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Gwaednerth
2017-05-22, 11:55 PM
Lately, I've been working on a setting that's more than a bit outside my comfort zone, which I'm tentatively calling it the Whispering Desert. Unlike my usual experiments within the medieval stasis, this world draws on a vibrant magi-schizotech style (for which I'm having to massively homebrew on the crunch side of things, but I'll keep that to a minimum here). I'll mostly be using this thread to compile and share all the information, but I'd also love to hear feedback.

Basic premise
This world is a post-apocalyptic world, but not immediately so. The refugees who fled to the Whispering Desert during Huxley's Tribunal, the apocalyptic event, have grown into fully-fledged societies. However, their world and their cultures have been fundamentally shaped by past catastrophe.

Geology, ecology, and geopolitics
The region around the Whispering Desert is generally known as the Four Rings, named for the four concentric bands of terrain that compose it (though none of these are circular). The outermost ring is a high, inhospitable mountain range. Below the mountains stretch the foothills. As the foothills flatten and the baking sun sears away the snowmelt, they transition into the harsh desert. Towards the centre of the region, there is a smattering of oases and a very large, geologically inexplicable lake.
Beneath the foothills and the mountains, the dwarves have carved out a niche. Though technologically advanced, their primary livelihood is in raw materials. Above ground in the foothills, orcic civilisation flourishes on a combination of coal and magic. There is no stable ruler, but a bureaucratic elite remains constant as successive empires rise and fall. Around the lake and on constructed chinampas, the humans have established a loose confederation of city-states. Their technology is mostly oil-powered, but they have recently begun building their first nuclear reactors. They also possess a modest degree of magical power. In smaller settlements around the lake and smaller oases, small elven farming communities use magic to provide a surprisingly bountiful harvest. Meanwhile the gnomes and gnolls do not generally settle, but rather travel back and forth across the desert between the lake and the foothills, acting as merchants. The gnomes, experts at combining magic and technology, have also been known to hire out as engineers for short periods, while gnolls have a reputation as caravan guards and mercenaries.
The races are somewhat aesthetically different in this world. The primary differences are that the orcs have very dark skin and somewhat leaner figures, the dwarves more closely resemble duergar, and the elves have bright reflective skin.
Geopolitically, the humans and orcs are hegemonic powers. Though they are producers of raw materials, they produce more finished goods. They also facilitate trade. The elves and the dwarves exist in a tributary relationship with the hegemonic powers. The elves provide produce for the humans, the dwarves provide raw materials for the orcs. Materials, produce, and finished goods are then traded across the desert by the gnomes and gnolls.
As a result of Huxley's Tribunal (more on that below) the lands beyond the mountains are even more inhospitable than the desert. Powerful radiation and wandering magical effects are deadly to those who don't take extreme precautions. Even then, survivors tend to be driven mad. None who have ventured more than a few days beyond the mountains have ever returned. The exception is the goblinoids, warped monstrosities resulting from a combination of mutation, self-mutilation, and perverse eugenics. They call the wastes home, crossing the mountains only to raid. They have been known to eat victims alive, carry off captives, and display the desecrated bodies of the dead to be found by the living.

History
As yet I haven't established much of the history. However, I have fleshed out the apocalyptic event known as Huxley's Tribunal.
According to fragmentary history and imaginative mytho-history, the world was once home to a magnificent and elegant civilisation. Verifiable details are scarce. Some say that in those days the gods were not yet divided and ruled the planet with benevolent power. The Searchers take this theory one step further and propose that the all deities were joined into one consciousness; the Great Godhead. Others say that the gods did not yet exist, and that it was a paradise of mortal invention. Scholarly sources scoff at the idealism of these legends, but there is universal agreement that it was a time of tremendous artistic, technlogical, and magical flowering. But that was not to last. Most official histories claim that the war began with the elves and the dwarves (and indeed those two races still blame each other for the decline of their respective civilisations, as well as the general state of the world). Eventually the gods turned on each other and civil war raged across the globe. The Acroreitine War (ak-row-right-een) scarred the planet. Many died violent deaths, others were transformed into hideous malformed creatures, and yet others were driven mad.
The precise biography of Dr. Ajita Huxley is unknown, and many scholars consider him an apocryphal figure. The commonly accepted legend is that he was a brilliant engineer and wizard. Conscripted into a specialised division of psychic warriors, Huxley watched his colleagues become violent murderers, he watched people so transformed and warped by magic that they brutally slaughtered their own loved ones, he witnessed starvation and fire and death. He decided to end it all. The device was called Huxley's Tribunal. A thaumatonuclear device melding devastating magics with the blast yield of advanced nuclear weapons, Huxley's Tribunal was intended to leave no survivors. It failed. Small enclaves survived, creeping out into the warped and scarred post-apocalyptic landscape.
Much of the world proved inhospitable. Wandering magical effects, intense radiation, and secondary effects on the planet's ecology made vast areas unliveable. It is unknown how or why the whispering desert was spared, or indeed how the denizens of the region came to live there. However, over time, the refugees settled in the foothills of the surrounding mountains, the oases, and the central lake.

