Campaign setting help wanted

[ExtravagantEvil]

I'm currently working on a setting at the moment for an AD&D Game I plan on running soon, and would like your help, the Grand Playground, on this.

I'm mainly having trouble coming up for Fluff for the Other races. The Races involved are as follows:
Dwarves, Elves, Humans, and Halflings (Sorry, No Gnomes)

Further, I'm trying to figure out some of the more topographic and geographic issues for Campaign setting development that could give me some inspiration perhaps.

So Far, I only have the dwarves really Laid out culturally and fluff wise, and even then, I'm still thinking.

Dwarves:
Religion: The Dwarven People have an elementalist religion, with a defined Pantheon consisting of 2 major deities, and then there are minor deities down the line. The Main Dwarven God, is a being known as "Bal-Sharok", he is the god who crafted the Stones and Soil, and cast the first stone to found the world. From this creation of stone, the other elements sprang forth. Water poured from beneath and carved the oceans wide, and the rivers long. While Fire burst forth from Mountain Tops. He works to support, to move slow and be strong, to support the rest, regardless of what one must do. Basically, regular standing dwarven view point with elementalist note.

Then, after Stone was wrought, the aloof god "Fal-Ramar" who was jealous of Bal-Sharok's mighty creation, decided to make his own elements, but due to lack of focus, control and determination, could not craft the manifold nature of Stone, and so made The Air, an element as volatile and unpredictable as he that permeated above the ground and forever danced carelessly. After that, the minor deities (as of now, unthought up in detail) cover the elements that were spawned by the Earth, Fire and Water, while Air has the 2 personality divides of Storms and Doldrums as deities.

- Here, I would like to know of any Ideas you have for Names of various minor deities, and Personality/Clergy philosophies that you might think would be cool for these respective


Now that you have that bit of backstory for The Dwarves, I was imagining that their mountain chain would be very volatile climate wise and have a vast number of meterological issues and volcanoes and such. Further, there would be lots of UNderground Lakes and rivers, which I imagined would flow out Eastward, but am not really sure what Mountains like this would do to an environment, and how it would affect the people of various races.
Just letting you know, I planned on some sort of westward forest or some such. I like the idea of this Mountain range being a key divider for the Continent.
- Basically, what Environmental Conditions would be necessary for this mountain range to have Vast amounts of Storms, Volcanoes, Wind, Rain, Snow. Further, what would happen to the environement behind the Mountain Range (The East) with Rivers comiing into the area from said mountains?

I've got ideas for Humanity is that I wanted to end up having some Monotheistic church of some sort for a vast Empire of Man (Cliched I know) But I'm not sure how to implement this properly, and how to do it and keep it original.
(like I felt I did for the Dwarves, while keeping the philosophy the same)

I'm encountering the same problem for the other races also., for I'm not quite sure what cultural/religious ideas to go for with the Elves and halflings, for I'm trying to alter the society, keep the same basic tropes, but alter it into some sense of originality, and am not sure how to do that without any real inspiration for me to find at the moment.

I'll Gladly answer any questions you have.
Thank you very much for the help :smallbiggrin:
--- Extravagant Evil

[Omeganaut]

For names, I usually go to a translation site like Google Translate and type in a word or a phrase that captures most of the essence of the item to be names. Then I translate it into other languages until I see one I like, maybe alter it a little, and I have a unique name.

For Humans, maybe they could worship Fal-Ramar, but under a different name. They could be an anti-dwarf, seeking light and air as signs of good. However, the church could be so universal and unchallenged that there is no need for a theocracy, but a divided government with a court of priests that acts like a supreme court, except they have their religious texts instead of a constitution. Then give the King of Man a parliament of advisors from across the nation, but an individual flavor more like a French Emperor complete with Versailles. That's my perspective, its really up to you what you do with it.

Elves could be absolute pagans. Worshiping spirits of nature as well as a pantheon of gods with no one far above the others. They could be split into clans, with each clan worshiping a particular god. One of their cultural norms could be seeking information and new magic or technology. Even though they live in the woods in no reason they could not still be inventors. Each clan would have an elder who would represent the clan at meetings with other clans to decide joint policy. Each clan could have a town or city where they are headquartered, but with representatives in other towns. The governing body for each town would be the clan elder as a mayor, with a representation from the major clans in the town acting as a representative branch with powers similar to the U.S. Senate.

