Tired of Community World Building Yet?

[Kadakism]

Well, are you? I really hope not, because I've been wanting to do one of these for a while. However, I'm looking to do a little bit of my own thing with the basic ideas as well.

Essentially, I want everyone who makes a contribution to the thread to post two suggestions. Then, the next person to post will choose one of those two suggestions to be the one actually used, and then post their own two suggestions.


As I was not apparently as clear as I could have been, I'll make a chart for future posts in this thread. Not precisely, of course, but the general idea I was going for.

-Person 1

Idea A
Idea B

-Person 2
I like Idea A.

Idea C
Idea D

Once you've posted, do not post again until at least three other people have made their contributions to the thread. I'll create a G-Doc for all of the used information to try and keep information organized.

----- ----- -----

1. Adventuring is a time honored occupation that is seen as the most lucrative in the world. Not everyone can enter the profession, however, as joining the Guild and paying their fees is the only way to legitimately form a party. To operate without a valid license is a punishable offense.

2. The world is a literal sea of sand, where a man is as likely to burn to death on the waves as he is to drown in the silt. People cling tightly to small oases of solid land where life can survive.

[Sabeki]

2 all the way! I love sand settings, and Dark Sun is really fun. Also, genies!

[Blightedmarsh]

1) The gods are insane; they view mortals as cattle to be milked for their worship and souls; humans are little more than vectors for their divine portfolio to them. Their patronage is also essential to human survival out here.

2) Human are extra planar beings not native to this world. All beings native to this world are biomechaniods; naturally occurring cyborgs who often dwell beneath the sand. These include Barren Tethiods, Sand dragons, Sky serpents and Venom morlocks.

[mad_brewer]

Both are really cool ideas, but I personally like 2 the most. How humans get there could be interesting as well.

[falloutimperial]

1) Each of the many gods has at least one specific and morally dead ritual that followers must adhere to. Failure to complete this task often enough is grounds for dismissal by the community for fear of the god's wrath.

2) Children are lulled to sleep at night by the tales of heroes larger than life: brave warriors, giants of industries, and more. But what they do not know is that nothing is more powerful than hope, and the tales are becoming true, something the gods are soon to learn.

[The Zoat]

One seems great! But where did the gods come from?

1: Deep in the deep whitish-yellow sea sleep a great group of Colossal biomechanoids, their rising is accompanied by devastating sandstorms.

2: Most non-human races were formerly human, but were mutated by the unfamiliar energies of this new world, all pure humans are especially hardy.

[Sabeki]

2, I have a world that works that way for no humans, just sub humans.

1 Elementals rule supreme. They re the gods of the world, when in reality the gods died long ago

2. Divine beings are everywhere There are so many minor gods nd demigigods it's hard to keep track, but if you forget a god they take it as an insult

[Blightedmarsh]

I like 1 better.

1)The old gods were awful abominations of flesh and madness. The were destroyed by the new elemental gods when the poison of order infected this world with the plague of humanity. Only the bitter vestiges of the old gods remain.

2) There is no water native to this plain. All water originates from the elemental planes. Endless decanters are rare and a sign of kingship. The biomechaniods have a hydrogen peroxide based metabolism instead of water.

[Thunderfist12]

I choose number 1.

1) The world is dominated by psions in a form of psiocratic kingship (or tyrrany). Their police, consisting of psychic warriors, infiltrate the minds of suspect lawbreakers and conspirators in order to tell friend from foe. This means most of the criminal life will be psithieves and soulknives. Choose this for a Persian feel.

2) The world is dominated by a system of shieks, sultans, and the like. These rulers outlaw the practice of arcane magic and psionics, but many viziers and minor shieks practice the arts anyways, and often conspire to overthrow their respective sultan. Choose this for an Arabic feel.

[The Zoat]

I personally prefer 1.

1) No Tolkienian demihumans, or give them a more mutated feel.

