We campaign in a homebrew world known as The Broken Kingdoms. I am a huge fan of Sep's Wyre campaign, we named one of our NPC wizards after one of our my favorites from his thread. It was late and we needed a name 
Basic campaign info:
Politically, the continent we are on is made up of two broken monarchies:
The Old Kingdom, based in the south, was great 1000 years ago. It was allied with elves and dwarves, built roads and cities, civilized the land, and fought wars against the orcs, across the sea to the south. Eventually, the elves and dwarves disappeared, orcs wore the Old Kingdom down, and a bunch of scattered lordships were all that remained. Still, they kept up the fight, and eventually fortune turned and the orcs began to have trouble on their other borders. The old kingdom lands were recovered - but it wasn't a kingdom anymore. Some lords keep up old allegiances, especially near the old capital of Rondovar, but other lords are out for themselves, or are simply absent. There is, however, peace with the orcs.
The New Kingdown is based in the north, and started about 100 years ago with an enterprising barbarian lord named Ulrick. Through treaty, wit and occassional force of arms, he created a mighty empire out of the disparate, clannish and barbaric north. They built their own roads, allocated lands, and established a monarchical chain of command. Then Ulrick died and his three sons started a civil war to last a generation. When the dust cleared, Ulrick III held power in his grandfather's castle, but his empire looked more like the Old Kingdom than the New. Some of Ulrick's lords swear him fealty out of respect for his family, but others fight for themselves, and more than a few landholdings have fallen to the control of bandits. Where exactly the old kingdom ends and the new kingdom begins is an open question, the resolution of which is beyond any lord's grasp at present.
Religiously, the humans of this continent all worship a pentacost of dieties - Heironeous (called Heirona), Kord, Pelor (called Pellar), Cuthbert, and Wee Jas. Although clerics focus on one diety or another, everyone else worships all five at once - one for each season, and Wee Jas for events "out of season" (calamities and misfortunes). Clerics with spells are rare, but are acknowledged as god-touched. This does not, however, grant them any special rank in politics or religious life, as god-touched does not always mean god-favored. Generally, the identity of those who's prayers are answered is known within the temple, but not advertised to the laity. In the old kingdom, the temples are deeply involved in civic life, with clerics of Cuthbert serving as judges, clerics of Pellar as physicians, clerics of Kord controlling the brewers' guild, and so on.
The elves and dwarves are known of but rarely seen in this world, though legend says they were common 1000 years ago. Half-Elves (which have the abilities of elves, from the players handbook, with a lifespan perhaps double that of humans) are sometimes seen, as their elven blood never thins. Families that can trace elven lineage have lived among the humans since the disappearance of their progenitors. Gnomes and halflings live only in the realms of the Fey - hidden pockets in the world where few humans dare tread. Orc's (which are half orc's as far as character creation goes) are a civilized but warlike people with a vast empire to the south, across a small sea. Altough scholars are rarer among them than among the humans, they are renowned for their cunning, and are famous as both merchants and seige engineers. Many modern fortifications in the old kingdom were built by orcs, and often still have orcish names alongside their human ones.
We use a modified version of standard 3.5 cosmology.
This world is the creation of the gods Cuthbert and Pellar, sometimes called the father and mother. Pellar brought life, and Cuthbert death, and between these two gifts mankind began. Soon, however, the dynamism of this experiment brought two god-children to Cuthbert and Pellar as well - Kord, the son, created out of the joy of existance; and Heirona, the daughter, arisen out of mankind's highest ideals. These four deities together presided over the earliest age of man.
