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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreatLemur" data-source="post: 3809903" data-attributes="member: 28553">Ah, hell.  Now I'm really thinking about this as a setting concept.Okay, so if I was going to do a psionics-as-the-only-supernatural-power campaign setting, I'd probably be doing a little bit of a Chinese riff.  The whole routine of people going off to monasteries to learn to focus their minds and access superhuman abilities pretty much screams "kung fu flick" to me.So I'll say that the position of psionics in society is analogous to the position of martial arts in a Chinse fantasy movie: There are many organizations of varying power and prestige teaching different psionic techniques to applicants, with varied entry requirements and ultimate goals.  Some function like monasteries, some function like universities, and some function like mercenary companies.  Many of them have enough power--martial and political--to be major players throughout the region, and they traditionally consider themselves (loyalty-wise) outside the boundaries of any nations.  They'd frequently combine their psionic teachings with martial techniques, and the different schools could be represented by different psionic (or adapted non-psionic) character classes.  Frankly, there could even be schools teaching purely mundane martial abilities which are still considered to be part of the same general tradition of the psionic organizations.The primary focus of the setting would be half a continent of extremely rough, mountainous terrain.  There'd be icy peaks, wind-blown steppes, hidden valleys, isolated plateaus, plenty of caves (natural and artificial), and maybe a little bit of volcanic activity.  So, varied terrain, but with a focus on harsh elements and difficult travel.  The main culture would be human (I'm thinking of this as an all-human campaign, really), and divided up into large, isolated, fairly advanced city states with a lot of less sophisticated rural folks living between them.  A great many psionic schools would be secluded in the wilderness, away from the power of the city states, but others (those that are more university than monastery, particularly) would operate in the heart of civilization.Religion in this setting would be much more about people than about world-creating gods.  There'd be ancestor worship, religions concerning human transcendence to a divine state, religions centered around "becoming one with" some sort of faceless godhead, groups that psionically cultivate their own artificial god-like group minds, etc.  There'd be no actual divine magic, but (with proper psionic and theological training) some worshippers might be able to call upon the abilities of an ancestor, saint, or deity in the same way that Binders wield powers of vestiges.Some kind of psionic Artificer class might be a nice thing to include, since it'd open the door to all kinds of psionic devices, but a setting without any kind magic items might be a nice change.  And having martial and psionic abilities without arcane or divine certainly suggests a nice theme personal, internal power.I think the other half of the continent--separated from the primary setting by a truly massive and brutal mountain range--should be a region of desert and savanna.  The people there would mostly live in small, nomadic groups, and have little occasion to fight over their scant natural resources.  They'd be much less capable in warfare or technology, but very advanced in psionics.  Many of the mountain people's psionic schools could trace their origins back to a traveller who visited the desert lands, or even a family of immigrants from there.Finally, since this is psionics-focused setting, it obviously needs illithids.  And gith.  And I'd like some aboleths, too.  I'm still thinking about how they'd fit into things, though.</blockquote>

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