What goes in the Kitchen Sink?

[Epic Meepo]

If I were designing a kitchen sink fantasy setting with "something for everyone," what sort of regions and plot devices should I include? Specifically, what elements are absolutely essential to accommodate various fantasy genres that people like to run?

EDIT: To summarize some of the suggestions made below, a kitchen sink setting should have...

[spoiler=...these setting locations:][spoiler=Analogues of real-world cultures...]...including tribal Africa, the pre-colonial America, pirate-infested Caribbean islands, Imperial China, ancient Egypt, feudal Europe, Bronze-Age Greece, colonial Europe, the haunted Europe of Gothic horror, dynastic India, feudal Japan, Mongolia, Persia, the Roman Empire and its gladiatorial arenas, and Viking lands;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Tolkien-style humanoid homelands...]...including dwarven mountain strongholds, elven forests guarded against intruders, inexplicably peaceful halfling farmlands, and the treacherous land of the orcs;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Lands with anachronistic technology...]...including tinker gnomes with gunpowder, steam-punk tech, and clockworks.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Unspoiled wilderness frontiers...]...including a cold northern land, a sweltering jungle, and a land of prehistoric beasts, at least one of which is on an unexplored continent;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Fantastic terrain...]...including out-of-place terrain, impossibly opulent palaces of gold and marble, flying islands, vast underground caverns and labyrinths, an undersea kingdom, and sites of cataclysmic magical disasters;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Otherworldly realms...]...including faerie realms, heavens, hells, mirror dimensions, and gates leading to each of them.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=these plot devices:][spoiler=Military affairs...]...including racial strife, wars of conquest, wars of attrition, shadow wars, nation-building, mercenaries, and bounty hunters;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Religious organizations...]...including churches that practice human sacrifice, cults devoted to cosmic horrors, good churches that battle ancient evils;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Secret societies...]...including ancient brotherhoods, crime syndicates and thieves' guilds, spy networks, and manipulative fiends in possession of humanoid hosts;[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Artifacts and relics...]...including powerful singular items and sets of items that can be collected.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Nomadic]

Well obviously you would want the great plains upon which all mortals live. And in the center goes the great drain of the abyss into which all is flooded and flushed so that the realm can be renewed every week (2 o'clock on tuesday if the master of the house is prompt with washing the dishes). And above all is the great spout of eternity from which all cleansing comes and all inhabitants show their reverence to it by scrubbing their hands in homage.

[Stargate525]

Well obviously you would want the great plains upon which all mortals live. And in the center goes the great drain of the abyss into which all is flooded and flushed so that the realm can be renewed every week (2 o'clock on tuesday if the master of the house is prompt with washing the dishes). And above all is the great spout of eternity from which all cleansing comes and all inhabitants show their reverence to it by scrubbing their hands in homage.

You can't forget the great barrier cliffs, upon which sits the great Fellowship of the Ring of Scum, above which no flood has passed.


Even as a joke, that sounds interesting.


Something more serious, one of the most neglected locales in a desert sink setting is the great, trackless desert filled with black-clad nomads, harems of far-off princes, fantastic wealth, and giant f'ing worms.

[Nomadic]

Something more serious, one of the most neglected locales in a desert sink setting is the great, trackless desert filled with black-clad nomads, harems of far-off princes, fantastic wealth, and giant f'ing worms.

Don't forget the fat floating men and the weapons that can kill with sound.

[Elemental_Elf]

You can't forget the massive yet insular Oriental Empire that sits far to the east where all non-gnome advanced technology is derived. This empire is as mysterious as it is large. It is broken up into hundreds of petty kingdoms ruled by Daimyos who are serviced by oni-skin-armor-clad samurai wielding ornately crafted daikatanas, riding horrid Nightmares into battle each and every summer against a rival Daimyo's samurai.

Also, don't forget the obligatory Pharonic Kingdom which snakes around a mighty river, surrounded by a burning dessert. Whose people are all employed in the construction of needlessly massive pyramidal tombs, which become, shortly after construction, haunted by all manner of mummified horrors, whose only goal in unlife is to guard their master's vast material fortune so he may enjoy the a great afterlife.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Already mentioned: deserts full of marauders, princes, harems, and genies; the ancient land of people worshiping their kind and pointy stone buildings with mummies inside; the rigidly lawful land of dying because your lord said so and silk and mountain-dwelling organizations of old men who will kick your young a**.