2) The Psiocracy is opposed by a less mind-probe-y Magicracy, which stages Scry-And-Die attacks from hidden bases.

[Rob Roy]

I like 1.

1) Lakes of lava, eternally heated by connections to the Plane of Fire, dot the landscape.

2) Major opposition to the Psiocracy is provided by an extraplanar empire of genies built on the unchanging rock of the Plane of Earth; incursions onto Earth by the psions are common, as are incursions onto the mortal plane by the genies.

[Blightedmarsh]

I like two;

1) The gennies view themselves as the chosen children of the new gods and that the world is theirs by right. For them this is a holy war to claim their dominion and enslave the usurping humanity.

2) Zombies are sentient and contagious. They are persecuted and often live in small isolated asylums.

[Kadakism]

1 has a lot of potential for plot ideas.

1. The populaces of the Oasis City-States are kept oblivious to the threat of the Genie incursions due to the mass panic it would create. Special strike teams are sent to deal with threats from the EPoEarth and keep the knowledge under wraps.

2. The threat of the Genies is common knowledge, and people cling to their oppressive governments because they prefer the tyrant that they know to the one that they don't. A number of small cult-communities though secretly pray for the success of the Genies' Holy Mission.

[The Zoat]

Two has real promise.

1) Arcane and Divine magic aren't occupied by humans at all, instead they are the domain of the more radical mutants, and the genies.

2) The genies aren't far from human in this setting, most of them lack major natural powers.

[Sabeki]

I like 1 a lot.

1: The mutated humans are slowly getting more and more inbred. In desperation, some of them have resorted to concentration camps.

2: The mutated humans are not only a product of the new plane, but also the old gods themselves. They have chosen these peoples to regain their rule by any means possible.

[Blightedmarsh]

Two:

1) Water is the single most precious resource anywhere in the planet. The only source of water is the elemental plane and can only be accessed by using a wytch font; A special spring made from the still sentient undead body of a living human sacrifice. Further more blood must flow in order to keep these fonts open.

2) The sea sand has magical properties; it is a powerful reagent, it burns with a noxious fury when exposed to water. It has a mutogenic effect on the living and a necromantic effect on the dead.

[TheTacoNamedGuy]

I say one


A) Humans entered this plane with a portal created by themselves intentionally. The original travellers were scientists/magi who tried to explore the new plane for knowledge. But once the explorers arrived to the deserted world, the portal collapsed, leaving the humans alone in hostile lands.

B) Human civilization was in war with another race in its plane, but humans were defeated. As a punishement, the enemy race banished the humans to the plane of sand.

[TheKoalaNxtDoor]

Two.

A) When the humans were forced to flee to the plane of sand, they left on a massive fleet of enormous sand-ships called Leviathans. The secret to creating the Leviathans is lost, and only a finite amount remain. It is said that they are driven by imprisoned spirits, but the truth of how they work and how to operate them is a closely guarded secret of an incredibly wealthy caste known as the Sea Princes, who are led by an ancient and powerful man called Bahara Shehzade. The Leviathans are the only method of mass-transportation on the sea of sand, and the most reliable. Anyone else traveling must use small desert gliders to travel, which can hold up to about twenty people at their largest, and are incredibly dangerous to use unless piloted by a master crew. Rarely, ancient Leviathans can be found lost and drifting in the sea, and are worth staggering fortunes.

B) When the humans were forced to flee to the plane of sand, they arrived at the solid core of the plane, deep in the depths of the sea. There they created a magnificent empire that controlled the core and created incredible relics and technology. But some terrible fate lost to time destroyed the empire, and forced the humans to dwell on the solid oases of the surface. Ancient relics from the empire are still held by powerful individuals, and they hold strange and powerful magic that is difficult to control. Some whisper that the relics hold a secret, and if used correctly could create a passage back to the core, where the dead empire would hold untold riches for someone who could loot it and come back alive.

[Blightedmarsh]

A) Just seems like its made of win and originality.

