What areas exist in your world?

[green slime]

IMC, there was a Great Cataclysm that occured approxiamtely 2,000 years ago (noone is really sure) Exactly what happened is not really known, just that Illithids were somehow involved.

Over the last millenia a new Empire has emerged. (based loosely on the Roman Empire. Its ruler is the Undying King, Descendent of the Lawbringer.

Elves are nonexistant.

Dwarves are extinct, eradicated from the continent by a vicious war some 250 years ago.

Centaurs live to the far north, and have recently been granted some semi-autonomy from the central authority (in reality, they were never subjugated)

To the East is the realm of the Bone Necromancer, and there is constant skirmishing on this border.

To west lies the newly re-discovered continent of Cho'lanth. The empire is just setting up a colony, of which the PCs are part. No contact has yet been made with the original inhabitants of this continent.

Oh yeah... no halflings or gnomes or half-orcs either...

 

[WayneLigon]

Still working on the setting, but here's the basics:

My Maps are changing; the one at the bottom is the one I'm playing with, now.

One large 'Roman' empire that is now splitting due to civil war and heading right for a total breakup that will send 'civilization' right into the crapper for the next thousand years or so.

The Free Cities are areas that broke away from the Empire about a hundred years ago when it suffered it's first major contraction after a major military defeat (it's first in a long, long time) that also precipitated a slave revolt.

The Desert. This is where all the action happens. Raised up about 500-1000 feet about sea level, the center of the continent is a mix of Southwestern-type desert, 'lifeless' Sahara-like desert, and 'cold' Mongolian-style desert (up where it says 'Wasteland'). The area between where the two major mountain ranges (check out that scale and you'll see how major) almost touch is a maze of cracked hills, canyons and wind-sculpted hills. Major rivers converge and fall in a giant waterfall to the forested hills below. I'm thinking that lonely patch of mountain out in the desert is a cluster of volcanoes; thinking about making that the original home of the dwarves.

The Vast Plains. Horsemen. A drier Rohan with less rocks.

Influences: Conan, and Thieves' World. Other influences as given on the main page. The Empire is Rome, and Ranhke, and Greece, and Aquilonia: a combination of the old, civilized, lawful. Dying, now, but not realizing how quickly. The fringes are revitalizing in some parts, but those parts will probably be destroyed by war.

 

[widderslainte]

This is cool stuff. I ramble about my world here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uod/

- The Goblin Queen's Empire, vaguely Victorian and cultured which are occupying a land much like the British did in India
- Argaevaligne, which is a theocratic state that a mix of French and Scandinavian
- Vensat, a Mediterranean port-nation that's a bit like refined Mos Eisley
- The Mindat Empire, dinosaur riding Islamic/Asian bureacracy
- Ramush, collection of towns around old ruins in the swamps - a heavy dose of Mayan, Cajun, and Voodoo

and quite a bit more...

 

[mythusmage]

For a different sort of fantasy world I present Dragon Earth. This being a preview, the real thing won't get posted on the web until WotC's Urban Arcana is released.

It is a modern day fantasy world. The year is 2003. The world is recovering from a great war. Only recently has Earth's population started to grow again. It's estimated that it will not attain 3 billion again for centuries.

France is a pariah state, shunned for her war of extermination against the non-humans early in the 20th century.

Central Europe is in a near continuous state of low level war, one that began when the Austran Empire collapsed in the 1930s.

The Russian Republic is on the verge of civil war, with numerous states seeking independence. Many of which are being 'advised' by the white dragons of Siberia. Six wyrms and great wyrms who seek revenge for Russia's war of extermination against them.

Germany is on the slow road to recovery, but faces threats from the Balkans, Poland, and a renascent France.

The U. S. is in fairly good shape. But even she has places the living do not go. There are tales going around that the restless dead from her war against the Empire of China are mustering, and preparing for a war of vengeance. A tale contradicted by the restless crew of the Chinese battleship, The Golden Lotus. The five of them are certain it's an attempt by somebody or something to divert American attention from the real problem (the rest of the ship's crew have gone on to the afterlife, it's just that those five have a few things they need to take care of before they can proceed.)

Imperial China is slowly recovering the land she lost in The Lich King's War. But it is hard work, and her population continues to shrink. (From 350 million at the start of The Lich King's War to her current population of about 97 million.)

Finally, there is The Waste Land. Containing within its bounderies Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, plus about half of Thailand, the Malaysian Pennisula down to the city of Singapore, and the southern third of Imperial China.

Nothing lives in The Waste Land, and remains sane.

It is what The Lich King wished to turn the world into. A land of the unliving and the undead. A kingdom of necromancy with him as its god.

He has been destroyed, his power broken. But the struggle against his works continues.

Then you have the off world settlements (one of the bennies of magic). The Moon, Mars, both nearby asteroid belts and the moons of Neptune and Uranus have colonies. But not the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, for those world have electro magnetic fields too strong for mortal magic to deal with.

Then there is Pluto. Home to the Collegium Arcana. The College of Magic. Where dweomers are being worked on that will allow travel into the galaxy itself, and the settlement of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. But, things are happening on Pluto, things from realms beyond and lands darker than the worst The Lich King could ever dream of.

And in the halls of the Collegium Arcana furtive words are heard. Words that speak of The Goat of the Thousand Slain. And the name, "Hastur".

(Poor slobs don't get a break, do they?)

