I need help for my first homebrew setting

[Tales and Chronicles]

So, as the title says: I decided today to create my own setting and I'd like ask the community for good ideas. I came to realized that there's a lot of setting inspired from medieval/classic Europe, Japan, Arabic world etc, but I dont have a lot of material on North American Fantasy. I know Albeir-Toril is supposed to have a continent called Anchorome which is north of the ''new world'' Maztica, but there's little information on the subject. So I'd like to create a setting inspired by the first years of European establishment in the northern new world. I want to draw inspiration from the Great Lakes First Nations legends and French, Welsh, Dutch, Celt mythology. I'll probably go for a grimdark heart fantasy with fae-gothic feel, but any idea is welcome.

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As a starting point I created a small lore:
- 35 years ago, the Good Princess went to war against an old empire she saw as evil, lost the war AND her country to the counter-attack of said empire. She called a great exodus across the sea and went north to a new continent. The Good Princess tasked her men to drag the 100 ships in shallow waters and build a city by linking all ships together. Thus is born Home, the City of Sails.


- The new world is hostile: environment is the greatest threat. Very Point of Light
- Magic is respected by most Heritage, but Enchantment is considered evil.
- Only one warrior Goddess, many Saints.
- No Tolkienesque races. This is the hardest part so far.
- Its a watery world: the lakes and rivers are many and are the life-lines of civilization
- Gun?
- Some Factions: Lantern-Bearers (Protect the small pockets of civilization), The Shore Guard (Home's militia), Pilgrim of the Silver Roads (Clerics and monks who map the unknown rivers and lakes)

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To spark some ideas, I also created a bestiary of the setting with beasts/races that could inhabit it:


Deer Woman - Centaur like, mix of Dryad and Unicorn
White Stag
Kelpie - Water fiend taking the shape of steed
Selkie- Shapeshifting seal people (Possible player race)
Mothman - Potentialy take the place of classic Vampires
Bugbear - Child snatcher goblinoid
Loup Garou - demonic werewolf
Barghest - Cursed Wolf, devour ghosts
Loup Noir - Cruel, intelligent wolves, cunning enough to be BBEG
Cetan - Giant hawk-shaped air elemental
Pamola - Giant Peryton with winter-y powers
Rain Bird - Phoenix-like water elemental
Thunderbird- Roc-sized elemental lord that hunts dragon
Horned Serpent - Trickster spirit, shapeshifting wyrm
Mishipeshu - Giant water displacer beast
Crawfish men - may replaces orcs
Sequoia Titans - gargantuan treant
Chasse-Galerie - Demon-possesed fly-canoe handled by damned deads
The Sturgeon King - Wise king of the Lake
Nothern Wyvern
Big-Footed Ones - Hairy Giants (Player races?)
Amarok - Fiendish winter-wolf, likes duels
Flying Whales - Giantic whales living in the moisture in the clouds
(a player race will inhabit the mouth of such whales)
Hippogriff
Gauvin - Horse possessed by the ghost of a mistreated mount, tries to fool and kill riders
Bodmin - Lynx-shaped Will-o-Wisp, watch over farmland
Salmon of Knowledge- Powerful magic-using large salmon,kind-hearted but hunted for their skin used for spellbooks and their meat is rumored to give magical powers
Azeban - Racoon people (Possibly player race)
Werebeast- Werebear, Wearboar and Werebadgers
Wendigo - Primal ghouls
Ogopogo - Dragon Eel
Jackalope
Rat-King - Hive mind of rats
Rooster-Horses - Large riding rooster
Shaggy trouts - large fish herded like sheeps
Marble Bisons - Bisons actually covered by stony hairs
Mammoth
Mammoth-Moth - A giant moth with tusk (god those bugs creep me out)
La Velue - Very hairy steam-breathing manticore with a tortoise shell
Tupilaq - Animated ivory construct made to kill mages
Blodeuwedd - Artifical owls made of wood and flowers, use enchantement magic
Bloody bones - Drowned undead who hunts a night
Rainbow Crow - Bring luck to real heroes


So at this point, really any ideas is welcomed. If you have original things that you think may be fun to add, please do.

