A currently-WIP world with ~twice as many magical elements as standard (+other stuff)

[enderlord99]

There are no humans in Naimpehndyng; elves and orcs are the dominant races, but there are many others.

The world of Naimpehndyng (as it shall be called for now) is an infinite, flat-ish world with no day-night cycle. In the sky above it, scattered sporadically, are small suns, each of which stays in place (for the most part) and bestows light, heat, and magic upon the world below. The areas directly beneath the various suns, known as "sunscorched zones," are: blindingly bright; hot enough to melt lead; and filled with so much magical energy that wards, enchantments, and spells in general cease to function as the normally do, instead surging into rather catastrophic explosive vortices. Away from the suns, everything gradually becomes much colder, a fair amount darker, and somewhat less magical. Those places far from all suns, so far that statues can be carved from mercury, cats can't see, and decently-skilled wizards have no way to put that skill to use... they are known as the Outer Lands, and the few creatures hardy enough to survive there are, by necessity, disturbingly good at being bad. Some parts of the Outer Lands have been known to contain patches of Veil. Even those native to the Outer Lands avoid the Veil, as it is a reaction between Naimpehndyng and the Void, and quickly dissolves the lifeforce of anyone entering it from either side.

Naimpehndyng is defined by its balance of eight elements, in four contrasting pairs: Fire and Water; Earth and Air; Light and Darkness; and Wood and Metal. The gods of Naimpehndyng are aligned with these elements, and closely linked to them... or at least, some gods are {author's note: these gods are named after Greek ones because that's the most well-known Pantheon and the elemental gods are, generally, the most powerful and (by extension) well-known.} Others are linked to more specific concepts, and gain and lose power in accordance with how much the mortal races believe in those concepts {they're named after Egyptian gods because it just seemed to make sense to me. For some reason. And yes, I know that having a soul-eating crocodile as the main god of nature would make little sense; it's just a name!} Finally, the ancient beings that created all of the mortal races (and one immortal race) are gods as well. {They're named after Hindu gods because I rarely see those in other fantasy settings, for some reason, and they're really cool.}



Element Name
Associated Royal Metal
Associated God


Fire
Orichalcum
Hephaestus


Water
Minium
Poseidon


Earth
Adamantine
Atlas


Air
Mithril
Hermes


Dark
Bloodiron
Hades


Light
Aster
Apollo


Wood
Chlorophite
Demeter


Metal
Imperiite
Ares


Balance
(none)
Zeus{T}


Void
(none)
The Wraithlords


(obsolete)
Primordium
Anathem





Concept
God


Divine Authority
Horus {T}


War
Seth


Death
Anubis


The Home
Bast


Commerce and Politics
Ra


Agriculture
Osiris


Craftspeople
Ptah


Knowledge
Thoth


Nature
Sobek


Magic
Heka





Race Name
Patron God
Race Details


Gods
Brahma{T}
The gods are described (a little) in their individual entries.


Elves
Vishnu
Elves are the longest-lived mortal race, sometimes living for over a millenium. Elves love nature, and are often found worshipping Demeter or Sobek (in addition to Vishnu.)


Orcs
Shiva
The lifespan of an orc would be the second-shortest, after Goblins. Their inherently violent nature, however, makes them generally die earlier than goblins do. Those who are not killed in battle generally live to around fifty. Aside from Shiva, they give respect to the deities Ares and Seth, as well as Hepaestus, in whose name they frequently start fires.


Dwarves
Ganesh
The most dedicated and industrious of the mortal races, dwarves can also be incredibly stubborn. They are often very skillful blacksmiths, and even better miners. They form relatively rigid societies, generally inside of mountains. In addition to Ganesh, they are frequently found worshipping Hephaestus, Ptah, and sometimes Atlas and Ares. They typically live to between seventy and eighty years old.


Goblins
Kali
The race with the shortest natural lifespan, goblins make up for that with their rapid rate of reproduction and short childhoods. They are considered adults by the age of ten, and generally live to around thirty. Your typical goblin is tricky and clever, but far from knowledgable or wise. In addition to Kali, they pay homage to Hades.