Kord and Heirona had been born from the best of life, but in time the worst of life had its spawn as well. These were the first demons, powerful and destructive beings who could possess other lifeforms, granting great power at the price of total corruption. This began the Age of Sorcerors, with powerful demon princes building fortresses from which to rule on high, crushing the common underneath their ambitions. Their magicks reforged the foundations of the world and their armies of dragons laid waste to its surface. For Cuthbert, Kord and Heirona, this was merely a part of the experiment, but for Pellar it was heart-wrenching. From grief for the suffering of her creations, she devised to trick the greatest of the demon sorcerors and make him into her ally. By exposing this great demon-prince to the totality of a mortal soul, she drove him to redemption, and out of gratitude he became her champion. He rallied his dragons and all his power against his fellow sorceror-princes, and their final battle was terrible to behold. In the end the champion prevailed, though he lay on the brink of death. The mother then took him up and loved him as the savior of her mankind, and as he expired, a fifth diety was created - Wee Jas, called the bastard.
Wee-Jas inherited the demons the champion had enslaved, and locked them deep within the earth for all time. However, she (or he - Wee Jas has no consistent gender) found that the sorcerors had so deeply integrated their magicks into the world that it could no longer survive without them, and so she was forced to allow a little opening in their prison. From this opening, and from the items of power the demons left behind, magic continues to live in the world. Within their prison, the demons (and devils) diversified into all the types known today. Meanwhile, those few dragons who had survived the final battle hid themselves in the farthest reaches of the world.
Among the Roknari and the Orcs, the story is told differently - they say that the great demon-sorceror forced himself upon Pellar, and by his act brought the wrath of the four gods down upon the demons, who were then imprisoned. In this version, Wee-Jas is the bastard champion of the demons, constantly working to release them again upon the world.
Unless otherwise noted, the alignments and domains are as in the PH.
THE GODS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cuthbert - The god of proper death after a full life. He is associated with fatherhood, justice truth, and wisdom. In the old kingdom, his priests serve as judges.
Pellar - The god of life. She is associated with healing, motherhood, birth and sometimes nature. In the old kingdom, her priests are physicians.
Kord - The god of good times. He is associated with war, strength, alcohol, hunting, travel, jokes and carousing. In the old kingdom, his priests organize sporting events and the making of alcohol, and travel with armies in times of war. Our Kord has Chaos, Travel, War and Strength as domains.
Heirona - The god of highest ideals. She is also associated with honor, protecting the weak, and love. In the old kingdom, her priests comprise military orders devoted to protecting the weak and keeping the kingdom safe. The most famous such order in these times is the Knights of Tamberlain.
Wee-Jas - Bastard god of all things out of season - a long list. Murder and mysterious death; magic, sorcery and demons; literal bastardry, orphanage and homosexuality; small events that make or break large endeavors; leftovers of all sorts. In the old kingdom, the priests of the bastard run orphanages, hear confessions of sin, and handle burial for people no one else will claim. Our Wee Jas has Death, Law, Magic and Luck as domains.
Erythnul, Hextor, Nerull and Vecna - These are demons or sorcerors of old who have attained sufficient power to be called dieties and have clerics in the world. They dwell in the Abyss and their descriptions are as in the PC, except that Hextor's brother was a human paladin.
Gruumsh - Once a powerful orc warlord who was corrupted by demons, he now dwells in the abyss and functions like Erythnul et al, except that he seeks orcs in particular as folowers and wants to wipe out all humans. As noted above, most orcs worship the father, mother, son and daugher, but some evil ones opt for Gruumsh instead.
Ehlonna, Obad Hai, Garl Glittergold and Yondalla - these woodland dieties were among the first fey creatures. They dwell in the Beastlands, and are worshiped by druids, fey, gnomes and halflings.
Moradin and Corellon Larethian - the current state of the elves and dwarves is a mystery, and the same can be said of their dieties.
THE PLANES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the planes of the D&D cosmoslogy are present in the world, but the organization is somewhat different:
The Material Plane is the known world, which is a mythical place. Its shape and boundaries are unknown, and perhaps unknowable. Although much of the world appears like an old-fashioned version of our own, the laws of physics do not apply: electricity is magical, residual from the Age of Sorcerors; gravity is force that operates differently in different places, without necessary regard to mass or distance; gunpowder is impossible.
