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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 344324" data-attributes="member: 114">Well, I figured that my chance of success in this phase was only about 0.1% at best, so I'm not so surprised to not be selected. This setting is actually my current campaign (and has been for many, many years... getting threadbare? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)Planes of Kyri 1. Core Ethos Sentence. While nations scheme and fight, extra-planar horrors are manipulating them in order to expedite their return to the world they once called home.2. Who are the heroes? Ultimately the heroes are those who can lift their eyes above their local troubles and see some of the bigger picture, the dangers which threaten to engulf their whole world. Humanoids who seek to leave their enclaves and make contact with the other races once again. Races and classes of heroes from many nations who band together and overcome their differences combining together in a picture of the way which the nations too must eventually work together if disaster is to be kept at bay. Each nation, each hero knows something of the threats that are coming. By pooling their resources, the puzzles may be solved.Older heroes exist, who have tried and failed at the task and may now act as mentors – or foes – to the emerging heroes of this age.3. What do they do? As political relationships between nations collapse, most heroes start out solving local problems – border disputes between nations and humanoid incursions. Some will venture into tombs and dungeons left over from the glory days of the Jade Empire. As the heroes become more powerful and gain rank in their factions, they move onto the political stage and tackle the underlying issues between nations. They may become involved in attempts to forge alliances between the humanoid races against the coming darkness of the manipulative Mind Flayers.Ultimately the heroes have to learn how to take the battle across the planes to defeat the ultimate foes on their home ground.4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains. The Mind Flayers and their kin used to rule this plane, but the god Asura arrived and defeated their gods, exiling them from this plane. They want their plane back, so while organising raids for tasty brains, the Mind Flayers and their kin are also attempting to destabilise the nations, reduce the power of the god Asura and free their own inimical gods.Through promise and terror the monstrous tribes are being stirred up against humanity, while manipulations and factionalism is resulting in border skirmishes and unrest between most of the nations of the world. Old enmities are not easily forgotten, and are quickly fanned back into flame.Within the monotheistic cult of Asura itself, there are schisms between the evangelistic good sub cults, let alone the impact of banned, evil sub cults of Asura. Religious upheaval in their homeland is forcing refugees out into the other nations.5. Nature of magic. Magic is drawn from the inter-planar spaces in this cosmology. The magic using classes all unlock and shape the same forces, although they use different means to do so. Most magic items were created years ago, and the techniques for crafting them long forgotten. As a result, almost all magical items are unique, and have a long history and background.6. What’s new? What’s different? It is not a homogenous world. Nationality is very important, and it is reflected in the languages, skills and classes available in each place. There is a strong association between character classes and particular nations. History is important, and many secrets of the ancients can be discovered by those with the daring, knowledge and will to seek them out. Factionalism is important. Within each nation and society, there are many good and evil factions with differing goals. Often the public goal of a particular faction hides the underlying plans of their leadership. Meanwhile the Mind Flayers and their kin work to destabilise the world, and weaken the power of Asura, the god who exiled them. Asura’s power depends upon the number and especially the unity of his worshippers...Above all, this world is one of suspicion, factions, manipulation and hard choices. It is never quite clear who is pulling the strings. My aim was to try to highligh a setting with scalable challenges, the kind of political shenanigans which could prove interesting in novels and lots of plot hooks/conflicts of interest.Was it a mistake to mention mind flayers by name? Possibly <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Walking the tightrope between too general and too specific is always tricky.For all the settings which I read, the core ethos sentence is the one which really has to grab me to make me interested in reading the rest. How does mine do?Cheers[edit] In hindsight I wish I could have polished by "them" and "their" to improve clarity...</blockquote>

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