Merged WotC setting search winners/losers thread

[2WS-Steve]

I'm game to post!

Here ya go...

Fantasy Setting Proposal: “The Six Citadels”


1. Core Ethos Sentence:
In a time between the tyranny of a dark age and the promise of a golden future, bands of heroes carve a new civilization out of the wilderness.

2. Who are the heroes?
All great deeds have been accomplished by circles of friends working together. One such company captured a cluster of magical nodes and wielded the powers they gained to shatter the arch-mage Carnis Gan, ending his dominance of the world.

3. What do they do?
Enclaves of civilization have grown around the protection offered by nodes of power. Many heroes work to expand the safe territory around these nodes by taming the nearby wilderness. More experienced adventurers seek out isolated nodes, gain control over them, and establish new safe areas for settlement.

4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains:
Evil works alone. In the centuries since the collapse of Gan’s rule, many of his fortresses have fallen into ruin but they retain his lost lore. Moreover, when he died his body shattered and fragments of it spread across the land. Those who desire power seek out Gan’s legacy in more ways than one.

5. Nature of magic:
Magic flows into the world from six citadels resting at its edges. Lines of force connect these citadels and where those lines cross, pools of magical power, colored by the nature of the connecting citadels, form. This creates magical nodes that alter the environment around them, investing much of the world with their energy.

6. What’s new? What’s different?
What if the world were flat? What if it had edges? What if you could travel deep into the earth and find hell, or fly above the lunar sphere and meet the celestial host? The world bounded by the Six Citadels obeys the physics of myth.

 

[kenjib]

By the way, I wish that the people who made it to some of the final cuts could have been notified as such. It would be really nice to know.

 

[mmadsen]

Re: WOTC Setting Losers (Like me) Post here!

The Reborn World
Ethos: It is a world both newborn and ancient, a world of bronze, not steel, a world where the newly Freed fight ancient Abominations...and create legends.

1) Who are the heroes? They are the Freed Races, men and elves and dwarves and orcs and others. They are delvers, kings, explorers, crusaders against the darkness and the midwives of gods.

Lizard, isn't "Who are the Heroes" question number two?

 

[ForceUser]

What the hell...

Sundered Seas ~ A FANTASY SETTING PROPOSAL

1. CORE ETHOS SENTENCE. Sundered Seas is a world of faith and magic spanning endless tracks of ocean, where heroes fight villains and sea monsters both below the waves and above.

2. WHO ARE THE HEROES? The heroes of the Sundered Seas include the sahuagin druid, outcast from his people because of his non-violent beliefs, the human sea captain who uses wit and cunning to find safe routes through treacherous waters, the gnome wizard who learns to command wind and sea to defend his floating community, and the dwarf rogue who seeks the treasures of his heritage, now long lost beneath the waves.

3. WHAT DO THEY DO? The heroes of the Sundered Seas are sorely needed to protect their peoples both above and below the ocean’s surface. They search for powerful artifacts from long-ago civilizations, build cities upon the sea and defend them from sahuagin and locathah incursions, and protect trade between surface dwellers and tritons, merfolk, and sea elves.

4. THREATS, CONFLICTS, VILLIANS. A legendary sea lich gathers a fleet of ancient mariner-ghosts for some evil purpose not yet known. Strange humanoid insects with unusual weapons and magic seek to conquer what’s left of the surface world and enslave those who cling to its shores. The vast and wicked Sahuagin Empire threatens to engulf its smaller neighbors, and a mysterious substance known as dark water creeps across the currents, poisoning or transforming everything in its wake.

5. NATURE OF MAGIC. Magic is an abundant force in nature that waxes and wanes with the influence of the moon and the tides. Magical energy is everywhere, in everything, yet is more difficult to tap from quiescent objects. Thus, the ever-changing sea is the most powerful, apparent, and abundant source of magical energy. Arcane spellcasters attempt to understand and control these forces directly, while divine spellcasters trust in the gods to show them the way. In the world of Sundered Seas, the elemental forces of Water and Air are more commonly tapped than the forces of Fire and Earth.

