Vrock_Summoner
2015-10-12, 01:39 AM
This is the cosmology for a setting I'm working on for the Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 system, specifically focusing on the Incarnum subsystem therein. I'll most likely make another post later asking for help with the non-cosmological aspects of the setting, but right now, I'm just trying to solidify the cosmology of the world and figure out how to drop cosmological hints in-world.
So, I was trying to go for a more mysterious and deep cosmology where several disparate interpretations could reasonably be come to about the history and nature of the world. But I don't really have the scope of mind to figure out the details necessary to reach that point. (What evidence for more or less mystical interpretations is there? How would it be hidden enough to not be mainstream, but still available to some? What sort of cultural basis would support one interpretation being more widespread? Should I even decide what the actual truth is, or let it vary by campaign if said campaign goes into that?) So I'm hoping to get you guys' wonderful brains in on the project, because a bunch of heads are better than one.
Without further adieu, here's the current cosmological landscape of the world:
Most monsters with any supernatural powers are based on Incarnum. Elementals exist, but even they are regular matter animated by Incarnum rather than being natural magic creatures. The world is covered with ancient ruins and artifacts that serve as places or objects of great Incarnum power and which are seemingly unable to be reproduced. This includes what appear to be altars for worship, though there's little way to tell if they have independent power or if they channel power from somewhere else. Many incarnum spirits and lost go or come from underground, where they have been found offering worship to dark earth gods. While their status as gods is regularly contested, evidence exists that such spirits at least exist, as large concentrations of incarnum energy are often detected moving where incarnum terrain is soon to spring up. They also tend to leave earthquakes and other high geological activity in their wake, which, in conjunction with their worshippers originating underground, causes many to believe they have power over earth.
Portals to other planes spring up occasionally around the world, especially underground. The other planes that have been discovered are the Ethereal Plane, the Throneland, and the Bastion of Souls, as well as an arguable demiplane in the form of the Wellspring. Incarnate scholars believe that there are other planes dedicated to the various alignments, as meldshapers can access aligned planar energy along with typical soul energy, but they can’t be reached or observed through any known means.
The Ethereal Plane is the plane of spirits, existing and sharing space with the real world. Souls exist on this level, traveling about or waiting to lend their support to meldshapers calling upon them. They rarely take a recognizable form, however, usually existing as purplish spheres not unlike Soulsparks. They only take other forms if they have sources of independent incarnum energy to utilize. When not helping meldshapers, they seem to move with great purpose and are extremely difficult to stop and communicate with, but nobody knows for sure why.
The Bastion of Souls is the plane of birth and creation; the souls of all living creatures originate here, and it is the originating place of all positive soul energy. It's nearly impossible to reach and guarded from within by mighty creatures, but it's easier to form a connection with, which can be used to tap extra power.
The Throneland is a grey, desolate wasteland where the color and personality of all things seems to be drained away. It's a tainted land infested with Souleaters and other creatures that either devour Incarnum or utilize horrible forms of it. It's even believed by many to be where Necrocarnum originated. It got its name from its one significant geographical feature, five vast obsidian pillars arranged as if they were the legs and back of a massive throne. These have been found to contain unbelievable amounts of incarnum energy, but little else can be told about them, for they are constantly being swarmed by spirits, undead, souleaters, and even Lost who presumably found their way there through underground portals.
The Wellspring, lastly, is something of a demiplane that can be reached only by progressing deep underground in the right spot in the material plane. It's often only found because people happened to notice a large migration of spirits and somehow followed. The Wellspring draws nearby spirits to itself, and once they drift into the demiplane, they become slowly more and more solid and take unique forms. Likewise, living creatures who have entered the Wellspring have become more spirit-like and their Incarnum powers have grown considerably. This leads many to believe that the Ethereal and Material Planes become one here. However, those who progress to the center of the Wellspring or stay too long end up vanishing into the center of the Wellspring permanently. The Wellspring only stays in one place for hours at a time before moving elsewhere, so it's only ever been found a handful of times in recorded history.
