Avoid common faction stereotypes

By this, I mean avoid the basic good vs evil paradigm that we have been dealing with forever and then some. Give use a side of good that has some not so nice parts.



For example, take the nature using tree hugging elves, but make it so they corrupt whatever they use. A tree that they turn into a walking engine of destruction also loses all its leaves, its bark starts to peel off and it reeks of its own death. A tiger's fur would become course and matted, it would cut whoever touched it. Its own supercharged metabolism would eat it alive literally. They can use natural things, but in doing so, they are what they want to fight. And they knowingly do this even with things they use commonly like treehouses and such.



Give us a cabal of devil summoners who use the demon's power to further their own purposes, but in doing so, allow the only free society to flourish. They sell their souls and sacrifice others to protect their own.



I would like factions who go beyond cut and dry good vs evil Tolkien inspired stuff.|||Agree. I've mentioned some other atypical stuff in the non-standard fantasy suggestion thread.



Breaking the bounds of contemporary fantasy with massive Tolkein influences would greatly help setting your gameverse apart.



Also, No ancient magic races please. Make the game set during the ancient race that fell to destruction, much more interesting, and you can justify breaking all of those castles. |||I am really jealous of the guy who gets to write all teh back story stuff. That is actually my dream job....



But yeah, using race stereotypes is not too bad, but try and not make it black and white. That doesnt happen in real life and I like to get away from it on occassion in my fantasy as well.|||Something I'd like to add, if there's a human faction (duh, there always is one, but in the event it isn't set in stone yet), make them align with one ethical theme. So they're either good, evil, or some combination of both (go for evil, that's more original than "all humans are pure and they're the saviors of this magical world"), don't have one pure and one corrupt human faction. That's been overdone so many times, for instance, Warhammer 40k.|||I always thought a benevolent tyranny would be fun to have running around. A guy who is trying to take over the world and control everything to try and end everything he sees as "evil.



And that is the problem with good vs evil splits, good and evil are subjective.|||seiya