: Inhumanoid body plan: With their lower 3 fingers being stretched into wingtips, harpies have difficulty using tools while standing, particularly ones that are heavy or require much dexterity. Their feet can be used for this instead, but this requires either sitting, laying down (preventing mobility) standing on one leg (very limiting) or flying (which is not suited for intricate work). It is also difficult to hold things at eye level using their feet, making delicate and/or precision tasks rather tricky.
• Con: frail: they have hollow bones, which are much easier to break so, while they might heal faster due to requiring less material, they are more easily taken out of a fight by a successful blow.

Population:
Stone Age: ~5k


Plane Description: The plane of Aer consists of a gas giant which is hued in a myriad of colors. In its atmosphere float islands of light porous stone filled with buoyant gasses, many of which float at altitudes with an atmospheric composition and density are habitable for life. These islands form down in the molten center of the planet when part of the mantle cools and solidifies before rising up into the sky. There it is gradually eroded down to dust which very slowly rains back down to the core, while the gasses escape up out of the atmosphere.

Within the floating rocks can be found large gas filled chambers, extensive cave networks, and the odd nest of glittering gemstones, but, notably, little in the way of ore deposits. Any island that has said ore is unable to float up to the upper layers of the atmosphere where the Harpies live.

While some islands stay reliably one side up, many are prone to slowly tumbling through the sky, more akin to asteroids than islands. They also range from upwards of about 1000 km³, although these are much less common than the vast number of rocks and boulders floating in the sky. The large islands are rather spread out, however the sheer size of the gas giant realm mostly compensates for this, as does the fact that the open space between is teeming with drifting life.

Vegetation clings to these stones, or floats free upon gas filled sacks, while creatures reminiscent of aquatic life, known as Tonnikala, swim though the planet's skies and feed off of the vegetation and each other. The air up where the harpies live is relatively clear, though it can be smothered by rainy fogs and the odd colorful (but potentially dangerous) cloud rising up from below. Speaking of below, there denser darker gasses lie, thicker, hotter, swirling with innumerable hues, and in those depths live giants and horrors.

The planet is slightly warmer than a terrestrial world, with heat rising up from the exposed core making even the poles habitable. Most plant life is adapted to be able to react to changing climates as they are unable to control where in the world they drift, gradually metamorphosing as the temperature changes.

A single blue sun hangs in the sky, distant but bright, while the night is filled with a dozen or so moons of various shapes, sizes and hues.

Plane Traits:

• Pro: Gas Giant - Aer is difficult to navigate for those who can’t fly, while being easier for those that can due to its thicker atmosphere, though there are, of course, ways. The island’s own materials provide the basis of ways to do so, as does the life which dwells in its skies.
• Con: No earth below our feet - the islands of the realm are spread out across its extensive reaches, limiting space for farming and spreading out the population. It also reduces the amount of conventional mineral wealth to be found, as any significant ore deposit would make the island it is found in too heavy to float.
• Con: Terrors of the deep - from sharks to eels, orcas, to stinging jellyfish and more, the sky is full of many dangerous creatures similar to those found in the oceans. But what lurks deeper down can be far worse, for in the depths lurk krakens, sea serpents, and other monsters out of legend and woe upon those who live in the clear skies if one should emerge from the depths.

History:

When harpies first arrived in Aer, they were very much at the mercy of the drifting of islands and vegetation for, while they could fly and glide long distances, needing a safe space to land rest limited their range, and generally tied them to islands that made for good nest sites.

Legends then tell of an egg minder who, after he lost his flock’s clutch due to laziness, fled in shame, and after wandering alone for several nightmare-filled weeks, sought out an auger. From the moons she predicted a path to redemption, and sent him to fly south for thirty days and thirty nights, and to grant aid to whoever he found on the thirtieth dawn. So he flew and flew, and when the thirtieth dawn finally came the harpy, who was far from any islands and yet desperately needed sleep, came across a wounded whale, under attack by a pack of sharks.