And here's something of a spectrum of the historical interpretations:
I'm thinking this one would be the version spread by mainstream religious groups, but something tells me you guys will come up with something even better for that.
The world and its people were created by a goddess, who sat on the throne in what was once Heaven. She shared the power of Incarnum with her children, the intelligent races of the world, so that they could affect their own destinies. At this time, everywhere was like the Wellspring, with no division between the ethereal and the material.
However, a group of powerful Incarnum-users fell to hubris, and used the evil art of necrocarnum to steal a great amount of the goddess' power, thereby ascending to godhood themselves. From there, they inspired others to worship them instead, turning themselves into physical god-emperors. The goddess, infuriated by their arrogance, sealed them into the earth itself, limiting their influence.
They were already popular enough, however, that they that they convinced their followers to lend their essentia to them, allowing them to project new godly bodies and open a portal to Heaven, which they marched into with their armies. The goddess defeated them and punished them and their followers by tainting them with evil Incarnum like that they'd used to ascend, turning the gods into the current tainted earth entities and their followers into the first Lost and Incarnum Wraiths. Then deeming her children not yet responsible enough to have full access to her power, she significantly lowered the amount of Incarnum power that could be accessed by creating the Wellspring and splitting the Material and Ethereal Planes, hoping that with less power to abuse they'd learn to use the power they could get responsibly. Lastly, she vacated the throne and left Heaven, to return only when her ideals were respected across the world. Utterly devoid of her holy radiance, Heaven degenerated into what is now the Throneland.
Under this interpretation, the "earth gods" are evil beings who caused the true goddess to leave the world behind, and they're most likely moving around so much because they're competing for power among themselves and trying to find the Wellspring to eat traveling souls. Souleaters are often hypothesized to be either angels who joined the rebellion or souls who became overly dependent on the goddess' radiance and thus started devouring souls and soul energy to fill the void left in them. The old artifacts that seemingly can't be remade are considered relics of a day when incarnum power was easier to manipulate. Lost and other Always Evil incarnum creatures are considered the spawn of those who rebelled against the goddess and were cursed in punishment.
This interpretation is probably not often held openly, if the first interpretation is the most accepted, but it wouldn't be uncommon either, since it's more a perspective flip than anything.
In this interpretation, Incarnum was naturally available to the created races, and the goddess was a very petty being.
The tainted gods were at that time god-kings themselves, and their reign yielded great prosperity for the people. Under their guidance, the people of the empires could build artifacts of great power and grow in the light of their glory, causing the worshippers to be empowered so they could in turn empower their gods.
Realizing that the gift of Incarnum could someday allow her creations to intrude upon her complete cosmic dominance, she sought to seal it away, so that she could be the only one with access to that power. The gods, knowing they were not strong enough to oppose the goddess as-is, devised an Incarnum technique that would allow them to exceed the normal limits of their power at the cost of tainting their own power and forcing them to live an eternity underground, moving around so as to not overly harm one place.
While this gave the gods enough power to seal the goddess within the Throne, however, she had already damaged the material plane's bond with Incarnum, and now it began to slip. The gods were prepared to sacrifice themselves to keep the seal open, but the mortals, moved by their gods' dedication to preserving their paradise, used the tainting art themselves to send a huge power boost to the gods, allowing them to forge the Wellspring and maintain the connection between the physical world and the ethereal realm. However, the tainted nature of the power used caused some Incarnum to become naturally tainted, resulting in the natural creation of Lost and similar creatures even without direct tainting. The connection was also still damaged, resulting in the current ethereal/material split.
Under this interpretation, the "earth gods" are actual gods who became tainted as their sacrifice to get enough power to save the world's connection to Incarnum from the petty goddess who aimed to break it, and they continually move around to avoid tainting any one part of the world too heavily. Heaven became the Throneland in a similar process to the first interpretation, with the goddes and her radiant Incarnum sealed within the pillars of the throne itself, and the Throneland's former denizens turning into Souleaters to fill their insatiable hunger for Incarnum. The old artifacts had their construction overseen by gods and were made while the Ethereal and material were one, and can't be remade because Incarnum is now much harder to manipulate. Lost and other Always Evil creatures are the result of the gods having to use tainted power to save the world's connection to Incarnum.
