The Campaign Builder's Guild

Alright these are two ideas I had, just throwing them out there, want to see what people think of them. Feel free to express any opinions about these, even comparing them to my other works, saying it would work well together, not work well together, any opinion really.

First Idea

The idea is basically that the world isn't a sphere in the traditional sense, its a never ending trail. Something follows this trail, devouring everything it catches, removing them from existence. As such people have to be constantly on the run.

This would make normal civilization pretty difficult, very little stability and no real buildings or ways to amass a lot of wealth, so cities are built on the backs of giant animals. Birds, fish, whales, turtles or dragons all have cities built on their backs, and they're all colossal animals, miles and miles long/large.

So cities are on these animals, which flee the devouring thing that chases them for all eternity. The animals still have to eat, so there are smaller animals, some with small villages on them that could get eaten. Also, I was thinking of instead of forests being static, they also move. These moving forests could be food for herbivore animals with cities, like turtles or something.

Second Idea

The second idea is a world where the ground is too dangerous to live, monsters and barbaric tribes travel across the land. Rampant growth has caused plants to grow very fast and new kinds of plants have evolved to catch and prey on people.

This caused people to build upwards, all towns are built on huge pillars, or the top few tiers of tiered pyramids, stuff like that. To help protect them magic rains down from the sky, sometimes physically sometimes metaphorically. The higher you go, the stronger magic is, however once you get down to the surface, magic stops working.

This has lead to a strange kind of balance, civilizations can fend off monsters and barbarians but can't expand because there magic stops working on the ground. However while the barbarians can't topple the cities they control all the natural resources. So barbarians trade building materials and some food for things built by the cities.

The balance isn't perfect, this leaves a bit of tension. A barbarian horde could potentially find some way to topple a city, or a city could develop a way to push back the wilds.

In this setting I would see air travel by means of magic being fairly easy, so flying carpets, magical zeppelins and flying mounts would be common for traveling between cities.

The first one reminds me of a Stephen King novel (where creatures devour the past).

Quote from: NomadicThe first one reminds me of a Stephen King novel (where creatures devour the past).

I THOUGHT THE SAME EXACT THING! I LOVED THAT STORY!

Anyway, both of these ideas sound really cool. I'd love to see how they develop.

Hmmm, do you guys happen to know which Stephen King novel it is? I can't recall ever reading one like that, though sounds familiar to IT.

Well, to add a bit more to the second idea, I see each city being almost a culture unto itself, with travel being so restricted. Two of the first cities I came up with are these

Pillar City, this is basically a city that sits on a huge pillar, it has magical platforms (giant circles) that orbit around the top that provide more area to build and land to grow crops.

The second is a city built on the top three or four tiers of a colossal tiered pyramid (think mayan pyramid). The city is run by small creatures (similar to Kobolds from D&D). The thing is that the city's hierarchy is based around who has the most dragon blood in them. Now they don't necessarily need to be born with it, as a blood transfusion is possible.

I figure that a giant dragon slumbers in the middle of the pyramid and they drain blood from it. The creatures would eventually grow wings and such as they gained more and more dragon blood, finally turning into full blooded dragon fledglings to fly away and do whatever it is dragons do :p

Quote from: LlumHmmm, do you guys happen to know which Stephen King novel it is? I can't recall ever reading one like that, though sounds familiar to IT.

It's actually a short story from his "Four Past Midnight" book. The story is called "The Langoliers".

Thanks Nomadic, I'll pick it up at a local library.

The other stories in it are good, too. I believe the movie Secret Window is based on one of the ones from that book.

Also, I'm almost positive I once saw 15-30 minutes of a made-for-TV movie version of The Langoliers, but I've never seen or heard any acknowledgment that such a movie ever existed outside of my own experience. Now that I put it in those terms, though, it seems eerily fitting...

Yes they had a small short movie for it. From what I have heard though, it was quite bad.

Quote from: NomadicYes they had a small short movie for it. From what I have heard though, it was quite bad.

No language has words adequate enough to describe how bad that TV movie was.

The secoond idea is really cool. If I homebrewed it, however, I would get rid of the whole "magic is higher up" theme. I would just make the ground so terrifying and inhospitable {some kind of unheard of swamp world where trees eat people and horrible amphibious beasts roam around devouring everything} that no one, except for small pocket of Barbarians, would be able to survive there. And I might have changed the cities build on pillars, to something like this: "Long in the past, great Wizards, having to find refuge from the inhospitable world, ripped huge masses of land out of the ground and into the sky, creating huge islands floating thousands of feet up in the air." Somehow, then, the Sky Islands would colonize and there-you have huge floating sky cities. Trade is made by giant rope made elevators and flying creatures. I could see this being an interesting setting to work on...

I think the second one needs some work. It's really interesting, but has some major holes - who built the pyramids/pillars, if the ground is so dangerous? How did they get built without magic? Where did the resources come from? Why don't the barbarians just topple the cities by refusing to trade? (If the cities rely on the barbarians for supply, and the barbarians don't have a compelling need for the cities, then the barbarians win, period.)

I like drizzt's suggestion, but it still has the same problems when it comes to trade. You need to have the barbarians need the cities as much as the cities need them.

The first idea, IMO, is made of pure win...for a story. For an RP setting, it'd be interesting, but unless the characters interact with the monster in some meaningful way, or the moving cities and such provide more for RP than just cool background, it'd feel a bit gimmicky. How would the cool elements of the setting (because they do sound awesome) affect players in such a world? Not everyday people. It's pretty obvious how it impacts them. But what cool things could players do in this world that they couldn't do anywhere else?

Quote from: EclipseI think the second one needs some work. It's really interesting, but has some major holes - who built the pyramids/pillars, if the ground is so dangerous? How did they get built without magic? Where did the resources come from? Why don't the barbarians just topple the cities by refusing to trade? (If the cities rely on the barbarians for supply, and the barbarians don't have a compelling need for the cities, then the barbarians win, period.)

I like drizzt's suggestion, but it still has the same problems when it comes to trade. You need to have the barbarians need the cities as much as the cities need them.

The first idea, IMO, is made of pure win...for a story. For an RP setting, it'd be interesting, but unless the characters interact with the monster in some meaningful way, or the moving cities and such provide more for RP than just cool background, it'd feel a bit gimmicky. How would the cool elements of the setting (because they do sound awesome) affect players in such a world? Not everyday people. It's pretty obvious how it impacts them. But what cool things could players do in this world that they couldn't do anywhere else?

Alright, I didn't mention this but the ground wasn't always dangerous, it started and gradually became more and more dangerous, this gave the people some time to build the pillars/pyramids. As for without magic, the pillars and pyramids aren't themselves inherently magical, their just large structures. Its perfectly possible to build them without magic (humans could have on Earth if there was ever a reason really).

