While I let my Underdark setting lie fallow for a little while so the inspiration can start to build up again, I've let my attention wander to a few other ideas that I have rattling around inside my brain. I thought then that I might be a good idea to put up some brief descriptions of each setting and see what better writers than myself were interested in having me pursue in greater depth. These are all pretty vague and mutable concepts at the moment, so i won't go into too great of detail in describing me.
Frankenstein's Legions is set in Europe in the early 19th Century, a Europe in which the mad experiments of a one Victor Frankenstein did not fail, but instead exceeded his wildest expectations. Refining and expanding his science of reanimation, the widespread acceptance Prometheans helped to spark the Necroindustrial Revolution, harnessing the power of death itself through bizarre pseudosciences and experimental alchemies. More followed in his wake: the creation of vampires and werebeasts, the restoration of dead souls, even methods for true immortality in undeath. But for a Europe divided between bickering states and on the brink of another war, such discoveries are as much a curse as they were a blessing, for now the continent has begun the slow slide into an era that Frankenstein himself had not foreseen. Dark forests once again cover the twisted countryside and monstrous creatures lurk in the shadows. For the people of Europe, they are grim times to live in, where nations have begun to decay back into divided states and the progress of unnatural science is a double-edged sword that releases ever-newer horrors with each discovery and invention. In Prussia, undead soldiers fill the ranks, towered over by hulking war-machines of flesh and metal. In England, Her Majesty's ships are crewed by the souls of the dead bound to the vessels and dissenters in Ireland are hunted by Parliament's werewolf agents. In Russia, the Tsar rules with a blood-soaked fist, butchering his own citizens when they can prove more useful in life than in death. Indeed, dark days and darker nights lie ahead for the Continent.
Uncivil War is set in an America where in War Between the States has reach truly apocalyptic proportions, decades of warfare having ravaged the nation and embittered its populace. For the political leaders and military commanders of the Union and Confederacy alike, victory is worth any price. No theory is considered too radical, no invention too unorthodox, and no strategy too unethical; men of science push the boundaries further with each passing day, each discovery threatening to damn the entire country. The vampiric President Lincoln still governs a United States that has allied itself with Germany as well as bloodsucking undead elders, crazed industrialists, scientists driven mad by their own genius, and even creatures from beyond the stars. The Confederate States, loyal ally of France and Great Britain, is equally a creative in its pursuit of a war-winner: werewolf raiders, Indian mystics and shamans, dark pacts with unholy entities. To the west, the natives have begun to retake their ancestral lands, the thinly-stretched armies of the white man unable to stand against their spirit-ridden warriors, while to the south, Mexico has plans to retake the Southwest territories they had been robbed of. On battlefields from Ohio to Atlanta to South Dakota, soldiers clad in mechanized armor and rumbling war-machines belching smoke and steam march side-by-side with black-clad military-necromancers and vicious vampire-gorillas as a nation divided threatens to rips itself apart.
The Empire is a high fantasy setting with an Old Imperialism-themed take on the genre: the titular Empire, something of a cross between the Spanish and British Empires, is an institution of such incredible vastness that it encompasses countless worlds and spans multiple planes of existence, from the raw elements of the Inner Planes to the swirling void of the Astral Sea to the strange and wonderful landscapes of the Outer Planes and beyond. Hundreds of intelligent races populate the Empire and make up the twin Houses of Parliament, locked in a constant political duel with the ruling Monarch, who's own bloodline can be traced back to more than a dozen different origins. The Company dispatches explorers and mercenaries to every corner of the multiverse in search of wealth and resources to exploit, while the Inquisition fervently hunts out revolutionaries, traitors, and practitioners of forbidden faiths. The Imperial Army maintains the Empire's rule across all of its colonies, taking new ones when desired, while the ships of the Imperial Navy are just as often drifting through the Astral Sea as they are the seas of a world on the Material Plane. The possibilities are limitless; the Empire and its various parts need agents of all sorts and all alignments, and there are no shortages of independent guilds and underworld organizations in search of recruits either.
Gravelands is set in a strange region of the fantasy world, one where the undead are just as common, if not more so, than the living. Creatures such as ghouls, wights, specters, wraiths, zombies, skeletons, liches, and vampires all populate a landscape tainted by the negative energies of death and dark magic; some of their fellows are even stranger still, like amortal offspring of Death Itself or humanoid-shaped swarms of vermin animated by undying minds. Great necropolises and morbid cities of the dead dominate the land, resembling anything from archaic graveyards to subterranean barrow mounds and populated by living citizens as well as undead. Decaying farms worked by tireless peasants harvest the crops and cattle, some intelligent, needed to sustain those creatures who still require food in a grotesque parody of medieval life. They form small states and kingdoms, constantly squabbling and bickering with neighbors and rivals. The undead, however, are neither mindless nor inherently evil, regardless of what the mortals who frequently raid their lands might say. They are a society as much as any other, with their own culture and language and religion, and they will often take up arms to defend their own right to exist. Parties of undead adventurers travelling the countryside are a frequent sight; sometimes on quests like a more traditional group, sometimes out to exact reparations from a mortal town or strike a blow against another petty kingdom.