But maybe there were no gods to begin with, the material and Ethereal were always separate, and the Throneland was never Heaven.
There was a time when a great empire spanned the prime material, led by a small group of aristocratic Incarnates, dubbed the Incarnum Emperors, who had achieved near-immortality through their mastery of Incarnum. This empire was highly advanced, achieving great feats with Incarnum that none would think possible today.
Eventually, they even forged a planar gate to the Throneland, which had not received that name yet since the Throne did not exist. When the Incarnum Emperors arrived, they subjugated the Souleaters and Incarnum Wraiths and even used some of the tainted Incarnum they found to turn their own humanoid slaves into the first Lost so they could further control them and utilize their greater strength. They put those beings to work "mining" for Incarnum, purifying it of the taint and solidifying it into the pillars that would later be known as the Throne.
When the Incarnum Emperors greedily attempted to absorn these pillars themselves to perfect their immortality and truly ascend, though, they botched the process, absorbing as much tainted energy as they managed to absorb pure energy, becoming the vast tainted spirits they now are. Losing control of their great power, they went back through the portal and latched onto the only vessel large enough to handle their immense power: the world's own earth. Thus they became the earth spirits they are now. In coming back in that state, they also brought the taint of that world into this one, shattering their own empire and leading to the world becoming a place where tainted beings can be created.
In this interpretation, the tainted "earth gods" aren't truly gods, instead simply being powerful mortals who absorbed a lot of Incarnum energy but were tainted simultaneously and fused their spirits to the earth to survive. Why they move around is unknowable, but it's likely that they continue to compete against one another for power. Souleaters are simply the natural denizens of the Throneland, which is where the tainted forms of Incarnum origibated. The old artifacts can't be recreated in the modern day simply because nobody today has reached the power and technical skill those of the old empire managed.
The last and probably least common interpretation is that none of these special mystical events ever happened. The world has always existed largely as it does now, and it's arguable whether empires or god-kings or such had anything to do with anything.
Lost and Incarnum Wraiths and such creatures have always existed, as Incarnum's so-called "tainted" properties are a natural component of all Incarnum. Necrocarnum and other "forbidden arts" are simply styles of using Incarnum with no inherently special background or moral imperitive beyond their usual non-Good usage. The material and Ethereal have always been separate, though they run over into one another occasionally in the recurring event known as the Wellspring.
Believers in this interpretation usually disregard the notion that one great empire built the old artifacts or that they needed any special circumstance that can no longer exist. Instead, they favor the idea that the different types of artifacts were invented throughout history with the rise and fall of many different governments and types of governments, and simply the typical events of history (library burnings, property destruction, information censure, simple failures to keep track of things) caused the secrets of these things to be lost between the ages.
The tainted earth spirits as well have been with the world for a long time and are natural features of the physical realm. They are hypothesized the be either simply Incarnum spirits of great power or, perhaps more likely, vast earth elementals (or necromentals?), large parts of the world itself animated with ambient Incarnum energy. While they may or may not have the ability to intervene in mortal affairs at their own whims, they aren't considered gods by followers of this interpretation
Much like in the 'great empire' interpretation, the Thronelands are considered to have always been that way, but this interpretation takes it a step further and posits that even the pillars themselves are natural, being geographical phenomena native to that plane that attract pure Incarnum energy to themselves, leaving the rest of the plane in its more heavily tainted state.
So... Now that I've established what interpretations I'd like to be possible, I have two main things to ask of you guys.
One, how can I improve my current cosmology to make it more interesting and mysterious? Should I add or remove some elements from the current cosmology or change things about the interpretations I want to be possible to make things more interesting and/or understandable? Should I even decide what the real answer is, or leave it open even to myself?
Two, what sorts of hints and setting elements can I include within the gameworld itself to actually lend these various interpretations their own credibility? I've got the old artifacts and the tainted creatures underground worshiping the earth gods, but not much else, and that isn't enough to lend much credence to any of those interpretations. And while it's okay and even good if interpretations other than the ones I base my world around turn out to be viable, I do want my interpretations to have enough meat behind them that it makes sense for them to be the most common ones in the world at large.
