Blackmoon Details
A summary of the races/regions for Blackmoon…
Humans live in The Kingdom (of Greatheart), having arrived from a lost land to the west (Talantas) almost 1000 years ago... now just your average fantasy Kingdom, filled with intrigues. These humans worship a pantheon of nine deities (one for each alignment). The Great Plains, however, are home to a race of indigenous, dark-skinned barbarian humans, with a druidic faith, who are skilled horse-riders/breeders.
The indigenous Elves are also druidic (focused on Air/Sky); they dwell in the Sylvan Forest in fairly loose, wild clans, but their brethren the High Elves, dwelling in the Emerald Forest, are more organised – but have a strong resentment of the humans encroaching on their domains. Dwarves dwell in the Grey Peaks near the Kingdom, but their most ancient homes are the great halls beneath the Deepheart Mountains, many of which have now fallen to Goblins. The Dwarven religion is also druidic (Earth/Stone) as is that of the Gnomes (Water/Rivers); the latter dwell in pastoral communities in The Shaws.
The humanoid races are limited to Goblins and Hobgoblins (focused on Fire/Evil), as well as Ogres and Trolls (No Orcs!). Goblins dwell under the mountainous areas, while Hobgoblins have a loose affiliation of tribes in the region known as the Blood Domains. Ogres dwell in nomadic bands in The Wilderlands, while the Minotaurs of the Barrens have a clan culture and dwell in semi-permanent camps.
The Forbidden Forest is home to the Dark Elves, driven northwards by their fairer kin after they were seduced into evil thousands of years ago by the so-called Dark Druids.
The most recent conflict in the region saw a human wizard outcast from the Kingdom, the so-called Witch-King, unite the Goblins, Hobgoblins and even the Ogres into a great army. He built for himself a great fortress (Darkgate Castle, just north of Great Plains), and was only vanquished when the combined forces of the Great Plains, The Kingdom, the Dwarves and the Elves destroyed his army – in the area now called the Fields of Bones.
In addition, there was in very ancient times a temple dedicated to some nameless, terrible evil or deity in the Black Swamps… but that’s all a bit sketchy at the moment. This will, however, link somehow with the setting’s name “Blackmoon”. Maybe a cthulhu-esque deity long-since exiled is seeking a way back... at the prophesised "time of the Black Moon" … I’ve got Mind Flayers in mind as the denizens of the Ruined Temple in the Black Swamp…somehow they’ve always seemed a bit Cthulhu-ish to me.
As far as the Dragonblight goes, my intention was that only “classical” (i.e. red, fire-breathing) dragons would inhabit this world, and that the Dragonblight was once the mighty Dragon Empire, home to the dragon-worshipping humans who the barbaraians of the Great Plains are the only survivors of… some ancient fiery calamity having devastated the Empire and turned the lands into the Dragonblight.
This all very rough still… as I said in my original post, this is basically a “spare” world for straight D&D3E in case my two homebrew settings (using homebrew rules), “Silverdawn” and “Goldenstar”, some day fail… or if I find another spare 4 hours a week to play(!)
However, as an "exercise", Blackmoon has shown me how much adventure can be squeezed into a fairly small region. I wouldn't be surprised if a good DM couldn't get 5 years or more of campaign out of this little map's potential.