The Barbarians control natural resources, like stone lets say, the cities can still grow their own food (one pillar city has floating disks that have agricultural land on them that orbit around the top of the pillar). Also the Barbarians do get things for their trouble, magically created items (once its made if it doesn't need magic to sustain it, it will still work on the ground, ex: forged alloy weapons, hard to make as a barbarian but still work without magic).


Also some cities raid the ground for supplies. One example of this is finding a quarry, going there with a zeppelin, dropping a bunch of people then hoisting up stolen stone etc...

I also like Drizzt suggestions, however I wanted to avoid the whole flying island thing in a setting, I've used it in other places. As for scrapping the magic doesn't work the ground bit, while viable I liked the unique aspect it added to the world, and if magic did work on the ground, someone somewhere would eventually use it clear a large area.

As for the second idea not being a good RP setting but good for a story, well that's great because I don't play RPGs, I conworld because I find it fun. Although a hypothetical solution would be needing to get something to stop your city from slowing down and being devoured or something. I'm glad you liked it thanks for all the reply.

Alright, I've done a bit more world building on these two ideas.

Now my question is, for those of you familiar, would fitting these into Divergence (I have a fair idea how to do it, Idea one would be related to the Azure and idea two would be the center of the Warren of End Times) be a good idea, or do you think they have enough potential to stand on their own?

I think that the first idea would fit nicely into it, make an interesting part, as it doesn't seem like enough to fit in by itself.

  The second, I don't know, it might be alright.

Quote from: DrizztrocksI think that the first idea would fit nicely into it, make an interesting part, as it doesn't seem like enough to fit in by itself.

  The second, I don't know, it might be alright.

That's kinda funny because I was thinking the exact opposite myself.

Here's an idea I had for a race

Arachnae

Arachnae are similar to humans in shape, except they have four extremely long multi-jointed spider legs growing from their back, two under the ribs and two at the shoulder blades.

Their bodies are extremely light, their skin is actually a thin carapace, they have no bones in their bodies. Their jaws are also different in that while they look like a normal humans, they actually have a pair of mandibles inside their mouths, not visible upon first impressions. The mandibles can extend out about a foot from their mouths at full extent.

They also have the ability to secret a web-like substance from all the pores in their body. This has led to the development of a skill called Web Wings. Web Wings are when strands of web form a wing-like membrane between two of the spider legs coming out of an arachnae's back. Theses wings can be used to glide, stop falls and fly.

The Arachnae also live in symbiosis with another race, the Armen. Armen resemble three foot long sentient centipedes, they're about three inches in diameter. The Arment live inside the Arachnae, exciting and entering through two small holes in their torso's. The placement of the holes in unique to each individual.

In return the Armen help reproduce the Arachnae, when an Arachnae implants an Armen egg into a human (usually though some hole, such as the throat or a wound in the torso). After the Arment hatches it transforms the human into an Arachnae to serve as its host.

Nice concept. The wings, symbiosis, and everything else all combine to make a fascinating creature. Just keep it clear of any science nerds (like myself) :P .

As a PC race, or NPC?
(I know with that description, it would normally be NPC, but I'm wierd, I am going to have to add Centoaurs to my charts soon...)

Can the Arachnae hide their arms/legs?
Who created them, how did they come to be?

I like both concepts a lot, particularly the first.  The second one is interesting as well; it reminds me very much of an older setting made by Vermillion/Salacious Angel which I believe is called "Immortal," featuring elves in sky-cities and a surface overrun by orcs/hobgoblins - you can find it by looking back through his earlier posts.  As to the first idea:

[blockquote=Llum]First Idea

The idea is basically that the world isn't a sphere in the traditional sense, its a never ending trail. Something follows this trail, devouring everything it catches, removing them from existence. As such people have to be constantly on the run.[/blockquote]

I love this concept, especially the idea of the animal-towns.  I have a couple of geographic queries:

(1) What defines the edges of the trail?  Does the world just "stop" after a certain point?  How narrow is the world?

(2) Does the "trail" extend infinitely?

(3) How do climates/seasons factor in?

It reminds me somewhat of a world from Ian M. Banks' Culture novels.  The world featured a single continent that wrapped around the world, so that you could circumnavigate it by land.  At some point in the distant past a huge forest fire swept the continent, raging across it.  By the time the fire reached the point where it had originally started, new plant-life had grown back, allowing the fire to continue burning.  It would burn out the plant-life, then continue on its way, allowing plants to grow back.  After thousands of years of this cycle, plants and animals began to evolve around the fire.  Some adapted specific defenses so that they weather-out the encroaching fire, shells or organic armor that they would cast off after the fire had swept by, then regrow when the fire returned.  Others would use the huge thermals of the fire to scatter their spores, burning up when the fire destroyed them but then immediately regrowing.  Animals had to stay ahead of the fire, becoming nomadic.  There weren't any sentient species on this world except for a non-indigenous race who maintained a super-shielded palace on the continent able to withstand the flames (used only for religious/governmental purposes - the rest of the empire was on other planets).

I don't know if any of the elements in that idea might help in visualizing how the world would actually work.  One other possibility might be to counter the idea of the devouring monster with an eternal creator.  The devourer destroys the world from behind, while the creator perpetually "lays new track," so to speak.  This would obviously be a lot more mystic/numinous than a fire-planet style world.

[blockquote=Eclipse]How would the cool elements of the setting (because they do sound awesome) affect players in such a world? Not everyday people. It's pretty obvious how it impacts them. But what cool things could players do in this world that they couldn't do anywhere else?[/blockquote]

I think it could have a huge effect.  Any adventure tied to a static place - a mountain, a ruin (predating the devourer perhaps), a (non-moving) forest, whatever - would have a built-in time limit.  That mystic jewel you need to retrieve from the dungeon?  Better do it quickly, cause pretty soon its going to be devoured.

There are also lots of adventure options that could open up depending on how the world is structured.  Say your village gets attacked by a huge city-monster - you've got to fight off the raiders and flee, perhaps into a hazardous place where the large city won't follow.  Or say, in fleeing the devourer, the various civilizations come across a new stretch of land rich in a particular resource. Now the fight is on to grab the resource while you can, creating a whole whorl of political/espionage type adventure possibilities, again with a time limit.  Just the idea of a city built on the back of a huge creature is awesome in and of itself... reminds me of Mieville's  The Scar where the aquatic city of Armada is dragged by an Avanc, which then sickens after being attacked by insidious deep-dwellers.  An adventure based around rehabilitating the city-animal (what if it flags, can't continue on because of illness or injury?  If you don't find a cure, its going to get eaten, quickly) could be awesome.

I'm very curious about how you would treat the devourer itself.  Could anyone survive inside its gullet?  Mad, Jonah-esque monsters/barbarians/cultists-of-the-devourer?