Thanks in advance for help, guys!
So, I was trying to go for a more mysterious and deep cosmology where several disparate interpretations could reasonably be come to about the history and nature of the world. But I don't really have the scope of mind to figure out the details necessary to reach that point. (What evidence for more or less mystical interpretations is there? How would it be hidden enough to not be mainstream, but still available to some? What sort of cultural basis would support one interpretation being more widespread? Should I even decide what the actual truth is, or let it vary by campaign if said campaign goes into that?) So I'm hoping to get you guys' wonderful brains in on the project, because a bunch of heads are better than one.
Without further adieu, here's the current cosmological landscape of the world:
Most monsters with any supernatural powers are based on Incarnum. Elementals exist, but even they are regular matter animated by Incarnum rather than being natural magic creatures. The world is covered with ancient ruins and artifacts that serve as places or objects of great Incarnum power and which are seemingly unable to be reproduced. This includes what appear to be altars for worship, though there's little way to tell if they have independent power or if they channel power from somewhere else. Many incarnum spirits and lost go or come from underground, where they have been found offering worship to dark earth gods. While their status as gods is regularly contested, evidence exists that such spirits at least exist, as large concentrations of incarnum energy are often detected moving where incarnum terrain is soon to spring up. They also tend to leave earthquakes and other high geological activity in their wake, which, in conjunction with their worshippers originating underground, causes many to believe they have power over earth.
Portals to other planes spring up occasionally around the world, especially underground. The other planes that have been discovered are the Ethereal Plane, the Throneland, and the Bastion of Souls, as well as an arguable demiplane in the form of the Wellspring. Incarnate scholars believe that there are other planes dedicated to the various alignments, as meldshapers can access aligned planar energy along with typical soul energy, but they can’t be reached or observed through any known means.
The Ethereal Plane is the plane of spirits, existing and sharing space with the real world. Souls exist on this level, traveling about or waiting to lend their support to meldshapers calling upon them. They rarely take a recognizable form, however, usually existing as purplish spheres not unlike Soulsparks. They only take other forms if they have sources of independent incarnum energy to utilize. When not helping meldshapers, they seem to move with great purpose and are extremely difficult to stop and communicate with, but nobody knows for sure why.
The Bastion of Souls is the plane of birth and creation; the souls of all living creatures originate here, and it is the originating place of all positive soul energy. It's nearly impossible to reach and guarded from within by mighty creatures, but it's easier to form a connection with, which can be used to tap extra power.
The Throneland is a grey, desolate wasteland where the color and personality of all things seems to be drained away. It's a tainted land infested with Souleaters and other creatures that either devour Incarnum or utilize horrible forms of it. It's even believed by many to be where Necrocarnum originated. It got its name from its one significant geographical feature, five vast obsidian pillars arranged as if they were the legs and back of a massive throne. These have been found to contain unbelievable amounts of incarnum energy, but little else can be told about them, for they are constantly being swarmed by spirits, undead, souleaters, and even Lost who presumably found their way there through underground portals.
The Wellspring, lastly, is something of a demiplane that can be reached only by progressing deep underground in the right spot in the material plane. It's often only found because people happened to notice a large migration of spirits and somehow followed. The Wellspring draws nearby spirits to itself, and once they drift into the demiplane, they become slowly more and more solid and take unique forms. Likewise, living creatures who have entered the Wellspring have become more spirit-like and their Incarnum powers have grown considerably. This leads many to believe that the Ethereal and Material Planes become one here. However, those who progress to the center of the Wellspring or stay too long end up vanishing into the center of the Wellspring permanently. The Wellspring only stays in one place for hours at a time before moving elsewhere, so it's only ever been found a handful of times in recorded history.
And here's something of a spectrum of the historical interpretations:
I'm thinking this one would be the version spread by mainstream religious groups, but something tells me you guys will come up with something even better for that.