 

[Tony Vargas]

. I'll probably go for a grimdark heart fantasy with fae-gothic feel

Can't say I've heard of that sub-genre.

As a starting point I created a small lore:
- 35 years ago, the Good Princess went to war against an old empire she saw as evil, lost the war AND her country to the counter-attack of said empire. She called a great exodus across the sea and went north to a new continent. The Good Princess tasked her men to drag the 100 ships in shallow waters and build a city by linking all ships together. Thus is born Home, the City of Sails.

I like it. Is this going to be Age of Sail fantasy, rather than the usual medieval?

The Good Princess sounds like a perfect 13th Age 'Icon,' if you're familiar or might consider lifting from that game.

- The new world is hostile: environment is the greatest threat. Very Point of Light
- Magic is respected by most Heritage, but Enchantment is considered evil.

Fireballs and zombies are just tools, but charm person is evil? Sounds like this culture really values free will...

- Only one warrior Goddess, many Saints.
- No Tolkienesque races. This is the hardest part so far.

If your natives and invaders are all human you set up racial conflict without the shield of fantasy races. It's easy to have racial tensions between dwarves & elves or implacable hatred between elves & orcs, but if they're all humans...

- Its a watery world: the lakes and rivers are many and are the life-lines of civilization
- Some Factions: Lantern-Bearers (Protect the small pockets of civilization), The Shore Guard (Home's militia), Pilgrim of the Silver Roads (Clerics and monks who map the unknown rivers and lakes)

Sounds good. Ready-made factions like in AL, obvious exploration hooks.

Gun?

Sure! Go with the age of Sail, canons, matchlocks or wheellocks they're pretty cool theyre so slow to reload they shouldn't hurt D&D combat too much.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Can't say I've heard of that sub-genre.

I like it. Is this going to be Age of Sail fantasy, rather than the usual medieval?

The Good Princess sounds like a perfect 13th Age 'Icon,' if you're familiar or might consider lifting from that game.
Fireballs and zombies are just tools, but charm person is evil? Sounds like this culture really values free will...

If your natives and invaders are all human you set up racial conflict without the shield of fantasy races. It's easy to have racial tensions between dwarves & elves or implacable hatred between elves & orcs, but if they're all humans...

Sounds good. Ready-made factions like in AL, obvious exploration hooks.

Sure! Go with the age of Sail, canons, matchlocks or wheellocks they're pretty cool theyre so slow to reload they shouldn't hurt D&D combat too much.

-Yeah, its the kind of game genre you get when you're not sure where you're going with your story
Grimdark and fae-goth are mostly the same thing: the land is inhabited by elemental/emotional spirits that are hostile to you. You and your group are a little point of light in a sea of darkness. The mentality of those spirits is completely alien to he human mind. Ex: You could have to fight a song that came to life and went mad because she was trapped in the echo between to mountain for 100 years. Heart fantasy is when the world building favor the idea of the power of the group, the importance of friendship, sacrifice for the love one. As I say to my players when starting a game in this genre: Heart fantasy does not make you a hero because of what you fight, it makes you a hero because of who you're fighting for. Your not saving the world for glory or out of vengeance or for a greater cause, you stand against the dark so those you care about, your family and friends may stand in the light.

- I think I'll keep the title ''the Good Princess'', I hadnt thought of the Icons, but I think I'll use them.
The Good Princess
The Sturgeon King
The Wizard in the Whale
The King of Rat
The Pincer Knight
etc

- Freedom should be an important theme of the setting. The act of removing free-will for your own profit is truly horrific to me, even for ''good-reasons''. One of the main Heritage (races) will be Freeman/woman for those newcomers who refused to stay ''captive'' in the few villages and went to live at the edge of the wilderness.

- My take is to downplay the human conflicts. The inhabitant of Home are not really conquerors (though some may be) and, in the case of a Point of Light setting, I like the idea of having those newcomers team up with the more hospitable inhabitants of this strange land against the darkness of the wild.

Anyway, thank you very much for your comment!