Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 vaeliorin Jul 01, 2008 3:25:04	Hi. As the title says, I'm just looking for some feedback/impressions on a campaign setting I'm working on. I'm going to be fairly broad in the descriptions here, as I haven't gotten down into the real nitty-gritty of the setting, but I'm curious as to whether or not I'm completely off the deep end, or if I have something people think will work (or if I'm inadvertently copying something, which I hope I'm not.) Basically, the idea for this campaign setting came from a discussion I saw a while ago about campaign settings where humans were not the dominant race. I was thinking about what could cause something like that to occur in an already human-dominated world, and this is what came to mind. The primary concept that influenced the world is that approximately 1000 years ago, some alchemist, whose name has been lost to history, discovered not only how to turn lead into gold, but how to turn any non-crystalline earth-like substance into any other non-crystalline earth-like substance, quickly and cheaply. This means that metals have basically lost all their value, and crafting of metallic items is incredibly easy, as they can just be molded from clay or sand and then transmuted to whatever metal is desired. At first everyone was overjoyed, and soon everyone had piles of gold. Of course, this rendered gold worthless, and the world erupted into a massive war that lasted 250 years (or so). When the world finally settled into some semblance of normalcy, the gnomes (not 4E gnomes, but rather gnomes more in the vein of 2E/3.X), who controlled the vast majority of the gems and gem mines, had risen to the top. The currency is now gem-based, with various gems replacing the standard copper/silver/gold/platinum currency system (current thought is semi-precious/sapphire/emerald/diamond There is one world-wide law that is scrupulously, and viciously, enforced, and that is that alchemical experimentation is outlawed. Known procedures are allowed, but anyone caught doing experiments outside these bounds are punished severely (typically several decade long jail terms, and often loss of the hands.) Anyone caught doing alchemical experiments relating to crystalline forms (basically anything that could potentially again render the accepted currency worthless) is executed on the spot, and all their possessions burned. There are 2 major continents that are known. Continent 1 ----------- This continent is ruled by the gnome empire, and it is a continent of mountains and quick-growing, forbidding, dense forests. Land that is left untended is overtaken by forest within a matter of a few years. In the 750 years since it has come to power, the gnome empire has become decadent and begun to disintegrate. The gnomes, in general, have become far more interested in their own wealth and power than in the governance of their empire, and so it has largely dissolved into a number of city-states that operate independently of each other. The gnomes are also obsessed with their racial image (recalling the centuries and millenia of being thought of as silly or a joke) and any gnome who doesn't comport themselves in a proper gnomish manner quickly disappears (usually to work in the largely slave-worked mines, though all mines have gnome overseers.) Gnomes make up all of the nobility, and the vast majority of the middle-class. The dwarves, their ancestral work become largely worthless, have instead come to serve as the military might of the gnomes. While there are still a few who hold out as miners and crafters, their existence is poor, and they are looked down upon by most people. While the generals of the armies are gnomes, they are little more than figureheads, with dwarven commanders making all the real decisions. Dwarves serve as a matter of tradition and for the pay, and though they could, if they so chose, overthrow the gnomish government, they have no interest in the open war for power that would result, nor any wish to cut off their means of income. Humans number about as many as both the dwarves and gnomes combined. However, they are systematically oppressed, and rarely manage to reach the level of middle-class. They generally work as unskilled laborers or farmers, and are largely uneducated. While there may be the rare individual who rises above to become something, this is very uncommon, and these individuals are generally regarded as potentially dangerous and watched carefully (particularly those who study the arcane arts.) The priesthood is perhaps the only sure path to an easier life, though the numbers of the priesthood are tightly controlled with threat of violence by the gnomes, who are afraid to allow too much power to come into human hands. Elves used to have many cities and towns throughout the forests of the continent, but they have been driven from the land. Approximately 1300 years ago, elven cities were plagued by a rash of creatures from the Far Realms (a home-brewed race of aberrations still in development, that will largely serve as the low-level mooks of the campaign world) suddenly appearing within their midst. Anywhere that there were more than 100 elves living together, these creatures appeared, and slaughtered any elves they could. This occurred wherever the elves tried to gather, and eventually