Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Johnathan_Vagabond Nov 30, 2009 16:47:25	I'm building up a world for a PbP game, and would really appreciate some feedback and nit-picking, especially with the Introduction or "This is the homebrew world in a paragraph" part where you try to explain everything in a tantilizing and not-boring manner to the players. Morn is the fourth incarnation of this particular world, what I call the Fourth World due to it's dramatic difference from each world before. The First World was "Wyst" (first and original incarnation).  Wyst was a feral world in which the food chain was the only law and apex preditors ruled.  The greatest of the apex predators became a Great Beast, so while there were many bears, there was a single greatest bear called Bear Who Is Strong.  There were other 'Great Beast' like creatures, but they were no apex predators, as such they were Lesser Beasts, like Rabbit Who Leaps. Following the rise of humanoid civilization, the food chain was upset and overturned.  Civilization warred with the Great and Lesser Beasts for a while, winning over certain traitors (horses, dogs, livestock animals, etc).  In time, paragon's of the humanoid peoples arose, much like the Great Beasts.  Except that, because civilization had it's own chain, they represented different facets of life.  So these great people (who became known as Gods) represented different walks of life (the Laborer, the Hunter, the Merchant, the Warrior, the Artisan, the Noble, and the Teacher).  They overthrew and slew the Great Beasts (turning them into Great Spirits) and banished the Great Spirits from the world. This gave rise to the Second World "Rise", which the civilized Gods named it.  This world beat back the wilds and settled it.  Humanoid life expanded until it covered the whole of the globe and worship of a God was the same as fealty to a Lord.  Over a period of time, their familial alliance fractured and they retreated to their own kingdoms and palaces, waging a war of faith, for faith, over Rise.  While they considered domination of Rise a right which they alone possessed, it went poorly for the mortal creatures, and only those closest to the Gods remained undaunted. At the same time, the energy that banished the spirits of the Great Beasts (now Great Spirits) kept them tied to Rise.  The first world, Wyst, did not share the surface of Rise, but it shared the core.  The Wyst came into existance as a shadow world, a feral mimic of Rise and an incomplete memory of Wyst.  This connection was powerfully energetic and that energy bubbled up into the world as ley lines.  These lines could be tapped by mortals with talent or training and used to draw upon the Wyst.  These people became known as Arcanists and were a potent tool for the Gods.  But, they came to resent the Gods for their wonton devestation and performed a terrible ritual that ejected the Gods in the palaces from the face of Rise.  This created the seven moons on which the gods lived and marked the end of the Second World, Rise. The Third World was Cataclysm.  The physical world could not adequately cope with the sudden loss of so much matter and mass.  It violently began to reshape itself.  Earthquakes, Floods, Volcanoes, Tidal Waves, and all manner of disaster befell the world.  The great God-Empires were broken and destroyed, civilization itself fought to survive.  Broken and ragged bands of humanoids struggled to survive in this mad world.  A few did, they rebuilt civilization in the Fourth World. During the cataclysm, the Great Spirits saw the world devoid of the Gods that had forcibly ejected them.  They used the same ley lines to try and reconnect the Wyst with Cataclysm.  But in doing so subjected the Wyst to the same terrible forces that were reshaping Cataclysm.  The shared burden of two worlds drained the cataclysm's fury and stopped the world short of rending itself in two.  So enfeebeled by this were the Great Spirits that they could not pull the Wyst the rest of the way into Cataclysm.  The settling of Cataclysm gave rise to the Fourth World, Morn. The Fourth World, Morn, followed the end of the cataclysm.  It is the 'modern age' in which the adventure will take place.  The Wyst is close enough that Arcanists no longer need leylines to work magic.  People willing to listen to the call of the Great Spirits can tap into the majesty of the Wyst directly (rather than the energy holding it to Morn) to gain it's feral power, these are called Primists.  Surviving servants of the Gods can still draw power from their patrons and are called Divinists, but without the presence of their deities are no invincible.  