The Campaign Builder's Guild

OK, I found that Word document I have that provides details (hopefully, suitable for players who care) on all of the deities in the world.  It is, however, 13 pages, so I'm not going to copy that into here.  If people are interested, I can stick it on the web and link to it.

For now, I'm putting up another map, with crappy MS paint numbers added to it.  I will then write my current thoughts on each of those areas.  Feel free to critique or comment as the mood strikes.

1. Naranjas
This large island, separated by the Great Expanse from the rest of the world, has nurtured its own races and cultures, with minimal impact from the greater world.  Naranjas is the home of the Xeph and Grippli races, as well as the Yuan-Ti.  The island has a tropical climate, and is mostly covered in jungles and rain forests.  Xephs live in cities that exist both above and below the surface of the island, and in scattered towns and villages.  Xephs primarily live in the northern half of the island, as their blood foes, the Yuan-Ti, control the south.  There is a constant low-grade war going on between the two races, which occasionally turns white hot.  This has created somewhat of a DMZ between their areas.  The primary advantage the Xephs have is that they have a navy, so they can maneuver better by sending troops across the water.

The Grippli are a race of frog-men that stand from two to three feet high.  They are friendly with the Xephs, and considered a food source by the Yuan-Ti.  Grippli would prefer to be left alone and live in their own villages in the jungles, but the hostility and hunger of the Yuan-Ti have driven many to live with the Xeph in their towns and cities.  Grippli are rather primitive, and do not live in houses; give them some trees and/or a hole in the ground for shelter and they're good.  A pond is a plus, too.  Thus, Xeph cities have developed to have large parks and other arboretal areas for their Grippli friends.  Some Xephs are very patronizing of the Grippli, treating them like intelligent pets, but wise Xephs recognize their sentience and treat them decently.

Because Xephs are great craftsmen and traders, their ships have sailed into pretty much every port in the world at some point.  Sometimes they get treated badly and don't return, but Xeph goods are considered high quality and highly desirable in many places, so the Xeph have become quite rich on the whole through their trading power.

Because the Xeph rely so much on the sea for their wealth and prosperity, worship of Dorana is very popular.  Grippli don't seem to be very much into religion, for the most part; there is no deity that they show any preference for on average.

Xephs, Grippli, and Yuan-Ti are all psionic, and arcane magic-using Xeph are very rare.  Even divine magic-using Xephs are quite uncommon.  No grippli in known memory has ever cast an arcane magic spell.

When finalized, Xeph culture will be very much based on Indian myth and lore, and their clothing and equipment will reflect that.

2. Helg'Amar
This northern area is the home of the grey elves, the most insular race in the world.  Related to the more common high elves, the grey elves have slowly closed themselves off from the rest of the world over the years.  In the present day that have almost no relationships with anyone other than high elves, and that is kept to a minimum.

The grey elves consider themselves to be the pinnacle of creation.  After Kulaj made them, she made nothing else, because you can't improve on perfection, so why try?  They look with, at best, pity on everyone else in the world, if not outright distaste at the ugliness and lack of grace of other creatures.  It is unheard of for the grey elves to let any other race, except for a handful of high elves, into their lands.  There is only one grey elf kingdom, ruled by the same king for over 500 years.

The elves last real interaction with anybody was with a human kingdom that lived on the islands in their far southern domain.  This was 300 years ago.  350 years ago, the king of those islands accidentally mis-spoke in the presence of the elven king, and the king was insulted.  He brooded on the brash (though clueless) human's words for 50 years, before deciding that he was slighted, and his honor demanded recompense.  By this time, of course, the human king was long dead and his line had been usurped by another.  The elves didn't care, though.  They descended in force and slaughtered most of the human inhabitants for the "grave, horrible slight on the king's honor."  They did gather up many of the women and children, stick them on boats, and send them out into the sea rather than kill them (they're not evil, they just must cleanse the stain on their honor), but they wiped that human kingdom off the map.  In fact, if you ever find a grey elf and ask him about it, he'll most likely tell you that those islands have always belonged to the elves, because they wanted to wipe those annoying humans from history.  The message is: do not mess with us; do not talk to us; leave us alone, because we're better than you and you damn well better know it, or we'll teach you how much better we are.

