QuietBrowser
First Post
So...I recently stumbled across D&D 3e's Warband tie-in game, Chainmail, and the setting fluff (what little of it there was), combined with my limited knowledge of the videogame "For Honor", inspired me. So, I want to do my own setting in a similar "fantasy world at war" type of world.
Only problem is... I only got a few faction concepts, so I could use a hand in coming up with other neat countries to be at loggerheads with the rest of the world.
Oh, and whilst I'm sticking with Nentir Vale and the World Axis as the foundation, I intend to plunder lore from past editions too, such as the presence of Hutaakans and/or Aranea.
Anyone interested in helping out? These are the factions I have so far.
Survivors of Nerath
Before the Dark Time, the cataclysmic upheaval that had preceded the current Age of War, the human empire of Nerath was known as a bastion of light and justice. A theocracy sworn to Bahamut, Pelor and Erastil, its armies of paladin-knights strove to uphold peace and protect the weak.
When the Dark Time came, they were overwhelmed by malevolent forces. Besieged, they pleaded for help with old allies... but none came. Nerath fell, its churches burned, its people scattered, and the priest-kings slain to the last.
Humanity has never forgotten nor forgiven the treachery of supposed allies. Now, the Nerathians are a culture of mercenaries, working shamelessly alongside any other race that will provide payment.
(I have some vague thoughts that "Fallen Nerath" actually survived due to surprise help from traditional enemies - orcs or goblinoids - who sided with them because they didn't want to see *their* enemies beaten by somebody else, which has actually made them close allies in the present. Not sure if that's an idea worth pursuing, though.)
The Worldweavers
In the bitter north, the land is wild and dangerous. Storms lash the mountain peaks, carved by glaciers and riddled with volcanoes, and churn the frigid seas into froth. In this place, the powers of the elements are manifest, and so the dwarves have sought to prove their dominance through the binding of the forces of the primordial chaos.
Unlike on other worlds, sorcery and spellcraft are the backbone of dwarven culture. When they march to war, beings called myrmidions - elementals reshaped and remolded into killing machines - lead the charge. Some dwarven clans have embraced elementalism to the point of mutating into new forms; fiery Azers, stony Galeb Duhr, and frozen Eisk Jaat.
But most intimidating of all are the great living weapons of the dwarves; elemental fury bound to hulking frames. In this world, Giants and Titans are the slaves of dwarves - for it was the dwarves who created them.
The Darkwood Kingdom
Once, it is said, the elves were a peaceful race, who lived in harmony with nature, for they had been born to tend to it. That was before the Dark Time.
In the Age of War, the elves have become corrupt, arrogant and narcissistic. They see themselves as nature's masters, not its shepherds. Using their former titles as the source of their power, they have enslaved lesser fae and melded them with beasts and plants, creating slave-races with whose blood they will win back the lands of civilization and stretch their shadowed groves from sea to sea.
The Charnel Queendom
From blasted lands they come, legions of walking dead and screaming, sorcery-chained fiends. At their backs stride the true masters of the horde; jackals that walk like men, cold and cruel as the obsidian they wield, flanked by cackling, shrieking, demon-bred gnolls.
Worshippers of Mordiggian and Shub-Niggurath, the (Hutaakan) jackal-folk are an ancient and decadent race, who care for little beyond their studies of dark magic and the freedom to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. But this Age of War is a temptation to expand and acquire ever greater territories, and how can they resist?
Doom may come from within, however, as their new creations, the gnolls, chafe under the dominance of their masters and yearn to be free.
Only problem is... I only got a few faction concepts, so I could use a hand in coming up with other neat countries to be at loggerheads with the rest of the world.
Oh, and whilst I'm sticking with Nentir Vale and the World Axis as the foundation, I intend to plunder lore from past editions too, such as the presence of Hutaakans and/or Aranea.
Anyone interested in helping out? These are the factions I have so far.
Survivors of Nerath
Before the Dark Time, the cataclysmic upheaval that had preceded the current Age of War, the human empire of Nerath was known as a bastion of light and justice. A theocracy sworn to Bahamut, Pelor and Erastil, its armies of paladin-knights strove to uphold peace and protect the weak.
When the Dark Time came, they were overwhelmed by malevolent forces. Besieged, they pleaded for help with old allies... but none came. Nerath fell, its churches burned, its people scattered, and the priest-kings slain to the last.
Humanity has never forgotten nor forgiven the treachery of supposed allies. Now, the Nerathians are a culture of mercenaries, working shamelessly alongside any other race that will provide payment.
(I have some vague thoughts that "Fallen Nerath" actually survived due to surprise help from traditional enemies - orcs or goblinoids - who sided with them because they didn't want to see *their* enemies beaten by somebody else, which has actually made them close allies in the present. Not sure if that's an idea worth pursuing, though.)
The Worldweavers
In the bitter north, the land is wild and dangerous. Storms lash the mountain peaks, carved by glaciers and riddled with volcanoes, and churn the frigid seas into froth. In this place, the powers of the elements are manifest, and so the dwarves have sought to prove their dominance through the binding of the forces of the primordial chaos.
Unlike on other worlds, sorcery and spellcraft are the backbone of dwarven culture. When they march to war, beings called myrmidions - elementals reshaped and remolded into killing machines - lead the charge. Some dwarven clans have embraced elementalism to the point of mutating into new forms; fiery Azers, stony Galeb Duhr, and frozen Eisk Jaat.
But most intimidating of all are the great living weapons of the dwarves; elemental fury bound to hulking frames. In this world, Giants and Titans are the slaves of dwarves - for it was the dwarves who created them.
The Darkwood Kingdom
Once, it is said, the elves were a peaceful race, who lived in harmony with nature, for they had been born to tend to it. That was before the Dark Time.
In the Age of War, the elves have become corrupt, arrogant and narcissistic. They see themselves as nature's masters, not its shepherds. Using their former titles as the source of their power, they have enslaved lesser fae and melded them with beasts and plants, creating slave-races with whose blood they will win back the lands of civilization and stretch their shadowed groves from sea to sea.
The Charnel Queendom
From blasted lands they come, legions of walking dead and screaming, sorcery-chained fiends. At their backs stride the true masters of the horde; jackals that walk like men, cold and cruel as the obsidian they wield, flanked by cackling, shrieking, demon-bred gnolls.
Worshippers of Mordiggian and Shub-Niggurath, the (Hutaakan) jackal-folk are an ancient and decadent race, who care for little beyond their studies of dark magic and the freedom to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. But this Age of War is a temptation to expand and acquire ever greater territories, and how can they resist?
Doom may come from within, however, as their new creations, the gnolls, chafe under the dominance of their masters and yearn to be free.