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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 3429916" data-attributes="member: 41584">Quite a few of the gods already have direct parallels;Beory = ChaunteaObad-Hai = SilvanusHextor = BaneHeironeous = Torm?Pelor = LathandarSt Cuthbert = TyrEhlonna = MielikkiFharlangn = Gwaeron whateverhisnameis?Erythul = Malar?others are a bit squiffier;Wee Jas = KelemvoreNerull = Myrkul or BhaalBoccob = AzuthKord = TempusVecna = Velsharoon / Savras?Olidammara = Finder Wyvernspur?Perhaps each of these dieties might be known by variant names, depending on the country of worship, so that Lathandar, the elven god of the renewing dawn, is Pelor, the human god of sun and strength, just under a different name.  In the style of Greyhawk, the dieties would spend less time hobnobbing with their worshippers, and eschew such tacky habits as dying off and being replaced faster than the average elven lifespan.As for the nations, the Realms has one evil country, Thay, and they've abandoned conquest and gone into the sinister art of selling cheap magic items.  Zhentil Keep and Mulmaster and possibly Hillsfar are evil city-states, the Zhents are the only ones with any influence outside of their own walls.  Greyhawk has the Scarlet Brotherhood, the three or four countries dominated by Iuz, and the Great Kingdom, making it a much more dangerous world to be living in.  I'd make the hybrid world as dangerous as Oerth.I wouldn't tie Iuz to Thay, both being fairly disparate in theme.  I would instead tie the Scarlet Brotherhood to Thay, as they have some similarities (both enclaves secured away atop hard-to-access elevated plateaus, both with a rigid heirarchy dominated by magic-users, both lawful and evil in nature, both extensive users of slaves, and both fond of magical experimentation on living subjects).  Iuz, by contrast, is more chaotic, not at all mage-dominated (being more priest of Iuz and half-demon dominated), etc.  Iuz would mix better with the idea of Hellgate Keep, which I would have expanded significantly, utterly devastating the area around Silverymoon, to make it a sizable nation-state in it's own right, and not just a castle with some bad men living in it, in the middle of nowhere.Greyhawk could be positioned on the Sea of Fallen Stars, replacing Selgaunt or Raven's Bluff or something.  (Greyhawk / Raven's Bluff has some symmetry, and not just because of the bird reference.)  The Seven Sisters and the Circle of Eight could be merged.  Half and half.  Mordenkainen and Elminster, the Simbul and Tenser, all mostly working together to maintain the status quo and prevent the expansion of the Thayvian Scarlet Brothers and the Cambions of Hellgate Keep.  Pick your favorite four members of the Chosen of Mystra and your favorite four members of the Circle of Eight.  Unused members of the Circle or Chosen could be past members who have died over the years (as Sylune or Otiluke did in the appropriate settings), but still have spells and / or items named after them.The Phaerimm / Shades in Anauroch could be mixed with Rary's takeover of the Bright Plains and the Elder Elemental Evil / Tharizdun stuff and the whole Invoked Devastation concept.  The Elves (picking a race out of a hat) fought off an invasion by pre-human worshippers of Tharizdun (the nihilistic faith currently masked under the deceptively passive face of the worship of the lady of loss, Shar), and the magical energies unleashed in this battle destroyed all life within the blightest lands known known as Anauroch, the Sea of Endless Dust.  The enemy spellcasters survived only as Shades, selling their souls to their dark Lord moments before their annhilation.  The greatest secrets of Elven High Magic were lost, as their practitioners gave their lives, and even changed the fabric of magic itself, in this great working, so that it is believed that it could never even be repeated (to the relief of all).  A rogue member of the Chosen Eight named Rary (or perhaps Sammaster, rumors vary), travelled into the forbidden wastes and tapped the residues of ancient magic there, becoming tainted by the darkness of Tharizdun, and forming an alliance with few remaining Shades still living eternal half-lives, concealed in their ruined kingdom below the shifting sands, but confined by the ancient elven magics to the desert sands, unable to plague the lands of the living.  They still serve their shadowy patron, and wish to bring the entire world into darkness and death, as their god was pained by the act of Creation itself, shattering his beloved darkness with painful light.  They raise the dead and send them out beyond the borders of the lifeless black sands, trying to further their gods dark designs, but now with Rary / Sammaster's aid, their goals have taken new life and the bones of the great dragons that once flew over the desert know are moving through the night sky in service to dark powers...[For convenience, I'd use one map, and for this thought experiment, I'm using the Forgotten Realms one, adding Greyhawk in place of Raven's Bluff, the Scarlet Brotherhood to Thay, Iuz to the Silver Marches (replacing them, essentially) and mashing up the Sea of Endless Dust and Tharizdun worshipping Shades and Rary's betrayal to the formation of Anauroch, Shar's nihilistic ambitions, etc.]</blockquote>

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