Maelstrom - a world eating itself...

[Gamer Printshop]

Something worth building a campaign setting around, I don't have a lot of time to do that, though I take time to whip up maps to explore ideas with. Here's what I came up with, Maelstrom - a world eating itself... though I have ideas what it might mean to the world and what kind of plots it could twist. What comes to mind when you look at this map - what ideas does it provoke in you?

Michael

[Ghostman]

Nice map! I'm sure any one of our regular members could come up with an interesting setting based on it.

What comes to mind when you look at this map - what ideas does it provoke in you?

I imagine an immense cosmic monster, a  parasitic World-Eater -- something like a Cthulhoid cross between Charybdis and Lavos -- has burrowed deep into the planet(?)'s core and is slowly draining the land into it's impossible maw, to be digested over untold millennia. Even as this doomed world inexorably swirls toward the oblivion that awaits at the center of the maelstrom, it is being profoundly affected by the radiation-like influence of the eldritch behemoth: chaotically mutating in it's mundane and spiritual aspects alike. Manifestations of paranormal forces plague the lands, becoming more frequent and stronger the closer one gets to the center.

[Weave]

It is quite a nice map.

I imagine some titanic beast slumbering beneath the earth, it's tail or arm curled as it rests, forming the main peninsula of the vortex. Perhaps some great treasure lies in its grasp at the center of the vortex.

[Gamer Printshop]

I don't know what caused it or how to fix it - I suspect an ancient advanced civilization got involved with some eldritch project that brought doom upon their civilization a millenia or more ago, however it's existence is slowly bringing the entire world towards doom. Think of it as a singularity with immense power, but the gravitational forces are incredibly slow and inexorably unstoppable. Maelstrom lies on a recently discovered "New World" by explorers from the civilizations across the sea. For centuries now physics has been changing. Magnetic north points to the Maelstrom, plumbs lean towards its arc and no longer points down for architectural/engineering purposes, teleportation is no longer viable, magic is being affected. There are factions. Some seek to find a solution to save the world. Some see this as god himself, or the hand of god at work. Some are able to use the powerful forces to enhance their magic, but hastens annihilation of the world.

[Humabout]

Somehow I feel as thought Uzumaki should take place here.  Very cool map!

[SA]

The maelstrom is the process whereby the world renews itself. There is a similar coil on the other hemisphere, which extrudes rather than consumes material. The planetary core is an engine of destruction and refabrication.

Somehow I feel as thought Uzumaki should take place here.  Very cool map!

-1 for reminding me of Uzumaki. :ill:

Uzumaki should not take place anywhere.

[Lmns Crn]

Legends cast the chief deity of this realm as a child with a paintbrush, who smeared earth and water on a canvas and began mixing them with broad, twisting strokes. The oldest tales predict the end of the world when, in childish caprice, the great divine finds this mislaid world and finishes mixing land and sea until there is no longer any distinction.

[Gamer Printshop]

The indigenous people of Maelstrom are aboriginal, once slaves of the advanced race (now lost) that caused the Maelstrom to form, are free from the influences of the Maelstrom, though know they will be the last people engulfed by the anamoly. They belief that their deities intend to consume them and that the great mother stirs a pot which is the earth. All the land, the sea and those that inhabit this world are being stirred in a soup that will be eaten by the gods.