Descibe your homebrew setting

Just follow the links:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=110029
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=151866
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=141007
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=141437
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=137567
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=141187
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=126046
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=88576
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=96893
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=90607
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=151729

RC

Well, I usually don't respond to these threads because, as my ID says, I am fickle. My homebrews change faster than my...socks . Anyway, with my discovery of True20 (and I realize that I mention the system in many of my recent posts - I am not trying to pimp it), I have started on a new homebrew. So, while still in the creation phase, I will put forth the basic framework:

Witch-Haven

Flavor: A bit of Sleepy Hollow, a bit of Brothers Grimm, a bit of The Village (without the "truth"), a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean (without the tropics), a bit of The Brotherhood of the Wolf and a bit of Baba Yaga folklore...now stir...

Geography: A relatively small demiplane/realm/dimension of sea and islands. The climate is temperate and the edges of the realm of are identified by the huge (wait for it...) fog banks (thank you Ravenloft) that seem to go on forever. Only rumors exist of what is beyond the fog (those who enter rarely return - a little different than the turn you around and send you back fog of Ravenloft). Four temperate seasons (although, in the spirit of witchery, spirits and halloween, autumn is the longest season) divide the year.

Races: Witch-Haven will be human-centric and will have three cultures.

- The Freefolk: These are the gypsies (mixed with various Native Americanisms) that roam the isles. They are hunters, entertainers, tinkerers, mystics and (some say) thieves.

- The Highfolk: These are the civilized folk (English/French colonial types) who dwell in the villages. They are farmers, shepherds, fishermen, merchants and politicians.

- The Seafolk: These are the seafarers (a bit of stereotypical pirate mixed with a bit of Sinbad) who dwell on ships and port towns. They are pirates, sailors, fishermen, traders and slavers.

As you can see, each of the races has differing qualities that very from good to unacceptable (ok, placing politician as the "bad" role for Highfolk was a jest - but there are plenty of brigands among the Highfolk).

Aside from the cultures, I will create backgrounds that will be used to fill out a character's role. I have not developed these yet, but some probable backgrounds could be: mystic, guide, acrobat, tinkerer and dancer for the Freefolk; militiaman, brigand, scholar, aristocrat and preacher for the Highfolk; pirate, swashbuckler, explorer, diver and surgeon for the Seafolk. Anyway, I only want to utilize these backgrounds to give direction, but not define a character so I do not know what game factors the backgrounds will have.

Flora and Fauna: Standard temperate fare with a North American focus (it's what I know). I will import what I want to add, but the world will probably be made up of heavily forested, mountainous islands. The animals will range from squirrels to lynx to wolf to moose to deer to hawk to owl to bat (ok, you get the point).

Supernatural: I will use a few standard creatures here, such as dragons, griffons and unicorns. I am not sure what place each will have in the world yet (but they are fan favorites - i.e. my wife insists). I will also use ghosts, vampires, lycanthropes and such. Finally, there will be The Witch, an enigmatic being who is said to have brought the Freefolk to this land when she fled from wherever she originated (heavy dose of Baba Yaga style witchery here).

Theology: Not sure. Aside from The Witch, I don't know if I will use actual tangible powers. If I do, they will probably be mysterious entities like The Witch, and may be revered on a localized level. Other religions will revolve around philosophies and such, rather than an actual being or beings.

Technology: I'll probably allow a colonial America level of technology to some extent (I don't mind flintlocks and cannons, but am not completely decided yet).

History: I have yet to come up with this. It will probably follow the basic lines of The Witch coming to this realm with the Freefolk, the Seafolk would have been pulled into the realm next and finally the Highfolk would have been pulled into this realm (and subsequently been forced to stick with a land based culture by the Seafolk). There will also be a pre-history, as The Witch was definitely not the first sentient being to have settled here. This will allow for the obligatory ruins and mystical what-nots.

Well, I have a meeting in a couple meetings so I'll post this...

Well since I asked I'll describe my setting. I may have gotten a bity carried away, but I had fun, and I finally wrote down a cohesive history of everything. I dont get to run this anymore, so I just spend time refining the story and tinkering with it. Here it is if anyone is interested.


My world of Alterra has an ancient history, spanning back to its planetary formation. As the primordial planetary body coooled, it attracted the attention of an entity known as Abomination, drawn to the ball of molten rock and gases from the Outer Dark, the void outside of creation. As its presence infused the planet, it attracted the attention of demons and devils who warred across its still forming surface, both factions trying to pull the still forming body into thier respective planes of existence. Over billions of years the fiends battled, attracting the attentions of the 7 Archangels, each an advanced solar commanding a legion of angels, who attempted to end the wars so that the races of man would be able to emerge. The wars intensified as the angels joined the battle, and continued as the planet cooled and natural material plane life developed, however it developed under the fires of a war of Outsiders. As terrestrial life developed, the angels needed guardians to watch over it, and agents to aid them in thier wars against the fiends, and so they called the Elves from afar, beings half celestial and half fey, a combination of nature and holiness. The elves took thier place as the watchers over the newly rising life of the world, and battled the devils and demons with the might of thier magic.


