Post by Sidera on Sept 28, 2016 2:58:20 GMT
I will start by prefacing this as being by no means a fully realised or planned world. I just wanted to get my starting point, idea, out there for feedback and ideas to help fill in the blanks and help me progress from this point to being on route to a fully realised world.
My main idea comes from a catastrophic event in the past of the world causing a friction between those with magic and those without.
At the beginning of the world it was filled with purely magical races that doted upon the gods for the gift of magic, for it was the gods that allowed them this gift.
The elves used it for research, a race with a rich history and lore. Elves were predominantly intellectuals, their power coming from knowledge passed down generations via schooling and the largest library in the land. The elves also worshipped and appreciated nature, and chose to live surrounded in it, besides a deep respect for the natural world the forests also were a source of the wood needed to create their precious books. They were however careful with their interactions with the forest, understanding that using its resources requires a give and take.
The dwarves used magic for construction, ways to better develop weaponry and to take the most they could from the land. The dwarves being an impulsive and impatient folk they did not find time for reading like the haughty elves, they passed down skills via the word of parent to child. If your parents were miners it was already decided you would be too before you even uttered your first word. Dwarvish history was filled with the proud accomplishments of the families themselves that were spread by word of mouth and through stories told in taverns, tales that often got out of hand and rarely ever ended up resembling anything like the original. But to the dwarves that was the fun of it; they always wanted things bigger, better and more exciting.
Naturally this caused friction between the elves and the dwarves as their two ways of life were very different, and the elves were especially irked by the way the dwarves treated the land which caused many a battle between them. But both races eventually did one thing, outgrow the gods. It got to the point that the magic of the races was so highly advanced that they forgot about the gods seeing it as if they were a power unto themselves.
It was at this point the sickness came, and without the power of their people's prayers the gods power had weakened and they were unable to protect them.
The sickness fed on the magic of the creatures infecting person after person causing the races once great power to become their greatest weakness. Towns soon fell and the infection viciously spread. It seemed to originate from deep in the ground where the dwarves had delved creeping out of the shadows and so the elves blamed them. The dwarves abandoned their mineshafts and retreated into the mountains to try to escape a foe they could not fight. But then fallen towns filled with dead began to rise again filling the world with the rotting corpses of the dead reaching out to those that were still living, bringing the sickness. This forced the elves to burn any towns that were to fall to stop the tide of dead, tainted books from their libraries were excellent kindling, and so much of their treasured knowledge was lost. Both races were brought again to their knees and humbled by their weakness they began once more to pray. Although the gods were still weak they mustered their strength together to create something new, something to help them, and thus were born humans.
Humans were non magical creatures and therefore immune to the sickness, they were to be the gods answer to the people's prayers, they would help them.
The dwarves were insulted that instead of directly aiding them in battle the gods have created a new young and weaker creature to take away their glory, they lose trust in the gods and hide out in the mountains whilst beginning to focus on technology and other non magical ways to defeat the sickness.
The elves saw the humans as allies of sorts and thank the gods. They tend to them like they did the forest and raise them in their image. But of course humans are humans and often not as calm, collected and logical as elves not to mention their non magical lifespan is much shorter so they often act out and wish for more fun and frivolity, more short term goals than their lifetime wasted in an endless education. The elves see this as flaws in the humans and worry that they can't control and manage them like the forest and the other creatures within, humans aren't as learned as them and are weak short living creatures new to the land. With the sickness creeping forth across the land some elves begin to get desperate and use their knowledge to imbue humanity with the strength of nature, creatures of the forest the elves know and can understand. Thus the beastfolk are created. The elves, beastfolk and humanity (even some half elves by this point with humanity and elvish kind living in such close proximity these things happen) are then involved in a final standoff with the sickness as it creeps onto their final stronghold which seemingly causes the end to the elves (but in fact a few young elves are left behind without the lore of knowledge and escape across the sea).
This leaves the beastfolk, humanity, some half elves and the dwarves as survivors of the sickness. Dwarves are distrustful of humanity and humanity are the only creatures left with a respect for the gods.
In the future humanity cannot have access to magic except through religious means although if they choose to they can join a gnomish school of magic (gnomes don't distrust humanity but I'm not sure how to include them in the lore except they still are proud of magic and use it in modern times) to learn wizardry. This is rare and it is hard for humans to learn any type of magic but some can be jealous of the magic races and wish to have that skill however they can't do anything that requires innate magic. Humans due to short lifespans/turnover and the tumultuous start of their species don't have full facts of what happened before especially to the elves and although half elves are around they are more like distant relatives of elves rather than actual half elves, but elvish blood runs strong and they retain some elvish features making them seem exotic to any humans who meet them. Half Orc's were created when Orc's saw what the elves were doing with humanity at the start and stole humans from their flock hoping to strengthen their bloodlines against the sickness so they exist. Dunno how I'll fit in other creatures, I'm throwing about Tieflings being creatures that some how fought off the sickness but became imbued with an element of the shadowfell or even babies coming from mothers killed by the sickness, or human mothers not being killed by the sickness but their child being changed due to an innate magic in the creation of a new life. I'm completely unsure as to what to do about halflings but the idea of the world is before the sickness it would be a pretty much a typical fantasy world with the usual baddies and races. After all the drama humans and beastfolk tend to live in the wasteland that was abandoned and dwarves and other magic races live beyond the mountain range controlled by the dwarves and have their own little haven as there aren't a huge amount of them, definitely culled from when they were at their best but it will have been a decent amount of time so things will have built back up.
