I mean something that takes the Tolkienesque formula and just does away with any subtlety whatsoever. Make it explicitly about defending the free and enlightened West from the forces of darkness and evil. The realms of Men are being invaded and it's up to you, the player, to stop the evil hordes:
-
Orcs, the usual savage and twisted humanoids, ugly, foul-smelling beasts who know only destruction and violence. They rape, they murder, they set villages on fire, they care nothing for art or life or beauty. They have war chants that just sound like ooga-booga jungle-mumble gibberish that incite them to further orgies of violence. And in their off time they drink, do drugs, or play a violent "ball" game that mostly consists of running around with a captive's severed head.
-
Goblins, cowardly and dimwitted little shits with a thoroughly unfounded arrogance despite even the other monster races viewing them as repulsive. Weak one on one they can still be a threat in mobs, and more often rely on backstabbing and subterfuge. Filthy creatures who live in squalor and shit in the streets. They openly worship Demons (more on those later) and perform numbers of horrible rituals in their name. Some of them have infiltrated Human society by pretending to be clever but really they're just shameless in their dishonesty, lying and backstabbing.
-
The Swarm. Also called "Bugmen," these hexapodal mantis-creatures are also individually weak but rely on numbers. They inhabit the ruins of a once-great civilization and operate by strict conformity, taking their orders from a Hive Queen. While unable to create anything on their own, they can make crude mockeries of the works of Men: however due to shoddy materials and workmanship these things fall apart quickly. While not as quick to violence as Orcs, they do show a particular sadism and cruelty, loving to torture captives just seemingly for the sake of causing pain. Also, they eat dogs alive.
-
Vampire Necromancers, one of the most dangerous factions, simply due to their influence. Some say they stole the bloodlines of noble Men to sustain their existence. They prefer to hide in the shadows and subtly manipulate events, however drawing them out and exposing what they are seems to be their weakness. Several times in the history of Men there were great leaders who almost eliminated them completely, but they always seem to come back with a vengeance. Average Men are helpless against their hypnotic powers, their shapeshifting abilities and their subtle machinations, relying on their controlled thralls in the banking and mercantile guilds, and every town crier seems to be a pawn of theirs as well.
-
Fallen Men who were once noble defenders of the West or descended from same, seduced by promises of power, glory, and earthly pleasures. Some have even joined their bloodlines with the Vampires in an act of unforgivable heresy. They are just as dangerous for they already inhabit the West, sometimes in positions of power, and have all the intellect and fighting spirit of Men but seek the destruction of our homelands instead of their survival.
-
And finally the Demons - little to be known about them except the perverse icons that the Orcs and Goblins worship in effigy, they represent the vices of lust, greed, wrath, and every other failing that taints the hearts of impure Men. It's not known if they take mortal form, much less if they can be vanquished in such, but they have other ways of harming you - damaging your Sanity meter, filling you with Fear or Despair effects, or sending succubi to seduce you with false illusions as your life force slowly withers away while you chase phantasms.
There could potentially be others as well. Such as the Half Orcs from the South who have some human characteristics but otherwise behave just as brutish and violent as their kin, with equally horrible music (and stench) and large families that invade in masses. Or a tribe of Goblins that supposedly left Gobbustan centuries ago, dabbled in demon worship to learn fortunetelling and other dark arts, and now infest some of Men's cities running scams and crime outfits (rumor has it they kidnap human infants to raise as their own and even interbreed with same, producing a truly abominable hybrid...)
On the good side you have Men, High Men who were and are the centers of culture, art and civilization, but have grown soft and decadent due to their success. South and East of their kingdoms settle the Common Men, some who once had impressive domains but now mostly get by as peasantry with only faint remnants of their past glories - but dealing with the monstrous races has made them a little hardier and more resilient than their more cultured brethren. Finally, the Elves, the order of tall, unearthly beautiful golden-haired and bright-eyed guardians sent by the Old Gods to watch over Man and be our guides and protectors, though it's an uneasy alliance at best, and they come and go on their own inscrutable whims.
(Remember, it's all fantasy. Any resemblance to any real world culture or nationality is purely coincidental.) š
So WH40K?
Yeah, but more so.
Xeelee chronicles?
Don't know those. Good place to start?
