Homebrew: Failed Creation

[Gold Roger]

In this thread I formulate and collect the developement of a homebrew that's been simmering in my brain for a long time now.

The name I chose for that world is "Failed Creation" and it's because of two reasons I'm happy with the name. The first is because it's a good culmination of the themes and feel of the world (more on that later). The second is that quite simply I use many things I've originally created for other homebrews and campaigns, which where scrapped and can thus be considered great creation.

As a word of warning, the following is a long winded and I confusing atempt to explain what is guiding me in the creation of this setting. Much of it will become much clearer when the actual setting stuff is written down. So if you're not willing to read the following text, skip to my next entry, where I'll get to what I call placing the playing pieces, defining the place of PC races and power sources in the setting.

But let's get started with an overview of the mentioned themes, the feel I'm looking for and the world itself.

Introduction

This world is, basically, your average fantasy D&D setting, build for 4th edition (including most of it's assumptions, such as points of light), but adjusted to my personal needs and with the occassional off the wall idea that will hopefully make it intriguing to the player without making it hard to access or distracting from the actual goal: having a good game of D&D.

I have always had some special interests in settings and their workings and build the setting to fokus on these. Thus three points have cristalised, that, while not inherently unique, will hopefully make the setting special by it's different approach to them.

1.There's no big plan to the world. There's countless big plans for the world.

Let's face it, D&D settings. Even at their most basic (let's say only DMG1, MM1 and PHB1 of any one edition are used) it's hard to make the world seem as one, comming from one thought or great plan, without cutting anything. There are so many races, gods, monsters, types of magic, ancient civilisations and conflicts a world needs to stage the kind of game I like to say "It was created this way, with this definite plan".

This is why this world is a failed creation. Yes, in ancient times there was order, it was a simple, wild place. And yes, when the first gods found this world, they had their own plan for this world and set out for a grand creation. But things went wrong, a lot. And other forces intervened, with their own plans, a lot. And the world itself resisted the change, and it still is. Quite simply, to many cooks have ruined the soup.

You find most of this in many settings, but in failed creation it's spelled out everywhere. It's at the center of the setting. This might sound like it's disencouraging to players and PC's. Why fight for a place that's been spoiled such? Because people live on this world. And because the world is mutable, at epic level, the PC's can join the forces that shape this world and make it just a bit better, if only for themselfs. Even at low levels, the PC's butterfly effect and have a solid effect on this tomultous lump that they call home.

2.Civilisation and Nature

This one has always interested me. This dualismus comes natural with D&D, especially in 4th edition.

Wild places are dangerous to most playable races, it's where orks, goblinoids Gnolls and most monsters are. The only way you can defend yourself is huddle in civilised lands, at best in cities and rule nature with an Iron grip where you can.

And yet, we are represented with races such at elves, that dislike cities and live deep in the woods. And we get classes, in 4th edition a whole power source, dedicated to the wild and nature.

This why I'm not staging this theme as a matter of Civilisation vs. Nature. But as a more subtle conflict, that shows a clear dividing line, but generaly takes backstage.

The first step in this, is clearly dividing the gods from nature. It often made no sense to me, that there was a nature power source and classes and mechanics devoted to nature worship, while at the same time gods, as source of divine power, take nature portfolios, sometimes exclusively. In the world of "Failed Creation", gods are forces of civilisation. They are the gods that say: take the world for your own and shape it in our image.

But it's important that, while this is obviously a conflict, there are simply worse threats to the worshippers of the gods and nature and compromise is possible. After all I want divine and primal characters, to be able to adventure alongside. They might be philosophicaly and politically opposed, but that's a matter for political scenarios and interaction roleplay. A party might take a stance for one side or the other, but if they are mixed, they'll have to find common ground and could even spread that "new way of coexistence".

So, one might ask, where's the big conflicts?

3. Alignments!

I love alignments and bring back the classics. Well, kinda. As a rule, everything on the world is unaligned. Especially PC's start out unaligned. A being is aligned when it truly embodies Evil, Chaos, Order or Good.

