Codename Anaxagoras
'Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who works for the love of it', Thoreau
This setting is the first I have built for a long time and is being approached in a more methodical manner than I have used in the past. I have chosen, for a multiplicity of reasons to design it as a setting for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. If you're a fan of that game than maybe I can produce something that you'll find useful to your own campaign. But even if you are not, please give it a read, as most of Anaxagoras is neither edition nor game specific.
Theme
Themes in Anaxagoras are both universal and regional. The cosmology that the setting supports is a useful way to examine this, but so too are individual areas. Among the main themes is man's struggle to define himself in the World. All good themes give birth to conflicts and in this case one of the prime contenders is how does our philosophy account for a world where stark representations of good and evil exist alongside an ever shifting tapestry of morality.
[More to come]
Races
The races of Anaxagoras are not strictly limited. This presents a difficulty in providing a background that is both cohesive and adaptable. As such while it can be amused that all Dungeons & Dragons races are present in some form on Anaxagoras, it is only the following ones that have achieved forms of importance.
As a quick disclaimer:; by races I am taking a anthropocentric view that does not extend to every cluster of stats ever squeezed into a book. Without being to sweeping, since I believe that in many cases culture is independent of race here are my ideas so far.
Elves
Elves reject the idea that gods and primordials are inherently more perfect that the mortal races, instead upholding the twin ideas that all progress is positive and that 'man' is the measure of all things.
Most elves take this as the solution to why morality is rarely simple even when they are faced with the stark reality of demons and archons. These vast creators may have established the Planes and their legacy of a good and evil as a literal dualism in their creations, but this is not the inherent, nor only way to view the universe.
The cultural implications of these guiding lights are immense...
Elves often ideologically favor the underdog, not only would a win mean unfettered progress, it represents potential success (man) with all odds against it (nature, gods, things to be measured against)
Elves and their societies are quick to change when a better option is presented
Aesthetically obedience to canon based on the ideal humanoid figure is always retained
Many elves choose to avoid worshiping deities, though those that do counter that modern gods themselves are both the products and agents of progress.
Elves often embrace and even create new technologies, forms of magic, government, and the arts
Anything be it ocean, bear, or elemental that are not 'man' are inherently and through no fault but fact, inferior to 'man'.
Dwarves
Compelling universal principles that demand correct action are central to the nature of the dwarves. Hierarchy of duty, absolute discipline, and inalienable rights are neither questionable nor are they ephemeral ideas, but instead facts of life.
Eladrin
That there is resemblance in the physical forms of eladrin and elves is not purely coincidence, on this both races agree. When the Faerie Lord's first found need for servitors and children they created them in the image of mortals.
The Titanomachy shook even the Feywild beyond the Otherworld many of these proud beings were exiled or even became refugees fleeing onto Anaxagoras. [ooc]This idea largely needs to be relooked at given the history outline below?Can it be salvaged?[/ooc]
Some say that the eladrin are a wholly derivative people. They are both the inheritors of the culture of the faerie and visitors on the world from which their form was copied but this does nothing to diminish their pride.
History
It is easy to see history as a series of conflicts and how the agents of these interact, but that does no justice to life. So without further ado, a timeline of wars as understood by scholars.
[ooc]This is what needs the most TLC. I think there are a few good ideas buried in it. Still very informal, maybe I'll keep it that way. Is it too SinkSet?[/ooc]
One
*Primordials spontaneously erupt into existence...
[spoiler]*Deities arise for a number of reasons
*The two factions constantly clash
*Gods win for the most part and banish, imprison or slay the primordials
*They define the cosmos on their terms and create many worlds
*Anaxagoras is an ancient world, shaped when the two forces still did battle and site of that war much beyond it's cosmic conclusion.[/spoiler]
Two
*Several juggernauts serves as actors on the stage of the world. Titan's as the remnants of primordials bent on tyrannical rule over all. Dragons at this time are largely independent forces who see their own specialized views as correct. The Faerie send their first foray's into Anaxagoras' Otherworld and discover it to their liking. Angelic legions remain, with no real purpose beyond opposition of the titanic force...
