TheIdeaOfGood
Explorer
This is just a basic idea which I am putting forward, mostly to know if it has some traction or is interesting enough to develop further.
Basic idea: In the setting, souls are reincarnated constantly and sometimes, souls can grow more powerful over multiple lifetimes. This is the explanation why PCs are usually more powerful than most NPCs. Heroic and villainous individuals of great power bore such old and powerful souls.
The world was basically a regular fantasy setting otherwise until a powerful cabal of evil warlords, warlocks and clerics o the dark deities found a way to break the cycle, preventing powerful souls from reincarnating except to their own conditions. As the heroes of old died, the cabal rose to greater and greater power until their reign was pretty much absolute.
Alas, to quote TVtropes, Dystopia is Hard. After a few generations, the cabal fell to infighting...and the empires they had crafted simply collapsed, not with a bang but with a whimper.
The forces of good had little reason to rejoice, however, for the cycle was still broken. Without old souls to create truly powerful heroes, monsters pretty much reigned over the world, with humans and other races forced to eke out a life in the shadows of the inhuman creatures roaming free.
Until now. Something has stirred in the World Beyond. For the first time in hundreds of years, the souls of great heroes and villains manage to break free of their metaphysical prison...re-ensouling newborns...and creating a new generation of mythical warriors who can beat back the darkness and bring light to an old and tired world.
The PCs are the new generation of old souls which would allow them to reach the heights of power that other people (NPCs) simply cannot.
The inspirations and tone of this setting would be a mixture of Ravenloft/Kaidan, Dark Souls and Exalted...
Basic idea: In the setting, souls are reincarnated constantly and sometimes, souls can grow more powerful over multiple lifetimes. This is the explanation why PCs are usually more powerful than most NPCs. Heroic and villainous individuals of great power bore such old and powerful souls.
The world was basically a regular fantasy setting otherwise until a powerful cabal of evil warlords, warlocks and clerics o the dark deities found a way to break the cycle, preventing powerful souls from reincarnating except to their own conditions. As the heroes of old died, the cabal rose to greater and greater power until their reign was pretty much absolute.
Alas, to quote TVtropes, Dystopia is Hard. After a few generations, the cabal fell to infighting...and the empires they had crafted simply collapsed, not with a bang but with a whimper.
The forces of good had little reason to rejoice, however, for the cycle was still broken. Without old souls to create truly powerful heroes, monsters pretty much reigned over the world, with humans and other races forced to eke out a life in the shadows of the inhuman creatures roaming free.
Until now. Something has stirred in the World Beyond. For the first time in hundreds of years, the souls of great heroes and villains manage to break free of their metaphysical prison...re-ensouling newborns...and creating a new generation of mythical warriors who can beat back the darkness and bring light to an old and tired world.
The PCs are the new generation of old souls which would allow them to reach the heights of power that other people (NPCs) simply cannot.
The inspirations and tone of this setting would be a mixture of Ravenloft/Kaidan, Dark Souls and Exalted...