1) The rain isnt water; the clouds are a fine dust that plays home to floating biomechanical horrors like sky serpents, wyvrns floaters and cryptids. These abominations dominate the air and as a result their are no birds and the dream of distance manned flight is beset with nightmeres.

2) The sea princes are decedent, inbred and degenerate. They all have native psionic abilities and many are catspaws of the ruling psionics. Those who remain free do so by playing their would be master off against each other.

[TheKoalaNxtDoor]

Thank you, kind sir :smallbiggrin:

[Rob Roy]

1 is pretty awesome.

1) Humans are a degenerate type of Genie, corrupted by the material plane. When mankind was forced to the plane of Sand, the Genies attempted to create an interplaner lock on the world, and they succeeded. However, as the eons passed the lock began to fail and the secret of creating the lock had long since been lost to time. The Genies war on the material plane in part to prevent mankind from gaining a way back to their home plane, and usurping the Genie race as masters of the plane of Earth.

2) There is a group of sea princes that has founded a new religion based upon the worship of spirits of the biomechanoids and the plane of Sand, as opposed to the traditional worship of gods that has dominated mankind since it was forced onto the plane of Sand. They believe that by worshiping the life native to this plane, they can become one with; biomechanoids in their own right. There are rumors that some princes near the top of their religious hierarchy have already succeeded.

[TheKoalaNxtDoor]

2.

A) The mechanical parts of the biomechanoids are made of a vibrant red-orange copper that forms reefs and shoals in the sea of sand. It seems to channel magic naturally, and the mechanical parts of the biomechanoids appear to be a more refined and polished form of it, inscribed with geometric patterns. It is believed that this copper is actually fragments of the defeated gods of the planes, and that the biomechanoids were actually a collaboration of the elemental powers and the gods to create creatures who are a mixture of the magical, mechanical and constant flesh of the gods with the living, breathing elemental essence of the elementals. The copper can be used to create fantastic armor and weapons, but it needs to be forged with magical methods and serve as a font for magic, so its creation lies mostly in the hands of the mutated human cults, and its refined form is the only way uncorrupted humans can use magic. The tyrant leaders of the psiocratic kingship harshly persecute those who posses it, use it or create it.

B) An ancient relative of the genie race dwells in the fathoms beneath the sea of sand, who are native to the plane and manufacture the biomechanoids as a way to guard their plane from intruders such as the (relatively speaking) newly arrived humans and their hated genie siblings. They can no longer reproduce, and remain alive through ancient life-sustaining palace-machines in the depths of the sea, where they must remain to stay alive. Their biomechanoid creations are their only method of influence outside the cities made up of the beautiful palaces that are also their prisons.

[Alexkubel]

B by far


The biomechanoids are actually the old gods, Imprisoned by the new gods and seek to escape their earthly bounds
The biomechanoids where created to police the world by the elementals but the plan did not work and the Biomechanoids now seek to overthrow their old masters

[Blightedmarsh]

1

A) The ancient gods are imprisoned by the sand genies. Their lives enslaved to sustain their captors and their twisted children -the bio-mechanical earth leviathans- used to wage war on the usurping humans.

B) This would used to be a lush paradise full of growing, living things. The elementals scorched it barren as a first strike against the elder gods. All attempts to restore this world to life have failed. Probably just as well because if anything it was more hostile to humanity back then than even it is today.

[Thunderfist12]

The second one.

1) When the elemental gods destroyed Paradise, lmost forms of biotic life perished beneath the sand. There is but one race that survived that cataclysm. They are a race that had originally adapted to walk across water, but they now use that ability to traverse the great Sea of Sands that covers the world, serving as merchants, bandits, and wandering Holy Men. They know the secrets of a magic once held by all people on the plane, but now only they have the secret. They hold the secrets of Incarnum.