Till that day, a harpy would have ignored this, or waited to see if they could snatch scraps, but, seeing no other interpretation to the prophecy, he attacked, hurling his possessions at the sharks and driving them away. Exhausted from flight and from fight, he began to slowly lose altitude, surely doomed to death in the depth of the world, and yet at that moment the whale he had aided came to his own, gliding beneath him, and allowing him to land upon its back and rest there.

However much of the tale is true, it was the beginning of a new age. Tamed whales massively increased the range harpies could travel, as well as how much they could take with them. Then the same techniques were applied to other creatures, and thus the nomadic herder lifestyle many of the modern harpies live was born.

That was the last world defining event in harpy history, and since then there has been slow gradual improvement, the ebb and flow of Flock politics and power, and endless squabbling over grazing animals and grazable land.

The venerated trading hub of Almoon was recently destroyed by a sky serpent attack, and the warlord known as Isko the feather crowned was recently burned alive after rumors spread that he was eating other harpies to amass their souls within his body to gain their power, so presently there are no major factions, leaving space for whichever flock gains control of a foothold in the new world to rise like no other flock has done before.

Culture and Society: Harpies are organized into flocks, which consist of anything from a handful to dozens of harpies. These flocks are generally nomadic in nature, herding varicose grazing creatures from island to island or after masses of floating vegetation, which they then slaughtered for their meat.

Sedimentary farming is much more rare, as holding an island is rather difficult, what with all the nomads wandering around looking for grazing land. They do however make the best booze, which is often used to buy off attackers. Even they are not entirely static, as their land may drift into unfavorable climbs, forcing them to uproot themselves to seek out new farmlands or to become nomadic once more.

All Flocks supplement their diets with hunting, be it catching small fish or taking on larger prey such as whales. Care needs to be taken to not puncture the flight bladders of larger prey, as doing this may make retrieval rather difficult if not impossible.

Property wise, a harpy will own more or less what they can carry with them, while items carried by beasts of burden or stored on islands belong to the flock as a whole. Gemstones, colorful scales, and other shinies are often a harpy’s most prized possessions, and also make the closest thing to currency that their society has.

Eggs and children are both raised communally by the flock. For nomads, this means settling down somewhere for a bit (as even the most placid of whales is not fit for nest building) which is a big collective investment. Often, if there are alliances being made, it will be ones around nesting safety, as several flocks may come together to one island to first party, and then to raise their eggs and young before breaking apart again once more once the little ones learn to fly. This is good both for safety and for genetic diversity.

Most Harpies worship the sun with honor, for it brings life and illumination. A common way of praising the sun is a dawn chorus sung to thank it for rising once again. The core of the world meanwhile is regarded with equal parts fear and respect, for it births both monsters and new lands, and it must be placated with tossing animal sacrifices down into it.

Harpies on the other hand, should never be allowed to fall, as those whose bodies drop into the depths are considered doomed for all eternity. The dead are instead burned so that their souls may float up to join the sun. Attacking someone trying to save a faller or who is carrying a wounded harpy is therefore considered an evil act, and will result in the perpetrator being vengeful targeted by all their foes. Finally, a harpy who’s body is eaten is considered trapped in a kind of limbo until the body of the consumer is burned. Tales of mythical titan slayers freeing untold numbers of harpy souls are quite popular.

Complex theories on divining the future based on the positions of the moons in the sky also exist, but there is considerable disagreement on what the right way to do this is. These disagreements range from what the moons being where means, what the moons mean, what the moons even are and more.

Culture Traits:

• Pro: Meritocratic - A flock generally has a relatively flat hierarchy, and unpopular or incompetent leaders are generally quickly pulled down and replaced with little fuss and only some bloodshed.
• Con: Disunified - There is little in the way of unity between Flocks, and the ways both the nomads and the islands themselves move around means that long term alliances are very unusual, though so are long term conflicts.
• Con: Violent - Flocks attacking other flocks is fairly common, and is generally done to steal grazing animals, to gain control of grazable islands or to seize good nesting sites. This is seen as a fact of life rather than anything evil, though a particularly aggressive flock will generally find itself on the receiving end of a temporary alliance.

