Post/Author/DateTime	Post
wizardofowls 07-03-07, 05:55 PM	Hello! If you have looked at my Shattered World thread, then undoubtedly you have read my world premise which is as follows: WORLD PREMISE: Oramis was once a solid world like any other. A millennium ago, a war sprang up between two formidable mages (who also happened to be twin brothers but of differing ethical beliefs). This war raged on for many days, but neither mage could seem to get the upper hand. The final blow of this Wizard War was so potent that neither mage was able to contain it, and the world was shattered like a glass ball into a thousand pieces. Since both mages were far more powerful than the Wizards’ Guild could handle, it was powerless to stop the war. Luckily, however, the Guild (some of whom were diviners) was able to foresee this disaster months before it actually happened and was prepared. Though unable to completely prevent this event - now referred to as the Shattering - they were able at least to save the world from total destruction. After determining how the world would be shattered, the Guild devised magical devices - called shard-keys - and placed one of them on each piece of land which would someday become a shard. These devices maintain each shard's gravity, atmosphere, climate, and stability. If a shard-key were ever to be removed from the shard it was designed to protect, that shard would lose all of these things and would pose a hazard to other shards as it spun out of control. All of these shards were suspended inside a large envelope of air and set to floating within it in random, ever-shifting patterns. Millions of people died in the ensuing chaos which followed the War’s conclusion. Common people, blaming mages for the destruction and death, hunted down and slew many wizards. Much knowledge of magic was lost. Modern mages have yet to duplicate many of the marvels that have been accredited to those ancient wizards - including the magic which created shard-keys! Even today, after one thousand years, mages are still feared, shunned, and - in many places - actively hunted, despite the fact that they were instrumental in saving the world from total destruction. Undaunted they have continued to be of great service to man, creating the windriggers which provide transportation from shard to shard. I have received alot of criticism on this, both here and at other sites where I am seeing advice. As a result I am ready to rethink my premise, and would love to get your help in this. Problems: - Most everyone agrees that they don't like the entire twins/wizard war idea behind the Shattering. - Some want to know how common people were able to bring down mages powerful enough to shatter a world. - Some want to know details behind the shard keys...how did they become intelligent? - Some want to know how priests and deities tie into all of this. Well, I don't have answers. I do know the folowing details which I want to work into my premise somehow. - Long ago there was a race called the Dragon Lords who came from "somewhere else" (no one knows exactly where) who ruled the world for thousands of years, then disappeared. They were ulta-powerful mages. Elves and dragons are somehow tied to them. - I love the concept of ley lines and standing stones and monoliths and would like to work them in somehow. - Priests helped the common folk in supressing mages. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter. Perhaps the Dragon Lords came here for a purpose...something to do with magic. Maybe the magic here was wild and untamed and they set down a system of ley lines to help regulate the flow. Haven't yet decided if the Dragon Lords were called that because they actually were dragons. Or perhpas they were ancestors of elves who rode dragons. Or perhaps elves were the race the Dragon Lords chose to teach to maintain the ley line system after they left. Anyway, maybe something interfered with the ley line system and this magical back lash caused the Shattering. Perhaps the gods, angered by the devastation, had their priests begin the persecution of mages. Where did the Dragon Lords go? Did they move on to another world which needed their help? Are they coming back? Or did they sacrifice themselves becoming the Shard Keys which now hod the world together? Well, what are your thoughts on all of this? Better than the Wizard War premise? Advice? I'd love to hear your thoughts...
Janusunaj 07-03-07, 06:44 PM	Perhaps it ought to be better for the Standing Stones, to have no mechanical effects, and only be involved in the story lines.
wizardofowls 07-03-07, 07:01 PM	The Standing Stones and the Shard Keys are not the same things. The Standing Stones would likely be ties into the ley line system. The Shard Keys are small powerful artifacts.
