5e Homebrew Setting: Malebolge, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy

Well, allow me to hopefully clear tings up a little, although Forgeborn Dwarves actually first appeared in an issue of Dragon Magazine for D&D 4th edition.

[sblock='Dwarves, Forgeborn']
Who Are They?
The less-mutated descendants of the original Sonnlinor, the Forgeborn are the true heirs to the shattered empire of their ancestors, trying to find a place for themselves in the shadow of what once was.


Physiology
Although considered mutants by their "pureblood" kinsfolk, the forgeborn have not diverged that greatly from the template of their kin.

Like pureblood Sonnlinor, forgeborn dwarves fundamentally resemble short but strongly built humans; though they only reach heights of 4'3 to 4'9", their powerful frames, broad builds and natural muscles means that they can easily weigh as much as the average human. Where forgeborn differ from purebloods, however, is in what they call their "manifestations".

A forgeborn is defined by his or her inherent affinity for elemental energy, which always has some physical effect on their body. At its most basic, forgeborn all possess very unusual coloration of the eyes - both irises and sclera, skin, and hair. Unlike purebloods, who have fundamentally human appearances, forgeborn are more alien looking.

Members of one forgeborn clan may have fiery dark red-orange hair, charcoal black to ash-gray skin, red-gold irises and copper sclera. In contrast, members of a second clan may have snow-white or frostbite-blue skin and hair, and a third may electric blue eyes and "lightning yellow" hair.

Precise colorations do tend to run in family lines, and usually, although not always, suggest one particular "element" from their innate affinity for storm, earth, ice, fire and metal. Mixed elemental appearances are only slightly less common, and in some clans are encouraged.

However, these strange colors are only the most common of "manifestations". The elemental nature of forgeborn can and frequently does display itself in more overtly supernatural fashions, and those forgeborn with particularly strong natures often display much more dramatic or much larger numbers of such tells.

Examples of such manifestations include, but are by no means limited to, eyes that visibly resemble crackling electricity or burning flames, faintly luminescent hair that moves and so looks like fire, growths of stone or never-melting ice instead of hair, exhaling small clouds of mist or smoke, faceted gemstone-like teeth, small stony or crystalline nodules on the skin, hair that resembles clouds (complete with flashes of luminescence like lightning), blood that ignites in a flash-burn when exposed to air, and developing a crust of rimefrost instead of sweating.

These traits are, again, more commonly seen in singular element-dominant forgeborn, but mixed elemental tells are not unheard of.


Personality
It must be noted that forgeborn dwarves are not truly that different to their pureblood kinsfolk in most ways. It is their status as a sub-culture within a greater culture that provides the seeds of change between the two forms of Sonnlinor, and that is most keenly felt in terms of their personalities.

The first thing of note is the dwarven propensity to melancholy. Forgeborn who live alongside of their pureblood counterparts share this trait - indeed, given that most pureblood clans ostracise forgeborn as an unpleasant side-effect of their conservatism, forgeborn are often more strongly effected by this trait than their pureblood kinsfolk. Many struggle with feelings of inferiority and low self-worth, leading to increased aggressiveness or an attempt to justify themselves.

In comparison, forgeborn who have established independent clanholds tend to lack this trait. Indeed, such dwarves are typically more optimistic and less xenophobic than purebloods; as the pureblood clans increasingly sequester themselves away from other races, the forgeborn are becoming more the "face" of their species as a whole. They see themselves as survivors who have bee chosen by destiny; tested by the Black Dawn and tempered, ready to carve out a new world for themselves. To this end, they are outgoing and bold, never trusting foolishly nor condemning others for the stories of the past.

The other major thing of note is the phenomena that forgeborn call "elemental bleed". To put it simply, forgeborn have a tendency towards personality traits stereotypically associated with the elements, especially if they have a strong elemental manifestation. At the same time, because the elemental essence of forgeborn is mixed, they often combine individual traits from different elements. The exact details of this vary immensely from individual to individual, and come in far too many combinations to detail here. One forgeborn may be stoic and thoughtful, only to erupt in blazing fits of rage when pushed too far. Another may seem icy and detached, but secretly burn with passion. And a third may be highly melancholic, only to display a metaphorical core of steel or stone when the going genuinely gets tough.


Courtship
As with most things about forgeborn dwarves, it is only those forgeborn who have become independent of the pureblood clans who significantly differ from the dwarven norm. In this most ironic of fields, forgeborn dwarves have actually retained the traditional courtship rituals of their race in contrast to their pureblood kin.

For forgeborn dwarves, whilst arranged marriages aren't unheard of, they are not the norm, and most marriages are thusly held for love. Either sex may initiate courtship, which is an exchange of both formal gifts and friendly banter as the prospective couple gets a better understanding of their potential mate before making a decision.

The reason for this lies in a simple aspect of forgeborn biology: whatever condition causes them to be born with such potent and obvious elemental magic also burns out the sterility curse afflicting their pureborn cousins. By dwarf standards, forgeborn have no fertility issues nor are they prone to stillbirths - however, all of the children of forgeborn dwarves, unless born of mingled non-dwarf blood, are yet more forgeborn.


