D&D General List the 3 Coolest Parts of Your Homebrew World

[RoughCoronet0]

1. The Devils of my world of Salvera aren't evil soul corrupters or scheming backstabbers. Instead they are forces of law and order that act as the dark protectors against the truly evil and corrupt forces of chaos and destruction such as demons and the denizens of the Far Realm. Each of the 7 Arch-devils act as paragons of different concepts that have both good and evil aspects. Many civilizations revere and follow the teaching of these Arch-devils, and at least two of them are viewed as actual hero's to the mortals. The first being Hekzia, the Serpent of Secrets, who taught mortals how to use arcane magic during the climax of the Creator Wars in order to protect themselves from the destructive forces of both the gods and primordials. The second is Zarkator, the Chromatic Treasurer, who came to the defense of the main dwarven kingdom when a mass flight of metallic dragons began razing their lands in an effort to exterminate all beings with chromatic dragon blood in their veins on the order of their celestial leader. Many a Paladin, Cleric, and Warlock align themselves with these beings and are treated as respected members within the devil's hierarchy.

2. Normally, when a soul dies, it goes to an appropriate Outer Plane that matches strongest with their moral views or to a plane connected to a creator god or some deity they worshipped in life. For Salvera however, the soul's connection to the Outer Plane was severed when the gods abandoned their creations and the Colossi (the immortal beings that act in their stead) banded together to stabilize the plane. Though the Colossi were powerful, they did not contain the level of divinity necessary to pull any normal follower to them in order to be reborn on the Colossi’s demiplane like the Gods could. Only the truly devout could achieve the ability to anchor themselves to their Colossi in life, so they could be properly drawn to their afterlife in death. This meant that most souls would have simply wandered the Material and Ethereal Planes to be tormented and preyed upon by all manner of horrid creatures until they faded alone into oblivion. Likewise, new souls would have ceased to be created as they stemmed from the Outer Plane as well. However, one Colossi would not allow the mortals who had fought and died so valiantly for their traitorous creators to suffer such a fate. So, in an act many claim to be the breaking point between the gods and their creations, a powerful being known as Letheus attacked the very foundation of a floating structure in the Astral Sea that contained the most powerful artifact the gods have ever created, the Wellspring of Souls, causing it to fall onto the Material Plane.

The Wellspring of Souls is an Artifact larger than the largest lake on the plane, said to have been made by the gods to infuse all their creations on the plane with a spark of their divine essence, a soul. Soon after the Colossi stabilized the plane, Letheus created a huge demiplane to house the Wellspring, which now both the artifact and the great serpent reside. There, Letheus acts as the being in charge of death and rebirth, taking the souls of the boundless (those not bound to a Colossi's afterlife) into its huge undead snake body through it's front head and purifying them for rebirth, releasing them though it's back head. It is also in charge of releasing brand new souls from the well into the cycle of life and death. Letheus maintains this cycles, and ensures that mortals are given every opportunity to achieve their desired afterlife. Only willing souls are allowed to be claimed by the other Colossi and no one would dare challenge it's authority as they are stated to be the most powerful of these ancient beings.

3. Though the Colossi have managed to stabilize the plane after the Creator Wars and work to maintain the balance of the different forces, much of the world is still scarred even after several eons. Several places of the plane were forever changed due to these forces that spilled out during the war, and the remaining planar tears and scars have slowly leaked their energies from various places that have change the surrounding ecosystems overtime. The continent of Multa is a rich source of minerals and elemental energies that spills from tears from the Elemental Chaos. Izeron is a land of darkness, corruption, and necrotic energies that shrouds the whole continent is gloom and grays, though at it's center stands a massive volcano that slowly spews bright positive energy that stands in defiance against the various energies leaks from the lower planes. The Twilight Forest of the continent of Avarune has been infused with both the vibrant energies of the Feywild and the draining shadows of the Shadowfell to create a place always bathed in under a starry sky.

 

[el-remmen]

1. The PCs come from a place where the vast majority of monsters have been hunted to extinction (or live in zoos) but adventure on the other side of the world where such creatures still exist and are dangerous. Thus, I encourage players to lean on whatever half-remembered knowledge of monsters they have since their characters would have similar fragmented or erroneous knowledge of these legendary monsters.
2. Similarly, most goblinoids (and all orcs) were victims of genocide by the so-called "Free Peoples" (humans, elves, dwarves, halfling, gnomes) and both those communities and their victims are beginning to see that this great history is a tragedy and the "Free Peoples" are not as "good" as they always claim (nor were the humanoids as "bad"). Because of this no one knows (or have forgotten) that hobgoblins are just female goblins (being bigger, stronger, and often smarter than their male counterparts). In my current game, the PCs are curious why every hobgoblin mercenary they find in this part of the world has been a woman.
3. There is a mysterious Hollow World with a red sun (the world's core) in place of the Underdark - where many monsters and other creatures fled to - and both are beginning to emerge from and using for quicker travel between points on the surface world.

 

[Voadam]

Because of this no one knows (or have forgotten) that hobgoblins are just female goblins (being bigger, stronger, and often smarter than their male counterparts). In my current game, the PCs are curious why every hobgoblin mercenary they find in this part of the world has been a woman.

It is an interesting point that they picked up on the all female hobgoblins but so far not the inverse of all goblins they find being male.

Neat set up.

 

[Laurefindel]

It is an interesting point that they picked up on the all female hobgoblins but so far not the inverse of all goblins they find being male.

Neat set up.

