Stormborn
Explorer
Mulling over this thread I got to thinking about how this could work.
Picture a world where a rain of asteroids forced civilization underground. These aren't any ordinary asteroids, however, but the remains of a magically rich world whose fragements not only contain powerful spells and artifacts but also creatures and other biological materials. Up to this point it had been a pretty standard DnD universe, except without the various "evil underground" versions of the humanoid species. After the asteroids fall some of the civilizations struggle to fight of the effects on the enviroment, which is changing not only from the impacts but from the materials brought with asteroids. At last the remaining civilizations band together, and under the leadership of dwarves and gnomes they move underground.
That was thousands of years ago. During the first centuries thy dwarves dominated, and used the magic of the other races to expand the dwarfholds, creating a latice work of complexes that spanned a continent, if not the world. They joined not only natural caves and dwarven strongholds, but they also discovered the even older remains of the nearlly elemental proto-dwarven society deep underground. With a relatively small but diverse population and pleanty of room the various races spread out, using magic to bolster their lives and numbers. Wars were fought over new resources and old grudges. Some of the dwarves became tyranical and founded empires, using enslaved gnomes and halflings to wage war on one another. The elves began dying off away from the forests and the light of the moon so they used magic to change themselves into something new, thus the Shadow Elves - the drow- were born. They grew reclusive and soon became a subject of myth and rumor. Humans, halflings, and gnomes faired the best. All of them were used to adapting, and founded trade networks between their colonies and among those still good dwarves.
But they weren't alone down there, other things had fled into the dark and there were somethings from the dawn of the world that lingered still in the deep places of the world.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the world had changed. The few civilizations that had tried to remain had mutated. Halflings and gnomes became goblins, humans hobgoblins and bugbears. Fantastic creatures and strange plants abound. The Undead walk through entire nations, ruled by a lich lord thought to have come to the world with the asteroids. other things definetly came, either with the falling pieces of the world or soon after. Their strangely twisting cities dot the landscape as they extend their rule over the savage races. But the illithaed know that there is a sea of minds below their feet, and they are determined to get at them.
This would basically be a world turned on its head, where the dungeons are the "normal" world and the surface is a strange alien place filled with monsters that occasionally break in, kill people, and take their stuff.
Picture a world where a rain of asteroids forced civilization underground. These aren't any ordinary asteroids, however, but the remains of a magically rich world whose fragements not only contain powerful spells and artifacts but also creatures and other biological materials. Up to this point it had been a pretty standard DnD universe, except without the various "evil underground" versions of the humanoid species. After the asteroids fall some of the civilizations struggle to fight of the effects on the enviroment, which is changing not only from the impacts but from the materials brought with asteroids. At last the remaining civilizations band together, and under the leadership of dwarves and gnomes they move underground.
That was thousands of years ago. During the first centuries thy dwarves dominated, and used the magic of the other races to expand the dwarfholds, creating a latice work of complexes that spanned a continent, if not the world. They joined not only natural caves and dwarven strongholds, but they also discovered the even older remains of the nearlly elemental proto-dwarven society deep underground. With a relatively small but diverse population and pleanty of room the various races spread out, using magic to bolster their lives and numbers. Wars were fought over new resources and old grudges. Some of the dwarves became tyranical and founded empires, using enslaved gnomes and halflings to wage war on one another. The elves began dying off away from the forests and the light of the moon so they used magic to change themselves into something new, thus the Shadow Elves - the drow- were born. They grew reclusive and soon became a subject of myth and rumor. Humans, halflings, and gnomes faired the best. All of them were used to adapting, and founded trade networks between their colonies and among those still good dwarves.
But they weren't alone down there, other things had fled into the dark and there were somethings from the dawn of the world that lingered still in the deep places of the world.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the world had changed. The few civilizations that had tried to remain had mutated. Halflings and gnomes became goblins, humans hobgoblins and bugbears. Fantastic creatures and strange plants abound. The Undead walk through entire nations, ruled by a lich lord thought to have come to the world with the asteroids. other things definetly came, either with the falling pieces of the world or soon after. Their strangely twisting cities dot the landscape as they extend their rule over the savage races. But the illithaed know that there is a sea of minds below their feet, and they are determined to get at them.
This would basically be a world turned on its head, where the dungeons are the "normal" world and the surface is a strange alien place filled with monsters that occasionally break in, kill people, and take their stuff.
