Terra Diaspora (work in progress)

[Tillumni]

[ic]well..this was different, old Thunderhorn, as he was known amounth the mortals that knew of him, thought to himself when he woke up and sniffed the air.  for one thing, it would appear his lair was a at a wee bit higher attitude since his nap, judging from the smell and pressure on his ear. which reminded him, sounds like some mortals are busy with some majoy construction work nearby his lair, less then a half days flight, and alot of them too, not just a few settlers.

He took a step, the weigth of his body sending vibration through the ground and paused.  "Empty space below?" he thought to himself, before closing his eyes and projecting his spirit and senses out of his lair.  "oh, there's the new settlement, looks like the humans have been in another war again"  "yep, the city of Rithil is gone....along with the ground it was on?" Thunderhorn projected himself downward, past the ground, into the empty space and saw ocean...a wast expand of sea, a waterfall starting nearby where Rithil used to be, connecting to it.

In the distance, a few landmass could be seen in the ocean, but he don't remember Alglades to be an isle, but what caught his eyes was the village of Taastrup...for one thing, it wasn't supposed to be floating in the air, 2.ndly, it was supposed to be on the other side of the continent.

Thunderhorn sighed when he returned his spirit back to his body, you take a short nap for a decade or 3 and before you know it, some crasy mortal idea turns the world up side down. He placed a claw upon a great piece of crystal and opened his minds as the happenings of the world during his nap flooded in. [/ic]


It is year 9 A.D (After Diaspora) on Draco Sanctuari, The Tenth, The World That Is All, and it is a new age, the aftermath of a world shattering event, literally, where the planet itself broke apart into flying continents and lands, a wast sea where they used to be, and below the sea, a tight cluster of rocks floating around The Tenths core, It's heart and The Nine Progenitor resting place it is said.

The Tenth is a world that very abruptly have been resetted, old empires find themself scattered across the sky, new nations are forced to be improviced and a very changed world, means it's inhabents must change with it. But it's also a age with new upportunity, former inaccesable area is now drained of water, the side effect of the Diaspora have made Airship more common and a extension of that, travelling easier between the nations and a wast new frontier have opened up in the Tenths core.

Welcome to the age and world of Terra Diaspora.


Design philosofy and theme.

Terra Diaspora is a very old idea of mine that I've never really managed to write down, though aplenty of adventure have been run in it.
This will be my first time actually putting campaign world down on papir (or down on bits in this case) so any insight into how to present a campaign would would also be appreciated, in addition to any comment on the world it self.
throughout the thread, then there'll also be spoiler tag like these  [spoiler=design notes] why such and such have been buildt like this[/spoiler] and these  [spoiler=for the gm]which would be ideas and suggestion for how a GM can incorporate the descriped part into his game[/spoiler]

If it doesn't affect or is experienced by the players somehow, it doesn't exist to them
okay, it's really a cope-out to allow myself to be lazy, but an important part of how I'll approach this is starting with the things that matters to the players.

beliveable options
so, it's kinda the everything and the kitchen sink approach of eberron, on one hand, the players should be able to do alot of things within reason. another reason how ever, is that one just have to take a look at our own world, to see how much diversity there is.  if somebody where to make a character based off this planets culture, then one could spend a life time going through all the options.  same thing will to a certaint extend apply to Terra Diaspora.

An age of change
Terra Diaspora is an age where everything have changed or are in the progress of change. society is learning how to adapt and cope with thier world being wastly different, and as an extension of that, then the players are giving the options of having a very active hand in how the world will turn out.

The Sky, the limit
I've allways found the idea of flying ships and isle fascinating, but instead of just letting it be a nifty visual idea, then the campaign world will be attempted to realistic portray how such a world will form, on the other hand, then it shouldn't dominate the campaign if the players simple want to be more landbound, being more of a background thing, as they make thier way across some of the very large land masses, but if they want it, then the options of swashbuckling tailspin adventure is also quiet possible..

