MY setting...help? [Archive] - Wizards Community

MY setting...help? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
theblackpiece
04-05-08, 09:45 AM So i need help with this thing, its quite, "rough around the edges." I need some help fleshing out the world, and with the history. I made different parts of it at different times, so it might be really inconsistent, and i just haven't caught it yet. Feedback appreciated

Olue
There is one major city in the north of the world.(EDIT: called Olue)
This city knows nothing of its surroundings, and the few adventurers that leave its walls never come back.
This city is ruled by a council of many different races, however there is a secret group controlling the majority of the councils seats. (10 in all.) This group is trying to keep the city segregated from the rest of the world, in a constant state of isolationism. This group, (called the Keepers of Olue,) has many spies throughout the entire world, and has determined that the rest of the world's nations are evil places, and wish to keep what they tell the populace to be the only good city in the world away from the surrounding nations. They are determinded to stop, kill, or disrupt any adventurer any adventurer that tries to come back to, or leave, the city.

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn170/theblackpiece/Map-1.jpg

...So thats a rough draft of the map of the world. I plan on adding a lot more islands.
History

About the World:
The continent is at war, with alliances between the Humans And Dwarves, (with their capital being Krael) and an opposing faction between the Elves and Halflings.( with their capitol being Brae) Half-elves are outcasts, and Half-Orcs and Orcs are scattered tribes through the continent. Gnomes peacefully inhabit the islands,with their capital being Regando, inventing and tinkering things to sell back at the continent, and are completely neutral in this war. The Drow are the rulers of The Keepers Of Olue, and are thought to be exctinct, except in Olue, where they are quite common, whether they know about the Keepers of Olue or not.

(Super DM Secret about the entire campaign)
The land was not populated by the inhabitants being created there. Instead, they each teleported in through portals, Small spheres now unknown to everyone but the Keepers Of Olue.The keepers have long been searching for these spheres to help them get back to the Anscestral Lands, where each race came from.

The Arrival: each race arrived with a VERY High-Magic civilization.
The Humans first arrived in the central continent with and immediatly began exploring. The dwarves arrived second, and made a treaty with the humans. However, when the elves and Halflings arrived, they began fighting immediatly, and did not stop until they were forced to unite to destroy an enourmous orc threat against them. After a long while, about 1000 years, the stones were lost, and much of the high-magic power, was destroyed by the senseless orcs when they arrived. So, people began to forget, and forgetting how they came here, naturally assumed that they have always been here. the Humans and dwarves drew back to the west, and the Elves and Halfling drew back to the east. After rediscovering the other races, they believed the opposing races to be outsiders, went to war when they re-discovered them.

The drow arrived with the elves, and were at peace for many years, until the drow king, Drawl Kri' Shadowbane, who thought that Drow, above all other races, were meant to rule this land. He gathered an army to destroy the High Elves, and the other races. he took slaves of other races into his army, causing massive revolts against the High Elves. fortunately, he was very unsuccesful, and he and his army were banished to the north. That is how Olue was founded.

The army of Drawl Kri' Shadowbane
Once they landed on Olue, they began to make a settlement out of the little supplies they had. It was bleak, until one day they bagan to stumble upon ancient artifacts from the arrival. The drow commanders found it first, and decided to keep it among themselves, leaving the rebellious slaves in the dark, because they were "inferior" to the drow. The slaves and there descendants have lived on as citizens of Olue.

The high ranking drow have been searching for a way home to the Anscestral Lands ever since, and away from Olue since banishment. They had discovered much, and decided that drow were supreme to the other inferior races, and formed the Keepers Of Olue. However, the group is formed only of high-ranking drow, and many of Drawl's drow soldiers were kept in the dark, and live on as citizens of Olue. The keepers of Olue try to keep the populace of the city there, for fear of them escaping to the outside world, and revealing the drow's existence. They use their power in Olue to secretly search for ancient artifacts from The Arrival. once they find the stones, they will use them to return to their homeland, and bring powerful forces back to conquer the world.