the elves were driven into the sea. They now live solely one their ships, and every town, port, and city monitors the number of elves and eladrins that are within their walls, with this number never allowed to reach or exceed 100. Eladrin are very rare. Though there are still a few places where their cities appear within the world, those who live in the world have intentionally altered places where eladrin cities appeared frequently or for long periods of time, fearful of the appearance of more of the Far Realm creatures, and these cities now appear rarely in the world, or not at all. While eladrin are not feared, their numbers are monitored as well as the elves, and there are no large enclaves of them. They are very, very rare. The Far Realms creatures who drove out the elves are very strange to the normal denizens of the continent. They are weird, insect-like creatures that are seemingly unable to communicate with outsiders. They have never been observed engaging in anything that the observers could identify as communication, and all attempts to communicate with them have failed. At times they will completely ignore the presence of outsiders, even to the point of ignoring attacks, while at other times they will attack completely unprovoked. The only exceptions to this is that they will always attack elves and eladrin, and that they seem to be able to detect these creatures, regardless of the means used to hide. (These creatures sense the planar instability caused by the presence of elves and eladrin due to their fey origin. This instability is what opens the planar rifts through which the creatures appear when large numbers of elves of eladrin gather. These planar rifts only appear because of the weakness of the planar barrier between the Far Realm and the world due to events that will be discussed later.) There are other monsters as well, but there numbers are not great enough to discuss at any length (and specifics are not yet decided on at this point.) Races not mentioned are so scarce on this continent as to be not worth mentioning, with the exception of half-elves. Half-elves are fairly common in port towns, due to frequent stops made by elven vessels. Half-elves are rare elsewhere. Half-elves do not carry the planar weakness that plagues their elven parents. Continent 2 ----------- This continent is much more diverse than the other continent. While it is actually the continent from which the human race initially came, they have never had a true empire here, though they fare much better here than they do on the other continent. The climate is also much more diverse, including a vast swamp/rain forest, a "fairy-tale" like kingdom whose climate ranges from subtropical in the north to tundra in the south, an enormous desert, and vast open plains. Having never played host to large numbers of elves or eladrin, this continent does not suffer from the infestation of Far Realm creatures that the other continent does. The northeast portion of the continent contains a vast swamp/rain forest that is home to a race of frogmen similiar to gripplis. Obviously, these will have to be adapted to 4E. The major difference between the 2E grippli and this race of frogmen is that the frogmen are based on the poison dart frogs from the South American rain forests (the ones that are black with neon colored highlights). This race has lived in this swamp for millenia, but are still a simple tribal people who don't brook outsiders, and rarely travel outside of the swamp itself. Their technology is based largely on wood, bone, and leather. Society is still a work in progress, but they are potentially going to be a playable race. This is largely the only land that was not touched by the alchemy wars. Across a mountain range to the west of this swamp is a vast rocky desert that stretches all the way from the north of the continent to the south (as does the mountain range.) Rule of the desert has passed through the hands of several races, though only two are known to the vast majority of the people in the world. Until approximately 1300 years ago, the desert was ruled by the dragonborn, who built massive stone cities that still stand today. The dragonborn ruled over a human underclass that lived and worked in the cities. The open desert was largely controlled by the nomadic and mystic thri-kreen. The thri-kreen showed little interest in anything other than themselves, however, largely ignoring the humans and dragonborn, except to keep them clear of certain areas of the desert. The dragonborn were brought low when their leaders decided that they must know what was in the areas guarded by the thri-kreen. Massive armies were formed to force the way into these areas, but the thri-kreen reacted savagely, decimating the dragonborn forces. The humans, seeing this weakness, revolted. The revolt would likely have been put down, except that a number of the humans gathered together, performing a magical ritual to summon aid. Unfortunately the aid that appeared was an aboleth of immense age and power, which quickly dominated the minds of those who summoned it. With the aid of this aboleth, the dragonborn were overthrown. The aboleth know resides in a massive series of water-filled caverns that it created beneath the desert, and the entire regions aquifer has been polluted with it's mind-controlling slime. The