The Ethereal and Shadow Planes are as in the DMG - they exist side by side with material plane and can be accessed from any point with the proper magic or knowlege. The Astral Plane is outer space - if a rocket were possible in this world, it would find Githyanki.
The Infinite Layers of the Abyss is the prison Wee-Jas created for the Demons. Within its infinite layers are many diverse places, including the Demonweb Pits, the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, the Gray Waste of Hades, the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, the Nine Hells of Baator, and the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron. The Abyss can be accessed from the Material Plane through magic or through physical locations (generally deep places in the earth) but in the latter case a test of some sort is usually required to get in.
The Elemental planes are found at various points on the Material Plane. The Plain of Air is accessible amidst the clouds and highest mountain peaks. The Plane of Fire is in deep places near volcanic activity, and the Plane of Earth within mountains. The Plane of Water can be found in all manner of deep underwater places. Finally, The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium and the Wilderness of the Beastlands both follow this same principle, being found at various appropriate places throughout the material plane.
The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, The Twin Paradises of Bytopia, the Olympian Glades of Arborea, and the Heroic Domains of Ysgard are legendary places found in far, far distant lands. They can be accessed by travel.
At last, the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia and the Blessed Fields of Elysium are among the stars and celestial bodies in the sky - it is to these places that the honorable ascend after death, and this is the home of the gods. These places can only be accessed by powerful magic or the intervention of dieties, and it is said to be even harder to come back. The Outlands, the positive material plane, and the negative material plane are also found in the cosmos, as are the demiplanes that don't have another obvious location.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link to Niles in Rogue's Gallery:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?p=2488280#post2488280
I will be including Baerd, his former Barbarian Sea Captain ally, and Selene the Prophet of Wee Jas, when I get time. At the start of the Journal we had just finished our first adventure. It was a rescue the princess. She had basically gotten kidnapped from her castle by a few hundred harpies. Harpies in our world are degenerate descendents of fallen angels. Devils and Demons are interchangable and there is no Blood War. We traveled to the NE which is an accursed land and made a harrowing rescue thru liberal uses of Find the Path, Limited Wish, and sheer bastardry. Hope you folks enjoy.
Basic campaign info:
Politically, the continent we are on is made up of two broken monarchies:
The Old Kingdom, based in the south, was great 1000 years ago. It was allied with elves and dwarves, built roads and cities, civilized the land, and fought wars against the orcs, across the sea to the south. Eventually, the elves and dwarves disappeared, orcs wore the Old Kingdom down, and a bunch of scattered lordships were all that remained. Still, they kept up the fight, and eventually fortune turned and the orcs began to have trouble on their other borders. The old kingdom lands were recovered - but it wasn't a kingdom anymore. Some lords keep up old allegiances, especially near the old capital of Rondovar, but other lords are out for themselves, or are simply absent. There is, however, peace with the orcs.
The New Kingdown is based in the north, and started about 100 years ago with an enterprising barbarian lord named Ulrick. Through treaty, wit and occassional force of arms, he created a mighty empire out of the disparate, clannish and barbaric north. They built their own roads, allocated lands, and established a monarchical chain of command. Then Ulrick died and his three sons started a civil war to last a generation. When the dust cleared, Ulrick III held power in his grandfather's castle, but his empire looked more like the Old Kingdom than the New. Some of Ulrick's lords swear him fealty out of respect for his family, but others fight for themselves, and more than a few landholdings have fallen to the control of bandits. Where exactly the old kingdom ends and the new kingdom begins is an open question, the resolution of which is beyond any lord's grasp at present.
Religiously, the humans of this continent all worship a pentacost of dieties - Heironeous (called Heirona), Kord, Pelor (called Pellar), Cuthbert, and Wee Jas. Although clerics focus on one diety or another, everyone else worships all five at once - one for each season, and Wee Jas for events "out of season" (calamities and misfortunes). Clerics with spells are rare, but are acknowledged as god-touched. This does not, however, grant them any special rank in politics or religious life, as god-touched does not always mean god-favored. Generally, the identity of those who's prayers are answered is known within the temple, but not advertised to the laity. In the old kingdom, the temples are deeply involved in civic life, with clerics of Cuthbert serving as judges, clerics of Pellar as physicians, clerics of Kord controlling the brewers' guild, and so on.