Races

Drow
+2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution.
Darkvision 60 feet.
Favored Class: Sorcerer
The drow are the parralel to the high elves. They live in the cold north of Olue, unknown to the rest of the world.

Dwarves,Humans,Halflings,Half-Orcs,Gnomes,Half-elvesHigh Elves:
Unchanged from phb

Orcs:
+2 Strength
+2 Constitution
-2 Intelligence
-2 Wisdom

Prestige Classes

Assasin
Loremaster
Shadowdancer
Yah a small list i know, but i dont wanna end up with a Fighter/Wizard/Loremaster/Blackgaurd etc...( i have this one player that does that crap.)

Classes

Phb classes + Beguiler, and Knight.

Yah i probably need more books :/ Lol im the only one in my group who has core though.
Chapien
04-05-08, 03:22 PM Errm... If the city knows nothing of its surroundings, who feeds the city? No farms in the surrounding, no food.
gullas
04-05-08, 03:43 PM Somehow I get the feeling that Olue is somewhat self sufficient and thus is able to produce food for its people.
I'm guessing some kind of underground mushrooms and "cattle things" as main food source.

btw theblackpiece , what books will be allowed in your setting? Cause that maybe could give us some ideas for flavour and such for your world.
theblackpiece
04-05-08, 10:58 PM well im not so sure on which books will be allowed, (im a noob, ive got core, and phb2, lol and thats it,) but im gonna update the frist post with what classes/races/prestige classes etc.. are allowed. so check up there in a sec...
Chapien
04-06-08, 09:53 AM Well, if Olue is a port city, it could produce food through the fish of the ocean.
Tovec
04-06-08, 10:02 PM No one knows about the outside, except for the spies.
No one knows drow are running the show, but they are omnipresent and running the show.
For some reason just because they went north the drow are superior, except for massively losing the war with high-elves.
theblackpiece
04-06-08, 11:28 PM 1) Drow aren't really superior, the Keepers Of Olue believe that Drow are superior. Not all drow are Keepers, some are just regular-old citizens of Olue, being kept in the dark like all the other citizens of Olue.

2) I didnt think about this one very well, but im gonna say that they have farms inside the city walls. : /
Tovec
04-07-08, 12:07 AM 1) Drow aren't really superior, the Keepers Of Olue believe that Drow are superior. Not all drow are Keepers, some are just regular-old citizens of Olue, being kept in the dark like all the other citizens of Olue.

2) I didnt think about this one very well, but im gonna say that they have farms inside the city walls. : /

Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important.

As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper.

Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game?

On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place?
theblackpiece
04-07-08, 03:14 PM Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important.

As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper.

Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game?

On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place?

The party is going to start out as a group of adventurers trying to leave Olue. Night before they leave, assasins (that are part of the secret Keepers Of Olue orginization) try to stop them from leaving. (The keeprs of Olue try to stop everyone from leaving so they can have total control over the population.)

Olue, is medium high magic, they got some magic artifacts and knowledge back, but not all of it.
The rest of the world is medium level magic.
im only gonna use this campaign for a little while deffinately not for years.
theblackpiece
04-07-08, 03:19 PM Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important.

As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper.

Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game?

On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place?

The party is going to start out as a group of adventurers trying to leave Olue. Night before they leave, assasins (that are part of the secret Keepers Of Olue orginization) try to stop them from leaving. (The keeprs of Olue try to stop everyone from leaving so they can have total control over the population.)

Olue, is medium high magic, they got some magic artifacts and knowledge back, but not all of it.
The rest of the world is medium level magic.
im only gonna use this campaign for a little while deffinately not for years.
talmor
04-14-08, 04:41 PM What kind of stories are you interested in telling? Are you interested in exploring the city, having the players discover the secret power behind the throne? Or, do you want the players to leave and go explore the wider world?