Finally, the matter and the souls thrown skyward during the cataclysm created a great ring orbiting Morn (like the rings of saturn) that calls to the dead and has become a de facto Realm of the Dead. In the absence of a single mighty power (divinists lack gods, primists lack wyst, and arcanists are weakened by the cataclysm.  The trio of these powers are called 'the powers that be'.) mortals have arisen to take their place, humanoids who overcome with skill and training.  They have risen high enough to challenge the powers that be, if not all at once at least individually. Organizations that might draw the PCs: The Skull Companies: Companies of warriors from all powers, even mortals, whose sole duty is to protect civilized areas from incursions by monstrous creatures that threaten the civilized world.  The Skull Companies are free companies, unbeholden to any transient ruler or nation, that draw entirely from willing recruits.  Most of the Skull Companies (often called Skulls) have forgotten this glorious heritage in the two and a half centuries since their formation and are little more than mercenaries for hire.  Example companies include: the Black Skull Company, the Shattered Skull Company, the Dread Skull Company. The Grims: One of the former skulls (the Grim Skull Company) they turned inward a century ago to stem the infighting between Arcanists, Divinists, and Primists.  They Grims dropped their skull title to distance themselves from their forgetful brethren and established themselves as a universal law.  They are almost completely mortal in their ranks, with a few members from the powers that be who agree and sympathize with their movement.  They are exactly as their names suggests, Grim driven people whose justice is swift and final.  However, they are never welcomed with open arms, forcing them to work around and outside of any laws to probe the true depths of their current inquiry. Temples: Many temples exist to each of the Seven Gods, and they are specialized in relation to their particular patron.  With the temples, action is the equivalent of worship, so the temple of Wod the Merchant is a bazaar host to the greatest salesmen and rarest artifacts.  The temple of Tor the Warrior is a place of combat training and gladiatorial contests. Shrines: Shrines are small, almost miniature temples, dedicated to local spirits.  Generally, ceratures whose souls failed to reach the Fyrna (the Realm of the Dead or the Ring about Morn) and were tied to a location.  They can be harmless and helpful, or even deadly dangerous, but never strong enough to do more than grant minor favors and trade information. Places the PCs may have to deal with: The Wyst: A feral world that mimics Morn.  So where there's a continent on Morn, there's a continent in the Wyst.  Where there's a forest on Morn, there's a forest in the Wyst.  On the other hand, civilized areas (cities, towns, places with permanent worked buildings) cannot translate into the Wyst.  As such, these are desolate wasteland areas where nothing in the Wyst can grow and the soul anything that dies there is, instead of being absorbed into the Wyst and recycled, is sent to the Fyrna.  Animals are much stronger and often different in the Wyst, which is the source of Dire, Fey, and Great beasts as well as Dragons, Trollkin, and Ogres (such creatures on Morn may develop societies, however they never do so in the Wyst). The Fyrna: Realm of the dead, a collection of lifeless stone encircling Morn.  The souls of the dead (on Morn) are drawn upwards into the Fyrna where (supposedly) they wait for their patron god to collect them.  However, each god only makes this trip twice a year.  As such, the dead spend much time avoiding the many dangers of the Fyrna.  For example, the Fyrna is not protected from invasive worlds so well as Morn, so there are a number of abominations and aberrant creatures that hunt the souls of the dead for sustenance.  To counter this, the dead build cities like they did in the old days of the Wyst, to protect themselves from such predators.  To compound this issue, the Gods still resent the Arcanists for banishing them from Morn, and never collect the soul of such men.  There remains a massive population of Arcanist souls in the Fyrna, that generally run these city-fortresses. Talns: Gateways to other, invasive, worlds.  These range from small to large and touch any number of unusual worlds.  Talns did not exist before the cataclysm, so it is reasonable to assume that they are a direct result of the world's reshaping.  