entire human population is under the control of this aboleth, though it normally does not exert that control except upon the leaders. The dragonborn and thri-kreen have banded together to try contain the power of the thri-kreen, and though they initially lost some members to the mind-controlling water, they now cleanse the water they use. Though they don't live together, they are friendly with each other and share lore. The dragonborn see it as their sacred duty to contain and eventually defeat the aboleth. The aboleth is still trying to spread its influence, and has recently directed its followers to begin mass-producing a tainted beverage that it hopes to sell abroad to extend its influence. The dragonborn and tiefling makes raids on the production and distribution, trying to stop the spread. For some reason, no one spreads word of the aboleth, so other than the dragonborn and the thri-kreen, none are truly aware of its existence or the threat that it poses. The aboleth is the reason for the weakening of the barrier between the Far Realm and the world that allowed the Far Realm creatures to invade the other continent. The history of the thri-kreen is strange, though none other than the thri-kreen know of it. The thri-kreen had a great civilization long before any of the other races had achieved any true society. Their empire spanned the globe, but for reasons unknown, the withdrew to the desert, removing all traces of their empire. The only remnants that remain are holy shrines that exist in the parts of the desert the thri-kreen ward against all intruders. Masters of psionics, the thri-kreen also possess ancestral memory, each thri-kreen possessing the memories of all its ancestors. Though not necessarily individually more powerful than any other race, when working together the thri-kreen can perform feats far beyond the imagining of any other race, though it has been millennia since they have performed any of these feats. In truth, if they all banded together, they could destroy the aboleth that dwells below the desert. Why they haven't done so is unknown. Though the thri-kreen would potentially be a playable race, it's not suggested, as the ancestral memory could cause problems. These lands were effected by the alchemy wars, though much of the conflict was internal, with human factions fighting one another. The aboleth had not gained complete control over all the humans at that point in history, perhaps one of the few things that prevented it from using it's forces to gain control of larger portions of the continent, and potentially establishing a foothold on the other continent. The dragonborn and thri-kreen, being reduced to largely self-sufficient barter economies, were largely unaffected. To the south of the vast swamp, and east across the mountains from the desert is a "fairy-tale" kingdom ruled by humans. Running from the southern bound of the swamp to the southern edge of the continent, the climate ranges from sub-tropical near the swamp, to temperate further south, and eventually to tundra to the south, though this southern area is at best sparsely populated. A land of sparkling lakes, bright green woods, and majestic castles, this land hides dark secrets. Once the province of nomadic tribes of centaurs, it was "colonized" by the human empire that ruled the other continent approximately 1500 years ago. At first the human enclaves were small, for the centaurs were fierce, and the dragonborn that ruled the desert were certain to object to humans overrunning these lands. However, when the dragonborn empire fell, the humans went on a massive offensive, troops from overseas being sent to enslave or destroy the centaurs. The centaurs were eventually forced to flee to the west, across the desert, and will be discussed in more detail later. In the years following the war upon the centaurs, the humans spread across the land, building castles. Without other races to serve as the lower classes, the humans ended up reverting to a feudal system, which is perpetuated to this day. When the alchemy war occurred 1000 years ago, this land, much like the desert to the west, suffered from massive wars among factions of the human population. The peasants took the opportunity to rise up against their lords, and due to their numbers, pushed the lords to their limits. A faction among the lords, having heard rumors of the humans in the desert having called upon powers from beyond in order to win their war, decided to try a similar tact. Their ritual, however, worked better than that of the desert-dwellers, and they managed to summon forth demons to aid them. Bargains were struck, and power given, resulting in the first tieflings upon the world. With the power of the tieflings, the lords were able to put down the peasant revolts, and return things largely to their initial state. However, upon hearing of the defeat of the human empire on the other continent at the end of the alchemy war, the rulers of the kingdom become obsessively concerned about humanity. Seeing themselves as the last "true" human kingdom, the only one that have never served under the yoke of another race, the people became obsessed with racial purity. The tieflings, once treated as equals, even saviors, were persecuted and stripped of their position. Still, because of their former position and because the