The sickness is meant to be a leakage of the Shadowfell, or whatever I decide to call my equivalent, over to the main world/plane. It starts by creeping from shadowy portals under ground killing off the creatures in its path and then creating undead to help spread the death, disease and destruction across the land making way for the shadowfell to further 'glitch' into this realm bringing shadow creatures and darkness to take over. If the sickness comes again in the future shadar-kai will be humans taken from the main realm and twisted to fight for the realm of shadow. I'm not sure why this is a thing, could be a god vengeful at the ungratefulness of the races because they have turned their back on them or some evil person trying to bring the shadow plane onto the main plane. In this world when the gods aren't worshipped they lose their power. Also when the sickness started the 'baddies'/ dangerous creatures of the world become more active as they also flee from the sickness so one of the first signs is having more trouble from them.
My setting would be far after the sickness and be based in the world without too much knowledge of its past. Normal adventures but as the players level up drop in some hints of the lore and eventually have them have their final big bad battle as stopping the shadowfell seeping into the world as it once did and the world repeating past mistakes. They could do things like discover the elves are still alive somewhere but are more primal than they once were having had to start from scratch without their books, find the lost mines and recover someone who ventured in there etc.
Thoughts? how to include other races? is it any good? What sort of adventures would fit this kind of world? Where should I go from here? I feel like I'm good at making the big picture but struggle on the little details and individual stories and adventures for the players outside this main huge plot so ideas to help me with that would be great. No idea if this has turned into nonsense as I've been writing as its now 4am here and my eyes are closing of their own accord so forgive me if stuff doesn't make full sense in places, I just wanted to post it whilst I had all this running around my head!
TL;DR
Gods creates magic races magic races thanked gods for magic. Magic races got too full of themselves with their magic power and forget about the gods. A sickness comes which prays on magic killing off lots of magic folk. Magic folk get desperate and pray to the gods again. Gods create humans a non magic folk to help them in their battle against the sickness. Magic folk take this the wrong way: dwarves are insulted that the glory of battle is now given to these new beings and lose trust in the gods and the elves use the humans to create stronger beastfolk to aid them. Sickness is defeated but at the seeming cost of the elves and the dwarves are wholey distrustful of humans still. Beastfolk roam the world and only the humans still worship the gods. Help me with what do do with this background info now!
My main idea comes from a catastrophic event in the past of the world causing a friction between those with magic and those without.
At the beginning of the world it was filled with purely magical races that doted upon the gods for the gift of magic, for it was the gods that allowed them this gift.
The elves used it for research, a race with a rich history and lore. Elves were predominantly intellectuals, their power coming from knowledge passed down generations via schooling and the largest library in the land. The elves also worshipped and appreciated nature, and chose to live surrounded in it, besides a deep respect for the natural world the forests also were a source of the wood needed to create their precious books. They were however careful with their interactions with the forest, understanding that using its resources requires a give and take.
The dwarves used magic for construction, ways to better develop weaponry and to take the most they could from the land. The dwarves being an impulsive and impatient folk they did not find time for reading like the haughty elves, they passed down skills via the word of parent to child. If your parents were miners it was already decided you would be too before you even uttered your first word. Dwarvish history was filled with the proud accomplishments of the families themselves that were spread by word of mouth and through stories told in taverns, tales that often got out of hand and rarely ever ended up resembling anything like the original. But to the dwarves that was the fun of it; they always wanted things bigger, better and more exciting.
Naturally this caused friction between the elves and the dwarves as their two ways of life were very different, and the elves were especially irked by the way the dwarves treated the land which caused many a battle between them. But both races eventually did one thing, outgrow the gods. It got to the point that the magic of the races was so highly advanced that they forgot about the gods seeing it as if they were a power unto themselves.
It was at this point the sickness came, and without the power of their people's prayers the gods power had weakened and they were unable to protect them.
The sickness fed on the magic of the creatures infecting person after person causing the races once great power to become their greatest weakness. Towns soon fell and the infection viciously spread. It seemed to originate from deep in the ground where the dwarves had delved creeping out of the shadows and so the elves blamed them. The dwarves abandoned their mineshafts and retreated into the mountains to try to escape a foe they could not fight. But then fallen towns filled with dead began to rise again filling the world with the rotting corpses of the dead reaching out to those that were still living, bringing the sickness. This forced the elves to burn any towns that were to fall to stop the tide of dead, tainted books from their libraries were excellent kindling, and so much of their treasured knowledge was lost. Both races were brought again to their knees and humbled by their weakness they began once more to pray. Although the gods were still weak they mustered their strength together to create something new, something to help them, and thus were born humans.
Humans were non magical creatures and therefore immune to the sickness, they were to be the gods answer to the people's prayers, they would help them.