Primist and Divinists enthusiastically seek these out to close them (the only thing they jointly agree upon) while Arcanists take a more practical approach of only closing the dangerous ones (after a thorough search).  Talns are believed to be the source of the previously unknown monsters. Talms: Similar to Talns, Talnims connect to Morn's past incarnations.  In essence, they are portals not to they Wyst, but to Wyst itself.  They also touch Rise and Cataclysm and are the likey source of the resurgance of ancient monsters.  Talms are rare and precious.  Each of the powers that be actively seek to close and Talm that connects to their opponents time (except Cataclysm, everyone closes Cataclysm Talms. Major Players that might impact the campaign The Gods: Mon, Tyr, Wod, Tor, Frej, Sardur, and Sum, the once mortals that arose as paragons of civilization, slew the Great Beasts, ousted the Great Spirits, commanded the God-Empires, and were eventually evicted by the Arcanists.  The Gods command religions, though from their moon-palaces they are mostly incapable of directly affecting the world.  Followers of the Seven Gods call upon a mere fraction of the power they had when their patrons walked alongside them. The Great Spirits: Each living animal had an individual of it's kind that personified the greatest culmination of their species.  Predators earn the title Animal Who Is Adjective, while prey were called Animal Who Verb.  These spirits inhabit the Wyst and tie it to Morn while actively seeking to return to the world.  Their lives still revolve around the Great Chain, and as such, they rarely work together.  Indeed, cooperation between conflicting species is the antithesis of the Great Spirits, so they continue to strive alone. The Elementals: During the cataclysm the mad energies that reshaped the world were wild and chaotic.  In the aftermath of natural events, those energies sometimes lingered to animate the world itself.  A storm could become sentient and some did.  However sentience was strange and confusing to such a thing.  Generally they merge with other sentient storms until they cannot handle existing as more than a natural event and disspate.  The energy that animated them fleeing to another of it's type, retaining memories of those before it.  Relatively speaking, the Elementals are the newest players in the game. The Undead: Sometimes souls are blocked from entering the Fyrna.  This can happen in many ways, some cultures do so intentionally, some individuals take advantage of this power, regardless it results in the brith of an undead creature.  They are reasoning creatures, maintaining the personality that they had in life.  Indeed, some people (Arcanists especially) seek to preserve themselves on Morn through undeath.  PCs won't be able to play as undead (well, maybe) but they can interact with them as NPCs rather than mooks.  The Divinists and Primists obviously think the undead are evil (Divinists say those souls belong to Gods, Primists say those souls need to be recycled into the Wyst). Player Specific Information Drow Society: At least on PC will be a drow escapee.  For the drow, since Lolth is no more, their society will be set up in the following manner.  The drow favor two of the Lesser Spirits, Spider Who Weaves and Scorpion Who Poisons.  It is widely held that drow women should follow Spider Who Weaves while men should follow Scorpion Who Poisons.  Individual societies of drow differ on who is dominant.  Some claim Spider Who Weaves (from now on, Spider) can entrap Scorpion Who Poisons (from now on, Scorpion).  Other's claim that Scorpion can cut Spider's web and sting her to death.  Generally, individual cultures or towns trend towards extremes, either woman dominate men utterly, or visa versa.  Drow do not favor primalist classes though, an oddity among those who maintain strong ties with the Lesser Spirits.
#2 ah_maclimeszero Nov 30, 2009 16:55:20	Holy awesome, Batman. That is fantastic. So, if I am reading this right, Wyst is your parallel to the Feywild, while Fyrna is the Shadowfell? The Arcanist/Primist/Divinist equivalences are easy to spot. All in all, a fantastic treatment. I would love to play in your world. Well done.
#3 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 01, 2009 10:59:51	Well, you might get the chance if you join (or are part of) the Real Adventures group.
#4 shadowhntr7 Dec 01, 2009 11:34:53	That is both awesome and highly original. Very nice! Am I understanding that the first two worlds are nested inside the third/fourth, or am I misunderstanding? What system will you be running this on, btw?
