GitP multiverse (WIP)

[urkthegurk]

I've wanted to create a game that could be considered to take place in the 'GitP multiverse'. Of course, there is no such thing (that I know of), but that's my job. The first step is to catalogue all the homebrew worlds and specifically material planes that I like the look of. Then I'll try and arrange them in some sort of order. First things first.


Almantha (Therinos) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12909174)
Blackwood, the (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232675)
Dominion of the New World (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252218)
Eramus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251914)
Hinnom (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222414) (the Sons of the Fallen)
Isles of the Small Folk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254659)
Land Between the Two Rivers (Inan) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253713)
Ishka (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120354)
Lands of the Barbarian Kings (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213778)
Near and Far (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251033)
Patria (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193582)
Pax Respublica (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245029) (Pending actual name)
Rald (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254329)
Roma Renatus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252537)
Stha Lui (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212219)
Ygmaggion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251075)
'1609' (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252889)

I will of course check with the original authors before I cement any of them in to a larger cosmology, but for now I'm just looking for a long-ish list.

Aaaand I'll figure out the rest of the post after I've eaten some dinner. Bear with me, let me know if the idea's interesting, and I'll keep working! Oh, also drop notes on prospective worlds we can visit.

[urkthegurk]

Reserved for further content

[urkthegurk]

Reserved for further

[Ninjadeadbeard]

This sounds awesome! I had the idea to do something like this once, make my players fight an insane Darkseid-figure who was basically Dr Insano with Nano-Tech-Magic across multiple dimensions. There would be a GUNDAM universe, a D&D universe, a Superhero one, the works.

Looking forward to this.

[willpell]

I was just reading the bit in Unearthed Arcana where they talk about plane-hopping games and Eternal Champions (not so fond of the latter myself).

[Landis963]

I'm just glad that someone besides Ninja is taking an interest in my setting. :smallsmile:

EDIT: Keep up the good work!

[urkthegurk]

Yeah! I'd love to see the same characters adapt to different universes. For example, I have a low-magic (Tristan) and a high-magic (Iseult) campaign world. Casters travelling to Tristan from Iseult can't cast without using that Heroes of Horror spell I can't remember the name of. Casters going from Tristan to Iseult tend to blow themselves up by unintentionally channeling too much energy.

[Sodalite]

Would it be possible for me to direct a portion of your attention to my setting, or is it too far-gone or incomplete to be considered?

[urkthegurk]

I dunno, wanna post a link?

[Sodalite]

My apologies for not responding sooner. I had forgotten that I had not subscribed to this thread, and thus missed your response.

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251033) is a link. Again, I apologize, especially if my setting turns out to not be worth your time.

[willpell]

An extremely quick glance at your setting makes me consider it very cool, Sodalite. It might be a little too high-concept for me to be interested in actually participating (and I do mean "might", I haven't decided), but at the very least, one homebrewer to another, you have my props for a very creative, well-rounded, and unique (as far as my limited awareness can tell) concept for a "not your average fantasy" setup.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

What about a world with an alternate way of magic working? (which wouldn't actually effect outsiders, just people who hailed from this world)

If you might be interested in this, I may have a setting I've been working on: The Magic System for it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245007)

[urkthegurk]

My basic structure idea is to have a series of 'material' planes linked together in a chain, each with their own rules of magic, quirks, and levels of 'reality'-- that is, some worlds are more narrative, following rules of storytelling, and some are depressingly realistic. Clustered around each of these is often a set of other planes- a few, maybe dozens, or perhaps even thousands. Some of these networks of planes offer alternate connections between material planes, besides merely hopping from one plane to another- like if you travel deep enough into the Abyss on World One, you might end up at the bottom of Purgatory in World Two.

Besides these quirks and wormholes and secret doors, the main way of accessing alternate realities is through the Plane of Shadow. Slipping between the atoms, travellers have to travel enormous distances, aided either by powerful spells or enormous artifact-ships. This allows them to traverse the reaches of space, where on the material plane there would be a vacuum. And by crossing the plane of shadow they can encounter planets much closer in terms of physical distance than usual- where the nearest inhabitable planet might be hundreds of light-years away on our plane, if we could peek into the plane of shadow we might see other worlds much closer, even sharing the solar system, but on the other side of the veil.