QuoteThe Arachnae also live in symbiosis with another race, the Armen. Armen resemble three foot long sentient centipedes, they're about three inches in diameter. The Arment live inside the Arachnae, exciting and entering through two small holes in their torso's. The placement of the holes in unique to each individual.

Wonderfully grotesque.  Symbiosis is a concept with a lot of potential, not explored nearly often enough.

Ya, it probably isn't the most scientifically valid race ever but this is fiction :P

Hiding their arms/legs would be fairly difficult as their spider limbs are extremely long, at least ten feet in length.

The first created one came to be when an Armen infested a human. This lead to the symbiotic relationship seen between the Armen and the Arachnae.

Originally the Armen lived without any kind of host but due to circumstances (humanoid races showing up) causing them problems (who wants to even entertain the possibility of that bloody huge centipede as sentient?) they needed some way to communicate.

So the Armen created the first Arachnae to aid in their communication with the humanoid races.

As for PC or NPC race, it could be ether, my descriptions tend to all be the same no matter what they're for.

Racially crunch wise for a PC they would be good at climbing (extra spider limbs), probably wouldn't take fall damage (Web Wings) and maybe have a slight armor/protection bonus from the carapace, but I haven't decided how strong the carapace would be. Also increases Int/Wis kinda stats from living with an Armen symbiont.

I like what steerpike said about an eternal creator and an eternal devourer. Perhaps there are huge cults devoted to each one in an eternal and bloody war. Could you imagine two city beasts abreast of one and other, one devoted to the devourer and one to the creator. Perhaps the devourer one purposefully sabotages cities so that they are destroyed. Meanwhile the creator saves them if it can and if not it rescues the refugees before they are consumed. In time it has grown massive because of all the refugees and now this devourer city is trying to destroy what it sees as an abomination. End result, epic scale city vs city battle where the loser is consumed by a never sleeping maw of death.

Or agents of those cults in the same city, competing in surreal, covert struggles to sustain or destroy the city-beast...

Quote from: Steerpike(2) Does the "trail" extend infinitely?

Animals had to stay ahead of the fire, becoming nomadic[/quote]
I like what steerpike said about an eternal creator and an eternal devourer. Perhaps there are huge cults devoted to each one in an eternal and bloody war. Could you imagine two city beasts abreast of one and other, one devoted to the devourer and one to the creator. Perhaps the devourer one purposefully sabotages cities so that they are destroyed. Meanwhile the creator saves them if it can and if not it rescues the refugees before they are consumed. In time it has grown massive because of all the refugees and now this devourer city is trying to destroy what it sees as an abomination. End result, epic scale city vs city battle where the loser is consumed by a never sleeping maw of death.
[/quote]

I'm pretty sure that any battle between the cities will be epic in scale :D However it is a good idea, but one thing that sorta bothers me is the cult of the devourer, why would somebody worship or devote themselves to something that inspires such fear? Such a huge flight instinct kicks in that even the ground beneath our feet heeds it.

Not a bad idea at all, I just have to think about how to incorporate them in a way that it meshes well for me.
 

QuoteAfter reading your comment again, it seems like the creator is at the "front" of the world.

Yeah - an analogy might be of one person laying down miniature train tracks (the creator) while another person, some distance behind the first, picks those tracks up and puts them back in the box (the devourer).  The normal people are the "train" that runs on the track - a kind of weird conveyor belt dynamic.

 

Quoteone thing that sorta bothers me is the cult of the devourer, why would somebody worship or devote themselves to something that inspires such fear?

I'd imagine the cultists of the devourer heralding the beast as a kind of messiahnic, rapture phenomenon.  They might contend that the physical world is inherently sinful and evil (very gnostic or manichean types, these), and that the devourer delivers All into spiritual paradise/glorious oblivion/what-have-you while the twisted, demiurge-esque creator wants to trap humanity in the evil physical reality for eternity.  The devourer purifies, delivers those it consumes into transcendence - perhaps even subsuming them into itself - to submit to it is to become One with its purity.

Just random ideas, to use or ignore.

Quote from: LlumI'm pretty sure that any battle between the cities will be epic in scale :D However it is a good idea, but one thing that sorta bothers me is the cult of the devourer, why would somebody worship or devote themselves to something that inspires such fear? Such a huge flight instinct kicks in that even the ground beneath our feet heeds it.

Not a bad idea at all, I just have to think about how to incorporate them in a way that it meshes well for me.

People are drawn to power, and the power to cause fear in the very elements themselves is something that could start a cult. Or perhaps they worship it, thinking that if they sacrifice enough to it, it will halt and let them live.

Quote from: Nomadic DwarfPeople are drawn to power, and the power to cause fear in the very elements themselves is something that could start a cult. Or perhaps they worship it, thinking that if they sacrifice enough to it, it will halt and let them live.

Both of these are good ideas, something I'm going to have to think about some more, I hadn't put a lot of though into that kind of thing, but you guys definitely make a good case for more in that vein.

Crimson Fellows

The Crimson Fellows are mysterious creatures. They seem to exist in an alternate dimension also being devoured. However their world is not infinite, they are running out of room, and are desperate to escape.

Crimson Fellows resemble humans very closely, save some slight differences like their deep crimson skin. They all have v-shaped torso, broad shoulders and are thickly muscled. The largest distinctions are their feet, where the toes are tipped in talons and their heads. The heads are only vaguely human they have large mouths filled with thin spike like teeth, glowing yellow eyes and their other features are only vague.

The goal of all Crimson Fellows is to lure a magic user to open a doorway into their realm, this would let them into our own realm, to do as they wish, escaping their doomed realm. Standard means of doing this are to use guile and trickery in the form of dreams to get a magician to built such a portal. Sometimes more powerful Fellows use nightmares to torment their chosen victim, saying the nightmares will end when the doorway is complete.

White Devil

The White Devil is a creature that wanders the world. He has been seen to enter and exit the devouring several times, and is apparently immune to its effects.

The creature resembles a muscular man, though his face has been elongated, given tusks and his jaw widened. His eyes are pitch black save for golden loop and a pupil shaped like a four pointed star, the color of aged wine. It has a horse-like mane that starts as a widows peak and ends between his shoulder blades. His skin is the color of fresh snow, what earned him the moniker of White Devil

Taller then most people, the creature stands nearly seven feet in height, he walks in a slightly stooped position. The only possessions the White Devil has been see with are an enormous double bladed war axe, his tattered black and purple tartan kilt and a leather sack.

El

The El, known sometimes as The Thousand Young, are a race of creatures that now live in the world.

They're divided into two sects, the Eng-El and the Daev-El. Constantly at war, when one member kills a member of an opposing sect, the slain creature resurrect as a member of the killers sect shortly thereafter.