#5 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 01, 2009 12:11:40	That is both awesome and highly original. Very nice! Am I understanding that the first two worlds are nested inside the third/fourth, or am I misunderstanding? What system will you be running this on, btw? Each "world" was once the actual Planet itself.  Wyst was the planet before the Gods turned it into a shadow of the world.  Rise was the planet before the Arcanists invoked the banishement, sending the God-Empires (specifically, their massive palaces) into orbit.  Cataclysm was the name of the planet while it reacted to the sudden and uneven loss of mass.  Finally Morn, (standing both for Morning and Mourning) is the planet after it finished coping with the redistribution of mass.  In some way, the four worlds are like separate Ages as well as separate Worlds.  The God-Empires are now moons.  The Wyst is now a shadow planet.  Cataclysm only exists in Talms.  And Morn is what the planet is now. They mark radical changes.  See, while an Age would simply be the end of a major time period, these separate 'Worlds' mark the major events in which the world no longer even closely resmebled it's past.  Violent rebirths you might call it. I'll be running it on 4E, although I'll likely be playing fast and loose with the rules.
#6 pbn Dec 01, 2009 12:55:05	Just a quick critique/review - to see if "all the bases are covered" The main translations that are needed via power-source/plane would be as follows: elemental - elementalists - Cataclysm primal - primists - Wyst dvine - divinists - Rise arcane - arcanists - ?? shadow - undead - Fyrna As with most home-grown gods - Channel Divinity powers may need to be worked for each of the 7 If you decide to go with Warlocks - star, fey, possibly even dark may be covered, but infernal may need a tie in. Primal and Arcane classes (as well as martial and psionic) should be alright. (with the note on warlocks above)
#7 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 01, 2009 13:10:34	Just a quick critique/review - to see if "all the bases are covered" The main translations that are needed via power-source/plane would be as follows: elemental - elementalists - Cataclysm primal - primists - Wyst dvine - divinists - Rise arcane - arcanists - ?? shadow - undead - Fyrna As with most home-grown gods - Channel Divinity powers may need to be worked for each of the 7 If you decide to go with Warlocks - star, fey, possibly even dark may be covered, but infernal may need a tie in. Primal and Arcane classes (as well as martial and psionic) should be alright. (with the note on warlocks above) Arcanists draw on the power that ties the Wyst to Morn (whether through study like a Wizard or talent like a Sorcerer).  It used to be they drew off of ley lines, but now they don't need to.  I don't know what you'd really call it.  It's left vague so everyone can interpret it differently. Elementalists will be able to draw on the leftover energies from the cataclysm and from the Talms.  Undead are tied to the Fyrna I suppose, but in the opposite manner in which they usually are.  Undead can't reach the realm of the dead, rather than inhabit it.  I suppose it would be like a world of ghosts in waiting, where as the other corporeal and non-ghost incorporeal undead are trapped on Morn (willingly or no). Yes, Channel Divinities need reworking.  I figure that'll take a little work, most likely I'll just pick 7 and give one to each god.  I'm not sure what to do with the old Hells, except perhaps connect them via a strong Taln.  The Gods want souls, the Wyst wants souls, the abominations on the Fyrna want souls.  Maybe the devils and demons will be part of the creatures that hunt souls on the Fyrna.  They'd need some flavor refluffing, but it should be easy enough. Or maybe just no infernal pact.  It will probably depend largely on the party make up.  I make cut demons and devils out entirely if no one runs a hellock.