The plane of shadow is infinitely deep. There are potential infinite worlds to discover-- but there are also vast reaches, far away, that are empty of all life, to distant for any mortal explorer to have ever visited. And some of these areas are growing, at speeds too vast to easily comprehend, sucking in worlds around them. What is causing these distant apocalypses mages can only guess.

What I want to do is map these 'Known Worlds'. The basis of my campaign is a couple of plane-hopping human civilizations from alternate realities that colonized whole swathes of the multiverse before collapsing. Many of the populations of the Known Worlds are descended from these colonists, although many arose independently- the Roman Empire, for instance, seems to pop up on Planes all across existence.

Now, explorers are once again moving out beyond their own little wheel, and discovering other civilizations not so different from their own scattered across the stars.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

This would fit in nicely with my setting. The realm of shadow is called "The Ulterior Realm" in mine. I really like this idea. :3

[urkthegurk]

thanks ;)

I've thought about what to do for world's without a Plane of Shadow. I was thinking perhaps, if a suitable substitute for that plane could not be found, then the world in question could be said to take place in the far future or the deep past, or perhaps some iteration of the universe that has been written out of the timeline. I was thinking the plane of Shadow would only exist in the present- because it is the space between atoms, essentially a plane formed of the unknownableness of the universe and the fluctuations of probability, only the Present has such a plane. The past is set in stone. And the future, while it may constantly change, has some elements that remain relatively constant, and these islands of stability form into planes that may be visited by cosmic travelers.

Time Travelers attempting to travel into their own plane's past or future may find themselves in some distant, strange world instead, drawn there by its stability. Sometimes events of the past solidify themselves into planes of their own, looping infinitely the same day or century, or perhaps eventually forming a cosmology of their own.

Wombat, it looks like your Ancients would fit in very well with my idea of two (or more) progenitor races of humans. Even the term 'First Men' is the sort of thing I would use.I guess it would depend on what they're like, and if you were taken with the idea of them being descended from a race of star-sailing people. Do you have any material on Aldain you'd like to share?

Sodalite bud, your setting looks great! Bear up, eh? Maybe it could fit in to the cosmos as an earlier model for reality, some god playing around at creating a self-sustaining universe, or maybe a time of being that never happened but still shaped the way the multiverse became. Or what suggestions would you have to connect it in?

[Sodalite]

A prototype universe sounds about right. Maybe some early experiment in creating worlds which reproduce, what with mutators eventually budding off and becoming little worlds in their own right.

Also, I don't really think there's a barrier between Near and Far and the further void, besides immense but measurable distances, so I was thinking that, somehow, I'm not super sure, they're just physically located in the Plane of Shadow. An example of the implications of this is, if you could manage to create a ship that could survive the trip, you could get up and go, and once you're far enough away, you'll be adrift in the Plane of Shadow, no plane-jumping or boundary-hopping necessary.

If that is the case, though, that would imply that both of the Sunderings somehow tore holes in the Plane of Shadow, if relatively small ones, which I'm not too sure is something could reasonably be done by a civilization as small as the Antecendants.

Unrelated to my specific setting, I like your interpretation of universes and whatnot as being fluid. It seems similar to the concept of a time-blob, an alternative the branching-tree conception of alternate realities.

Edit: I apologize for my cultural illiteracy, but I didn't and still don't entirely understand what you mean by 'bear up,' though I hope I've provided at least something of what you expected in response.

[Iamyourking]

You may use Sons of the Fallen if you wish, although I assume its absence from your list means that you don't.

[urkthegurk]

A prototype universe sounds about right. Maybe some early experiment in creating worlds which reproduce, what with mutators eventually budding off and becoming little worlds in their own right.

We should keep an eye out for other worlds similar enough to your one to become descendants. I have a few ideas...