The war is eternal, many times in history it has come down to a single member of a sect left, only for them to slay many opposing members and regain numbers.

It's quite easy to to tell the two sects apart.

The Eng-El resemble men, with white furred goat legs, horns and large wings. Hair color is normally white, gold or silver while feather color is usually silver, blue or white.

The Daev-El are large monstrous creatures, almost twice the size of a man. Their heads are those of great ravens and rotting black feathers cover their entire bodies, from their heads to their cloven feet. Instead of arms the Daev-El has great wings, they grow two small claw like limbs from their waist.

[ooc]
Alright just some ideas for creatures that would be found in the world of the First Idea, I'm still working on the Creator/Devourer cult angles as well[/ooc]

The El are great!  So bizarre but so well executed... like a big game of tag.  But now with more genocide!

I like the eng-el and daev-el. I am guessing they are pronounced like angel and devil and have a basis in those things.

They were partially inspired by the imagery and dualism of Angels and Devils. Partly though it has to do with my obsession with avian humanoids (they tend to show up in anything I do >_< ), but yes, Angel and Devil were part of the inspiration.

Engel is actually the german word for Angel, it also happens to be on of my favorite words. The name Daev-El is something of a cop out really, I wanted to name the race something short (I like short words) and El made sense, the name Eng-El was easy and fit because of the influence, the Daev-El was mostly chosen to fit with how I was trying to portray them.

As for pronunciation the Eng-El are pronounced Eng El the Daev-El similar to Dave-El

This leads to another thing, namely me naming things (sorry couldn't resist). I'm not particularly good at it, I have a strong dislike for long words, anything longer then four syllables, even four is sometimes pushing it. So mostly I just rip names from mythology or stuff that sounds cool to me, often I come up with a name of mishearing something :p

Thanks Nomadic and thanks Steerpike glad you found them well executed :D

Another idea I had was for a world where life is fairly difficult due to it being mainly metal.

The native creatures of the world would have lots of ceramic and organic metal body parts. Non-metallic elements would be fairly scarce.

Not too sure what else would happen on this world, seems almost like a small Plane of Metal.

Something I've noticed is that races tend to nearly always be based on mammals, or some extraplanar race, with mammalian features. Very few races really have features that are normally attributed to Plants or Birds, Reptiles fare a little better, but usually this is due to draconic influences.

I the world of the Second Idea, all the races would be fairly different. Each race would have main features (Human, Mammal, Plant, Bird, Reptile) and then would have minor features from of a different kind (Human/Plant or Reptile/Bird). As an Example, Humans only have Human features, while the Dro Mae have major Reptile features and minor Bird features (Reptile/Bird).

Another thing that set me thinking is that the Undead, tend to always be of human stock, they just don't seem to effect other races. There are some exceptions, Lichs and Vampires, but those are usually powerful undead. The base types of Undead never seem to come from other races, you never see a Dwarf Zombie or an Elf Wight, hell even an Orc Vampire would be something different.

Something else I was thinking about Undead would to stay away from the common kinds (Zombie, Lich, Vampire, Wight, Ghost/Phantom). To do this I was going to base these creatures around common groups of themes associated with Death. The first few group of themes I decided on would be the Night, The Moon and Space (like outer space), the second would be Fire, Darkness, the color Black.

HAH!
there I do ok.  There are more hobyt and Orcash undead than human undead in Celtricia.  I even referenced a Klaxik (dwarf) wight in one of the earlier igbarian notes.  

Alright I'm trying to compile a list of all the different kinds of terrains and geographical features that can be found, along with different "fantastic terrain" kind of things, stuff that doesn't exist in the real world, floating rock islands as an example.

Terrain:
Desert: Ice (antartica), Sand, Tundra, Badlands
Forest: Tropical, Temperate broadleaf/coniferous
Ocean/Islands: Archipelago, Islands
Cave: "Underdark" style,
Mountainous: Mountains, foothills, moors,
Planes: Savannah, Grasslands
Wetlands: Swamp(marshes, bog, fen), Mangroves, Everglades

Fantastic Terrain:
Flying/floating islands of rock
Giant Animals
Permanent feature: Volcanic area, Storm
Elemental plains (Water world, Air world, Fire world)
Ruins: Ancient, Underwater
Supernatural Area: Wild magic area,
Acid: Lakes, Oceans, Waterfall
Unconventional: Land(Gears, Skulls)

[ooc] Thanks Steerpike, I hope you don't mind if you do let me know, I edited my post to contain your suggestions[/ooc]

Underdark areas might qualify, as would mountainous ones, as well as grasslads and savannah, swamps and wetlands generally (marshes, bogs, fens, etc).  More fantastic areas might include crystalline regions, huge ruins, hellish/supernatural or "magic" areas ("wild magic zones" etc), and even more bizarre stuff (a landscape made entirely of skulls; oceans of acid; planes of "pure chaos"; a realm made entirely of gears, like Mechanus...).

Quote from: LlumSomething I've noticed is that races tend to nearly always be based on mammals, or some extraplanar race, with mammalian features. Very few races really have features that are normally attributed to Plants or Birds, Reptiles fare a little better, but usually this is due to draconic influences.

I the world of the Second Idea, all the races would be fairly different. Each race would have main features (Human, Mammal, Plant, Bird, Reptile) and then would have minor features from of a different kind (Human/Plant or Reptile/Bird). As an Example, Humans only have Human features, while the Dro Mae have major Reptile features and minor Bird features (Reptile/Bird).

Another thing that set me thinking is that the Undead, tend to always be of human stock, they just don't seem to effect other races. There are some exceptions, Lichs and Vampires, but those are usually powerful undead. The base types of Undead never seem to come from other races, you never see a Dwarf Zombie or an Elf Wight, hell even an Orc Vampire would be something different.

Something else I was thinking about Undead would to stay away from the common kinds (Zombie, Lich, Vampire, Wight, Ghost/Phantom). To do this I was going to base these creatures around common groups of themes associated with Death. The first few group of themes I decided on would be the Night, The Moon and Space (like outer space), the second would be Fire, Darkness, the color Black.

Or you could get even crazier and instead relate undead to life instead of death. I mean, after all they are the undead. Imagine someone who is brimming with energy seemingly more alive than most others. Then you find out that it is because of the mass infusion of life energy that they seem this way and in fact are not "truly" among the living.

Quote from: Llum

Quote from: DrizztrocksI think that the first idea would fit nicely into it, make an interesting part, as it doesn't seem like enough to fit in by itself.

  The second, I don't know, it might be alright.

That's kinda funny because I was thinking the exact opposite myself.

Here's an idea I had for a race

Arachnae

Arachnae are similar to humans in shape, except they have four extremely long multi-jointed spider legs growing from their back, two under the ribs and two at the shoulder blades.