Obviously, someone who is Evil (capital E) brings conflict to the world and the fight against Evil remains an inherent part of the game. But not every bandit and robber is evil. And fighting evil is not enough to be Good aligned. And actually that's enough about Good and Evil for me.

The other Axis, of course, is the question of Order and Chaos. I see this as a conflict without a right and wrong, but one where the PC's will frequently have to pick sides. Obviously Order brings stability and safety, but it also inhibits freedom. On the other hand Chaos brings freedom, but can also mean anarchy and boundless change, to the point where the laws of nature and sanity are shattered. PC's (especially the kind I'm used to) are a freedom loving bunch and their first instinct might be siding with Chaotic forces. But will it stay that way when they see the terrors limbo unleashes?

It should be mentioned that Order vs. Chaos is very different from the Civilisation/Nature axis. After all there's clearly a natural order and a Druid that sees his first farspawn or slaad will quickly learn there's worse things than cities. On the other hand there's no anarchy without a society to fall into it and to your regular citizen a modron or devil is just as terrible as a spawn of Chaos.

 

[Gold Roger]

Placing the playing pieces. Part 1

Races

Overview

There are the four major races, which dominant scholars divide into the blessed (humans and dwarfes) and the wild (elves and halflings). Then there are the five rare unnatural races (half-orcs, eladrin, dragonborn, deva and tieflings). Of course there are others (orcs, kobolds, gnolls and countless others), often lumped as beast people, but these aren't playable and rarely welcomed by the others, so they are of no concern here.


The Blessed

Humans and Dwarfes are called the blessed races, for they claim to be created and favored by the Gods. They certainly are the dominant races in civilised areas.

Humans

Well, we know these guys. But I might as well talk about the lands and cultural circles that figure into play. While the work is larger, play centers around one continent, which kann be divided into three main areas.

In the North lie the Stormlands or, creatively, the Northlands. The Stormlands where once occupied by the realm of the Storm-Emperor, a legendary figure, said to have been immortal, gigantic, a brilliant mage and powerfull warrior, who came from the mountains and forced the primitive tribes and petty kingdoms under his unified rule, until he disappeared, together with his capital one day (theres a big hole in the ground where the city once stood). While the Storm-Emperor was a brilliant ruler, he was also oppressive and was well known to use orcs, ogres and worse in his armies. Today it is a cold to temperate wild and rugged land of forests, plains and hills. Petty kingdoms, often divided by wide untamed areas are the only civilised lands here. Stormlander humans are pale people, looking pretty much central to north european.

To the South you find the Rainlands or what is nominally the "Holy Realm of the High Kings". The High King is an elected ruler from among the high nobility and priestship of these lands of marshes, tropic and subtropic rainforests and savannas. In actuallity the High Kings have controlled all of these lands and it doesn't help that their power has been declining for over 100 years so far. Southern humans are darker than Stormlanders, looking more like southeast asians or arabian, depending on the areas they are from.

Between these areas lies the rocky and blasted landscape of the burnigng bride, also called the shattered cross. The only overland connection between north and south, this region of two crossing Mountain chains and deserts is plagued by volkanic activity and free flowing arcane magic. Most of it's inhabitants life nomadic or in small isolated communities, but it is well known for it's bizarre and proud city-states, that mostly stand by the sea. The human people can look like almost anything human, thanks to long times isolation and the free raging arcane magic.


Dwarfes
Once uppon a time Dwarfes lived in the area that is now the burning bridge, but the cathastrophe that turned it into what it is now drove the Dwarfes north and south even before the High Kingdom and Storm-Empire arose. Mostly today dwarfes live among humans today, whom they taught scripture and advanced forging and architekture. Dwares often have priveledged position and control important parts of the economy, including even banking.

Dwarfes look pretty much how the PHB describes them. They grow older than humans, but still age pretty much the same way, just slower. They are monogamous and don't think much of gender roles (maybe because pregnancies are rarer and occur only when wanted).

The Wild

Considered wild, for they have never build realms of their own, still many halflings and elves live among humans and dwarfs.