2) Long ago, before the worlds were made, there was Chaos. Chaos was everything, and yet nothing. The universe was an abyss, a void, filled with untempered magic and strange creatures, among them the High Elementals, a form of elemental with power over all elements, as the elements were not yet separated. The elder gods saw this Chaos, and tamed parts of it to form elements - air, earth, fire, and water - which were used in the creation of the elemental and material planes. The Chaos that remained was furious at its fate, lurking at the edge of reality, dwelling forever in madness. It unleashed its own creatures, the Elemental Gods, which were separate and yet one, to destroy the world and its gods. These gods devised a new element of their own - sand - and begot a new Elemental god. The new god called himself Cataclysm, and he flooded the material world in sand. Each god took reign over his own plane, with Cataclysm taking the material world, and set forth their own races. Of water were born the marids, gifted in arcane magic. Of air were born the djinn, gifted in psionics. Of fire were born the efreeti, gifted in the arts of war and conquest. And of earth were born the dao, wisest of all geni, masters of their world. But Cataclysm did something Chaos did not intend. He grew jealous of their domains, and, rather than destroying the world, he enslaved the elder gods, shaping their new forms from eldritch metals, and dominated the world with them. When his secret empire was discovered by Chaos, it created the humans, raising them on a small planet within the Chaos itself. When they were ready for the journey, it created a portal to this plane, allowing a small amount of humans to pass through before closing it. The ancient civilization remains within Chaos to this day... :mitd:

[TheKoalaNxtDoor]

Number one. Second one is really cool and detailed, but i think it contradicts some pre-established fluff, and we have to be careful not to do that. :smallwink:

A) The sand walkers tend to take a different approach to the invaders of their plane. While the sand genies wish to hold the plane for themselves and keep away all the humans and other genies, the sand walker hope that an eventual coexistence of all the creatures under the power of the incarnum could help restore their plane to its previous, lush state. While the majority of the sand walker peoples seem to interpret this as trying to make the races work together, radical groups interpret it as enslaving all of the other races and magically binding them into servitude using the incarnum is the only way to restore their plane.

B) The sand genies worked with the genies to help destroy the elder gods and replace them with the new elemental gods by trapping the fragments of them into the biomechanoids and binding them to their service, but the genies betrayed them and cursed them so they could no longer reproduce and would be forced to stay within their life-sustaining palaces. The sand genies now use the power that let them bind the gods in the biomechanoids to use them as weapons.

[Thunderfist12]

Number one.

1) If one were to survive sinking through the Sea of Sands, one would find himself in a portion of a lost empire at the center of the world, where the ancestors of the sand walkers are still in their primitive state, wandering the jungle, and incarnum-wielding yuan-ti rule the empire (possibly one with Indian culture?). The empire is in an air bubble a continent-span across, surrounded by moving sand, and air is taken in through various sinkholes that lead into a sandfall, which is fed into a portal via sand grates that filter sand through, and large objects (or visitors) land on the grates. The sand goes through a portal that moves it back to the surface, where the cycle begins again.

2) If one were to survive sinking through the Sea of Sands, one would find himself in a world of darkness and insanity, where strange creatures dwell in the ruins of a lost civilization. Artifacts of great power can be reaped from this world - if one were willing to face the peril that lies therein. There are rumors, however, that number 1 is true. Don't listen to them.:smallbiggrin:

I think I might be posting too much...

[falloutimperial]

Number two.

1) This sub-sand realm is home to a gigantic biomechaniod corpse much larger than a city. Many have attempted to use it for shelter against the strange creatures, only to fall prey it its array of traps and replicating nano-monsters so small they appear at first to be a thin black ichor.

2) Primary inhabitants of the Undermadness are the Strangers, tall men with painted masks that all seem to have been made by the same artist. Despite being extremely violent towards outsiders, Strangers constantly sing tales, children's rhymes, and other things, seemingly to themselves. Occasionally, Strangers can be seen carrying masks and prowling, hunting for a suitably tall man, like themselves.