Culture
Forgeborn dwarf culture is fundamentally defined by the fact that they are so close to, yet so far from, their pureblood cousins. An ugly truth is that the conservative nature of pureblood dwarf cultrue means that most clanholds with a pureblood presence regard their elementally marked kin as tainted, subhuman; outright slavery is rare, and murder unthinkable, but the sad reality is that most forgeborn dwarves are considered second-class by their parent species.

When forgeborn outnumber purebloods, this is not so much of a deal; sheer practicality means that at its worst, such prejudices are limited to the grumbling of bigots, even if they do tend to maintain stranglehold on positions of power. It is when forgeborn are in the minority that it tends to become stifling and oppressive, often pushing forgeborn to become particularly surly and hostile towards their denied kin, or else filled with self-loathing.

The simple fact that forgeborn are both true-breeding and thriving plays a huge part in this cold shoulder. Many purebloods look at their mutated kin and foresee the doom of their people, when the original dwarf has been replaced forever by this strange elemental species, a distorted parody of their people.

Although their reaction is understandable on some level, it is quite unpleasant to live with, and as their numbers have grown, an increasing number of forgeborn dwarves have abandoned their pureblood kin and chosen to forge their own path.

These forgeborn still uphold and preserve most of the relevant aspects of ancient dwarven culture. But they are not the hidebound conservatives of their kinsfolk, either. Forgeborn believe in examining and adapting, growing and changing, much as how raw metal is worked in a forge to become whatever is required of it.

The most prominent example of this general emphasis on adaptability is that forgeborn, as a whole, tend to be nowhere near as melancholic as their pureblood kin. As forgeborn see it, they have been tempered in the forge of the Black Dawn and proven worthy; why should the future be something to fear when they have already surmounted the greatest of challenges? Forgeborn dwarves are more lighthearted and relaxed, and less prone to surliness, grief or decadence; if a pureblood mining crew works in complete silence or to the tune of dirge-like chanting, then a forgeborn one works to song and banter, laughing and chattering away as they make goodhearted boasts and egg each other on in their work.

Related to this, forgeborn, especially "seperatists", are usually less xenophobic than purebloods. After all, having been on the receiving end of the wrongheaded beliefs of their pureblood kin, they're naturally skeptical of buying into all of the demonising of other races that the purebloods do. They're not prone to blind trust, as a race, but they're neither as hateful nor as fearful as purebloods can be, as a general rule.

Finally, seperatist clans of forgeborn in particular have developed an odd fascination with elemental shaping. In contrast to the rigid and defined structures and ornaments favored by purebloods, forgeborn dwarves favor ornamentation that invokes an untamed or elemental aspect. Whereas a pureblood dwarf would typically craft and wield an angular axe etched with geometric ornaments, a forgeborn dwarf would be more likely to favor an axe designed to look rough and raw, with jagged edges similar of splintered stone to rip and tear.

Likewise, elemental fusion is greatly fascinating to many forgeborn, and prized as a result. Far from unheard of before the Doomwars, but certainly proliferating afterwards, such strange elemental matter as solidwater, iceiron, steelsmoke, windrock and sunderwood, is prized for making ornaments, arms and armor. Seperatist clans often either establish themselves near sources of such fused material, or work to produce it if possible.


Settlements
At their core, forgeborn settlements are identical to those crafted by purebloods - even the most bitter seperatist admits that there is sense to be found in their ancestors' rationale for building the way they do. However, there are two notable differences.

Firstly, whilst almost all pureblood clanholds are either established within a former clanhold from before the Black Dawn or as close as possible to a lost clanhold with hopes of reclaiming it, forgeborn dwarves are not limited by such fanatical ancestor-worship. They go where they please, taking the vast expanses of potential places to found new clanholds in the shattered lands of the Malebolge as both challenge and invitation. Indeed, seperatist clanholds often take pains to avoid ancestral clanholds, if only to avoid feuds with pureblood clans.

And secondly, forgeborn dwarves have a tendency to exploit their natural resistance to harsh environmental effects, happily taking up residence in places where other races would simply not be able to survive, at least not with the unaided ease of these dragons. Whether this takes the form of a fortress held above roiling lava-flows by mighty chains, or a city woven from iron-hard black brambles whose thorns weep corrosive venom, or a vault carved from the heart of a mighty glacier, forgeborn clans have been known to make some of the most spectacular - and dangerous to the unwelcome - domiciles in all of the Malebolge.


Adventurers
Forgeborn dwarf adventurers are fairly common, more so than pureblood dwarves in many ways. They share most of the motivations for adventuring as purebloods do, but do have some unique callings; some forgeborn adventure simply for the sake of seeing what is out there in the wide world, whilst others flee oppression in a pureblood clanhold, and yet others seek to find a new identity for their people or a new place to found a clanhold.

As their name implies, forgeborn dwarf adventurers should use the Forgeborn subrace for Dwarves, present in the Homebrew Mechanics section above.