6. WHAT’S NEW? WHAT’S DIFFERENT? The people who ply the Sundered Seas know nothing of landmasses larger than island archipelagoes; many live their entire lives without ever having set foot upon dry land. On the surface, massive fish-like creatures called nomeks are captured and domesticated or bred from birth to be used as all types of seagoing vessels, since wood is scarce. Nomek breeders and trainers take the place of shipwrights, and each nomek eventually bonds to a Navigator, whose rapport with the creature keeps it disciplined and healthy. Navigators use the wind, the currents, magic, and even her nomek’s sense of smell to journey safely from place to place. Below the waves, large sea creatures – fish, octopi, squids – are used similarly. Through magic, some of these creatures have been bred to develop air sacs large enough to ferry air-breathers and even cargo to and from the ocean’s depths. On craggy island chains, some creatures are bred as airships among the elves, although both dwarves and gnomes build and power non-living airships with magic.
Vast empires, notably those of the sahuagin and the sea elves, sprawl under the waves. They are divided not by landmarks, but by the depth, temperature, and flow of ocean currents.
Giant dragon storms, unhindered by large landmasses, can rage for months on the open ocean, and tiny island seacoasts are deathtraps that people have learned to avoid building upon. Instead, land-bound cities are built high in the mountains, and air travel is often the only way to get to such places. Trading between the ocean-dwellers and air-breathers flourishes at floating cities anchored near large island chains, because they are able to ride out the storms at sea.

 

[mmadsen]

By the way, I wish that the people who made it to some of the final cuts could have been notified as such. It would be really nice to know.

I agree! Of course, right now we can all imagine we were in the top 1% -- just not the top 0.1%.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

By the way, I wish that the people who made it to some of the final cuts could have been notified as such. It would be really nice to know.

That's something I've thought about as well.

The worst guy to be in this place is the author of setting #12. So close to the brass ring, but he/she is never gonna know about it.

Therefore, I will simply assume that it was me.

Ah well, as they say:

2nd place is just 1st loser.

Patrick Y.

 

[Falcmir]

Here's mine. I was a little rushed, only found out about the contest on the wednesday and wanted to get it out on time so I couldnt put a lot into it. I think my answers for 2 and 3 were too generic but I like what I came up with for magic in question number 5 and number 4 wasnt too bad. Ah well.



1. Core Ethos Sentence. A fantasy world where mystical forces use summoned creatures to battle for dominion.
2. Who are the heroes? Within the cities of the central empire merchants and thieves scramble to amass wealth. Legionnaires are drafted from the far reaches of the empire and sent off to battle in distant realms or maintain the peace within imperial cities. Diplomats and nobles seek to restrain the excesses of the empire while not running afoul of the many factions at work within.
In the free kingdoms knights rise to guard their lands from the threat of the empire and the magical beasts that roam the wilds. Woodsmen and archers hunt the magical beasts while sorcerers and wizards summon their own creatures to guard the land. Mystical orders of monks train themselves to perfection in their mountainous retreats venturing out on secretive missions designed to keep the realm in balance.
3. What do they do? One of the most lucrative activities for merchants and adventurers seeking wealth is the acquiring of spell components necessary for the binding rituals that are so common. These are varied depending on the nature of the creature to be bound and for the more powerful creatures often hidden in dangerous and remote locations.
4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains There are two basic types of threats to the world, internal and external. The powerful beings from other dimensions frequently use the religions and kingdoms of this world as their playthings, seeking to use our world as a chessboard to play out conflicts in their own realms. At times they will cause their servants to directly bring about wars at others they will send creatures to assassinate powerful tools of their enemies. The halls of power are a dangerous place.
The internal threat comes from those powerful wizards and sorcerers who have gained so much power they seek to gain dominion over the land. Foul necromancers seek to extend their lives to immortality through the sacrifice of mortal souls.
5. Nature of magic All magic, be it divine or arcane, derives its power from otherworldly sources. Sometimes the power is negotiated for as is the case with most religions whose gods give the power in exchange for worship; other times it is leeched off of or stolen away from the extra planar beings. Both options have their own dangers. The gods are often petty and more concerned with their own desires than the well being of their servants, the demons can be vindictive when they realize they are being robbed.
The most common use of magic is the summoning spells. With the aid of a binding ritual the normal duration limits are removed, bringing cheap labor, soldiers, and fierce guardians. Strange races and creatures wander the streets of all cities and regions that mages inhabit. Usually they remain under the control of their masters but many a binding ritual fails leaving monsters free to roam the wilds. Many times the failed ritual will not only trap the creature in this world but also leave them in excruciating pain driving them into a mad frenzy of destruction.
6. What’s new? What’s different? This world was originally native only to humans but the massive influx of summoned races has turned virtually every city into a melting pot of a myriad of creatures. Strange beasts may walk the main streets as freely as a human. There are no ancestral homelands of the dwarves, elves, or other typical fantasy creatures but many, after being freed from the bindings of their initial summoning are trapped in this world and have begun to push out in search of new homelands.