Gnomes
Hanuman
Gnomes are pranksters by nature. They love practical jokes, and sometimes, for unknown reasons, pray to Hades and Hermes. Their typical lifespan is around one hundred.


Kobolds
Kubera
Kobolds are incredibly greedy, but might also be the only ones who can exceed a dwarf's skill at mining. They often honor Atlas, hoping to be rewarded with plentiful gemstones, and also Apollo, because, in their own words, “Light is the shiny ell-uh-mint, and shiny is good!” They often live to sixty.


Genies
Saraswati
The genies are the wisest, most knowledgable mortals, and sometimes exceed even a god's knowledge (and frequently those gods' wisdom.) They worship Thoth almost as much as Saraswati, perhaps more so. They also give respect to Hermes, and will pray to any god when the situation demands it. They can live anywhere from 300 to 700 years.



When a god's name has "{T}" after it, that means that god is a member of the Triad, which is basically the gods' ruling council. Anathem and the Wraithlords aren't technically true deities, but might as well be. Anathem used to be a true god, but the god linked to the element opposing his was killed (something which flat-out shouldn't be possible, but apparently was) causing both of their elements to stop existing in the world (The first because it had no god to stabilize it; the second because there was no element opposing it) and driving Anathem insane. Wraiths in this setting are not undead, instead being the denizens of the Void, which is this cosmology's overlap with the Plane of Shadow.

Chlorophite (the Royal Metal associated with Wood) drastically changes its properties when mixed with any light-emitting substance. Some of the results are described below.



Ingredient
Result
Traits and Uses


Moon-melon juice
Melonium
Highly radioactive; often used in various types of reactor.


Powdered Mana-Crystals
Manasteel
One of very few materials impervious to magic; used in armor, shields, et cetera.


Spores from Glowing Mushrooms
Shroomite
Strange, rather unpredictable properties; used in talismans that can enhance illusion magic.


Ectoplasm
Spectralloy
Used to make weapons that can hurt incorporeal creatures exceptionally well; common in the Outer Lands, because of their proximity to the Veil and, by extension, the Void.





Country Name
Leadership


The Veil
Nothing survives in the Veil for long, so nobody can truly rule it. The Wraiths claim it as their dominion, even though it is technically between their world (known as the Void) and the rest of reality... and even though it is just as toxic to them as to anyone else.


Spirilia
Whichever wizards have the tallest stable tower.


Sunscorched Zones
Varies, though most Sunscorched Zones are basically uninhabited anyway; not many people can survive being on fire, after all.


The Outer Lands
Nobody “rules” the Outer Lands, as a whole. They are much too harsh, savage, and cold to set up any sort of kingdom or empire.

[enderlord99]

Could someone PEACH? I would have put that in the OP's title, but it wouldn't fit...

[enderlord99]

I have almost enough views that Youtube wouldn't display them immediately, yet nobody has responded?:smallfrown:

[Fri]

...What do you want to be PEACHed? Currently it's just collection of random phrases and words. There's no connection or setting at all in this thread? For example, I can also do something similar. Watch:



Gods:
Aganjú - Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness and rivers. Chief god of the Majapahit Empire.
Egungun-oya - Orisha of divination. Mostly worshiped by the priest class of the Majapahit Empire.
Kokou - a violent warrior Orisha. Mostly worshiped by the warrior class of the Majapahit Empire.

Weapons:
Gun. A gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. The Favoured Weapon of the Europeans.
Sword. A sword is a blade weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The Favoured Weapon of the Middle Eastern.
Spear. A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The Favoured Weapon of Majapahit Empire.


Magic:
Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry. Fire school is the favoured school of the European Kingdom mages.
Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot. Air school is the favoured school of the Majapahit mages.
Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet. Water school is the favoured school of the Chinese Empire mages.
Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. Earth school is the favoured school of the Native American tribes.


There's no context or connection at all, it's not world building, and it can't be PEACHed.

Compare to this.