How morally grey do you want the world and the campaign to be?
Arcade
04-14-08, 05:03 PM I would think you need some good reasons for the public not to leave. Adventurers aren't the only ones to be adventurous. Some young commoner will get it in his head to up and try to creep through the wall someday. People will start to wonder why they can't go outside. "Because you say so ..." only goes so far. They want some proof.

I can think of two ways to make it happen:
1) Superstition. Make it so people believe bad things happen when they don't follow the rules. Supernatural things. The drow, with their abilities and some minor magic, can make things like this happen and make it appear like "the spirits" did it. The best example of this I can think of is "The Village". You don't go into the forest. You don't have anything that's red. Otherwise the creatures will get you. They will roam the streets and exact vengeance.
2) Make it so people think there was some sort of holocaust that makes it deadly outside of the walls. Like a magical nuclear bomb or a massive zombie infection. Or maybe a drow invasion. Someday, it'll be safe, and adventurers need to keep going out into the world, searching for survivors and seeing if it's now safe. What the village doesn't know is it's perfectly safe out there. The drow invaders, for instance, actually retreated here and are hiding out after their failure. This also provides a great way for the drow to get rid of anyone who is getting too powerful- they are drafted into an adventuring party to go out and check if it's safe. Sure, they get a big ceremony and written down as heroes in the records, but once outside the walls, they're quickly killed, put into slavery, sold to demons, mind-wiped and traded to illithids, etc.
Etarnon
04-16-08, 03:07 AM Sounds vaguely like Logan's Run, meets a Reverse SG-1.

With drow and stuff.

