My (mostly) all encompassing home-brew setting. Comments and suggestions welcome!

[The M'hael]

I built a world around the concept of what happens when magic and wizards become so powerful that death is no longer a real setback. The world has reached a place where any time anyone reasonably rich or an adventurer dies they can just be revived. If you went to hell and can't get back, well just hire some PC's to go find you. The Ancient Greater Master Wizards frequently travel the outer planes and meddle with the boundaries of mortality. The Gods are all afraid that the wizards will cast them down if they try to stop them. Finally, the Great Council of Angels decide to do something about this. They band together and cast the Gods out of the outer planes, and seal them from access. This also traps the fiends and stops them from getting to the prime. The Wizards are trapped on Sigil, which is cast spinning from its pinnacle into the astral plane. They are cursed to die if they ever travel through a portal or try to leave.

The Gods, having no home now, tear apart the Prime Material Plane and make their own domains out of it. Some of them retreat into the elemental planes as well. While this is happening, the evil gods came and made dark reflections of the new material spheres that now lurk underneath the upperspheres.

The outer planes are sealed, and all soul transit is strictly kept track of by the Angels. Sigil has now become a floating, almost spaceship like city which passes near the spheres at one point of another, along with being covered in portals to all the different material spheres. The old factions are gone, replaced by some which haven't all been fleshed out.

The spheres rotate around the elemental planes. The plane of shadow now connects the spheres to their counterparts and the ethereal plane connects the upper spheres in a ring. There are 3 primarily elf, 3 primarily dwarf, and 3 primarily human, upper spheres with other races interspersed. There are also some orbiting spheres, like one with dragons, and one where angels and fiends fight. There are also Angelica, the angels new home, and the Blood Fields, a fiendish plane. These are the only (new) outer planes that people can get too.

There can be pretty much any campaign or adventure set here because there are so many unique player accessible worlds. Most of them are just outlines, and can be fleshed in by the DM or players when they are needed. Also, I am working on an official timeline which includes most of the realm shattering events that players have done in this world. I am also working on the factions. I started to write a blog about this but it never really got off the ground, but I might start on that again.
I have taken many ideas from other RPG writers and give them credit to their ideas.


anyways, if you have any ideas or suggestions please comment! I am open to new material and put a lot of work into this idea. I will post a link to the blog if that ever goes anywhere, with more info on this setting.

 

[steeldragons]

PS sorry about the wall of text...

You know ENworld lets you edit your posts right? You could go back in and hit the return key once or twice...in a few places.

Just pointing it out because the "wall of text" is, sometimes, an issue for folks and you will have more folks take the time to read a more clearly presented bite-sized chunks. So you might see more responses/comments/interest with a few properly placed "enter"s.

Planescape and planescape-ish fiends vs. angels in spheres stuff isn't really my thing. So, I'll leave that to others. But as for a cosmology/mythological beginning, sounds cool.

 

[dave2008]

I built a world around the concept of what happens when magic and wizards become so powerful that death is no longer a real setback. The world has reached a place where any time anyone reasonably rich or an adventurer dies they can just be revived. If you went to hell and can't get back, well just hire some PC's to go find you. The Ancient Greater Master Wizards frequently travel the outer planes and meddle with the boundaries of mortality. The Gods are all afraid that the wizards will cast them down if they try to stop them. Finally, the Great Council of Angels decide to do something about this. They band together and cast the Gods out of the outer planes. The Gods, having no home now, tear apart the Prime Material Plane and make their own domains out of it. Some of them retreat into the elemental planes as well. While this is happening, the evil gods of the netherhells came and made dark reflections of the new material spheres that now lurk underneath the upperspheres. The outer planes are sealed, and all soul transit is strictly kept track of by the Angels, and the fiends are also sealed in their homes. Many the wizards are trapped on Sigil in a deep slumber, which has now become a floating, almost spaceship like city which passes near the spheres at one point of another, along with being covered in portals to all the different material spheres. The old factions are gone, replaced by some which haven't all been fleshed out. The spheres rotate around the elemental planes. The plane of shadow connects the spheres to their counterparts and the ethereal plane connects the upper spheres in a ring. There are 3 primarily elf, 3 primarily dwarf, and 3 primarily human, upper spheres with other races interspersed. One of them is Firestorm Peak, Look out! There are also some orbiting spheres, like one with dragons, and one where angels and fiends fight. There are also Angelica, the angels new home, and the Blood Fields, a fiendish plane. These are the only (new) outer planes that people can get too. There can be pretty much any campaign or adventure set here because there are so many unique player accessible worlds. Most of them are just outlines, and can be fleshed in by the DM or players when they are needed. Also, I am working on an official timeline which includes most of the realm shattering events that players have done in this world. I am also working on the factions. I started to write a blog about this but it never really got off the ground, but I might start on that again.
I have taken many ideas from other RPG writers and give them credit to their ideas.