It was the Age of Discovery and Exploration. After the Ottoman Empire blockaded land trade to the far east, European nations was searching for another way to get their spice fix. For gold, gospel, and glory, European nations searched for the new world, looking for a new place to conquer.

It ended in a bloody rivalry between Portuguese and Spain. Finally, the pope act as the arbiter. He split the world into two halves. Spain got the western half, Portuguese got the eastern half.

But he never said anything about the natives. They won't like it when some empire from far away place decided to conquer them, right?

Spain ended up in America. They conquered the natives. American shamanistic magic and stone weapons can hold well against europe’s arcane magic and steel weapons. But the natives were unprepared for the diseases.

But in the east, Portuguese faced a more sophisticated opponent. A unified empire. In 1512, they finally landed in an archipelago in the south eastern part asia.They underestimated their opponent, thinking it was just small, undeveloped native kingdom. Little did they know. Because their opponent was already exploring the ocean before europe even started sailing off coast. Their opponent had already got colonies as far as Western Africa. Their opponent was already trading with the Islam Empires, Japan, China, India, when Europe was in its dark age.

The Majapahit Empire

They’re never interested in europe, it was too far and costly to directly trade with. But after portuguese’s second attempt to conquer, Majapahit felt that its time to directly deal with Europe. After a disastrous first attempt, they allied themselves with Ottoman Empire to attack europe, forcing europe to cease their own bickering and banding together to deal with the new threat.






It was the Age of Discovery and Exploration. After the Ottoman Empire blockaded land trade to the far east, European nations was searching for another way to get their spice fix. For gold, gospel, and glory, European nations searched for the new world, looking for a new place to conquer.

It ended in a bloody rivalry between Portuguese and Spain. Finally, the pope act as the arbiter. He split the world into two halves. Spain got the western half, Portuguese got the eastern half.

But he never said anything about the natives. They won't like it when some empire from far away place decided to conquer them, right?

Spain ended up in America. They conquered the natives. American shamanistic magic and stone weapons can hold well against europe’s arcane magic and steel weapons. But the natives were unprepared for the diseases.

But in the east, Portuguese faced a more sophisticated opponent. A unified empire. In 1512, they finally landed in an archipelago in the south eastern part asia.They underestimated their opponent, thinking it was just small, undeveloped native kingdom. Little did they know. Because their opponent was already exploring the ocean before europe even started sailing off coast. Their opponent had already got colonies as far as Western Africa. Their opponent was already trading with the Islam Empires, Japan, China, India, when Europe was in its dark age.

The Majapahit Empire

They’re never interested in europe, it was too far and costly to directly trade with. But after portuguese’s second attempt to conquer, Majapahit felt that its time to directly deal with Europe. After a disastrous first attempt, they allied themselves with Ottoman Empire to attack europe, forcing europe to cease their own bickering and banding together to deal with the new threat.

Gods:
Aganjú - Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness and rivers. Chief god of the Majapahit Empire.
Egungun-oya - Orisha of divination. Mostly worshiped by the priest class of the Majapahit Empire.
Kokou - a violent warrior Orisha. Mostly worshiped by the warrior class of the Majapahit Empire.

Weapons:
Gun. A gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. The Favoured Weapon of the Europeans.
Sword. A sword is a blade weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The Favoured Weapon of the Middle Eastern.
Spear. A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The Favoured Weapon of Majapahit Empire.


Magic:
Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry. Fire school is the favoured school of the European Kingdom mages.
Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot. Air school is the favoured school of the Majapahit mages.
Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet. Water school is the favoured school of the Chinese Empire mages.
Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. Earth school is the favoured school of the Native American tribes.



Now the second one is world building, it has context, it has connections between the random phrases, and it can be PEACHed.

[enderlord99]

...What do you want to be PEACHed? Currently it's just collection of random phrases and words. There's no connection or setting at all in this thread? For example, I can also do something similar. Watch:



Gods:
Aganjú - Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness and rivers. Chief god of the Majapahit Empire.
Egungun-oya - Orisha of divination. Mostly worshiped by the priest class of the Majapahit Empire.
Kokou - a violent warrior Orisha. Mostly worshiped by the warrior class of the Majapahit Empire.

