I have a long standing high fantasy/suspense/mystery/horror campaign setting that I have been playing and brainstorming for years. I am considering writing it all down and sharing it here over the next year or so. But before I do
Name?
In the past I have called it Shattered Worlds. However a quick internet search shows that "Shattered Worlds" is already in use as a 2e D&D campaign setting. So, what should I call it? I have considered "The Shard Realms" but that only encompasses one meta-geological aspect of the setting, completely ignoring the 2 or 4 worlds that while scarred, have not been completely broken.
System?
My choices right now are D&D 3.0/3.5, D&D 3.houserules+(Lots of flavor feats, non-vancian spell casting) , D20 modern (with a high fantasy enabled magic system).
The first option is easy because it is the system I started playing the setting with and is most likely to be familiar with others.
The second would have the advantage of fitting my vision of the world more than standard D&D.
The d20 modern option is there because modern is my absolutely favorite game system. And one that I believe can handle the job with certain relatively minor additions.
As always I am looking for any kind of feedback or questions about this campaign setting in addition to what was specifically asked.
[sblock=not so brief background on the setting]
Geology
The twin suns Solus (giant red) and Solaris (yellow dwarf like our sun) are very close together, with their corona merging together at the center of a system of planets that at first glance appears to be relatively normal from physics POV. A brief survey of the objects that orbit these suns show an earth sized world with its rotation locked to its period so that one side is scorched by eternal light (the Scorched Lands) and the other is frozen by eternal night (the Frozen Wastes) with only a narrow habitable twilight between (the Rim). The only other significant world is toroidal in shape, spinning on its edge like a coin with a hole pierced through (Torus). Two lesser worlds of sufficient size to be round under their own gravity also exist, one orbits Solus deep within its solar corona and the other is lost at the edge of the unknown. Neither of those two minor worlds are known to any mortal. Besides these true worlds, there are tens of thousands of fragmented rocks (the Shard Realms). They are the broken remnants of an ancient cataclysmic event that destroyed the twin of the world on edge (the Rim), destroyed a dozen minor worlds and punched a hole through Torus. Despite their size they still have a directional gravitational field. Some would theorize that the shards remember their purpose and desperately cling to what life remains, others would tell you that a particular mineral is responsible for the force (much like magnetite can produce magnetic fields, gravatite produces gravitational fields). Other oddities include the lack of a vacuum in the space between the worlds. All these things are tied to the same ancient apocalypse that nearly destroyed the entire universe.
Apocalypse Then
A hundred thousand years ago a great catastrophe occurred. No one denies it, though they may debate the actual cause and events. The story held on to by every major religion is that this event was an epic battle between the Gods of our worlds and entities known as Alien Gods that come from outside the universe. They call it the Gods War. Their name evokes a palpable sense of dread among every being that hears their name, even among those that do not know that name. The Nai Ya' Eee, the Alien Gods, are horrors beyond imagination, beyond evil, beyond chaos. They are destruction incarnate and seek nothing but the utter and total extermination of all things. They came to destroy our universe and they nearly succeeded. While one on one, our gods were more than a match against them, they were an unending legion. Worlds detonated, gods fell before them. Our gods threw off the petty squabbles and bickering of past grudges and worked together to overcome these intruders. But the tide of the Nai Ya' Eee was too great. The first god (who's name is forgotten) and her first daughter (the void), sacrificed themselves to power a barrier that keeps the alien gods at bay. Though from time to time they try to open the gates, sowing their vile influence and discord among what remains locked forever inside.
Life on the Rim
The rim is a narrow strip of land that lies between an expanse of dark frozen wastes and the burning deserts and boiling seas of the scorched lands. The sun lies at or near the horizon day and year round. It is a hard place to live for normal races but not impossible. While those of the fire or cold subtypes typically have a much larger range of territory. They say that the rim was the original home world of both humans and dwarves (who were allegedly once human, but mining high density gravatite forced them to evolve shorter sturdier builds).
Orcs and Torus
The Torus is a fairly typical world despite its shape. It has a standard day/night and seasonal cycle with climates and terrains of every type. The world has permanent ice sheets only on the inner poles, while the outer poles thaw for a few months each year. Of particular interest is that on a clear night anyone on the inside of the Torus can actually look across and see the other side of the world. Despite being physically smaller than the other major world, it has a larger habitable area for normal races and would often be the focus or start of a campaign set in this universe. Torus is the home world of orcs, and also their primary god (as a god it is spelled Taurus). Orcs are bull-like humanoids with vestigial horns, known for their stubbornness, territoriality and strength. Religious orcs of Taurus tend to "dislike" elves due to the legend that their god lost control in the god’s war and tried to kill everything in sight, friend and foe alike and pierced the eye of Tourus with an arrow. Technically "Orc" is a derisive term often used by humans, though most humans don't even realize the term offends. Orcs call themselves as "a Tauric people" simply "Tauric" after their god, other orcish people occasionally refer to themselves as "Riccan". Legend has it that the first man to meet a pair of orcs asked "what are you?" and they responded "Tauric". Over the generations the words slowly changed to be "Two Orc".