Good luck with it. Definitely not what is commonly seen.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
theblackpiece 04-05-08, 09:45 AM	So i need help with this thing, its quite, "rough around the edges." I need some help fleshing out the world, and with the history. I made different parts of it at different times, so it might be really inconsistent, and i just haven't caught it yet. Feedback appreciated Olue There is one major city in the north of the world.(EDIT: called Olue) This city knows nothing of its surroundings, and the few adventurers that leave its walls never come back. This city is ruled by a council of many different races, however there is a secret group controlling the majority of the councils seats. (10 in all.) This group is trying to keep the city segregated from the rest of the world, in a constant state of isolationism. This group, (called the Keepers of Olue,) has many spies throughout the entire world, and has determined that the rest of the world's nations are evil places, and wish to keep what they tell the populace to be the only good city in the world away from the surrounding nations. They are determinded to stop, kill, or disrupt any adventurer any adventurer that tries to come back to, or leave, the city. http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn170/theblackpiece/Map-1.jpg ...So thats a rough draft of the map of the world. I plan on adding a lot more islands. History About the World: The continent is at war, with alliances between the Humans And Dwarves, (with their capital being Krael) and an opposing faction between the Elves and Halflings.( with their capitol being Brae) Half-elves are outcasts, and Half-Orcs and Orcs are scattered tribes through the continent. Gnomes peacefully inhabit the islands,with their capital being Regando, inventing and tinkering things to sell back at the continent, and are completely neutral in this war. The Drow are the rulers of The Keepers Of Olue, and are thought to be exctinct, except in Olue, where they are quite common, whether they know about the Keepers of Olue or not. (Super DM Secret about the entire campaign) The land was not populated by the inhabitants being created there. Instead, they each teleported in through portals, Small spheres now unknown to everyone but the Keepers Of Olue.The keepers have long been searching for these spheres to help them get back to the Anscestral Lands, where each race came from. The Arrival: each race arrived with a VERY High-Magic civilization. The Humans first arrived in the central continent with and immediatly began exploring. The dwarves arrived second, and made a treaty with the humans. However, when the elves and Halflings arrived, they began fighting immediatly, and did not stop until they were forced to unite to destroy an enourmous orc threat against them. After a long while, about 1000 years, the stones were lost, and much of the high-magic power, was destroyed by the senseless orcs when they arrived. So, people began to forget, and forgetting how they came here, naturally assumed that they have always been here. the Humans and dwarves drew back to the west, and the Elves and Halfling drew back to the east. After rediscovering the other races, they believed the opposing races to be outsiders, went to war when they re-discovered them. The drow arrived with the elves, and were at peace for many years, until the drow king, Drawl Kri' Shadowbane, who thought that Drow, above all other races, were meant to rule this land. He gathered an army to destroy the High Elves, and the other races. he took slaves of other races into his army, causing massive revolts against the High Elves. fortunately, he was very unsuccesful, and he and his army were banished to the north. That is how Olue was founded. The army of Drawl Kri' Shadowbane Once they landed on Olue, they began to make a settlement out of the little supplies they had. It was bleak, until one day they bagan to stumble upon ancient artifacts from the arrival. The drow commanders found it first, and decided to keep it among themselves, leaving the rebellious slaves in the dark, because they were "inferior" to the drow. The slaves and there descendants have lived on as citizens of Olue. The high ranking drow have been searching for a way home to the Anscestral Lands ever since, and away from Olue since banishment. They had discovered much, and decided that drow were supreme to the other inferior races, and formed the Keepers Of Olue. However, the group is formed only of high-ranking drow, and many of Drawl's drow soldiers were kept in the dark, and live on as citizens of Olue. The keepers of Olue try to keep the populace of the city there, for fear of them escaping to the outside world, and revealing the drow's existence. They use their power in Olue to secretly search for ancient artifacts from The Arrival. once they find the stones, they will use them to return to their homeland, and bring powerful forces back to conquer the world. Races Drow +2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution. Darkvision 60 feet. Favored Class: Sorcerer The drow are the parralel to the high elves. They live in the cold north of Olue, unknown to the rest of the world. Dwarves,Humans,Halflings,Half-Orcs,Gnomes,Half-elvesHigh Elves: Unchanged from phb Orcs: +2 Strength +2 Constitution -2 Intelligence -2 Wisdom Prestige Classes Assasin Loremaster Shadowdancer Yah a small list i know, but i dont wanna end up with a Fighter/Wizard/Loremaster/Blackgaurd etc...( i have this one player that does that crap.) Classes Phb classes + Beguiler, and Knight. Yah i probably need more books :/ Lol im the only one in my group who has core though.
Chapien 04-05-08, 03:22 PM	Errm... If the city knows nothing of its surroundings, who feeds the city? No farms in the surrounding, no food.
gullas 04-05-08, 03:43 PM	Somehow I get the feeling that Olue is somewhat self sufficient and thus is able to produce food for its people. I'm guessing some kind of underground mushrooms and "cattle things" as main food source. btw theblackpiece , what books will be allowed in your setting? Cause that maybe could give us some ideas for flavour and such for your world.