Barbarians: The majority of forgeborn barbarians hail from clanholds where they live alongside purebloods; the attitude in such places pushes many forgeborn dwarves to embrace the path of the Shameslayer (to atone for the crime of being born a forgeborn) or to become a Grudgebearer (to redeem themselves in the eyes of their ancestors). Seperatists tend to be...distinctily displeased with such notions. That said, Ancestral Guardians are not unheard of, seperatists who believe that they are still custodians of the nobility of their people and who burn with righteous rage to prove the dwarves are still worthy of respect.

Bards: As with their pureblood cousins, forgeborn dwarves have strong bardic traditions, if with a slightly more upbeat focus than their grim and mournful kin. All manner of bards are found amongst the ranks of dwarven adventurers, pureblood and forgeborn alike.

Fighters: As with pureblood dwarves, forgeborn dwarves are drawn to the path of trhe fighter. There is, perhaps, a higher number of eldritch knights amongst their ranks, and definitely a higher percentage of knights and cavaliers; as they are less likely to be fighting in ancient ruins, more forgeborn find themselves in situations where mounted combat is worth mastering.

Monks: Forgeborn dwarves share the same monastic traditions and focuses as pureblood dwarves, though their elementalist monks favor all manner of elements, and many new styles have begun to take shape, especially those that blend two or more elements into one philosophy.

Rangers: As with the purebloods, there are no particularly biases against or towards rangers amongst the ranks of the forgeborn.

Rogues: Like their pureblood cousins, forgeborn dwarves make up a disproportionate number of the "adventuring exiles" for forgeborn. Indeed, there are probably more forgeborn rogues than pureblood ones, as laws in a clanhold are often stricter against its resident forgeborn.

Sorcerers: In stark contrast to the purebloods, sorcerers proliferate and are cherished amongst forgeborn, who see them as the ultimate expression of who they are. For obvious reasons, forgeborn sorcerers are highly predisposed towards the various elemental power sources.

Warlocks: As with sorcerers, warlocks are also more common and more respected amongst forgeborn than amongst purebloods, especially those forgeborn who form a minority in pureblood clanholds. Though somewhat more accepting, forgeborn warlocks with an Undying patron, or especially an Arch-Fey patron, are extremely rare.

Wizards: In comparison to sorcerers, wizardly forgeborn are somewhat rare; most prefer to awaken their own innate magic than study and shape it as an external force. Those forgeborn who do follow the wizard's path overwhelmingly favor the evoker, transmuter and artificer paths; though the elemental schools are strongly represented, they are a distinct second to these three schools, as forgeborn who pursue a wizard's path are usually interested in magic beyond their own innate elemental energies. They do retain the pureblood dwarves' aversion to necromancy, however.

Mystics: The approach forgeborn dwarves take to psionic magic depends on their origins. Those from pureblood clans tend to avoid it, or feel ashamed of an affinity for it; they are already alien enough. Those from seperatist clans tend to embrace it, intrigued by this strange new power.
[/sblock]

Alright... well, the Gnolls gazetteer is almost complete, the Gnomoi and Aranea are within reach of completion, but here's another topic: over on a different board, it was asked of me if I'd done any more "conventional" worldbuilding - details on a central city, or secret societies, things like that. And the answer is, simply, I haven't. I've gotten some very bare-bones regional outlines, which I'll provide below, but I haven't been able to pick one and focus on working it.

I could eventually come up with more normal/non-racial focused world-building efforts... but, first, that would require actually picking one of these sectors and fleshing it out, so that they make sense. Would folks be interested in talking with me about that matter? I'm good at coming up with generalities, but focusing on specifics... that's a little trickier.

This is my most detailed write-up of the five known regions (think how Fallout divides the games between New California, the Capital Wasteland, Point Lookout, The Pitt, The Mojave, and the Boston Commonwealth) thus far. Feedback, opinions, and suggestions on which one to develop first deeply appreciated.

Also... I absolutely suck at names. Whilst I like the current array of names for the post-apocalyptic regions as a whole (they've got a good Capital Wasteland/Commonwealth feel to them), specific names and original names are... well, I could really use help at naming them, let's leave it at that.

As you can see, the info here is definitely very sporadic and so I really need all the help I can get figuring out how to actually make something more viable out of these bare-bones concepts.


The Cradlelands
Once, these lands were beautiful - the birthplace of the human empire, a land of rolling hills and open forests, of lazy streams and wide grasslands. But that was before the Black Dawn. As the greatest concentration of artificially tamed and leashed magical energies in the world, the chaos storms wreaked absolute havoc when they tore enchantments asunder and broke ancient magics apart. For this reason, the Cradlelands represent some of the most heavily scarred and magically devastated regions in the known world of the Malebolge.