Elves

Most elves have lived the same way practically forever. Elves prefer a nomadic life in the woodlands, organised in clans without any official leadership or worship, though they talk with nature spirits and practise primal magic. They can be unwelcoming to strangers, not surprising considering the problems others often bring over a clan. To civilised humans and dwarfes such free elves seem amoral and barbaric, especially for their lacking interest in gods and concept of marriage and monogamie.

In areas where slavery is practised (most of the south, parts of the other lands) elves are highly valued as slaves, while in many other places, especially the north, attempts to convert elves to a proper way of life are common, wether through missionaries or force. Some elves also travel voluntarily to the civilised land, thanks to curiosiy, while others are banished and have no other chance. Many elves have hard time living in villages and cities (when they can't afford or wouldn't even consider getting a home) and life as crimminals or beggars, while other do quite well, sometimes establishing places called elven sanctuaries, walled elven only parks in cities.

Elves look much like the PHB describes, unless they have aged. Elves grow, like dwarfes a bit older than humans, but age very different, growing more feral looking with age (teeth and nails grow sharper, eyes catlike, posture more hunched).


Halfling
There's two kinds of halflings.

One, most only hear from in stories or see in major trading ports. These are growling fiercely pierced and tatooed raiders of the sea that live in fortresslike ships, that, some say, can submerge and even fly. Nobody knows where these halflings have their homelands, but they have them and sometimes they trade peacefully with rare items, no sees elsewhere. Sometimes a halfling ship wrecks on the shores or individuals are marooned and that is, how over time, the second kind spread.

This kind of halflings lives among the other races, proudly calling themselfes landrats (or sometimes riverrats). Most of these halflings still travel much, trade and, so goes the prejudice, have their fingers in all things illegal.

Both kinds of halflings have a surprisingly similar way of life. They love to gamble (with a luck that is just disgusting) and joke. They also have a not so pleasant love for traffiking and consuming drugs, which may be a reason for their bad reputation. Despite this reputation they are experts at being welcomed and adjusting to their sorroundings. Halfling women, for some reason are just more agressive and dominating, and halflings tend to live matriarcharly. Halfling marriage is an odd thing, halflings marry early in life and never divorce, but see little reason for fidelity but still, expecting it themself. Thus halflings are fighting or complaining about their spouse almost constandly, yet would never seriously denie their love.



Well, so much for today, minor PC races later.

 

[Gold Roger]

Well, minor races much later, as it turns out

So, here they are:

Deva

Deva never where angels. But there once was a powerfull elder race, let's call them Ur-deva, that was most notable for it's dedication to the gods. And like all elder races (except for dragons) they pretty much died out. But some found a way to hold on to existence, splitting their souls from their bodies thanks to an "soul chamber" artifact. When humans found the chamber the deva convinced some of them to give them their bodies. Thus todays deva came to be, who are pretty much as PHB describes them and they founded the first empire remembered today, the devaic theocrathy, where every deva lived in luxory as a high priest. The "chamber" allowed them to reincarnate immediately with their full memory and they grew powerfull and decadent. Then one of their own grew dicontend and disillusioned of his race and the gods they worshiped. After decades of exile he returned and destroied the chamber, forever destroying the theocracy. The deva still reincarnate, but only after years, in random places and with massive memory loss. Deva can be found all over the world in various positions. About halve still serve the gods, though most gods of the theocracies time are dead or forgotten, while the other half turned away from the gods, dedicating themself to arcane studies, primal powers, actively fighting the gods or simply their own amusement. They appear as PHB 3 describes.

Half-Orcs

Many theories exist to why it is so, but humans and orks are related, as the existance of half-orks (often called half-men as well) proves. The most popular story tells how when the first human was created, the god wanted to much and found a tortured raging being. with one stroke that being was split in two, the good parts becoming human, the bad becoming the first ork. If this is true, half-orks are the recombination, a demonstration of what that proto-human was like. Nobody hates half-orks, they are pitied all around. Many half-orks worship gruumsh, who is sometimes said to have been a hal-ork. Others say the splitting of the races happened later and gruumsh was in fact the original proto-human, first ancestor of humanity and orks alike (to many humans this is unthinkable, you could as well tell them they descend from apes). Half-Orks are often associated with slavers and slavery, as for slavers they are stronger and more enduring than men, but easier to control than orks. Sometimes they are actively bred to become working slaves.