The Shards
The Shard Realms are vast in number, but small in size. A typical shard realm varies from a few hundred yards wide to a few hundred miles. They have a directional gravitational field of aprox 1 g. So yes, you literally can fall off the edge of a shard world. Each shard is relatively unique with its own ecology and climate, some are near paradise, and others are inhospitable.
Between the worlds
Travel between the shards and the major worlds are possible, though it can often take months or years without magical assistance. Mundane means of travel include steam powered dirigibles. Slightly less mundane travel can be achieved on a ship with a gravity keel of high density gravatite. This keel can be manipulated to produce forwards thrust and resist the pull of large bodies.
Elves and Drow
Elves and Drow originated from the world that was the twin of the Rim, now long destroyed. Legend has it that the two were not always enemies. That their gods were loving brother and sister. They created the elves to protect the land during the day, and the drow to protect the land during the night. However during the gods war the goddess of the drow fled from battle while the god of the elves stayed and died. The drow claim their goddess pleaded her brother to retreat and regroup, but his blood lust was too great, he even took the eye of an ally Tourus. The elves claim that she was weak and abandoned him and Torus to die alone on the battlefield. In an act of infinite mercy he shot Tourus with an arrow, slaying the dozens of alien gods that had grappled him and throwing him from the battlefield. The elves argue that their god then stood bravely alone and held off the horde long enough to allow the barrier to be erected. Religious elves tend to "dislike" drow because of her perceived betrayal in the gods war. The goddess of drow is a warden of cycles, or more accurately the end and beginning of cycles. Her domains include death, crawling creatures, shadow and reincarnation. Religious drow tend to dislike elves because their supposedly unnaturally long lives are a violation of the cycle of life and death that their god exemplifies. The elves have since replaced the head of their pantheon with the half-mortal son of their creator. Note that elves are un-aging once they pass out of puberty; they never suffer any physical drawbacks to age. However, they do grow increasing mentally unstable and eventually suffer a total mental breakdown after about a thousand years. To counter this, the elves have enacted a legally required ritual that wipes their minds clean of memories and allows them to start over in the same body with only basic knowledge of the elven language remaining. The elves claim their immortality is a gift of their new god. The drow claim it was a vast necromantic ritual that destroyed their mutual home world a short time after the end of the gods war and cite the inability of the elven mind to handle the passage of centuries as evidence it is an unnatural condition.
Magic
Divine magic is drawn from any number of spirits, ancestors, elementals, saints, nature spirits, and those that serve the greater gods. Few, if any, even among the most faithful get to commune with the gods themselves. Instead the clerics are attended to by a host of saints that claim to work on behalf of the greater gods. This has resulted in some to speculate that the gods are not real, and that the god’s war never really happened. But most people dismiss these people as fools and crackpots.
There are a few different disciplines of magic that I would define if I go the homebrew route:
Channelers channel the divine essence of their patron spirits through their body in order to access magic. They often display physical aspects or transformations related to the patron that they channel. In standard D&D they translate roughly as clerics, druids, and arguably sorcerers as well. A druid’s wild shape would be seen as channeling, while the same would be true of a clerics turn undead. The actual use of spells could be seen to go either way, except that they could not cast summoning spells.
Summoners use divine magic to actually summon minor spirits to their aid. While they can not cast any spells themselves, they can summon a spirit to cast spells for them. In standard D&D they translate roughly as clerics, druids, conjurers, paladins, rangers and even normal wizards. Any "normal" spells cast could be accomplished normally with the flavor of summoning a creature to cast the spell for them and the creature imeadiately leaves afterwards. Though a summoner would likely focus on actual summoning. A paladin "summon steed" could be seen as summoning and the flavor of animal companions fits a summoner as well.
Lexical Wizards (Book Mages) are masters of general magic. They use arcane formula to alter the nature of reality to suit their needs. They require a spell book and tend towards utilitarian spells. In standard D&D they translate to wizards fairly well.
Witches/Warlocks are a slightly more primitive arcane caster. They prefer simple but effective magic effects and often make use of tattoo or staff magic. In standard D&D they translate fairly well to sorcerers.[/sblock]
Edit, a few glaring spelling and grammar errors.
