The Core World
To start with, we have what I am considering the "Core World". In Core World, magic (both divine and arcane) is very rare; the PCs now have a fair but, but NPCs are frightened by it. There were four original races when the world was born: wizards, elves (read "eladrin"), dwarves, and what are now remembered as the wild races.
To make a long origin story short, a wizard pierced the "veil between life and death" and went crazy when he saw what was on the other side. In his madness he started forcing his closest friends, the wild races, to view the other side, and they went crazy; a war began as the wild races and a few crazy wizards tried to destroy things and just generally be crazy. You know how it is.
That was a long time ago. The wizard was eventually killed and the wild races sealed away, and the other wizards realised their own magic was too much for them to be allowed to use. Some imposed barriers on themselves, preventing them from influencing mortal affairs, and the remainder cast a powerful spell that removed their power altogether, turning them into humans.
To make a long origin story short, a wizard pierced the "veil between life and death" and went crazy when he saw what was on the other side. In his madness he started forcing his closest friends, the wild races, to view the other side, and they went crazy; a war began as the wild races and a few crazy wizards tried to destroy things and just generally be crazy. You know how it is.
That was a long time ago. The wizard was eventually killed and the wild races sealed away, and the other wizards realised their own magic was too much for them to be allowed to use. Some imposed barriers on themselves, preventing them from influencing mortal affairs, and the remainder cast a powerful spell that removed their power altogether, turning them into humans.
Perhaps even the entire war itself was caused by Dragons taking control of some of the Wizard's minds, and using them as pawns to conquer more swathes of territory for themselves. Their plans were delayed when the rift between worlds was sealed when the magic in your world was locked away, but many of the older dragons have been working at opening another dimensional rift which they can use to enter the world again.
Why would they bother? Because its new, and who knows? Perhaps this world of yours contain artifacts of incredible power, treasures beyond compare! To a dragon, thinking of those opportunities makes opening a portal to this world an excellent goal indeed!
I'm not too good at designing very high fantasy worlds, but I'd like this to be one. I also want it to "eerily parallel" the Core World in some ways, which is why I've described so much of my history above.
Anyone have any ideas for how this world might have come to be dragon-dominated, and why they'd be interested in invading the Core World as soon as the dimensional barriers get softened? I'm not coming up with too much original stuff.
For your first question I think you should be thinking in a sightly surealist way when describing your high fantasy/magic world. The colours should be more vivid and the sounds and smells more intense than the mundane world.
As for your second; remember those Wizards who seperated themselves from the affairs of mortals? Could they not have gradually become dragons, and created the Draconic races to populate their new home?
Your back story is fascinating, you've obviously put alot of thought into it.
I hope it goes well.
Also the idea of using one campaign as the basis for another is a stroke of genius.
-The dragons in this world are the equivalent to the wizards in Core World. They've always been draconic, no transformation, but they fulfill the same role.
-In ancient times, one of the dragons peered beyond their world's own Veil, and went mad. The war proceeded similarly, but the side of madness won. The dragon that became Tiamat was the one that pierced the veil.
-During the war, this world's nondragon races (elves, dwarves, and wild races' equivalents) were slowly subjugated by the dragons and twisted into a new unified form, the dragonborn.
Some things still missing:
-I'd like Bahamut to exist or have existed in this world
-I'm considering including Tieflings in this world as well, perhaps as a sort of "resistance movement", the last remaining vestiges of one of the nondragon races (probably the equivalent to elves in this world).
I'm thinking perhaps, to put a twist on things, the Tieflings of this world worship Bahamut, the only dragon not to succumb to madness?
Additionally trying to think of how the world-collision is going to work. The destruction of the Orb causes a thinning, but not a torrential collision of the worlds. I'm leaning towards portal storms, random places where gates between the worlds open. This would be as much a surprise to Tiamat's people as the people of Core World.
Any actual portals have to be created, which gives the Dragons a huge advantage since any such lore on the "core world" would long since have been lost...
Hmm, why not have Bahamut been publicly destroyed in the ancient past and your PC who is the only one able see past the veil without going insane is actually Bahamut Reborn?