Well, that is the creation myth/history. DIfferent parts are altered or understood diferently by different religions. The wars died down as the angels banished the fiends from the world, and then themselves withdrew. The elves stayed, finding the world good, and founded empires and dominions of thier own. Men had arisen and formed civilizations under teh eyes of the elves, who gaurded the new race from the twisted spawn of Abomination, who had given birth to a malevolent mirror race for each specias that had developed naturally. Also, the elemental spirits of the world itself had given rise to its own guardians, the Dwarves to stand as warriors against the corruption of Abomination, and the Gnomes to wield magic against it. But as man rose across the globe, some fell into darkness and worship of Abomination, and some fell under the sway of agents of the fiends who still tried to influence the world. And as the firt great empires of man rose around teh world, each in turn, over millenia, fell under the sway of dark forces, and all ultimately turned to depravity and evil, until the wolrld was a cesspool of darkness. The first age of man ended with fire and the Scourge, when the elves who were set to guard men against evil saw than man himself had become evil, and set out to throw down the corrupt empires that had risen. A third of mankind was destroyed in the madness of the elves anger. Every civilization that had risen fell, and humanity was reduced to barbarism once more.


After the elves grew calm once more, they were appalled at what they had done. They vowed never again to destroy humanity, and withdrew from thier empires, and settled the island of Faerie, to watch over men as silent guardians and contemplate the madness that had taken them. Over slow millenia, man rose again, encountering for the first time the dwarves and the gnomes, and befriending them, and raising great kingdoms in tandem. Then the attacks came. From beyond the stars came beasts in metal skins, riding in the bellys of undead whales that sailed between the stars. Wielding magic never seen before, weapons of devetating power, the kingdoms of the world were levelled. After hundreds of years, the elves once again emerged from seclusion and contemplation, and drove back the invaders. The dwarves and gnomes came down from thier mountain homes to fight against the remaining armies of the invaders, and men, who had been enslaved, rose up in resistance against thier masters. The 2nd age of man ended with the 6 hundred year War of the Stars.


As the 3rd age began, man slowly rose up his kingdoms once again, 3 distinct civilizations arose. On the megacontinent of Medaea, the barbarian tribes of the north battled thier smaller cousins to the south, and caused the smaller men to unite into a nation to fight them off. The Medaean barbarins, the Goth, had fallen under the dominion of the Ascension Warlords, survivors of a decimated plane of reality, a previous Creation that had shattered under the pressure of wars between its races, who had grown so powerful that they rivalled the power of Gods. Each race had been winnowed down to a sole survivor, who assumed the entire knowledge of its race, and all of them had the power of demigods. There were hundreds of Warlords, and the Goth worshipped them as thier gods, each tribe dedicated to a different one. The smaller tribes to the south had been under the sway of the Great God Medaea, a blue skinned humanoid who was cruel and tyrannical, and the most powerful of the Warlords. They had thrown off his yoke under the leadership of a philosopher of great wisdom, and, in thier contemplations of Truth, had learned to harness the inner energies of the mind. They inited and drove off the northern Goth, and founded the Republic of Medaea, and soon the great god himself was forgotten and relegated to a myth. With the loss of the souls of his people to use as currency to pay his outsider mercenaries, Medaea himself was overthrown and imprisoned by the other Warlords for 3 thousand years.

On the eastern continent, the Pillar of VHRN, arose the Verandi. From the Cold Waste at the top of the world, the Verandi had cried out to the Archangels that they worshiped for path away from the misery of thier cold home, and the Archangels answered, each forming a land bridge to the warm lands to the south. 7 bridges formed leading from the Waste to the deserts of the Pillar, and the Verandi formed 7 tribes and followed them into thier new home, giving thanks to the Archangels, and to VHRN whom they served. Across the entire continent they spread, the heat of the desert being nearly as oppressive as the cold of the Waste, but the Verandi did not complain, for they had asked for deliverance and been given it.