[Blightedmarsh]

Number one

1) Technology and material culture is based almost entirely off of the butchery of biomechanical creatures. Blades culled from their claws, armor and buildings from their shells, psycrysts from their central nervous systems, reagents from their ichor, carvings from their bones and technological devices from their organs.

2) There are large islands and towering volcanic mountains. These are the footholds of the geneis in the material world and hold portals to the elemental plains. Their fertile slopes are bountiful and play host to genie worshiping communities of human slaves.

[Thunderfist12]

Number 1.

1) If one were to wnder far enough east, one would find an ocean. But beware! it is, in reality, a giant, sentient creature, luring its prey with the illusion of water. It is the father of all oozes!

2) If one were to wander far enough east, they would find a sand walker empire, rich in the lore of the ancient empire.

[Grimsage Matt]

Number 2 looks good to me.

1) Far to the south, an old fortress stands. Connected to a distant part of the Plane of Technology, its inhabitants established it before the regin of the elder gods, and have not interfered with the world, instead keeping a silent watch. But, a radical fraction of sand walkers have raided the Fortess-Liabrary, and made off with the blue prints for several of the defensive weapons found within. Adapting them to run off Incarnum, they plan to use the threat of the Teslain, a weapon that can unleash firestorms of pure energy, to make their goals a sucess. What other secerts does the Fortress of Khaz-Tolon hold?

2) Trolls, are a remmenant. A very hard to kill remmenant of the elder days. Burried deep beneath the seas of the north in their pocket of the undermadness, Trolls are powerful Warlocks, binding the souls of the dead into necromatic constucts, and attempting to reanimate their old, dread masters. They are not stupid, they are not animals. They are cunning, old and brutal. They are the heirs of the primal gods, and you are the sacrfices that will return them to the land!

[LordChaos13]

2.


1. There exist an odd type of crystalline bug, each one capable of casting one specific Psionic power, having a PP reserve to cast it at full power 10 times a day. As they age they molt and the Power changes to one a level higher (though usually thematically similar). If they are killed the crystal can be retrieved and used up too 5 times like one would use a Wand (requiring a UPD check like one). Casting Raise Undead or other Undead-creating spell on the crystal makes a new bug capable of casting any necromancy arcane or divine spell chosen at random from the same spell level.

2. Swarms of locusts roam the Ocean sands devouring any non-sand structures. after completely devouring an Oasis they will travel a few days in a random direction and remake an Oasis, then breeding into two swarms of equal size to the original

[Thunderfist12]

#1

1) These bugs have been kept by the sand walkers for eons, used for psionic power sources when Incarnum could not solve their needs.

2) These bugs are a new species that has been coming to the surface from the Undermadness recently - and psions have recently reported a sensing of strong psychic tremors from below the surface...

[gr8artist]

Go with #2.

A) The sun never sets. It constantly burns a deep reddish or violet color. Massive clouds of ash and smoke will block it out for hours on end, and this is the only reprieve the people have from its glare. Because of this, "night-time" can vary wildly, and often times doesn't last long enough, or lasts too long. The longest recorded "day" was roughly equivalent to one month in earth time. The longest recorded "night" was roughly one week. The common measure of time is by the passing and orientation of the moons. (possibly with one moon making a roughly 24-hour orbit for the sake of our vancian preferences)

B) Magical and Psionic forces, when uncontrolled, will occasionally create small temporal anomalies. When this happens, the area inside the anomaly (anywhere from a 5' radius to 1000' radius) is effectively copied and preserved. Any creature inside the area at this time, or that enters the area afterward, finds themselves in a "prime" dimesion of the original space. Disasters may ravage the area around them, destroying the actual scenery and structures, but when the anomaly collapses the two dimensions are re-joined, and the original (damaged) space is replaced by the unaffected prime dimension.
This results in strange districts and buildings that look much newer and well kept that those around, and occasionally in buildings standing on the site of nothing but rubble. This force is being studied by scholars in an attempt to save their settlements from the ravages of the world, but there are some difficulties. First, the duration and size of the anomaly are difficult to control. Second, should something happen in the prime dimension after the anomaly occurs, the results of that will replace the original space (for better or for worse)
[so, theoretically, a mage makes an anomaly to save his town from an impending storm. But, the storm is actually an elemental and it enters the area with them. Any damage it inflicts will leave lasting, permanent marks on the area protected, even if the surrounding area is relatively untouched.]