The halflings could be horse-riding nomads who worship a Great Spirit like some of the Great Plains Native American tribes. They would have heavily ruled wars where deaths are more rare than captives against other tribes. Against the other races they are willing to trade, but are suspicious of them moving in on their land. Perhaps the Halflings are on the other side of the mountains from the Humans and Elves?

I hope this helps, feel free to alter what I put up.

[dsmiles]

Elves could venerate nature, or nature spirits. Alternatively, do some research into the traditional Druidic or Wiccan cultures, you might be able to pull some ideas from there.

As for halflings, I find the 'traditional' halfling pantheon to usually be sufficient. Unless, of course, you're using the Athasian halflings (moved to a normal world). Then I'd recommend animal totems.

[InaVegt]

For names, I usually go to a translation site like Google Translate and type in a word or a phrase that captures most of the essence of the item to be names. Then I translate it into other languages until I see one I like, maybe alter it a little, and I have a unique name.

No. Three million times no. That seems like a good idea, until someone who actually speaks the language shows up. Because, in my experience, they will not be amused by the butchering of their language.

[dsmiles]

No. Three million times no. That seems like a good idea, until someone who actually speaks the language shows up. Because, in my experience, they will not be abused by the butchering of their language.No, I'm pretty sure they'll consider it abuse. However, I don't think they'll be amused. :smalltongue:

[InaVegt]

No, I'm pretty sure they'll consider it abuse. However, I don't think they'll be amused. :smalltongue:

Yeah, yeah. Typos are what they are.

[dsmiles]

Yeah, yeah. Typos are what they are.

I can't say much, I do it all the time. I just think getting that exact typo in that sentence is pretty funny.

[erictheredd]

When you say a monotheistic church, do you mean a real monotheistic church (One God exists, maybe a devil) or something else?

options include:

all men worship the "God of Man", who deals with other gods, but is jealous of his possessions and does not permit them to worship anyone else

all men worship a "god emperor" who is considered divine

all men worship a "force" or "power" that is, or they consider to be, above the other Gods. (Monism rather than Monotheism)

all the gods must be worshiped in the way prescribed by the church of man, which has a different story to tell about them than the rest of the races.

The church maintains one of the above but its not true, and the priests themselves are the recipients of the divine power generated.

[Deadlykire]

I'll try and help with the environment. First it is a fantasy setting so just wanting it to be such works. High mountains will give you snow fall year round at the tops, if you wanted snow everywhere year round you'd need the cold. In a slightly colder region you'd get more rain/snow every year. If the snow builds up during the winter season and melts in spring that would cause massive flooding as a long rainy season might. Volcanic activity isn't as predictable and usually relates to earth tremors/earthquakes and such. Volcanoes are just mountains with holes into magma of some sort. So for the environment you wanted really just having a variable mountain range, consisting of mostly smaller mountains, works. Maybe have the range be fairly wide and the interior has most of the volcanic activity/flooding. Depending on how you want your weather to flow depends on how the weather on either side is. If the weather comes from the east most the rain/snow will happen there, with the western side being more mild. This is because clouds have to lighten in order to get over the mountains, which means precipitation.

I'll check back later in case you have more questions or I have other ideas for you.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Elves could venerate nature, or nature spirits. Alternatively, do some research into the traditional Druidic or Wiccan cultures, you might be able to pull some ideas from there.

Elves worshiping nature has been done before. If you want to be creative, make them death worshipers, holding savage blood sacrifices in the deep woods to their pitiless, alien gods.

[InaVegt]

Elves worshiping nature has been done before. If you want to be creative, make them death worshipers, holding savage blood sacrifices in the deep woods to their pitiless, alien gods.

Death worship has been done with elves before, too.

[dsmiles]

Elves worshiping nature has been done before. If you want to be creative, make them death worshipers, holding savage blood sacrifices in the deep woods to their pitiless, alien gods.
Who said it had to be new? Tropes are tropes for a reason: They work.

[Bibliomancer]

You could make the elves atheists. As the most powerful gish in the world (by AD&D rules), not many churches would be able to crusade against them, and giving them a (parody) Darwinian approach to nature instead of a spiritual one could be very interesting. Moves a little close to the "Magic is science" trope, but then in AD&D Blackmoor was effectively a nation of wizard-scientists.