To be fair (to the players, not the principle), an all-woman hunting/war party has been, historically for us at least, mention-worthy while a full male-party isn't even questionned, if not assumed as default.

 

[el-remmen]

It is an interesting point that they picked up on the all female hobgoblins but so far not the inverse of all goblins they find being male.

Neat set up.

They haven't met any goblins yet! But they will be soon as they'll be facing a troll-led war party from the world below.

 

[Bupp]

For your perusal:

Eska

Home – Blog Database – For Dungeon Masters – Chapter Two: Multiverse – Worlds Like, Follow, Share, Support! The Mayans Were Right Eska Eska’s Appendix N Calendar…

jonbupp.wordpress.com

1. I try to break species stereotypes.
After a two millennium war between the elves which pulled in the entire continent, the drow have the moral high ground, though they now live underground in the dwarven halls. The dwarves, driven to the surface, are now a bit "cracked" by loosing their connection to their homelands. The gray ("high") elves enslave goblins, and created hobgoblins to fill their legions in the war.

2. It has more Magic the Gathering lore than D&D lore.
Pretty heavy on Star Wars as well. The party has just had their first encounter with the eldrazi, and have met a couple characters based on MtG Planeswalkers. The previously mentioned drow are just Nightsisters. Rock gnomes and warforged are Jawas and droids.

3. Most species have unique weapons and/or mounts.
Dwarves ride axebeaks and swing around censers of poison gas. Wood elves ride griffins and have tracer arrows. Grey elves wield vibro-blades, while hobgoblins have shocklances.

 

[Fifinjir]

@Levistus's_Leviathan offered a poster leave to revive this thread, and the context implied that it wasn’t limited to that poster. My apologies if I assumed wrongly.

1. The Wind of Dreams

Spoiler

Every living beings “mind” or “self” is connected to the Divine Realm in some way, and can be influenced by it. However, this same self/mind is not one complete whole, but made of many parts, it’s not entirely wrong to say that each person is themselves a hivemind. Sometimes energy from the Divine Realm attaches to one of these parts of a person and gives it a sort of independence from the rest of the mind, turning it into a different creature usually referred to as a fey. This is called the Wind of Dreams because Divine influences is often likened to wind and because fey and the person they come from are connected by their dreams.

As you can expect, this has a major dark side. The Void, the broken and corrupted part of the Divine Realm, has this power too, and it can turn a part of a mind weighed down by suffering or malice into a sorrowsworn (which includes to ones referred to as such in the monster list, but also other creatures like shadows). These spread their misery to anyone they can reach, and torment their originator with dreams of the havoc they cause.

Fey and sorrowsworn usually exist in the dreamworld that exists between the material world and divine realm (the feywild and Shadowfell blended into one, essentially), but have many means of entering the material. Many cultures have attempted to deal with the sorrowsworn problem, most of them poorly.

2. Undeath

Spoiler

Reborn and ghosts were the original undead, meant to allow a person whose life ended too soon to put their affairs in order. But the mechanism that allowed this was damaged by the Void, bringing zombies, ghouls, wraiths, and the like into the world. People can still become original undead, and they control the biggest city that’s still operational (not needing farmland helps), but more often than not it’s the person’s sorrowsworn that takes control of the corpse. Specters and wraiths, as well as vampires, are the most cursed of undead, because they’re a fusion of the original soul and the malign influence from the Void. Liches, however, are hated and feared even by them because a lich is essentially someone who looked at the suffering of undeath and said, “worth it!”.

3. The Divine Mystery

Spoiler

Speaking of the Divine Realm itself, it’s known that there are being within it that influence the world. Reports of angels, fiends, modrons, and other entities are well attested to; and clerics know their power comes from living beings rather than mindless phenomena. But the identity and motivations of the divine beings at the highest levels are shrouded in mystery, and subject to speculation and wild guesses. Sometimes prophets arise, but how does one separate divine revelation from mortal opinions?

Therefore, the religions of the world teach mutually exclusive ideas, and no one knows for sure which ones are right.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

@Levistus's_Leviathan offered a poster leave to revive this thread, and the context implied that it wasn’t limited to that poster. My apologies if I assumed wrongly.

Nope, that offer was open to everyone. Thanks for bringing back the thread!

(I'm generally okay with my threads being necroed, so long as they remain constructive. Especially threads like this one, which are meant to inspire and be positive.)

And that lore looks awesome! Thanks for posting that. Some bits of it are pretty similar to ideas that have been bouncing around my head recently.

 

[Fifinjir]

Nope, that offer was open to everyone. Thanks for bringing back the thread!

(I'm generally okay with my threads being necroed, so long as they remain constructive. Especially threads like this one, which are meant to inspire and be positive.)

And that lore looks awesome! Thanks for posting that. Some bits of it are pretty similar to ideas that have been bouncing around my head recently.

Thank you. It took a while to get these concepts into a for I liked.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Sweet I can shamelessly self promote the Hodgepocalypse

1. Cats are fully sentient and often psychic in the hodgepocalypse and are essentially bob cat sized. They are potential Player characters.
2. Because the Hodgepocalypse only happened a few hundred years ago, the oldest dragon's are teenagers: Fairly powerful, but very immature.
3. In the ruins of the Great Mall, west of Ed-town, A colony of Cats raise dragons in a makeshift colony in the Parking lot.

and a bonus one
4. Phase IV of the mall is controlled by a teenaged Dragon by the name of Tiffany. In order to appear more fearsome, she has taken over the theatre using modern technology and magic has created a Dragon Puppet called "the great and powerful Growlwing" that acts as ruler of this section of the mall.