Kazarim Species and Cultures -- Concepts
In designing the various species and cultures for the Kazarim Campaign Setting, I wanted to tap into the fantasy tropes in different ways. There were several design principles that I felt were necessary to make my world and the stories within it unique.
One: An Entire World. I understand how there’s a general need to be strategic about how much information you include in any particular book, but there needed to be a more natural presentation of how cultures actually interact with one another. There wasn’t going to be an “An Asian Sourcebook” theme or “An Arabian Nights” theme sourcebook down the line, and then have the main focus be on something reminiscent of “Western Europe, 400 AD to 1400 AD.” I wanted the original supercontinent to break into the three current continents after the Deluge, and then make them all interact with each other. So they share ideas and grow and develop over time. You know, like actual cultures do.
Two: Controlled Pastiche. There probably isn’t much that some human somewhere hasn’t thought of already. I mean, history has been around for approximately 6,000 years, and we made do without writing for a few hundred thousand prior to that. So the cultures of the setting are deliberate pastiches, incorporating ideas from cultures across the world in what I hope are interesting and novel ways. For instance, the Laigonic people, a human ethnic group on the continent of Arganaen, are a melding of Celtic cultures from the British Isles with Mesoamerican cultures (particularly Aztec/Maya), with a dash of late Roman Republic. This last bit comes fairly recently into their culture, as for a couple hundred years they were colonized by the Loreng Fel Empire (which has a Roman component). This has divided the Laigonic people into a group that has adopted many of the ways of their colonizers, and several other groups that have collectively rejected this cultural assimilation in favor of a more traditional life.
I truly hope I have respected the nature of each culture involved, and I have made every attempt to avoid hurtful stereotypes.
Three: Humans Aren’t Dominant. Although still quite important, humans are only one of ten major species that compete for power and resources on Desara, the planet that serves as the primary setting for the Kazarim Campaign Setting. Humans are the second most populous species on the planet, behind the small, inquisitive katasuro and just ahead of the lesser giants known as aagren. This means that most places have buildings suited for sizes from Small to Large, and random NPCs like merchants and guards are often one of these other species as instead of humans. On top of this, although not an especially common species due to their curse, a lot of the baseline culture of the world comes from the ancient asreih, which is represented by ancient Egypt, Sumeria, and Israel.
Four: Gender. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I paid particular attention to gender and gender identity when I started writing this setting. I wanted most of the cultures of the world to give not one whit whether you were male, female, bi, gay, or trans. Often, people cite “realism” or “historical accuracy” for reasons not to do this. I say if a character can throw fire from their finger tips and teleport from here to the moon, then shut the hell up about realism and historical accuracy.
Five: Race and Ethnicity. First, you may have noticed I use “species” instead of “race” when taking about the various people of the setting. This is because “race” has such a loaded connotation (at least here in the States) and is frankly inaccurate anyway. So I use species and ethnicity when I’m talking about people. Also, while I’ve included the largest variation on ethnic groups for humanity, I deliberately wrote ethnicities into other species. I have always thought it so weird that there are 50,000 different kinds of human cultures in most fantasy settings, but then elves or dwarves or whatever have just one (sometimes with “subraces” that are usually weird genetic variations on the standard, and often a different sparkly color or color-coded as “evil”). Not only is that messed up, it makes no sense. So aagren and noktor have their own ethnic groups, and I give explanations why others don’t have listed ethnic groups (such as the species memories of the asreih making them a tad more resistant to cultural change, or the katasuro adopting the traits they like from the culture around them).
The three continents that comprise the known world of Desara, with some of the major nations or regions marked. The grey areas are mostly wilderness. The equator passes through a point known as The Fulcrum, on the border of Euashollor and Jolpasses, in the center of the map.
Note that the missing hemisphere isn’t truly empty; the inhabitants of Desara believe that a giant maelstrom takes everything on that side of the world into the divine realm of the goddess of the ocean, Nadra.