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Shadow of the Sun
2007-01-23, 03:49 AM
Hello people. This is a campaign of mine that just popped into my head after reading some stuff- it has a definite influence from the Warcraft universe, but it is different enough that most will not notice the similarities. There is also a small influence from Terry Pratchett- most notably in the magic system, but again, it is not a direct carbon copy.

Introduction: This campaign just popped into my head when I thought about some real world religions such as Shinto which have no individual gods but instead spirits which personify concepts, such as strength and things such as metal and wind.

The World and how it came to be: Al'Daana was created by the spirits. The spirits have always existed- they have no start, but still have a finish. The world is the spirits dream, made by teamwork- each spirit took on a concept, object or thing as his or her own, and then made that thing as he or she saw fit. The world, and everything in it, was made by the spirits acting in unison and harmony. The planet is roughly the size of Mars.

Landmasses and Satellites: Al'Daana has three major land masses, each the roughly the size of Australia. These three masses each have different conditions- one is desert, one is temperate, and one is covered with tropical rainforest. There are islands scattered all across the planet- the majority of elven colonies are situated on island such as these. Further north the islands become colder, much like Alaska does. Al'Daana has one moon, roughly the size of Pluto.

Religion: Religion in Al'Daana is quite simple- there is one pantheon, and that is the spirits. The religion is essentially one size fits all- any being can choose which spirits they venerate based on concepts and things important to them. This means there are few religious conflicts apart from conceptual- worship of the spirit of law conflicting with the spirit of chaos. The spirits themselves generally live in peace with one another- conflict is a concept and thus a spirit, so fighting among themselves is considered encroaching on Conflict's territory. Religion is mostly handed down from parent to child- they educate them about the spirits, and grooming them into worshiping whichever spirits the parents worship. There are, however, priests- who mainly fill the role of lore master, knowing the stories of many spirits. The spirits are normally not named except in spirit-speak and are normally venerated in their common name. The name for the entire pantheon is Daana which is in many cases the only special name used by the common person for the spirits. There is a patron spirit for every race, a spirit four each of the four elements, a spirit for each and every type of vegetation, a spirit for every type of rock, a spirit for literally everything- if it exists, it has a spirit for it. The only exception is animals- while each type of animal and race has a patron spirit, each member of each species has a personal spirit inside of them, one that animates them and one which continues when they die.

Arcane Magic: Arcane on Al'Daana is quite simple- in principle, but generally difficult in practice. The principle behind it is that when the spirits made the world, the left behind large amounts of energy. This energy can be used to create things, change things and in general do whatever you want with it- if you know how. Anything created with this energy comes under the jurisdiction the spirit who represents that object- but the mage is the one who sets the specifications, if you will. The energy used in magic is, however, spread out very thin, and must be gathered into the needed amount to cast a spell. For this reason, every wizard carries a crystal that gathers this energy. This crystal is roughly the size of a human fist but more oblong. The crystal is grown by advanced mages who by using some of the magical energy create a small chip of crystal. The crystal grows over a period of a decade. It takes eight hours of absolute idleness of this crystal to gather the top limit of its energy. The wizard then needs to use his spellbook to shape this energy while it is still in the crystal, to release as a spell at a later time. At first this shaping process is very sloppy- which is why you can only cast low level spells, but as you get to higher levels, you get better at shaping- your low level spells are much more energy efficient, so you can prepare and cast far more of them each day, and due to this increased efficiency you can also cast higher level spells. Sorcerers are beings who can gather this energy by themselves into themselves- they gather far less than the crystals, but they are more adept at shaping than wizards due to instinct that they can make do with less energy, and can shape and release spontaneously. Bards shape ambient energy around them with music- they can make do with far less than other arcanists, but in turn have weaker spells.

Divine Magic: Divine magic in Al'Daana is granted when a person venerates a specific spirit with so much faith that that spirit grants them power. This is quite common on Al'Daana- for example, a person who has been held captive by enemies and tortured will commonly venerate the spirit of freedom so strongly that they gain clerical powers. It is quite common that a cleric venerates many spirits at the same time, thus gaining multiple domains. Each spirit grants the domain that pertains to them the most- for example, the spirit of war grants the war domain. If a spirit has no domain that pertains to them the cleric can choose any domain that fits a virtue (i.e. Spirit) of his alignment. Druids themselves worship spirits- those of nature which are always neutral.

Races: The generic player races on Al'Daana are: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Orc (uses the half-orc template), Half-Elf Gnome and Halfling. However, the dungeon master of this campaign can modify this selection to whatever they prefer- this campaign is meant to be one size fits all.

Classes: The classes are the same as the PHB except that cleric is replaced with the cloistered cleric and paladins do not have alignment restrictions. Druids must venerate the virtue of nature, or lose their powers. Add any extra classes at your own discretion. The spell lists are modifiable at the Dungeon Masters discretion.

Alignment: Alignment in this campaign has been slightly altered- I have added the virtue system. Because it is essentially impossible to be without religion in this system, I have added the virtue system. To determine your alignment, select any number greater than one of virtues that you wish your character to respect or venerate. Virtues of opposing alignments cancel out- the alignment with the most virtues on that axis (Good-Evil and Law-Chaos) wins out. If a certain axis has no virtues on either side or the virtues on each extreme balance out, consider that axis as neutral.

Virtues- Good: Compassion, Love, Kindness, Sharing, Mercy. Evil: Sadism, Selfishness, Greed, Hatred, Cruelty. Law: Law, Order, Control, Responsibility. Chaos: Freedom, Anarchy, Chaos, Spontaneity. Neutral: Conflict, War, Death, Life, Nature (Counts as all the elemental concepts/spirits and all the concepts/spirits for plants, animals and beings), Power, Strength. Add extra virtues as you see fit.

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So, whaddya think? I free wrote most of this, so if it doesn't seem polished, I am sorry.

icke
2007-01-23, 08:08 AM
Sounds very good, but You should keep the alignment restrictions of Paladins, You don't want to have a chaotic evil character smiting evil. As an alternative option, You can create a variant Paladin whose special abilities are determined by their alignment or their virtues.

Shadow of the Sun
2007-01-23, 09:42 AM
Essentially with the paladin thingy, flip any references of alignment to the opposite if you are evil and make any turning things into bolster. Easy solution. I still have some lore stuff (civilizations, racial stuff etc.) to write, but I will do that later.

Wizard_Tom
2007-01-23, 09:51 AM
I recommend adding Control as a Law viture, to balance the number of choices with chaos.

Shadow of the Sun
2007-01-23, 10:23 AM
Thanks, man.

Wizard_Tom
2007-01-23, 11:34 AM
Yay! I'm useful!

icke
2007-01-24, 09:34 AM
Possible additional virtues:

Responsibility(Order) <-> Spontaneity (Chaos)

One more is needed on the Order - Chaos axis to balance with Good and Evil.