Also, I don't really think there's a barrier between Near and Far and the further void, besides immense but measurable distances, so I was thinking that, somehow, I'm not super sure, they're just physically located in the Plane of Shadow. An example of the implications of this is, if you could manage to create a ship that could survive the trip, you could get up and go, and once you're far enough away, you'll be adrift in the Plane of Shadow, no plane-jumping or boundary-hopping necessary.

Implications... it would be extremely hard to come and go from these planets, because of their being no plane of shadow to traverse and avoid gravity. However, this would explain how such a magically powerful civilization could get trapped on these planets.



If that is the case, though, that would imply that both of the Sunderings somehow tore holes in the Plane of Shadow, if relatively small ones, which I'm not too sure is something could reasonably be done by a civilization as small as the Antecendants.


Population certainly contributes to the appearance of a powerful wizard, but once they arise they can change the world with little outside help. I can see if happening. A 'hole in the plane of shadow' would be a hole in probability, or a hole in time. Like if you knew the precise location and direction of an object.



Unrelated to my specific setting, I like your interpretation of universes and whatnot as being fluid. It seems similar to the concept of a time-blob, an alternative the branching-tree conception of alternate realities.


Very Yggdrasil, for sure. Its the only way I can really conceive of all of these layers locking together.



Edit: I apologize for my cultural illiteracy, but I didn't and still don't entirely understand what you mean by 'bear up,' though I hope I've provided at least something of what you expected in response.

'Bear up' is a phrase used as a form of encouragement. Specifically, it acknowledges someone's troubles as harsh, but entreaties them to rise through it, perhaps finding strength in sheer stubbornness and unwillingness to quit.

Its also my family's words, the Fulfords, and it is actually a pretty terrible pun, as you will see if you take a peek at our crest. (http://www.sleepy-creek.com/HER001.htm)



You may use Sons of the Fallen if you wish, although I assume its absence from your list means that you don't.

Actually I included your setting when I made my list the first time, on paper. I must have missed it when I was hastily making the OP. I'll go back and correct my mistake now.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Wombat, it looks like your Ancients would fit in very well with my idea of two (or more) progenitor races of humans. Even the term 'First Men' is the sort of thing I would use.I guess it would depend on what they're like, and if you were taken with the idea of them being descended from a race of star-sailing people. Do you have any material on Aldain you'd like to share?

Sodalite bud, your setting looks great! Bear up, eh? Maybe it could fit in to the cosmos as an earlier model for reality, some god playing around at creating a self-sustaining universe, or maybe a time of being that never happened but still shaped the way the multiverse became. Or what suggestions would you have to connect it in?

I can possibly start a thread on it. Being that it's also my book world, how much do you think I should put on the forums?

[urkthegurk]

I'm not really qualified to give copyright advice. However, when I'm working with material I plan to publish, I am a little careful. I leave out plots, main characters, and so on, and focus on providing the setting, history and philosophy behind the world. Everything you post online is still yours, of course, and I would post a disclaimer stating what you do and don't want used. But once its out there, its out there.

IAYK, what is the name of your world? Is Hinnom the Plane, or just the realm?

[Iamyourking]

It's a region that, by design, can be put into any setting; so I thought it would fit right in even if it isn't a whole world.

[Sodalite]

Implications... it would be extremely hard to come and go from these planets, because of their being no plane of shadow to traverse and avoid gravity. However, this would explain how such a magically powerful civilization could get trapped on these planets.

Hm...I'm not sure how well my original conceptions works with the Antecendants being an introduced people. I would mention that they and their descendant races aren't human, at least not in the genetic sense, though their psychology is the same and their physiology is different only minute ways. I would also mention that I originally conceived them as having naturally evolved on Near. The Many-Bodied, meanwhile, could very easily be non-native, which might explain their apparent mastery of the fundamentals of their world, but they stray even farther from humans, taking a significant portion of their basic structure from bryozoa. I agree, though, that the task of even moving from one planet to the other is immense, let alone escaping both, which is why it's only been attempted once, and that one attempt, the Void-Spanner, very well may fail, and possible even fail catastrophically.