Hub is set in the titular city, known most often as the City Out of Time and the City Beyond Space, a small metropolis nested in its own cozy dimension and populated by one sort of person: time travelers. The travelers are eternal and ageless beings born with the strange and wonderful ability to throw themselves through time, space, and between parallel dimensions. They hail from every period of every nation's history, making them a diverse group, to say the least. The city itself is full of anachronisms and characterized by limitless different cultures, though it most strongly resembles Elizabethan England. Various guilds and societies manage the city in lieu of an actual government, leading to the sort of conflicts and intrigue that time travelers love to involve themselves in.
And more might be on the way...
The first two might be combined fairly easily, I think. They're both quite interesting, and remind me vaguely of Unhallowed Metropolis and Deadlands, though they're certainly different enough to still be original.
Quote from: SteerpikeThe first two might be combined fairly easily, I think. They're both quite interesting, and remind me vaguely of Unhallowed Metropolis and Deadlands, though they're certainly different enough to still be original.
I definately see how they could be, but with Frankenstein's Legions, I'm going for more of a twisted steampunk-meets-biopunk with a heavy-handed dose of gothic atmosphere, with only a little actual fantasy. Uncivil War, on the other hand, is basically a dumping-ground for any bizarre or over-the-top ideas I can come up with.
I agree with Mr. Steerpike; the first two ought to be combined, and pursued. I like your ideas Gypsylight, keep it up!
If you weren't combining the two, how do you envision the New World in Frankenstein's Legions?
Quote from: SteerpikeIf you weren't combining the two, how do you envision the New World in Frankenstein's Legions?
Pretty much behind the times, actually. America was still pretty young at the time and not on good terms with many of the Old World powers, so they're not exactly privy to the new technological developments. Also remember, religion was generally a much bigger deal across the Atlantic than in Europe and leaders had much more sway in the community, and no self-respecting methodist or baptist minister ould allow things like reanimated corpses walking around in his parish.
Interesting. So where does the Papacy stand on the whole Necroindustrial Revolution? Are European Catholics up in arms, or are some reconciled to the new tech?
How occult are you envisioning the Frankenstien's Legion setting? Can I summon a demon with a blood-powered difference engine, or is it strictly psuedo-scientific? On a related note, are other literary characters other than Frankenstein abroad in the universe (Dracula, Jekyll/Hyde, Dorian Gray?)?
Quote from: SteerpikeInteresting. So where does the Papacy stand on the whole Necroindustrial Revolution? Are European Catholics up in arms, or are some reconciled to the new tech?
The Papacy itself opposes the technology and certainly there are a good number of Catholics who try to avoid having anything to do with it, but as a whole it is too ubiquitous and useful for predominantly-Catholic coutries like France and Austria to completely ignore.
Quote from: SteerpikeHow occult are you envisioning the Frankenstien's Legion setting? Can I summon a demon with a blood-powered difference engine, or is it strictly psuedo-scientific? On a related note, are other literary characters other than Frankenstein abroad in the universe (Dracula, Jekyll/Hyde, Dorian Gray?)?
The technology purely pseudo-scientific, though it has its roots in occult and alchemical lore and there are elements of it that do not fit rational science, like the so-called "spark of life". And yes on Dracula, who's living it up as an Austrian noble. I'm still uncertain about the rest of them, however. Introducing Dr. Jekyll is certainly tempting, especially as another father of the Necroindustrial Revolution.
Are you planning on keeping the political landscape roughly similar, or has the advent of necromancy changed things? Are there Luddites who object to the dead stealing the jobs of the living? How are the Prometheans treated, in general - slaves? Second-class citizens? Full citizens? Glorified machines? Do some have suffrage in the parliamentary countries?
While thinking over my other nascent settings, another popped into my head, one which I'm interested in pursuing as well. While the influence of Steerpike's own Cadaverous Earth setting is very apparent, I'm hoping that I can distance this setting from it. And I promise, I'll get to your questions about Frankenstein's Legions as well.