Governance and Politics: The exact nature of how flocks are run varies from one to another. Generally, however, leaders are chosen by consensus of the flock, be it formally by voting or informally by social connections.

Membership of a flock is fairly loose, with members coming and going with relatively little friction, particularly during nesting periods.

Technology and Magic:

• Pro: Medium Animal Husbandry - The harpies have managed to tame quite a few of the species that inhabit their skies, the most important of which are dugongs and sky turtles (which are used as cattle), dolphins and tuna (hunting dogs) and, finally, whales (which are used as oxen or as platforms to land/rest/live on).
• Con: Very basic metallurgy - The rarity of ores has resulted in little interest or innovation in the usage of metal.
• Con: Very basic boating - bodies of water larger than pools are exceptionally rare, with lakes existing only on a few large stable islands.

Military Overview: Harpy warfare is somewhat common, although it is also rather scrapy and skirmish-y for the most parts. Harpy claws are dangerous weapons on their own, while knives, clubs and spears studded with shark’s teeth are highly prized. Tossing or dropping things is considered a last resort when not on an island, as you are not getting those things back, unless the harpies are trying to bring down something big like a whale where the payoff is worth it.

Blowguns are the most popular ranged weapon, as they are easy to use even with the harpy’s limited fingers and the projectiles are easy to produce or one use anyway (lionfish quills are particularly nasty for this). Bows and slings are rare as usage requires a great deal of training to even hold, let alone fire with accuracy, with either their two digits or their claws. Most are unusable while flying, at least with any accuracy, with an exception being small short ranged blowguns capable of being held purely by the mouth.


Additional Info: _{(Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there. Little factoids about your nation are both amusing and welcome. Include a theme song if you want)}

08/01/2023:
V2: Plane traits and description updated to talk a bit more about the size of the islands

V3: Added history, updated tech, and warfare

11/01/2023

V4: changed tech con to metallurgy instead of mining, and added references to minable gemstones in the plane and culture sections

Plane Description: _{The Darkweald might be described by some as a primordial plane, perhaps it is younger, or perhaps it has simply remained in a ‘primitive state’ for eons on end. Regardless, it is a murky place, many areas do not experience a difference between “light and dark” but instead have an ambient “luminous darkness”}

Plane Traits:<sub>Pro: Magically active: The plane is teaming with magic, both a base “background” magic and small and non-physical creatures (perhaps termed spirits?) that harness magic as a part of their lives, many creatures in the darkweald have magic properties, plant analogues use arcanosynthesis rather than photosynthesis and curses behave almost like diseases in other worlds.

Con: dangerous zones: some areas of the plane have dangerous magical properties, it can cause magic to behave unpredictably (and strange phenomenon are often reported in these zones) while magic might be more powerful, the delicate magic that the bugbears tend to prefer is overwhelmed in these zones, making it hard for them to cast spells.

Con:Low metals: metals are not unheard of in the darkweald, but its relatively metal poor compared to many other realms (possibly due to the lack of a sun?) most metal that exists is trace amounts created by some lifeforms in alchemical processes, often hard for a primitive civilization to extract</sub>