Population certainly contributes to the appearance of a powerful wizard, but once they arise they can change the world with little outside help. I can see if happening. A 'hole in the plane of shadow' would be a hole in probability, or a hole in time. Like if you knew the precise location and direction of an object.

The thing is, the basal techniques of the Antecendants, as well as the ceremonies used by the Bahliata, caused the Sunderings accidentally, as a side effect of their overuse, rather than some great power opening these holes intentionally. Meanwhile, I'm not entirely sure whether or not holes in probability would have the effect of transposing to locations, but I don't think I can really touch on that at all.

In addition, given it's drastically disparate state compared to most other settings, magic functions on an entirely different level. There isn't really 'anti-magic' because magic is just a means to an end, and that end is the same, whether you chose to do it with the various essential methods, or manual the way. The closest there is to really supernatural effects are things like raw essences, which don't usually occur in nature, and are usually used as fuel for a magic, rather than as the end product.

I'm fairly certain, though, that this difference has its origin in the strangeness of Near and Far's origin.

I apologize that this so long, and also so contradictory to what you've already established, not to mention the fact that I have nothing to really contribute to the other conversations currently going on.

[Morph Bark]

What about a world with an alternate way of magic working? (which wouldn't actually effect outsiders, just people who hailed from this world)

This is what I hope to do, preferably by providing an alteration to the existing magic system, so that existing characters could be ported into it and just be altered according to those new magic rules.


My basic structure idea is to have a series of 'material' planes linked together in a chain, each with their own rules of magic, quirks, and levels of 'reality'-- that is, some worlds are more narrative, following rules of storytelling, and some are depressingly realistic. Clustered around each of these is often a set of other planes- a few, maybe dozens, or perhaps even thousands. Some of these networks of planes offer alternate connections between material planes, besides merely hopping from one plane to another- like if you travel deep enough into the Abyss on World One, you might end up at the bottom of Purgatory in World Two.

Besides these quirks and wormholes and secret doors, the main way of accessing alternate realities is through the Plane of Shadow. Slipping between the atoms, travellers have to travel enormous distances, aided either by powerful spells or enormous artifact-ships. This allows them to traverse the reaches of space, where on the material plane there would be a vacuum. And by crossing the plane of shadow they can encounter planets much closer in terms of physical distance than usual- where the nearest inhabitable planet might be hundreds of light-years away on our plane, if we could peek into the plane of shadow we might see other worlds much closer, even sharing the solar system, but on the other side of the veil.

The plane of shadow is infinitely deep. There are potential infinite worlds to discover-- but there are also vast reaches, far away, that are empty of all life, to distant for any mortal explorer to have ever visited. And some of these areas are growing, at speeds too vast to easily comprehend, sucking in worlds around them. What is causing these distant apocalypses mages can only guess.

What I want to do is map these 'Known Worlds'. The basis of my campaign is a couple of plane-hopping human civilizations from alternate realities that colonized whole swathes of the multiverse before collapsing. Many of the populations of the Known Worlds are descended from these colonists, although many arose independently- the Roman Empire, for instance, seems to pop up on Planes all across existence.

Now, explorers are once again moving out beyond their own little wheel, and discovering other civilizations not so different from their own scattered across the stars.

This sounds very cool. I wasn't thinking of using the Plane of Shadow in my campaign setting, or rather that it does exist, but that it is inaccessible, much like the Core is most of the time, except forever.

Also, Hell in my setting has a location called the Abyssal Maw, which is basically like the Abyss in DnD, except all the layers are made up of dead planes. One possibility is that when a plane is effectively destroyed, even a plane otherwise connected to another world, they could be dragged into the Abyssal Maw, thus providing the possibility that people trying to travel to that plane from their own Home Material (let's call that the origin plane of Material Plane inhabitants if there'll be multiple material planes), that they then end up in the Abyssal Maw, thus providing multiple ways to access Ymaggion.