child of a tiefling was occasionally a throwback to pure human stock, the tieflings were not wiped out. Instead they were enslaved and forced to hide from the light of day. Tieflings are never seen by outsiders in the kingdom, and are largely presumed to have been exterminated. This kingdom holds to ancient archaic ideals of chivalry and valor on the surface, even going so far as still use precious metals as their currency (and because of such, their foreign trade is largely non-existent.) Underneath the surface, however, the kingdom is not what it appears. The tieflings are horribly brutalized, enslaved, and forced to work at the worst possible tasks. The rare pure-human throwback born to tieflings is immediately taken from its parents and given to "proper" parents to raise. Tieflings that escape from their enslavement are chased until captured or killed, regardless of where they run to, by shadow operatives working for the human government. There are virtually no non-humans present in the country, the only real exception being ambassadors from the gnome empire. Non-human visitors are watched constantly, as are friends of non-humans, and if they are foolhardy enough to go out alone, they are not likely to return. Players are generally discouraged from playing characters from this kingdom (though they may be a rare exceptional non-bigoted member of the society.) Tieflings are very rare (they are all escaped slaves) and will spend their lives constantly hunted by shadow operatives from the government, regardless of where their travels take them. While this is a good adventure hook, it would obviously need to be made to clear to anyone considering playing a tiefling. The last area of this continent is a vast expanse of open, rolling plains that lie to the west of the desert. This is where the centaurs fled when they were chased out by the humans. The inhabitants of this land are the centaurs and minotaurs, both of whom follow druidic religions and are nomadic. The centaurs gather in herds, with a herd male gathering as many females as he can hold under himself, as well as their young. When reaching a certain age, males either challenge the dominant male for leadership of the herd, or go off on their own to attempt to form their own herds, or find another male to challenge. Young females occasionally choose to leave with these males, or with other males that come to challenge the dominant male, though this is discouraged. Females are in no way subservient to the males, though they do tend to follow the lead of a dominant male. (I'd just like to point out that this isn't meant to be demeaning to women in any way, I'm just trying to structure centaur society more along the lines of what occurs among horses, as opposed to what occurs among humans.) While the centaurs were fleeing the persecution of the humans when the came to this land, the minotaur have lived here for as long as they can remember. Though initially concerned by the appearance of the centaurs, the two societies found that their druidic faiths, which are central to their lives, where similar enough that they quickly became allies, and friends. It is not entirely uncommon to see a minotaur amongst a centaur herd, nor to see a centaur traveling with a minotaur family. Members of the two species even occasionally choose a mate from the other, though this is highly discouraged, since such unions do not produce offspring. Well, such is the broad strokes of my campaign setting as I have it set out so far. Comments are appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this, anyone that did.
#2 fodigg Jul 01, 2008 10:18:43	What is the overall "theme" of your setting? What's it's "tone" or "mood"? Another way to think of this question would be to sum up why somebody should want to play your campaign, why it's cool, in one brief sentence.
#3 vaeliorin Jul 10, 2008 21:17:20	Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this. Your question really threw me for a loop, and I've had to do a lot of thinking about it. I hadn't initially intended to create a campaign setting, I was just tossing around ideas for why a previously human-dominated world would suddenly no longer be human-dominated, and things kind of grew from there. I wanted to displace the elves, putting them on the seas, and I wanted to make sailing an important focus, which I lost as more ideas came to mind, unfortunately. I also wanted to have a setting where instead of the typical monstrous humanoids as the low-level, generic threats, I'd have aberrations, something truly alien. I didn't want the typical orc hordes and their ilk, I wanted a threat that wasn't understandable, that was frightening not just because they killed people. Later, as I read more about the 4E races, I started thinking about ways to fit them into the setting (and ways to fit in gripplis. I just love the guys.) I'm also a fan of thri-kreen, and wanted to include them as well. Anyway, I don't know that I can really sum up what I intended with a single sentence (at least one that wasn't a run-on.) I guess the closest I could get would be: A world once dominated by humans, but no longer, where the immediate threats are truly alien and not understandable, that provides opportunities not only for more traditional adventuring in settled lands, but also for points of light adventuring.