Origins of your Game World

[Voi_D_ragon]

Howdy Enworlders, I come with a simple question: have you thought of an origin story for your game world? (eg: it was created by some god or other, it is actually all the dream of a madman but none of the inhabitants know, etc) I so, would you care to share the story, along with any reasoning you put into it that would later reflect onto game mechanics? (Maybe you wanted to justify the reason there are non-playable races/classes in your campaign, and decided to go waaaay back to make it unappealable. Or maybe you like to know exactly why things work the way they do in your world, and would like your players to discover why as well, so you have it all written down for when they set out to reveal the workings of the multiverse)

I, for one, have the story of the very beginning of the multiverse, but not mush of what comes after up until the time period the players are in (so, for example, I have no story as to how celestials and fiends started off their war, or how demons were born, etc).

-The world is supposed to be a grim place for the most part, with a few kingdoms standing out as beacons against the darkness. Outside the borders and nestling in the dark underbelly of the great cities, however, there live horrors unspeakable (see-Lovecraftian), so I decided to tie their birth to the birth of the game world itself, as (me playing d&d) these monsters and themes aren't exactly canon for your vanilla fantasy setting-there had to be a reason the world was messed up beyond what a "normal" fantasy world is.

-The multiverse, while immense, is not infinite (just a note that is important because there are multiple multiverses over the course of the story, you'll see), so there is actually room for multiverses to exist without overlapping others' (previous) spaces.

-I take some basic concepts that are canon to d&d (like Sigil, City of Doors, and the Weave, from which magic originates) and give the explanation for their existence in my world.

So, here's how my game world was born

In the beginning, there existed only Cthulhu and Uhluhtuc, primordial forces of destruction and creation.As Uhluhtuc created the planes of the multiverse, Cthulhu slumbered, knowing his time would come. Once Uhluhtuc had finished his grand work, Cthulhu, sensing there now existed something for him to consume, awoke and fed upon the universe, grinding its matter to nothingness and turning its souls into lesser versions of himself, each gnawed by an insatiable hunger for all things material.
Each plane was connected to all the others by an astoundingly complex system of portals-through these, Cthulhu's entities swarmed, gaining form and substance as they entered the material world from the void beyond, and though the forces of whatever races existed in those ages past fought valiantly,they could not resist the endless onslaught of Cthulhu's children,much less the Force of Destruction himself, and were eventually consumed after years of battle-the entities destroyed in the war replaced by those born of the newly devoured souls.
So this cycle of creation and destruction continued uninterrupted for eons, leaving behind an infinite expanse of emptiness where dark entities writhed, forever ready to pounce on Uhluhtuc's latest creation.
After the destruction of his most recent multiverse, Uhluhtuc as always moved onward, and was about to commence yet another of his works when he sensed something; pausing,he listened, and was hit by a sensation similar to hearing an echo of a familiar voice. Slowly, he realized: what he felt were residual traces of energy, his creative energy, tenaciously resonating from the empty void where his first multiverse had been born and accompanied by the undercurrent of its death screams.
In that moment,seeing the suffering of his creations frozen in eternity, he decided he would no longer stand to watch Cthulhu devour the fruits of his work: he would break the cycle of destruction, allowing his children to live in peace for all of time. And so Uhluhtuc began creating his last multiverse, carefully structuring it so that his plan would work when the need arose: instead of connecting the planes to each other as he previously had, he connected every one to a single transition plane, which would later become known as Sigil, City of doors. By doing this, Uhluhtuc ensured that anyone traveling from one plane to another would have to pass through the transition plane, which would slow down Cthulhu's eventual invasion, but would not be enough to halt it for good. Uhlutuc then proceeded to create six devices,installed in different planes, which would amplify and divide his power, creating a web that would wrap itself around the multiverse,allowing its inhabitants to tap into Uhluhtuc's power and shape their world as they saw fit. These devices, which would later be known as Weave Spinners, remained dormant, for at the moment they lacked a source of energy powerful enough to make them function. Uhluhtuc then created one last portal, leaving it sealed and under the care of his minions (which would eventually become the gods of the multiverse),and proceeded to end his existence.
Or rather, to will himself into a different form of existence, splitting himself into six parts, each now unconscious but brimming with energy that poured out into the surrounding world. Uhluhtuc's servants then brought their creator's new forms to the devices he had previously constructed, allowing them to become active. Their energy, however,remained sealed away, to be released during the final stage of the plan.
In the Far Realms,among the shattered remains of the previous multiverse, Cthulhu grew restless, for he sensed his brother was no longer in the act of creating new substances to be devoured, but still his presence lingered in the vicinity of his latest work. Ravenously, Cthulhu called out to Uhluhtuc, urging him to move on so his feast could begin. This was the signal the gods had waited for: they opened the new multiverse's final portal, ushering in the primordial Force of destruction.
Though Cthulhu was taken aback by the fact that Uhluhtuc had stayed to witness his meal, the fact that he was being summoned to this latest multiverse rather than being made to travel through countless centuries an across infinite expanses to reach it, as was usually the case, appealed to him very much, and he hurried through the portal to reach his food, appearing in the center of Sigil; two things happened then: Uhluhtuc's Weave Spinners were unsealed and the multiverse,though not as perfectly as its creator had intended, was rendered safe.
Uhluhtuc's Weave Spinners, once activated by the gods, shot out a myriad of strands of power, each originating from Uhluhtuc's fragment within. These strands converged upon Cthulhu, wrapping themselves around his form and binding him in place. The Force of Destruction struggled, but in a world governed by the laws his brother had created, he was powerless against the strength of the Force of Creation; nonetheless, as the strands of the Weave wrapped round and round him before shooting out to the furthest reaches of the multiverse and beyond, Cthulhu's thrashing brought destruction to his brother's work: whole sections of Weave were torn away or deviated from their intended places, creating holes, tears,and knots in the Weave, which would eventually come to be known as areas of dead magic and wild magic. But ultimately, Cthulhu was restrained and hidden under endless strands of magic, creative energy, and the gods proceeded to continue molding the world as they saw fit, each following a different aspect of existence, creating races and places as they saw fit. This has brought the multiverse to the state it is currently in.