History: _{The time before arriving and the time of arrival is murky in the convoluted tales of the Bugbears, as of right now, they havent really focused on sharing history, they sometimes form theories to explain the ancient cave paintings (or the cavepaintings that might have been made by their own parents, some have attributed the paintings to be created by divine agents, or created in a manner that a person trained in ‘classical’ understandings of the world would have no idea what they are talking about.}
Culture and Society: _{-the most common form of education for bugbears is lengthy partnerships (sometimes these annoy bugbears as trying to understand another bugbear is time not spent on understanding everything else), and the transfer of information between parent and child, children are taught how to survive, and some of the magical and tool making skills of their parent.
-tools often end up imbued with some of the memories of those that used them, for this reason, a bugbears tools are an important thing, and children will often cherish the tools of their parents. The imbueing of memories also allows those who use a tool to learn from the memories stored within, for now, a lot of the memory fades if the original holder is destroyed (or stares into the sun) but perhaps with more sophistication, the imbued memory might persist after death
-for this reason, gifts of arts and crafts are an important part of bugbear communication, a bugbear perhaps learns more from a bugbears tools than they do from direct communication.
-bugbear worldviews tend to be highly individual, religion is not usually a social affair, religions of sorts occur naturally in bugbears as a part of development of organization information in their minds, they tend to be animistic with numerous cosmic forces interacting with one another to explain phenomenon.
-Most bugbears do not believe in souls/personalities/minds as unified things and culturally there is often not the same self/environment line in the sand, the environment is a part of the bugbear and the bugbear is part of the environment.}

Culture Traits: <sub>Pro: Artifact learning, the magics used by bugbears can be used to encode information in objects that can be extracted and utilized by those who use their tools.

Con: Little common ground: There is no overarching religious or social narrative in most bugbear lives, they each have their own idea of how things work, which can make group activities difficult.

Con: Alien: the bugbear are alien in mindset to many other mortals and thus might have difficulty initially communicating with other races they havent studied</sub>



Governance and Politics: _{(Like the government form field, but more room for detail. Tell me if your monarchy is slowly being subsumed by the merchant classes. Or, if your people are organized in such a way that they don't even have a government or politics anymore, then this is also a good place to talk about that.)}

Technology and Magic:
<sub>Pro: Medium magical development, The Arts and Crafts: Bugbears have learned a variety of little magic tricks, while they might lack the raw power of some other mages, bugbear magic has a subtle versatility while having a fairly simple basis. Most bugbear tools make use of materials (often once parts of living things) that have a high magical permeability, they use this to embed information into the environment (and objects) everything that the has just a little bit of life to it, in D&D terms they can have effects similar to thaumaturgy or prestidigitation cantrips
Cantrips.

Con:Poor governance: Bugbears are pretty smart and can, imagine various different systems of societal organizations but…actively implementing them? Due to bugbears independent natures practical government is very difficult to construct

Con:Poor mining, the Darkweald is a little low on metals, especially in areas currently explored by bugbears, so mining for metals is pretty hard.</sub>

Military Overview: _{No organized military, there are hunters, which could be potentially dangerous, and some bugbears might use violence to get what they want, but no armies.}


Additional Info: _{youtube.com/watch?v=tKE1hC9mz7Y}

Government Form:
Disunited Tribes - a true government does not yet exist, disparate tribes survive either by wandering as nomads, cultivating farmable land or a mix of the two.

Demographics:
Sand Elves - yes, elves but sandy, but seriously they are a subrace of elves that adapted to the hottest of environments, but the distance from the feywild means they have lost any previous fey abilities they may have had, moreover being used to the perennial light of their plane they are essentially blind in areas of low light.
They look mostly like your regular elves but are recognisable by amber colored eyes and particularly prominent ears (for more heat dissipation), even for an elf.

Racial Traits:
Pro: Heat Resistance - their almost unnatural resistance to extreme heat allows the sand elves to survive in otherwise unlivable environments, fire resistance NOT included.
Con: Low-light Blindness - while their amber colored eyes can’t get blinded by the incessant strong light of their plane, they are also completely useless without said strong light and make them practically blind in any low-light environment.