anyways, if you have any ideas or suggestions please comment! I am open to new material and put a lot of work into this idea. I will post a link to the blog if that ever goes anywhere, with more info on this setting.

PS sorry about the wall of text...

Personally I'm not fan of the idea that the angels where powerful enough to throw out all of the gods and seal away the outer planes and fiends, etc. How did that come about - where did they get the power? Or the idea that wizards become so powerful that the gods fear them. It just doesn't feel right to me. I do like the idea that the gods fighting to make realms in the Prime - that seems it would be ripe for good adventure. However, if they were scared of the ubermages, would having to coexist with them in the prime cause more trouble for them.

 

[The M'hael]

You know ENworld lets you edit your posts right? You could go back in and hit the return key once or twice...in a few places.


Just pointing it out because the "wall of text" is, sometimes, an issue for folks and you will have more folks take the time to read a more clearly presented bite-sized chunks. So you might see more responses/comments/interest with a few properly placed "enter"s.


Planescape and planescape-ish fiends vs. angels in spheres stuff isn't really my thing. So, I'll leave that to others. But as for a cosmology/mythological beginning, sounds cool.

Yea, sorry, just haven't had the time to fix it until now, it's fixed now. Also, most of the Angel/Devil stuff is just background, and might show up in higher level stuff, but often will never really influence the game.

Thanks for commenting!

 

[The M'hael]

Personally I'm not fan of the idea that the angels where powerful enough to throw out all of the gods and seal away the outer planes and fiends, etc. How did that come about - where did they get the power? Or the idea that wizards become so powerful that the gods fear them. It just doesn't feel right to me. I do like the idea that the gods fighting to make realms in the Prime - that seems it would be ripe for good adventure. However, if they were scared of the ubermages, would having to coexist with them in the prime cause more trouble for them.

Thanks for commenting!

One of the principals I based this around is that there are many lesser gods. The Elf, Dwarf, and Human pantheons only have their full power when they are all together. They are third or fourth generation gods, similar to parts of the Egyptian and Greek pantheons. Also, the angels are not servants of the gods. They are a different branch of the family, and are servants of some reclusive overpower. They got their power from him, and were fulfilling his decree when casting out the gods. He gave up the last of his dwindling life force with this act, and died. His ambient life force is what gives saints (favored souls or the like) their power. Finally, when the gods were cast out, they were weakened and spent much of their power creating the spheres. Now they inhabit the essence of their worlds, giving power to some druids, some other favored souls, maybe OotA paladins, etc. The Ubermages are trapped in Sigil and lead the new competing factions. They are desperately are trying to get out, but can't (so far) . I think I answered most of your questions and covered your problems.

Thanks Again!

 

[transcendantviewer]

I'm with dave2008 on this one: Angels primarily exist as a counter to demons and devils. As do Inevitables. It's your setting, so I won't say anything bad about it, but that aspect of the world doesn't sit well with me either. I prefer the idea that the throes of creation created the multiverse as a primordial stuff, which then coalesced into planes and deities to control those planes. Now, wars of gods and fiends are a common thing, so the "Material Plane Domains" schtick could still work easily enough. I'd just rule that a lot of the greater deities fought each other and only a handful of the lesser deities and the strongest gods survived the battle... Might make space for a very Lovecraftian setting as well.