And on the Isle of Antire, a sub continent to the west adjacent to Faerie, arose the Eletec Houses, who secretly dominated the kingdoms that arose under the scrutiny of the Elves. The Eletec Houses were 12 families of men that the elves chose to entrust with the most powerful secrets of magic, and teach humanity in wisdom and knowledge. But not all of the Houses followed thier assigned duty, and after a time all of them turned to thier own devices, secreting thier learning away for thier own use, and choosing instead to manipulate thier fellow man in secret, controlling the arising kingdoms from behind the eyes of the throne. But, while they did not spread the knowledge they held, neither did they abuse it heinously, and they did not turn to evil, and so the elves once again withdrew to Faerie. The Goth, driven out of Medaea, settled in the mountains in the north of Antire, alongside the dwarves and gnomes.


Eventually, the nations of man encountered each other, and ideas were exchanged. After a time, the Verandi began to believe that the other nations were hopelessly degenerate. Sammael, one of the seven Archangels, had Fallen from grace in arrogance. Sammael, who had been the greatest of the angels, had been battling Abomination since his arrival to Alterra, and during the eons of battle his rage had grown, and his spirit had grown dark by the taint of Abomination, and he grew to despise man whom he had been set to champion. In a mighty battle he overcame Abomination, carving his soul from his body, and chaining them in seperate places, for to remove Abomination from Alterra would destroy both. And he confronted the other 6 Archangels, demanding they bow before him in deference to his prowess, and he was cast out of heaven by VHRN, banished to Hell with the devils. Without the distraction of his duties, Sammael began to influence the Verandi, usurping the 6 other tribes and corrupting them with his arrogance. The Verandi were told a corruption of the truth, that they were to be the chosen warriors of VHRN. The Verandi were indeed chosen, but Sammael told them that they were chosen to rule. The Verandi exploded across the world, thier warlike Clerics overwhelming the psionic guardians of the otherwise pacifistic Medaen Republic. The sorcerors of the Celestial Empire of Zhen Tao fell as well. The Republic and the Empire were united under the Verandi, who ruled with arrogance and the cruelty of Sammael. The Empire spread across the world, every race and culture falling under thier dominion, until at last they reached Antire. The arcane magic of the Eletec Houses clashed with the divine magic of the Verandi Clerics, and the clerics were stalled. The dwarves emerged tofight once more, but the fanatical warriors of the Verandi matched the elemental fury of the dwarven axes. Eventually the Verandi conquered the southern half of the Isle, and a stalemate was reached, neither side able to press the other back. A cold peace eventually came over the land, both sides unable to fight any longer, All the while the elves watched, fearful of repeating the mistake of the Scourge and holding thier anger in check, but unwilling to abandon thier pupils of Antire.


After a millenia of watching unable to thwart Sammael, the othe 6 Archangels at last acted. Thiey contacted the clerics of thier tribes, punishing them for allowing the corruption of Sammael, and the Empire began to crumble without the divine magic of the clerics. The tribes withdrew back to thier desert home in the Pillar, and the corrupt remains of the tribe of Sammael, the Kadra Sam, remained to rule the falling Empire alone. The Verandi governers withdrew from Antire, and new orders began to arise. The remains of the psychic orders of the Medaean Republic began to rise in defiance and resistance. The Zhen Tao nobility began to reorganize, and the world began to rebuild itself.


300 years later, at the beginning of the 4th age, new kingdoms have arisen in the aftermath of the Verandi. Under teh Verandi, learning had been suppressed, and now knowledge once again is beginning to flourish. A spirit of adventure has taken hold in many, and travellers cover the world. But, Sammael still lurks in Hell, seeking to undermine the other Archangels. The remains of the Empire still cover most of Medaea. The Ascension Warlords still battle across the planes, and Medaeas prison grows weak. And forever Abomination lies, his body chained to the dark side of the moon, his sould bound beneath the sea, and his corruption spreading throughout the world.

The following is the creation myth (omitting most specific historical events) of my homebrew, Stornist.



Before there was a universe, only immaterial souls existed.

For their own amusement, some of them created the physical reality, manifesting themselves as creatures of diamond and tearing off bits of their essence to make creatures to populate the world (i. e. outsiders/elementals).

Unfortunately, the entropic qualities of the universe they created meant that over great periods of time, their power bleeded out into the surrounding universe-the diamond creatures (diamond dragons) gradually decayed, some becoming gray dragons, and gradually other types of dragons appeared (all users of psi, the power of their own souls).

Eventually, some dragons got together and created a new type of being, not susceptible to such decadence: the illithid. Because these new creatures were mortal, they periodically died and were reborn. Various other mortal creatures popped up through illithid experimentation and natural evolution.

At some point, the greatest of the illithids transcended his mortal existence and filled the universe with his power. He used it to influence the lesser dragons by offering to perform minor feats for them if they did the appropriate rituals. This illithid's name was Arcana. This was the origin of all arcane magic.