 

[Vengue]

Awww Shucks

Well congrats to the magic eleven. I look foward to reading your submisions. I also look foward to reading all the ones that are posted here. I figured I would lose my lurker-hood and post my submission. So here it is subject to your critisism. (btw before you make comment...I already think I tried to much too much into one page)

The Shadows of the Dominion
Core Ethos:
Shadows of the Dominion is a realm where heroes fight to protect the last bastions of resistance against goblinoid hordes and powerful supernatural creatures.

Who are the Heroes?
·Malick Eanesay: (Ftr16/ Rog3) Defender of Brightkeep Citadel and leader of the Final Keepers, the elite battle force of Brightkeep. His cunning has held of the Grim Talos for two decades now and his victories are told Citadel-wide, to bring courage to those in despair.
·Punhal Herz: (Pal 11[Vengue]) a famous Vengue (Chaotic Good Paladin) that helps protect Brightkeep Citadel. Punhal earns her fame by her reckless courage in battle and by the steed she rides, a Heavy warhorse with Para-Elemental parentage.
· Embuliche: (Rgr 11/ Wiz 8) A name spoken of in respect and fear. He lives for nothing but revenge; revenge on the goblinkind that slaughtered his elven brethren, revenge on the mind flayers that have enslaved the elven race, and revenge on the humans that betrayed the elves to the Thought Rulers for their own safety. Embuliche’s hatred is endless, except for the rare elf traveler, who he treats as a long lost sibling.
· Whum Altartor: (Brd 12) The most renowned Advocator in all the Ten Citadels. He is a scoundrel with a tongue that can inspire even the most hopeless ally and a mind that can unravel the cleverest of tricks.

What can they do?
Generations ago, the dwarves and Humans composed an alliance against the peril of the emergent humanoid threat. Together, they constructed twelve vast strong that could defy any army thrown against them. That was before the formation of the Dominion. During the decades of conflicts, only two of these fortresses have fallen to the Dominion armies. Ten Citadels remain and their walls are al that stand between Humans and extinction. Many heroes devote and often give their lives in defense of these ten cities.
Not all heroes walk the battlements though. Some heroes take the fight to the dominion, risking life and sanity to slay their dark champions. Some delve into plundered ruins, searching for magics and items of power. Other heroes infiltrate the Dominion, attempting to destroy the nation from within. The defiance of the Dominion is the one trait all these heroes share.

Threats, Conflicts, Villains – The Dominion
The Dominion is a nation of goblinkind and powerful monsters, whose driving goal is to defeat the last Citadels. The cruelest and ruthless earn sovereignty in the Dominion. These tyrants create an unsurpassed age of stability for the goblinoids, whose past has been marked by millennia of bare survival. Such “stability” has allowed many occurrences that would be unthinkable in most worlds. Kobolds are smarter and Kobold sorcerers may grow to awe-inspiring status. Ogres command huge armies. Psionic Goblins act as feared constables in Feretack, the only neutral city. Many things are possible that would have been unthinkable before the Dominion. Such is the rule in the Shadows of the Dominion.
· Garunth Bladecloak of Worg clan: (Bbn 13/ Rog 6): The current leader of the Grim Talos, the largest military body in the Dominion. Garunth is an orc of intelligence and amazing battleskill, who uses a magical steel-linked cloak that absorbs metal weapons that strike it. The name of Garunth is feared behind the walls of the citadels.
· Kuow’pi: (Psion 18[telepath]): This mind flayer is the current Speaker for the mind pool of Lugathy. Kuow’pi rules the land of eli’Kerendous, a nation of mind flayers dominating a nation of slaves. Kuow’pi itself has thousand of elves in thralldom and is credited for crafting The Great Betrayal, where several human cities played traitor to the elves and resulted in the domination of an entire elven nation. A multitude of elves have lost their lives trying to rescue elven kin enslaved by Kuow’pi.