Weapons:
Gun. A gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. The Favoured Weapon of the Europeans.
Sword. A sword is a blade weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The Favoured Weapon of the Middle Eastern.
Spear. A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The Favoured Weapon of Majapahit Empire.


Magic:
Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry. Fire school is the favoured school of the European Kingdom mages.
Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot. Air school is the favoured school of the Majapahit mages.
Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet. Water school is the favoured school of the Chinese Empire mages.
Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. Earth school is the favoured school of the Native American tribes.


There's no context or connection at all, it's not world building, and it can't be PEACHed.

Compare to this.




It was the Age of Discovery and Exploration. After the Ottoman Empire blockaded land trade to the far east, European nations was searching for another way to get their spice fix. For gold, gospel, and glory, European nations searched for the new world, looking for a new place to conquer.

It ended in a bloody rivalry between Portuguese and Spain. Finally, the pope act as the arbiter. He split the world into two halves. Spain got the western half, Portuguese got the eastern half.

But he never said anything about the natives. They won't like it when some empire from far away place decided to conquer them, right?

Spain ended up in America. They conquered the natives. American shamanistic magic and stone weapons can hold well against europe’s arcane magic and steel weapons. But the natives were unprepared for the diseases.

But in the east, Portuguese faced a more sophisticated opponent. A unified empire. In 1512, they finally landed in an archipelago in the south eastern part asia.They underestimated their opponent, thinking it was just small, undeveloped native kingdom. Little did they know. Because their opponent was already exploring the ocean before europe even started sailing off coast. Their opponent had already got colonies as far as Western Africa. Their opponent was already trading with the Islam Empires, Japan, China, India, when Europe was in its dark age.

The Majapahit Empire

They’re never interested in europe, it was too far and costly to directly trade with. But after portuguese’s second attempt to conquer, Majapahit felt that its time to directly deal with Europe. After a disastrous first attempt, they allied themselves with Ottoman Empire to attack europe, forcing europe to cease their own bickering and banding together to deal with the new threat.






It was the Age of Discovery and Exploration. After the Ottoman Empire blockaded land trade to the far east, European nations was searching for another way to get their spice fix. For gold, gospel, and glory, European nations searched for the new world, looking for a new place to conquer.

It ended in a bloody rivalry between Portuguese and Spain. Finally, the pope act as the arbiter. He split the world into two halves. Spain got the western half, Portuguese got the eastern half.

But he never said anything about the natives. They won't like it when some empire from far away place decided to conquer them, right?

Spain ended up in America. They conquered the natives. American shamanistic magic and stone weapons can hold well against europe’s arcane magic and steel weapons. But the natives were unprepared for the diseases.

But in the east, Portuguese faced a more sophisticated opponent. A unified empire. In 1512, they finally landed in an archipelago in the south eastern part asia.They underestimated their opponent, thinking it was just small, undeveloped native kingdom. Little did they know. Because their opponent was already exploring the ocean before europe even started sailing off coast. Their opponent had already got colonies as far as Western Africa. Their opponent was already trading with the Islam Empires, Japan, China, India, when Europe was in its dark age.

The Majapahit Empire

They’re never interested in europe, it was too far and costly to directly trade with. But after portuguese’s second attempt to conquer, Majapahit felt that its time to directly deal with Europe. After a disastrous first attempt, they allied themselves with Ottoman Empire to attack europe, forcing europe to cease their own bickering and banding together to deal with the new threat.

Gods:
Aganjú - Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness and rivers. Chief god of the Majapahit Empire.
Egungun-oya - Orisha of divination. Mostly worshiped by the priest class of the Majapahit Empire.
Kokou - a violent warrior Orisha. Mostly worshiped by the warrior class of the Majapahit Empire.

Weapons:
Gun. A gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. The Favoured Weapon of the Europeans.
Sword. A sword is a blade weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The Favoured Weapon of the Middle Eastern.
Spear. A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The Favoured Weapon of Majapahit Empire.