The landscape of the Cradlelands is a place where the strange and unusual becomes normal, and a welcome relief from the deadly. Huge swathes of dead, rocky land make up the iconic wastelands of the known world, where travelers struggle to find sufficient food and water. Even where the land is fertile, the poisons seeping from the world's wounds often make it dangerous to those who do not know the lay of the land. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the Sea of Souls; once a lush river delta that was the jewel of the old world, the Black Dawn cracked the earth and caused it to sink; several cities were swallowed as the river broke its boundaries and collected into an inland sea whose water is ripe with magical toxins. It is said that nothing can drink of the Sea's waters and survive intact. The fortunate find themselves twisted into deformed and often deranged calibans. The unlucky die - some instantly, others, more horribly. The phenomena of the molten ones, individuals who have contracted some arcane plague that causes them to slowly dissolve into gory gelatinous sludge even as they desperately feast on flesh to delay their inevitable deaths, is more common here than anywhere else in the known world.

The Sea of Souls is the greatest of the dead zones, places where none live; even the tribes of demented calibans that worship the Sea and prowl its outskirts stay on the shores, venturing close only for certain ceremonies. Every so often, greedy treasure hunters set out in search of the treasures of the sunken cities. Few of those ever return.

Some argue the Sea of Souls may have its part to play in just how devastated the Cradlelands are. These inviduals argue that it is the sheer abundance of magical contaminants and unstable mana concentrated in the Sea that sustains the toxicity of the landscape beyond it. Fluxgales and sickstorms are born at its heart, sweeping out across the land. Living spells draw power from the corrupt magic that spill from its banks. The land itself draws the venom deep into its heart, mutating the creatures and corrupting the earth that feed from it. If this is true... none have ever determined a way to begin healing the wound.

Life in the Cradlelands is a harsh one, but it is not completely dead. Calibans thrive here in numbers like nowhere else, simultaneously sustained and damned by the abundance of magical pollutants in the land around them. Enclaves of uncorrupted humans likewise maintain a death-grip on their territories, refusing to abandon the lands that were home to their ancestors. The warforged were born here, and with their protection against corruption they continue to thrive here, invested like no other race in exploring the ruins of the world that was. Other races have a more marginal presence; warrens of slyvharri and dens of kobolds dwell in the ruins of mighty cities, whilst tribes of orks roam the land, shadar-kai bands seek to test their mettle, and rodushi clans struggle to try and purify the world around them. Life is often marginalized, restricted to small tribal bands or nomadic hordes for the most part, but it continues to live here.

Indeed, there are stories of so-called "vaults", mighty fortress-cities secured against attack during the Doomwars that managed to ride out the Black Dawn. Although many of these subsequently fell to contamination or infighting or any of a number of other fates, some vaults still exist, zealously clinging to existence and protecting their populations. These are not necessarily shining beacons of hope, but they stand as a monument to the power of life.

Of course, monuments to the power of death stand all around them. Before the Doomwars, humanity had gathered into vast cities, and these like now as hollow, ravaged shells across the blasted landscape. Mighty aeropoli now lie at the bottoms of craters, or drift with eerie silence through the sky. Once-shimmering towers lie toppled or splintered like trees in a lightning storm. Ghostly cities that fade in and out of reality with the coming of the moon. Necropoli where only the shadows of inhabitants remain, burned into the very rock. The devastation is total, and obvious.

But, as grim as this can be, there is also beauty in the Cradlelands. Amongst the horrors, strange and marvelous wonders can be seen. Planar rifts abound here more so than anywhere else. The areas of lushness may be home to all manner of enchanting and harmless creatures as well as deadly flora and fauna - beings such as buophants and butterfly-dragons. Floating islands that can be reached by climbing bridges of rainbows, rivers that rain upside, forests where trees talk and mushrooms sing, all of these and more make the promise of the Malebolge clear. Life may not be easy, but it is worth fighting for.

Aside from the usual assortment of hostile sapients (bandits, scared xenophobes, cannibal tribes, mad cults, etc), the Cradlelands include the following particularly common dangerous encounters:
Rogue constructs
Wandering undead
Mutant vermin (rats, bugs, centipedes, spiders, etc) - cranium rats, fire beetles, sword spiders, etc
Blight-Born (demonic/corrupted elementals from 4e)
Drakes
Elementals (Fusions, Archons)
Killer fungi
Beholders
Destrachans
Assorted Aberrations & Monstrosities

Needless to say, natives of the Cradlelands tend to be tough, hardy, but less than socially adept, ever watchful (if not paranoid) and constantly alert for potential danger, and either fiercely independent or strongly loyal. Or both. One of the advantages in living amongst such a vast array of ruins and ancient battlefields is that the denizens of the Cradlelands tend to have access to a veritable hoard of ancient relics and trinkets, making them quite well-equipped with magical gear, particularly favoring survival-assisting items like enviro-armor, purifying and poison detecting crystals, and enchanted weapons.

This abundance of relics is the primary lure for visitors from outside of the regions, with traders and adventurers alike risking the area's many dangers to secure ancient prizes created by humanity in its glory years.