The goblins are commonly found as merchants, because other races do not fear them. They are incredibly gracious and subservient singly, but once they get in good with the town they will slowly begin to subvert it to their demonic lords will through vice and degeneracy.
The people-pleasing is just a survival strategy. They'll fake deference to anyone "above" them by bowing, scraping and using honorifics but the moment they outnumber you or have any kind of power they show a sadism that rivals the Orcs or the Bugmen.
Their merchant network spans between many countries, ans they have secretly indebted many nobles to do their bidding. Also, they are all gay. Super gross and gay. And they wear stupid tiny goblin hats that look like stupid donuts.
I thought about separating them into high (coin clippers) and low (street shitters) castes but it's fairly pointless, they're all the same gross creature.
Somehow the vampires are so much like the goblins even though they superficially resemble Men (except they usually have these big ugly goblin noses for whatever reason).
So goblins are the run of the mill useful idiots the vampires use for their machinations.
Also you forgot kobolds. Hairy brown ratlike beings that breed nonstop and devour everything. They are stupid and dirty but unlike the orcs they try to mimic society and claim to be doing it well. Like a child playing at swords. Those are your streets hitters
Maybe, I kinda think the Bugmen fit that role. As for the slaves of the vampires, a lot of Fallen Men were depressingly easy to turn to evil. Archduke Randolph Halder of Steelcrest tried to warn us but he and his Order of the Shield were overwhelmed in a combined assault from the monstrous races while Fallen Men betrayed the Western Kingdoms from within. And now even today we're told to accept monsters living among us, acting totally unlike us, because supposedly Lord Halder burned six million goblins alive including women and children (no bodies were ever found, pyres that big would be impossible to construct, and those bodies would have to still be burning to hit a number that large)
I thought the bugmen were chinese
Also, they like rubbing their hands together.
I'm more for using gnomes as the jew proxy. They more resemble humans than goblins do, they've incorporated themselves as a 'core race' despite being the most alien of them all (they're have the deepest ties to the fey, moreso than the elves.) Goblins can be used as a proxy for jeets. They have many of the same inclinations as gnomes, but they're tactless.
Ok fair. So the gnomes are big nosed traders who scheme. Makes sense.
Is there really a difference between tribes of wealthy goblin merchants when they all act basically the same
Gnomes have innate illusion magic, that helps them better infiltrate human societies.
Yeah but they're not bloodsucking evil fiends with no souls who delight in causing suffering.
Goblins do the jobs us humans don't want...
DEPORT THEM ALL
But have you ever had a plate of authentic Gobdustani cockroach curry???
Well of course I have! SO AUTHENTIC! I love it so much my I gave them my daughter!
Isn't this basically what ALL fantasy used to be? Moral relativism is, in terms of broad acceptance, a rather recent thing.
It's funny how the people who claim morality is subjective will get all self-righteous and moralizing when you don't ascribe to their "subjective" morality. Often in the same breath. It's a speedrun of the "it isn't happening but it's good" move.
People LIKE good vs evil. Good vs Evil sells well. Hero's Journey. Hugh Mann goes out into the wider world, saves a mating partner from the clutches of evil, returns a hero.
Your emoji use makes me think this is AI-generated, though.
AI wouldn't generate anything so explicitly racist. Good awareness though.
You'd think so, but Hollywood has sold people on the anti hero and villains being more fun.
You know what I thought of just today, the wokies used to love romanticizing the villain, like that Wicked slop they all love is about how the Witch just concludes they'll treat her as evil no matter what she does, so then might as well just be the monster everyone sees anyhow (this is also an - undeservedly - sympathetic reading of Shakespeare's infamous Shylock).
And then they immediately go "lol, treat those White male incel boys like shit bc they are and you don't have to feel bad about it, they deserve it OMG ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING?? HOW DO WE STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING?? OBVIOUSLY DOUBLE DOWN ON THE SAME THING AND EXPECT DIFFERENT RESULTS!"
Because self awareness and consistency are really not their strong points.
To quote Voltaire (the singer)'s King of Villains: "Nowadays, everyone's a villain, so it seems. And they strut around the town, wearing black! They're called 'misunderstood', when in fact, they're merely good! It's villain credentials that they lack!"