Added: a paragraph on The Shard Realms and airships.
Edit: further, extensive spellchecking.
Name?
In the past I have called it Shattered Worlds. However a quick internet search shows that "Shattered Worlds" is already in use as a 2e D&D campaign setting. So, what should I call it? I have considered "The Shard Realms" but that only encompasses one meta-geological aspect of the setting, completely ignoring the 2 or 4 worlds that while scarred, have not been completely broken.
System?
My choices right now are D&D 3.0/3.5, D&D 3.houserules+(Lots of flavor feats, non-vancian spell casting) , D20 modern (with a high fantasy enabled magic system).
The first option is easy because it is the system I started playing the setting with and is most likely to be familiar with others.
The second would have the advantage of fitting my vision of the world more than standard D&D.
The d20 modern option is there because modern is my absolutely favorite game system. And one that I believe can handle the job with certain relatively minor additions.
As always I am looking for any kind of feedback or questions about this campaign setting in addition to what was specifically asked.
[sblock=not so brief background on the setting]
Geology
The twin suns Solus (giant red) and Solaris (yellow dwarf like our sun) are very close together, with their corona merging together at the center of a system of planets that at first glance appears to be relatively normal from physics POV. A brief survey of the objects that orbit these suns show an earth sized world with its rotation locked to its period so that one side is scorched by eternal light (the Scorched Lands) and the other is frozen by eternal night (the Frozen Wastes) with only a narrow habitable twilight between (the Rim). The only other significant world is toroidal in shape, spinning on its edge like a coin with a hole pierced through (Torus). Two lesser worlds of sufficient size to be round under their own gravity also exist, one orbits Solus deep within its solar corona and the other is lost at the edge of the unknown. Neither of those two minor worlds are known to any mortal. Besides these true worlds, there are tens of thousands of fragmented rocks (the Shard Realms). They are the broken remnants of an ancient cataclysmic event that destroyed the twin of the world on edge (the Rim), destroyed a dozen minor worlds and punched a hole through Torus. Despite their size they still have a directional gravitational field. Some would theorize that the shards remember their purpose and desperately cling to what life remains, others would tell you that a particular mineral is responsible for the force (much like magnetite can produce magnetic fields, gravatite produces gravitational fields). Other oddities include the lack of a vacuum in the space between the worlds. All these things are tied to the same ancient apocalypse that nearly destroyed the entire universe.
Apocalypse Then
A hundred thousand years ago a great catastrophe occurred. No one denies it, though they may debate the actual cause and events. The story held on to by every major religion is that this event was an epic battle between the Gods of our worlds and entities known as Alien Gods that come from outside the universe. They call it the Gods War. Their name evokes a palpable sense of dread among every being that hears their name, even among those that do not know that name. The Nai Ya' Eee, the Alien Gods, are horrors beyond imagination, beyond evil, beyond chaos. They are destruction incarnate and seek nothing but the utter and total extermination of all things. They came to destroy our universe and they nearly succeeded. While one on one, our gods were more than a match against them, they were an unending legion. Worlds detonated, gods fell before them. Our gods threw off the petty squabbles and bickering of past grudges and worked together to overcome these intruders. But the tide of the Nai Ya' Eee was too great. The first god (who's name is forgotten) and her first daughter (the void), sacrificed themselves to power a barrier that keeps the alien gods at bay. Though from time to time they try to open the gates, sowing their vile influence and discord among what remains locked forever inside.
Life on the Rim
The rim is a narrow strip of land that lies between an expanse of dark frozen wastes and the burning deserts and boiling seas of the scorched lands. The sun lies at or near the horizon day and year round. It is a hard place to live for normal races but not impossible. While those of the fire or cold subtypes typically have a much larger range of territory. They say that the rim was the original home world of both humans and dwarves (who were allegedly once human, but mining high density gravatite forced them to evolve shorter sturdier builds).
Orcs and Torus
The Torus is a fairly typical world despite its shape. It has a standard day/night and seasonal cycle with climates and terrains of every type. The world has permanent ice sheets only on the inner poles, while the outer poles thaw for a few months each year. Of particular interest is that on a clear night anyone on the inside of the Torus can actually look across and see the other side of the world. Despite being physically smaller than the other major world, it has a larger habitable area for normal races and would often be the focus or start of a campaign set in this universe. Torus is the home world of orcs, and also their primary god (as a god it is spelled Taurus). Orcs are bull-like humanoids with vestigial horns, known for their stubbornness, territoriality and strength. Religious orcs of Taurus tend to "dislike" elves due to the legend that their god lost control in the god’s war and tried to kill everything in sight, friend and foe alike and pierced the eye of Tourus with an arrow. Technically "Orc" is a derisive term often used by humans, though most humans don't even realize the term offends. Orcs call themselves as "a Tauric people" simply "Tauric" after their god, other orcish people occasionally refer to themselves as "Riccan". Legend has it that the first man to meet a pair of orcs asked "what are you?" and they responded "Tauric". Over the generations the words slowly changed to be "Two Orc".
