4E GitP World-Building: Basic Setting and Themes

[Ceiling009]

Sorry for not actually adding to the thread, but... yes Zeta Kai, what program did the person or you use to make that map? Also, no Warforged?

[Sequinox]

Okay, now, so that I (and others, no doubt) won't have to go back completely through the list of posts: A summarization of everything decided on so far.

• The known world was once a great empire, at war with many other great empires.
  They were all magocracies and all had innumerable magic items and weapons spread throughout.
  One empire used an attack the other and the result almost completely wiped out both. The magic energies involved (for it was a magical attack) got to both empire's vast hoards of magic items and weapons, setting them off like time bombs and killing or mutating all of the people within the area of effect.
  The only surviving people were those inside the effect of the obelisks, magical pillars that stop rituals from occurring inside.
  There are obelisks scattered across the world.
  (Human's Obelisks)
  (Elven obelisks)
  (Eladrin Obelisks)
  (Dwarven obelisks)
  (Halfling Obelisks)
  (Are we keeping this idea?) Tieflings were once humans, but were mutated by the cataclysm. However, they are more good than the rest of the fiends such as drow and duergar, to name two, and helped the survivors. However, due to their fiendish nature, survivors don't trust them, and due to their mercy on the survivors, all of the other fiends hate them. They are forced to always be on the move.
  Rumor has it that far to the north past treacherous oceans a continent exists filled with bizarre, violent, xenophobic short creatures. (Up for debate)

Let me know if I forgot anything.

Oh, and sorry about the double post.

[Zeta Kai]

Well, I used plain ol' Photoshop CS3. I have a secret recipe for large-scale landscape creation that I use for planet-making, & its handy for making pretty maps quickly. Thank you for your appreciation of my work.

As for Warforged, they would make a great addition to this setting. When this was first started, Warforged weren't published by WotC yet, so we weren't sure if they were in, so to speak. Now that they are, we should try & squeeze them in somewhere. Any thoughts?

[Siosilvar]

The warforged are (formerly) autonomous constructs animated by the cataclysm?

[Sequinox]

Yeah sure. That works. Sorry for not helping much in this post, but I have to go.

[Sequinox]

AAAaaaaaaaand we're back, folks!

Catacymised

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Cataclymised

The Cataclymised are those who survived the Cataclysm... When they were inside the blast radius. They are horrid, evil creatures, and those who weren't transformed to evil opposite races instead warped to powerful, nightmarish creatures.

Cataclymised Elite Brute
Abberation XP Elite
Defenses +2 Fortitude +2 Will +2 Reflex
Resist 5 Fire 5 Cold Becomes 10 at 18th
level
Saving Throws +2
Action Point 1
Hit points +12 per level + Con score
Powers
Fear (Aura 8)
Cataclymised makes a charisma based
attack on target. If they fail, target
runs 2d4 squares away from combat.
Each turn afterward, repeat until target
passes his save.
Touch of the dead [Touch attack (Encounter)]
Dex based touch attack deals 1d10 cold
damage/every 5 levels.

Is this overpowered? I need advice.

About the map with obelisk locations, think you could make another but with like 2 or 3 obelisk locations for each race? Then I could really get into the world. Oh boy do I have ideas... Around the coastline, if possible.

The Obelisk of Final Hope

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Population: 18000 (Rough estimate)
Ruling Person(s): Governed by a Town Council made up of three members. Each controls a small area within. For example, Vallance Kingston is in control of the Merchant quarter (in smaller obelisk zones not in a new city, it would be different (tiny) counties)
Districts and leaders:
Merchant Quarter

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Filled with many shops, pubs, and inns. The most pleasant of all of the districts. Littering the streets are tieflings, peddlers who wander the world selling artifacts that may or may not be useful to different Obelisks. The leader of the Merchant Quarter is Vallance Kingston, a wealthy merchant prince who made is way up the political ladder through discretionable valor. He helped those who needed help, but ran when he had to do so to survive, lied about the running, and built up respect. He also is known as Vallance Goldtongue or Vallance Midas for his diplomatic and enterprising abilities.
Notable Establishments in the Merchant Quarter are the Dragon's Flagon, a pub named after a mythical creature reputed to be feared and respected by the old empire. They are famous for their hot wings.

Political District

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The city hasn’t been very successful in diversifying its districts, so the Political Quarter isn’t very political. Yes, the official buildings are all here, such as the Congress House, but so are the tieflings and the small shops. However, most of the buildings are a little shady.
The leader of the Political District is a woman named Pahlin Trokna. She is ruthless, cold, and got to power by, well, being a soulless manipulator. She is a backstabber. However, never once has she associated herself with the crime lords that run the “Business District.” She has done it all by herself.
The Congress House is made out of stone, the only building in Final Hope that existed before the Cataclysm. It was once the house of a minor noble, but to see a marble building, exquisitely crafted, is a pride that burns in the heart of almost all Hopers, as the residents of Final Hope are called.