Artifact 07-04-07, 01:43 AM	Maybe you could keep the Wizard War premise, but instead of twin brothers they could be a cabal/family/guild of wizards who oppose each other. IMHO it seems more credible that a group would possess the power to shatter a world; on the other hand, a pair of wizards with such power seems outright unfathomable. As far as the commoner taking on the more powerful wizards, well, there can only be so many uber-wizards in any world, but there's no shortage of commoners; "Lets gang up and take 'em on." In short, I think your original premise works fine, given some refinement. :) I really like the idea of floating shards of land and the windriggers. I'd like to hear more about your setting. I'm curious about details like technology level, available classes/races, etc. I'll look up the original thread. Just an misc recollection: I played a game for the Playstation called Grandstream Saga, an RPG which reminds me of your setting.
gurullamen 07-04-07, 03:19 AM	I think the wizards war premise would work, but I agree with [guy above me] about increasing the number of mages. Also consider making the Shattering an act of hubris on the mages parts'; no war needed, just some good ole' humanoid arrogance. As for the Dragon lords, have them be the proto-diviners, the masters of the magic of prescience and foresight. Knowing the fate of the future world, it's quite possible that, good or evil, the Dragon Lords would put their souls into a slumber inside of a specially designed arcane matrix specially designed for the skyshards. If they were good, they did it to preserve life and yadda yadda. If they were evil, perhaps it was a form of lichdom for them--immortality and a chance to reclaim their power in the minion-, technology- and magic-rich future. I like the ideas here. In fact, I'm writing a campaign setting with many of them already incorporated. Instead of assigning all of the world-events to the past, though, I'm dividing the world into two ages: pre and post shattering. The pre-shatter world is just a build up to the second one, yet rich and full of adventure hooks of its own. A high-level adventure bridges the two ages with the death/sundering of the magic god which results in the shattering. The post shatter world takes the theme of the pre world and runs with them against a backdrop of newly discovered magic, planar invasions and worldwide turmoil. Feel free to use any of that in your world. And good luck with your continued efforts to build a world.
Alltat 07-04-07, 06:29 AM	You could include the fall of the wizards into the Shattering. Before the Shattering there could have been a great group of wizards (henceforth unoriginally refered to as the Archmages, for simplicity), who for some reason fell out of favor with the rest of the world (lesser wizards included). There are a million possible reasons for why this would occur; they tried (or at least people thought they might try) to take over the world, they were (or were percieved as) suffering from hubris, they had a near monopoly on magic that was an essential part of daily life, and so on. Or you could just make them openly evil, but I find it more interesting if they saw their intentions as honorable. Either way, it results in a war between the Archmages and essentially everyone else on the planet. Because of the great magical knowledge this group possesses, it's a fairly even fight, but the Archmages eventually start to lose, and in a desperate last effort they create a single shard key for their own stronghold and shatter the rest of the world, in one last strike to pretty much kill everyone in the world not inside that stronghold. Obviously, their plan didn't quite work. There are plenty of shard keys around, and the Archmages are presumably not alive anymore. The other wizards of the world might have somehow found out about the plan, and knowing that they would be unable to stop it they created as many shard keys as they could. Presumably something went wrong with the original shard key too, either causing the stronghold to shatter (meaning you could come across parts of their stronghold every now and then, full of magical minions and long-lost extremely potent arcane knowledge), or the stronghold still exists, just without the Archmages alive inside anymore. Perhaps the overly-powerful Archmages, their powers mostly drained, started the spell to shatter the world as their stronghold came under siege. They then created a large number of shard keys, or possibly one big shard key which was shattered into smaller fragments to form the current shard keys (which would explain why different shards have greatly differing sizes - a large fragment means a large shard). The attacking forces eventually overcame the defenses, and the Archmages fell and their plan was revealed. The Shattering had already begun though, and it was too late to stop it, so the lesser wizards had the shard keys (or fragments of the one large shard key) taken to various locations across the world in an effort to save as many people as possible. Picture messengers riding hard to