#8 darkspartan Dec 01, 2009 14:32:18	Holy awesome, Batman. That is fantastic. So, if I am reading this right, Wyst is your parallel to the Feywild, while Fyrna is the Shadowfell? The Arcanist/Primist/Divinist equivalences are easy to spot. All in all, a fantastic treatment. I would love to play in your world. Well done. Wow... Definitely nice work, J_V. I see PBN was very right about your storytelling capability. I'm in too, if you'll have me. -Sarena
#9 tylara67 Dec 01, 2009 14:46:40	At the same time, the energy that banished the spirits of the Great Beasts (now Great Spirits) kept them tied to Rise.  The first world, Wyst, did not share the surface of Rise, but it shared the core.  The Wyst came into existance as a shadow world, a feral mimic of Rise and an incomplete memory of Wyst.  This connection was powerfully energetic and that energy bubbled up into the world as ley lines.  These lines could be tapped by mortals with talent or training and used to draw upon the Wyst.  These people became known as Arcanists and were a potent tool for the Gods.  But, they came to resent the Gods for their wonton devestation and performed a terrible ritual that ejected the Gods in the palaces from the face of Rise.  This created the seven moons on which the gods lived and marked the end of the Second World, Rise. The wording on this part is confusing. You might think about having the First World and the Feywild-equivalent have slightly different names instead of calling them both Wyst, in order to make it easier for people to tell which of the two you're talking about.
#10 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 01, 2009 15:09:10	I can understand how that is difficult to keep straight.  I tried to separate them by referring to one as Wyst and the other as The Wyst. Would perhaps a capital The (as opposed to "the") clarify?  I find I'm rather attached to the idea of them sharing a name.  I suppose I could call them both Wyst, just say that it became it's own separate shadow of Morn. Although, thinking about it.  The PCs will only know it as the Wyst, they wouldn't know what Wyst (without a The) is.  As they unravel the truth, it becomes adds to a level of suggestion and allusion.
#11 pbn Dec 01, 2009 16:35:11	Now to be a bit more specific (thinking of Storm) - I worry about this part... Elementalists will be able to draw on the leftover energies from the cataclysm and from the Talms. I know she doesn't know all of this yet (or does she?) - but would that not put her at odds with most of the rest of the world?  It seems to me should would want those Talms to remain open.
#12 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 02, 2009 10:42:47	Now to be a bit more specific (thinking of Storm) - I worry about this part... Elementalists will be able to draw on the leftover energies from the cataclysm and from the Talms. I know she doesn't know all of this yet (or does she?) - but would that not put her at odds with most of the rest of the world?  It seems to me should would want those Talms to remain open. It could, to a point.  However, I think it will end up being much more practical.  Primists, for example, might praise the Wyst and 'seek it's return'.  But really, I think they'd like it to get just strong enough that they can be the big fish in a small pond.  Divinists might prefer the Gods stay at arm length as long as they can grant them more power.  I would worry more that Elementalists could become a convenient political target, rather than the subject of a unified crusade.  It's not like the Talms would be able to bring Cataclysm back into the world, they'll just leak powers and monsters into the world. Also, no, she wouldn't have a clue about any of this.  No PC and very few NPCs will know about anything that happened before Cataclysm (and especially before Rise).  History, for all intents and purposes, begins with Morn.
#13 darkspartan Dec 03, 2009 1:28:41	How long has it been since Morn settled into it's current form? I'm guessing a number of years out to a century? -Sarena
#14 Johnathan_Vagabond Dec 03, 2009 10:11:51	How long has it been since Morn settled into it's current form? I'm guessing a number of years out to a century? -Sarena From 3.5-5 centuries since the hard end of the cataclysm.  However, there was a time before that when the cataclysm was in it's draw down stages, so others may place it earlier or later.  After all, when all you've known is the literal churning of the world, at what point do you say 'everything is normal again'. Example: The cataclysm was in a state of constant earthquakes, some of them up to magnitude 11 (richter scale goes to 10).  At what magnitude do you say "Oh, the cataclysm is over"?  Magnitude 7? 4? 1?  It's a fuzzy thing, just like when a new generation begins and the last one ends, only drawn out over centuries. DM Speaking: The cataclysm ended in recent history, but distant memory.
#15 pbn Dec 05, 2009 23:02:55	Have there been any empires in that time? if so, how many? Both in the above world, and in the tunnels.  How much is known of the various tunnel races and how they came to unite?