ulgulanoth
2012-05-09, 03:19 PM
Hey all, this is a homebrewed setting for an online game and i would like some input on it. How to make it more... fleshed out as it where
The Dark World
Few remember the name of the world before the rise of the Mind Flayers. Before the dark times, the world was a beautiful place, filled with flourishing cities, huge pristine forests and beautiful oceans. But dark forces were at work. It took a millennia of plots, trades, alliances and so much more, but one faithful day the sun did not rise. What had happened was that the Ilithid had made a pact with the lord of Hell, the god Asmodeus, to store the sun in the depths of Erebus. This was done with technology the Ilithid managed to pry from the god Vecna. The Mind Flayers had the plans but the actual construction was not built by them, it was built by the Mi-Go. What they built was a large ring around the sun, made from a strange dark matter that the Mind Flayers extracted from the shadow plane. When the ring was complete the Mind Flayers activated it with a great blood ritual, culminating in the destruction of several elder brains. The release of the psychic energy exploding out from the world activated the Shadow Ring, which shrank, into a tiny point. The sun now the size of a jewel was then planeshifted to Eberus.
To keep the world from freezing over, the Mind Flayers opened up hundreds of thousands of portals into the plane. The portals are now protected by Fire Giants, who can only thrive being near such intense heat. This was what set off the war between the Mind Flayers and the Aboleths, for the Aboleths living in the sea could not benefit from the fire plane portals of the Mind Flayers, their oceans froze. The Aboleths had to create several different ways to keep their oceans liquid. In the end the Aboleths felt the Mind Flayers had gone too far.
Now the world is just called “The Dark World”, the surface is nothing more than a huge frozen wasteland, even all the oceans are frozen solid on the surface. The surface is full of undead, a fair few which are intelligent, since they don’t mind the cold. Lower down is a completely different matter, the world is made of hundreds of thousands of caves; each connected to at least one Fire Plane Portal for heating. These Caves are massive hollowed out structures under the earth where entire cities are nested under hundreds of feet of earth and rock. In each of these Ilithid cities there are huge these is a very strict hierarchy, the Elder Brain being the ruler of all citizens. The hierarchy is strictly based on race, then ability and reputation and finally connections. Mind Flayers are of course at the top of the chain, rulers of the world, followed by dragons, monstrous humanoids, intelligent undead and giants. Lower down are the rest of the humanoids and even lower down than that the races that were tied to nature like nymphs and treants. Finally the lowest of the lot in the social ladder are the less intelligent creatures, like orcs, ogres, hill giants and even mindless creatures like oozes are on this level. While dragons, monstrous humanoids, intelligent undead and giants are treated as second class citizens, they are mostly free and some eventually claw their way up to higher standing that some Mind Flayers. On the other hand any anything lower down in the social ladder are always considered slaves or worse, food. There are a few exceptions of creatures that are met with equal respect and even equality to Mind Flayers themselves. These are the intellect devourers, the Mi-go, Neolithids and powerful evil outsiders (CR8+).
This Mind Flayer society holds only 3 things sacred; Order, Knowledge and Respect. To this end the most prestigious jobs for Mind Flayers are Clerics, Jailers, Archivists, Judges and Inquisitors. While being part of such organisation is prestigious, it doesn’t necessarily increase the Mind Flayer’s standing in society. Clerics especially are viewed in a mixed way, since most Mind Flayers are too arrogant to worship deities in any great length. Thus the main role of Clerics is not to make Mind Flayers worship gods, but to keep all the other lower races in control through worship. To this end Mind Flayers worship mostly lawful gods, primarily Asmodeus, Hextor and Abadar. The only gods that are allowed to be worshiped are Abadar, Asmodeus, Zon-Kuthon, Urgathoa, Norgorber, Iori, Hextor, Vecna and Loth. The worship of any other god is punishable with torture or death.
The Dark World
Few remember the name of the world before the rise of the Mind Flayers. Before the dark times, the world was a beautiful place, filled with flourishing cities, huge pristine forests and beautiful oceans. But dark forces were at work. It took a millennia of plots, trades, alliances and so much more, but one faithful day the sun did not rise. What had happened was that the Ilithid had made a pact with the lord of Hell, the god Asmodeus, to store the sun in the depths of Erebus. This was done with technology the Ilithid managed to pry from the god Vecna. The Mind Flayers had the plans but the actual construction was not built by them, it was built by the Mi-Go. What they built was a large ring around the sun, made from a strange dark matter that the Mind Flayers extracted from the shadow plane. When the ring was complete the Mind Flayers activated it with a great blood ritual, culminating in the destruction of several elder brains. The release of the psychic energy exploding out from the world activated the Shadow Ring, which shrank, into a tiny point. The sun now the size of a jewel was then planeshifted to Eberus.
To keep the world from freezing over, the Mind Flayers opened up hundreds of thousands of portals into the plane. The portals are now protected by Fire Giants, who can only thrive being near such intense heat. This was what set off the war between the Mind Flayers and the Aboleths, for the Aboleths living in the sea could not benefit from the fire plane portals of the Mind Flayers, their oceans froze. The Aboleths had to create several different ways to keep their oceans liquid. In the end the Aboleths felt the Mind Flayers had gone too far.
Now the world is just called “The Dark World”, the surface is nothing more than a huge frozen wasteland, even all the oceans are frozen solid on the surface. The surface is full of undead, a fair few which are intelligent, since they don’t mind the cold. Lower down is a completely different matter, the world is made of hundreds of thousands of caves; each connected to at least one Fire Plane Portal for heating. These Caves are massive hollowed out structures under the earth where entire cities are nested under hundreds of feet of earth and rock. In each of these Ilithid cities there are huge these is a very strict hierarchy, the Elder Brain being the ruler of all citizens. The hierarchy is strictly based on race, then ability and reputation and finally connections. Mind Flayers are of course at the top of the chain, rulers of the world, followed by dragons, monstrous humanoids, intelligent undead and giants. Lower down are the rest of the humanoids and even lower down than that the races that were tied to nature like nymphs and treants. Finally the lowest of the lot in the social ladder are the less intelligent creatures, like orcs, ogres, hill giants and even mindless creatures like oozes are on this level. While dragons, monstrous humanoids, intelligent undead and giants are treated as second class citizens, they are mostly free and some eventually claw their way up to higher standing that some Mind Flayers. On the other hand any anything lower down in the social ladder are always considered slaves or worse, food. There are a few exceptions of creatures that are met with equal respect and even equality to Mind Flayers themselves. These are the intellect devourers, the Mi-go, Neolithids and powerful evil outsiders (CR8+).
This Mind Flayer society holds only 3 things sacred; Order, Knowledge and Respect. To this end the most prestigious jobs for Mind Flayers are Clerics, Jailers, Archivists, Judges and Inquisitors. While being part of such organisation is prestigious, it doesn’t necessarily increase the Mind Flayer’s standing in society. Clerics especially are viewed in a mixed way, since most Mind Flayers are too arrogant to worship deities in any great length. Thus the main role of Clerics is not to make Mind Flayers worship gods, but to keep all the other lower races in control through worship. To this end Mind Flayers worship mostly lawful gods, primarily Asmodeus, Hextor and Abadar. The only gods that are allowed to be worshiped are Abadar, Asmodeus, Zon-Kuthon, Urgathoa, Norgorber, Iori, Hextor, Vecna and Loth. The worship of any other god is punishable with torture or death.