[spoiler]*Word from the Faerie Courts deep within the Feywild orders Anaxagoras to be abandoned for the time being. Dragon's begin to form alliances and states to protect their interests which lie primarily among the sciences, though some are more clan oriented. Angels largely retreat to key strategic points and fight a defensive war. More stagnant, symbolic conflict arises from the situation.
*Mortals begin to arise upon Anaxagoras though the exact nature of their creation is unknowable.
*Angel's find hope in the mortals and situate themselves as their defenders against the titans. In some cases this is successful, such as with the majority of the elves but in other cases the failure to act efficiently is catastrophic leading to the enslavement of entire races.
*Titans continue to fight a slowly losing war of domination. In a decisive strike some of their greatest magi devise a way to harness the power of the Feywild to cast a world-spanning ritual meant to reduce Dragon's to mere bestial creatures ruled by base instruct in a bid to destroy one of their greatest enemies and create political chaos. It is successful but the casting of such as spell has consequences.
*Many titans are instantly slain, many more have their primordial nature ripped from them leaving them little more then big elemental-fused mortals. Their descendants become the giants, a second-class caste to the Titians, barely above their slaves.
*The full attention of Faerie is brought by the veritable shattering of Anaxagoras' Otherworld by the titan's ritual. Most choose to remain aloof but a few go forth to mend a broken land that lies just out of sight.
*Angels choose this time to act, in many cases using their mortals as proxies and outright warfare breaks out again with the severely weakened, but still superior Titans. During this time events become confused, many young extraplanar influences discover Anaxagoras and several mortal factions enter a period of exodus.
*Dwarves begin their massive revolution against the titans, seemingly guided by an unseen force that unified their efforts.
*Less common mortal races begin to emerge
*The Angels, always fewer in number (as they are unable to reproduce) than the giants, dwindle even further in number attempting to directly atone of their inability to save the dwarves in the past.
*The war once again peaks and an outcome of either victory or defeat for either side seems within sight. The fey who had come to Otherworld come to the conclusion that the only suitable end is one that must be final so that the Feywild may never be ravaged again.
*They act, correctly predicting the outcome, and without warning strike. They begin a systematic, individual-based extermination of the remaining Angels. It is soon complete and they withdraw completely.
*Without the Angels to serve as a crutch any longer previously untouched mortals come into direct conflict with the titans and fight they do. While the titans are lulled into a sense of complacency from a lack of anyone they consider enemies the mortal races blindsided them with their resistance.
*The dwarves serve as exemplars to all free people in this time and before long the Titans are destroyed.[/spoiler]
Three
*Darkness falls both literally and metaphorically though not in that order...
*Even the civilizations that survive the end of the Titanomachy quickly fall (with an few notable exceptions) prey to societal collapse primary due to reduction in adaptive capacity, though a host of reasons are present.
*The Shadowfell is first discovered and soon brought into contact with Anaxagoras. Questions of the exactitudes of who, why, where, what, when are largely unknown but above all towers of them in the modern day towers the how an echo can be separated from it's source and then return.
*With the Shadowfell came a host of dark things that crept into the world, and worse disease was born and ravaged the mortals of Anaxagoras. And now souls went somewhere after death...
Four
Yeah about that...
[spoiler]{Eventually things got better, civilization was born again0
[The clash of mortal empires fouled things up again, but not as badly]
[Today heroes are once again rising from the ashes][/spoiler]
OK, I want to repond to our Bardic Friend's post. ANd I like the fact you are sketching from the ground up, big brush strokes first.
What kind of timeline are you looking at above? 50 years? 50 thousand?
Is the Titomancy still existing? In an underground fashion?
what type of system are you tailoring this towards?
And I am still waiting for an answer, my Bardic Friend, from October. Now that you are around.