me and my best friend build quite a lot of worlds. some months ago we had our focus on a world of cavemen. it is yet to be finished and refined.
the idea was of a brutal and a primordial world where things are solved by raw strength, a wild unexplored world. we were building this world as an idea for an MMO and just generally to have fun with our creativity.
for our caveman fantasy setting we set aside logic regarding biology and evolution, replaced it with magic of the gods, who actually play a big role. due to the complexity of the prehistoric real world we are not trying to portray it.
i don't remember all of the concepts we have discussed, it's all lost to erased skype convesations long ago... but here are a few things from the top of my head that i can share about the brutal and savage world.
races
two major races in the setting are humans and orcs. they are both primitive and both races are divided into two groups of straight-backed individuals and another of brutish troglodytes (think these guys from this amazing animation ).
other races may include mountain dwelling dwarves (but i remember none of them). there is also room for potential "brutal" elves, but they haven't been discussed.
humans and orcs have lifestyles that are very similar, because they do not surpass one another in intelligence. they are not static races of idiots (not counting the troglodytes), they just live in a world of danger at every corner, a world ruled by strength. they live and die, progress is really slow. the true differences between the orcs and humans come in their choices of habitat and their racial gods.
technology and culture
first of all i'd like to say that there is no advanced agriculture. the primary source of food is hunting and gathering, secondary is cannibalism that mostly occurs during war between the tribes.
many tribes figured out how to build villages, but there are many more who are yet to leave the caves, mostly due to the dangers of the "outside". troglodytes, the brutes, are not at all willing to build villages, and actually prefer to live in the homes given to them by nature, rather than build them.
tribes that live near waters have learned to build boats.
generally, both orc and human tribes either consist purely out of their straight-backed species or their brutish ones. there are exceptions, however, as some tribes have learned to tame others (to tame troglodytes, much like animals) and have become mixed, consisting of two "subraces". in these cases, the dumb troglodytes are used as shocktroops.
both orcs and men use weapons made out of stone or sharpened bones, also spears and arrows. some desperate individuals limit themselves to rocks from the ground. the most advanced weaponry within the world of men and orcs is made out of bronze, but is very uncommon.
both races have learned to tame and breed animals, to use them in combat, as mounts or for food.
religion and gods
religion plays a large role in the societies because the gods exist and they can curse or bless their followers. there are deities representing all kinds of brutal acts and natural occurrences, to mention few: god of cannibalism, god of skinning, god of bones, god of thunder, etc.
tribes generally worship a single deity, whom they consider to be superior to all others. the deities, much like the world, are brutal and dark, but they are fair and bestow superhuman powers and magical strengths upon the greatest of their champions. it is not hard to imagine what the god of cannibalism would ask from his worshipers, and so is with other gods in this setting.
one individual god that i can remember is a "god in the dead tree". i do not remember his trait, but in the setting he has a physical form: he takes the form of a gigantic tree in the world, towering over all others of its kind, engulfing everything below in great eternal night.
wildlife
dinosaurs, fantasy giants (they are not as organized as orcs or humans), giant insects, mammals. many giant predators, all pose great danger to humans and orcs. won't go into detail here.
there are also many great predatory plants that have a habit of preying on bypassing bipedals.
