Post by cptpipebeard on Nov 27, 2016 2:50:18 GMT
Hey guys, I have been working on this world I thought of, something I have never done with a D&D/Pathfinder (not sure if I'll end up using 5E or Pathfinder, depends on when I get the 5E books,) before.
How do you guys go about making a world? Do you start with a creation myth? Just make a landmass and give it some history? So far I have been working on this idea off and on for the last few months after feeling the need to re read The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell of a fantasy world set in a Dark Ages type setting. I mean less high middle ages and more like post fall of the Roman Empire. In this world I have been making, and you can see how much in its infancy that I haven't given it a name yet, the present the players would be in is a time where the second great empire is on the verge of collapsing, the first empire was an empire of elves which spanned the known world, but collapsed after an event contemporary historians call "The Great Arrogance." The current empire is an empire of humans in a time I am currently calling The Age of Men until I can think of a better name. I have determined that the calendar doesn't end an era until a great empire falls, so the previous era is the Age of Elves.
What the Great Arrogance is exactly, I haven't quite ironed out what would enrage the gods so much that they would devastate a race and make some of their former children become twisted reflections of themselves.
I know what happened to the elves when their nation fell thousands of years ago, being that their nation fell apart almost overnight, the gods pulled cities underground and cursed said cities inhabitants to never have a divine link, or use divine magic, their descendants would never be able to cast divine magic either, the cities became independent, often warring states. Pacts with abyssal, or infernal forces, depends on the city led many of them to become twisted versions of what they once were. I know currently I have two cities which aren't all demonic and obvious drow, one of which, and I'm not entirely sold on the idea of it, is that its a city of the drow trying to live as a poor reflection of the pride and grace they once were, and the other was more of a city run by what you could simply refer to as early scientists/wizards tinkering with things superstitious people would say is a bad idea. Thats just how drow came to be, the ordinary elves, I just have currently that regular elves are dying off. Its hard to say it without resorting to NSFW terms, but elves cannot make more elves, however half elves can come about just fine. I want to do more with it than just that, but I did want a theme is that their race is one cursed and fragmented, but I don't want to have all the little subtypes like water elves, and such.
Taking advice from the podcast, I have been thinking of an idea where the players would start off on an island far to the northwest which has the ruins of an elven city on its northwest shore near the base of a range of active volcanoes. I was going to call them The Three Sisters, and then I remembered those islands from A Song of Ice and Fire, so that names out the window. The people are a very pragmatic sort, who pay their dues to the Jarl. They believe that being a tall person makes you automatically more respected than a short person since if you're tall, you clearly have a better life expectancy. I'm going for a more hard sort of folk who live here.
This island only has two, three if you count a wizards tower a few miles to the north, settlements: the village of Wort, the town of Svarfning, and Damedils Tower. The village's chief export is in its name, while the town is the home to Jarl Gunnar Ragnarsson The Dire Wolf and serves as a port for the longboats in times of raiding. I'll admit I was doing some blatant trope defying by making the wizard in a tower not some old guy with a long white beard, but instead an elf or drow. Haven't decided which one there, but I wanted it to be someone who might consider and possibly act out doing horrible things to anyone who learned their true identity.
A pantheon, not sure what one to use, or to make my own. I am not one hundred percent sold on using the Pathfinder one since it doesn't fit the setting well, and I only know a few Forgotten Realms gods like the Red Knight, Tyr and Lathander.
The Human Empire I don't know what to do with since I don't just want pseudo-Romans, regardless on how cool Romans are, and they are pretty awesome. I know I want them to be decadent, perhaps the nobles/patricians try to emulate their elf predecessors in some ways, make themselves look like elves, or something.
That's what I had so far. I have been trying to answer questions I ask myself on things I wrote above like why is there two non evil cities of drow, one of which is full of mad/super scientists and the other is a bunch of people stuck in the past, or when do they (the jarl and his shieldwall) raid? how often? How successful is it? is being part of the party mandatory for people who are old enough/able bodied? Obviously I haven't begun to put any thought into like Dwarves, gnomes, orcs and such which I can only say is because my players if they aren't being what I call an oddball race (ratfolk, goblins, kolbolds, suli, etc) they usually do human, half elf, half orc or full on elf. I have been having trouble answering my own questions.