Their bodies are extremely light, their skin is actually a thin carapace, they have no bones in their bodies. Their jaws are also different in that while they look like a normal humans, they actually have a pair of mandibles inside their mouths, not visible upon first impressions. The mandibles can extend out about a foot from their mouths at full extent.

They also have the ability to secret a web-like substance from all the pores in their body. This has led to the development of a skill called Web Wings. Web Wings are when strands of web form a wing-like membrane between two of the spider legs coming out of an arachnae's back. Theses wings can be used to glide, stop falls and fly.

The Arachnae also live in symbiosis with another race, the Armen. Armen resemble three foot long sentient centipedes, they're about three inches in diameter. The Arment live inside the Arachnae, exciting and entering through two small holes in their torso's. The placement of the holes in unique to each individual.

In return the Armen help reproduce the Arachnae, when an Arachnae implants an Armen egg into a human (usually though some hole, such as the throat or a wound in the torso). After the Arment hatches it transforms the human into an Arachnae to serve as its host.

    Perfectly awesome.

Quote from: LlumThe Arachnae also live in symbiosis with another race, the Armen. Armen resemble three foot long sentient centipedes, they're about three inches in diameter. The Arment live inside the Arachnae, exciting and entering through two small holes in their torso's. The placement of the holes in unique to each individual.

In return the Armen help reproduce the Arachnae, when an Arachnae implants an Armen egg into a human (usually though some hole, such as the throat or a wound in the torso). After the Arment hatches it transforms the human into an Arachnae to serve as its host.

     That is one of the most frikin creepy awesome things i've ever read. Sort of.

 

Quote from: DrizztrocksThat is one of the most frikin creepy awesome things i've ever read. Sort of.

Glad you think so, I found it was kinda creepy when I thought it up

Since I removed The Aberration from Divergence, all that information might end up eventually. Unless I make another thread (doubtful in the near future).

Two other ideas I had were, for the world that magic comes from the sky, the Pyramid city, its main population will something similar to a D&D Kobold (mammal with some lizard like features) with a very feudal warrior society, where rank is based on draconic heritage (ether born with, or stolen by drinking the blood of sleeping dragons). Kobold Samurai would be a somewhat apt description.

The second idea I had was a backdrop of The Aberration, and for Divergence in total, but since I removed it I'll just post it here. The premise is a war that's been fought for all eternity, since the dawn of the universe. The two sides would be "Cold" and "Warmth". The "Cold" side wants to halt the expansion of the universe, freeze everything in its tracks and the "Warmth" side wants to constantly expand and push farther and farther. The two sides always fight against each other.

 

Here is a way to make the second idea work.  The world below is infested by zombies, but the ones from Dawn of the Dead, where if they bite you, you turn into one.  That way, the remains of the old societies are still down there, and some people risk infection to try to gain treasure, but the zombeis can't get up so most people live in the special cities
from
EE

Quote from: EvilElitestHere is a way to make the second idea work.  The world below is infested by zombies, but the ones from Dawn of the Dead, where if they bite you, you turn into one.  That way, the remains of the old societies are still down there, and some people risk infection to try to gain treasure, but the zombeis can't get up so most people live in the special cities
from
EE

That's a pretty good idea, for the second idea I decided to focus more on barbarians Vs city feel to it. However there's a tribe of barbarians that act very similar to zombies, they travel in a great pack, they attack everything they meet, they never stop.

It would also explain why nobody goes down, and yet why the cities exist in the first place
from
EE

With the barbarians, all kinds of monsters and crazy plants the ground is a pretty dangerous place to be, especially without magic.

The barbarians all have certain ways to cope with the dangers, this lets them live on the ground. Be it the safety in numbers of the zombie barbarians or something else.

Quote from: LlumAnother thing that set me thinking is that the Undead, tend to always be of human stock, they just don't seem to effect other races. There are some exceptions, Lichs and Vampires, but those are usually powerful undead. The base types of Undead never seem to come from other races, you never see a Dwarf Zombie or an Elf Wight, hell even an Orc Vampire would be something different.

In my group there's an old inside joke about Zombie Bugbears. I was DMing one night and putting my PCs through a fairly typical undead infested Dungeon. In one room my PCs were facing off against several undead, more undead than I had minis for, so I slapped down the first humanoid mini I could grab, it happened to be a Bugbear. During the battle, the Bugbear went on a crit rampage, I mean he was scoring crits every turn. The PCs couldn't touch him, they were rolling straight ones. In fact the PCs did so badly, they had to RETREAT out of the room, to escape the wrath of the Bugbear Zombie. Since that day, Bugbear Zombie has just been a catch-phrase/inside-joke to describe creatures that are way more powerful than they should be... Wow, that sounds lame. Meh, such is the nature of inside jokes.

At any rate...

Quote from: LlumSecond Idea

The second idea is a world where the ground is too dangerous to live, monsters and barbaric tribes travel across the land. Rampant growth has caused plants to grow very fast and new kinds of plants have evolved to catch and prey on people.

This caused people to build upwards, all towns are built on huge pillars, or the top few tiers of tiered pyramids, stuff like that. To help protect them magic rains down from the sky, sometimes physically sometimes metaphorically. The higher you go, the stronger magic is, however once you get down to the surface, magic stops working.

This has lead to a strange kind of balance, civilizations can fend off monsters and barbarians but can't expand because there magic stops working on the ground. However while the barbarians can't topple the cities they control all the natural resources. So barbarians trade building materials and some food for things built by the cities.

The balance isn't perfect, this leaves a bit of tension. A barbarian horde could potentially find some way to topple a city, or a city could develop a way to push back the wilds.

In this setting I would see air travel by means of magic being fairly easy, so flying carpets, magical zeppelins and flying mounts would be common for traveling between cities.

Hands down this is a really cool and evocative idea. The idea reminds me of Sharn, from Eberron except less civilized, more barbaric, more magical.  Sadly, it also reminds me of the Jetsons, except more of a 19th Century Arabic Jetsons... Anyways, I'm fascinated by the idea.

I approve of the first idea more. I think you should spend time on both these ideas in amounts of effort that are appropriate to you.

Not acting on one or the other seems like such a waste. And sure, you could think about developing these two into one single idea, but I don't think the gravity of the first idea could be maintained if melded with the second.

"If you children don't behave, the Zombie BugBears will come"
from
EE

Quote from: Elemental_ElfHands down this is a really cool and evocative idea. The idea reminds me of Sharn, from Eberron except less civilized, more barbaric, more magical.  Sadly, it also reminds me of the Jetsons, except more of a 19th Century Arabic Jetsons... Anyways, I'm fascinated by the idea.

