Keys & Kingdoms Fundraiser Extras

I've finished a long project which started almost two years ago: many, many generic character models for Keys & Kingdoms to demonstrate the ten core species of people in the setting. I remember long ago I had a brainstorming session with Naty, McKenzie, and Stacy, having them muse about what such generic examples would look like. Then over time I had those figures designed by Maria Yasen, a freelancer I found on Fiverr; here's her Instagram!

I call them "fundraiser extras" because I intend to use them as examples in an upcoming Keys & Kingdoms fundraiser -- donors of a certain tier will be allowed to design their own background character, and they'd need examples for all possibilities!

We started with three pairs of each species: one pair of warrior types, one of nature types, one of magic types. Each pair a man and a woman, or close enough. For certain species, I decided we needed four pairs to better display the species' diversity, in which case the magic types would be split into divine and arcane magic types.

Once we had all those pairs, I chose which pair of each species seemed the most "generic", to be the initial examples. And those were put out in August 2024:

And since then we've been working on the other duos bit by bit, which have been going into this playlist explaining how I'm adapting the species to a D&D 5E homebrew game. We finished all the duos this week, so here's a little presentation. Just setting them all in little picture frames, and... making them roughly to scale with each other.

The Keys & Kingdoms universe, as I'm sure you're aware by now, is based on the idea of "Dungeons & Dragons meets Disney", and so I'll go over all that inspired them as well as some semblance of their "statistics"; I still don't know how the game system will work for, like, actual statistics. Abilities are all inherent to the creature's biology/magic, never implied to just be cultural. Maria never took all of my instructions, so most of these pics don't entirely match the K&K vision, but, close enough.

Inspiration: Humans are the baseline people of the setting as they are in most fantasy settings. Their statistics in this universe take some inspiration from things that make humans unique as animals.

Size: Medium -- average 5'4" to 5'10".

Statistics: Endurance, aim with thrown objects, versatility (extra skills and feats, for whatever that'll mean).

Inspiration: While there's little elf lore to speak of in any Disney content, it didn't seem right to have a high fantasy setting with no elves. Some inspiration was taken from the Atlanteans of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Stats were chosen to make them a bit more inherently magical than you see in D&D.

Size: Medium -- average 5'9".

Statistics: Keen hearing and sight, low-light vision, resistance to charm magic. High elves: Magic resistance, innate sorcery, minor teleportation ability. Wood elves: Speed, stealth, camouflage. Dark elves: Darkvision, magic of fire and darkness.

Inspiration: Dwarves appeared prominently in the first Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As such, they're more like fairytale dwarfs than the bigger, sturdier dwarves of high fantasy, with some of the powers implied in Norse mythology.

Size: Small -- average 3'2" to 3'5".

Statistics: Low-light vision, sturdy and stout for being Small, poison resistance, command over earth and fire. Mountain dwarves: Resistance to cold and magic. Hill dwarves: Keen daylight vision, extra toughness. Gray dwarves: Darkvision, poison immunity, invisibility.

Inspiration: Merfolk of course appear in The Little Mermaid, so I knew they had to be core in a Disney-based RPG. In D&D they're always kinda there, but never given any focus.

Size: Medium -- average 6'1" to 6'8".

Statistics: Dismal land speed but fast swimming, breathe in air and water, supernatural beauty, animal telepathy.

Inspiration: On the list because of Tinker Bell and her little spin-off franchise. Their D&D version is heavily toned down to be more in the vein of a playable character, but that's where we derive the notion that they have specifically butterfly wings.

Size: Diminutive -- average 0'9".

Statistics: Flight, weather resistance, magic resistance, light, invisibility, innate magic and strength depending on season or time of day.

Inspiration: Funny animals like Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, or straight-up furries like the cast of Robin Hood, among other things. A single race to represent any kind of anthro animal you want to be, with reasonable restrictions. D&D was going to do something similar based on the celestial guardinals, but I think that idea's been scrapped for now. Called "natives" on the grounds that they would be the first people of the setting, because the world of animation got started with funny animals.

Size: Small, Medium, or Large -- anywhere from 2'2" to 9'6", depending on the size of the animal they resemble.

Statistics: Weak bite or claw attacks, slight weather resistance, luck, courage.

Inspiration: Myshkas are based on the little civilized rodents you see on the fringes of human society in such films as The Rescuers, The Great Mouse Detective, and some of the best non-Disney animation of the 80s. It'll be vital in the system for tiny creatures to be realistic but viable!

Size: Diminutive -- average 1'0".

Statistics: Keen smell, low-light vision, piercing bite, communication with rodents.

Inspiration: Syrsas are here to represent a key character, Jiminy Cricket. Only they actually look like insects.

Size: Diminutive -- average 1'0".

Statistics: Flight, infravision, piercing bite or sting, claw attack, extra arms, communication with insects, cold-blooded, torpor.

Inspiration: Fairies from early fairy tales such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty; definitely a core aspect of the setting. The "Children of Oberon" from Gargoyles are also a race of fair folk, depicted as creatures of pure magical energy, shapeshifters, and also the entities who inspired the gods and spirits of all world mythologies -- so most of fairies' true nature in this setting were derived from that.

Size: Small or Medium -- any size within that range, being shapeshifters.

Statistics: Shapeshifting to change appearance or for natural attacks, can develop into flight or extra arms, cold iron weakness, sleepless, vulnerability to antimagic, "pure fey" form, unique spells.

Inspiration: Naturally, gargoyles are inspired by the gargoyles from the show Gargoyles. I made an effort not to entirely rip off the robust lore from that show. As such, they also take a good bit of inspiration from D&D's tieflings and gith.

Size: Medium -- average 5'9" to 7'4".

Statistics: Climbing, gliding, darkvision, powerful claws, prehensile tail, high jump, weather resistance, glowing eyes, stone sleep.

For a bit of a mea culpa moment, I definitely put too many of the women in skimpy outfits. I abide by the brand of feminism where, in a world of total gender equality, women can wear whatever they want, and that in a world of complete safety from any sort of judgment or actual danger, most would in fact dress pretty sexy. But I always keep in mind that some would instead express themselves by dressing modestly and, yeah, seeing all the fundraiser extras lined up, I clearly didn't do that enough here.