theblackpiece 04-05-08, 10:58 PM	well im not so sure on which books will be allowed, (im a noob, ive got core, and phb2, lol and thats it,) but im gonna update the frist post with what classes/races/prestige classes etc.. are allowed. so check up there in a sec...
Chapien 04-06-08, 09:53 AM	Well, if Olue is a port city, it could produce food through the fish of the ocean.
Tovec 04-06-08, 10:02 PM	No one knows about the outside, except for the spies. No one knows drow are running the show, but they are omnipresent and running the show. For some reason just because they went north the drow are superior, except for massively losing the war with high-elves.
theblackpiece 04-06-08, 11:28 PM	1) Drow aren't really superior, the Keepers Of Olue believe that Drow are superior. Not all drow are Keepers, some are just regular-old citizens of Olue, being kept in the dark like all the other citizens of Olue. 2) I didnt think about this one very well, but im gonna say that they have farms inside the city walls. : /
Tovec 04-07-08, 12:07 AM	1) Drow aren't really superior, the Keepers Of Olue believe that Drow are superior. Not all drow are Keepers, some are just regular-old citizens of Olue, being kept in the dark like all the other citizens of Olue. 2) I didnt think about this one very well, but im gonna say that they have farms inside the city walls. : / Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important. As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper. Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game? On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place?
theblackpiece 04-07-08, 03:14 PM	Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important. As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper. Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game? On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place? The party is going to start out as a group of adventurers trying to leave Olue. Night before they leave, assasins (that are part of the secret Keepers Of Olue orginization) try to stop them from leaving. (The keeprs of Olue try to stop everyone from leaving so they can have total control over the population.) Olue, is medium high magic, they got some magic artifacts and knowledge back, but not all of it. The rest of the world is medium level magic. im only gonna use this campaign for a little while deffinately not for years.
theblackpiece 04-07-08, 03:19 PM	Okay, so not all drow are keepers. I guess I don't understand their role in the city exactly. As for the city itself I don't really understand its purpose or why its so important. As for the city walls surrounding the farms, it'd be easy normally, just a long wall or series of walls that surround the city and outlying city but as you've described the city that doesn't really make sense and would be hard to accomplish RP-wise. I suggest you look at the Last Bastion of Civilization for suggestions on having food inside city walls proper. Are the players meant to start in the city, I'm assuming they are. If they do what will be their role? In the case that they do, the outside world is going to be unknown to them, most likely. Are they meant to escape? Are you setting this up as a main campaign world for years or campaigns to come or is it just a general place for your current game? On the backstory and world: At the time they came to the world they were super-high magic. Over the years they lost this magic? Is Olue still high magic or rather high again. What level of magic is the world in general? Low, or medium magic? Would the party be an outlier in magic or fairly common place? The party is going to start out as a group of adventurers trying to leave Olue. Night before they leave, assasins (that are part of the secret Keepers Of Olue orginization) try to stop them from leaving. (The keeprs of Olue try to stop everyone from leaving so they can have total control over the population.) Olue, is medium high magic, they got some magic artifacts and knowledge back, but not all of it. The rest of the world is medium level magic. im only gonna use this campaign for a little while deffinately not for years.
talmor 04-14-08, 04:41 PM	What kind of stories are you interested in telling? Are you interested in exploring the city, having the players discover the secret power behind the throne? Or, do you want the players to leave and go explore the wider world? How morally grey do you want the world and the campaign to be?
Arcade 04-14-08, 05:03 PM	I would think you need some good reasons for the public not to leave. Adventurers aren't the only ones to be adventurous. Some young commoner will get it in his head to up and try to creep through the wall someday. People will start to wonder why they can't go outside. "Because you say so ..." only goes so far. They want some proof. I can think of two ways to make it happen: 1) Superstition. Make it so people believe bad things happen when they don't follow the rules. Supernatural things. The drow, with their abilities and some minor magic, can make things like this happen and make it appear like "the spirits" did it. The best example of this I can think of is "The Village". You don't go into the forest. You don't have anything that's red. Otherwise the creatures will get you. They will roam the streets and exact vengeance. 2) Make it so people think there was some sort of holocaust that makes it deadly outside of the walls. Like a magical nuclear bomb or a massive zombie infection. Or maybe a drow invasion. Someday, it'll be safe, and adventurers need to keep going out into the world, searching for survivors and seeing if it's now safe. What the village doesn't know is it's perfectly safe out there. The drow invaders, for instance, actually retreated here and are hiding out after their failure. This also provides a great way for the drow to get rid of anyone who is getting too powerful- they are drafted into an adventuring party to go out and check if it's safe. Sure, they get a big ceremony and written down as heroes in the records, but once outside the walls, they're quickly killed, put into slavery, sold to demons, mind-wiped and traded to illithids, etc.
Etarnon 04-16-08, 03:07 AM	Sounds vaguely like Logan's Run, meets a Reverse SG-1. With drow and stuff. Good luck with it. Definitely not what is commonly seen.