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Message: <blockquote data-quote="officeronin" data-source="post: 507970" data-attributes="member: 8483">We also thought it was pretty silly that, at towns in low-level games, there are no high level folks around, but at high levels, they are all over.  So, we decided to justify it...In days of yore, the world was connected by teleportation circles.  Each village had a circle to and from the town, and the towns had circles to and from the cities, and the cities to and from the capitals, and the capitals to and from each other.  Great wealth was ammassed through nearly instant trade (and, since nearly all the trade goes through a few locations, it's easy to tax, goverments did very well.)  Smuggling all but ended (it's cheaper to pay the tax than to pay for the smuggling).  Defense of the frontier is easy (the elite squad of 200 soldiers gets anywhere in the kingdom in 20 minutes...).  Etc.However....1.  The roads were now only rarely used, and the "wildlands" between the areas of settlement grew feral without the influence of regular travellers.2.  The wealth (and, thus, security) of the Kingdoms and Empires became dependent on the wizards, who were now organized as a tightly focused guild.  Kings and Emporers would not be happy with this situation...  Thus, the world erupts in civil war.  A few political leaders ally with the mage guild, believing that they will win, but most rebel, along with a handful of rebel wizards.  As the destruction rages unbelievably swiftly across the land, most of the circles are destroyed, and the humanoid tribes that had long been held at bay by the instant appearances of crack sodiers, see their opportunity, and the world Balkanizes.The guild is defeated, and they, along with the circles, pass into mists of legend.One thousand years later, the PCs come along.  They start in a classic low-level D+D kingdom on a penisula, sheltered from the mainland by a mountain range.  History has passed into distorted legendAs they move up in levels, they adventure past the range, uncovering evidence of the war and other lands.  Since these other lands are not nearly as sheltered as the penisula, there are more high level people.When I ran this world, the original leader of the guild had survived and become a lich, and his goal was to reinstate the network of teleportation circles.  He did this by having his savage army of humanoids attack various cities (so many humanoids that the cities could not possibly hold without immediate reinforcements), while leaving clues for the PCs to re-open or create new circles.  Fun!Watcha' think?OfficeRonin</blockquote>

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