In addition to my quote-based thread, I wanted to use this thread here to collect any ideas popping into my head that I am going to fit into my world. Any comments would, of course, be appreciated.
The first thing is the Fog of Ages: Unlike in most fantasy worlds, no race can say of themselves that they are an elder race. That is due to the fact that none of the sentient races has any histories going back further than the last 2000 years. It appears as if their histories have been truncated at the exact same point. Scholars have speculated about this phenomenon, especially since there are ancient structures and artifacts sometimes found by adventurers...but any attempt to delve into the past via divination or simple research has mysteriously failed...
While the various species do have creation myths(and, in the cases of the Tieflings and the Dragonborn, are a fairly recent addition to the world), they are lacking in actual detail in regards to any time period before the start of recorded history. Even the gods themselves are very silent on the matter.
Next thing:
The Transcendents, Elementals and the Living Gods: There are basically three kinds of non-fiendish beings that can grant divine magic to people. There are the transcended gods, who are believed to be removed from earthly matters. These gods have messengers that can be summoned, but they never act directly. If a priest receives a vision, it is from one of these messengers, not the god themselves. This has led to some people questioning the existance of these deities, but this is, of course, blasphemy...
Then, there are the elemental lords: There are five of these: fire, water, earth, air and life. They are often worshipped together and are distant-but-benign. All non-evil elementals are an extension of their being, yet can still act autonomously. They have their evil counterparts, whose worship is forbidden. Think the archomentals, but as full-blown divinities. The elemental lords are often worshipped in rural areas.
And finally, there are the Living Gods: These are, in effect, very powerful spirits. Unlike the transcended gods, there is no doubt as to their existance, because they can, under the right circumstances, be actually summoned. They prefer, however, not to act openly in the world, for fear of laying waste to huge swathes of it. None of them, even the foul ones, are so depraved that they would risk it.
They can grant the ability to cast divine spells, but to do so, the priest-to-be must be present at a certain rite where the Living God imparts a bit of their essence into a specially-prepared idol, which begins to bleed. The priest then drinks of the blood, which grants them a connection to their deity. They can now cast and learn divine spells, no matter where they might be.
For that reason, the Living Gods are usually not worshipped outside their region of origin. The followers of the transcended gods consider these beings idols and impostors, foul spirits instead of true deities...but that distinction is largely academic.
The Academy:
The Academy of Destiny, or simply the Academy, is the greatest temple to Khorven, the transcended god of change, magic and fate. It is a magnificent place, one of the largest buildings in the known world. Nearly everything is taught here, from swordsmanship to the darkest arts of magic. It prides itself on not choosing between good and evil, law and chaos. Instead, it has a simple mission: to create agents of change.
Every year, thousands of people sell their very livelihoods to come to the Academy and try to enroll themselves or their children. Many people die on the way to Relat, seat of the Academy. Those who arrive somewhat safely then have to wait until an Enrollment Day arrives, which happens three times a year.
At Enrollment Day ( which, given the number of applicants, can take much more than 24 hours to end), priests of Khorven divine whether or not a prospective applicant has a promising fate in store for them. The few who do ( about 1 in 50) are accepted. There is no other testing. Once someone passes the test of Fate, they are in.
Afterwards, there is a month-long orientation process during which the aptitudes of the new applicants are determined.
After that, they are taught whatever fits best. They are trained in all kinds of manners of survival, magic, scholarship, even con artistry, all according to the potential abilities of the applicant.
Morality does not enter into this. The Academy follows Khorven's doctrine that change, for good or ill, is the only thing that can keep stagnation and thus, degeneration, at bay.
The Academy thus trains paladins as well as tyrants. They only teach that the talents trained and honed at the Academy should never be wasted, but should be used in the world, as much as possible.
Of course, given such widely divergent alignments and the fact that some members of the staff are extraplanar beings or even creatures that would be monsters in other parts of the world, constant vigilance is a must. Violence against any member of the Academy, be they applicant, student, teacher or staff, is strictly forbidden on pain of expulsion.
Of course, this does not deter everyone and so, the Academy employs a staff of highly-trained watchmen who are said to be the toughest and meanest in the known world.
They also function as the core defenders of the Academy in case of an attack - which has happened quite a few times, given that the Academy breeds, above all, troublemakers and adventurers of any bent.
No attack has ever been successful, however, for all students are required to aid in the defense of the Academy.
And, given that most of the teachers are former students who have already left their mark on the world...one should better have a good attack AND escape plan...
