Arthe (setting)

Arthe is an RP setting created by Baron Joshua (Harbertia on NS) as one of his many slice of life projects.
==Baron Joshua on Arthe==
Arthe started with of all things a frustrated discussion with Robert Reagan (Avalon on NS) over the World of Zid setting. Robert had noticed that Zid was a, in his words, racist setting with ages named after the era's dominant species and the various forms of sentient life not being capable of reproducing with one another giving credence to the various acts of genocide, abuse, etc the various sentient beings of the World of Zid faced. He found this 'justification' unacceptable and insisted that I redo the species to be more Human (akin to what is known as Monster Girls) so they could reproduce or give some, like Dragons, the power to shapeshift into a Human form (them being celestrial guardians).
I told him I understand the issue but feel that Zid is that type of fantasy world (and that redoing the races wouldn't be fair to the other players who have expanded the setting over the years), and proposed that together we create a setting akin to what he wanted to have a game in. He proposed I work on his personal setting of Avalon but I told him that certain aspects of Avalon, like Zid to him, disturb me and we had a falling out.
Regardless the seeds for what would become Arthe had been sowed by Robert. Even while we where on bad terms I began to work on the idea while he too went to work on his own project. This new setting did not have a name until Bingellia via Discord suggested Arthe and thus the project was given a name.
I personally see the Monster Girls genre as interesting in it's concept of near human life but disturbing in it's abundance of rape culture, and it's exclusion of the straight female and homosexual male demographics. Monster Boys are generally rare or absent in the genre- with most works in the genre giving males (if any) the more traditional monster appearance only to make them less appealing to the females of their own kind and thus to promote the Human-Monster dynamic. I for one have been interested in the social aspects as well as the biological but find the genre's focus on permeating sexual themes through out the fiction to be deplorable.
Thus with Arthe I've aimed to create a less sexualized yet romantic enabled setting with both male and female near human yet inhuman species where the cultures, lore, biology, and sociological implications can be explored. This means the monster iterations while they may be familiar to fans of the Monster Girls genre are less sexualized iterations and like a proper species not exclusive to men nor woman having both to proliferate the species. As per Robert's suggestion every sentient creature on Arthe is reproductively compatible with one another allowing for none adoptive families to form diminishing racial tensions. It is my hope that under these conditions a slice of life in this world can be experienced by players in an enjoyable environment where one can simply be friends if they want to be.
Additionally Arthe has been engineered to be a more socially liberal and politically libertarian setting then many of my former works which have a noticeable authoritarian and conservative leaning. In Modern Mythos Camp Relight was created by a none antagonist organization (Renaissance) seeking to restore the planet's various demigod monarchies and establish a hierarchy of Gods > Demigods > Monsters > Humans with player characters training to serve that organization's goals. Such is just one example of my previous works Authoritarian- perhaps reactionary- leanings which I aim to not include in Arthe. Such is why the main RPs are to take place in the fictional nation of Austranica which has been described as a socially liberal politically democratic state. Austranica is not the only state in the world, and RP hosts are free to host their RPs in another state but Austranica is the main focus of the RPs. It's meant to be a combination of Australia, Canada, and America (USA) for the sake of player familiarity and in achieving a more liberal environment with in which to explore interspecies social interaction in the building of mutual relationships.
Category:Arthe