(Yes, Uhluhtuc is Cthulhu spelled backwards, but conceptually they are exact opposites of each other, so it makes sense )
-Also, Cthulhu is, in this world, the ultimate Lovecraft horror/being/Great Old One (I know to HPLC he was one among many, but since he is the most iconic, I decide to make him the top dog-all other GOO are just beings born of devoured souls that have been around for a long time- they get stronger with time)

Do you care to share your own stories ? (This could be background stories of your world as well, like the cause of a war between two great empires or similar) I would really enjoy reading them

 

[Celebrim]

Howdy Enworlders, I come with a simple question: have you thought of an origin story for your game world?

Yes.

I so, would you care to share the story...

Not really. I will share the convention orthodox view that a highly educated person might have, but the truth is no one in the game universe actually knows the answer.

Conventionally, the universe was created by an unknown being usually called 'The All Father', or sometimes the 'The All Mother'. There are a variety of beliefs regarding the motives of this being, but it's generally believed that he (or she, or it) just likes Making Stuff, and after the stuff gets made he's bored with it and moves on to something else. It's even considered possible that the being doesn't really know he's Making Stuff, and that everything is basically a dream of this seemingly omnipotent but infinitely remote being. In general, the bulk of the world's population is as disinterested in this being as the being is apparently disinterested in them, as there are much closer, more proximate, and more relatable forces involved in their lives. To the extent that anyone thinks about this being, he (or she, or it) is consider the proper concern of the gods and not mortals, in sort of the same way that what the Colonel is doing is not the proper concern of the Private, owing to the existence of Sergeants, Lieutenants, and Captains. It's a purely scholarly question.

The main things that the creator created are: The Tree, The Cascade, and The World. Satisfied with that work, he disappeared and no one - not even the oldest of the fairies - is so old that they have a memory of this being.

The Tree is commonly called the Tree of Life or The Great Tree, and it represents the principle of self-organization. It's because of the Tree that you can put a piece of meat in a glass jar and it will spontaneously generate maggots, or that a field of flowers will spontaneously generate garden sprites and atomies to dwell in it. The Tree extends throughout the entire multi-verse promoting and creating through its own growth secondary life. The sprouting of the tree cause vegetation to arise spontaneously from the ground, and animals to arise in the seas and fields. It also caused the first free people to arise, the eldest and youngest ones, the uncreated, the diverse people of fairy who were the first gods and the first free people who lived in The World countless years before ever there were anything else. Some people believe The Tree is actually the unknown Creator, although as far as anyone can tell The Tree is mindless or at least so alien and vast that it's mine cannot be comprehended or communicated with.

The other great source of power in the multiverse is The Cascade. It is the source of change, and it interacts with, powers, and sustains The Tree. It is a nigh infinite source of power, that descends from the Positive Elemental Plane and falls to the Negative Elemental Plane, along the way generating all the energy for everything that is but also the possibility of limits, decay, and endings. As it falls, it bifurcates into the four great elemental forces, generating the four elemental planes of being. As with the Tree, the Cascade has some worshippers and some that believe The Cascade itself is actually the unknown creator, though again as far as anyone can tell The Cascade is mindless.

In the midst of the Cascade, in the midst indeed of the entire multiverse, is The World - a giant translucent shell often described as made of diamond, suspended within the cascade on thread of Orachalcum, and containing within it a brilliant multicolored, diverse orb often presented or described as an enormous opaline stone. It was, and perhaps still is, regarded as the most beautiful thing in the known universe, though its full beauty is now lost and only the eldest beings can remember it as it was, before it was spoiled and bloodstained and its lands ruined and tainted thereby.