The Nature of Magic:
The Shadows of the Dominion is a realm strong in Negative energy due to a migration of Shadow-kin, a race closely bound to the Negative Energy Plane. The Shadow-kin’s prosperity creates a strong Negative energy field that reduces the influence of Good Deities and increases Evil Dieties Powers. Evil divine magic is a potent force in the realm, while good divine magic has a much lesser sway. Querth, the god of Death, is rumored to be so powerful that he possesses the bodies of his High Priest every night and steals his tribute. The Ten Citadels and the Dominion alike dread Querth’s name and his clerics.
Arcane magic is more destructive in this world due mostly to those that wield it. Ogre Magi and Kobold sorcerers unleash unique and reckless spells on the world, trying to increase their arcane might. Humans employ experimental magics and Ultra charged spells of which they understand little. Many powerful human wizards have destroyed themselves wielding the uncontrollable arcane energies, the most famous being Canalis, whose petrified form still maintains the Sphere of Death that protects the Mourning Stone Citadel.

What’s new? What’s Different?
The Shadow of the Dominion is a rich world of epic dangers and challenges for the hero. Adversity is overflowing in the Dominion and should produce memorable villains and very powerful antagonistic societies. The uniqueness of this realm will allow races to be crafted in entirely different directions. The typical DM will find fiendish pleasure in mastering a realm ruled by the “bad guys”, and the goblin hero will definitely intrigue the not so typical Player.
The greatest quality of Shadows of the Dominion is the scope that a gamer may play. Is he an elf enthralled by a Thought Ruler, forced to do it’s will or is she an Ultra-wizard, risking annihilation for that extra edge in battle? Does he play a Segretta, an assassin that hunts any hero who is deemed a threat to the Dominion, or does she play a psion spy, whose psion spy, whose psionic powers protect her from discovery? There are many choices in Shadow of the Dominion, just no easy choices.

 

[Dave Blewer]

Sundered Sky

So, here is my offering and the first Flying Islands setting to be listed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sundered Sky Setting Proposal Document

Core Ethos Sentence. A world torn apart by an ancient catastrophe, its proud kingdoms have been reduced to a myriad of islands, floating in a fathomless void.

Who are the heroes? Heroes from disparate races live by their wits and skill. Sundered Sky is a harsh world, but it is envisioned that the heroes of this setting tend more towards the swashbuckler than the grim avenger.

What do they do? Resource starved islands sponsor "scavengers", adventurers willing to risk the dangerous ruins of towers and cities that can be found on some of the more remote and smaller islands. Terrible beasts, traps and ancient undead haunt these ruins protecting the precious metals and magical treasures that can be the difference between life and death of an island.

Threats, Conflicts, Villains The powerful Trade Council has banned open conflict between islands, but this does not stop many islands waging clandestine warfare on one another, hiring small bands of mercenaries to undertake covert missions of sabotage or assassination.
Mysterious secret societies plot against one another or strive to uncover arcane mysteries hidden within the long abandoned ruins. Some are in the thrall of powerful outsiders.
It is always daylight in the void, the void glows with its own luminescence. Constant exposure to this “voidlight” turns humanoids into raving cannibalistic savages - The “Glowmad”.
A religious order that worships the void prowls between the islands in skyships, seeking victims to “feed the glow”. The void rewards them with divine magic.
Dragons wage a void-wide war amongst themselves often acting through their sorcerous agents and allied Kobold clans.
Pirates prey on many of the skylanes, some of these sponsored by greedy islands or cults bent on hiding their own secrets.

