So we made a new expansion for our TTRPG The Magical Land of Yeld. The Elves of Yeld is all about these horrible little monsters that in the distant past committed terrible war crimes and so were banished underground for thousands of years until everyone forgot they even existed. But now they're back and worse than ever, and all they want is revenge. And of course, they're just cats. Evil cats.
I honestly had a lot of fun with this expansion. I got to write up a whole society of evil cats, and how after they started a war that almost destroyed the whole world they were banished deep underground and just got so much worse. They have a civil war. They adopt a really toxic caste system. They spend centuries oppressing and preying on each other. And all they want is revenge on their enemies. Even though they were the ones who were awful little twits and made life miserable for everyone else to begin with. Bad guys always project. But... when they finally return to the surface of Yeld as an invading army with smoke billowing war machines and flame spitting siege engines... they discover that all their old enemies are dead. Long dead, for thousands of years. No one remembers them. Even the god-like Old Witch they used to worship is long dead! The Elves are alone, except for their hate.
And now the individual Elves are questioning everything they ever knew. What point is living for revenge, when your enemies are dead? Why suffer under an oppressive and fascist cat government when Yeld is vast and has plenty of food and space for everyone? Why return to the smoky and toxic underground cities when you can live and hunt under the fresh bright sky! So Yeld's Elves are a horrible invading army of cruel and vicious cats armed with guns... who are suddenly discovering that they DON'T have to be that way. They're still cats, so they're still going to cat. But maybe fostering hate and anger isn't actually any way to live?
Anyway, this expansion was a lot of fun to work on. And the art was fun to draw! I'm eager to start adding Elves to some other Yeld projects! The expansion is available as a PDF from the Yeld Store, itch.io and DrivethruRPG. You can also pre-order a physical copy from the Yeld: 2nd Edition Backrkit Pre-Order store (it will ship in October). Nick and I run a very small company, so we'd love your support! - Jake
