D&D 5E Us Building a "Fundamentally 5E" Setting From Scratch Together

[Reynard]

Spinning off from that other thread just to focus this discussion.

Let's imagine that we, collectively, are put in charge of building a completely new "Fundamentally 5E" Setting, in the same way that Eberron was built to be a Fundamentally 3.5 Setting.

Here are the rules:

1) No existing settings or pieces of settings. I know you Nentir Vale and Dark Sun fans are chomping at the bit, but this isn't the thread.
2) One element at a time -- that is, don't write your entire world treatise. instead put an element in the setting.
3) "Fundamentally 5E" means that while you can add mechanics (e.g. Dragonmarks for Eberron) you cannot remove or change any core 5E mechanics.

So, what do you got? What element would you add to this Fundamentally 5E setting?

 

[Tonguez]

The cosmos is now a shattered patchwork of overlapping planar echoes bleeding into the material realm - the feywild and the shadowfell flicker in and out of the ethereal, tracts of Abyssal wastelands sit beyond the borderlands, fragments of multiple worlds collide and wild magic storms rage

It is the duty of mortals to explore the fractured worlds and reforge what was lost

 

[bedir than]

I'd want to lean heavy into the idea that Backgrounds and Species both offer spells regularly. So have a setting where nearly everyone has some amount of magic (maybe not violent cantrips, but everyone of age has a cantrip). I don't think it would take the turn of Eberron, but maybe leaning into an idyllic vibe with lots of mysticism

 

[Reynard]

I'd want to lean heavy into the idea that Backgrounds and Species both offer spells regularly. So have a setting where nearly everyone has some amount of magic (maybe not violent cantrips, but everyone of age has a cantrip). I don't think it would take the turn of Eberron, but maybe leaning into an idyllic vibe with lots of mysticism

Xanth, but less Xanth-y.

 

[Reynard]

The cosmos is now a shattered patchwork of overlapping planar echoes bleeding into the material realm - the feywild and the shadowfell flicker in and out of the ethereal, tracts of Abyssal wastelands sit beyond the borderlands, fragments of multiple worlds collide and wild magic storms rage

It is the duty of mortals to explore the fracture worlds and reforge what was lost

ooh. I like the idea of a world where the "Planes" are RIGHT THERE. As such, shouldn't the gods be right there, too?

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Before the shattering, Gnomes were creatures with a deep connection to the Feywild. Rock Gnomes were household spirits that plied their trades while humans slept, and Forest Gnomes were primordial spirits that tended the wild places. They have stepped out from the shadows, and now dwell among us.

In matters of faith, the Gnomes revere a cadre of animistic animal spirits that play protagonist in a cycle of fables. They manifest as a perfect combination of flesh and metal. Most honored is the golden coyote Garl Glittergold.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

The Mother of Many Names is an ancient, alien, primordial deity that had a appendage in the creation of all life; but was thereafter bound and imprisoned beyond space and time by the rest of the deific powers. Though utterly incomprehensible to most mortals and usually appearing in a nightmarish form of eyes and writhing tentacles, the Mother is in fact entirely benevolent; wishing only the greatest good and prosperity for what She sees as her many, varied children. Though still bound, she has managed to wriggle feeble tendrils of her being through cracks in creation since the Shattering.

The Mother, unfortunately, does not really understand individuality. She sees all life as interconnected - like cells in a greater whole. And Her version of the "greatest good" does not hesitate the slightest bit from monstrous individual sacrifices. Where She can, the Mother of Many Names strives to bring diverse and sometimes entirely unrelated beings (like human and insects) together in solidarity; sometimes creating psychic and emotional bonds. She is associated with Empathy, Self-Sacrifice, and psionics or mind-based magic. But also... conformity, totalitarianism, and extreme fanaticism toward a particular group. Her mindset is so utterly alien that her divine touch unfortunately often causes insanity.

 

[Piperken]

...Rock Gnomes were household spirits that plied their trades while humans slept, and Forest Gnomes were primordial spirits that tended the wild places. They have stepped out from the shadows, and now dwell among us...

Non gnomes still fervently believe that any transgression committed against a gnome can be forgiven with a bowl of hot porridge & a butterpat; this only makes gnomes more angry.

 

[Smackpixi]

I really liked Tonguez’s response, but I’d dial it back a bit from how dramatic it seemed. A deterioting reality, material plane, where other planes are starting to occasionally bleed in. Something maybe on the order of Fringe tv show. Rare, but constant events and monsters from other planes bleeding in to a more normal earth like environment. The collapsing reality, the other planes intersecting being a terminal situation for this realm. Entry to other planes happens when the rare but continuing intersections happen, but then the intersected part comes back, altered. Would cap number of planes interacting with, maybe 3.

 

[Tonguez]

ooh. I like the idea of a world where the "Planes" are RIGHT THERE. As such, shouldn't the gods be right there, too?

maybe

The shattering of the planes was a fundamental cataclysm that caused the gods to shatter too, but the immortal divine was not destroyed, it remains in disparate radiant echoes. The very prayer of clerics and paladins draw on these echoes out where they manifest as new born avatars - who knows what these new divines might grow to be?