Everything else in the universe is a secondary creation of some sort or the other, generally beginning with the appearance of the family of the first gods - flame eyed Maglubiyet and his kindred - when the first fruit of the Great Tree ripened and gave forth seed.

Again, that's the conventional view, and a lot of scholars would deny various pieces of that and certainly the followers of different religions make differing claims about it.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

Yes.



Not really. I will share the convention orthodox view that a highly educated person might have, but the truth is no one in the game universe actually knows the answer.

.......

Again, that's the conventional view, and a lot of scholars would deny various pieces of that and certainly the followers of different religions make differing claims about it.

-So there is a definite story and you're not willing to share it because no one in the world has access to the knowledge and thus it technically doesn't exist as a story?

-Also, while my story is the effective truth of what happened, there is only one person who knows the entirety of it in the world, and he is of power and age comparable to the gods. The gods themselves know most of the story, since they helped shape the current world, but don't know the full picture.

-As for the inhabitants of the world, they all have differing views on how the world was born, or if it even was (maybe it's just always been there).

-Also, are maggots really just spawned from nothing or are you reflecting the ancient view of people that historically thought that until an experiment proved otherwise?

And thanks for the story, I appreciate reading material that can make me a better DM/GM (I'm not that big on cosmology, but I'll start fleshing it out... sometime)

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

Before Spelljammer came out, we had always played that each game setting was nothing more than a different continent on a supersized world.

If we wanted to play a module from a different setting, it was just a matter of continent hopping. Like someone traveling from say Europe to Africa or Asia or America in the middle ages. The cultures and stories one can make differ so greatly it could easily be considered as different settings.

So all my games have been within that framework.

I have played in others custom settings/homeworlds, but we never played in it long enough to know its "origin" story(s).

Actually, I've made up a few settings of my own to play in (one of which I handed over to a friend of mine to DM, and it was very fun to see how he elaborated on the framework I had given him-he liked my content, I didn't force it on him.) and then, when I decided I was going to make a whole world, I found myself without enough ideas to fill up all the empty expanses in the world (which is Earth sized- Earth is big, guys), so I found myself just filling up what I didn't know what was what with old settings I had played in, so I totally get the "different continents in one world" thing.

(Do you have any nice backstories tied to these mini-settings/mega continents? )

 

[Celebrim]

-So there is a definite story and you're not willing to share it because no one in the world has access to the knowledge and thus it technically doesn't exist as a story?

The Truth is out there, but it is only in my head. I consider it a campaign level secret that I'll likely take to my grave, because it is a personal viewpoint and its better for my game if the players lack the certainty regarding the truth that the characters in the game world also lack. I suppose I could run a game where the players learn the Ultimate Truth about Life, the Universe, and Everything, but if they did - no one would believe them anyway. However, such a game is unlikely.

Also, are maggots really just spawned from nothing or are you reflecting the ancient view of people that historically thought that until an experiment proved otherwise?

No, in the game universe, that maggots can spontaneously generate is something you can verify by experiment. It's the way things actually work in the game universe. Similarly, if you grind a piece of metal in a vast pool of water, eventually the water will stop heating. Or, if you drop a brass ball into a pan of clay from increasingly greater height, you'll find that kinetic energy increases linearly with the height of the fall and not with the square of the velocity. There literally is four elements - the periodic table of elements doesn't exist in the game world. Things fall to the group not because of gravity, but because jealous earth spirits pull them to the ground.

This tends to keep would be amateur scientists from getting too big for their britches and trying to leverage OOC knowledge to build ironclads with cannons and so forth. It's also gives the world a more alien, magical feel and unifies the cosmology (no need for an elemental plane of Magnesium, for example).

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

The Truth is out there, but it is only in my head. I consider it a campaign level secret that I'll likely take to my grave, because it is a personal viewpoint and its better for my game if the players lack the same certainty regarding the truth that the characters in the game world have. I suppose I could run a game where the players learn the Ultimate Truth about Life, the Universe, and Everything, but if they did - no one would believe them anyway. However, such a game is unlikely.

I also think it is extremely unlikely that my players find out the truth, but since none of them speak English fluently (I live in Italy) or are a part of any kind of gaming community/forum, I feel free to just share information on my DMing without fear of being found out. And I like to have my truths written down on paper, otherwise I might forget.

No, in the game universe, that maggots can spontaneously generate is something you can verify by experiment. It's the way things actually work in the game universe. Similarly, if you grind a piece of metal in a vast pool of water, eventually the water will stop heating. Or, if you drop a brass ball into a pan of clay from increasingly greater height, you'll find that kinetic energy increases linearly with the height of the fall and not with the square of the velocity. There literally is four elements - the periodic table of elements doesn't exist in the game world. Things fall to the group not because of gravity, but because jealous earth spirits pull them to the ground.