The Scarred Coast
Far from the ruins of the Cradlelands, the Scarred Coast stands as a beacon of hope and light. The old coastline crumbled during the Black Dawn, expanding in some areas as new land was torn from the floor of the Sea of Blood and shrinking in others as the earth sank and the water reclaimed it, but compared to the Cradlelands, it is far better off. Although not, by any definition, pure, it has received comparatively little contamination and, most importantly, it has a comparative abundance of lush, fertile soul and relatively clean water to use. This is further bolstered by the Coast's natural climate, which is temperate edging towards the tropical, providing long, warm growing seasons and relatively short, mild winters. The survivors of the Black Dawn flocked to this region, and civilization is slowly, painstakingly rebuilding itself.

Ironically, it has fallen victim to its own success; as civilization has formed into new city-states, with everything from cosmopolitan collectives to extended clanholds of forgeborn dwarves, old weaknesses of civilization have reared their ugly head. Warring over precious resources is not unheard of, and has been responsible for the destruction of several such city-states. Internal issues that do not manifest in more tribal or frontier territories such as the Cradlelands and Bitterflats, such as intrigue, corruption, subversive cults and the like, have also had new room to flourish, crippling their hosts from within like the parasites that they are. But, as raiding bands of tribals die out or are assimilated into the ever-growing city-states, as old secrets are carefully kept alive, the Scarred Coast remains perhaps one of the great hopes of the Malebolge.

For the most part, though, the city-states prefer not to fight each other, focusing instead on defending their territories and trying to expand as best they can without provoking a needless conflict. Intrigue, of course, flourishes in such an environment, reviving such pre-war concepts as spies, privateers and bandits.

External problems come from both the land and the sea. Arcane phenomena and conventional issues such as storms, floods, tidal waves and earthquakes, keep the Scarred Coast from being anything near a paradise. Even here, life must still fight to survive. Those willing to brave the wilderness or the open sea can expect to face fairly conventional dangers. Killer plants of many different species, as well as mutated animals both terrestrial and aquatic, make up the bulk of threats to survival, although more hideous creatures such as aquatic monstrosities or slimes have been drawn here as well. There are multiple slyvharri warrens that have attempted to establish a foothold, and one of the few things that can unite the city-states with little fuss is the need to stamp out a horde of the genocidal rabbitfolk.

All manner of species can be found living on the Scarred Coast, emphasizing its cosmopolitan nature.


The Jaderealm
Far to the south of the Scarred Coast and the Cradlelands lies what is now called the Jaderealm; a sub-tropical to tropical morass of jungles, rainforests and swamps that stretches on well beyond the known boundaries of the world. Believed by many to be either the ancestral forests where humanity first arose, the original sight of many elfin colonies before the Doomwars, or even both, the Jaderealm has a verdantness that seems unnatural. Not just by comparing it to blasted wastelands such as those found in the Cradlelands, but even if the world were whole. The land has a life to it that seems... exaggerated, somehow. Many speculate that there are one or more portals to the Elemental Chaos scattered through the Jaderealm, drawing elemental energies from the Pillar of Creation (Wood) in order to grant this land its lushness.

This is a wild and untamed country; civilization is an outlier here, and most settlers are well aware of the feeling of intrusion. Fangwyrms, kobolds and their kinsfolk war against slyvharri warrens, aranea keep carefully maintained library-fortresses, but this is a land of beasts, bugs and plants. The most exotic and deadly of flora and fauna can be found here; vegepygmies, froghemoths, assassin vines, greenvises, shambling mounds, shriekers and worse.

Despite the danger, though, the Jaderealm is a veritable gold mine of resources, from the mundanities of lumber and edible vegetation to medicinal herbs and magical reagents. So it is that settlers and explorers alike keep trekking to the Jaderealm, hoping to make it rich by exploiting its bounties. Stories of ancient, lost elfin cities and the valuable relics or spells to be looted therein certainly don't hurt the Jaderealms' allure.


The Slagheap
Once, this was known as Nidavellir, a rugged land of soaring mountains, active volcanoes and mighty glaciers. And even the Black Dawn didn't change the land's inherent nature that much. It is still a steep land of rugged terrain, dangerous beasts and harsh weather, demanding strength and endurance from those who live here. The Black Dawn's effects mostly manifest in the peculiar oddities that have affected the terrain. Elementals run rampant in many places, adding their own unique dangers. Cryo-volcanoes spew freezing cold blue fire. Glaciers of burning hot red ice are sought after for their protective properties. Floating mountains drift serenely with the wind. All of these and more show the marks of the Black Dawn in this place.

Life here isn't easy. Unstable temperatures, spontaneous (and sometimes magical) storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and avalanches all see to that, even beyond the predators and struggle for food. But still, it's surprisingly populated. This is the ancestral homeland of the dwarves, and so many clans of dwarves and gnomes still claim dominance over different mountains and valleys. A surprising number of kobold clans also live here, either descended from or seeking to locate remnants of the dragons that once flocked these rugged mountains. Even more surprising are the abundance of shadar-kai; though few admit descent from the elven armies that once besieged these mountains, the rugged terrain and abundant cloudcover is quite appealing to this race of shadow-elf hedonists. Humans and muls also have a presence here, as do tribes of calibans (predominantly brutes and beasts, although many clans have witchspawn and there are reputed to be whole cavern systems crawling with cannibal/ghul-kin calibans) and even genasi.

One particularly dire legacy of the ancient Doomwars is that undead abound in this area, lost armies of elven necro-slaves that maintain orders even despite the deaths of their former commanding officers.

Although the dwarves do their best to keep out treasure seekers after ancient dwarven magic and relics, there is a thriving underground trade in these lost wonders. More above ground, the trade in fur and mineral wealth entices caravans all the way up from the Scarred Coast.


The Bitterflats
The new world, the most mysterious and unknown region of all in the known world. Savannahs and arid grasslands, open bush forests and deserts, stretching out further than any reliable explorer has roamed before. Homeland of the gnolls, only they truly know this land - and they wish they understood why the humans, the kobolds, the orks, the gnomes, the calibans and the slyvharri were swarming into their territories.

Why? For many, it is because it is new. Stories of the wondrous possibilities that might lie within or beyond the Bitterflats attract explorers, pioneers and scavvers, looking for such things as lost cities from before the Doomwars or even mythical surviving stories, or simply for new resources to plunder. Others come in search of living space, hoping to find uncontested, more hospitable terrain than the lands they abandoned.

As far as figuring out the names for different NPCs and things like that, you could probably find something online.

as for the rest of your post, Wow.

The Cradlelands. A toxic inland sea, fluxgales, sickstorms, vault-cities, and oasises of fungal growths . . Good lord, this is some seriously amazing stuff. Like if Dark Sun and Fallout had had a kid, and then that kid had grown up and eloped with the Mournland from Eberron.

The Slagheap as a broken wasteland is almost exactly what I imagined it would be, although the ice-volcanoes and lava glaciers are a really cool inversion.

Well, thank you so very much for the compliments! It always brightens my heart to hear someone appreciative of the things I've done for this setting, and which I'd like to continue doing *to* this setting. I dearly wish I could get other folks to either share their opinions on the concepts or offer their thoughts on where I should be directing my attention next. I've so much I could be doing that it blinds me as to what I should be doing.

My entire family loves the post-apocalyptic genre, so Malebolge's concept is one I'm going to find appealing.

Alright, folks: I was doing some thinking and I feel like I may have stumbled across a key to solving my issues here, or at least allowing me to pick up on progress again.

What I'm doing here is, essetially, building a setting, yeah? And how did WoTC and, to an extent, TSR do that?

Firstly, they put together a Campaign Setting "corebook"; this covered the basic details of the world like cosmologies, faiths, locations, etc, and gave you the basic info & rules you needed to actually play there.

Secondly, they put together a Player's Guide; this covered the PC races and materials in more detail.

Finally, they put together specific sourcebooks; these covered specific topics relating to the world, expanding on the bare-bones details given in the Campaign Setting for greater exploration. Look at Eberron; we had Secrets of Xen'drik, Faiths of Eberron, The Five Nations, and so forth, all expanding upon what we got in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

My issue has been that I'm trying to do everything at once. If I break things up into a more scheduled approach, I might have better luck with this, wouldn't you all agree?

With that in mind... this is what I have so far:
* A fairly complete history/timeline of the world.
* A basic outline of the greater cosmology of the world.
* Crude but essential outlines of the basic details of the Known World's five regions.
* A rough, unrefined and incomplete list of races in the Known World.
* A rough, unrefined and incomplete list of new subclasses to be found in the Known World.
* Several Player's Guide-tier writeups of the races of the Known World.

And this is what I need to do:
* Compile a list of Races of the Known World.
* Compile a list of planned new sub-classes for the setting.
* Create Player's Guide-tier writeups of all those races.
* Create playable stats for the non-official races.
* Create playable material for the non-official subclasses.
* Create crunch for new spells.
* Create crunch for new magic items.
* Create stats for new/converted monsters.
* Create a "pseudo-pantheon" of Powers; entities that can serve as Patrons for Warlocks or be called upon by Theurges.
* Further expand and define the various Regions of the Known World - pick one Region at a time for maximum effectiveness in creating landmarks, sites of interest, hazards and cultural spots.
* Create crunch for other things that warrant it - environmental hazards, for example.

Does this list make sense to anyone?

If it does... I'm thinking the most logical places to start are with the list compilations for Races and Subclasses. Defining who these are and how they fit together covers a basic core to the setting, given the land itself, its cosmology and its history are all more or less figured.

Again, does that make sense?

...Okay, I kind of hoped for some feedback on the last post first, but I figured I might as well at least compile the lists first, let folks give their opinions/thoughts on that. I'm also open to discussing new subclasses beyond the ones on this list, and potentially adding or removing races. For example, I really liked the "Undead Master" (a sort of necromancer/conjurer/enchanter hybrid kit) in AD&D, and it could be interesting in 5e.