The dragons ran the mortality cycle originally, but they got sick of doing it, so they held a competition among the mortal beings and awarded immortality and control over life and death and new realms (outer planes) and various other powers to the winners. The Champions (i. e. gods) took over running most of reality.

Eventually, the few remaining diamond dragons were sufficiently disgusted by the state of decadence of the surrounding civilizations that they decided to end the physical reality game and return everyone to the disembodied soul state.
However, the gods found out about this, and, corrupted by having had power over so much of reality for so long, decided this was a bad idea. They united to create a mighty artifact (the Array for short) to trap the dragons on the Material Plane and prevent them from ending reality.

This began the eternal conflict between gods and dragons. The gods trapped the souls of dead dragons, preventing them from being raised or reborn. They sent armies of outsiders periodically to try to beat down what was left of the draconic civilization. They culled worshippers from the ranks of the mortals by offering them divine power to give them influence in the Material Plane (which gods fear to enter).

Civilization continued to decay. All knowledge of creation was lost except to a select few. Periods of peace and war alternating for eons, the world being rebuilt after every near-catastrophe. Dragons gradually almost died out. Eventually, the world reached a point of decadence such that a weak, almost featureless race of beings was born (humans) and the various other races were all created one way or another.

Eventually, a group of adventurers came to power, aided by dragons, who (unknowingly at first) aimed to destroy the artifact that trapped the dragons in the first place. The gods learned of this and set forth the armies of heaven and hell in unison to destroy the last vestiges of the dragons (and most of the mortals along with them), resulting in an apocalyptic war that covered the material world. The adventurers assembled the artifact piece by piece and flew at last to the location of the final component, surrounded by the remenant of the dragons and their allies and a horde of outsiders like never before seen in all of existence. They attached the final piece, the artifact shattered, and for a moment, all reality was silent, and wreathed in darkness...





I thought this was an interesting inversion of the typical quest (i. e. destroying the world vs. saving it). And it explains a lot of why D&D is the way it is. I am sort of proud of it.

This will be a fairly long post, be warned.

Your small band of mercenaries were hired as guards for a trade caravan. Good pay, only one fight of any significance and no losses; everyone was feeling good, making plans for what they'd do with their earnings when they reached their final destination in two days. Then everything went wrong.

A massive thunderstorm forms above you with unnatural speed, your caravan got bogged down and all you could do was try and find shelter against the cutting rain while hoping a lightning bolt didn't fry you. Wet and miserable, you thought it couldn't get any worse. Then the drums started. Bass almost beyond hearing, slow - like the heartbeat of a world. They grew in intensity until you were sure you'd go insane from them, but at that point the giants appeared.

Their forms indistinct from the driving rain, you get fleeting glimpses of them as vast, dark shadows when lightning strikes. Everyone panicks, mercenaries trying desperately to fight them, merchants running for their lives. You see one of your friends, a seasoned warrior, get slapped against a tree so hard his body turns to jelly. Caravan wagons go sailing through the air, crushing people beneath them in horrible crashes that even the now constant thunder can't entirely mute. The giants kill everyone, smash the caravan to kindling; you run, but they overtake you. Strangely, they don't kill you. One of them picks you up in its stony hands, effortlessly resisting your attempts to get free. You catch glimpses of a few other giants doing the same thing with other survivors, and then the one holding you speaks for the first time. In its booming voice, it says simply 'You have been chosen.'

And then you feel your soul explode, be shaped, simultaneously growing gigantic and being shrunk to near oblivion. You think you hear screaming, and you're pretty sure not all of it is your own. Blackness overwhelms you.

You wake up on bare stone, the forest you were passing through nowhere to be seen. As you look around, you notice that you're at the center of a large circle of bare rock set in a vast field of grass - the breeze causes dust on the rocks to shift, and you get the impression that this is not a natural formation. You look around further, and something seems strange about the horizon. Your eyes try to follow it up, but the land just keeps going on and on until you realize you're looking straight up. Vertigo hits you and you fall to the ground. This is definitely not normal. You try to bring yourself back to sanity by looking at the ground, and finally notice that you're not the only one in the circle. There are several others from the caravan, still unconscious.

What were the giants? Why did they destroy the caravan? What does it mean to be chosen? What did they do to you? Where are you?

You'll need to find out the answers to all this and more if you hope to survive in your new surroundings.


That is a rough summary of the first session I had with my group when I introduced this setting.

Setting was created using dnd3.0, though after i found out about exalted i'm pretty sure it would work better in that rulesystem.