The Shards
The Shard Realms are vast in number, but small in size. A typical shard realm varies from a few hundred yards wide to a few hundred miles. They have a directional gravitational field of aprox 1 g. So yes, you literally can fall off the edge of a shard world. Each shard is relatively unique with its own ecology and climate, some are near paradise, and others are inhospitable.
Between the worlds
Travel between the shards and the major worlds are possible, though it can often take months or years without magical assistance. Mundane means of travel include steam powered dirigibles. Slightly less mundane travel can be achieved on a ship with a gravity keel of high density gravatite. This keel can be manipulated to produce forwards thrust and resist the pull of large bodies.
Elves and Drow
Elves and Drow originated from the world that was the twin of the Rim, now long destroyed. Legend has it that the two were not always enemies. That their gods were loving brother and sister. They created the elves to protect the land during the day, and the drow to protect the land during the night. However during the gods war the goddess of the drow fled from battle while the god of the elves stayed and died. The drow claim their goddess pleaded her brother to retreat and regroup, but his blood lust was too great, he even took the eye of an ally Tourus. The elves claim that she was weak and abandoned him and Torus to die alone on the battlefield. In an act of infinite mercy he shot Tourus with an arrow, slaying the dozens of alien gods that had grappled him and throwing him from the battlefield. The elves argue that their god then stood bravely alone and held off the horde long enough to allow the barrier to be erected. Religious elves tend to "dislike" drow because of her perceived betrayal in the gods war. The goddess of drow is a warden of cycles, or more accurately the end and beginning of cycles. Her domains include death, crawling creatures, shadow and reincarnation. Religious drow tend to dislike elves because their supposedly unnaturally long lives are a violation of the cycle of life and death that their god exemplifies. The elves have since replaced the head of their pantheon with the half-mortal son of their creator. Note that elves are un-aging once they pass out of puberty; they never suffer any physical drawbacks to age. However, they do grow increasing mentally unstable and eventually suffer a total mental breakdown after about a thousand years. To counter this, the elves have enacted a legally required ritual that wipes their minds clean of memories and allows them to start over in the same body with only basic knowledge of the elven language remaining. The elves claim their immortality is a gift of their new god. The drow claim it was a vast necromantic ritual that destroyed their mutual home world a short time after the end of the gods war and cite the inability of the elven mind to handle the passage of centuries as evidence it is an unnatural condition.
Magic
Divine magic is drawn from any number of spirits, ancestors, elementals, saints, nature spirits, and those that serve the greater gods. Few, if any, even among the most faithful get to commune with the gods themselves. Instead the clerics are attended to by a host of saints that claim to work on behalf of the greater gods. This has resulted in some to speculate that the gods are not real, and that the god’s war never really happened. But most people dismiss these people as fools and crackpots.
There are a few different disciplines of magic that I would define if I go the homebrew route:
Channelers channel the divine essence of their patron spirits through their body in order to access magic. They often display physical aspects or transformations related to the patron that they channel. In standard D&D they translate roughly as clerics, druids, and arguably sorcerers as well. A druid’s wild shape would be seen as channeling, while the same would be true of a clerics turn undead. The actual use of spells could be seen to go either way, except that they could not cast summoning spells.
Summoners use divine magic to actually summon minor spirits to their aid. While they can not cast any spells themselves, they can summon a spirit to cast spells for them. In standard D&D they translate roughly as clerics, druids, conjurers, paladins, rangers and even normal wizards. Any "normal" spells cast could be accomplished normally with the flavor of summoning a creature to cast the spell for them and the creature imeadiately leaves afterwards. Though a summoner would likely focus on actual summoning. A paladin "summon steed" could be seen as summoning and the flavor of animal companions fits a summoner as well.
Lexical Wizards (Book Mages) are masters of general magic. They use arcane formula to alter the nature of reality to suit their needs. They require a spell book and tend towards utilitarian spells. In standard D&D they translate to wizards fairly well.
Witches/Warlocks are a slightly more primitive arcane caster. They prefer simple but effective magic effects and often make use of tattoo or staff magic. In standard D&D they translate fairly well to sorcerers.[/sblock]
Edit, a few glaring spelling and grammar errors.
Added: a paragraph on The Shard Realms and airships.
Edit: further, extensive spellchecking.
Last edited:
