I have some ideas for a campaign setting. It's not much, but if I entered a contest with it and be paid fleshing it out, It would look like this:
First, the boring, mechanical details:
Elements of Magic as magic system.
There will only be three classes, with lots of feats and talents to customize: A fighter type, a roguish type, a spellcaster type. And just as everyone has a BAB, every class will have a base caster level (though that might be as low as 1/4 for the fighter)
The races will be more powerful than normal. Beyond the race, the culture and home of the character will influence its stats and choices.
No magic items per se, though there is an option to make spells semi-permanent (you'll just have the appropriate number of spell points less per day as long as you keep this magic up), and maybe a feat to make that duration cheaper if you use a token item (which takes up a body slot).
As for the setting:
Humans don't get to play the dominant race again. Instead of setting up elves to be tragic figures that had their time but were overtaken by humans later, they kept up their pace and are the dominant race (though it's not the way humans dominate in many other settings, where the other races get one realm each and the rest of the world is human with some non-humans thrown in). All the races are strong.
The multiverse is made up of three different cosmoi:
The elemental cosmos, which is made of elemental planes for all the elements (from EoM, so there's not just the usual 4).
The ideal cosmos (working name), where the planes are made up of good, evil, law, chaos (and other ideals and concepts, like Luck, Knowledge or War).
Finally, there's the material cosmos. The elemental cosmos provides the building blocks for all material matters here, and the ideal cosmos for all things mental. All the action takes place on Planet Earth - and Planets Air, Fire, and Water. The planets share not only the name, but also much of their features with one of the primary elements, and everyone has a special ability based on what planet he was born on.
Beyond that, there's other planets that carry the names of the gods - and are the home of the gods. So Mars (working title obviously) is the god of war, and the planet where the god of war lives. In case of servant deities, they inhabit moons orbiting their master's planet. If you die, your spirit wanders space until he gets to your god's planet, where it gets a new, idealised body. If you're an atheist, you go to the outermost planet, a black star where the god of death dwells - until he remakes you as one of the undead and sends you back.
There are countless portals combining the four basic planets, but there's no way for non-divine beings to enter or leave any of the divine planets. Many portals connect two locations on the same planet, while others combine the planets. The portals were created by the elves early on in their history, and many cities are built around the portals and therefore exist in several far-off places (or even more than one planet), but still are one city. Some of the portals are huge, and a Great Red Wyrm could fly through with its wings fully extended.
History: The oldest of the races are elves. Originally, they were from the elemental cosmos, especially from the central plane - the plane of nature, where the Seelie and Unseelie courts define life (without the idealogical baggage the gods planned to bestow upon all the sentient lifeforms in the material worlds). Since the feys were tasked with providing the "background life" (animals, plants - those things the "higher life-forms" would eat) for the material world, they figured that they needed custodians for the creatues they'd send away, so the godlings would treat them with the proper respect. The seelie court made the elves of light, which would patrol the material cosmos by day and go back to the plane of nature to sleep at night, and the unseelie court made the elves of darkness for the other shift. Unfortunately, the elves started to study and finally embrace the ideals endorsed by the gods and their ideal cosmos, and became native - they'd stay on the world longer and longer, until they didn't come back at all. Inspired by the gods, they created their own idea, their own concept: Civilisation.
While the other races all embraced this concept more or less, the elves first came up with it, and still epitomise it (except for fey elves, who went back embracing nature. Those fey elves can be of light or dark elven stock).
Dwarves hail form the elemental planes of earth and metal. Their ancestors were outsiders that felt claustrophobic in their home planes, and went to material world, where they could combine rock and steel and cavern homes with wide open spaces. They still have an affinity for their home elements, and make the best smiths.
The gnomes' origin has been lost to time, but it is generally accepted that the gods of Art, Knowledge and Progress took them under their wings and encourage them to be curious keen on experimenting. Having art and knowledge that rivals the elves', their real strength is the strange clockwork devices that combine magic and technology.
Halflings are nomads with no nations to call their own. Some live in caravans, some merely move frequently. The deities of Luck and Travel are particularly fond of them.
Finally, there are humans. While it is is said that the other races were merely found and influenced by the gods, the humans are the gods' own work. After elves, halflings, gnomes and dwarves started populating the world, the gods felt that they wanted to try to create a race after their own image. One that would embrace all the ideals the other races wouldn't, or couldn't. In the end, every deity had a hand in their creation, which makes them so unpredictable. Of course, since then, long millenia have passed, and the other races have diversified after becoming fully humanoid, but the versatility trend was started by humans. And they often needed it, for they entered the scene late, with much of the best land already taken up by the other races. They knew they couldn't stand against those races, so theyy carved out their existance where they could.
Nowadays, the 5 great races are closely allied, and many nations are mixed (though most of those still have a majority of elven folk - elves were always eager to sheir their creation - Civilisation - with everyone)
Adventure path amidst a war torn land. See the impressment of arcane casters into theocratic army supply workshops to create battlefield constructs. Witness the elvish counterdevelopment of awakening magic spells themselves to unleash on imperials who would try and enslave them for their own war purposes. Legions clash against imperial legions while rumors of humanoid armies massing outside of the borders under fiendish command run rampant.