The races:
I kinda want to avoid having dozens of intelligent races in the world, most of which are simply called monsters. Therefore, most things adventurers encounter within the wilderness are either unintelligent monsters or extraplanar/corrupted beings (undead, elementals, fey, etc.).
I will use all races except gnomes, since I always found them somewhat redundant and their traits could just as well be applied to a subrace of halfling.
I also want to include orcs as a player race - although I do not yet have seen the modifiers for them as a player race yet...I wonder what you would suggest in regards to orc racial traits in 5e. Any ideas would be welcome.
Orcs are physically-oriented but neither dim-witted nor naturally evil. In fact, together with humanity, they are the co-dominant species in the world, being pretty much as populous as humans.
That is helped by the fact that orcs are even more fertile than humans, with twins and triplet births being quite common.
This is offset by the fact that the general lifespan of an orc is only about 45-50 years (an orc ages more quickly but due to their robust constitution, they reach the detrimental stages of the aging process only in the last decade of their lives).
As a result of this, orcs experience things more intensely than others, especially their emotions, which has given rise to the stereotype of the orcish berserker, charging heedlessly into battle at the slightest provocation. While this can happen, it is not the norm. Orcs also learn faster, reaching maturity at the age of 14.
They show no more of a tendency toward good or evil than humans, but their nature and the quickness with which they embrace change gives them a strong chaotic leaning.
Orc societies run the gamut from tribal to full republics and are often just as sophisticated as the human realms. However, due to their inherent chaotic nature, upheavals and civil conflicts or riots are more common.
This does not, however, significantly lessen their quality of life, since orcs know that change is constant and embrace it. Orcs do not believe in holding grudges and a mortal enemy one day can be a friend or beloved spouse the next.
Orcs are not, however, prone to turning on their friends. As much as they believe in change, they also know that one has to hold on to some things so as not to be swept away and be left forlorn and alone. While orcs are polyamorous and actually hold group marriages, they are often as devoted to each and everyone of their lovers as a human is to their one spouse.
Complicated laws and structures are not their forte and they often lack the patience of dealing with such things. Orcish contracts and laws are simple and to the point, easily understood by orcs and outsiders alike.
This does make them vulnerable to manipulation by a cunning negotiator or someone seeking loopholes.
Such a person would be wise to orcs are still just as cunning as many humans, able to see through deceptions just like humans, quick to anger and quite a bit stronger than the average scholar of law....
The Vashar
There is, of course, a reason for the fog of ages mentioned above. And that reason has something to do with the misguided actions of a Living God and the resulting age of darkness that came afterwards.
Once upon a time, possibly some 1.000-1,500 years before the beginning of historical accounts in the current age, a Living God named Astraya grew jealous of the Elemental Lord of Life, for she did not have the ability to grant life.
She could not even give birth the way the mortal races and most spirits did, for a blight had long ago rendered her spiritually barren.
So, she entranced a young thief of great skill to sneak into the fortress of Elemental Life to steall its secrets. He managed to do so and the collected secrets he had stolen allowed Astraya to forge her first living being in the shape of a man. Exultation filled her as she breathed life into his cold shell and the being opened its eyes. It was but a moment later, when she realized that something had gone very wrong.
For the unnamed thief, afraid of the fearsome guardians of Life, had not managed to steal the last secret, the hidden rite meant to give each newly born being a soul.
Astraya's first child had become an abomination, a being within whose heart sat only an infinite void of depthless evil, with no possible hope for redemption or compassion.
It would have been her duty to destroy her misbegotten creation, but she was too distraught to react, allowing the creature to escape. Unbound by morality or any sense of right and wrong, the creature thrived in the world, becoming a terror upon the land. Eventually, moved by stirrings of lust, it forced itself on mortal women and it was quickly obvious that its seed had been tainted as well, for the children born of such unions were born without souls as well.
These soulless beings, unfettered by any concern for others, grew to be a plight upon the lands, their foul bloodlines spreading until they had become an army, slaughtering and conquering all they could see.
For a thousand years, the mortal races languished in slavery under their new overlords, who called themselves the Vashar - which, in an old orcish dialect, meant " the empty ones".
The Vashar visited untold degradations upon their slaves, violating their flesh, their minds and their very souls. It is said that they made the first pacts with demons, devils and the dreaded things from the Outer Dark. They harnessed the power of Evil Elemental Life, creating the first undead.