How do you guys go about making a world? Do you start with a creation myth? Just make a landmass and give it some history? So far I have been working on this idea off and on for the last few months after feeling the need to re read The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell of a fantasy world set in a Dark Ages type setting. I mean less high middle ages and more like post fall of the Roman Empire. In this world I have been making, and you can see how much in its infancy that I haven't given it a name yet, the present the players would be in is a time where the second great empire is on the verge of collapsing, the first empire was an empire of elves which spanned the known world, but collapsed after an event contemporary historians call "The Great Arrogance." The current empire is an empire of humans in a time I am currently calling The Age of Men until I can think of a better name. I have determined that the calendar doesn't end an era until a great empire falls, so the previous era is the Age of Elves.
What the Great Arrogance is exactly, I haven't quite ironed out what would enrage the gods so much that they would devastate a race and make some of their former children become twisted reflections of themselves.
I know what happened to the elves when their nation fell thousands of years ago, being that their nation fell apart almost overnight, the gods pulled cities underground and cursed said cities inhabitants to never have a divine link, or use divine magic, their descendants would never be able to cast divine magic either, the cities became independent, often warring states. Pacts with abyssal, or infernal forces, depends on the city led many of them to become twisted versions of what they once were. I know currently I have two cities which aren't all demonic and obvious drow, one of which, and I'm not entirely sold on the idea of it, is that its a city of the drow trying to live as a poor reflection of the pride and grace they once were, and the other was more of a city run by what you could simply refer to as early scientists/wizards tinkering with things superstitious people would say is a bad idea. Thats just how drow came to be, the ordinary elves, I just have currently that regular elves are dying off. Its hard to say it without resorting to NSFW terms, but elves cannot make more elves, however half elves can come about just fine. I want to do more with it than just that, but I did want a theme is that their race is one cursed and fragmented, but I don't want to have all the little subtypes like water elves, and such.
Taking advice from the podcast, I have been thinking of an idea where the players would start off on an island far to the northwest which has the ruins of an elven city on its northwest shore near the base of a range of active volcanoes. I was going to call them The Three Sisters, and then I remembered those islands from A Song of Ice and Fire, so that names out the window. The people are a very pragmatic sort, who pay their dues to the Jarl. They believe that being a tall person makes you automatically more respected than a short person since if you're tall, you clearly have a better life expectancy. I'm going for a more hard sort of folk who live here.
This island only has two, three if you count a wizards tower a few miles to the north, settlements: the village of Wort, the town of Svarfning, and Damedils Tower. The village's chief export is in its name, while the town is the home to Jarl Gunnar Ragnarsson The Dire Wolf and serves as a port for the longboats in times of raiding. I'll admit I was doing some blatant trope defying by making the wizard in a tower not some old guy with a long white beard, but instead an elf or drow. Haven't decided which one there, but I wanted it to be someone who might consider and possibly act out doing horrible things to anyone who learned their true identity.
A pantheon, not sure what one to use, or to make my own. I am not one hundred percent sold on using the Pathfinder one since it doesn't fit the setting well, and I only know a few Forgotten Realms gods like the Red Knight, Tyr and Lathander.
The Human Empire I don't know what to do with since I don't just want pseudo-Romans, regardless on how cool Romans are, and they are pretty awesome. I know I want them to be decadent, perhaps the nobles/patricians try to emulate their elf predecessors in some ways, make themselves look like elves, or something.
That's what I had so far. I have been trying to answer questions I ask myself on things I wrote above like why is there two non evil cities of drow, one of which is full of mad/super scientists and the other is a bunch of people stuck in the past, or when do they (the jarl and his shieldwall) raid? how often? How successful is it? is being part of the party mandatory for people who are old enough/able bodied? Obviously I haven't begun to put any thought into like Dwarves, gnomes, orcs and such which I can only say is because my players if they aren't being what I call an oddball race (ratfolk, goblins, kolbolds, suli, etc) they usually do human, half elf, half orc or full on elf. I have been having trouble answering my own questions.