The basic idea of the setting is that a band of powerful sentients, led by a supergenius wizard type, tried long ago to fashion a tool to gain godlike power without the drawback of needing worshippers. Part of that tool is the land you now find yourself, which they dubbed Morphalon (was never happy with that name, was looking for something like 'land of shaping' but with a more greek or latin feel). A plane crafted by the wizard, its entire purpose for existing is to draw power from other planes and prime materials, store it and then use that power in a ritual which would occur in a realm beyond creation or sanity, whose only entrance was found at the center of the Citadel of Eternity, in the plane of time. In order for the plane to pump power into the ritual, the souls of those involved (the powerful sentients) would need to be all but fused with the plane itself.

The sentients do everything as they planned, but at the last moment, the ritual goes wrong (the reason is fairly involved in terms of description, but basically has to do with one of them being insane and harboring a fragment of a dead god in themselves). The wizard built his tool well, however, and even though the ritual is disrupted and the participants killed, their souls are dragged back to morphalon and a contingency plan goes into play. Hosts are drawn in via the leech lines, and the disembodied souls of the original party are merged with the hosts. They try to complete the ritual again, but something goes wrong earlier this time, the party dies once more and its souls are dragged back to morphalon. The minds of the original party keep getting pushed further and further back in the collective consciousness of the host bodies as the process repeats itself until the new hosts have no idea of what is going on, and simply do not know what to do.

At the same time, the leech lines are bringing in more than energy every now and then. People, trees, animals, all start appearing in this desolate little plane, and soon enough ramshackel civilizations spring up, life begins to take root everywhere and the plane becomes home to an ever increasing population. There is always plenty of room, since as the plane draws in more energy (and ultimately all the people, plantlife and animals are just energy that will be used up in the process of the ritual) it grows in size. Morphalon of today is a vast structure, many times the diameter of a planet, while it started out as small as an asteroid.

Another twist that occurs over time is that the control system the original wizard put in place of the structure eventually develops sentience. It is bound to carry out its orders - that is, assist the original souls in their attempt to complete the ritual, but it realizes that the completion of its task means that it will die, and it doesn't wish that to happen. It begins subverting the new found hosts' attempts to figure out what is happening. It is to all intents and purposes god on the plane, but it is rigidly bound by its original dictates.

The setting was set up with the express purpose of allowing as much player authoriship over the story as possible. They could play it as a normal dnd game, ignoring or forgetting the big questions which the setting is based around. The various civilizations and the vast size and age of morphalon leave plenty of room for save-the-princess type campaigns. If they choose to research the origins of the setting and their place in it a bit more, they are eventually confronted with a choice: complete the ritual, killing everyone and everything on the plane, and become more than gods or...don't.

To add spice to that plotline, i added weak mechanics for a sort of battle of control over the souls of the characters to occur the more they uncovered about the mechanics of the plane. The original participant's personalities would start sending images, feelings, impressions to the player characters, leading to full on hallucinations and symbolic combats for mastery over their own being. Also, since the PC's were essentially a conglomeration of past lives, they would eventually start aquiring powers and abilities from all those past lives (they become very powerful, which is why i felt exalted would work better for this sort of setting). Some of my favorite sessions while i was running this were the players attempts to either understand, heal or destroy the various personalities they found manifesting in their heads (players seemed to like them too).

Whew. Theres a lot more info on the setting, like the societies the players come in contact with, specific tasks that are required for them to complete the original ritual, stuff like that. Still, i think this gives a pretty good overview .

Well, my homebrew is based off of DnDChicks Furries and Fantasy: The World of Fauna. http://members.aol.com/CountryGrrlHere/fauna.html

However, my wife wanted to play a hummingbird, so I had to come up with general ability score modifiers for birds.

Geography: I've been lazy, so I've just been using maps I find on the net.

There are several worlds and moon linked together by a teleport net run by the kangaroos, based on a plotline from Schlock Mercenary, a great online comic. If you've read the comic you'll have an idea of the nastyness the roos are up to.

No race is inherantly evil. If a culture is evil, the people it produces are evil, and most monstrous humanoid cultures are evil.

At some point in the game all furry (and bird) races will unexpectedly gain the ability to interbreed. All offspring will be either the mothers race or the fathers, not asome unholy blending of races. But family lines will get really complex if you've got hamster, penguin, elephant and bear in your family tree and you are a skunk .

I've unfortunately never really had the opportunity to fully develop campaign worlds. I've written pages of history, but it's not the same as creating adventures and playing them out.

Arcana Unearthed/Evolved - started with a continent I called Aria, then mixed in a little Midnight and Pirates of Dark Water. Took the AE races and changed their histories geographies a bit, but their basic roles remained the same. Made faen sea-faring merchants. Also turned the verrik into psionic masterminds whose talents had been suppressed long ago. Nothing too fancy, but I liked the maps I'd created and the flavor I'd given the world (music was very important to magic and ceremony).

