The City of Vast - A Setting for 5E

[3SecondCultist]

Setting Pitch: Vast

I've been working on a custom setting for 5th Edition D&D on and off for about a year now. The setting is called Vast, a gigantic planar metropolis at the end of the world where creation has thrown its collective trash. It is home to failed angelic orders, the 'boring' fey courts of Spring and Autumn, entire communities of mongrels and lowlifes, monk brotherhoods who achieved the wrong kind of enlightenment, and other such oddities. Inspired by fictional settings such as Ravnica (Magic the Gathering), Throne (Kill Six Billion Demons), Sakaar (Planet Hulk and Thor Ragnarok), and Sigil (Planescape), the entire place is designed to pack as many fun adventure hooks and completely strange monsters and people into one immense city. I'll include the formal introduction to my document below for people to get a taste for the setting's flavor.

Spoiler: At the End of the Earth

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The City of Seven Thousand Secrets, the Last City, Vaasharn: these are all names for a place where reality is broken and gods have died. Located at the edge of a blasted continent, where the land suddenly drops away into the formless void of Limbo, Vast is home to over a million souls, as well as a good many other creatures who are purported not to have any. Fantastical and completely bewildering to most newcomers, the city quite frankly should not exist. Entire districts of mansions, forges, and slums float in the air, suspended on nothing but weightlessness. Immense forests tie together ruins that have been grown from scratch, sung out of nothing. Great metal cables run up from the earth to surround these districts in a great lattice, the magical lift and highway known only as the Silver Stair. And bathing it all in white light is the heart of a god that has been ripped out of its chest to hang in perfect stasis.

These wonders have converged here for a single reason: nobody else wanted them. All across the edges of the continent, through the metallic astral clouds, lie a series of portals. Almost invisible to the naked eye, these doorways lead from a panoply of worlds and planes, from various material worlds to the Inner Planes, and beyond. The one thing that they have in common is that they are all one way doors. Through whatever cosmic design that led them to all exit in the same place, apparently nobody wanted what was to be turned away and tossed aside. What's more, Vast and its environs seem to be cut off from any other kind of interplanar travel. Spells such as plane shift trying to leave Vast are stymied, with no explanation. The Last City is aptly named: it is usually the final destination of mortal souls.

However, that isn't to say that Vast is a graveyard. Far from it, in fact: in the pages to come, readers will get a glimpse at the varied and outlandish locales, factions, and monsters that have learned to call the city home. Ruled by a menagerie of outlandish creatures and factions on its city's ruling council, Vast is home to millions of beings, all with their own agenda.

Anyone interested in reading more should check out my Setting Guide. The whole thing is still a work in progress - I still have to finish quite a bit in terms of write ups for locations and factions, not to mention the new rules that I plan on taking to the mechanics side of the Homebrew forums - but when I'm done I might try my hand at actually making a proper book out of this. This is definitely a long term project for me, and I plan on taking a few years to fully map Vast out with a few campaigns before getting anywhere with publication.

Right now, what I'm really looking for are a few extra sets of eyes, maybe get a few comments on everything I have so far. If you see story elements that you want to see fleshed out more, or some parts of the setting that you think will be boring or cliche, I would appreciate people leaving comments on the setting document. Just as importantly, I am opening the door for people to come up with fun and suitably strange minor characters and plot hooks for the areas I've written up so far. I've already peppered a few throughout the document just to give people a sense of what I'm looking for.

Hopefully that should cover the introduction! If people have impressions or questions they want to leave here, that's fine with me too! I'm a pretty active poster, so I would be happy to clarify or hash out details with anyone generous to contribute some ideas.

[the_david]

You had me at Sakaar...

It also sounds a bit like Marvel's Weirdworld. Or the Slipstream setting for Savage Worlds. Maybe not the most original idea but it's a setting I'd love to explore. Ofcourse, I love a kitchen sink setting that tries to make a little bit of sense.

The not being able to planeshift might be a little bit problematic as it might effect more spells than you'd think. Planar Binding and Ally come to mind, as does Ethereal Jaunt. Imagine calling a demon to Vast and then discovering they won't leave... That could get nasty. It could be a great plot hook though.

[3SecondCultist]

You had me at Sakaar...

It also sounds a bit like Marvel's Weirdworld. Or the Slipstream setting for Savage Worlds. Maybe not the most original idea but it's a setting I'd love to explore. Ofcourse, I love a kitchen sink setting that tries to make a little bit of sense.

The not being able to planeshift might be a little bit problematic as it might effect more spells than you'd think. Planar Binding and Ally come to mind, as does Ethereal Jaunt. Imagine calling a demon to Vast and then discovering they won't leave... That could get nasty. It could be a great plot hook though.

Thank you for the points of inspiration! I have never read any of those settings before (but my own touchstones are listed pretty clearly). And you got the structure down pretty well - I am definitely going for a 'weird urban planar kitchen sink', while still maintaining some consistency.

As far as the plane shift rules are concerned... I might fluff the portals that take people to Vast as operating on a different level from planar magic. As in, the people who arrive at Vast are specifically forbidden to use magic to get away, but people can still summon things just fine, and the Ethereal Plane would technically be coterminous so it's close enough to that reality that it doesn't violate those rules. Would something like that work?

[noob]

monk brotherhoods who achieved the wrong kind of enlightenment

You promised me monk brotherhoods and I found none in the doc.
I am dissapointed.

[3SecondCultist]

You promised me monk brotherhoods and I found none in the doc.
I am dissapointed.

I haven't written them in yet! As I mentioned it is a work in progress, but the Order of Astral Perfection is mentioned several times in the backstory. I just haven't finished all of the factions and locations yet.