This tends to keep would be amateur scientists from getting too big for their britches and trying to leverage OOC knowledge to build ironclads with cannons and so forth. It's also gives the world a more alien, magical feel and unifies the cosmology (no need for an elemental plane of Magnesium, for example).

That's... actually really smart thinking. I never would have though of a world that does not follow real world physics, but it does seem very appealing (arguing over real world physics/chemistry, etc is very tiresome and actually very debated even here on ENworld- although I'm sure you know) This is a very elegant solution, I tip my hat to you.

 

[Sunseeker]

Simple: the origin of my world (which is a planet, not a plane) is the same as the generally accepted scientific consensus on how planets IRL came to be. Through billions of years of development, with some added sauce of already-existing powerful beings mucking about in the primordial muck. The current state of affairs of my campaign world came to be much like reality: through in large part evolution, warfare and politics. Only in my world these things were also pushed forward by magic.

 

[Celebrim]

Simple: the origin of my world (which is a planet, not a plane) is the same as the generally accepted scientific consensus on how planets IRL came to be. Through billions of years of development, with some added sauce of already-existing powerful beings mucking about in the primordial muck. The current state of affairs of my campaign world came to be much like reality: through in large part evolution, warfare and politics. Only in my world these things were also pushed forward by magic.

Ok, but that isn't actually an origin story. That's a story about something that has already happened. It doesn't tell me anything about how the stuff came to be. Your story begins In Media Res, and you even acknowledge it when you say, "already-existing powerful beings..." Ok, so where did those already existing powerful beings come from? From within the universe or without it? Has the universe always existed giving rise to these new worlds for all eternity, or does it have a beginning?

Evolution isn't an origin. It's a process that happens to something that exists. For example, evolution, from a biological perspective, is something that happens to life and runs within processes that pertain to life. That is to say, evolution cannot actually exist without life, and comes into being as soon as life exists, but it doesn't explain life because it is a property pertaining to life.

In your case, any origin story would have to explain where the magic comes from.

Or to put it another way, to say that there are billions and billions of years of development adds very little to the story. So little in fact that it could well be a property of my story without contradicting anything I said about my world. From the time of the beginning of my story to the time that History begins with the ripening of the first fruit of the Great Tree, may well have been billions of years and during that time their might have been all sorts of 'development' and 'evolution' 'pushed forward by magic' and by 'already-existing powerful beings mucking about'. But none of that is part of the origin, but a part of 'chapter 2' (as it were), 'what happened after the beginning'.

 

[Caliban]

I call my current Homebrew campaign "The Shattered Realms".

Here is the origin of everything, including the planet the campaign takes place on:


Cosmology of the Multiverse

This explanation for the structure of the local multiverse is the one most favored by the various druidic sects. Clerics tend to prefer a more deity-centric version, while Warlocks tend to favor a version that places their patron at the top of the celestial pecking order. Wizards as a whole do not favor any specific model of the universe, instead various wizardly organizations and individual sages create highly detailed models that reflect their individual views on how the multiverse functions. The only thing that all the models created by wizards have in common is that they all place arcane magic as the predominant force in the universe.

The druids use a “top down” model of the multiverse, with the Source at the top and the Terminus at the bottom. All of creation lies between them, created by the interplay of energies between the two.

The Source

Also known as the “Wellspring of Creation” this is the source of all magic, all life, and indeed all of creation. It continually radiates the energy of creation that set the universe in motion. No creature, not even a deity, can survive the overwhelming Primal energies that radiate from the Source. They must first be filtered through several planes of reality (planes mostly composed of pure energy) before they can be safely absorbed by a god, and the gods can then convert the Primal energies into Divine magic and imbue their mortal followers with a fraction of that magic in return for their worship. (Worship allows a god to increase their capacity for storing and using Primal energy, which in turn increases their power.)

The Terminus

The counterpart of the Source, it is the Final Destination, the Sphere of Ultimate Annihilation, the End of All Things. Everything the Source creates, the Terminus devours. It is the tension between the two that caused the infinite planes of reality to come into being. Without the constant Entropic energies from the Terminus the Primal energies emitted by the Source would never break down into the mundane matter and various forms of elemental energy that make up the all of existence. Magic itself is a byproduct of the decay of Primal energy.

The Great Cycle

New planes of reality are continuously created as the Primal energies released by the Source decay. While they may seem eternal to a mortal, even the various planes of existence go through a cycle of birth, growth, maturity, decay, and eventual destruction as the entire plane falls into the Terminus and is consumed. It may take millions of years, but it is the eventual fate of every plane of existence.


There is more, including a specific event ("The Shattering") based on this cosmology that altered the campaign world into its current state. This is just the basics.