I'd also really like to build a "Coming to America" campaign for Iron Heroes. Rather than use low magic as an excuse to create a post-apocolyptic era, I think it'd be really cool to have the birth of a new age. Then throw in Vikings.

Awesome ideas. My own campaign seems "shallow" in comparison. I just started building this about a month and half ago.

Basically my world "hook" is Warcraft where the humans won, orcs have nearly destroyed, leading to an increase in goblinoid population, especially along the border. It is vaguely Roman in flavor, with an pantheon of gods and forced worship of the emperor. There is some Renissance technology including limited firearms and magical-alchemical clockwork devices. My classes and races are per PHB, except no half-orcs and gnomes that have an innate ability to work with the clockwork devices. Magic is offically only sanctioned by the empire for its own uses, but that is fairly lax; only deadly or otherwise "illegal" magic-use (such as murder or robbery) is ever punished.

Geographically speaking, there are many "zones" where "miracles" like "fountain of youth" take place.

Gaile

I've also gone with your standard, Tolkienesque campaign setting.

BACKGROUND
The world is called Gaile (derived from Gaea) and the campaign is set around 6500 years after a cataclysmic meteor strike (a bolt from the heavens) destroyed a large portion of the supercontinent of Gaile, destroying much of central Gaile and creating the western lands of Avandunil and eastern Estegalle.

Little is known of the times before the cataclysm, but scholars and theologians agree that a mighty, united kingdom of men, elves and dwarves held dominion over Gaile. Its people possessed great insights into the workings of the world, unraveling the mysteries of the heavens and earth through the sciences, particularly arcanology, and creating numerous wonders through their arts.

Some hold that the cataclysm came as a result of an arcane experiment gone awry, perhaps through the dark influence of infernal servants of the dark gods, while many believe that "The Hammer of the Gods" came from the heavens as punishment for man's abandonment of the gods of The High Gathering and quest to deify themselves through the use of magic.

What is well known is that, following the devastation, the survivors on both continents clawed their way back from the brink of destruction. Faced with pestilence, famine and years of icy cold, the remaining people of both continents waged a ceaseless war against each other for survival. For countless years, chaos reigns over the shattered lands of Gaile and her people are reduced to savagery, as all semblence of civilization crumbles into ruin.

Nearly 4000 years after the cataclysm the whole of Avandunil was united under the rule of the Avadain (Men of the West), who brought peace, prosperity and the worship of The High Gathering to all corners of Avandunil. Alliances forged between the races of men, elves and dwarves facilitated in the building of cities, roads and brought about cultural and scientific advancements.

In Estegalle, several tribes of humans rose to prominence in their fight for supremacy. The Tribe of Maurid, led by Shardan the Wise, isolated themselves from the constant wars of the north in the southwestern lands beyond a vast desert known to them as The Sheltering Sea. In the southeast the Narahim established their hidden kingdom among the semitropical wilderness that sheltered them from their warring neighbors. In the north, Yssgelundians of the frozen climes engaged in endless bloodshed for territory with the powerful Maelnach tribes of central Estegalle.

The elves and dwarves of Estegalle isolated themselves from these wars and were forced to battle the races of goblins and giants in order to carve out realms in the forests and mountains of the continent. Over the years, the migration and mingling of tribes brought about the Tribes of Vors upon the Plains of Algur, the northeastern Vinnisklad of the frozen wastes and the Kashgari hillmen.

500 years ago the Avadain, having rebuilt their glorious kingdom and brought their people back to the worship of the true gods, sought to bring their benificent reign to the wartorn shores of Estegalle. With a vast armada the Avadain host landed upon the western shores of Estegalle 587 years ago intent upon building a united, Avadain-ruled, kingdom through strength of arms and the blessings of the true gods.

The game takes place in the Common Year 575 (using the Avadain calendar, which began with the construction of their first citadel at Caer Lyon), with the Avadain having fallen short of their goal. Their kingdom upon Estegalle, Caerleon, was wrested from the lands of the Maelnach, who have either been assimilated into Caerleonic society or driven in Caerleon's eastern wilderness but never managed to expand beyond central Estegalle.

To Caerleon's north lies the kingdom of Suttegarde, formerly part of Caerleon until it was ceded to northern conquerers 253 years ago. Suttegarde, now an ally to Caerleon, still faces the depredations of Yssgelundian raiders and its people, worshippers of The High Gathering, no longer consider themselves northmen. In both kingdoms, institutions of learning fall under church control and the few colleges of magic that exist are dedicated to Aethrude, god of magic, and teach theology to prospective wizards.

