--wondering about all things Touvish NB
I have read about them mainly in the Scarlet Brotherhood supplement as well.
Yes the Touv are listed in the Scarlet Brotherhood. As are the Olman.
In SB, which is done by sean k reynolds, he describes them in a small paragraph, and a small drawing shows a picture of 3 of them.
In looking over that picture as well as the descriptions of their gods and the way things are spelled, it appears that although the Touv are indeed extremely dark brown skinned as are the Africans (very dark skinned in comparission to many of the lighter skinned African - Americans) , yet their hair is long and black, like American Indian or Mexican Indian. Further, they worship gods similiar to the Aztec's (iirc). So in typical Greyhawk Spirit, they are a race that is all mixed up.
In my current campaign, I'm playing a Touv Wizard. I choose to paint the miniature of him as liccorice black, with a tint of midnight blue. I feel that they should not be Earth Africans, not with their hair and their gods. So with them being so dark, many confuse them with Dark Olves, however they do not have silver hair. My wizard is bald, and in our campaign, we are looking for a half-olve that has been captured by slavers. When we ambushed a Goblin Druid slaver, we took his slaves, but made a pact with him. Our group (including a cleric of Herioneous) was acting as his hired guards. I'm inpersonating a Drow (I made sure I could speak the language), so that scares enough people. And when the ask about the pointy ears, I always reply....how many Drow have you seen and lived to speak of it later? Using this disguise, as slavers, we've actually saved about 10 slaves, but I digress....
--hmmmm, has anyone updated the Touv and Olmen to 3.5? NB
Touv and Olman are human. There is no need to update them to 3.5, just like the Oeridians, Suel, Bakluni and others aren't 3.5!
Hi all-
I'm working on a eTools project to make all the races of Greyhawk.
As we've all known and is clarified in the LGG, very few people are of pure racial stock. Of course, I'm making each of the pure racial types. From there, I'm also making the Flan-Bakluni, Bakluni-Suel, Flan-Oerid, Oerid-Suel, Suel-Olman, Suel (Northern), Suel (Tilvanot Peninsula), & Touv.
I've got Rhennee and Touv as pretty much pure races, as iirc, Rhennee pretty much keep to their own kind. And with the Touv being pitch black (although there is some differences of opinion of how they look [but I'm having them be midnight blue]), and from the southern Hepmonaland, they don't get into a whole of interracial coupling.
What other mixture races should I be making?
What type of descriptions should each of the above have?
Thanks for your ideas and concepts.
Originally posted by Nero's Boot
It's always nice to see a "fantasy Africa," considering the rich mythology and magical traditions of that continent habitually get the poo end of the stick in d20 fantasy settings.
Eh, you should check *cough*Nyambe*cough* from *cough*Atlas Games*cough*.
The weird thing being that if you compare the map of Hepmonaland and the Nyambe setting, there aren't that many major differences ...
Originally posted by TheocratIssak
What other mixture races should I be making?
Flan-Frog (Wastri followers), Olman-Yuan Ti (north Hepmonaland), .. :D
Seriously, when you take care of the "pure" Suel, remember that the so-called Frost/Ice/Snow Barbarians are pure Suels too but which have "evolved" into a hardier (and less .. ah .. intellectual) breed.
Originally posted by Mortepierre
Eh, you should check *cough*Nyambe*cough* from *cough*Atlas Games*cough*.
The weird thing being that if you compare the map of Hepmonaland and the Nyambe setting, there aren't that many major differences ...
Actually the writer of Nyambe credits Dave Howery as a major influence. Dave being the person who wrote excellent african setting articles for Dragon and used southern Hepmonaland as his african area. He also had a few adventures he wrote for Dungeon that was set in this african area.
Strangely enough, the SB accessory, which was released later, seemed to take alot of his influences and then unfortunately gave it the poo end of the stick treatment.
That being the case, I'm not suprized that things are the way they are. I would much rather use Nyambe for my dark continent needs, and leave the SB accessory to be one persons view.
Halber
Originally posted by Mr. VanderMeer
The Touv are based mainly on african people. They are ebony skinned humans, living as african tribes used to do in the real world, mainly as hunters.
I have read about them mainly in the Scarlet Brotherhood supplement as well.
Actually, it is important to note that the Touv should not be taken as a "primative" society. They are designed a conscious reflection of advanced, ancient Middle African kingdoms like the Ethiopians.
While many Touv are rustic hunters, many others live in city-states that are quite advanced. They easily equal the Flanaess states in the quality of their metal-working for example.
So when designing the Touv you have to ask the question of whether you're dealing with urban Touv or rural ones. A typical Touv living in Kundanol probably has no more idea how to survive by hunting for food than a typical native of Greyhawk.
Yes, I agree with many of the posts that Nyambe is an excellent source for use with any dark continent. Of course, that doesn't mean that Nyambe is the best source for Hepmonaland in Greyhawk. Frank Metzer and others wrote AEsheba, under EGG's FantasyMaster titles. I'm not saying that it is the ultimate sourcebook for Hepmonaland either. Scarlet Brotherhood was written by sean k. reynolds, an author that I don't particulary like. However, it being the only canonical source for the region, it must be taken into account.
So I've used the Greek-Africa sourcebook as an idea, since there really isn't a Greco-Roman type empire or setting in Greyhawk to support this particuarly. However, this doesn't mean that one of the other major continents couldn't have been the continent that spawned the Greco-Roman empire that settled in the Hepmonaland region. But this aspect of things is a little bit more far-fetched and a stretch. This is the hardest to accept.
Nyambe is one of the best meshes with SB. It matches well enough, and it makes more sense than does the AEsheba accessory. But with the d20 market, much does make more sense than they did previously when things didn't have to match up. Or actualy, couldn't match up....TSR wasn't the nice guys they are now!
I'll see you around the dice table and your sourcebooks!