The gods
For my religious system, see my earlier post here:Dualistic Gods (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?524728-Gods-duality-and-forbidden-mysticism)

More will follow.

Lleban
2017-05-23, 08:20 PM
I might have missed it when reading but what terrain characterizes each of the 4 rings.

Gwaednerth
2017-05-23, 11:06 PM
I might have missed it when reading but what terrain characterizes each of the 4 rings.

Ring 1: Mountains
Ring 2: Foothills
Ring 3: Desert
Ring 4: Lake

The region is sometimes called the Whispering Desert region as a synecdoche, because the desert is the largest area and it's between the two easily habitable regions.

Lleban
2017-05-23, 11:50 PM
Ring 1: Mountains
Ring 2: Foothills
Ring 3: Desert
Ring 4: Lake

The region is sometimes called the Whispering Desert region as a synecdoche, because the desert is the largest area and it's between the two easily habitable regions.

Gotcha so can i assume the setting either is or has gone through a magitech-industrial revolution... if it hasnt what time period would this setting be analogous to?

Gwaednerth
2017-05-24, 01:08 AM
Gotcha so can i assume the setting either is or has gone through a magitech-industrial revolution... if it hasnt what time period would this setting be analogous to?

So it's a schizotech world. The civilization before Huxley's Tribunal was advanced to sci-fi levels (rayguns, spaceships, etc.) much of that technology was lost during Huxley's Tribunal, but some survived. Different societies had different reactions to it. Some, like the elves, shunned technology. Others like the Dwarves took the salvaged tech and built on it. Others like the humans went through a new industrial revolution, but also use some scattered advanced tech. This is the kind of setting in which someone with a raygun could conceivably end up clashing with a swordsman. It requires a little A Wizard Did It, Lampshading, and Handwaving, but where possible I'm giving a reasonable explanation.

Gwaednerth
2017-06-03, 04:24 PM
The Wastes
One area I'd love to have adventures in is the wasteland beyond the mountains. At the very least, it would be fun to have some incursions from the warped and freakish goblinoids.