Thanks, I don't really know what Sharn is (I'm not very familiar with Eberron), but your points seem very valid. And there's nothing wrong with the Jetsons :P

Quote from: Teh_AzI approve of the first idea more. I think you should spend time on both these ideas in amounts of effort that are appropriate to you.

Not acting on one or the other seems like such a waste. And sure, you could think about developing these two into one single idea, but I don't think the gravity of the first idea could be maintained if melded with the second.

I'm glad you like the first idea, well approve at least :D I do spend some time working on them, there all a little fleshed out (some more ideas for them in this same thread). I'm working on getting a critical mass before I post anything, currently I have two settings that have threads (Divergence and the Eye) and four that I'm working on (cataloging ideas on a different site), the worlds of the first and second idea, something removed from Divergence and a fourth world inspired by something I read on this site I believe (it isn't really that similar to anything here, as far as I can tell, somewhat similar to the Eye though heavily relies on Bloodlines).

I don't really want to start like 5-6 different threads at the moment. Like I said, I want to flesh this stuff out more. Thanks again for the support and what not.

Sharn is the major city of Ebberon, its the "City of Towers", its like a fantasy New York City
from
EE

There's this idea that I've had kicking around in my head for about a month so far, I can't seem to place it anywhere so I'll just put it out here.

It's a desert, the inhabitants are mostly humans. There are Drakes, akin to 4e Dragonkin with Wings. Most are bright green in color. Humans are killed by looking at them, yet they still manage to co-exist.

The other inhabitants of the desert are Dry Lichs, kinda a lich/mummy hybrid without the bandages. Their only goal is to expand the desert.

Here are a few ideas I have for races of the second idea.

Azurai

The Azurai are bird-like humanoids. Bright blue feathers cover their entire bodies except for their wings which have emerald green feathers as well as bright blues feathers.

The only part of their bodies not covered in feathers, are their hands and legs, bird like claws covered in fine green scales.

Azurai are capable of flight, though flight is difficult near the ground due to the dominance of Regrowth vegetation.

A unique feature of the Azurai is that they all have a flower growing somewhere on their bodies. Most females have a flower growing on their heads or on their chest, similar to adornments worn by human females. Males tend to have their flowers growing in the center of their chest or on their backs.

Veg

The Veg have a unique constitution.

Physically Vegs are massive, they resemble hairless humans with greater muscle mass, broader shoulders, wider jaws and small tusks.

The strangest thing about the Vegs is that they're part plant. Their skin takes on a green color shortly after birth, and they begin to photosynthesize energy. While this energy isn't enough to feed them entirely, it gives them great endurance.

Ohm

The Ohm are bipedal lizard-like humanoids. While they have no actual scales, they have a thick leathery gray hide, their facial stricture is similar to that of a lizard.

The Ohm come in varying shades of gray, with darker coal and black stripes or dots on their backs, thighs and shoulders. Chest and stomach and the underside of their tail are usually in a lighter shade of gray.

Dro Mae

The Dro Mae are a strange race, they resemble theropods that grow feathers. Feathers cover the neck, thighs, arms, legs and back.

Skin not covered in feathers has small clam shaped scales. Scale and feather color range in varying tones of yellow, green, pink, and blue.

Dro Mae revere a creature known as the Cornocopia Dragon. While they usually follow whatever beliefs can be found in the City or with the Barbarian tribe with which they live, they one and all have the separate belief in this creature.

Dro Mae are naturally curious, they all have a thirst for new experiences and learning new things. This leads the Dro Mae to frequently travel, they have professions that aid them in this, merchants is a popular choice.

Alright, for the world with the humans, Drakes and Dry Lichs I've had a few more thoughts.

The Drakes kill anything that look at it with some sort of light, the pseudo-science behind it is that it triggers something that kills the brain. Like a seizure or something.

It can be avoided by closing your eyes (which is still good for the Drake, cause what it's hunting is essentially blind). Or with a special kind of smoked glass. Most humans carry a band of silk with some smoked glass lens set into it, tying it around their eyes (like a blindfold) when a Drake is around, a makeshift sun-glasses kinda thing.

The Dry Lichs are probably going to be only a nuisance then real threat, they will periodically attack oasis and water supplies to try and drain the water, but other then that are relatively harmless (if you live in the desert).

Alright back to the world of the first idea.

For a city I had an idea that instead of being built on the back of an animal, there's a giant woman (like really really big, 300-400 feet tall) who wears armor built out of spare bits if castles and keeps. Her armor forms a large city made up of all the bits, the woman is simply called White Fortress. Now she isn't really awake, she's kinda in a sleeping/meditative trance that gathers clouds around her which transport her sleeping form (shes kneeling with her back straight arms on her thighs, similar to the Seiza of Japanese tea ceremony.

I guess this is just another take on the Castle in the Clouds motif, but hopefully its somewhat original.

I don't like it yet.  Now, if she a little bigger, and had been asleep/entranced for a millenia, and so there was dirt and buildings built all along her, and olny a few select elders knew the truth...that might be cool...

Quote from: Vreeg's Coachwhip.I don't like it yet.  Now, if she a little bigger, and had been asleep/entranced for a millenia, and so there was dirt and buildings built all along her, and only a few select elders knew the truth...that might be cool...

How big did you imagine she would be? I figure 300-400 feet was massive (that's roughly 30-40 stories tall). Now there's nothing stopping her from being larger, I just figured 300-400 was really quite large. But now that I think about it, most of her volume isn't inhabited, only her armor is lived in. The tallest I can imagine her being is about a kilometer, maybe a mile in height.

How long shes been asleep/entrance is vary negotiable, I see it at least long enough for everyone to forget who she was and why shes asleep/entrance. I certainly see people adding on to her armor making more buildings and what not. How I don't really see how it could be kept a secret to be honest, shes a massive person, anyone who goes into a sub-sub-basement will find her. Another thing is that the face traditionally isn't covered in armor (well helms yes, but a fair amount of helms leave the face open for visual reasons) so covering it would be somewhat difficult.

Now back to the desert place with humans, Drakes and Dry Lichs. I see the human gods as people who have ascended into god-hood with the help of the creator God (haven't defined him yet, will probably be some animal god). They all have fairly large portfolios/domains, so the god of Justice and Law would also be the God of Trade, Taxes, Military, Travel. The gods would adopt an animal aspect and would be shown people with animal heads, similar to the depiction of some Egyptian gods.

As the main food source I see goats being raised as livestock, that gives meat, cheese and wool. Geography wise a mountain range creates the a rain shadow desert, so a large river runs from the mountains into the desert then sinks underground, only to be seen as various oasis across the desert. Date Palms, reeds are common plants that are farmed/harvested. Wild game can be found along the river as well.