If a villain is fighting nature... how are they a villain? If they're fighting society... If it's a relatable good reason, they're not a villain. If it isn't a good reason... There's no point to the character. If they're fighting themselves... Again, not a villainous action. They're hardlined into only one conflict story.
Antiheroes are also merely good. If they've got negative personality traits? Tony Stark is an antihero. If a hero breaks laws, are they an antihero? That makes Spiderman an antihero. If they exert undue force regularly, Thor is clearly an antihero. "Antihero" is a meaningless title. They're heroes, who simply aren't tuned into the exact specific morality of the specific reviewer 100% of the time. Maybe it's motive, heroing not out of love of heroism? Ochako Uraraka ("Uravity") from MHA is an antihero, then, since her goal in being a hero is to get money out of it.
From what you say here, sure. I don't care if it's racist. Most of what you mention isn't even that abnormal in the past.
I'd say the only point of caution I'd express is if the racism becomes such a central point that the quality of the story and is ruined, because well that's just an alternative version of the slop they make. Their IP is more about the frizzy haired strong black woman don't need no man than being a good game. Good story has to come first, the racism can just happen as a by product. Which is what you've done mostly. I mean I'd argue a lot of yours aren't even races but animals.
Them being completely unlike humans is the entire point. You're not supposed to feel bad about mowing down hordes of monsters, you're supposed to feel awesome about it.
You can always grab real-world example to dehumanize the monster races. Child sacrifice rituals, viscious ambushes of innocents, that sort of thing.
The vampires say that's just a myth and if you talk about it too much you're lobotomized and sent to the sanitarium.
Wait if they have that kind of power doesn't that mean it's not a conspiracy theory-
Sounds good to me. For someone who occasionally likes a musou game, I'm not sure I have enough of a conscience to even be concerned with mowing down hordes of virtual humans.
Yes
Based
I've written a few.
My favorite one involved orcs that hade evolved on three different evolutionary paths.
The greyskins were a military junta warlord kingdom. They operated on a single combat hierarchy, all challenges accepted. The twist was they were so hyper focused on efficiency most duels would be called at first blood and losing wasn't really considered a dishonor. Against outsiders though they were absolutely brutal.
The greenskins were dessert nomads, mostly herders and slavers. They cannibalized most of their slave population which was largely elvish. They also had these weird mammoth/plant/Lizard beasts of burden that photosynthezed but also produced milk which the orcs harvested in vast quantities.
The third subspecies lived in catacombs tunnels thay were mostly inaccessible to other creatures since they were only about 4 feet tall, they were also unable to communicate with other species since so much of their language was pheromones, stomps/claps and some vocalizations that weren't possible for other species.
There was a bunch of other stuff, a reptile race that was racial supremacist and manifest destiny based culture. Some extinct dwarves but not really. Literal mud people.
Was fun
Yes! Iām working on a similar setting, basically cyberpunk Berserk in real life.
Needs elves. Not necessarily to exist but for other races to constantly point to when citing great examples of successful and fair culture while pointing out the flaws in human civilization. Nevermind that elvish culture never had to make huge, constant, expensive concessions accommodating orcs, goblins, vampires, and whatever other incompatibles.
I had them at the end as the Watchers/Grigori
You just described Warhammer 40k
I really don't want the Demons to just be Nurgle, Slaanesh, Khorne and Tzeentch though.
But I am glad GW made the literal incarnation of sexual perversity a they/them before that was even a thing.
Androgyny existed as a concept long before troons did.
This exists:
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1591132441/
"A good goblin? I guess there might be one if you looked really hard. But in the end, the only good goblins are the ones who never come out of their holes." - Goblin Slayer
"Think about how it would feel if your home was suddenly attacked by monsters... Yes, if your home was suddenly attacked by monsters one day. They act as though they own the place and kill your friends, kill your family, and plunder the rest of the village. Another example would be if your older sister was attacked, tormented, made a plaything, then killed... Let's say that you witnessed all of this, from start to finish, in hiding as you held your breath... There's no way you'd forgive them." - Goblin Slayer
Humans: largely a decadent people that enjoys their safe walled havens. Threats have largely faded from living memory and most see the savage races not as a danger but a curiosity. A few humans even have a tamed savage they keep a a pet.
Orc lives matter
Nah fam