The dwarves were insulted that instead of directly aiding them in battle the gods have created a new young and weaker creature to take away their glory, they lose trust in the gods and hide out in the mountains whilst beginning to focus on technology and other non magical ways to defeat the sickness.
The elves saw the humans as allies of sorts and thank the gods. They tend to them like they did the forest and raise them in their image. But of course humans are humans and often not as calm, collected and logical as elves not to mention their non magical lifespan is much shorter so they often act out and wish for more fun and frivolity, more short term goals than their lifetime wasted in an endless education. The elves see this as flaws in the humans and worry that they can't control and manage them like the forest and the other creatures within, humans aren't as learned as them and are weak short living creatures new to the land. With the sickness creeping forth across the land some elves begin to get desperate and use their knowledge to imbue humanity with the strength of nature, creatures of the forest the elves know and can understand. Thus the beastfolk are created. The elves, beastfolk and humanity (even some half elves by this point with humanity and elvish kind living in such close proximity these things happen) are then involved in a final standoff with the sickness as it creeps onto their final stronghold which seemingly causes the end to the elves (but in fact a few young elves are left behind without the lore of knowledge and escape across the sea).
This leaves the beastfolk, humanity, some half elves and the dwarves as survivors of the sickness. Dwarves are distrustful of humanity and humanity are the only creatures left with a respect for the gods.
In the future humanity cannot have access to magic except through religious means although if they choose to they can join a gnomish school of magic (gnomes don't distrust humanity but I'm not sure how to include them in the lore except they still are proud of magic and use it in modern times) to learn wizardry. This is rare and it is hard for humans to learn any type of magic but some can be jealous of the magic races and wish to have that skill however they can't do anything that requires innate magic. Humans due to short lifespans/turnover and the tumultuous start of their species don't have full facts of what happened before especially to the elves and although half elves are around they are more like distant relatives of elves rather than actual half elves, but elvish blood runs strong and they retain some elvish features making them seem exotic to any humans who meet them. Half Orc's were created when Orc's saw what the elves were doing with humanity at the start and stole humans from their flock hoping to strengthen their bloodlines against the sickness so they exist. Dunno how I'll fit in other creatures, I'm throwing about Tieflings being creatures that some how fought off the sickness but became imbued with an element of the shadowfell or even babies coming from mothers killed by the sickness, or human mothers not being killed by the sickness but their child being changed due to an innate magic in the creation of a new life. I'm completely unsure as to what to do about halflings but the idea of the world is before the sickness it would be a pretty much a typical fantasy world with the usual baddies and races. After all the drama humans and beastfolk tend to live in the wasteland that was abandoned and dwarves and other magic races live beyond the mountain range controlled by the dwarves and have their own little haven as there aren't a huge amount of them, definitely culled from when they were at their best but it will have been a decent amount of time so things will have built back up.
The sickness is meant to be a leakage of the Shadowfell, or whatever I decide to call my equivalent, over to the main world/plane. It starts by creeping from shadowy portals under ground killing off the creatures in its path and then creating undead to help spread the death, disease and destruction across the land making way for the shadowfell to further 'glitch' into this realm bringing shadow creatures and darkness to take over. If the sickness comes again in the future shadar-kai will be humans taken from the main realm and twisted to fight for the realm of shadow. I'm not sure why this is a thing, could be a god vengeful at the ungratefulness of the races because they have turned their back on them or some evil person trying to bring the shadow plane onto the main plane. In this world when the gods aren't worshipped they lose their power. Also when the sickness started the 'baddies'/ dangerous creatures of the world become more active as they also flee from the sickness so one of the first signs is having more trouble from them.
My setting would be far after the sickness and be based in the world without too much knowledge of its past. Normal adventures but as the players level up drop in some hints of the lore and eventually have them have their final big bad battle as stopping the shadowfell seeping into the world as it once did and the world repeating past mistakes. They could do things like discover the elves are still alive somewhere but are more primal than they once were having had to start from scratch without their books, find the lost mines and recover someone who ventured in there etc.
Thoughts? how to include other races? is it any good? What sort of adventures would fit this kind of world? Where should I go from here? I feel like I'm good at making the big picture but struggle on the little details and individual stories and adventures for the players outside this main huge plot so ideas to help me with that would be great. No idea if this has turned into nonsense as I've been writing as its now 4am here and my eyes are closing of their own accord so forgive me if stuff doesn't make full sense in places, I just wanted to post it whilst I had all this running around my head!
TL;DR
Gods creates magic races magic races thanked gods for magic. Magic races got too full of themselves with their magic power and forget about the gods. A sickness comes which prays on magic killing off lots of magic folk. Magic folk get desperate and pray to the gods again. Gods create humans a non magic folk to help them in their battle against the sickness. Magic folk take this the wrong way: dwarves are insulted that the glory of battle is now given to these new beings and lose trust in the gods and the elves use the humans to create stronger beastfolk to aid them. Sickness is defeated but at the seeming cost of the elves and the dwarves are wholey distrustful of humans still. Beastfolk roam the world and only the humans still worship the gods. Help me with what do do with this background info now!
