Eternal sunshine and prosperity. Welcome to Paradise!

[Asmor]

Here's a setting idea I came up with, which I call Paradise for lack of a better name. It provides many interesting adventure opportunities, from swashbuckling pirate stories on the high sea- err, clouds to expeditions to the ruins of long forgotten civilization for riches and secrets.

There are many hypotheses why clouds cover the planet of Eden. A magical experiment gone horribly wrong. A punishment by the gods for some long forgotten crime. No one knows for sure, the truth is lost to time. All that matters is that thick clouds cover every inch of open sky, blanketing the lands below in eternal darkness and frequent rain and thunderstorms.

Caves flooded and crops died. Many of the civilized races moved to mountainous plateaus above the cloud layer, enjoying eternal sunshine. The lack of rain proved a problem, but the ever ingenious Gnomes helped solve that by creating primitive pumping stations, powered by beasts of burden, to bring pooled water above the clouds and rudimentary irrigation systems to disseminate it. Magically created springs helped supplement the water supply and civilization flourished above the skies. Thanks to the domestication of the docile cloudskimmers, creatures capable of traversing the tops of clouds not unlike a jellyfish floating along the surface of an ocean, they were even able to establish trade routes.

A notable exception to the migration to the mountain was the elves, who chose instead to stay in the lands below, unable, or unwilling, to cope with the treeless plateaus. The elves, even before wary of outsiders, became xenophobic to the extreme. While society above the clouds flourished, the lands below became more feral. Vegetation fed by the constant rain quickly subsumed every last trace of civilization on the ground and monstrous beasts stalk the lands unchecked.

 

[Piratecat]

I like it! But I'm bringing an umbrella.

 

[Turanil]

It's a good idea of a setting. It's original and enables to have an evil setting coterminous with a normal setting.

If it would be my own setting, I would do it that way:

1) All races emigrated to the mountains, including elves. Now, elves, dwarves, etc., all had to adapt to their new environment, so I would use Ice Elves and Fire Dwarves variant types from Unearthed Arcana (if I am not mistaken, since I have yet to get that rulebook).

2) These mountains are some kind of Islands in a sea of clouds, and would be (at least vaguely) inspired from Tibet. There, priests, with their create food spells, and ability to turn undead would have become some kind of (good) theocracy.

3) In the dark lands below, there is no more light, so there is doubtly still normal vegetation. I suggest twisted vegetation such as carnivorous plants. Furthermore, there is frequent lightning storms which are the only source of (brief) illumination in these glooms. These storms are also magical, and have brought many sorts of weirdness, explaining many aberration monsters that roam the world instead of normal animals. Finally, undead are legions in this dark place, but they fear light thus rarely come to the places above clouds.

4) Going to the land below the clouds could be more than adventuring in the above clouds society:

- Rite of passage to a certain elevated status requires to go under the clouds seek and recover some ancient artifacts that will be used by the community.

- Banishment of criminals, or those who reject the harsh caste system of society, or whatever.

- Society requires certain substances or material that is found only in the land below the clouds, so some people make their living going there. As such, there is an appropriate prestige class.

Etc.

I suggest other people on this forum add their suggestions to this idea f setting.

 

[The Goblin King]

Nice. I assume that in addition to cloudskimmers there are airships too? Everything is better with airships. IMHO And flying castles too. If I could afford it I would build a flying castle.

How about a new item called a Ring of Umbrella? It creates a minor Force effect which keeps out the rain but doesn't stop damage or anything. I might have read that somewhere else but I can't seem to place it.

Adventures: The party decends to the site of an ancient city only to find it currently inhabited. An army of Drow have come up from the Underdark. They brought edible mushrooms which flourish on the wet lightless surface. The Dark Elves are building strange spider-like siege engines. One of them on a test run shows that the device can run as fast as a horse and can jump great distances. With dawning horror the party realizes that the only target close enough for the Drow to raid is the home they just departed from. In one week it will be the darkest night during the new moon.

Deep in a dungeon the party finds a huge glass sphere. Inside they can see roiling clouds and lighting strikes. Is this the cloud machine? If they destroy it will they free the world from its rainy blanket? What if they are wrong?

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

I like it! But I'm bringing an umbrella.

-LOL

--

Thats a really really great idea.
Also

You can let the dwarves living under the clouds.Most of them never missed the sun in their caves.Great underground cities can flourish too. Gnomes,dwarves and orcs can leave in great cities under the mountains.

Maibe elves could use highter elven magic-or artifacts to protect their forests from the harsh weather.That way they could also become over -protective with their lands and highly seclusive.

You can built a campaign where your players must go in search of a way to "remove" the layer of clouds, for there is not any room left to support the growing number of people and war is threating your lands..

____________
The Wizard

 

[Turanil]

You can built a campaign where your players must go in search of a way to "remove" the layer of clouds, for there is not any room left to support the growing number of people and war is threating your lands..

I would add to this, that they in the end have a good chance of removing the cloud layer, but not from all the planet's surface: only from an area, up to the size of a small kingdom. thereafter, this area has to be colonized, settled, etc., and of course protected. More adventures to come, and the basis of the campaign isn't lost.

 

[Asmor]

As far as the lighting is concerned, I was thinking it could be interesting to have a ubiquitous phosphorescent green mold provide low, eerie green lighting almost everywhere.

Also, the wild things down below probably don't take too kindly to the pumping stations. I'd imagine there's probably a 24-hour guard and, despite that, it's frequently necessary to patch them up.

No airships in my vision, but of course you're more than welcome to alter it however you might choose to suit your own needs! Personally I'm not a fan of the whole steampunk thing and even the pumping stations were a bit of a compromise for the sake of reality, but hey, whatever floats your boat! Might be interesting to have "submarines" capable of flying inside the clouds to ambush cloudskimmers from below.

I could see PCs being sent to try and track down a priceless artifact which fell overboard. Hell, throw the PCs overboard (they can have their fall slowed by trees and vines and end up in a mucky swamp. Probably none too happy, but good as new after a couple potions of healing).

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

I would recommend imperfect cloud cover -- it's too dim for traditional crops to live, but bright enough for low-light plants to survive.

What is the cause of this cloudcover? In reality, such total cover would probably make the world significantly cooler - which would reduce evaporation and inhibit cloud formation. Venus has almost total cover, but it's so hot there because of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Even there it's not completely dark, just very gloomy.

 

[JimAde]

Asmor, this idea rocks.

Another way you could encourage adventure "under the clouds" is to have some resource that needs to be found/collected. In addition to water (which isn't hard to find, after all), the people will need wood. They might not be able or willing to pump enough water to support forests on the plateaus, so you would need logging camps down below. These would be almost like mines, since the workers would be in hostile, unpleasant conditions. The woodsmen might have a sort of rugged mystique about them, but they'd probably still want guards and troubleshooters. Maybe the wood is hauled out by the cloudskimmers. I'm picturing looong ropes and the 'skimmers acting like the big helicopters used to extract big items from inaccessible locations in the real world.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

I love this idea. It is really interesting.. id love to play in a game like this. great idea!!