bring a shard key to their kingdom's capital, as the world starts to shudder and break around them. Not all of them made it, and wherever a shard key was at the moment of the final Shattering, a shard was formed. As for the Archmages' stronghold, interests would go apart. Most non-wizards would likely want to leave it to be shattered, so that no one would become that powerful again. A lot of the victorious lesser wizards would probably want to study the libraries of the Archmages to learn as much as possible, convinced that they wouldn't be corrupted by the power and that they could really help the world. One of them may have managed to aquire a shard key and hide it within the stronghold, saving it from the Shattering. The stronghold might have partially collapsed anyway, or the stronghold is now haunted by the lingering ghosts of the Archmages, or it is now hidden by magic, or any other reason you can come up with as to why this stronghold hasn't simply been looted for the arcane knowledge it surely contains. The fact that the stronghold still exists could have been seen as the ultimate betrayal, indicating that the lesser wizards aspire to become Archmages themselves, making any living wizard a potential threat to all the surviving non-wizards of the world. The Archmages obviously wouldn't be defeated that easily - they'd be way too good BBEGs for that to happen. Either some of them survived in secrecy and plot vengeance, or one or more are now undead, or there are simply secret groups of lesser wizards plotting to aquire the ancient power. Whichever is the case, they surely need something that was lost inside the ancient stronghold, meaning they need someone to go in there and get it for them... :D
yellowdingo 07-04-07, 07:33 AM	I like it wizardofowls. It is very SKYLAND(tm) in its premis. I will tell you now that rocks dont spin uncontrolled in such a situation. They conform to the fluid dynamics of FORCE=g^(n-1)+{g^n} and ANGLE= n mod g exclusive or NMAX MOD G Basicly they orbit an object of greater gravity in the direction it is going. If it moves to fast it is thrown outward and too slow and it collides or exerts force sufficient to pulverize and distort the weaker objects shape. SO with keyless shards you should get fragments orbiting or colliding with stable shards anyhow. Water collects at the point of greatest fluid gravity so the world's "centre" is going to be where the water is.
wizardofowls 07-04-07, 10:33 PM	Wow! Some great ideas here! Anybody else have any for me?
wizardofowls 07-09-07, 04:32 PM	No more ideas? :(
Alltat 07-09-07, 05:05 PM	A random idea to throw into the mix: What's on the 'down' side of the shards?
wizardofowls 07-09-07, 06:19 PM	They resemble shear rock wall surfaces. Occasionally there will be caves (pre-existing ones as well as newly created ones.). Onef cannot "walk"on the surface of the shard-root - not without Spider Climb ability or something similar. The gravity supplied by the shard-key focuses on the top-side and pulls downward from there. Another useful means of exploring the shard-root would be rock-climbing skill.
metalmayhem80110 07-10-07, 12:26 AM	Well you said divination magic was used to predict the world shattering. So priests and gods are kind of responsible for almost 100% of divination magic. That is how they are involved. I would tell the players that only the most powerful of divination caters could understand how the keystones worked. It was also a tightly guarded secret. I wouldn't want people to be able to figure out how to just really mess up a land mass whenever they feel like it. The mob of normally people could kill the mage because you were using the dmg2 mob rules :D
wizardofowls 08-04-07, 07:53 PM	Okay, here it is... a preliminary version of my new world premise. I know it still needs a LOT of of work, but I'd thougth I'd get your thoughts on it so far.... WORLD PREMISE In the mist-shrouded ages of times gone by, Oramis was a different place. Myths and legends tell us that the world was whole and solid then, a sphere of unimaginable proportions. They say the world would turn its face away from the sun every day so that a great darkness called “night” would fall, dividing the days into alternating days and nights. In this darkness, or so the legends run, one could see lights in the sky - small lights called “stars” as well as a greater light the ancients called the “moon”. The followers of Selene say that this is true and that this moon and their Lady are one and the same. But if that is true, who supplies their powers now that the moon is gone? They also say that great sections of our world were covered in water. Vast “oceans” of water so great that one could not see the other side, and so deep that one could not see the bottom. Ships plied their trades on the surface of these oceans and great monstrous beasts filled their depths. Then came the Dragon Lords. From whence did they come? What did they want? What was their purpose? No one seems to know for sure save, perhaps, the elves and dragons - and even they do not have the answers... or so they claim. For