Nature of magic When the world was sundered the gods were trapped within the void with their mortal subjects. This has both magnified and limited their power.
Souls find it extremely difficult to escape the void. This has caused a large increase in the number of incorporeal undead, both malevolent and benevolent.
Every Sorcerer has either a dragon or demonic sponsor, these sponsors often teach their arcane knowledge directly to their “pets”.

What's new? What's different? During the Sundering, the world was blasted into the abyssal planes. The Sundered Sky is effectively a “bubble in hell.” This need not have an effect on the course of a campaign or indeed become common knowledge, but does explain the mysteries of voidlight and the glowmad phenomena.
The setting is a blend of horror, swashbuckling and romance, with plenty of scope for different types of adventure. Including such epic campaigns as demonic invasion and the reformation of the world.
As well as the standard PC races, the setting also uses Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Orcs and a new race - Wildlings; small animal/man hybrids that are bred as slaves by the elves. These races are detailed and interdependent.

 

[MulhorandSage]

Here, as promised, is yet another setting proposal that didn't make it.

And by the way, congratulations to the winners - hope you've got some cool stuff for us in the next few rounds.

Scott Bennie
-----

AVATAR

1. Core Ethos Sentence.
A sword and sorcery world in which the heroes are us.

2. Who are the heroes?
Like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court run amok, Avatar’s most powerful heroes are actually people from our world who have managed to project their minds into the bodies of the world’s inhabitants and become the land’s greatest champions. Avatar is a relatively low-powered world (by 3e standards); for only “visitors” are able to advance beyond 12th level in a single class.

The heroes can be “visitors” (from our world) or “denizens” (native to the world of Avatar) who travel to the world during periods when they’re unconscious (typically while they’re dreaming or comatose). Once a person enters the world of Avatar, they remain there until they regain consciousness in the “real” world, or die.

Prominent NPC heroes include Lord Jake Greer (who’s really a doctor from New Jersey who’s introducing modern medical theory and technology into several city-states), Captain Michael duul-Savratine (a British army captain who brought gunpowder technology to the world and is transforming a small city-state into one of the fiercest fighting forces the world has ever seen), Gareth Robinson-Smith (the oldest known visitor, a 16th Century buccaneer who’s desperately trying to stay in this world rather than return to his dead body in our world, where he’d die), Evan Stamatopoulos (an Athenian pickpocket who’s now an assassin who hunts and kills his fellow “visitors” for fun), and Ingrid Ferris, (a bard who’s introduced (and taken credit for) the entire canon of the Beatles).

3. What do they do?
The heroes attempt to understand the mystery of how they were brought into this world, and struggle for survival (and eventually power) in a world of magic and violence, while transforming its medieval society by introducing modern social concepts. They do so by banding together, using scientific methodology to examine the world, and acquiring sufficient skills in sorcery and swordplay to survive.

4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains
There are a number of themes in play in the world of Avatar, most of which involve what happens when a society is rapidly transformed by the introduction of new technology and social ideas.

The villains of the world are manifold, of course. There’s one religion throughout the world: the God of Nine Faces (each face of which corresponds to a different alignment) which has evil priesthoods who can conjure devils to do their biding. Dragons may be spontaneously born in “magic-quakes” (shifts in the world’s magical fields) and lay waste to vast regions. There are vast areas of wilderness that were once occupied by the elves, where the great Troll-Orc overlord Krukar Hellgauntlet consolidates an empire of Orcs. And there are, of course, other Visitors, many wishing to control the flood of “immigrants” into the world.

5. Nature of magic
Magic is ever present and abundant, but not evenly distributed. It’s concentrated around dimensional bridges, the places where people are most likely to be “inhabited” by visitors. Magic schools and effects that involve access to other dimensions (especially summoning, teleportation, and necromancy) are limited to areas around the bridges.

6. What’s new? What’s different?
I’d hope this would be apparent by now. Well, for one thing, this is a world where the anachronisms of the average D&D playgroup make sense. It’s also a world where we could spill the conflicts over to the Astral plane (as people attempt to prevent their enemies from snapping their silver cord), and perhaps even take it to a d20 Modern setting as characters returning from Avatar attempt to kill each other in the real world (where they’re weaker), although that doesn’t have to be an essential part of the campaign.

7. Created by:
Scott Bennie