Another idea for a city in the world of the second idea (the setting is tentatively named Nirvana, the setting of the first idea is tentatively named Ouroboros)

The city is a giant sphere of earth, attached to the ground by a few slender columns of earth. The sphere of earth itself has all kinds of decks, gantries and assorted wooden stuff attached to the outside of it. Rope ladders fall to the ground and the only main entrance is at the very bottom of the sphere. The sphere of earth is ruled by a dragon, Hiros the Antler Headed Dragon.

Hiros looks like an incredibly fat worm a scaled bird-like face. He has a immense set of 22-point antlers. He has nine legs, three sets of three that radiate out from his body. Hiros is something of a glutton, he sends out hunting parties to capture alive any beast they can. In the sphere he keeps a sort of zoo/larder, stocked with hundreds of species, some sentient. Using twisted magic he crossbreeds most of the creatures in search of the ultimate meat to savour.

The city is mecca for every hunter or chef in existence, Hiros lavihsly rewards those who bring him new creatures or create new dishes for him to enjoy.

Let's give him an awesome artifact... Behold the Ambrosial Pillar...


Within his "throne room" there is a massive pillar of glass studded with shapes of various animals and plants in a procession that twirls up towards the ceiling hundreds of feet above. This pillar interior is a gigantic hollow space that contains the Elixir of Bliss (a wine that changes taste based on who is drinking it and what their favorite flavors are). The great hiros normally lies sprawled about the pillar, lazily drinking from it via a tube of sorts and waiting for his next meal.

That idea is fantastic, if you don't mind I'll incorporate something very similar to it. I think it needs a somewhat evil way of generating the wine. Maybe its distilled from the blood of the creatures he eats? Or hunters/chefs who displease him?

The visual you bring are amazing, thanks.

Alright for some reason lately I've been thinking about the first setting I ever thought of. So I'm going to post about it here to get it out of my head. It was very detailed so there won't be a ton of info. I would also like to say that this setting is nearly 8 years old and was made when I was still in grade school.

The world was at war. One side was composed of Mages of Sound (they gather their magic from sound) and their allies from the Plane of Sound. The Plane of Sound people were fairly different. They have long narrow shark like faces with a pointed chin, large mouths filled with needle sharp teeth, skin the color of snow, pointed ears and no hair at all. Each of these things had the strength, speed and stamina of 20 humans.

The Mages of Sound used sound as their power source, all there spells were cast by words or sounds (hymns etc). Their leader was the most powerful Mage to have ever lived. He had three apprentices, two women who were just about as powerful as he was and a man who wasn't nearly as powerful as the other two. The male apprentice was special in that he was super sensitive and could draw magic from the faintest of sounds. The sound of his own heartbeat was enough sound for him to cast his most powerful spell, where the others would need something as loud as blown horn or a yell to cast the same spell.

The other side of the war was everyone else in the world who didn't want to be ruled by the Mage. It was an alliance between the other elemental mages (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind) the Knights (proto-paladins), the dragons (classic fantasy dragons, they fly and breathe fire) and the Elves.

The Elves were very important to the alliance because they were the only people who could stand toe to toe with the beings from the Plane of Sound. Elves were wild tribal people, they lived in forests, shunned everyone else and were extremely hardy. Like the beings from the Plane of Sound they had the strength, speed and stamina of 20 humans.

Over the holidays I got some more work done on the settings of the first two ideas.

In the setting of the first idea, I think it will be the setting of Divergence, at the very end of time. So some familiar elements will appear but changed over time (sometimes drastically). The Powers would be dead/gone (mostly) and have lost a lot of their power for some reason. The setting wouldn't really be related to Divergence except for a few things since there's such a huge time gap but I think its still a good and fitting idea.

For the setting of the second idea, I think the main driving force behind the conflict of barbarians and cities (aside from the natural resources--magic thing) will be a philosophical one. The cities believe in their own view of civilizations (mostly inspired by a single great philosopher) while the barbarian tribes do not follow this view. Now each tribe/city would be different, and view a different facet of this philosophical view, but they could easily be divided into two broad categories. Those who adhere to it (cities) and those who don't (barbarians). There would be some oddities (Mavpel, the barbarian city/trading post as an example) but as a rule that would be the main divide.

Each city would be its own city-state. I think wars between them could be fought, they certainly wouldn't be unified.

Alright, just an update. I've been thinking about a Ancient Greek/Modern Western setting.

The main meat of this post is just some details of a setting I'm making to fill up Snakefing's almanac while I test it.

Digitalis is a digital city. It is ruled by the Board of Directors. While user generated content is enabled in the city, everything must adhere to the strict "cultural and technological standards" established by the Board of Directors. Tech level is capped at steampunk equivalent genre. Culture is much less mundane, being an amalgamation of stylized Roma and Ottoman Empire ideals.

Gaining a position on the Board of Directors is achieve through ether winning enough ranked matches of Digitalis' game, Tacticus, to be able to challenge other members of the Board or performing enough beneficial community acts. These can be a few extremely important gestures or a long service of smaller gestures. Any member of the Board can be challenged, however it is considered extremely bad manners to challenge the Goodwill Board Members to a game of Tacticus without their express consent.

Tacticus is played in Digitalis Arenas. Board matches are always played in the royal Colosseum. Tacticus is a game of strategic warfare. Starting resources and units are determined before the match. During the match units are able to spend Action Points (AP) to accomplish actions such as moving, attacking and using special abilities. AP replenishes at the beginning of a Cycle (cycle lenght is determined before a match)

Most matches are simple Capture the Flag (CTF) or Deathmatch (DM) style games. However more esoteric game modes are occasionally used. Such as the famous King of the Hill (KotH) match between -=Dest1ny=- and 13lack-Lumpus for a seat on the Board of Directors.

I'm thinking, with such a crappy world, would the technology rate by very high?  I mean, would they orginize enough

And with these giant tree/tower things...what about water?
from
EE

First off I'm guessing you mean the world where magic is in the sky and won't work on the ground. If I'm wrong feel free to correct me :D

Quote from: EvilElitestAnd with these giant tree/tower things...what about water?

This is an excelletn question. Each town has its own way of dealing with these, its even created a minor trade consortium based around it.

The two desert flying necropolises, Burning Zenith and Pale Moon, need very little water being mainly populated by undead. Pale Moon sends miners to harvest chuncks of permafrost and ice/snow to be shipped/sold as water and ice.

Burning Zenith is probably the most inhospitable for people who need water. The city only keeps a small resevoir that it replenishes from tapped underground rivers and oasis.

Other towns use the means of summoning storms/controlling wather to fill cisterns, buying ice from Pale Moon, setting up magical pump station on a river to gather water.

Since I said I was going to comment on this, here it is. This is all I could find on this setting, so please direct me to more, if more exists.

