D&D 5E Pick Thy Apocalypse

[CreamCloud0]

intentionally caused or not it's not known, but two universes with significantly different aesthetics collided and were forcibly but unevenly merged together, meaning some areas are high magitech Final Fantasy civilizations while others are filled with Sonic the Hedgehog-esc animal people, platformer bizzarchitecture and warp zone-special stages.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

So upcoming game. I've got the start figured out but thinking of the ancient past.

Post apocalyptic.

Just thinking of the nature of yhat Apocalypse. Magic go boom or wrecking the environment are traditional ones along with nukes, gods, or environmental cataclysm.

Any ideas? I'm thinking ancient halfling biomages who created the various magical races. Something goes wrong and yeah.

Maybe even two apocalyptic events.
Any thought bit of writers block.

For a different version:

It is the Year of Our World 1000 Post Cataclysm. I am Novice Mette Greenfield recording on behest of Magus Ruificent.

We left the demiplane of Twiver early in the morning as a group of six. Captain Gyremore and Thyroar the Strong came as guards. Druid Phymore accompanied us to help evaluate the flora and fauna. Yosem the Ranger also came, since he'd travelled the furthest.

The world near Twiver is healed enough that we have been able to spread outward. Still, the main citadel remains detached and offers a secure keep should any mutamals threaten. The Hedge Druids have been watching the crops carefully, and any oddities are separated and studied lest they cause trouble. Thankfully, so far most have been benign. No one wants a repeat of the jackalanterns.

At nooning we rested. The sun was bright enough, though still a bit filtered by the Gauze. If ever the sun goddess Lewkae can be recovered, she will surely be able to banish that enmeshing haze. We did not linger too long since we wanted to get as far as we could before sunset.

By late afternoon we had reached the edge of the healed area and could clearly see that the plants ahead bore signs of chaos. In the far distance we saw what looked like mountains--though we did not live in a valley. It was the first I'd ever seen of the Rending. As the long shadows crept closer, we set up an uneasy camp. This far from civilization, who knew what might lurk in the dark?

Primordial Chaos came careening towards the Prime. The deities leapt into action to deny it. They were sundered, and the Chaos diminished, but it became obvious they could not hold it off. The Mages created Sanctuaries--demiplanes where (hopefully) civilization could be safe if worse came to worse.

The last to leave--indeed the last of all--were the Biomancers who sealed the demiplanes and promised to mitigate the damage. What became of them is unknown, but their valiant efforts were not in vain. Though the Chaos Rendered the world, life did not end--though it changed almost beyond recognition. The sundered deities are known to survive, but how to revive them remains unknown.

Areas of the world healed over time, allowing forays into once-familiar areas, now changed forever. The worst was the mutamals--animals changed in hideous ways. Plants were not spared either and often produced strange life. Rumors crept back that the Feywild had merged with the Prime in places, with tantalizingly placid appearance. And, somewhere, the Heart of Chaos resides.

 

[briggart]

Are you familiar with The Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickman?

Some mild spoilers for the setting:

Spoiler

In the past two superhuman races with vast magical powers warred against each other. As a result of the war reality has been split into 4 worlds based on the classic elements: Air, Earth, Fire, & Water. At the beginning of the saga, the worlds are isolated and inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes, which have lost most knowledge of the past and of the other worlds. The two superhuman races have vanished and considered to be myths, gods, folk tales.

 

[Bitbrain]

So upcoming game. I've got the start figured out but thinking of the ancient past.

Post apocalyptic.

Just thinking of the nature of yhat Apocalypse. Magic go boom or wrecking the environment are traditional ones along with nukes, gods, or environmental cataclysm.

Any ideas?

Maybe even two apocalyptic events.

Well, my dad once ran a game where the apocalypse was the result of the planet being exchanged between two stars in a binary system. One yellow and the other red. Basically it would orbit one star for about three thousand years before being exchanged.

Might not sound too bad at first, but the event was absolutely traumatic for the societies and cultures of said planet.

In the world I was planning the apocalypse is the Astral Plane that was the plane that was the glue that held the other planes in place vanished, so in places other planes have collided with the Prime Material plane and you can literally step from one plane into another sometimes without realising it.

Basically not just the world but the whole of D&D cosmology is screwed.

Swap the Astral Plane for the Ethereal, and this is basically the premise of the third-party quasi-cyberpunk fantasy setting Crystalpunk.

 

[Xetheral]

If you want an apocolypse that isn't intentional but is still cataclysmic, having the planet's closest moon fall below the roche limit and break apart--with the pieces deorbiting over a decade or two--provides a fun slow-motion catastrophe. For a faster version of the same thing, it could be a comet instead of a moon, ala Shoemaker-Levy 9.

 

[Zardnaar]

Are you familiar with The Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickman?

Some mild spoilers for the setting:

Spoiler

In the past two superhuman races with vast magical powers warred against each other. As a result of the war reality has been split into 4 worlds based on the classic elements: Air, Earth, Fire, & Water. At the beginning of the saga, the worlds are isolated and inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes, which have lost most knowledge of the past and of the other worlds. The two superhuman races have vanished and considered to be myths, gods, folk tales.

Read it 1996/97.

 

[Zardnaar]

If you want an apocolypse that isn't intentional but is still cataclysmic, having the planet's closest moon fall below the roche limit and break apart--with the pieces deorbiting over a decade or two--provides a fun slow-motion catastrophe. For a faster version of the same thing, it could be a comet instead of a moon, ala Shoemaker-Levy 9.

Have thought of dinosaur killer type impact.

Kinda screws the world for 30k years. Sealer one and shorter time frame I've considered (See Golarion).