Believeable fantastic
things have to be believeable on the campaign worlds premise, but the believeable can still be awesome.  There the army of Visthara approaches, 50 elephants in thier midst, mounting great howdahs, thier body covered in warpaitings and the banner of Visthara hanging down along thier side.  Here the Cerulean forest lives up to its name, when whole glades of trees blossom with a soft sky blue flower during spring.  


Creation Myth

 [ic]In the beginning there was nothing, and there were the Nine, Three Dragons, that were everything.

They were The One, Bahamut The One-Headed Dragon, the Two, Uld and Ain, the Two-headed Dragon who together would be The Third calling themselves Bereliunan, and the Five-as-One. Douran, Brailam, Raicel, Tiamat and Lourin, The Five-Headed Dragon.

And from their common dreams the void was filled, ideas and concept giving form, and the forms marveled them.

Then the Nine spoke as one and proposed that they should make a tenth, who would be all that they are, yet nothing like them.

The Five-as-One breathed and where their 5 breaths met, the void was filled with the Tenth and from the Tenth, the Five-as-One plucked marvelous clothing for the One and the Two-Who-Are-Three. For the One, a coating from the purest platinum, for the Two-Who-Are-Three, the clearest crystal and for themselves the primal colors of The Tenth.

Then the Two-Who-Are-Three breathed on the Tenth, and gave the Tenths' body shape and purpose and plucked from the essence of the shape and purpose and merged it with the ideas and concepts giving forms, creating housing for the Nine.

Then the One breathed on the Tenth, and energy, magic and life was infused in it, and the One plucked out essence of energy, magic and life, and merged it with the ideas and concept giving forms and created companions for the Nine.

"The Tenth is still not as the Nine" they said as one, and as one they breathed on the Tenth, and from the body of the Tenth, beings with reason sprung forth in the image of the Nine and from the life without reasons, came beings with reason, and all the beings together was all that they were and they marveled at their creation.

But the marvel was their doom. The Five-as-One was torn, wanting but unable to favor any of their creation, and madness started to descend on the Five-as-One, turning hers at time into the Five-in-One and in hers madness, foul being was created from her nightmare and the Five-in-One fought herself, and the Two-Who-Are-Three and the One fought to keep hers safe and from their struggle the constellations was born.

From a bright scale torn of the Five-in-One, the sun came into being, from a pair of shining scale torn from the One, the moons came into being, and from the shimmering scale of the Two-Who-Are-Three which shattered into a thousand crystals, the stars came into being and for a time, the Nine marveled at their creations.

Finally the Five-as-One wanting no longer to be the Five-in-One and wanted to be One as the One and asked the One to hold hers before shes disappeared and the One held her, and rested with her inside the Tenth and the Two-Who-Are-Three rested with them, not wishing to be alone and from their rest the Tenth gained it's final gift to be as the Nine: the ability and freedom to become, to create and to decide.

[/ic]

 [spoiler=design notes] Inspired by Eberron, numerology and norse creation myth. (with much thanks to Phoenix for his re-write of my original text into a more clear version) this little bit above seeks to explain and lay the fundation for some of the basic premises of the world. where aberration comes from. Why is there evil? Why are the creators no-longer an active force? and so on, if there's anything important that I've missed out on in this regard, then please let me know

some explinations might be in order for some made up terms here, due to the style that it have been written in. Five-as-One refers to Tiamat, as a being with 5 seperate entity that acts in harmony, despite thier differences, while Five-in-One is Tiamat where the 5 personality no longer are able to co-exist (think multi-personality disorder on a cosmic scale), and when Five-as-One becomes One, then it refers to one personality becomming dominant, in this case Tiamat.  the Two-who-are Three, means a 2 headed dragon with each thier own personality, but which also have a amalgam personality, which is where the Third comes from. [/spoiler]

 [spoiler=for the gm] now, under must circumsances, then creation myth is mainly a background thing, but it can also be a good inspirations for adventures. ranging from restoring Tiamat back to her former persoanlity, Five-as-One, to dealing with aberrations seeking to usher forth a new age of madness in the slumbering gods dreams. [/spoiler]