Funnily enough, one RP I'm in is detailing events (which I'm putting down as a basis for ancient events shaping Ymaggion) has a lot of inter-dimensional travel, including to several other "material planes" (though we don't call them that). The end result is even that because of the world is so severely rended apart, they end up merging it with another damaged material plane. To be honest, so far the RP has run as if it's based on the real world (but with some magic), but other RPs that were made to be further in the future have used the Ymaggion names for locations, which this "merging" of planes could explain. One guy even suggested that the way it currently is is 30,000 years after the merging.


Time Travelers attempting to travel into their own plane's past or future may find themselves in some distant, strange world instead, drawn there by its stability. Sometimes events of the past solidify themselves into planes of their own, looping infinitely the same day or century, or perhaps eventually forming a cosmology of their own.

Curious that you should mention time travel, as I had been thinking up something I dubbed "time combat"...


I'm not really qualified to give copyright advice. However, when I'm working with material I plan to publish, I am a little careful. I leave out plots, main characters, and so on, and focus on providing the setting, history and philosophy behind the world. Everything you post online is still yours, of course, and I would post a disclaimer stating what you do and don't want used. But once its out there, its out there.

I'd say this is solid enough advice. I'd like to write novel stuff on the world of Ymaggion, especially since the ancient times are so open for epicness. There's so much stuff each main character alone could even deserve a trilogy, and many secondary characters a book of their own.

[urkthegurk]

Hm...I'm not sure how well my original conceptions works with the Antecendants being an introduced people.

I wasn't thinking of them being colonists, I was thinking of the possibility of visitors... specifically PCs.

... "the Void-Spanner, very well may fail, and possible even fail catastrophically." Sounds fun.



The thing is, the basal techniques of the Antecendants, as well as the ceremonies used by the Bahliata, caused the Sunderings accidentally, as a side effect of their overuse, rather than some great power opening these holes intentionally. Meanwhile, I'm not entirely sure whether or not holes in probability would have the effect of transposing to locations, but I don't think I can really touch on that at all.

I don't either, I'm just making stuff up. But if something can't be HERE and be going THERE, and it IS doing both those things, than perhaps it would just as soon be ANYWHERE going EVERYWHERE or at the very least SOMEWHERE ELSE.



In addition, given it's drastically disparate state compared to most other settings, magic functions on an entirely different level. There isn't really 'anti-magic' because magic is just a means to an end, and that end is the same, whether you chose to do it with the various essential methods, or manual the way. The closest there is to really supernatural effects are things like raw essences, which don't usually occur in nature, and are usually used as fuel for a magic, rather than as the end product.

I'm fairly certain, though, that this difference has its origin in the strangeness of Near and Far's origin.
...

We don't really need to explain it completely. Magic functions differently on different material planes, much more so than the variations seen between a material plane and its Inner and Outer planes. In the end, these mysteries are best explored by whoever wants to DM. What we should address at least briefly is the mechanical effects of a standard DnD explorer visiting this world. First of all, a wizard would need to find essence to cast spells reliably... A Sorcerer might produce their own.



This sounds very cool. I wasn't thinking of using the Plane of Shadow in my campaign setting, or rather that it does exist, but that it is inaccessible, much like the Core is most of the time, except forever.

Also, Hell in my setting has a location called the Abyssal Maw, which is basically like the Abyss in DnD, except all the layers are made up of dead planes. One possibility is that when a plane is effectively destroyed, even a plane otherwise connected to another world, they could be dragged into the Abyssal Maw, thus providing the possibility that people trying to travel to that plane from their own Home Material (let's call that the origin plane of Material Plane inhabitants if there'll be multiple material planes), that they then end up in the Abyssal Maw, thus providing multiple ways to access Ymaggion.


Wicked. There will have to be some clue that Ymaggion exists though, for people to want to access it, and there should be some potential for two-way travel, even if its very, very hard. Maybe some planes take a little bit longer to get 'sucked', having more inertia than others, so some areas of them overlap for awhile as they melt into the Maw? This would provide temporary two-way travel, travelling in is easier than travelling out, and it provides restricted access to the cosomology if that's important to you- a lost world.



