Thinslayer

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@Rabidporcupine In the frozen north, surprisingly, maybe. I always imagined the dwarves lived in a volcanic region just west of the orcs' land, too, so there might be something we could work with there.

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Ooh, I just had a wicked idea for the Witch's motivation: what if the Empire were secretly trying to build a Void army, and the Witch found out? That could definitely explain her animus against the Empire...

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@Rabidporcupine Exactly! Yes, they could build structures out of bones and hides - although, given the scarcity of life of any kind out in the Badlands, most of that biological material would come from...well, their fellow monsters. >_>

And yes, there's some small, hardy plant life out in the Badlands. Cacti might be a thing too.

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@Rabidporcupine Funny you should mention wood. I was developing this lore for another story, and I was wrestling with the lack of wood for quite a while. And I have to tell you, orcs had to get really creative in that story. The orcs who lived by the one or two rivers that flowed through the land would build whole cities out of mud, while those who lived in the middle of the dry desert would have to live underground, tough though it may be to dig through the clay. On the flipside of that coin, any dwelling they managed to dig out of the clay would be pretty sturdy. Additionally, their leader managed to forge trade treaties with a couple other orc tribes, trading away iron and other strategic metals for food (because they can't farm, remember) and other resources. Specifically, they traded with the northern orcs for fish, and the southern orcs near the more fertile Imperial border for vegetables and wood.

So, the lack of wood problem is solvable; it just takes a bit of creativity to work around.

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@Dark Cloud I'd certainly love to. I'll double-check with @Conejitoooo when she comes back.

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@Rabidporcupine Absolutely! I'd love to see what you come up with.

And now that I'm home and have access to my fancy-pansy gaming laptop, I can type more easily now. The Badlands are a dry, cold desert where not much lives. The land is mostly clay beneath a few inches of dry, rocky topsoil, making it nearly impossible to farm. The water table is sunk a long way down, and considering the difficulty of digging through the clay, making a well is not terribly feasible for the average community. The Empire seized most of the good land and holds it pretty well, so the monster tribes have little choice but to live here and fester their discontent.

The Badlands do have a wealth of strategic and precious metals a short ways under the earth, which the Uruks have tried to take advantage of, but they don't have the magical or technological know-how to really capitalize on it. There are also several edible plants that grow really well in the Badlands, and a certain observant goblin might be able to make something happen with that.

The northern coasts aren't in much better shape, as they're close to the north pole and frequently frozen over. The tribes living up there have managed to scrape a living regardless, and there's even a town or two up there. The residents will defend those settlements with their lives, and they're among the toughest, meanest monsters you'll find in this region.

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@Dark Cloud Yep, sounds like her. She tried for years to persuade people that the Voidspawn were a threat, but they all treated her like a crackpot lunatic and threw her out. As Number One Persona Non Grata among the Voidspawn, she doesn't want to be anywhere near this entire planet when they finally decide to give the Overworlders what-for, so she's not about to take humanity's inaction lying down. She's gonna build an army to stop them, and people can either get on board or get out of her way.

The monster tribes, however, would believe her more easily, since they're often among the first victims of Voidspawn incursions; their main problem is that this news is coming from a human, whom they don't particularly trust - hence the necessity of a mask.

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@Rabidporcupine Boi, do I have some lore for you! Unfortunately, my phone is out of battery. Gimme a bit.

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Ooh, speaking of which, I have some more work to do. My original vision for the Witch had her fighting against a kingdom that was mind-controlled by its monarch through face-activated magic, which required her to wear a mask at all times. To the mind-controlled observers, anyone who dons a mask appears to turn into a wraith, cementing their perception of her villainy.

What if, in this RP, the mask puts monsters more at ease around her? Maybe humans have a horrible reputation (because of course they do), and she wears a mask to communicate that she's not like other humans, perhaps even to communicate alliance or something.

Which leads me to a question: why might she come to defend the monsters? Perhaps because she sees herself in them?...

I have work to do on this...

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@Zerofighter Send me a CS and I'll think about it. ;)