Magic:
Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry. Fire school is the favoured school of the European Kingdom mages.
Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot. Air school is the favoured school of the Majapahit mages.
Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet. Water school is the favoured school of the Chinese Empire mages.
Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. Earth school is the favoured school of the Native American tribes.



Now the second one is world building, it has context, it has connections between the random phrases, and it can be PEACHed.

...I don't see why I would need to put it into paragraph/story format, nor do I know how to do so with the information I've come up with.

[Fri]

No need to make it a story/paragraph, that's just an example.

Give context.

Basically, what you're doing so far is just writing random phrases with description. like my first example. There's no context at all. What can people PEACH? The grammar and spelling?

This is a world-building subforum. Build a world. Check other threads for example.

I'll give you another example. You posted a table of random gods names from random cultures without any connections at all and their associated elements. What's the context? You can change each word to another random word and the effect would be the same.

Example:

Fire/Orichalcum/Hephaestus

...so?

You can change it to any element/metal/god name or even random words.

Why Fire/Orichalcum/Hephaestus? What's the meaning? Why not Water/Steel/Hephaestus? Why not Ether/Iron/Hephaestus? Why not Scrafilageous/Blukadongdong/Hephaestus?

Is this a fantasy setting? A sci-fi setting? Set in a planet? Set in a space-ship? Set in a mass of land that floats in outer space?

Maybe I've been unfairly harsh, so I'll give you pointer.

I assume what you want to do is make a campaign setting? (I'm not even sure. See where I come from?)

First, mention the purpose of this thread.

eg:I'm making a world for a dnd campaign setting.

Then, mention the premise/summary of your setting. What makes it different than say, Middle Earth or Forgotten Realm. Tell people why they should care about your setting.

eg:This setting is a standard fantasy setting with elf/dwarf/human, except it's set in a piece of flat land that float in outer space. The whole world is actually a giant ship, with engine under it.

And so on, and so forth.

Give people context to your gods and elements and race.

Once again, the example I gave isn't about the story or paragraph format. It's about giving the gods and races and weapons context.

[enderlord99]

Thank you for explaining that; I think I understand what sorts of things need to be added (though I could be wrong) and I'll edit them into the OP now.

Thank you!:smallsmile:

[Fri]

Good to hear that :smallsmile:.

A good thing to start with, is start with the theme of your world. Real world don't really have theme I guess, but most campaign setting have some sort of theme. Like, "Magic vs Technology," or "Crapsack world" or "Light-hearted High Adventure World," or "Steampunk," or "Cyberpunk,"

Just by doing that will give you and other people sense on what your world is about, even if your other description is rare.

Then you can point out what makes your world unique compared to the closest "Competitor." Like, if you're making an elf-dwarf-human fantasy world ala forgotten realm, mention that "in this world, human is almost extinct and very rare." and "Elfs are complete carnivore, they don't eat plants at all because they consider all plants sacred."

Also, giving "visual" or "cultural" feel of your world usually makes your world more stand out. For example "The world's feel is mediterannian, that's why I'm using greek gods" or "the world's feel is chinese, that's why I'm using chinese names and heroes."

Just by doing those, you can give a lot of context to your world.

Best of luck to you :smallbiggrin:

[Fri]

Sorry for the double post, this is just so people know that this have been updated.

See? Isn't it fun? :smallsmile:

And I can see how everything connects now, with the explanation you gave. I don't have time to completely think about it yet, but from a glance it looks nice. I'll give you more of my thought later when I have time.

[enderlord99]

Sorry for the double post, this is just so people know that this have been updated.Thanks!:smallbiggrin:
See? Isn't it fun? :smallsmile:Yes. Thank you once again for your help.
And I can see how everything connects now, with the explanation you gave.That's good. In case you hadn't noticed, I changed Ra's associated concept to something that actually makes sense in the setting (it was originally "the sun" which... doesn't work here.)
I don't have time to completely think about it yet, but from a glance it looks nice. I'll give you more of my thought later when I have time....Do you have time yet? How about now? Now? What about- okay, fine, I'll stop doing that...