New, unnamed Setting

Xathan · September 18, 2006, 02:18:56 PM

[note]This is the discussion thread: I'm not sure if I will ever make a content thread, so just post all your thoughts here.[/note]

This is the preliminary phase of my new setting: nothing is set in stone yet. I have a lot of vague, amorphous ideas for the setting. The basic overall premise of the setting is that long ago, true dragons ruled everything in a Golden Age where most creatures lived in near harmony and technology and magic worked hand in hand, but after a cataclysmic war with something, the dragons were driven off-plane or to extinction. ThatÃ¢,¬,,¢s right Ã¢,¬' there are literally no more true dragons alive on the world. Ok, so not that special, right? But, this means draconic influences permeate society, including even bloodlines and magic. Though long dead, they are far from forgotten, and every society is in some way touched by the influences of the long ago dragons who ruled the land.

Taking a leaf out of my friend CritÃ¢,¬,,¢s book, The setting is going to be divided up into three ages. The First Age, or Age of Dragons, or the Golden Age, is just that Ã¢,¬' a utopian age under the benevolent but iron fisted rule of dragons. The Golden Age nations actually reached into other planes and other worlds entirely, meaning creatures from all over Reality were brought to the world. I will not be defining the First Age for now, but when I do, it will be using the Mutants and Masterminds rules to create the feel I want.

The Second Age, or age of Rebirth, is roughly equivalent, tech wise, to most DnD settings. The cultures vary greatly here, especially on the different continents, where life forms are radically different from what is known in the main continent. (The main continent will be the most Western Europe influenced place, but there will be a large number of differences.

The Third Age, or the Age of Mage, is an arcanapunk or magepunk world with hovering carriages, lightrails, and energy guns, creating an almost futuristic feel in the context of a fantasy world. These devices are powered by conduits, which tie into various energy planes or other realms and channel energy from them.

Core Concepts
(these arenÃ¢,¬,,¢t even ethos yet, more ideas and questions I have.

Religion is distant: The gods donÃ¢,¬,,¢t come and physically walk around, and people canÃ¢,¬,,¢t wave their hands and just appear by their deity of choiceÃ¢,¬,,¢s side. This also will go along with the complete removal of the alignment system. Good and evil have an objective truth behind them or donÃ¢,¬,,¢t Ã¢,¬' it is no more clear than it is in the real world.

Races: IÃ¢,¬,,¢m still debating what races I want and donÃ¢,¬,,¢t, and how many homebrew races to include. Humans are in, but other than that, IÃ¢,¬,,¢m really not sure where to homebrew and what to use. I have a cool concept for an elvish nation and a halfling tribe, but those could easily accomplished without elves or halflings, and the elvish nation could easily be done with normal humans. Thoughts are appreciated.

Creatures: Animal life is going to be redefined. Many of the continents have been geographically isolated for as long as they have existed, with no unifying Pangea continent, while others have just recently started pushing together. Biodiversity on this world is far higher than on Earth, and travel to another continent is like traveling to another world.

More to come. This is very, very bare bones at the moment, but any thoughts or, even better, questions would really help me. Thanks. :)
[spoiler=New World ideas:]

Just some random ideas I have. Thoughts?

Overview:

World long ago ruled by dragons and draconic races that went extinct due to some long forgotten catastrophe, or maybe are just far less plentiful everywhere but one continent. Continents followed different evolutionary paths in many ways, meaning life varies greatly on the 3 main landmasses. (3 main landmasses are divided up into 6 continents with 2 Australia like continents.)

Technomagic that is similar to but different from Eberron stuff clashes with ancient arts (tome of battle stuff) and draconic teachings, while nature wars with the civilized world. (For Third Age Only)

Halfling culture that trains giant rodents, live in jungle, use squirrel-like creatures as primary transport among trees, masters of bolas and poison darts.

Ancient and expansive empire (of elves?) in savanna that domesticates and trains great cats for war and have a long martial tradition. Worship the spirits of the dragons. (Cat types: riding tiger, war tiger, cheetah (for scouts), panthers (for forests and jungles), and rigaeh, winged cats.)

Empire of mixed races, dominates one of the lesser continents, brutally militaristic, ruled by a entity known as the crystal mind.

Race of small humanoids with a hive mind that roams the badlands, acting like humanoid locusts.[/spoiler]

Xathan · September 18, 2006, 02:25:34 PM

Tentative Map. Nothing has been filled in yet, but this gives you a good idea of what the world basically looks like. Most of the action will take place on the northeast group of continents.

Poseptune · September 18, 2006, 03:48:31 PM

I like it so far and the different ages are a nice touch.

Religion: I have always liked this approach. A complete removal of the alignment system! Oh no! Think of the spells lost, the paladins lost in ambiguity, and the lost of "Can I do this under this alignment?" and "The paladin ate my baby!" threads. :)

Races: The elves as humans, I'd probably have to see it. I do like the description of the halflings in the spoiler as well as the war cats idea. Are you thinking of using cheetahs as riding animals for scouts or as scouts themselves? I would imagine that their slenderness would make them difficult to ride, let alone the speed at which they travel. The humanoid locust are interesting and I would like to see more on these buggers. What kind of colony system do they have, something like bees, ants or completely different? Is there a single queen that gives birth to the race or do the individuals have the ability to reproduce?