They even experimented on themselves until some of them no longer resembled anything that should be in the world - many aberrations, especially the intelligent ones, could trace their origins to the Vashar, being either crafted by or direct descendants of them.
They even enslaved many of the Living Gods, draining them of their power...but, fortunately, their tyranny eventually came to an end. In their pursuit of power, they slowly destabilized the structure of the world, something which pained the Elemental Lords. And they decided to finally act. In a cataclysm the like of which had never been seen before, the Lords eradicated the Vashar from the face of the world. Fire, water, ice, stone...they ravaged the world, nearly wiping it clean before allowing Life to flourish anew, restoring many of the races that had been destroyed.
The Lords knew that the dreadful secrets of the Vashar should never be unearthed and so they forged a pact with the Living Gods and all the small and great spirits of the world that no mortal should ever gain knowledge of the Vashar and the long age of darkness.
But this blight was never fully eradicated. Some Vashar turned to undeath, hiding in the deep places of the earth...some roam the shadowy corners of the world, their visages and bodies grotesque but still living...and in some, remote places, there still exist remnants of their former unholy glory...remnants that are haunted by a malign intelligence...that can show a human of sufficient will to power and evil how to shed their own soul yet continue to live...
((Basically, they are a take on the Vashar from the Book of Vile Dorkness and the reason for most aberrations - beholders and mind flayers are, in essence, Vashar after so many body and mental modifications that they barely remember their true origin. And there is another rather vague inspiration for them, but that's in a galaxy far, far away...)
A work-in-progress writeup of Relat, the biggest known city in my world. Details will be added whenever I find the time, as will detailed NPC descriptions(since power level changed a bit in 5th, I am still unsure what levels the NPCs should be). Should the 5th edition DMG provide other means of location writeups, I will change this accordingly. I have so far not included marketplace infos etc. since the value and use of magic items is yet unknown mostly due to WotC taking an awfully long time bringing out their core books...still waiting for my Monster Manual...grmpf.
Relat
CN metropolis
Government:Autocracy
Population:288,843 (140,400 human, 100,234 orcs, 25,300 dwarves, 10,300 elves, 9,400 halflings, 2,300 other)
Notable NPCs:
Archdean Lemit Khandrash (LN male tiefling, head of the Academy)
Her Supreme Ladyship Vashtra III.: (LE female human, ruler of Relat)
Jilos Mekhret (CN male orc, leader of the Red Hand thieves' guild)
The Queen in Ichor (CE female human(assumed), ruler of the Mire and the Pit)
Fateweaver Ghojin Khelm (CN male elf, high priest of the church of Khorven)
Thommen " the Iron Boar" Grundar (LN male dwarf, captain of the city watch)
Kharbasha Gharr (CN female orc, leader of the Blood Seraph mercenary chapter within the city)
The Tailless Master (NE male dragonborn (lich), keeper of the Relati library)
Relat is, depending on whom you ask, the glorious jewel of the world, an unparralleled place of learning, a sacred place and a cesspool of poverty, sickness and violence.
Anyone who has spent some time in the city knows that all of the above is pretty much true. The city owes its existence to the presence of the Academy (see above). It also owes much of its misery to that selfsame Academy.
It began with the foundation of the Academy, originally a simple temple to Khorven, the Lord of Change. Over time, it slowly grew as priests felt themselves tasked with using the temple as a means to create new agents of change instead of just meditating on the nature of magic and transformation.
Why the temple was built in that exact place - an outcropping of the White Mountains - originally is not known to anyone today, but, according to the priests, powerful magic flows through the very rock on which the city stands. The presence of a nearby spring and the existence of several deep fissures in the earth, suitable for the disposal of all kinds of waste, made the place suitable for a temple to the lord of magic, despite the fact that the rocky ground made nearby farming impossible, forcing the priests to import their food.
As the temple slowly grew into the Academy, more and more people flooded to it - some to seek admittance, others to support the pilgrims and the priests in exchange for coin. A settlement sprang into life around it, which slowly but steadily grew without any guiding hands, creating a maze of alleys, backyards and streets that confounds all new visitors.
As the city grew, it quickly became clear that it needed some kind of order. The priests were unwilling to act in that capacity and the guards of the Academy had their hands full with feuding students and magical experiments running rampant.
Meanwhile, the city's squalor grew, as crime ran rampant. With so many piligrims unable to return home and the occasional washout from the Academy seeking to make his place in the world without any support, poverty abounded. It also became increasingly difficult to feed the masses, as the priests had no care for the outside world.