The insular culture of the high elves has developed in some wierd ways, such as the samurai and shugenja PC classes.  While they have regular fighters, the samurai are ritual soldiers of the noble houses, trained in the history and honorable ways of their people.  Shugenja are priests of the elven god Prielghari.  Interestingly enough, this is the same god primarily worshipped by the wood elves, though grey elves say that their racial cousins are debased and worship improperly.  Prielghari has many elemental aspects, and the shugenja focus on one of four aspects: earth, air, fire, or water.  The wood elves also say Prielghari has an aspect of "wood," which horifies grey elf purists as some kind of bizarre heresy.

Any grey elf PCs, outside of a campaign set in grey elf lands, will be one of the rare grey elves that disagrees with their overall cuture, and doesn't automatically despise everybody else in the world.  The occasional grey elf decides to travel the world and actually see what it is like with their own eyes, and hear it with their own ears.  These rare individuals may still be very prejudiced, but they are willing to put those prejudices to the test to see if those beliefs are valid.  Anyone returning to grey elf lands with a changed worldview is treated badly, generally, and some elves have even been banished for having their minds "tainted" with different views.

Bottom line, grey elves aren't evil, they just really, really don't like you.  Unless you're a high elf, in which case you are treated like a cousin who is a bit simple, but probably harmless.

3. Naihan
This area is pretty undefined, but my current plan is to have it controlled by humans that are culturally influenced by the Chinese Tang Dynasty.  The region has generally been stable for a while; ruling families come and go, but Naihan's borders haven't changed much over the years.  This has mainly been due to the various ruling family's lack of ability to really control the bureaucracy.  The bureaucracy is very good at running the basic functions of the government, and also very good at making sure that whoever is in charge ends up being more of a figure head than an actual all-powerful emperor.  You can't run the country without the bureaucracy, so you can't just get rid of it, but it helps stop over-arching ambition in its tracks.

The region might even end up being a handful of different countries, rather than just one; undecided on that point.  I do know that it will be relatively wealthy, due to solid trade activity with other regions.  They also will have at least one top notch magical academy, and most of the monasteries (necessary for the Monk PC class) are in this region of the world.

4. The Former Sundren Empire
This large area was at one time under the dominion of the Sundren Empire, a human-controlled empire that arose a little under 300 years ago.  It generally expanded its reach through force of arms, though a small handful of provinces just capitulated rather than fight what they felt was a hopeless battle to remain independent.  As tends to happen, it became corrupt and militarily weak over the years, such that around 75 years ago the outlying regions began to break free.  This process was complete by 50 years ago.  The old capital of Sundras is in the peninsula in the SE portion of the empire's reach.

Ever since the break-up, this area has been a hotbed of activity, with lots of fighting and political maneuvering as the various new kings, dukes, and other rulers fought amongst themselves to consolidate power.  There are roughly 20 countries that currently exist in this region, down from a high over 45 at its peak.  Due to this activity, the area is crawling with mercenaries, and ex-mercenaries who have turned to banditry.  The lands are generally very fertile and there is plenty of water, so the populations are higher than you would otherwise expect due to the abundant agriculture.

The previously-described Kingdom of Lorne is part of this region.  The region also includes many halflings, a moderate number of gnomes, and at least one large forest controlled by wood elves.  Dwarven clans generally live in the hills and mountains to the east and west, though near Sundras there is a large dwarven mountain settlement that is still loyal to the old imperial line.  Many years ago one of the old Sundren Emperors died fighting off an attack on the dwarves, and they have always honored the debt by pledging their fealty to the Sundren ruling house.

5. The Wild North
Very little has been decided about this area.  I am loosely basing it off of the concepts in the AD&D1E Forgotten Realms product, The Savage Frontier.  As such, there will be independent city-states based along the coast of the Great Inland Sea, and deeper inland, in the space between the glaciers, there will be barbarian human tribes, some wild elf tribes, and a lot of evil humanoids (orcs, ogres, and more).  There may or may not be a lot of ruins from ancient civilizations for plunder.

6. The Eastern Plains
This area will be home to wild elves and evil humanoids, but it is primarily the home to a large number of human nomadic tribes, based loosely on the concept of The Horde, from the Forgotten Realms.  Think nomadic mongols and you're close.  One significant change is that this entire area was once ruled, many hundreds of years ago, by a race of cat-people, the Artathi.  These are the ancestors of the Syltath that roam the frozen north.  The Artathi had a very developed civilization, and many ruins of their cities, towns, and temples still dot the vast plains.  Daring treasure hunters occasionally risk the wrath of the nomadic tribes and raid these ruins seeking treasure and magic items of great power from a lost age.