The world and its people were created by a goddess, who sat on the throne in what was once Heaven. She shared the power of Incarnum with her children, the intelligent races of the world, so that they could affect their own destinies. At this time, everywhere was like the Wellspring, with no division between the ethereal and the material.
However, a group of powerful Incarnum-users fell to hubris, and used the evil art of necrocarnum to steal a great amount of the goddess' power, thereby ascending to godhood themselves. From there, they inspired others to worship them instead, turning themselves into physical god-emperors. The goddess, infuriated by their arrogance, sealed them into the earth itself, limiting their influence.
They were already popular enough, however, that they that they convinced their followers to lend their essentia to them, allowing them to project new godly bodies and open a portal to Heaven, which they marched into with their armies. The goddess defeated them and punished them and their followers by tainting them with evil Incarnum like that they'd used to ascend, turning the gods into the current tainted earth entities and their followers into the first Lost and Incarnum Wraiths. Then deeming her children not yet responsible enough to have full access to her power, she significantly lowered the amount of Incarnum power that could be accessed by creating the Wellspring and splitting the Material and Ethereal Planes, hoping that with less power to abuse they'd learn to use the power they could get responsibly. Lastly, she vacated the throne and left Heaven, to return only when her ideals were respected across the world. Utterly devoid of her holy radiance, Heaven degenerated into what is now the Throneland.
Under this interpretation, the "earth gods" are evil beings who caused the true goddess to leave the world behind, and they're most likely moving around so much because they're competing for power among themselves and trying to find the Wellspring to eat traveling souls. Souleaters are often hypothesized to be either angels who joined the rebellion or souls who became overly dependent on the goddess' radiance and thus started devouring souls and soul energy to fill the void left in them. The old artifacts that seemingly can't be remade are considered relics of a day when incarnum power was easier to manipulate. Lost and other Always Evil incarnum creatures are considered the spawn of those who rebelled against the goddess and were cursed in punishment.
This interpretation is probably not often held openly, if the first interpretation is the most accepted, but it wouldn't be uncommon either, since it's more a perspective flip than anything.
In this interpretation, Incarnum was naturally available to the created races, and the goddess was a very petty being.
The tainted gods were at that time god-kings themselves, and their reign yielded great prosperity for the people. Under their guidance, the people of the empires could build artifacts of great power and grow in the light of their glory, causing the worshippers to be empowered so they could in turn empower their gods.
Realizing that the gift of Incarnum could someday allow her creations to intrude upon her complete cosmic dominance, she sought to seal it away, so that she could be the only one with access to that power. The gods, knowing they were not strong enough to oppose the goddess as-is, devised an Incarnum technique that would allow them to exceed the normal limits of their power at the cost of tainting their own power and forcing them to live an eternity underground, moving around so as to not overly harm one place.
While this gave the gods enough power to seal the goddess within the Throne, however, she had already damaged the material plane's bond with Incarnum, and now it began to slip. The gods were prepared to sacrifice themselves to keep the seal open, but the mortals, moved by their gods' dedication to preserving their paradise, used the tainting art themselves to send a huge power boost to the gods, allowing them to forge the Wellspring and maintain the connection between the physical world and the ethereal realm. However, the tainted nature of the power used caused some Incarnum to become naturally tainted, resulting in the natural creation of Lost and similar creatures even without direct tainting. The connection was also still damaged, resulting in the current ethereal/material split.
Under this interpretation, the "earth gods" are actual gods who became tainted as their sacrifice to get enough power to save the world's connection to Incarnum from the petty goddess who aimed to break it, and they continually move around to avoid tainting any one part of the world too heavily. Heaven became the Throneland in a similar process to the first interpretation, with the goddes and her radiant Incarnum sealed within the pillars of the throne itself, and the Throneland's former denizens turning into Souleaters to fill their insatiable hunger for Incarnum. The old artifacts had their construction overseen by gods and were made while the Ethereal and material were one, and can't be remade because Incarnum is now much harder to manipulate. Lost and other Always Evil creatures are the result of the gods having to use tainted power to save the world's connection to Incarnum.
But maybe there were no gods to begin with, the material and Ethereal were always separate, and the Throneland was never Heaven.