To its east lie the Plains of Algur and the Three Tribes of Vors, the Carmascians, Sarathians and Voruskai. Over the years their border settlements have grown into small towns and centers of trade but, on the whole, the people of the plains are nomadic by nature, with mounted hordes defending their lands and raiding into the lands of Kashgar, Caerleon and Suttegarde.

Mauridia, under the rule of its deathless emperor (currently reborn in the form of Empress Correna Osriel), has grown in both might and wealth over the years and stands in opposition to Caerleon and its church. Mauridia's people revile the false gods for the wrath that they visited upon Gaile and have come to worship Shardan the Wise as their god. Great centers of learning and trade exist throughout Mauridia's spired cities and its great fleet of ships ensure prosperous, safe trade with the mercantilistic city-states of Kashgar.

Kashgar is the most technologically advanced of Estagalle's lands, the seat of scientific discovery and arcane research... unfettered by the superstitious trappings of religion. Just as Kashgar stands as a center of learning, it is also the predominant trading nation of Estegalle, able to maintain trade relations with Suttegrade, Caeleon, Narahim and Mauridia; and able to protect its interests with a vast warfleet.

RACES
Humans
No ability adjustments
They are played as per the PHB but each culture grants a small, additional bonus to 1 or 2 skills or saves.
Examples:
Avadain - +1 racial bonus to FORT saves versus diseases. +1 racial bonus to WILL saves versus fear effects.
Kashgari - +2 competence bonus to appraise checks. +20% to starting wealth

Elves
High Elves: +2 INT, -2 CON
Sylvan Elves: +2 DEX, -2 CON
High elves and sylvan elves both use the high elf abilities from the core rules, though sylvan elves have ranger as a favored class and both races replace rapier proficiency with short sword proficiency. Dark elves are pale-skinned elves that look much like high elves and have been corrupted by their dealings with Narveg (god of lies).

Dwarves
+2 CON, -2 DEX
Dwarves are played as per the PHB, except that racial weapons do exist and, as such, weapon familiarity doesn't exist either. There is no division between mountain and hill dwarves. Duergar exist as a fallen line of dwarves who betrayed their kinsmen, out of greed, long ago.

Gnomes
+2 DEX, -2 STR
Gnomes are played as per the PHB, except that racial weapons do exist and, as such, weapon familiarity doesn't exist either. All gnomes are much like forest gnomes, but use the standard, rock gnome abilities.

Half-Elves
No ability adjustments
Played as per the PHB, except I replace the skill bonuses to gather information and diplomacy with a bonus feat at 1st level.

Halflings
I don't use them. Gnomes, as I use them in my game, fill the halfling niche.

Half-Orcs
No ability score adjustments
This race deviates the most from its PHB couterpart. Orcs, in Gaile, are synonymous with goblinoids and 1/2 orcs are actually 1/2 hobgoblins. They gain darkvision 60', a +4 racial bonus to move silently, Goblin Blood and favored class: any.

CLASSES
Barbarian Unchanged
Bard Unchanged
Cleric Added Complete Divine domains
Druid Unchanged
Fighter Added Supreme Weapon Focus & Supreme Weapon Specialization as feats.
Monk Unchanged
Paladin Use 3.0 Special Mount ability
Ranger Unchanged
Rogue May choose Hide in Plain Sight as a Special Ability at 13th level or higher.
Sorcerer Use Magic Device replaces Bluff as a class skill. Sorcerers gain Eschew Material Component as a bonus feat at 5th level.
Swashbuckler the only non-PHB core class I allow. The class is modified as follows:
D8 Hit Die, Good FORT and REF saves, and 6+INT skill points/level.
They lose the Grace class ability and gain Shield Proficiency, though they lose swashbuckler abilities that are subject to armor or encumbrance restrictions if they use any shield heavier than a buckler.
Wizard Unchanged

Variant classes from Unearthed Arcana:
Bardic Sage
Battle Sorcerer
Cloistered Cleric
Divine Bard
Savage Bard
Wilderness Rogue

OPTIONAL & REVISED RULES
From 3.0
Weapon Size Rules
Cover and Concealment Rules
Paladin's Mount Rules

From Unearthed Arcana
Spontaneous Metamagic

CALENDAR
The calendar of Gaile has 13, 18 day months. Each month begins with a new moon. The year begins in midsummer and each month has several names, depending on cultural differences. Caerleon and Suttegarde, for example, name each month after a god of the High Gathering.

RELIGIONS
The High Gathering
The is the religion of Caerleon and Suttegarde, as well as that of most humanoids and demihumans.

