It's a Wonderful World! ...or it will be

[Katrascythe]

I think I see what he means. To use a terribly infantile example... I think he means like the Little Mermaid, where they just kind of expanded upon what was already there.

And arguskos, what I meant by holes is maybe so there's either a thing overlap, or like the remains of a gate spell, or something like that. Enough so that with a bit of fanagling something could go through but not so bad that it will rain into another plane.

I guess the explanation if it were the remains of gate spells is that once upon a time there was large amounts of travel to different areas, but then (maybe when the Titans became ill) the magic "glitched" and the gates collapsed, leaving remnants where they remained. Over the years they've been forgot about. Iunno, that was just a thought.

[Oracle_Hunter]

I think Step 1 is making sure you've read The Giant's Guide to World Building. Best guide I've ever read - and tremendously helpful in my own world building.

In particular, Names and Cultures will serve you well.

I look forward to seeing those notes you promised. Any details that are particularly sticky at the moment?

[Lerky]

Not really like Rivet City. Remember, they used to live deep under the surface of the sea. Think giant coral formations that they turned into cities. Now, they released the moorings to the coral and let them float upwards toward the surface. Once there, they tethered them all together, and rechained them to the ocean's floor. So, you have a bunch of giant coral cities that sorta drift about with the tides, but never hit anything, since they're still chained to ocean floor, just by a lot longer now.

ooooooh, I getcha now. That's one of the most jawsome ideas ever

Also, what do you mean by holes, Katrascythe? You mean places where the planar boundaries are thin, so the planes overlap? Or do you mean LITERAL holes in the ground that lead places infested with demons/devils/whatever?

I imagined like tears in space/time itself. Like a hole in the sky and on the other side you can see the other plane. Sort of like OOTS and it's rifts. Or like the Dark Portal in WoW, though many of these may just be hole, without any structure around it. But a few cultists might bring sacrafices here, and even some priests might build temples around holes which angels come through.

[magellan]

Dont hate me now....

But: I dont like the map. it looks like it was computer generated. Could be because it was. Use crayons. Yes, i am serious. It will look more organic than any fractal/perlin combination ever could. Also while you spend 3 hours with the mindbogglingly boring task of filling the great elven woodlands with trees (drawing each by hand) you can think about what the elves are actually doing in those woods.
Seriously: trust me. there is a lot of inspiration found in the actual drawing of a map.

[Lerky]

But: I dont like the map. it looks like it was computer generated. Could be because it was. Use crayons. Yes, i am serious. It will look more organic than any fractal/perlin combination ever could. Also while you spend 3 hours with the mindbogglingly boring task of filling the great elven woodlands with trees (drawing each by hand) you can think about what the elves are actually doing in those woods.
Seriously: trust me. there is a lot of inspiration found in the actual drawing of a map.

yeah, I actually tried to run it through a photoshop program to make it look like it was pencil sketched but...it didn't turn out that good. I plan to convert it too something like a grid so I can postion cities and such. I'm more or a technology using DM, I even found a generator that can randomly generate an entire tavrens of patrons, with each answer very unique.

I think Step 1 is making sure you've read The Giant's Guide to World Building. Best guide I've ever read - and tremendously helpful in my own world building.

In particular, Names and Cultures will serve you well.

I look forward to seeing those notes you promised. Any details that are particularly sticky at the moment?

oh, yeah here's my notes which we posted earlier:

Here's my (so far) notes. They're a bit long.

Spoiler

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Highfaeth

Highfaeth is the name of the world in which the majority of our campagins will take place in. It is the birthplace of many races. It was blessed by the Titans who created the world until they were usurped of their power.

Geographic Features

The world of Highfaeth is composed of four major regions, The North (Winterfray), The West (Greenborough), The South (Galahad), and The East (Lost Sands). Each one is made up of several continents. The world of Londiren actually has several smaller islands that have not yet been discovered on the East side of The Lost Sands.

History

Points of Interest
The most interesting city in all of Highfaeth, arguably, is Underworld. A city entirely populated by Undead freed from the state of mindlessness shared by most Undead. It was originally started by Korenae Duskwalker, an elven warrior whom was banished from her house due to being spawned as a vampire. In fury she slew all the members of her house, having nothing else she made a small settlement for other cast out vampires like her. It took a few years but soon all sorts of undead joined Underworld such as Wights, Ghouls, Mohrgs, and even Mummies from the far East. The city is very small but walls surround the city that are 10 times as big as the buildings and twice as thick. The reason behind this is that there are many Paladins whom have tried to breach the walls of Underworld and slay the “mockeries of life”. A few important buildings are the temple of Evening Glory, the only church in the city run by a devout Mummy priest. The only inn is The Severed Gauntlet Inn, a shabby tavern run by a ghoul named Gob. The tallest building is the Ziggurat, a massive, intimidating, building which houses Xanardon Fatefang, the current ruler of Underworld.