There was a time when a great empire spanned the prime material, led by a small group of aristocratic Incarnates, dubbed the Incarnum Emperors, who had achieved near-immortality through their mastery of Incarnum. This empire was highly advanced, achieving great feats with Incarnum that none would think possible today.
Eventually, they even forged a planar gate to the Throneland, which had not received that name yet since the Throne did not exist. When the Incarnum Emperors arrived, they subjugated the Souleaters and Incarnum Wraiths and even used some of the tainted Incarnum they found to turn their own humanoid slaves into the first Lost so they could further control them and utilize their greater strength. They put those beings to work "mining" for Incarnum, purifying it of the taint and solidifying it into the pillars that would later be known as the Throne.
When the Incarnum Emperors greedily attempted to absorn these pillars themselves to perfect their immortality and truly ascend, though, they botched the process, absorbing as much tainted energy as they managed to absorb pure energy, becoming the vast tainted spirits they now are. Losing control of their great power, they went back through the portal and latched onto the only vessel large enough to handle their immense power: the world's own earth. Thus they became the earth spirits they are now. In coming back in that state, they also brought the taint of that world into this one, shattering their own empire and leading to the world becoming a place where tainted beings can be created.
In this interpretation, the tainted "earth gods" aren't truly gods, instead simply being powerful mortals who absorbed a lot of Incarnum energy but were tainted simultaneously and fused their spirits to the earth to survive. Why they move around is unknowable, but it's likely that they continue to compete against one another for power. Souleaters are simply the natural denizens of the Throneland, which is where the tainted forms of Incarnum origibated. The old artifacts can't be recreated in the modern day simply because nobody today has reached the power and technical skill those of the old empire managed.
The last and probably least common interpretation is that none of these special mystical events ever happened. The world has always existed largely as it does now, and it's arguable whether empires or god-kings or such had anything to do with anything.
Lost and Incarnum Wraiths and such creatures have always existed, as Incarnum's so-called "tainted" properties are a natural component of all Incarnum. Necrocarnum and other "forbidden arts" are simply styles of using Incarnum with no inherently special background or moral imperitive beyond their usual non-Good usage. The material and Ethereal have always been separate, though they run over into one another occasionally in the recurring event known as the Wellspring.
Believers in this interpretation usually disregard the notion that one great empire built the old artifacts or that they needed any special circumstance that can no longer exist. Instead, they favor the idea that the different types of artifacts were invented throughout history with the rise and fall of many different governments and types of governments, and simply the typical events of history (library burnings, property destruction, information censure, simple failures to keep track of things) caused the secrets of these things to be lost between the ages.
The tainted earth spirits as well have been with the world for a long time and are natural features of the physical realm. They are hypothesized the be either simply Incarnum spirits of great power or, perhaps more likely, vast earth elementals (or necromentals?), large parts of the world itself animated with ambient Incarnum energy. While they may or may not have the ability to intervene in mortal affairs at their own whims, they aren't considered gods by followers of this interpretation
Much like in the 'great empire' interpretation, the Thronelands are considered to have always been that way, but this interpretation takes it a step further and posits that even the pillars themselves are natural, being geographical phenomena native to that plane that attract pure Incarnum energy to themselves, leaving the rest of the plane in its more heavily tainted state.
So... Now that I've established what interpretations I'd like to be possible, I have two main things to ask of you guys.
One, how can I improve my current cosmology to make it more interesting and mysterious? Should I add or remove some elements from the current cosmology or change things about the interpretations I want to be possible to make things more interesting and/or understandable? Should I even decide what the real answer is, or leave it open even to myself?
Two, what sorts of hints and setting elements can I include within the gameworld itself to actually lend these various interpretations their own credibility? I've got the old artifacts and the tainted creatures underground worshiping the earth gods, but not much else, and that isn't enough to lend much credence to any of those interpretations. And while it's okay and even good if interpretations other than the ones I base my world around turn out to be viable, I do want my interpretations to have enough meat behind them that it makes sense for them to be the most common ones in the world at large.
Thanks in advance for help, guys!