D&D General Awesome Things About Your Favorite Settings

[Vaalingrade]

There's a lot of discussion about canon minutia flying around, so let's do the other thing and talk about the things that are actually awesome about your favorite settings.

I'll go first:

In Eberron, Argonth is a mobile floating fortress, the largest war machine ever, which patrols the entire Brelish border. It's also not the only military installation basiclaly tolling around the place, because there's also Gorgan, a warforged titan that serves as the HQ for the Lord of Blades, the perspective king of the sapient machine race the warforged. Warforged titans are also warforged, so the LoB rolls around riding what is basically a big fat dude who houses his military industrial complex.

There is also the coolest religion story I've heard in D&D: Tira Miron, a paladin sacrificed herself alongside a coatyl to seal a rakasha (Coatyl and rakashas are the Big Bads and Goods of the setting), leaving behind the Silver Flame. The flame speaks to the leader of the church (currently a small girl).

The problem? Well... no one can agree on whether the voice is Tira, the coatyl... or the rakasha -- or a fusion of some of the above. It's already ordered a lycanthrope genocide that caused a schism in the church once already, so one of the biggest forces for good might be being ruled by a corrupted paladin, a literal demon, an insane demigod, a combination of both... or possibly a small child making things up as she goes along.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Cool things about Primeval Thule

Thule is Greenland during the Hyborian Age (about a 1,000 years before Conan's time) when they are not covered in glaciers. All the maps have "west = up" because at the time the magnetic north pole is actually west of the islands.

There are nine gods, each corresponding roughly to one of the alignments (they actually fit with Schwatrz's nine universals) but none of them are nice. For example, Mitra (the god closest to lawful-good) believes that having an open mind is a weakness and that innovation is a sin.

There is a sentient glacier plotting to cover the entire world in ice. Spoiler - it does.

Elves are actual aliens who colonised this planet centuries ago and fought wars with the dominant races. The fallout from these wars allowed humans and dwarves to achieve some prominance.

 

[Mort]

The problem? Well... no one can agree on whether the voice is Tira, the coatyl... or the rakasha -- or a fusion of some of the above. It's already ordered a lycanthrope genocide that caused a schism in the church once already, so one of the biggest forces for good might be being ruled by a corrupted paladin, a literal demon, an insane demigod, a combination of both... or possibly a small child making things up as she goes along.

I based a campaign off of this! PCs were all knights in service to the Silver Flame - problem was (as would be slowly revealed) the high up cleric giving them the majority of their marching orders was actually communicating with the Rakshasa within the flame and was completely corrupted (as were a few others within the church). Always thought that was a fun premise.

 

[Hussar]

Cool things about Primeval Thule

Thule is Greenland during the Hyborian Age (about a 1,000 years before Conan's time) when they are not covered in glaciers. All the maps have "west = up" because at the time the magnetic north pole is actually west of the islands.
/snip

I'm a huge fan of Primeval Thule and this never occurred to me. Not even once. There's no compass rose on the map and I just assumed up was north because it gets colder as you go towards the top of the map.

Mind blown.

---

Ok, mind less blown. If you read the setting guide, while the map might have been oriented that way, everything in the descriptions references north being at the top of the map. Cool idea though. And, yup, one of my absolute favorite settings.

---------

Scarred Lands

A war between the Titans who created the world six times (or is it seven, I forget) in the past, only to destroy and remake it each time with a different Titan ascendant, and the gods who sprung into being from the Titans. The gods derive their power from their followers and didn't want the titans killing all their followers, so they rebelled, causing the Titanswar. Now Scarredlands is a hellish landscape just slowly emerging from the fallout (sometimes literally) of the Titanswar. Settlements basically hug the coastlines and the interior of the continent is virtually inhospitable - a breeding ground for all sorts of monsters and whatnot.

Absolutely fantastic setting that deserves far more love than it gets.