The elves and dwarves are known of but rarely seen in this world, though legend says they were common 1000 years ago. Half-Elves (which have the abilities of elves, from the players handbook, with a lifespan perhaps double that of humans) are sometimes seen, as their elven blood never thins. Families that can trace elven lineage have lived among the humans since the disappearance of their progenitors. Gnomes and halflings live only in the realms of the Fey - hidden pockets in the world where few humans dare tread. Orc's (which are half orc's as far as character creation goes) are a civilized but warlike people with a vast empire to the south, across a small sea. Altough scholars are rarer among them than among the humans, they are renowned for their cunning, and are famous as both merchants and seige engineers. Many modern fortifications in the old kingdom were built by orcs, and often still have orcish names alongside their human ones.
We use a modified version of standard 3.5 cosmology.
This world is the creation of the gods Cuthbert and Pellar, sometimes called the father and mother. Pellar brought life, and Cuthbert death, and between these two gifts mankind began. Soon, however, the dynamism of this experiment brought two god-children to Cuthbert and Pellar as well - Kord, the son, created out of the joy of existance; and Heirona, the daughter, arisen out of mankind's highest ideals. These four deities together presided over the earliest age of man.
Kord and Heirona had been born from the best of life, but in time the worst of life had its spawn as well. These were the first demons, powerful and destructive beings who could possess other lifeforms, granting great power at the price of total corruption. This began the Age of Sorcerors, with powerful demon princes building fortresses from which to rule on high, crushing the common underneath their ambitions. Their magicks reforged the foundations of the world and their armies of dragons laid waste to its surface. For Cuthbert, Kord and Heirona, this was merely a part of the experiment, but for Pellar it was heart-wrenching. From grief for the suffering of her creations, she devised to trick the greatest of the demon sorcerors and make him into her ally. By exposing this great demon-prince to the totality of a mortal soul, she drove him to redemption, and out of gratitude he became her champion. He rallied his dragons and all his power against his fellow sorceror-princes, and their final battle was terrible to behold. In the end the champion prevailed, though he lay on the brink of death. The mother then took him up and loved him as the savior of her mankind, and as he expired, a fifth diety was created - Wee Jas, called the bastard.
Wee-Jas inherited the demons the champion had enslaved, and locked them deep within the earth for all time. However, she (or he - Wee Jas has no consistent gender) found that the sorcerors had so deeply integrated their magicks into the world that it could no longer survive without them, and so she was forced to allow a little opening in their prison. From this opening, and from the items of power the demons left behind, magic continues to live in the world. Within their prison, the demons (and devils) diversified into all the types known today. Meanwhile, those few dragons who had survived the final battle hid themselves in the farthest reaches of the world.
Among the Roknari and the Orcs, the story is told differently - they say that the great demon-sorceror forced himself upon Pellar, and by his act brought the wrath of the four gods down upon the demons, who were then imprisoned. In this version, Wee-Jas is the bastard champion of the demons, constantly working to release them again upon the world.
Unless otherwise noted, the alignments and domains are as in the PH.
THE GODS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cuthbert - The god of proper death after a full life. He is associated with fatherhood, justice truth, and wisdom. In the old kingdom, his priests serve as judges.
Pellar - The god of life. She is associated with healing, motherhood, birth and sometimes nature. In the old kingdom, her priests are physicians.
Kord - The god of good times. He is associated with war, strength, alcohol, hunting, travel, jokes and carousing. In the old kingdom, his priests organize sporting events and the making of alcohol, and travel with armies in times of war. Our Kord has Chaos, Travel, War and Strength as domains.
Heirona - The god of highest ideals. She is also associated with honor, protecting the weak, and love. In the old kingdom, her priests comprise military orders devoted to protecting the weak and keeping the kingdom safe. The most famous such order in these times is the Knights of Tamberlain.