As hunger riots broke out, one woman seized her chance. Rela, a young, dissatisfied and ambitious priestess of Khorven, ignored her vows and, using her magic - which had not failed her despite betraying her god - raised an army from the rabble. Within a week of blood and carnage, she had established her dominance over the squabbling clans and gangs, declaring herself supreme ruler of the city. The priests, as usual, ignored the goings-on but were quite satisfied that things were moving on more quietly.
Thanks to what could best be described as a mixture of benevolent ruthlessness and breathtaking diplomacy, she managed to secure steady food imports, ending the shortages within a month. In thanks, the people of the city - who were quick to forget the victims her rise to power had had - named their city after her. Her line has survived through the ages, an amazing feat in itself, and Lady Vashtra III. can trace her line back directly to Rela.
Today, the city is prosperous. The Academy's continuous demand of magical equipment, labor, assistance and new furniture ensures a steady stream of income to those capable of providing services and goods. Entertainment of all kinds must, of course, also be provided for the students and staff alike - and for the pilgrims who arrive in Relat, hoping for a better future. There are about a hundred taverns strewn about the city, more than 40 brothels and almost as many gambling halls. Temples abound as well, catering to the spiritual well-being of those to whom praying to Khorven alone is not fulfilling.
If you have any skill in entertainment, magic or craftsmanship, you can win a fortune - if you are quick-thinking and cold-blooded. Competition is fierce and actively encouraged by the priesthood, who prefer their suppliers to be in a state of flux. Unfortunately, that leaves many others in the dirt. Together with those that have no marketable skills, who washed out or who simply did not have the grand destiny required to join the Academy, those form the teeming underclass of the city.
[It is, by the way, a known fact that sometimes, the priests' divinations simply fail to properly capture someone's fate. Some who were not accepted into the Academy have gone on to do great things in the world and many who finished their studies were soon devoured by monsters or met similarly ignoble ends. Why that is the case, nobody knows. Maybe Khorven simply likes to keep things interesting...However, most of those who finish their studies do become great movers in the world, which continues to justify the Academy's existence.]
Of course, a teeming underclass also means a teeming underworld. When people have no other means to support themselves and their families, they turn to crime. And there are always people willing to exploit those unable to defend themselves. The city's underworld is a warzone, with many smaller gangs fighting over territories and the larger organizations all vying for control over the most promising districts. The Red Hand, an orcish/human "guild" of thieves and muggers, is one of the largest and best-organized of these groups.
Theft is, of course, forbidden by law, as are murder, **** and all other crimes that disrupt the peace. However, the disruption of the peace caused by the murder of a poor citizen is often seen as...negligible. As long as the poor kill and rob each other, there will be little action undertaken unless a watchman sees the crime firsthand, in which case they would be required to act.
That is, unless that watchman is one of those who take bribes to not be there. Of which there are way too many.
Drug use and drug sale are fully legal. However, all luxury goods, including drugs, are subject to additional tolls when they are brought into the city, which has led to the coffers of the ruling family swelling and a profitable smuggling business to be established - in which the ruling family also cashes in through middlemen, although smuggling is, of course, illegal...
Laws are enforced by the Relati city watch, or, as they are commonly called, the Iron Magistrates. The watch consists mostly of dwarves and half-orcs as well as those orcs with a patience for human law, since they can all see quite well in the darkness - and there are a lot of dark corners and shadows in Relat.
Current captain of the city watch is a surly dwarf named Thommen Grundar. A veteran of the Grimskull skirmishes, he also bears the nickname " Iron Boar" due to his helmet that looks supsiciously like a boar's head, complete with tusks. He is a gruff, no-nonsense man who strictly adheres to the letter of the law. He knows that many among the watch are corrupt, but knows that some battles cannot be won. Instead, he tries his best to keep the peace.
Since disturbing the peace is what they do best, he has no patience with adventurers - which includes the students from the Academy, who are basically taught to be professional troublemakers - and urges them on to leave the city as soon as possible. That is, unless the city has need of their services, which, sadly, happens more often than not.
Do you want help with an orc race write up?
I'm thinking +2 str, a weaker form/varient of the aggressive ability from the monster manual orcs, dark vision, and some sort of first round boost: like +4 initiative and +1 to attacks/DCs during the first round.
Then a con boostign sub-race, and an int-booster (orog).
Giant Gorilla, I really like what you have here so far. Would you consider contributing to the OPEN DISCUSSION: BUILD A WORLD 5.0 thread? So far its shaping up into something really interesting. 