Cerimyr: my first Homebrew

[vulcan_idic]

I'd love to hear folk's thoughts on my new, and first, homebrew world/campaign setting:

Cerimyr

Books Used

PHB
PHB II
CAdv
CArc
CDiv
CWar
XPH
CPsi
Magic of Incarnum

Based on Allegiances rather than Alignments, a bit more similar, and perhaps even related, to the Mantles of the Divine Mind and Ardent (CPsi)​

All things have spirits, all spirits exist, none are dead, none are “unborn”, they simplyare. Users of Incarnum simply have the ability to borrow spirits to cause effects
related to the spirits borrowed – i.e. spirits of Shadow (places where the sun’s light
is blocked, not the plane) help the borrower to hide.​

Spell Compendium
Most, if not all, other WOTC books​

Deities

Akasha – God/Goddess of the Aether/ Void/Soul/Spirit/Mind and Things Intangible, the Embodiment of the Universal Paradox – He/She/It is Everything and Nothing
simultaneously, both Male and Female, and Neither as well, all perspectives find a
home in Akasha, and all are turned away.

Vayu – Goddess of the Wind

Bhumi – God of the Earth

Tejas – God of the Fire

Jala – Goddess of the Water

Good – Abstract, Distant, Disembodied Universal Force represented by hosts of Angels battling for dominance over All That Is.

Evil - Abstract, Distant, Disembodied Universal Force represented by hosts of Devils and Demons battling for dominance over All That Is.

Deities are neither Good nor Evil in and of themselves, but all have their personalities decided by which universal force currently has dominance.

Each Deity has *All* portfolios save those of the other Elements – i.e. only Tejas may grant access to the Fire Domain, but all deities may grant any other domain such as Healing, Destruction, and so forth. Each cleric may have a different way of speaking about such domains reflecting the aspect of her deity reflected in the domain – i.e. “May the flames of Tejas warm your soul and keep the flame of your life burning strong” for a Healer of Tejas, while a Destroyer of Jala might say, “Feel the Waters of Jala erode you away, destroying your essence”​

Alignment

No Alignment Used. Rather a system of Allegiances similar to that in d20 Modern​

Plotline

Creation: Before Cerimyr, before all there was nothing. Then there was Something. What there was was either nameless or its name has long since been forgotten. This was quite child like and curious and found it could create things. It began to giggle with this discovery and happily played by itself for quite sometime simply creating things, all manner of things all around it. As it created more, it matured and began to think of many things. It played with these thoughts and yet more knew things came into being. Then, when All That Is was almost entirely created, It asked itself the Question. When it answered itself it was amazed to discover it had given two answers. This displeased it and it began to debate with itself over which could be the correct answer. But it reached no conclusion. The debate began to become heated, and more and more passionate until the two sides got up and left it and began to war with each other over which had the correct answer to the Question. It
was left all alone and lesser than it had been; a bit scared of what it had seen when it left itself. It continued to create out of habit and the familiar activity comforted it, but the fear, sadness, and anxiety inspired by the other parts of itself colored the new creation. It was itself affected so much that it found it could no longer continue to work with itself as a single entity, and so had an amicable parting of the ways with itself and went its own five ways, becoming the Deities.

The Battle of Good and Evil: The forces constantly battle each other vying for dominance over All That Is, though major conflict erupts at the beginning of each Age, when the beginning of the last is long since forgotten. When Evil wins the Age, people are generally cruel and merciless to each other caring nothing about anyone but themselves and enjoying anything and everything that doesn’t do harm, at least visible short-term harm, to themselves. When Good wins the Age, people are generally kind and merciful to each other caring nothing about everyone but themselves and enjoying only that which does no harm, not matter how long-term, to anyone. Even when the ruler of the Age is decided the suppressed Force is still present fighting back in what small ways it can skirmishing here and there and preparing in secret for the next Age shift. The ruling force also prepares itself for the next age shift, but must do so openly before the other Force. Typically the forces alternate control of Ages, but this is not an absolute rule – it is decided by who wins the Confrontation. The Confrontation begins when a group of five heroes arise to challenge the representatives of the ruling Force to include the Deities themselves on behalf of the suppressed Force. If they fail they are utterly destroyed and the ruling Force rules for another Age. If they succeed the divine spark, the fragment of the mind original It, which is each of the Deities, passes to the new host and are reborn with minds and hearts more influenced by the ruler of the new Age and the old hosts are utterly destroyed.​

 

[drexes]

I like your creation myth, it gives the world a unique feel. The only portion of it I had reservations about is the five heroes whose fate it is to decide the focus of the next age. My thought is this: If you run the campaign as the players are the five, which seems likely, then when the campaign's over the world is likely fundamentally redefined. This could mean that all the hard work you have put in will be for naught. Believe me, a homebrew setting is a lot of work! PLus it's really nice to be able to re-use what you've put all the effort into. The second thing is that it seems the creation myth is very free-form but towards the end it has a set structure which seems to contrast heavily with its child at play origins. Again I really like the myth, so I wouldn't adjust that. I would just be leary of a huge destined group myth being part of it, becasue either the party is that group (see above) or they aren't, and the players may then feel thet because the age comes and goes dependant on other people thier own efforts are somehow secondary. The only other thing I see as being a little difficult is the predetermination factor. If on the whole of people's personalities are determined by the age then there is really no free will. It's probably more of a problem for me because I have always had a distaste for anything predetermined.

Anyway I really like the feel and the creation myth is nice and unique, I just thought I'd raise a few questions to maybe help get the juices flowing as it were.

Good Luck
Drexes

 

[vulcan_idic]

My plan for the campaign is for the heroes to be the five. I actually don't plan on reusing the world after that, but on creating a new world, which I really enjoy as it gives me a chance to play with new ideas and concepts, and gives a chance for one of the other group members to run the game for a while. If I did restart it I think I would probably make it an entirely different age so far removed that the other is completely forgotten. I designed it with epic play in mind as our group really wants to play with that. The common people don't know about the heroes only that ages have come and gone and that when they do the sense of the nature of the universe changes slightly. I would start the characters at first and only slowly reveal bits of knowledge about what has come before and what is destined building to an epic story.

I wouldn't say that things are predetermined. Even when one Force is surpressed it is still in the world and affecting it, just not as strongly as the ruling force. As for individuals both forces affect each individual, some individuals are more strongly tempted by one side or the other, but even they can choose to go the other way if they wish. This is why there is no alignment - no one here is purely evil or purely good really. They might choose to have allegiance to the Force of Good or the Force of Evil, or neither or something else all together. In fact, the name of the world, Cerimyr, is based on the two semesters of Russian I took in college and means roughly Grey World. The concept there is that very little in the world is black or white but somewhere in the murky shades of grey in between. Ultimately each individually chooses what they do and who they want to be.

The style of the myth does change as it continues reflecting the change in the It from a childlike spirit, maturing and growing, before splitting into adult minded fragment personalities representing aspects of what was in the original. It is and was both Lawful, Chaotic and Neither as well, but these parts did not split as the Good and Evil did and remain inherent as aspects of all things including the fundamental Forces.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Anyone else?