Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DonThelonious 04-19-07, 03:42 AM	Okay here is the deal: My infant campaign world, Dark World (its a working name, I havn't got around to coming up with something better), is a world dominated by undead. Let me give you all a brief history. In the Age Of Light elves, humans and all the happy little core races lived in relative D&D peace. They fought the evil races, built castles and leanred magic. One day the Elves (Don't ask me why) discovered necromancy. It started with simple undead like skeletons and zombies, then more powerful creatures like liches and vampires came into existance:eek: . All was going fine, he undead were kept as slaves and did all the ***** work. Vampires were used as assassins, liches were treated like automatic spell dispensers, that sort of thing. Then the Vamps and the liches started their own study, in secret, of necromancy. The undead created the first lycanthrops, and soon found a way to escape slavery. War erupted between the living and the dead, with both sides tossing around high caliber to epic level spells. The undead finally won by creating a permenant shodow on the planet, causing the sun to be no more than a bright fullmoon. The tide of battle changed and in the end all the old cities, along with most of the living population and all the elves were wiped out. The three dominant undead: Vampires, Liches, and Zombie Masters (my own homebrew) divided the lands and built up kingdoms. Now fast forward 5,000 years. All the elves are gone, necromantic magic is outlawed, the standard races are just beginning to recover. The goblinoid races are now on equal footing with standard humanoids. Thick dark forests cover most of the planet and are home to prehistoric monsters ressurected during the last battles of the war. A new breed of human "Cattle" are bred and raised on bloodfarms. Magic has become a mostly undead art, and divine magic is nearly unheard of except among the rangers and druids of this new twilight land. The ruins of ancient cities are now the dungeons to be delved, and artifacts from the war are scattered all over the land (artifact meaning +1 or better magic Item). Questions? Comments? I have a bunch more material but I wanted to get some input on it from fellow world builders.
GunsNRoses 04-19-07, 01:39 PM	i like the idea, but just one quick question have you ever read Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson? because the human cattle idea is very similar to what is in that book if you havent read it, you should, its very good, basically a story of the real world, taken over by vampires you might get some ideas from it
invaladuser 04-19-07, 02:52 PM	Wow lifes gonna suck for the characters. Im guess its gonna be a low magic campaign? The artifacts you mentioned though I have a question on. You said both sides were throwing around epic spells, so probably some pretty high level magic items. So what im thinking is unless the undead took those item, wouldnt some of them be in the ruins?
DonThelonious 04-20-07, 02:41 AM	First, I havn't read the book but now that you mention it I will get my hands on a copy. Second- Yes there are some pretty high level stuff floating around still, but anything that could pose a threat to to the undead overlords is kept under lock and key. There are three specific Vampire Lords that have made it thier personal mission to collect and guard relics from the Age Of Light. And though it may seem like it, this is not a low magic world. It just has a very limited number of offensive or defensive items and spells. I figure 'What the hell would the undead care if thier subjects have everburning torches or more prctical use magic?' The big thing now in the world is materials, alloys, etc. I even came up with a new special materials: "THURITE"- A glassy blue metal used to make armors. When used in master work armors it grants a DR 1/- and provides +2 better AC. "Goblin Wood"- A heavy dark red wood that when carved and then treated in the corrct chemical solution becomes as strong as any steel. Grants weapons made from this material +1 to hit (This stacks with a masterwork +1). "Bone"- Specially preparred bone from large dinosaurs. Only the Mummy Priests of the undead religion can make it. All weapons made from this are always masterwork and gain wounding. Only issued to high ranking lycanthrope military. Also there are ancient immovable pillars dotting the landscape carved in elven runes. If someone touches a specific rune and says he correct word in Elvish (a now dead language, unless your undead) they are instantly transported to the corrosponding pillar, however far that is. There is danger though, because many pillars are buried or under water and passengers will appear in the stone or deep below the surface respectivly.
Mazaron 04-29-07, 10:17 AM	All the elves are gone, necromantic magic is outlawed, the standard races are just beginning to recover. The goblinoid races are now on equal footing with standard humanoids. Thick dark forests cover most of the planet and are home to prehistoric monsters ressurected during the last battles of the war. A new breed of human "Cattle" are bred and raised on bloodfarms. Magic has become a mostly undead art, and divine magic is nearly unheard of except among the rangers and druids of this new twilight land. The ruins of ancient cities are now the dungeons to be delved, and artifacts from the war are scattered all over the land (artifact meaning +1 or better magic Item). Questions? Comments? I have a bunch more material but I wanted to get some input on it from fellow world builders.[/QUOTE] ****Maybe the good races work in secret to destroy all previously buried bodies so the undead races won't resurrect them. I would make the various undead nations highly fractured, constantly infighting. They think they have won and it looks like they have reason to think so. What are the incorporeal undead doing? Ever look at the Ghostwalk supplement? Maybe ghosts (as seen in Ghostwalk) are good aligned or at least not all evil. The gods maybe granted humans the abilitiy upon death to remain as a ghost to stay and fight the undead and to not have their soul stolen and used by the vampire, liches, and zombies (though they can still get their bodies). What do the fey do? Maybe they guard woodland areas against all comers, particularly undead. Maybe given the darkness the Unseelie Court is ascendency, normally evil, but certainly better than the undead and has is own deadly games to play. Drow? They could be active on the surface and be allies of a sort, you know, enemy of my enemy is my friend. Given how dim the sun is I do have to wonder how people are eating or trees get enough light to grow. Maybe the undead are actuallly worried that Much Worse things are migrating to the surface and they are worried. Maybe the drow are fleeing themselves, pushed up by kuo toa, illithids, and aboleth. Maybe there are undead factions who actually will scheme and back PCs to get the Sun back, fearing these aboinations that are appearing? Given the large numbers of undead,I would make sure to include a few good individuals too. Bound to happen. Fiction is filled with the occasional good vampire, or at least not terribly evil, whether he is called Louis or Angel.
GoriceXII 04-30-07, 01:34 AM	I quite like the idea of the setting. Mazaron has a good point about the sun though. I don't know if you've read the second chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Donaldson (if you haven't I don't necessarily recommend them though the first series is pretty good) but one neat concept he has in there is the idea of a twisted environment. The idea is that the natural laws are broken. So for instance the sun goes through different phases--some are good, some are unpleasant, some are downright horrible. You could try something like that or conversely have strange magics, possibly involving bloodlettings, that are required to make areas fertile. There might be pockets of resistance where druids keep the natural world going somehow or where there is a patch of 'feyness' where various woodland creatures struggle to survive.
Mazaron 04-30-07, 12:05 PM	I quite like the idea of the setting. Mazaron has a good point about the sun though. I don't know if you've read the second chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Donaldson (if you haven't I don't necessarily recommend them though the first series is pretty good) but one neat concept he has in there is the idea of a twisted environment. The idea is that the natural laws are broken. So for instance the sun goes through different phases--some are good, some are unpleasant, some are downright horrible. You could try something like that or conversely have strange magics, possibly involving bloodlettings, that are required to make areas fertile. There might be pockets of resistance where druids keep the natural world going somehow or where there is a patch of 'feyness' where various woodland creatures struggle to survive. All good ideas. I think the fey might be a good way to go with developing some sort of resistance movement against the undead or keeping the environment going, or both. Also good thinking on the sacrfices, somethiing that was prevalent in ancient myths and stories but not seen much in D&D. Supernatural the TV series first season had a town that was kept alive by the sacrifice every year of a young man and a woman to a Celtic divinity whose avatar appeared to be that of a creepy looking scarecrow.