Wee-Jas - Bastard god of all things out of season - a long list. Murder and mysterious death; magic, sorcery and demons; literal bastardry, orphanage and homosexuality; small events that make or break large endeavors; leftovers of all sorts. In the old kingdom, the priests of the bastard run orphanages, hear confessions of sin, and handle burial for people no one else will claim. Our Wee Jas has Death, Law, Magic and Luck as domains.
Erythnul, Hextor, Nerull and Vecna - These are demons or sorcerors of old who have attained sufficient power to be called dieties and have clerics in the world. They dwell in the Abyss and their descriptions are as in the PC, except that Hextor's brother was a human paladin.
Gruumsh - Once a powerful orc warlord who was corrupted by demons, he now dwells in the abyss and functions like Erythnul et al, except that he seeks orcs in particular as folowers and wants to wipe out all humans. As noted above, most orcs worship the father, mother, son and daugher, but some evil ones opt for Gruumsh instead.
Ehlonna, Obad Hai, Garl Glittergold and Yondalla - these woodland dieties were among the first fey creatures. They dwell in the Beastlands, and are worshiped by druids, fey, gnomes and halflings.
Moradin and Corellon Larethian - the current state of the elves and dwarves is a mystery, and the same can be said of their dieties.
THE PLANES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the planes of the D&D cosmoslogy are present in the world, but the organization is somewhat different:
The Material Plane is the known world, which is a mythical place. Its shape and boundaries are unknown, and perhaps unknowable. Although much of the world appears like an old-fashioned version of our own, the laws of physics do not apply: electricity is magical, residual from the Age of Sorcerors; gravity is force that operates differently in different places, without necessary regard to mass or distance; gunpowder is impossible.
The Ethereal and Shadow Planes are as in the DMG - they exist side by side with material plane and can be accessed from any point with the proper magic or knowlege. The Astral Plane is outer space - if a rocket were possible in this world, it would find Githyanki.
The Infinite Layers of the Abyss is the prison Wee-Jas created for the Demons. Within its infinite layers are many diverse places, including the Demonweb Pits, the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, the Gray Waste of Hades, the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, the Nine Hells of Baator, and the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron. The Abyss can be accessed from the Material Plane through magic or through physical locations (generally deep places in the earth) but in the latter case a test of some sort is usually required to get in.
The Elemental planes are found at various points on the Material Plane. The Plain of Air is accessible amidst the clouds and highest mountain peaks. The Plane of Fire is in deep places near volcanic activity, and the Plane of Earth within mountains. The Plane of Water can be found in all manner of deep underwater places. Finally, The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium and the Wilderness of the Beastlands both follow this same principle, being found at various appropriate places throughout the material plane.
The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, The Twin Paradises of Bytopia, the Olympian Glades of Arborea, and the Heroic Domains of Ysgard are legendary places found in far, far distant lands. They can be accessed by travel.
At last, the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia and the Blessed Fields of Elysium are among the stars and celestial bodies in the sky - it is to these places that the honorable ascend after death, and this is the home of the gods. These places can only be accessed by powerful magic or the intervention of dieties, and it is said to be even harder to come back. The Outlands, the positive material plane, and the negative material plane are also found in the cosmos, as are the demiplanes that don't have another obvious location.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link to Niles in Rogue's Gallery:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?p=2488280#post2488280
I will be including Baerd, his former Barbarian Sea Captain ally, and Selene the Prophet of Wee Jas, when I get time. At the start of the Journal we had just finished our first adventure. It was a rescue the princess. She had basically gotten kidnapped from her castle by a few hundred harpies. Harpies in our world are degenerate descendents of fallen angels. Devils and Demons are interchangable and there is no Blood War. We traveled to the NE which is an accursed land and made a harrowing rescue thru liberal uses of Find the Path, Limited Wish, and sheer bastardry. Hope you folks enjoy.
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