Are you planning on having a draconic like race? Maybe descendants of half-dragons from the end of the first age.

Creatures: I've already commented on this in your other thread.

Ghost · September 18, 2006, 10:09:13 PM

Wow. Just wow. My main campaign (Ifpherion, as in my sig) shares a lot of elements with what you've come up with here - all except for the Dragons not being there. I wonder if I should remove alignment as well?...

I took a more scientific approach to the origins of the humanoid races - the dwarves 'recently' (maybe 25k years ago) split off from humans, while the elves share an even more distant common ancestor. I'm not sure if this could fit in your world, but I find it generates a lot of possibilities.

I do like the cat-riding idea. I'm guessing that these elves are not one of the advanced societies.

Overall, it sounds very cool. Can't wait to read more of it.

Numinous · September 18, 2006, 10:21:42 PM

I'm not one to review your stuff on my own, but I'm available to bounce ideas off of. Also, I'm glad to see my "ages" concept being used, just keep in min dthat it'll be a pain to keep organized.

Have fun with this dude, you've got a great concept and a lot of potential here.

SA · September 18, 2006, 11:31:04 PM

I like the idea of the prolonged separation of the continents and its impact on biodiversity. My setting follows a similar principle.

I'll be looking forward to more on this.

Túrin · September 19, 2006, 04:41:35 PM

The religion idea is similar to what Orden's Mysteries uses (including the removal of alignment). All of it looks good so far. Keep it up.

On another note, what exactly about the Ages-idea is so revolutionary that you say "stolen from Crit" rather than "as in most settings"? (This sentence might come across as cynical but that is unintended.)

Túrin

Numinous · September 19, 2006, 08:18:26 PM

Usually, the "Ages" set-up found in most settings refers to various periods in the history of the world. My "revolutionary"(if you can call it that) idea was to make each of these periods into a playable setting independent of the others, with it's own feel, yet still part of the same world by virtue of the physical realm it takes place in.

Xathan · September 21, 2006, 03:32:43 PM

@Pos/Nep/Oceanus/Whatever Sea God he is currently going by

IÃ¢,¬,,¢m glad you like my religious take. It makes the setting much more real and believable, IMO, and, as you mentioned, it removes a lot of stupid arguments and needless spells.

On the races Ã¢,¬' the elves as humans just meant the elven culture idea I had could be done equally well with humans Ã¢,¬' nothing about the culture mandated elves, I just thought they fit it. IÃ¢,¬,,¢m probably going to keep the core races in, as well as a few homebrew, but IÃ¢,¬,,¢m reworking everything culturally. ItÃ¢,¬,,¢s sort of the Eberron approach to races, which suits me fine. :) As for the CheetahsÃ¢,¬Â¦you have a good point about slenderness and speed, IÃ¢,¬,,¢ll have to toy with that. I did mean for them to be mounts, not the cheetahs themselves.

As for the locusts, their society is really the most like locusts. Their life span is a short one, about three years. They spend two of those years in a larval stage that looks like small, insectile fey. In their third year, they form a chrysalis and, six months later, they emerge fully-grown, about the size of kobolds. Of the remaining six months of their life, they spend three of them eating everything in the area, able to completely despoil several dozen square miles before they settle down, budding new offspring as they die. The reproduction is asexual, and the process then repeats itself. A single adult spawns 100-400 offspring, but only about 1% survive to reach adulthood, most of them dying due to disease, predators, or their own voracious siblings.

@ Realm Weaver:

IÃ¢,¬,,¢ll comment on Ifpherion at a later date, but what IÃ¢,¬,,¢ve seen so far looks good to me. There are a fair number of shared elements, including the scientific aspect, since I do handle evolution in a quasi-scientific matter (Dragons and other powerful beings influenced evolution directly once they figured out how to.)

As for the Cat-riders, they are actually a highly advanced culture, on par technology-wise with China during the middle ages. The cat riders form an elite caste of society, similar socially to that occupied by samurai in feudal Japan or knights in medieval Europe. An idea I just had was to have the cheetah riders be those cat-riders in training, or to just eliminate known breeds of great cats altogether, and replace them with cats that are related to lions, tigers, and panthers much the same way dogs are related to wolves. Thoughts?

@ Crit:

IÃ¢,¬,,¢ll be happy to bounce ideas off of you, and I know there are a lot of organizational challenges to the ages set up Ã¢,¬' I remember helping with yours. IÃ¢,¬,,¢m hoping I put the ages far enough apart that the organizational challenges become less apparent, but weÃ¢,¬,,¢ll just have to see.

@ Salacious Angel:

Thanks for the encouragement. IÃ¢,¬,,¢m going to be working on stuff today and tomorrow, and hopefully have a big update this weekend. :D

@ Turin:

Crit answered that pretty well. Glad you like my religious approach, IÃ¢,¬,,¢ve always been a big fan of it. :)

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New, unnamed Setting

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