“Business Quarter” (Notice the quotes)

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The Business Quarter is a run down section of town. The few people who try to scratch out a living there are extorted mercilessly by the “Gentlemen” of one of the various crime factions. The most prominent Gentleman is Vinny Budgecinno. He runs most of the crime, though there are a few exceptions.
The ‘Leader’ of the “Business Quarter” is Wallace Gelrood. He is Vinny’s puppet. Literally. Vinny has found a ritual that, when casted, forces the victim to do the bidding of the caster for ten years. However, once the ten years are up, they are immune to the effects of the spell. Which means that Wallace may not fare so well once his term is up…
The most prominent establishment is Vinny’s house. It is built from many different materials, all painted white, and crafted together possibly by magic. It was most definitely not a normal building, and looking at it you would have to say that yes, the house was built by magic.

Am I forgetting anything? Please let me know.

[Zeta Kai]

Cool. I'm glad somebody (besides me) remembered this. Since the apparent demise of the Gears of Neve project (), I've been to busy to drag one of these projects back from the brink. Kudos to you for working on this again.

As for the map, are you saying that you want significantly fewer obelisk locations? I'm fine with that (what I illustrated a suggestion, not a stone-setting maneuver); I just need to know your intent. I can redo the map with fewer obelisks, but it'll take a few days. Lemme know if there are other suggestions.

[Sequinox]

Gears died? No! I had been planning on chipping in...

But I guess what I meant by fewer obelisks was that obelisks, as least as far as I understood, weren't everywhere. My vision for them was to be semi-rare, meaning far enough apart to not be a walk in the park to travel too, but close enough to hear word about them every now and then, as opposed to everywhere... If this makes any sense, I guess. Nobody's understood me today.

Me: "blahblahblahblah"
Anybody: "Timmy's trapped in a well?"

Also, we could always say that those are the ones worth mentioning (there might be some that are too small to be worth mapping; ie. a nobles estate or a prison.

[Zeta Kai]

Yes, Gears of Neve seems to be dead for the moment. However, all it takes to revive such things is a benevolent poster dedicated to contributing. I suggest that if you want to add to it & potentially resurrect it, follow the link above, read that thread & its 2 sibling threads.

As for the map, I will edit it over the weekend & have a new one up by Tuesday.

[ArlEammon]

What about 0 level magic being considered' common"? That way there is precedence for superstition.

Also, I like the Cold War option. The Asian empire(who's name I forget) and the Feldarin Empire sound like they could fight eachother.

[Sequinox]

Okay. Time for another megapost.

The Old Empire (out of Game info; not so much is known to players)

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The old empire was a vast nation spread across most of the continent. They had troubles with the other nations, but for the most part they were on top. They had the most powerful mages in the world, and even their clerics were followers of magic itself. They were good and bad, ugly and beautiful, unstable and sane. The members of the nation were, as almost all widespread nations are, very different. There are the jungles of the southwest, where wildmen and natives lived, the stylized Center, where the nobles threw words at each other and fought pettily over small rules, the North, where fishermen journeyed out to get a good haul and spoke an odd dialect, (Ayuh, Jimmy's a goo-wad fish-ah), and spoke of a legendary sea monster, the leviathan. In the Far South, on the islands (Based off of the Caribbean), the island folk lived, pirates plundered, and reggae music was popular.

The other Magocracy

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The other magocracy was named Acadia. They too worshiped magic. They lived on the islands in the East, though recently they had begun to conquer into the Empire's territory. Up until then, it had been cold war, nobody wanting to strike for fear of setting off the nukes (or magic assaults). More about this on Cataclysm.
The magocracy's society is simple. There isn't a lot of politics, and even at the highest level, mostly everybody agrees with something or everybody doesn't. This is in part due to the fact that there was only one political party, and thusly not a whole bunch of political party wars.
Their land is the islands in the east, close to the edge of the map, meaning all the Eastern Islands except for the ones close to the Empire.

The Cataclysm

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The cold war had been going on for seven years when Acadia first started the real, physical war. They invaded the islands in the East closest to the Empire, which is technically Empire territory. This caused the Empire to start rallying their army. Acadia advanced into the Empire, conquering a small part of the mid east coast, then pushed through, carving a swath through the heartland. Finally they reached the walls of the Empire's capital, Lud (name up for debate), and layed siege. The Empire planned to counterattack magically, which had been avoided until this point, but the Acadians had already put together a massive attack spell. They learned of the assembly of a spell targeted on them, and cast.

They targeted the capital of Lud. Everybody inside was dead in seconds. That was all that it was supposed to do, but - oops - the spell hit some epic magic items, greatly increasing the radius, and the increased radius hit more magic items, and so on until it had stretched across the whole world, destroying even the caster. Something had happened to the spell, though, when it hit an artifact that could cause disease/mutation/whatever, and spread that across, creating the evil opposites that are alive present day.

The only survivors were by the obelisks. That was 40 years ago.

Obelisks

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The Obelisks are massive magic pillars that extend into the sky almost as far as the eye can see. They create an anti-ritual field that prevented the spell (actually a ritual) that wiped out the world from killing the people inside the obelisks. They were built hundreds of years ago, and nobody really knows who built them or how. That makes it difficult to fix the ones that are failing...

I had planned to write more about the obelisks, but oh well. That was an hour right there. Now I am thinking. Discuss.
*leans back to not pay attention to audience as he thinks*