ages the Dragon Lords ruled, setting up stone circles and monoliths. Only they knew the purpose for them. Their servants, the elves and dragons, provided the labor, while the native peoples of our world - human, dwarf and twyll - could only watch in awe. Great magical powers the Dragon Lords had, and watching them we learned. We learned about building, about power, and ultimately, about magic. Through their servants, the elves, they began to teach our peoples the ways of magic, and our peoples learned well and true. Many of the people began to worship them, turning their backs on the True Gods. In return the Gods, in their jealousy and rage, turned their backs on us. If only we had known what was coming.... Everything seemed peaceful according to the stories. Yes, the True Priests and the Followers of the Dragon Lords bickered and fought, but everything else, it seemed, was fine. Then one day the True Priests began to cry, “The end is coming! The Tapestry unravels! Turn away from the false ones and return to the True Faith! Bring their blessings back upon us before it is too late!” But few heeded their warnings. Then He came. He Who Has No Name. The Incomprehensible One. The Destroyer. The Unraveler. The people cried out to the Dragon Lords to save them, but they could not be found. They and their followers, the Mages, had vanished, deserting the peoples in their time of need. The True Priests gathered their strength and stood up to him, but ultimately it was no use. The Unraveller struck, and the world was shattered like a glass ball into ten thousand pieces. But the True Priests were able to rescue us. They cried out to the Gods “Save us!” And the Gods responded. They drove away the Nameless One, and created a sphere to keep the pieces of our world from drifting away. Only after the world had shattered and the Nameless One defeated did the mages return saying that they had saved the world for us. The Guild (some of whom were diviners) claimed that it had been able to foresee this disaster months before it actually happened and was prepared. They said that - though unable to completely prevent this event now referred to as the Shattering - they were able at least to save the world from total destruction. After determining how the world would be shattered, the Guild - working feverishly - claimed it had devised magical devices called shard-keys and placed one of them on each piece of land which would someday become a shard. These devices maintain each shard's gravity, atmosphere, climate, and stability. If a shard-key were ever to be removed from the shard it was designed to protect, that shard would lose all of these things and would pose a hazard to other shards as it spun out of control. All of these shards were suspended inside a large envelope of air and set to floating within it in random, ever-shifting patterns. Millions of people died in the ensuing chaos which followed the Shattering. Common people, blaming the cowardice of the mages for the destruction and death, hunted down and slew many wizards. Much knowledge of magic was lost. Modern mages have yet to duplicate many of the marvels that have been accredited to those ancient wizards - including the magic which created shard-keys! For centuries mundanes - those who don't practice magic - persecuted those who do, blaming them for the catastrophe that was the Shattering, despite the fact that they were instrumental in saving the world from total destruction. However times and people change. As society began to rebound, people became more and more dependent on those who use magic for trade. There is now a grudging acceptance of mages in most places. However there are a few shards - even today - that still cling to the old beliefs, that remain suspicious of those who use magic and continue to support the witch hunters who help to "rid the world of those dangerous people." RASAMA (the Royal Academy for the Study and Advancement of the Mystic Arts - also known as the Mages' Guild) was originally conceived as a means of controlling and monitoring mages in light of the general public's fear of them. All mages were required to register with the Guild, and those who did not were shunned and hunted down by witch hunters - betrayed by to them by their own brother mages. Today the registration of mages with the Guild continues, despite the general shift in attitudes and the changing views of most people. In many places a mage will not be hired for work unless he is a registered Guild member, and since the Guild still brands those who practice forbidden schools as rogue mages, often those who are not registered will be viewed with suspicion. Undaunted by the prejudice and persecution they received in the past, however, mages have continued to be of great service to man - their greatest accomplishment being the creation of windriggers, flying ships which provide transportation from shard to shard.
taradusis 08-04-07, 08:19 PM	Sounds good,have you visited Spelljammer.org.The Spelljammer system had rules for gravity planes,crystal spheres and other things you might find useful.