Personally I would steal allot of ideas from Alternity's Multiverse, especially the idea of dimensional outpockets, basically instead of actual portals opening, as the walls thin ideas/dreams start to bleed through both planes, then simple lifeforms and finally buildings and complex life starts simply popping into the other dimension.
Any actual portals have to be created, which gives the Dragons a huge advantage since any such lore on the "core world" would long since have been lost...
It's doubtful any lore on portal creation ever existed, especially on the Core World: the orb and similar artifacts are as old as creation, and as long as they have been intact, travel between planes has been impossible.
The actual blurring of planar boundaries is probably not going to be unlike what you're describing; I've no experience with Alternity, but I'm going for a few combined elements. One is that locales from the dragon world occasionally materialise inside Core World, such that they appear to have always been there but also don't screw with navigation around them and don't displace anything (messed up Nth dimension terrain is always fun). These come and go. In addition, occasionally things regarded as portals by sentient beings (eg. doors, shadows, reflective surfaces) become access gates between the worlds for a short time.
At first the incursions will be small and shortlived. A few images, sounds, etc. will leak in. As time passes the incursions last longer and longer. Of course, the incursions go both ways: patches of Core World also appear in the dragon world. The PCs will probably have to stabilise this by creating a few permanent gates, allowing the chaotic energy of the portal linkage to bleed out of certain areas... like putting a gate in a dam to let water out rather than letting it constantly leak over the top as it overfills. That is likely when the real invasion will start.
Hmm, why not have Bahamut been publicly destroyed in the ancient past and your PC who is the only one able see past the veil without going insane is actually Bahamut Reborn?
Destroyed is good. Not sure about the PC being bahamut himself: like I said, there was never a link between these worlds before. However, he's considering switching to beastmaster ranger since I got MP, and you did just give me an idea: I was already thinking of allowing him a dragon hatchling pet (using stats from a normal animal though). I might make that hatchling be Bahamut Reborn, or have the potential for it. The situation around his gaining the hatchling would certainly fit (he will probably divine its location via his knowledge of the Veil, a very long story!)
Not sure about the PC being bahamut himself: like I said, there was never a link between these worlds before. However, he's considering switching to beastmaster ranger since I got MP, and you did just give me an idea: I was already thinking of allowing him a dragon hatchling pet (using stats from a normal animal though). I might make that hatchling be Bahamut Reborn, or have the potential for it. The situation around his gaining the hatchling would certainly fit (he will probably divine its location via his knowledge of the Veil, a very long story!)
How about Bahamut's essence was fractured when he was originaly defeated?
Part of his essence is in the hatchling and the other part or parts are elsewhere, including a dragonborn in the alternate world.
Cheers, Alan.
Mine's slightly different, as it was started by a Demon Lord controlling his followers (who hired the PCs to have them unwittingly do it) to remove one of the worlds "anchors" in reality so that the planes would begin to blur together and make it easier for the demons to invade, but had consequence of having parallel worlds and alternate realities begin to mesh into the current world too. The PCs and the rest of the world are just starting to realize that the job they were hired for a couple months ago might have bit them on the behind.
So to get in to what I'm doing. The "anchor" was an orb inside an underground temple, at one of the mountain ranges at the far south end of the continent. So starting around there there have been weird sightings, but nothing no one has been extremely worried about. Sporadic sightings of birds with too many wings and animals with 6 legs, stands of trees appearing where a wheat field used to be then gone a couple hours later. Then people start to actually SEE stuff change. A butterfly is flying along, then *POP* it's gone, only to reappear from thin air a minute later. Mages are starting to get constant migraines, while clerics sometimes get garbled messages from their gods, like there is some sort of interference. Keep in mind this is all relatively close to the mountain they removed the anchor from, but is steadily spreading.
Eventually stuff starts to go missing completely, or objects just appear in someone's trunk for no good reason.
Assuming the PCs don't stabilize it, rifts will eventually start to open, where the worlds themselves are colliding and creating what amounts to portals between worlds, which are exceedingly random unless someone really knows what they're doing, and have something from that world. Of course, eventually the worlds will tear themselves apart as they try to all occupy the same space, so there's a bit of a rush to the PC's quest.
I will be stealin' that. Thanks!