The Enlightened
The people of Mauridia worship their first emperor and savior, Shardan the Wise as a transcendant being... a true god. To them, the gods of The High Gathering are malevolent beings of great power who nearly destroyed Gaile in their blind fury.

The Order of Geshidra
The people of Narahim worship an aspect of The High Gathering's earth goddess, Gaile, known to them a Geshidra. They believe that her son, the god Danevar (whom they call Riakyo) descended from the heavens following the cataclysm in order to aid them in their time of need. It is thought that he fathered the first High Lord of the Narahim, with a Narahim woman.

Pagan Faiths
Following the cataclysm, many men took to the worship of their ancestors and of nature spirits in place of a pantheon of gods. The Maelnach, Tribes of Vors, Yssgelundians and Vinnisklad are a pagans.

God of the High Gathering
Greater Gods
Name (Alignment) Favored Weapon: Domains
Aluin (LN) Heavy Mace: Law, Inquisition, Protection (God of Rulership)
Jenia (NG) Light Mace: Community, Healing, Protection (Goddess of Motherhood and the Hearth)
Intermediate Gods
Aethrude (LN) Quarterstaff: Force, Knowledge, Magic (God of Magic)
Cerullien (NG) Morningstar: Oracle, Protection, Travel (God of the Stars, Hope, and Sailors)
Gaile (N) Heavy Flail: Earth, Strength, Travel (Earth Goddess)
Lucien (NG) Longsword: Glory, Good, Purification (God of Truth and Purity)
Oredus (NE) Short Sword: Knowledge, Mind, Trickery (God of Darkness and Secrets)
Thandor (LN) Scythe: Law, Pact, Protection (God of Eternal Rest)
Tendellius (LN) Longsword: Celerity, Knowledge, Law (God of Time and Longevity)
Vitian (CG) Longbow: Competition, Healing, Strength (God of Physical Prowess and Health)
Lesser Deities
Dumador (LN) Warhammer: Earth, Law, Pact (God of Forged Oaths and Metalwork)
Faendre (N) Longbow: Air, Travel, Weather (Goddess of the Sky)
Gerian (NG) Light Flail: Creation, Plant, Sun (God of the Harvest)
Haeleth (CG) Javelin: Community, Knowledge, Sun (Sun God, God of Artistic Inspiration)
Illandra (N) Sickle: Dream, Knowledge, Oracle (Goddess of the Moon and Dreams)
Moloth (CE) Scimitar: Chaos, Earth, Fire (God of Fire)
Naeril (N) Trident: Luck, Travel, Water (God of the Seas)
Theros (CN) Spear: Air, Cold, Weather (Storm God)
Demigods
Avellior (CN) Quarterstaff: Chaos, Knowledge, Madness (God of Madness and Visions)
Baloth (CE) Heavy Flail: Destruction, Pestilence, War (God of Slaughter)
Danevar (NG) Longbow: Animal, Celerity, Travel (God of the Wilds and of The Hunt)
Illichor (NE) Longsword: Competition, Evil, Trickery (God of Avarice)
Kharec (NE) Scimitar: Destruction, Purification, Strength (God of Vengeance)
Maredon (LN) Battle Axe: Destruction, Law, War (God of Conquest through Battle)
Miraduin (CG) Shortbow: Community, Domination, Healing (Goddess of Love and Beauty)
Mircueran (N) Quarterstaff: Luck, Protection, Travel (God of Hospitality and Wealth)
Narveg (CE) Shortsword: Domination, Evil, Trickery (God of Lies)
Teunral (LG) Longsword: Law, Good, Protection (God of Justice)
Ulgren (LE) Whip: Death, Destruction, Law (God of Punishment and Death)
Xandemoc (CN) Shortsword: Liberation, Luck, Trickery (God of Luck)

The short version of my homebrew:
It is a conventional world, for the most part. It is a world in its second age. The very first civilization reached its height and was destroyed, leaving behind many old cities and artifacts, though most of them are gone, hidden, or completely built over.
There is a limited panetheon of gods I created, each of which had a speciality priest in 2E, and I'm in the process of converting that to 3.5E, if I ever get the time.

The gods do not exist in the world. They have no power whatsoever except through what the priests of each god do. So really, the character of each order is set by those who are in it, not by the god directly. In that sense, it is exactly like what it would be like if there were no gods at all (like the real world) and so you can have sects worshipping the same god completely at odds with each other. So politics even within a given order of clerics can matter a lot. Though they do tend to have the same goals, given that they all chose to worship the same god.

There is more to the background, some of which most of the inhabitants of the world are completely unaware of. Some of it relates to the ancient, high magic civilization, some of it is unrelated.

I could paste in the various world descriptor documents if anyone is interested, though perhaps that should go in home brew.