Dragonborn

No one knows if Arkosia was a person, a clan, a family, a realm or a god, but it's a name the dragonborn hol sacred. Known as truth is this, through Arkosia humans stole the might of dragons and became the race that is now known as dragonborn. Some say they bred with dragons, some say they drank enchanted dragonblood, some say they used a terrible ritual, but it did somehow happen. And then the dragons rose in revenge and destroyed Arkosia and almost the young race. But some dragonborn survived and with the Storm Emperor came their great time, from the first day of his conquests dragonborn fought at the front of the emperors army of humans, orks and even monsters. In fact many Dragonborn claim the storm Emeror as one of their own, but then, so do humans, orks, half-orks and dragons. Priveleged, but never numerous, in the empire, they fell down with it. There is a small realm of dragonborn slavers in the far north, operating much as the greek state of sparta in our ancient world, and some dragonborn families managed to hold on to their noble status, but most memberstoday wander the continent as mercenaries, slaves, slavers or bandits. Still, dragonborn stay a proud people, combining the god created heritage of humanity with draconic might. Dragonborn look as the PHB1 describes, with a bit more human heads. Drogonborn-human children are dragonborn, but very rare.

Eladrin

Sometimes called "high elves", though only by those that don't know better and better not in front of a eladrin or elf. While similar in appearance, the two races have little else in common. Eladrin have been known in the world for only 250 years. They are planar interlopers, who fled the destruction of their own world through the astral plane and found a new home on this one. Many feared the otherworldly arcanists, but plans to erradicate them where quickly stopped when 20 or 30 of them could erradicate cities and complete armies on their own. Most of these "elder eladrin" kept to themselves, establishing small enclaves, wether openly in a city or hidden by illusions in the wilds. While even today most of the old eladrin still live in seclusion, it is their descendants who are seen more often, curious about that new and exiting world they where born into and where they still have to find a place for themselfs. Eladrin are as tall as humans, but with a lighter build. Their hair and large glowing orb eyes can have any color imaginable, while their skin is usually pale. Eladrin don't seem to have a great sense of family, often making their own way. Wether this is tradition or some form of generation conflict between those clinging to the past and those looking into a nw future is an open question. Natural arcanists with no religious traditions of their own, still not all follow their inborn way and become mages, especially those young eladrin that want to become a part of their new homelands throw themself int the worship of nature or gods, with great enthusiasm. Eladrin are rare and some have never even heard of their existance.

Tieflings

No race in the world of "Failed Creation" is so different from the PHB version as the tiefling. In this world, tieflings are artificial beings, humanoids that cooked into being in a great cettel, according to ancient recipes. Often experimental creations, Tieflings appear as varied as is the purpose of their creators. The most common recipe, the Bael-Turathi recipe, creates Tieflings that looks as the PHB1 describes. But there are many variants, such as the pale legion of Atun, an army of genderless albino warrior with crowns of horns. Depending on the will of his creator Tieflings can be male, female, genderless, hermaphrotites or something else entirely (a matter best left unimagined). Still, Tielflings are always humanoid and in line with the PHB stats. As long as he lives and keeps them as retainer tieflings remain loyal and obedient to their master. That however, doesn't mean Tieflings are competent or without annoying qualities. Many masters kicked out a Tiefling that didn't turn out how he imagined, because he/she/it was a terrible singer, sloppy cleaner, looked ugly, always got distracted, was a coward or was to easy on the captive. Some Tieflings adventure on behalf of their masters, many more take up the profession when they are released from service or their master dies. Tieflings come into being fully grown and don't really age. Hower, they decay suddenly, sometimes after a few years, sometimes after centuries, litterary falling appart within weeks. More powerfull tieflings seem to live longer, another reason many Tieflings go adventuring, seeing their one chance to survive.