 

[I'm A Banana]

What areas exist in my world?

All of them.

Ah, planescape....

 

[caudor]

This might sound ridiculous some GM's, but I develop my world as the players explore it.

My approach is much like Cedric. When I started, my whole world was just Thunder Rift (the old Challenger Series). Eventually, I placed Thunder Rift in the Forgotten Realms, but I still generally focus on specific areas around the players and flesh out from there.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

France is a pariah state, shunned for her war of extermination against the non-humans early in the 20th century.

What is it with you Americans and the French?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well in the last genuine Homebrew I did the world ended up taking some odd forms.

The vast vast vast majority of the world was wracked by a horrible conflict between the Gnomish Imperium and the Orcish Khannate. These two super powers had moved beyond the boundaries of their original nations to pursue their vindictive and awesome conflict across all the 'unknown' regions of the earth.

PCs most often came from cultures that were being forced to take sides in the conflict as the war came to their homes and removed them. The Orcs for slavery and the Gnomes for safety.

So the largest area of the world could be described as a region in which various less 'developed' nations attempted to survive or resist the appearance of nation armies that more or less closely resembled those of Riegn: The Conqueror.

There were exceptions. The conflict had started on the banks of a large but largely landlocked sea in what could generally be called the south of the world. In this sea was a sub-continental peninsula known as the Green Realms.

These would have been the normal European area if the necessity of developing in response to recurrent invasions by the more highly organized Khanate, no more Orcish in fact than the Persian Empire was Persian.

The Gnomes developed vast and unfathomable technological, magical, and martial prowress which they used to build a large and far flung empire that nicely avoided conflict with their local 'allies.'

The Elves developed a very deeply militaristic and oppresive culture based on their enslavement of humans and myconids. My players insisted on calling them the Reichselves. More traditional types of Elves existed they were simpy deeply disenfranchised.

Humanity, with the exception of certain far flung nations, was shattered into small communities. The only real element of human culture is a common emphasis on training and exporting heroes and savants. While they know that they can never rival the longer lived nations for knowledge and skill they also know that they can thus produce the perfect combination of disposability and power to make good 'adventurers' and generalists. The other element of cultural unity is the Mountain, a large ruin/museum of the greatest human cultures and civilizations created by the most elite heroic orders of humanity, themselves the last recievers of the traditions and knowledges of the once grand human civilization of the Green Realms. Most other nations allow the orders to cull their resident slave or refugee human populations for potential recruits. The orders provide an even more valuable service than cheap smart labor.

The Dwarves have become, beside the gnomes, the most succesful race of the Green Realm. In reponse to the devastation of their homeland and the success of the Gnomish counter-attack they have become a the favored sons of the Gnomish hegemony and a people who know themselves as a nation though they have known of their own. The Dwarvish corporation now has its hands in many pies and its people in many places. They have also developed a strange sea culture by pioneering the use of submarines and floating controllable islands.

The free regions make up the rest of the nations around the inner sea that are spared from the conflict. These include an Al-Quadim style Caliphate that has extensive power and holdings of its own, but is primarily defended by its close ties with nations in the elemental planes. There is also a Rokugan style coast, and then the Republic of Honri.

A place that my players described as madness itself, but which I found rather pleasant. The Republic was very large and powerful and populated by an Iroquis writ large confederacy of intelligent and highly evolved species of animals. I'm not talking anthropomorphic, I'm talking about tool using evolutions of animals fit to ascend in their various environments. Things like six armed sea otters who could propel themselves on very clever snake like tails. Crane like beings with elaborately prehensile tails and bladed wings. That sort of thing.

There was also a very enigmatic continent which the Dwarvish Corporation had begun colonizing semi-secretly until all of their colonies suddenly dissapeared and they felt it necessary to call for a concerted effort of all the free nations and the Imperium to investigate what new threat might arise from them and renew settling.

That's where all the PCs went eventually. There were no native humanoids, though there were isolated and unexplainable communities of goblinoids, lizard men, and troglogdytes. The rest of the continent was inhabited by the sort of hyper intelligent large monsters that gave PCs nightmares. In most of the continent these were simply harsh harrasers of the invaders, primarily refugees brought here by the imperium. The PCs spent most of their days keeping the monsters off of the back of the villagers, but they always knew there was something else going on. Every day the imperium would send columns of men, supplies, and Engines into the interior, and few would ever return save for the Citizens, the elite of the Imperium, themselves.

And one day the Citizens would come to the PCs and ask them if they would like to serve on the third front. The non-Khannate action.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I have a friend who does the Napoleanic Wars with sorcerors, monsters, and demi-humans.


That is some insane stuff.

 

[Buttercup]

What is it with you Americans and the French?

It all comes down to the fact that they think Jerry Lewis is funny.


But back onto the topic of the thread, we just started a new campaign in a completely different world. The part of the world the players know about now is similar to the Roman Empire, but much more heavy handed and controlling, via the use of magic. There is a western frontier, overflowing with goblinoids that the empire is trying (unsuccessfully) to conquer. The elves (who worship an evil god, and unbeknownst to the PCs are vicious cannibals) live in the frozen north, and may not come into the story at all. They aren't a playable race. The empire takes up the whole eastern and southern portion of the continent, and the PCs don't know of any other governments or lands beyond what I've just described. Yet. Sadly, I don't have a map of the continent. I should probably get to work on it.