Lands that have not been mentioned:
The land of highly stratified castes that deals in spices and thin men who sit around quietly and try to float.
The land of cold with trolls and giants and big tough guys with red bears and horned helmets who like to sail off and pillage.
The land of castles where important people ride around on horses wearing shiny armor and being heroic and kind to women and killing dragons.
The land of people who wear bedsheets and build buildings full of impressive engineering feats especially the arenas where they watch people fight each other to the death.
The land of steppes which people ride out of on horses in big hordes to become famous for it.
The land of jungles where people live in huts and use spears and don't wear much except their priests wear scary wooden masks and lots of feathers.
The land of the primitive tribal people who treat nature as a relative and are all wise and calm and nice except when going off to war when they paint their faces.
The land of mountains and forests that cast a lot of shadows and mists that wreath the spooky castles inhabited by vampires.
The "land" of the small, highly mischevious, highly magical "little folk".
The afterlife of shining and fluffiness and white for good people.
The afterlife of hot and fire and black for the bad people.

And that's just if you want to stick to the basics.

[Kaptn'Lath]

I think i can kick in a couple more....

The peaceful backwater region that is rich in agriculture and friendly people but is oddly left alone by its neighbors.

A Geographic region that has no logical reason for being where it is. (Forest in the middle of a desert, a glacier near a tropical rain forest)

A Kingdom ruled by a king supported by an enclave of 12 heroic knights.

Places where only people under 4 feet tall or speak in French accents (or wear red coats) have figured out how to use smoke powder.

A colonial/imperialistic empire of ocean spanning merchants.

An Island nation of honor bound warriors and stealthy assassins.

A land of peaceful but starving and thirsty people who's temples are built out of gold, gems, and display elegant elephant water fountains.

A land of Dinosaurs or similarly Massive reptiles (or large ape)

Underwater kingdom of mermaids/mermen. Lots of pearls.

A forest whose inhabitants are slender, have excellent hand eye coordination, and aptitude with magic, occasionally talk to animals and kill anyone that even looks at their forest.

Mordor. (Orcs period)

A nation build inside a mountain by rather short and moody people.

[Jürgen Hubert]

This.   :D

[beejazz]

Fantasy (Insert ancient culture) homage.
Doubling up on cultures to avoid obviousness of source.
Anachronistic cultures to avoid obviousness of source.
(Insert demihuman race appropriate to cultural motif) homeland. Possibly coterminious extraplanar.
Fairy realms (or dreamtime, spirit world, whatever fits).
Realms of madness and/or death.
Genre cliches (sword and sorcery, cloak and sword, high fantasy, local myths, fairy tales, cosmic horror, gothic horror, pulp, noir, sword and planet, and trippy science fiction are all likely candidates).
Anachronistic tech.
Empire, war, revolution, and a chance for the PCs to become autocrats beloved by their people for deposing worse autocrats.

[Nomadic]

This.   :D

shameless plug is shameless

[Epic Meepo]

Genre cliches (sword and sorcery, cloak and sword, high fantasy, local myths, fairy tales, cosmic horror, gothic horror, pulp, noir, sword and planet, and trippy science fiction are all likely candidates).

[/quote]Sword and sorcery, high fantasy, local myths, fairy tales, cosmic horror, and gothic horror should probably be covered if all of the previous suggestions made in this thread are implemented, but the other genres you list might need some attention.

What are some cliches from the cloak and sword, pulp, noir, sword and planet, and trippy science fiction genres that should appear in a kitchen sink setting?

[Epic Meepo]

I've added a summary of the suggestions so far in the OP, and included a few suggestions of my own: flying islands, vast underground caverns, powerful artifacts, and a land of steam-punk tech.

[LordVreeg]

we really haven't spoken about an obligatory patriarchal pantheon with a bunch of petty half-wits inexplicably with godlike powers.

I'm thinking I'd need some fey, pale non-human tortured hero with a big runesword running around screwing every queen he meets and getting all weak kneed every few weeks.  Maybe a little old school.

A big warrior from the north and a little thief from the city who've named their non-magical weapons may be ok.

I'm thinking every region should have a shadowy underground organization, no matter how little sense it makes.

more later, after I can get some wine,

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I'm thinking every region should have a shadowy underground organization, no matter how little sense it makes.

Based on some of the reasoning that's gone into some settings I've read I'd think people now would find this making a lot of sense.

And let's not forget the "land which suffered a big magical disaster".  Greyhawk, FR, and Eberron.

[sparkletwist]

Well, do you want a setting with a little something for everyone, or do you want a setting that's just as many overdone stereotypes as possible?

It seems like you asked for the first and are listing more of the second, but that's just me...