Quote from: LlumDigitalis is a digital city. It is ruled by the Board of Directors. While user generated content is enabled in the city, everything must adhere to the strict "cultural and technological standards" established by the Board of Directors. Tech level is capped at steampunk equivalent genre. Culture is much less mundane, being an amalgamation of stylized Roma and Ottoman Empire ideals.

Why is tech capped at a steampunk level? Is the tech that creates Digitalis incapable of replicating higher tech? Maybe the programmers just really have a thing for Jules Vern. I'm curious what the reasoning is, here.

Also, I'm not sure if Digitalis is the best name for the city, now that you've established (if I recall correctly) that the majority of the people inside don't realize that they're in a digital world. Personally, I'd get a bit suspicious if I lived in a world with a name like Digitalis, or Virtualtopia. Of course, if you can explain why they don't realize the significance of the name, then that's fine, too.

Quote from: Dest1ny=- and 13lack-Lumpus for a seat on the Board of Directors.[/quoteI like this, too. Depending on how complete you get this game, Digitalis could have quite a bit of commercial potential; not only could you you publish the setting (and maybe even game, if you get a system for the setting), but a computer game of Tacticus could possibly follow, too, or even an actual virtual world designed after Digitalis.

Quote from: Halfling FritosWhy is tech capped at a steampunk level? Is the tech that creates Digitalis incapable of replicating higher tech? Maybe the programmers just really have a thing for Jules Vern. I'm curious what the reasoning is, here.

I like this. I'm not sure yet how much sense it makes to use a game as a method of choosing leaders, but I do like the cultural flavor of it. Imagine how much a King would have to enjoy the game of chess before he started using it as a method of choosing advisors. Now imagine an entire culture essentially doing the same thing. Obviously, this game has to be pretty important at that point.[/quote]I like this, too. Depending on how complete you get this game, Digitalis could have quite a bit of commercial potential; not only could you you publish the setting (and maybe even game, if you get a system for the setting), but a computer game of Tacticus could possibly follow, too, or even an actual virtual world designed after Digitalis. [/quote]

Haha, I never really though about it like that, though I will admit that Tacticus has been designed to be playable. Me and my friend always brainstorm ideas for computer games, hes a Comp Sci major at school. We've mostly just been doing different kinds of RPGs or strategy games (turn-based). At the moment he's slowly working on a text-based RPG that uses the magic system I outlined in one of Vreegs old threads.

Thanks for the comments SDragon.

It happens to every war. Due to victors rewriting history or simply the flow of the sands of time. Every war is forgotten, but war is eternal and they never stop. In Eimos every battle continues on, from cattle raids to battles with land scarring artillery bombardments the endless sounds of war never still. Large pulsing egg-shaped organs sprout from the ground float on the water of hover in the air on bulbous sacks of gas. These organs spew out fresh combatants armed and ready for war.


A battle fought so long ago even the participants have forgotten where and why they fight still rages in the skies of Eimos. Over a sea of liquid mercury wood and canvas biplanes strafe enormous iron fortress-moons. Anti-air howitzers sound a constant anthem for the battle. The fortress-moons orbit one another launching massive shells at enemy emplacements. Zeppelin Motherships give birth to hundreds of new biplanes every day. At night the battle continues with flares marking targets for shelling and strafing.



In the mist drenched depths of the Luxan Jungle fierce Lizardmen battle invading High Elves. The Lizardmen who are ruled by the obese toad-priests and Ptera King fight the invading High Elves with obsidian studded clubs and spears. The High Elves who come from across the ocean use shining steel swords and unicorn horn bows.

The Lizardmen live in massive temple pyramid complexes built at the summit of slumbering volcanoes, ritually sacrificing warm blooded folk in the hopes of reawakening their ancient molten lava gods who would cleans the earth free of life. The High Elves wish to stop the vile cold blooded monsters once and for all, but seem only to fuel the sacrificial rituals.

Typical Lizardmen weapons are long thin clubs studded with obsidian blades, fire hardened javelins and obsidian tipped spears. Lizardmen fight in small mobile formations. Battles are usually supported by at least one of the massive toad-priests, all powerful magic users. Occasionally the someone from the Ptera-King royal family will join the battle, massive winged monsters who can rend an elf in half with their talons. Usually the royal Ptera family serve and generals who can scout the land from the air, however when forced into battle they are vicious.

The High Elves favor silvered steel long swords, magical bows made from unicorn horns and wyrm-bone greatswords. The High Elves come from a land across the sea and arrive on the shores of the Luxan jungle in large boats, ready to reinforce their fellow soldiers already entrenched in the jungle.


The skirmish over Om-Ibn-Shin Gulch is fought between two rival clans. The armored spidew riding Shin clan, defending their side of the Gulch and the aggressive undead Om clan, ruled by their zombie patriarch. The Gulch formed the border between clan lands for countless generations until the patriarch of the Om clan fell into undeath. Now driven by the relentless hunger of the undead the clan wants only to slay and feed on the living.

The massive spidews used by the Shin clan are capable of crossing the rough terrain of the Gulch with ease. Using long spears and crossbows spidew riders can attack the zombie hordes from safety as they fail to bypass the spidews thick leather armor and natural carapace.

The Om clan favors quantity over quality. They have hordes of mindless zombies raised from humans and local animals like wolves, dogs and bears. More powerful zombies with greater intelligence lead squads. The Zombies of the Om clan have been changed in certain ways to aid in battle. Spitters spew acidic vomit, berzerkers are difficult to to stop once they enter combat, flyers have superior tactical reach.


The HMZ Rigid Flan is a Zeppelin Mothership from the Battle for Iron Skies. Her captain, Bashir Fontescue, fled the battle to return to his family. Sadly his family no longer existed for he was a man born by Eimos to continue the battle. After discovering the nature of Eimos he set his ship as a traveling safe-haven. The Rigid Flan is home to hundreds of deserters from and many different battles. Most are world weary, cynical and tired of the constant warfare they cannot escape from.

The second in command is someone who had never seen a zeppelin before being rescued. Alistair Brightson was a High Elf who battled the Luxan Lizardmen for four years before he was captured. Set to be sacrified to the molten lava gods he was rescued from the sacrificial altar by the Rigid Flan's crew at the last minute.

I've been thinking about the world of the first idea a bit lately. Here's what I've got so far.

One major city. The city, Orphalos is built on the back of a massive tortoise. Miles long the venerable creature has small mountains on his shell, built up by ages of detritus and dust collecting. Nestle'd in the crook between two of these mountains lies Orphalos.

The city is protected from scavengers who ply the skies by the seven Watch Towers.

These towers are manned guards and storm-drake egg powered rail guns. When a storm drake (native to the mountains and a huge pest) dies it releases a burst of electricity. Same goes for the yet unborn young, some one figured out the theory of electro magnets and the defenses were born.

This is a good thing because the skies are a dangerous place and the city being so high its highly dangerous to live there.