TL;DNR ~
A) Sun doesn't set, just have very dark clouds for intermittent/irregular day/night cycles.
B) Highly variable protection offered to keep locations standing after disasters or war. But, determined adversaries could slip right through.

[Thunderfist12]

I'd go with number 1.

1) The other side of the world is shrouded in constant night. One would think it's a paradise compared to the other side - and they'd be completely wrong. The still air itself has been known to freeze biomechanoids where they stand, and strange beasts who can smell your heat lurk in the shadows, waiting for their prey. This is the dark side of the sands. There is also a twilight region that circles between, where the world is quite temperate, and even produces small oases. This is where the sand walkers live.

2) The above idea is a legend, but the truth is that, once you escape the light of your home sun, you'll be under the glare of yet another sun that lights the world (two suns, one on each side of the planet).

[falloutimperial]

Is the world a sphere? I thought "The world is a literal sea of sand" implied a flattish sort of planet.

[Thunderfist12]

I thought it was a sphere. It's kind of - you know - standard for a base world.

[Alexkubel]

Umm 2

now here's some for others to choose

A) there is rumours that many biomechanoids were once humans, and there are cults that worship them as if they've transcended to near god hood.

B) the above Rumours are true

[DMwithoutPC's]

number 2

1. Shadow is a powerfull thing in a scorching desert world. that's why Shadow is a power of it's own. it acts as a element, and has it's own type of Genies.

2. Next to the Sea Princes Caste, you have the Sand-shaper Caste, equally powerfull. They are a group of Sorcerers with at least a few levels in the Sandshaper prestige class. Because you need to have magic to be allowed to be in the Sandshaper Caste, most Sandshapers marry other Sandshapers to keep the bloodline pure, but from time to time powerfull sorcerers not from the Sandshaper Caste are allowed to join, vecause the Sandshapers need new blood to keep from getting to inbred.

[Blightedmarsh]

2

1) The area at the solar zenith is called the anvil of the sun and is an uninhabitable sea of glass; haunted by the weirdest, most dangerous and most valuable biomeks. The is an equatorial band between the two suns where the world is a relatively hospitable perpetual twilight. This plays host to the most advanced settled civilizations of the world. Unfortunately the world does in fact rotate; over the course of thousands of years. This forces humanity to perpetually migrate around the planet as they war over the ever shifting "best" maisons.

2) Crime and punishment revolve around water. Fines are imposed of water. Exile is a form of death sentence as you are sent out into the wastes without water. The worst crime is to desecrate a spring. The worst form of punishment is to be staked out in the sun in sight of water and to be denied it. To control the water is to control both the economy and society.

[Sabeki]

2

1: The undead lie all around in the desert crypts, whispering secrets and revelations. It is said that if you were to find the right crypt, you would hear everything...

2: The sand is eating away at the very fooundation of the world. People are slowly drowning in it as it sucks down buildings and people. At the heart of it is a never tiring abomination, slowly eating away at the world...

[LordChaos13]

1.


1. There are many collectors of the Crystal Bugs, they are collectively known as the PsiCatchers and using reagents carefully kept secret from those not initiated can accelerate the molting process and breeding process turning even the most feeble of bugs into reality-warping swarms.
It is said that a good enough PsiCatcher can create an Oasis through the usage of his Bugs, but that is probably a rumour...right?

2. The Crystal Bugs were sent up from below as unwitting spies, a dark presence below can see through their eyes to scout, and even take control to use their abilities and cause havoc.