7. The Lost Lands
These large islands are an enigma to many.  Ancient ruins dot the islands, as well as much of the submerged area under the surrounding ocean.  Few people live here, and the place is generally considered cursed.  Deranged cultists make up most of the population.  There are many stories about this place, but it is generally believed that over 1000 years ago there was a a large island in this area, where a powerful civilization lived.  They prospered for a while, before disaster struck.  The nature of the disaster is unknown, but there are many theories.  One is that a massive volcanic eruption destroyed the island, breaking it into many smaller islands as the sea rushed in.  Another is that a magical explosion sank most of the island beneath the ocean waves.  Another is that the gods were angered by a great evil performed there, and therefore the gods destroyed it.  One dark tale, that told by the cultists who liveon the island, is that an ancient evil god arose from the sea and ate the land, leaving only a few pieces behind after its hunger was sated.  The Ooloi, the good sea-dwelling race, refuse to discuss the event, which some people take as proof that something bad had to have happened there.  The Ooloi will only say that the sea became angry and destroyed the island.

At this point I have no idea which theory about the island's fate are actually correct.  If it ever matters for a game, I'll make a decision, but I like to add stuff like this to the world just to watch players speculate about what happened.  And I can't give away the secret, because even I don't yet know the secret.

Just a small update:

I'm stepping back a bit from detailing the cultures of the world to focus a bit more on natural elements (which areas are wet, which are dry, where are prevailing currents, etc.).  Once that gets nailed down to something I'm happy with I'll provide the details.

Campaign design work temporarily put on hold while other projects occupy my brain.

rats the lost lands were interesting to me.  Maybe it was the deranged cultists (can never have enough of those).  Though I have to admit, my mindset is to figure out everything in advance....somehow, as a player, it would hurt my head if the DM didn't really have some deep hidden reason that these lands were 'lost'.

I'm one of theose people that seems to be undiagnosed bipolar; I got really on fire and spend tons and tons of time on something for a while, and then the fever is gone and I'm all "meh" about it.  Never fear, I'll get back to it at some point.  Though I do have the new Mongoose Traveller in the mail to my house, so I may be designing star systems for a while.

HOWEVER, I will tip you in on what my current leaning is on the Lost Lands; Someone centuries ago got Dagon's attention.  Dagon thought they all looked tasty, and that was that.  Kind of the whole "Congratulations!  You actually summoned Cthulhu!  You are honored to be the first to die!" thing.  However, I'm not running a game of this currently, so it's all just intellectual fun, and if it ever mattered in a real game, I might have changed my mind on it by then.

UPDATE
So, I am realizing that there are things about this setting that I am unhappy with.  Specifically, there is just too much going on.  Too many deities, too many races, etc.  I originally did that based on play experience, as many players want almost unlimited choices.  However, it is making my brain hurt, so I am going to trim it down somewhat.  I don't yet know what will get cut, but some of the options will be going away.

However, I have other projects occupying my time currently, so nothing will be done in the near future.

As part of my continued thinking about my setting, I have come to realize that I simply want to do something different with the magic system.  Some playtesting with the "Recharge Magic" variant has shown that I consider that variant to be a massive pain in the ass, and not worth the extra book-keeping.  I am now leaning towards more of a "power point" system, like the Elements of Magic book published by EN Publishing a few years back.  I've been reading through it and really liking the idea, but I'm not yet sure how to implement it.  Anothing thing I want is for different cultures to have different arcane magic traditions.  The Elements of Magic system lets me do that, but it will be a lot of work, work which will only be accomplished slowly.

The flip side of that is how to handle divine magic.  I've got some ideas, but they are not fully formed and I don't know if they will end up being balanced or not.  Only time and work will tell.

Some more work has been done.  I am avoiding the Elements of Magic system, as it was just too different from base D20.  Instead, I am using the Spell Point variant from the SRD.  This is for both Arcane and Divine casters.  I am also making all divine casters Spontaneous Casters, which will help focus divine spells towards the specific deities followed by those characters.

I have also been working on specific lists of classes for each race and culture.  I'm only part way done, but I'm liking how it is working so far.  This is helping to really give a different feel to the different races and human civilizations in different parts of the world.

Lastly, I have been cutting down the deities, as well.  Specifically, many of the racial deities are going away, though a few are staying in one form or another.  The original posts have been edited in a few places, but most of these changes are not yet reflected above.