[ExtravagantEvil]

They [The Elves] could be split into clans...
One of their cultural norms could be seeking information and new magic or technology. Even though they live in the woods in no reason they could not still be inventors. Each clan would have an elder who would represent the clan at meetings with other clans to decide joint policy. Each clan could have a town or city where they are headquartered, but with representatives in other towns. The governing body for each town would be the clan elder as a mayor, with a representation from the major clans in the town acting as a representative branch with powers similar to the U.S. Senate.


Thank you very Much for this Idea, I've been toying around with it and It's given me some good inspiration for stuff. :smallsmile:


You could make the elves atheists. As the most powerful gish in the world (by AD&D rules), not many churches would be able to crusade against them, and giving them a (parody) Darwinian approach to nature instead of a spiritual one could be very interesting. Moves a little close to the "Magic is science" trope, but then in AD&D Blackmoor was effectively a nation of wizard-scientists.

I was toying around with it, and mainly because I can't think of any good elven deities XD. It would be interesting, and end up leading to some alien (compared to everyone else) reasonings behind politics and what not :smallsmile:, that and it helps set the Dwarves and Elves at each other like always :smallamused:.


Science Things!...
"Volcanic activity isn't as predictable and usually relates to earth tremors/earthquakes and such."

"Maybe have the range be fairly wide and the interior has most of the volcanic activity/flooding."

"If the weather comes from the east most the rain/snow will happen there, with the western side being more mild."

Bolded for Emphasis and intrigue :smallamused:.THese caught my imagination a good deal, particularly the Tremors portion for adventure ideas and conflicts :smallamused:.

I'm glad you brought up the Mild climate bit, because that's one of the big things geographically I want to figure out, because it could either be an incredibly dry "bread basket" like area, or a roving desert, or some other environmental type. It will be really important for me to figure out so I know what to do with the halflings and the lands beyond.
Further how would this mild climate area be impacted by rivers flowing out of the mountains, with occasional lakes forming? Would the mineral rich mountain water lead to stretches of Nile-Like Oasis perhaps?

Keep All the Ideas coming guys!
This is some awesome Stuff! You're all being super helpful and I thank all of you and all who will continue to help for your advice and creative thoughts!!
:smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:

[Stubbazubba]

Here, I typed up what turned out to be a little essay on building religions, from big to small. There are a few questions that will help you flesh out a cool religion quickly.

In what do followers of each religion believe?

Monotheism: There are many real-world analogues; Islam, Judaism, Christianity. One, supreme god controls/rules all the world, usually created it, and wants his/her/its followers to either ascend and become as them or return to live with them as subjects in a heavenly kingdom of sorts. As you can see, there are many different flavors of monotheism, some more war-like, some more bureaucratic, with many different outlooks. There could be religions that cross racial divide, but are practiced differently, as is also very common in the real world. There may be other spiritual entities, but only one is appropriate for mortals to worship.

Animism: The core concept of Shinto and many pagan traditions; that there are spirits in nature which can be communed with, or, at times, called upon or channeled to provide protection, fortune, or supernatural abilities. Again, the method of how you connect to these spirits can differ wildly; Shinto worshipers use small, individual shrines to offer prayers carried on the smoke of incense, while pagans have their rites and rituals.

Polytheism: Often ends up as a cross between the two above, where there are certain deities attached to certain elements of nature, as your Dwarven religion has. See also Greco-Roman pantheon for the classic example. Occasionally, there are polytheistic beliefs which do not assign gods to any specific element, there is just a body of deities who share responsibility and control over everything (or less than everything, as the setting demands).

Spiritual Philosophy (for lack of a better term): This one teaches that there is no greater beings that need to be communed with or channeled, be they animist spirits or deistic gods, but that the human soul/mind/heart/chi/whatever is the most important essence in the universe, but it is merely in an unrefined or impure state right now. These ones typically go the way of asceticism, or self-denial, like devout Buddhist or, even better, Jain monks. The principles that one must unite one's life with in order to achieve some kind of enlightenment, sublimation, or access to magical power can really be anything.

These are the four main categories of religions, and really, you could compress Monotheism and Polytheism into simple Theism, but considering Polytheism often overlaps with Animism, I kept them separate. Heck, Monotheism could overlap with Animism, really, it's just rarer. Now, from these broad strokes you can begin to accentuate a religion with its unique things, such as;

Practices: Obviously, most every religion has some practices and teachings that influence or dictate the behavior of its patrons, and these are so varying and so well-known that I will not go into any further detail. What are your religion's day-to-day practices? Method of communing with the divine/supernatural, if any? Requirements on the behavior, philosophy, or material possessions of the follower? Rites and rituals, if any?

