The Shattered World. Earthsea inspired experiment.

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This world was inspired by this little map found on Deviant Art.
https://www.deviantart.com/spacefrie.../Map-537204736


Here's the background. 1000 years ago a meteor struck and destroyed a continent. It should have been a mass extinction event, but it was not. The continent survived as a mass of islands. Many of the buildings survived intact and undamaged, The animals and people all survived, just scattered on the millions of islands.

Before the meteor, the world was 2/3s water and 1/3 land. It is the same ratio today. The land is now a mass of millions of islands separated by shallow seas.

The meteor introduced magic (both clerical and arcane) to the world. Very rare items of master craft make became magic overnight. Clerics found they could cast spells the next day, and studious types started inventing spells. Nations found themselves in a magic arms race. Today there is a magic culture a 1000 years strong, fully supported by the surviving nations and newer, independent universities. Even necromancers are not shunned, although they still creep people out.

Further, it brought monsters. They spontaneously erupted everywhere. the intelligent races of goblins, orcs, etc, were planted on the remaining continents, though some have found their way to the Scattered islands. A new race of goblin men also arrived, they have all the stats and beauty of Half-elves, but are green and consider themselves "High Goblins." these High, or Hob Goblins are civilized, love the arts, but are militaristic conquerors and slavers.


The meteor also ripped through dimensions weakening the barriers. as a result, elementals and genies have been enslaved (while alive, elementals are unintelligent and are used to power certain items). Gnomes have mastered the such enslavement and construct ships powered by water elementals that need no sails (there are no flying ships).

Races:

The brothers of Man:

Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Half elves (rare), Dark elves (they are identical to elves, have their own above ground nations, and are evil), halflings

Goblinkind:
goblins, orcs. gnolls, ogres, giants, and High/Hop Goblins ( they have all the stats and beauty of Half-elves, but are green ).


Religions of the world

Jupiter: the head honcho. Leader of the pantheon. God of storms, emperors, war, the legal system, and humans.

Hera: his wife. Goddess of family, hearth, home, and agriculture. Patron of the halflings.

Hekate: goddess of magic, both good and evil. patron of the dark elves.

Vulcan: God of the forge, creation, Artificers (makers of magic items), volcanoes and patron of the dwarves and gnomes

Dionysus : God of wine, hedonism, brothels, casinos, and parties

Hades: god of the dead, necromancy, often involved in evil underhanded scheme to overthrow the gods and make himself ruler. secret patron of goblinkind

Mercury: Animal Husbandry, Travel, Trade, Athletics, Language, Thievery, Good Luck, Guide of the Dead, Herald of the Gods

Venus: Goddess of: Love, Beauty, Pleasure, Procreation, the Arts, patron of the elves


Temples (and clerics) can be either pantheonic, or dedicated to a single diety. The alignment of a cleric matters not - good or evil they are not denied their spells.

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The Scattered Islands: a continents worth of land has been shattered into millions of islands. The adventure is set here. Even after a 1000 years, most of the islands have never been explored. Every island, no matter how small has a fresh water source (its magic). evolution has sped up and land locked animals are all different from island to island. Civilizations have risen and fallen in the isles. People of all sorts find refuge here, criminals, exiles, pirates and escaped slaves. In trouble with the law? Just move on.

Typically, kingdoms are restricted to one island. Every magical resource (no matter how rare) is found in the islands. The climate is temperate (ala, North America) with no deserts, and no snow in winter. Winter is a time of cold and very bad storms, sailing is impossible for much of winter. The season is short however, just three months.



Players With backgrounds of Sailor are respected here. Its a great way for the common man to see the world. As a result the people are far more cosmopolitan that one would expect. Boats are the only way to get around. Horses are rare. Lamas and mules are used to move cargo on land. Abandoned lamas are found on many islands.

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THE CHALLENGE:

Create an island kingdom, a ship (magical or not), or a character.

as for characters. I am a long way off from DMing. so anything goes. Just make it interesting. Min Max is nice but an interesting character is worth his weight in Gold.

As for ships, think tactical for spelljammer. Lots of magic can be spent on a ship

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Caspar, Island nation.

Caspar is an island ruled as a free republic. Its population are all either escaped slaves or descendants of slaves. Caspar is like Switzerland in that every man and woman is considered part of the army. All are trained to fight. Caspar has never successfully been invaded. slavers who attempt to raid the island are hunted down and executed on the spot. Caspar has a capital city of the same name, 90 thousand strong. Two neighboring islands are used for farming, and a third has an iron mine.



Caspar has a moderate sized navy, but they make up for their lack of numbers with the excellence and dedication of their crews. a number of privateers call Caspar home and they hunt slave ships, or raid shipping of slave using countries. Every free citizen knows how to fight and owns an excellent quality weapon and suit of armor.



There are no slaves on Caspar. Master craftsmen are legion. All free men are welcome here. Dwelmerholm is a magic university and attracts all sorts of students - citizens receive training for free, sponsored by the state.

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Helios:

This island was conquered by Dark Elves some 400 years ago. The dark elves were exiles - the losing side of a rebellion - fleeing for their lives.

Today, the island is ruled by 12,000 Dark Elves lording over 20,000 halfling slaves. They have a standing army of 1000 Half Elves descended from human slaves. The half elves are free citizens, less that their Dark Masters, but free otherwise. They have a small navy, but their ships utilize enslaved elementals, calming the seas, filling their sails with wind, and spewing fiery death upon their enemies. This is the only navy that can safely sail in Winter.



The dark elves command fierce sorceries. All attend a university of magic. They have twin temples of Hekate and Dionysus. Their city is one of the few walled cities in the Isles, but the few who have seen it marvel at its beauty. The elves ride huge domesticated elk.



The port town is very cosmopolitan, with criminals and scum from across the world. slavers and privateers call this home. Casinos, brothels and slave markets serve many of the more evil kingdoms in the isles. There is no police force in this town so carry a weapon. those who earn the ire of the Dark Elves are released at night and a grand hunt is called - none have survived until morning.

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NPC class (not open to players): ARTIFICERS
--only found in cities--

An Artificer makes magic items. He cannot cast magic, but can use any magic item including scrolls. He can handle cursed items without triggering the curse, and can detect/identify the magic and uses for each item with a touch. He will know how many charges are in a wand and the activation word. He can recharge an item by three charges a week.

---all of this is rather expensive, but I am free with handing out gold....players can still end up rather poor in my world.



Making Magic Items. An artificer sucks the magic out of unwanted magic items and uses that magic to create new items. In game terms, he can suck the point cost of magic, store it within himself and use the points to create other magic. (this is my workaround for using only pre-written modules and it lets the player specializing in say: a trident, to get the magic weapon that he really wants). The party that ends up with 15 +1, evil aligned, flaming weapons now has an outlet for such unusable magic instead of leaving it for evil to find and use again.

Of course the artificer overcharges the point cost and uses the extra to make magic for himself. Anywhere a university or large city can be found, an artificer can be found.



Alchemists: found in every large city. They typically have a small stock of potions for sale.

Temples make healing potions and can fund themselves very well with such endeavors. again large cities are where temples with potion shops can be found.

Temples can also cast spells for hire, and they can smell an adventurer with gold a mile away. Gold makes the world go around.


Hedge Wizards: These NPCs are spell casters with both arcane and faith magics. They venerate one diety. they serve the common folk, healing wounds,and diseases. they do not make potions per say but curative salves. they prefer not to cater to adventurers but to the common rural folk they love. It is rare to find one higher that 4th or 5rh level.