The Campaign Builder's Guild

QuoteI really like this. I've allready decided I'm going to take stuff from Deus Ex to develop one of my settings further, and there is a lot of other good things here. Here are some of my old setting ideas I don't see myself doing much with in the foreseeable future:

1) The world is a giant creature. It would still be spherical, and creatures on the surface would notice little difference. However, great organic pores that go deeper and deeper into it form the creatureâ,¬,,¢s respiratory and circulatory system. The creature is sentient, but no more aware of the creatures that live on and in it than any other organism is aware of the bacteria that live on and in them.

2) Where there is an underdark in most settings is an unimaginably vast complex that was built by a long dead race. These creatures would be comparable to Lovecraftâ,¬,,¢s Elder Ones, and still influence the world above. Meanwhile, great engines of ancient power rest beneath the surface. This setting would focus a great deal on humanoid raceâ,¬,,¢s place in the cosmos.

3) Speaking of the cosmos, the next one would focus on a solar system that features several gas giants orbiting a single star. The people would live on the moons of these gas giants, allowing for interplanetary adventure in a smaller area. Psionics would be dominant in this setting.

Quote from: SilvercatMoonpaw
Here's the stuff from my random idea thread in Homebrews:
[spoiler="Hate makes this world go 'round."]
In the old days the giants, the humans, the elves, and the halflings all lived integrated together. It was true that each had a preferred habitat: the giants strolled the open plains, the humans sailed the seas, the elves raced through the forests, and the halflings crawled through the tunnels just under the soil. But there was no isolationism by race; halflings, giants, humans, and elves could live together in the same village. Bloodlines were mingled freely: gaint/human, human/elf, elf/halfling, and and even more trace by combination. The only threats to the peace of this land were the attacks of the dwarves: seafaring from the north, bull-riding from the east. Yet these were only raiders, intersted in loot, not conquest and ideology. Though half-dwarves were sometimes born in the wake of these raids they were accepted as beings of their own by both sides.
This lasted until the dwarven legions of the south invaded. Unlike the north and east, the regions in the south were condusive to large-scale agriculture, affording dwarves a chance to settle down and develop the makings of organized civilization, most importantly disciplined armies and a conquering mindset. They had already tamed the giants, humans, halflings, and elves of their own territories the dwarves set out to aquire the land to their north. Their advance was slow but relentless, as the dwarves took the time to carefully secure their position militarily.
The people of this land were stunned: dwarves were swarming, screaming hordes that were easily repulsed by organized defenses. It was unthinkable that the same savages from the north and east could defeat them. Refugees from the south told tales of the great feats of egineering the dwarves created to sustain their war machine: roads, bridges, aqueducts, sewers. Rumors and tales began to circulate that the dwarves must have the help of the gods, and that the peope of the mid land were being punished for some immoraltiy. But what?
The answer came from those of mixed-blood fleeing the dwarves in the south: wherever the legions went, the dwarves systematically slaughtered every individual who showed sign of mixed race. The dwarves preached a doctirne of racial purity and fixed identity, holding their justification under the commandment from the gods "Each one must remain true." That phrase also existed in the religions of the mid landers, though they had interpreted it differently. Now fervent religious individuals preached that to beat back the "new horde" they must first win back the favor of th gods by returning the races to their "traditional identities" and cleansing the land of the "tainted blood". The panicking citizens of the various mid land countries swiftly took up the cause, and the genocide began.
Whether this was simply coincidental or an actual turning of the god's blessing, the southern dwarves began to squabble over politics, and while their attention was turned and their vigilance was faltering the "newly cleansed" armies of the mid lands retook most of their old territory. The southern dwarves were able to marshal themselves to hold on to their old lands, but the damge to the freedom of the mid lands was done: the purists were proven right, and even some of the most stubborn holdouts capitualted before the "evidence". Half-breeds that were not slaughtered could attempt to escape east (the south was just as certain a death as the mid lands) into the steppes of the bull-riding dwarves or the maze-like forests of towering conifers. In a few coastal human nations, however, this purge was slower, and clever hybrid inidividuals along with their sympathetic human allies decided to take their chances with the sea. Hearing about the discovery of an uninhabited land across the western sea, they set out in great ships, hoping to settle in this "land of freedom".

Point of this idea: I wanted a setting where there was a big tension about mixed race and what being a "true member" of a race means. While standard D&D mentions these ideas, I had an old region from another world lying around my mental junkpile where the PHB stereotypes were enforced for the reasons of an overarching religion, one that specifically called for the death of all half-elves. This setting tries to take that idea and make it seem reasonable, adapting the real history of the Byzantine Empire facing attacks from the Muslims and how the empiror decided that the Muslims were winning because God favored their stance on no images.
The land in the west is sort of an idea of establishing an "America" where people can be free. It's basically an add-on when I was going to do this setting in two parts: medievil and Victorian style-periods. However I still like it, as it creates a place where the population is almost entirely mixed races (though there are supposed to be some native inhabitants).[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Spiritual-Primal Cosmology]The universe is divided between two forces: that of the perfect, unchanging spirit realm (think of Plato's idea that there is a place where perfect copies exist of everything that can be found on Earth), and the variated, constantly changing primal realm (primal is used here to mean matter as well as "lower thought"). In this specific cosmology their are only five plains: the Spirit Realm, the Primal Realm, the Beast Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Mortal Realm. They are arranged in a cosmic pattern known as the pentogram, and each realm only connects to two others: Mortal to Beast to Primal to Spirit to Demon to Mortal (think about that method of drawing a pentagram where you draw the lines without lifting the pen). Upon death a soul moves toward either the Primal Realm or the Spirit Realm depending upon it's inclination to the core being of one or the other. Souls that value consistancy, abstract thought, mind-over-matter, etc., move on to the Spirit Realm to join with its perfection. Souls that value spontineity, insinct, feelings, etc., move on to the Primal Realm to be changed and flung anew into the Mortal Realm.
However each soul must journey to their respective realm. Primal souls pass through the Beast Realm, Spirit souls through the Demon Realm. Sometimes a soul is not ready to face it's core force, and lingers in its realm, becoming either a Beast (which here can mean animal, magical beast, fey, elemental, etc.) or Demon (which here includes fiends and celestials both), respectively.
There is a great conflict in the universe between the forces of Spirit and Primal. The Beasts and the Demons often emerge into the Mortal Realm to engage in conflict for their respective realms. Demons try to impose the will of the Spirit Realm on the Mortal Realm, but the Beasts have no such compulsion.[/spoiler]