Population:
Stone Age: 2.000
_{No more than Normal level for the respective age because of plane traits.}


Plane Description:
Iffilan is a plane of perennial light, the sun is always high in the sky and its residents would never have witnessed a single night.
In the midst of the endless arid desert there is a sea, more akin to a stupidly large oasis as it is clear water and not supplied by rivers, this is called Ag’aman and is the only place adequate for building large cities and sailing on ships.
Venturing out of the Ag’aman there are many oases scattered around the desert, they are home to oasis farmers and nomads traveling from one oasis to the next.
Going further there is nothing but endless sand, illuminated by the scorching sun, this is called Tafuyhra and there is only death to be found here, not even the sand worms don’t want to venture too far into it.

Plane Traits:
Pro: Storeagable Light Magic - while a bane, the light is also a blessing in its own form, it does in fact contain a low but constant influx of magic, moreover with some knowledge this magic can be stored in objects for later use, of course it can only do light and some fire related magic.
Con: Limited Habitable Land - the desert is vast but the green patches in it are not, farmable land is scarce and thus population capacity is also limited. (can’t go over Normal)
Con: Extreme Heat - creatures not used to hot environments and perennial light will have a hard time surviving in this plane.

History:
Accounts dating to the time of the arrival are nonexistent, lost to the passing of time, the event is rumored to have happened such a long time ago that not even the sands would remember.
Even still there are countless stories on heroic figures, the origin of each clan and even events like the domestication of animals and beginning of agriculture, even if it is still limited.
But questions on the arrival and prior, well, no one has an answer for them.

Culture and Society:
The dwellers of the desert have organized themselves in various kinds of tribes, most follow a semi-nomadic or completely nomadic lifestyle, wandering across the Ag’aman or between oases and living off of meat and animal products. The semi-nomads establish temporary houses in determined areas where they farm for a set period, after which they move on to another patch of land, sometimes in a circling between their territories, the best of the farmers have decided to stay in one single place and become sedentary, selling what surplus they get to the nomads.

While there are many tribes they’re all fundamentally small and the majority are familiar in nature, forming more so clans that usually meet each other to raise children or settle feuds. Each member is thus integral to their family and the collective survival, they are thus taught to behave from a very young age.

Worship is almost exclusively towards the sun, even when speaking to other deities the sun is to always be mentioned, the sun is said to stand not only above the mortals but also above the gods, rewarding and punishing both as if they were the same.

Culture Traits:
Pro: Hospitality - while harsh to members of their same tribe, the sand elves are also incredibly welcoming to outsiders, helping them in any way they can.
Con: Divided - the tribes and clans are not at all united, forming alliances and rivalries that hardly last longer than a generation.
Con: Outcasting - it can be a gambling accident, it can be an affair with a rivaling tribe or it could be a poor choice of words, anything that angers the tribe could mean you’ll be thrown out with nothing and left to die.


Governance and Politics:
The tribes don’t have a unified method to decide leadership, some are led by the eldest, some are matriarchal, some are patriarchal and some go by general consensus or majority voting.

Technology and Magic:
Pro: Medium Animal Husbandry - the sand elves have become expert tamers by always traveling with a herd of animals.
Con: Very Basic Boating - there is little water in Iffilan and the tribes haven’t really spent time learning how to make boats.
Con: Very Basic Building - most sand elves spend their lives on the move and even for those who sit in one place there is little use for a tent where you can’t see inside without lighting a torch.
Con: Very Basic Agriculture - most of Iffilan isn’t arable and most Sand Elves didn’t learn how to make plants grow.

Military Overview:
Warfare between the tribes is not uncommon but usually results in no deaths, combat is in fact more a way to push other tribes away from some land or for an individual to prove their bravery. In some instances however, it may be necessary for a tribe to fight to the death.

The most common weapons are knives, clubs and staves, usually repurposed from other tools, but sometimes you can see a spear made for the job.
For ranged combat slings and javelins are common while bows tend to be harder to make and have too few uses out of combat to be worthwhile.
Protection is primarily offered by heavy clothing and, failing that, praying.


Additional Info: _{(Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there. Little factoids about your nation are both amusing and welcome. Include a theme song if you want)}