Next we have the City of Stormalot. An entire city built over water. It was used as a rest stop for ships traveling from Whiteborough to Galahad. However, the government that set up the site had neglected it, not sending in supplies regularly, not sending in people to keep the law (many that were sent died on the ship ride there), and soon the city succumbed to corruption. The city is corrupt and is legally run by Horhand Shipsail but everyone knows the city if controlled by Tyber Zan, a local crime lord. He was originally Lt. of the soldiers sent to keep peace in the city, but as his men slowly gave way to corruption (demanding money from citizens, and business, kidnapping, acts of intimidation, etc.) he saw the potential. He gathered what men he had that were corrupted and made them aid him into taking over the city by slowly corrupting it.

these were my textbased notes, I have a few written ones as follows:

Spoiler

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The Word of Highfaeth
Name Origin: Prehistoric humans named their world after their Faeth, beleiving it be the peak of their gods creation they placed the suffix High- after Faeth (which is basically pronounced Faith).

Political System:
The political system in Highfaeth varies on each region. To the west it is a Republic where the land is divided among lords and each lord rules his city independently, occasionally the lords meet to discuss nationwide issues (lords of smaller cities or elft out due to the hgih entry fee to join the meetings.)
The North is a monarcy. A single king born from a royal bloodline rules the entire legion (and lives in an extravagant cavern, as given the idea by someone on this thread).
The south has a feudal system. Peasent->Solider->Samurai (The south's word for Paladin)->Noble->King.

Origin: At the start of time there were three omnipotent and immortal beings called Titans. The Titans created the Material Plane and all other planes surrounding it. Uonynajguibuu, a male Titan, was a strict and lawful man who believed beings should be told what to do in order for them to reach true happiness. Oerdujyu, the only female Titan, beleived people should follow their own whims and build their own path to happiness. Meanwhile, Ngulalotath, didn't care of being's "happiness" he only wanted power and too be worshiped as the omnipotent god he was. These diffrence in beleifs gave the gods diffrent sections to work in. Oerdujyu was given the Mortal realms to work with, giving all of her creations a diffrence in appearance and individual thoughts and wishes. Uonynajguibuu created angels and archons, striping them of indiviudal looks and giving them all similar, just, goals. Ngulalotath created Fiends, he created these creatures merely to intimidate, and to worship him. He wanted his Deamons to enslave the mortal plane, who were weak with their own seperated goals, and then move on to the strengthed angels and archons. But Uonynajguibuu and Oerdujyu protected their creations from Ngulalotath, but Ngulalotath wanted all existance to worship him so he devised his plot. Using a combinaton of his omnipotent magic, and his demons dark magic, he created "Pandorym" a powerful and fatal virus that only infected immortal beings. Uonynajguibuu and Oerdujyu caught the disease, and try as he might, Ngulalotath couldn't quartine himself from it. As the Titans lay, weakened, they knew their time was almost at an end. Quickly they grabbed a handful of the strongest mortals they had and granted them godhood, making them omnipotent and powerful but sparing them immortality, for fear that they'd just contact the disease. The New Gods fled to distant planes to live and rule over their people as the Titans lay down to die. Uonynajguibuu died on the earth, which is wy the earth is so structured and has pysical rules. Oerdujyu died in the sky, which is why space is so chaotic. Ngulalotath...well...no one knows where he died, many believe he DIDN'T die, that he ordered his minions to butcher him to pieces before the posion spread so he could be ressurected when the cure for Pandorym was found. This was supposed to be the sole goal of his people, but fighting broke out now that their god (the one thing they followed) was gone. Demons wished for the chaotic life style of killing for fun and just slaughtering everything, even their own. Devils wanted a lawful lifestyle of tricking mortals and slowly decaying their minds and bodies. Deamons (or Hellions, still debating this one) were once mortals who got greedy and took on infernal complex's for power (kind of like Vaarsuvius has done recently). They are the weakest of the Fiends but are masters of deceit and illusions. Soon war broke out between the three sub-races and the pieces of their god were lost an forgotten, along with their goal to ressurect him. In fact, if it weren't for their fighting the Fiends could easily wipeout the mortal races (since it was their original intention).