Boschian Earth is a world that has begun to come apart at the seams, suffering the effects and aftershocks of the apocalyptic Tear. Gods have died, their bodies petrifying and splitting in the heavens before falling to earth; chunks of fossilized flesh and bone the size of cities crashing to the ground and causing widespread devastation, killing millions and shattering the landscape. Stars followed, the ruins of civilization burning in cosmic funeral pyres. Our own Sun survived, but even it was dimmed, swollen, and bloated. The moon was shattered, the fragments scattered across the now-black sky, hanging ominously above the earth. To those who survived the cataclysm, it seemed as though the universe itself was dying. Like a tapestry pulled from all four corners, everything had begun to unravel; small holes and tears appearing in the fabric, even though the cloth remained more or less whole.
Despite the destruction wrought by the Tear, the Godfall and the Starfires, there were many who survived, though not all could be described as human. Many were twisted, warped and altered in mind and body. Some underwent such changes suddenly, unseen forces reshaping them where they stood. Others were simply born different, their mutations seemingly random. And there were some whose existence had no explanation, for they were so far removed from humanity that they could only have been created after the Tear.
There are the Mostly-Humans, their changes relatively subtle, like an extra pair of eyes or acid-dripping tongue. There are the Undead, everything from half-decaying shamblers to insubstantial spectres to clattering, fleshless skeletons. Verminkind and Insectfolk appear to be hybrids between humanity and lower creatures, their twisted bodies sporting all manner of bestial features. And then there are the Inhumans, beings so altered by strange energies that they are utterly alien, even metaphysical.
Life is neither easy nor forgiving, for violence is the currency with which one purchases most essentials. Those who do not dwell within the great cities that have sprung up since the Tear live as scavengers, picking over the corpse of fallen civilizations. Cannibalism, both literal and figurative, is the norm; a defeated captive too valuable to serve as food can look forward to becoming a slave. In the lawless territory that exists beyond the cities' borders, the family is the highest form of government. These packs are tight-knit, members loyal only to each other and only welcoming of outsiders when in need of fresh blood, so to speak. At best, encounters between them are tense; more often than not, they are violent clashes, the victors picking over the bodies of the defeated.
There is magic in the world, though it is a dangerous and unpredictable force that often takes a heavy toll on those who seeks to harness its power. Technology too exists, relics of a mostly-forgotten era, though somewhat-mutable laws of reality mean that it frequently behaves like less like proper science and more like magic itself; a car might run as well on blood as it does on gasoline. Much of what has survived is ramshackle and heavily-altered, constantly being repaired and upgraded with scavenged parts.
There's more to it in my head, but at the moment, my train of thought is beginning to derail itself and I think it best to end my ramblings before I fall too off-course.
Quote from: SteerpikeAre you planning on keeping the political landscape roughly similar, or has the advent of necromancy changed things?
The politics of Europe have not changed too dramatically, though things have become far more fractious, with individual states claiming greater sovereignty, especially in the area of the Germanies and Eastern Europe.
Quote from: SteerpikeAre there Luddites who object to the dead stealing the jobs of the living?
Of course, though I've yet to come up with a better term for them.
Quote from: SteerpikeHow are the Prometheans treated, in general - slaves? Second-class citizens? Full citizens? Glorified machines? Do some have suffrage in the parliamentary countries?
The most mindless of Prometheans are treated as little more than automata in any country. Those that possess greater reason and intellect, however, may be given second-class citizenship; in extremely-liberal countries like the Netherlands and Sweden, they may be considered full-citizens and represented as such.
Also, I am considering including even more supernatural elements, such as a pseudoscientific approach to dealing with and harnessing the power of demons, as you had suggested before.
I'm going to more-than-second the suggestions about combining the first two and say, just put them all together. Yes, I know there will be a few contradictions, but those can be deftly resolved, and the end result is a setting deeper and richer than any of the individual possibilities. As it stands, all of the ideas are interesting little sparks, but that's all they are. It'll take a lot of work to fill in the details, and when you're filling in the details you are likely to subconsciously ignore certain interesting ideas because it's too similar to that other idea you had bouncing around in your mind-- which is also unlikely to get filled in completely, for the same reason. So, I say, put all that to use, rather than excluding stuff.
Europe? Full of bizarre Frankensteinian machinations, shadow creatures, golems, and other terrible constructs.
America? The Uncivil War is raging, currently without the benefit of these construct-creatures, but other terrible things have been unleashed. And perhaps there is some talk of a technology trade...
... and of course, where do all these things go when they get sick of fighting? To the Gravelands, which could even be a region particularly wracked by all of the dark forces that seem to be on the loose.
Your most recent idea could've been the thing that set this whole mess off, anyway.
Just a thought. :)