It's a very interesting idea. I'm curious to see how others respond. I'm unsure whether I'd be enthused enough to partake in it myself, but I'd definitely support anyone who wanted to give it a go.
And, just because I'm working on it now, let me explain where the POL idea took me for my own campaign:
Basically, it's standard from what we know, so far, but with a few twists. Key points (I doubt anyone wants to read my 26 pages of notes, heh):
1. 7 noble families, masters of the Arcane, controlled a vast empire (Lawful Evil type, for shorthand classification) that actually provided prosperity, advancements in science, security, and enforced human rights.
2. The Seven Thrones, as the heads of each Family was called, decided that they wished for more: they wanted to become Gods (blah, blah, blah, don't they all). The "Oath of Fealty" given by all citizens (a magical minor Ritual that enabled them to be protected by the city Wards) was then modified in a subtle way.
3. The Seven Thrones came together and summoned the powers of darkness, fear, shadow, pain, and death in a Ritual to grant themselves the power they sought--the seventh Throne did not arrive as scheduled but the others determined to go forward with the Ritual anyway.
4. In return for the power they sought, the Thrones promised the lives, body and soul, of every person who had given up an Oath. They invited the Powers they had called forth to collect their victims and promised, as well, an alliance in the world that would remain.
5. The Night of Tears began--from the Darkness the forces of Hell came forth and took those souls that were now theirs. 80% of the population on the continent was taken in this way, in one bitter night. However, due to the Seventh Throne not partaking in the Ritual, not all were taken and the Powers that the Thrones had contacted were displeased by this failure. Instead of Godhood, the Thrones were made in to liches and slaves--their kin were remade into cambions and thralls, and all were taken to suffer until a use could be found for them. All the major cities and all of the larger towns and freeholds were wiped out, their halls and streets left with shadows and echoes of death, silent and empty. Only the minor villages, scattered across the continent, survived, though not even everyone in those places. This was mostly due to their greater sense of independence and their trust in their own Gods instead of trust in their rulers. The cities are all ghost towns, slowly becoming overgrown ruins and the home of animals, monsters, and worse.
6. Monasteries (academies?) formed in the vacuum left behind after the fall (basically) of civilization. Over the years these places took care to salvage as much knowledge as possible. They also took on the task of sending out Journeymen, masters of their particular Power (Martial, Arcane, Divine), to train those they found that were willing so that they might defend themselves from the Dark. They also tried to keep a sense of history alive and tried to set up other monasteries in other locations.
7. Travel is difficult because the Dark is still alive, awakened during the Ritual of Thrones and the contract implied by that Ritual having not yet been fulfilled. At night, in the dark, the creatures of shadow (the Shadowfell? At least in part) and demons/devils thrive. Any living sentient being caught in the dark, at night, away from the defending Wards and the light of the villages and townships, is subject to non-stop attack until they, too, may be killed or dragged off as part of the ongoing Ritual. To travel at night is akin to suicide. To travel at night, when the moon is new or has set, IS suicide and survival in such a situation is considered impossible.
8. One secret (and all of the above are also secrets meant to be pieced together as time goes on) is that the Seventh Throne are behind the Monasteries and that they interfered with the Ritual deliberately because they don't want to share. Once those surviving hamlets all swear their Oaths to the Monastery and the protection they offer, the Ritual will be completed, but with only one Family reaping the rewards.
9. Tieflings are those people with some blood connection to one of the Seven Families and therefore cursed, at least in a minor way. They are generally hated and looked at with suspicion even in those places that tolerate them.
10. Dragonborn are the descendants of a more powerful empire who have dwindled over the centuries after being nearly wiped out by the Thrones when they cleansed the continent when they first seized power--their attempt to make the land safe for humanity. Dragonborn rely partly on genetic memory. As their kind have dwindled, and their birthrate has declined, their memory has deteriorated. All they know is that they are SEARCHING for something; something that is critical to their survival. If they don't find this thing, they will become extinct within a few generations. This need to find this thing, their need to SEARCH for it, is all powerful, and the fact that they don't know what they're looking for causes them to be very focused, very frustrated, very militant, and always on the move. This is their single most defining feature.
And that is it so far. There's a lot more, of course, but those are as basic as I can boil down the major points. It was the way I wanted to use the POL concept and will give me room to make a lot of different adventures, I think.