I'd say this is solid enough advice. I'd like to write novel stuff on the world of Ymaggion, especially since the ancient times are so open for epicness. There's so much stuff each main character alone could even deserve a trilogy, and many secondary characters a book of their own.

I'd say, write first worry about theft later. And don't let worry steer you away from inspiring creative projects in the meantime.

Did you folks see this? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255139)

[Rob Roy]

I've wanted to create a game that could be considered to take place in the 'GitP multiverse'. Of course, there is no such thing (that I know of), but that's my job. The first step is to catalogue all the homebrew worlds and specifically material planes that I like the look of. Then I'll try and arrange them in some sort of order. First things first.
There are a couple of Community World Building Projects you might want to look into for this project, specifically Ishka (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.giantitp.com%2Fforums%2Fshowt hread.php%3Ft%3D120354&ei=721LUMUIiMOKAvmLgbgL&usg=AFQjCNEqXoCvepDsbR9MYfcZFcFjLbMLJw&sig2=_YtkttHaiSBcZMxL0d4MQQ), which is, to my knowledge, the biggest one produced on these boards. Viridia was also pretty cool, but it never got off the ground.

[Morph Bark]

Wicked. There will have to be some clue that Ymaggion exists though, for people to want to access it, and there should be some potential for two-way travel, even if its very, very hard. Maybe some planes take a little bit longer to get 'sucked', having more inertia than others, so some areas of them overlap for awhile as they melt into the Maw? This would provide temporary two-way travel, travelling in is easier than travelling out, and it provides restricted access to the cosomology if that's important to you- a lost world.

For the purposes of this, that sounds good. Also, one of the things that happened in Ymaggion's ancient history was that there were a lot of holes in reality leading to other places, which were closed by a god who merged with the universe in order to hold reality together. That god now has very limited ability to influence the world, but one of the ways in which he can do it is controlling the travel between worlds. Seeing as back then there were hundreds of planes/dimensions/worlds with portals leading to Ymaggion, the god has a small presence in those other planes/dimensions/worlds. This could allow others to contact him and request access to Ymaggion.

Also, with regards to the Plane of Shadows being inaccessible, I meant from Ymaggion into it. I don't plan on Ymaggion having magic that freely allows them to enter the Plane of Shadows, but there might be other ways. There will certainly be other ways to potentially travel to other worlds, like the thing with the god stated above here.

Most of the lore accessible in other worlds about Ymaggion is likely from pre-Rending times (the Rending being an occurrence that required the god to merge with the universe in the first place), thus making many people think it has incredibly high levels of both magic and technology, there being legends of the ground being littered with artifacts, and it holding the secrets to many unbelieveable things (including such things as godslaying and time travel).

In fact, it is entirely possible that time in Ymaggion and its directly connected planes (Hell, the Core, the Nightmare Realm, etc) flows faster than in other worlds. Thus making it so that while in Ymaggion the Rending happened a long time ago, it wasn't as long ago in the history of other worlds, possibly making some of the longest-lived races still remember being there (or one of the "demon lords" of Ymaggion attempting to conquer that world--they're fond of that, especially Ziatoch and Kuro).

[Sodalite]

We don't really need to explain it completely. Magic functions differently on different material planes, much more so than the variations seen between a material plane and its Inner and Outer planes. In the end, these mysteries are best explored by whoever wants to DM. What we should address at least briefly is the mechanical effects of a standard DnD explorer visiting this world. First of all, a wizard would need to find essence to cast spells reliably... A Sorcerer might produce their own.

Yeah, I suppose the details on why should be left to the individual games. Mechanically, wizards and sorcerers's alike will find that casting times, assuming the spell even functions, which not all of them will, are increased dramatically, a single spell maybe taking somewhere between a couple of minutes to a several days. This change might even be better represented by switching to the Rituals rules found in Unearthed Arcana. In the highly unlikely case that person foreign to Near and Far is still manifestor, and not the psionic kind, who will find their abilities to be completely ineffective, their manifestation functions as a spell-like ability, usable on a much smaller timescale than ceremonies, and limited by what essence they have at hand.