Leadership: As has been mentioned, some religions (take the Egyptian religion or Japanese State Shinto, for instance) hold that their leaders are, in fact, deities themselves, a god-emperor. For a fantastic setting that holds this, see Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series of novels. Others might include Prophets, after the fashion of Moses or Muhammed; men who have communed with deity somehow and have been given a divine mission to accomplish. Christ's Twelve Apostles also fit into this description, so prophets need not be singular. Who leads your religion? A man? A council? No one?

Deification: Many religions have saints, or some other deified mortals who, though not deities themselves, can be channeled or called upon like animist spirits, though they are not truly gods nor nature forces. Catholic saints or the varying Bodhisattvas of Buddhism give real-world examples. Can your religion's followers achieve this state in life, or is it only possible after death?

Religious Texts: Most religions have documents written by the hand of god himself, or by those whom god communicated the text to, or by the individual who pioneered the spiritual philosophy that led him to sublimation, or his students, or whatever it may be. What are your religion's texts? If they still exist, where are the original copies held? Are the texts freely available? Perhaps they are lost? Perhaps they are whispered to the minds of priests when they are in an herb- or meditation-induced chant, a la Vedic mantras.

So, by choosing what they believe in, then how they associate with it, you can create a strong scaffolding for a fairly well-fleshed out religion. Fill in details as is appropriate to the cultures and mood of the setting.

I just created a cult of necromancers as I was writing this up, here's the break-down;

This cult believes in death-themed monotheism, though an unnatural take at that. The first Necromancer was a woman named Jadukari who unraveled the mysteries of Necromancy in order to prevent the destruction of the world by Apahanta, the Destroyer, a sentient, yet pitiless force of nature which could destroy Earth in a moment. By performing certain rituals upon a dying soul, she could channel the departing chi essence to bolster her own, until she becomes powerful enough to apprehend Apahanta. Those who supported her in her grisly quest wrote down the instructions she left, to continue the ritual killings, in order to save the world. These, combined with the prophecies that made her aware of Apahanta in the first place, and the musings of her followers on the outlook and philosophy of Jadukari, became the Tome of Apahanta, which is still believed to be in the possession of the High Priesthood of Jadukari, though their frequent relocations early on, due to intolerance and persecution, and their insistence on keeping it unseen by all except themselves, have caused many skeptics.

The High Priesthood is made up of Necromancers, who pick out lesser Priests to run local monasteries. Today, through ritual killings, her followers continuously seek to support her, and thus, the world, hoping one day that Apahanta will be destroyed, Jadukari shall inherit its god-like power, and rule as an immortal, omnipotent Empress, rewarding her faithful servants with power and dominion over those who have scorned them for so long. Many devout followers who died to save an ignorant world were rewarded by Jadukari with an exalted status after their deaths, becoming intermediaries between Jadukari and her followers in life. Given a large amount of chi energy to pass on to Jadukari as payment, these spirits then grant the devout follower powers akin to Jadukari's own, only smaller. One such ritual involves the slow killing of a victim, who is filled with the insight of Jadukari, who can bestow prophetic wisdom on his or her killers until they die.

Due to the balance necessary between supporting Jadukari's eternal struggle with Apahanta and keeping enough life in the world to ensure the success of Jadukari for future generations, the cult is extremely strict on how many members it has, and how they use their powers. Ergo, there is a fair amount of bureaucracy and a large priesthood to administer the cult's many regulations and rituals. Many who join this cult are not really Necromancers, but soldiers and other men of war who believe in the struggle between Jadukari and Apahanta and wish to help. These are also given access to rituals like the one above.

While I began creating this religion entirely based on the image of ritual killings in order to produce a supernatural effect (mostly the oracle ritual described above), which I figured would be evil, as ideas came to me, I discovered that the followers of Jadukari actually see themselves as good, if somewhat grisly. I can see an otherwise LG kingdom having a close relationship with the Jadukari religion, as any criminals bound for execution could simply be given over to them, serving both social justice and a greater cosmic struggle to protect the world. Very interesting how that turned out. Just goes to show that no matter what the method or even the theme of the beliefs, alignment is completely up to you.

Hope this is helpful, or at least entertaining, again, I wrote this up just now, so it's not as professional as I'd really like it, and it's probably tl;dr fodder anyway, but I hope you can enjoy it, nonetheless.