The Wastes
Perils
Beyond the mountains, the destructive malice of Huxley's Tribunal still rages, however, its effects are highly variable. In some places, intense radioactivity and the remains of chemical weapons render the land uninhabitable to anyone who lacks appropriate equipment. There are also intense magical effects. There are wandering patches where gravity reverses, where the life drains from all living things, or where jets of flame arc between strangely coloured clouds like lightning. Generally, a full-body environment suit is required to survive, and even then explorers need to be adaptable, wily, and vigilant.
Climate
Although the nuclear winter has mostly abated, because of the unpredictability of the landscape, large swaths remain where the light of day is blocked by dust and ash. Nonetheless, the climate generally follows the same patterns as the earth. Likewise, though it may be bizarre in places, the overall geography and hydrology of the world is mostly familiar, though never unchanged.
Structures
Most of the structures that once covered the globe have been ruined. The largest urban centres were destroyed outright during the war, and what wasn't sacked and razed was destroyed in Huxley's Tribunal. The slow decay of time and the ravages of roving magic have seen to the rest, and those few structures that have survived are warped and twisted ruins. Most of the remnants of the ancient civilisation lie deep beneath the ground. Legend has it that in these last cursed and haunted places, great relics of the past can be unearthed. Other, more cynical sources contend that all the wonders of the ancient civilisation were scrapped to construct the war machines of the Acroreitine War.
Flora and Fauna
Although he supposedly intended to eradicate all life, Ajita Huxley's goal was never fully accomplished. Even out in the desolate wastes, life persisted, clinging by its last mutated claw to the poisonous soil. Nothing remains that would be recognisable on earth. Only creatures as adaptable, vicious, and bizarre as the wastes themselves can survive. Wandering carnivorous plants contend for sunny patches under the soot-choked skies, Lovecraftian horrors wander the land grazing on choking vines and being devoured by floral maws. Undead beings roam the land as well. Mad ghosts, depraved ghouls, and deformed skeletons locked in eternal battle dot the landscape. Most are concentrated where urban centres and great battlefields once were, but others wander far and wide.
The Goblinoids
The best known and worst feared denizens of the wastes are the goblinoids. Nobody knows precisely what they are or what their origin is. Unlike the languages of the Four Rings, which are somewhat mutually intelligible, the goblin tongue is alien and indecipherable. The goblinoids themselves are monstrous. Whether as an evolutionary strategy or as a quirk of the warping effects of the wastes, goblinoids have a high rate of mutation. Most of them follow a basic humanoid body plan, but extra or absent limbs, strange proportions, and other aberrant features are common. Moreover, the customary eugenics of the goblinoids have lead to three subspecies- the true goblins, the hobgoblins, and the bugbears- who are organised into a caste system. The goblins are generally small, withered things that remain constantly in motion, and they possess a mysterious second-sight that causes them to constantly stare at things invisible to anyone else. Each brood of goblins is suckled on milk mixed with hallucinogenic distillations and weak poisons to weed out the psychically weak and the unseeing. The hobgoblins are generally stout and average about 5'2" in height. They are strong and tough, and often possess fearsome mutations such as fangs, scales, and aberrant extra limbs. Broods of hobgoblins in which half do not die off within the first week are eradicated as weak stock. Generally, far fewer survive to adulthood. Finally, the bugbears are hulking, doughy, deformed creatures, often with bizarre proportions such as differently sized limbs. Rather than facing any particular culling, the harsh labour of the worker caste ensures that only those suited to it survive. Finally, there is much intentional body-modification among the goblinoids. Among the goblins, it is common practice to carve strange runes and magical symbols into their flesh. Some also use cybernetic implants for enhanced vision, mental processing power, and similar effects. There are also aesthetic modifications like large, distortive piercings. The hobgoblins prefer cybernetic alterations that make them tougher and more dangerous. Opinions differ on whether it is better to acquire a prosthesis by losing a body part in combat or by severing it oneself in a show of personal fortitude. Hobgoblins also proudly display brands and scarification. Bugbears generally don't have access to cybernetics, but they engage in ritualistic hazing that leaves them scarred and even more deformed. Some create practical body modifications cobbled together from scraps, but few have the innovation and free time to do so.
Little is known about goblinoid society, except that they have a caste system based on eugenics. Scholars generally agree that goblins are the ruling religious caste, and it is commonly believed that deep in the wastes there dwells an abomination known as the goblin king, the epitome of depraved modification and mutation. However, this last point is entirely speculative. Most encounters between denizens of the Four Rings and goblinoids are with hobgoblins. Hobgoblin incursions are common, and those who survive them unanimously envy the dead. Most hobgoblins prefer death to capture, and the few that have been caught have raved in their indecipherable language with no meaningful communication being achieved. Encounters with bugbears, though less common (and generally less intentional on the part of all involved) have proven no more informative. Few true goblins have ever ventured across the mountains, but many years ago one was successfully captured during a raid on an orc settlement. The captors were surprised to find that the goblin possessed a basic understanding of the orcic language, but equally unnerved by the fact that what it said was essentially a rambling, nonsensical run-on sentence including as many disturbing and horrific words and phrases as possible.