Homebrew Subclasses List:
* Sorcerer
** Kobold Bloodline - To reflect the unique status of kobolds in this world and because it was a neat idea in PF. I have this written, but I could use feedback on it.
** Iceheart/Flamebreath /Earthbones/Greenblood/Rotheart/Seashaper/Windrider - Assorted elementalist origins, because I think it's a fundamental aspect to explore. How to actually make them different to the elemenalist wizard is the tricky part. Greenbloods are wood elementalists, Rothearts are entropy elementalists. A draft exists for the Rotheart subclass.
* Warlock
** Lifebringer - A healing and protecting focused warlock, important given the lack of divine classes and the set-up for warlock/theurge lore.
** Dark Mother - Inspired by Shub-Niggurath and Lamashtu, a healer warlock with some added bite.
** Doomspeaker - Apocalyptic herald warlock, specializing in curses and destruction.
** Ashmaker - Essentially a more fiery counterpart to the Doomspeaker.
** Frostbringer - The ice equivalent to the Ashmaker.
** Primordial - A warlock elementalist, focused on wielding multiple elemental energies or elemental transmutation; takes inspiration from 4e's Primordials.
* Wizard
** Elementalist - Because elementalism is one of the oldest and most well-established schools of magic in-setting, but we have no elementalist wizard from WoTC yet. This one is already written.


Races List:
* Human - The truest heirs to this world, humans are everywhere and are the most unique/chaotic of species, with myriad different cultures and settlements.
* Dwarf - Have essentially reverted to xenophobic conservatism, falling back on traditions (and bitterness) to comfort themselves over the shock of losing their empire. Can be broken into pureblood clans, Underdark-dwelling deep dwarf clans (pureblood culture, duergar stats), and more liberal forgeborn clans.
* Gnomoi - Excitable, chaos-fueled, brilliant mages and artificers, believed to be mutant dwarves, set on finding their own way in life.
* Drow - Survivors of the arrogant Aelfar elves who fled into the Underdark, mutating physically but preserving their culture. May create a replacement list of spell-like abilities for them. Driders, Scorrow and variants are now an elite caste in their society; fleshshapers who bonded themselves to giant vermin to be better adapted to their environment.
* Kobold - Physically degenerated spawn of the now-extinct dragons, who burn with the desire to reclaim their ancestral majesty.
* Dragonborn - The most successful of the kobold's various experiments in recreating dragons, an artificial race that remains unstable.
* Warforged - Artificial soldiers created by humanity in a failed attempt to end the Doomwars that ruined the world, now searching for a purpose.
* Orks - Descendants of elves mutated by vengeful dwarves during the Doomwars and who tore free of their intended role as warrior-slaves. Use Half-Orc stats.
* Goblins - Mutant orks who have regained some small measure of their ancestral magical abilities. Use Forest Gnome stats.
* Gnoll - A budding civilization of tribal, matriarchal anthro hyenas.
* Caliban - The heavily mutated progeny of humanity, created by the many arcane pollutants still contaminating the world.
* Aranea - Sapient, magically adept, scholarly spider-folk evolved from giant spiders used by elves to guard their magical libraries.
* Rodushi (Ratfolk) - Rats who evolved into humanoid form amidst the ruins of a great city of philosophers, and who thusly see it as their duty to heal the land and fight the darkness.
* Shadar-Kai - Elves overwhelmed by necromantic energy, turning them into cursed sensates who seek endless stimulation, lest they fade away into nothing.
* Fangwyrms - A failed kobold experiment that produced kobolds with serpentine attributes, who now forge a new culture for themselves after being abandoned.
* Slyvharri - A race of bunnyfolk raised up to sapience by elven lich-wraiths and forged into a twisted culture of slavers and conquerors.
* Reptilians - More successful but still failed experiments of the kobolds. An excuse to add lizardfolk and serpentfolk racial options.
* Chitines - A drow experiment in breeding arachnid servitors and/or in enslaving the araneas gone disastrously wrong. Semi-eusocial quasi-parasitic predators with a slavery-focused "culture".
* Half-Men - Various half-breeds and hybrids born of humanity's inherent interspecies compatibility. Half-elves, half-dwarves, half-gnomes, half-gnolls, maybe half-orcs if I can figure out how to justify them stat-wise (use hobgoblin or half-goblin stats?).

QuietBrowser said:

Alright, folks: I was doing some thinking and I feel like I may have stumbled across a key to solving my issues here, or at least allowing me to pick up on progress again.

What I'm doing here is, essetially, building a setting, yeah? And how did WoTC and, to an extent, TSR do that?

Firstly, they put together a Campaign Setting "corebook"; this covered the basic details of the world like cosmologies, faiths, locations, etc, and gave you the basic info & rules you needed to actually play there.

Secondly, they put together a Player's Guide; this covered the PC races and materials in more detail.

Finally, they put together specific sourcebooks; these covered specific topics relating to the world, expanding on the bare-bones details given in the Campaign Setting for greater exploration. Look at Eberron; we had Secrets of Xen'drik, Faiths of Eberron, The Five Nations, and so forth, all expanding upon what we got in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

My issue has been that I'm trying to do everything at once. If I break things up into a more scheduled approach, I might have better luck with this, wouldn't you all agree?

