The Mists of Keldora:
[ooc]I've been having a lot of trouble getting settings to "stick" in my head. The Mists of Keldora is a "throw it at the wall and hope it sticks" setting. The idea for this setting has been kicking around in my head for awhile. This setting is also going to be an X-20 setting, to give you a feel of where I'm coming from mechanically looking at this. If parts of this feel somewhat half written, it's because they are - as mentioned, I've been having a hell of a time writing lately, and I'm trying to just pick up a new thread when I get stuck. I'd greatly appreciate any questions and comments – lord knows I'll need them. Also, I'm open to suggestions for entire worlds beyond Keldora or holdings within.
Oh, and Verdant Apocalypse isn't dead, I just...I realized I had no where to go with it. I may mash it with my old Datrik setting as an explanation for why humanoids fled underground, or maybe inspiration will stick.
Apologies in advance for the poor writing. Please, view this as the extreme work of progress that it is...and while I always welcome constructive criticism, I am, for once, going to ask that people be gentle. Unless you feel this setting has no potential and don't want me to waste effort on it, in which case let me know. :P[/ooc]
Whatever life was like before the mists, it is so long gone that not even legends remember it. Others say it has creeped in over time like a tide, and will over the course of millennium recede only to return millennium later. Still more say we brought it upon our world - perhaps the elves wove the wrong spells, mankind offended the wrong gods, or the dwarves dug too greedily, too deep. No one knows, not anymore.
But it's source doesn't really matter, not really. The Mist is a part of life here on Keldora. Not the normal mists, the one you get after a rain or in the morning sun, the pale gray mists that still makes people shudder. These are the Mists, a silvery shimmery vapor that wells up from the ground or creeps out of the deep woods or climbs out of a pit left by a fallen star or bubbles out of a bog or lake. These are the Mists Between Worlds, which the elves call Lorthildurel or "The Veil Of The Paths," and which the dwarves call Duvmorz, "Death," which is the same as their word "Change."
But that is all flowery language that tells no truth, for the truth is not known to be told. What can be certain is the Mist is, and the creatures and worlds that it leads to - and most horribly, from - are as real as anything born of Keldora.
Mists of Keldora Overview
The Mists and Keldora are inexorably linked. Keldora is a fairly lush world inhabited by many of the fantasy standards - and the worlds beyond the mists hold many more of them as well as creatures of my own devising. Mists is a setting intended to service a few goals: I want planar travel to be mysterious and otherworldly, sort of science fantasy-ish with elements of Gothic and Lovecraftian horror thrown in. I also want a setting that is broad enough where the various weird ideas that pop into my head can be fit in someplace - a world beyond the mists - while still feeling coherent. Finally, despite the vastness offered by infinite connected worlds, each world is fairly contained, which keeps the biologist and anthropologist in me happy in explaining why all this extreme biodiversity exists. The mists are very much a work in progress and will feel as such - I just hope it's a FUN work in progress to read.
One thing I'm struggling with in particular is accessibility – I want there to be mystery and wonder and horror beyond the mists, but I don't want to be something that people never do. There are settlements of Keldorians beyond the mist. They aren't common, but they exist.
Keldora
Keldora is not the entirety of the setting - it's merely the most comfortable world for the players to start in, a world designed with the intent of providing a frame of reference. Geographically there's not much, beyond the Mists, that would surprise most people: rivers, trees, lakes, swamps, oceans, cities, all in roughly the same proportions that you'd find in the real world. Society takes one of two forms: People gather in settlements called Holdings ruled by a single figure or groups with small communities close enough to provide safety against the mists, and nomadic groups who's migrations are determined as much by avoiding the Mist as by any other need. The number of fantasy monsters is cut down from most settings – the world is populated by the more common humanoids, modern day animals, more animal-looking magical beasts, and some smaller giants and dragons. There is no underdark, though there are cave systems – something similar can be handled beyond the mists. The rests exist beyond the mists.
[ooc]Information about some particular holdings will go here.[/ooc]
Worlds and Creatures Beyond the Mists
[ooc]This is getting ideas down to just get stuff out. Not everything has a real name yet. If the world ends in the word "world", it's probably a placeholder. Same is true if the name of anything are just some descriptive English words. Note also here that "world" is a very loose term – what Keldorians believe to be three separate worlds may geographically be on a single world. Also, most worlds are actually the size of a nation, ranging from the smallest being the size of single cities to the largest being about the area of the Atlantic ocean. There are happy, peaceful worlds out there as well - will get them up later.[/ooc]
Guant World: The creatures of this world are known only across the Mists as The Guant Raiders, and while they appear as tall, slender, almost frail humanoids, they are powerful and possess magic that blends with technology into a strange, nightmarish fusion. They emerge from the mists with their strange weapons and strike without warning, retreating after obtaining whatever mysterious goal they sought...never once uttering a word. Some claim to have seen their world, a barren waste of spires of sickly gold dotting the ruins of what appears to have once been a great civilization, the ruins teeming with the Raiders.
The Hiveworld and Expansions 1-22: Whatever these worlds once were, they are now ruled by the Hive, a race of insectoid creatures that combine features of bees and ants with humanoid intelligence and expansionist tendencies. The Hive are not mindless automatons – each has an individual personality – but they are mostly loyal to their lesser Queens, who are loyal to the Great Queen on the Hiveworld. The exception is Expansion 7, where the members of the Hive met and bred with a native arachnid race and declared independence. On every hiveworld besides the Prime World, the natives mount a resistance against their conquerers.
The Bilayer World – The lush, verdant bottom half of this world is inhabited by beautiful but ultimately sadistic and evil while the sky continent is a wasteland inhabited by twisted, horrific but noble warriors who seek to contain the evil of their seductive brethren while the sun, half radiating darkness half glowing, spins in the center.
The Jungle – this vast rainforest is inhabited by a race of psionic snakes that take humanoids and bond them as familiars, using them as soldiers in their war against a group of hyper-intelligent apes that raid other worlds for love of war.
The Kaled Throne – The Kaled are a race of creatures that combine the worst traits of slug and octopus, barely mobile but highly intelligent. Their world is a massive city raised by their magics, and they encase themselves in strange golems that stride on slender legs, seeking to exterminate all non Kaled, for they are all inferior to the Kaled.
The Isle of Tranquility - An island in a placid sea where no being does violence against another - to avoid reprisals from the island itself, which destroy any who do harm while upon it.
Why Venture Beyond?
Exploration, adventure, profit, and discovery. Even though dangers and monsters abound, the lure of the wonders and riches offered by the Worlds Beyond the Mists are too enticing for some to refuse.