With that in mind... this is what I have so far:
* A fairly complete history/timeline of the world.
* A basic outline of the greater cosmology of the world.
* Crude but essential outlines of the basic details of the Known World's five regions.
* A rough, unrefined and incomplete list of races in the Known World.
* A rough, unrefined and incomplete list of new subclasses to be found in the Known World.
* Several Player's Guide-tier writeups of the races of the Known World.

And this is what I need to do:
* Compile a list of Races of the Known World.
* Compile a list of planned new sub-classes for the setting.
* Create Player's Guide-tier writeups of all those races.
* Create playable stats for the non-official races.
* Create playable material for the non-official subclasses.
* Create crunch for new spells.
* Create crunch for new magic items.
* Create stats for new/converted monsters.
* Create a "pseudo-pantheon" of Powers; entities that can serve as Patrons for Warlocks or be called upon by Theurges.
* Further expand and define the various Regions of the Known World - pick one Region at a time for maximum effectiveness in creating landmarks, sites of interest, hazards and cultural spots.
* Create crunch for other things that warrant it - environmental hazards, for example.

Does this list make sense to anyone?

If it does... I'm thinking the most logical places to start are with the list compilations for Races and Subclasses. Defining who these are and how they fit together covers a basic core to the setting, given the land itself, its cosmology and its history are all more or less figured.

Again, does that make sense?

Click to expand...

Sorry for the lack of feedback on this lately, been double dipping on night hours, and haven't(and still technically don't) have time to write up full length reviews.

On your list, I think it would be better to separate things more. Maybe instead of doing the Races, then Subclasses, you could start with the regions, along with "Player races found in this region" and "subclasses from this region"(assuming you have region specific subclasses).

This will give you a nice break up of information, and less cross referencing for the players. Instead of jumping from the "Region" section to a race they read about, it would all be together.

Although, maybe this is more of a task for the later "Further expand on regions" section.

All IMO, of course. Also, a friendly reminder to continue not being bothered by a lack of feedback. No offense to your world, but sometimes life gets in the way of things, and helping someone else build their world falls down on the Priority ladder.

The lists would basically serve to remind me and alert folks "just what are the various options, homebrew or otherwise, that exist in this setting", to clarify, so they kind of should be tackled first - hence my last post.

Problem is, I've already got the racial gazetteers set up in a different sort of format to that, so I'm not really sure how to actually do the "Region + Player Races Found In This Region" writeup as you suggest. Could you maybe explain that a little better?

Really, I think at this point if I could just figure out which Region to focus on, because you're right, breaking this work up by region gives me a more manageable slice of the pie to worry about in terms of all relevant details, including "what races actually live here" and thusly which gazetteers need further work.

So... I suppose, when it boils down to things, the biggest help I could use from interested parties is their answer to this question:

Which Region of the Known World - Cradlelands, Scarred Coast, Slagheap, Jaderealm, Bitterfalts - do you want to see get fleshed out and developed first?

QuietBrowser said:

The lists would basically serve to remind me and alert folks "just what are the various options, homebrew or otherwise, that exist in this setting", to clarify, so they kind of should be tackled first - hence my last post.

Problem is, I've already got the racial gazetteers set up in a different sort of format to that, so I'm not really sure how to actually do the "Region + Player Races Found In This Region" writeup as you suggest. Could you maybe explain that a little better?

Really, I think at this point if I could just figure out which Region to focus on, because you're right, breaking this work up by region gives me a more manageable slice of the pie to worry about in terms of all relevant details, including "what races actually live here" and thusly which gazetteers need further work.

So... I suppose, when it boils down to things, the biggest help I could use from interested parties is their answer to this question:

Which Region of the Known World - Cradlelands, Scarred Coast, Slagheap, Jaderealm, Bitterfalts - do you want to see get fleshed out and developed first?

Click to expand...

Sorry for not knowing the names of your regions off the top of my head, but here is a basic idea.

Nuclear region
"Description of region, with a break down of factions in this area"

Races in region
Mutated race that lives in nuclear region, with racial break down of Fluff relevant to this region (when they got here, what they do here, etc.) And racial crunch.
Human type that lives in nuclear region (same stuff as above)
Other race that lives in nuclear region (same stuff again)

Subclasses of region
"In this region you will find those who have perfected weaponizing nuclear waste"
Nuclear alchemists subclass
Hulk-style berserker subclass
Nuclear Wizard subclass

End chapter on Nuke region

With this style you would be able to say "we are playing in Nuke region, so choose appropriate races and classes". Also, one would not have to read the description of the Human's effect on "Nuke region" then flip to a different chapter to actually learn about the humans themselves.

Now, it is possible that I am thinking too far ahead, and it would be better for you to work in the order of your list a few posts back instead. this is pretty much a matter of preference.

The style I am talking about here is roughly (though to a much more watered down degree) what I am doing with my world. I know what region the players are in, so I flesh it out before moving on to somewhere else. what races are in it, how do they play with each other within the region, etc., are all the questions I am working on.