*A note on relativism and DM versus player knowledge*
Typically, I try to avoid including any group that is simply "those evil horrible barbarians out there" preferring to write complex, internally logical societies that each view the other societies as some degree of depraved or uncivilised. I prefer to approach my fictional societies with relativism. However for this world I have taken a different route. The goblinoids are, in fact, fully developed, three-dimensional, and internally logical. In fact, I have some surprises in store as far as their actual origin and nature. However, I have written this post more with a mind towards player knowledge rather than DM knowledge. Players should be introduced to goblinoids in a prejudicial way, because that is the pervasive view of just about everyone in the Whispering Desert region.

Gwaednerth
2017-06-05, 11:58 PM
The Lake Confederation

The Lake Confederation is a human-dominated society in the centre of the Four Rings. It consists of a capital, seven major city-states, and many smaller city-states. Each city-state has a bicameral parliamentary system while the confederation government is a unicameral system.
At the city-state level, the two houses are the Kueh and the Senate. The Kueh is a vestigial house leftover from the transition from theocracy to democratic constitutional theocracy (Think U.K. House of Lords meets Iranian Council of Religious Experts meets a U.S. state assembly). Members of the Kueh, called Pirs, are exclusively members of the clergy. However, in most cities they are elected democratically. They have no direct power in the federal government, but how much power they have in city government varies. The Senate is a more recent addition. The requirements to become a Senator are much less restrictive. Senators are elected democratically, and the Senate is lead by a Premier, a Senator elected by a majority of the Senate (like the U.K.'s PM). The Premier and their government (but not the shadow government), in addition to governing at the city-level, also participate in federal government.
At the Federal level, the governing body is known as the Majles, and consists of the government majorities of all the city-states. The Majles elects a leader from its ranks known as the Sultan. The Sultan is the formal head of government. The federal government wields more power than the city governments, but generally refrains from using it. Finally, there is the ceremonial head of state, known as the Tlatoani. The Tlatoani is a high-ranking cleric chosen by the seven electors. One elector is chosen from each of the major city-states' Kueh either by popular vote or by the Senate (depending on the city in question). The Tlatoani serves primarily as a figurehead and head of state as well as the chief religious and moral authority. He does have authority over the capital (somewhat like a mayor) but otherwise serves no role in government except to legitimise the Majles.

The seven major city states are called Kavasom, Changapiya, Faratadoma, Shachomkom, Gola, Bobalom, and Forum.
Kavasom is a fertile city built on a peninsula. It is very religiously conservative, and is named for Uhkavas, the King of Veiled Skies, a rain deity and patron of the city. Almost the entire Kueh is controlled by clerics of Uhkavas and they use their substantial local authority to choke out any church that competes with theirs. The halls of government are dwarfed by the great Pyramid of Uhkavas in the centre of the city.
Changapiya is the most bountiful city in the Confederation, and has a surprisingly large population of elves, who farm the floating islands. The city has a bizarre sprawling shape, due to a long history of rather haphazard placement of manmade islands. The city is very diverse, and there is a significant number of non-humans in both houses of government. Among the pyramidal human buildings, there are many columned buildings in the elven style.
Faratadoma is a walled, foreboding city. It tends towards squat, sturdy buildings. There are almost no nonhumans. Perhaps most notable is that Faratadoma is the only city with its own standing military, independent of federal forces. Premier Zafur, a populist with many terms of reelection under his belt, is an advocate of tighter control over elven tributaries, stricter import laws, and an aggressive stance towards the orcs.
Shachomkom resides at the centre of a vast spiderweb of trade routes. It is said that in the great market you could buy the world twice and be charged five times its worth. Not surprisingly, there are many gnomes and gnolls in the city, though they are constantly coming and going and don't have any real power base in the city. The city is plagued by rival religious factions, one supporting Ihvalut, god of exchange, and the other supporting Ihvelüt the god of acquisition.
Gola is a small but culturally prominent city, renowned for its beauty and the skill of its artists. The city is verdant, with great swaths of parkland and open space and the great skyscrapers and pyramids are all covered in flower-covered lattices.
Bobalom is a great centre for scholarship, and the Sarok Migan is the greatest academy of wizardry in the Confederation. The city is viewed somewhat distastefully by the pious, and even within the city there is some apprehension, because it is said to be a hotbed of heretical cults, especially the Searchers, who are said to meet in dark corners of the Great Library to make numerological calculations and speak forbidden mantras.
Forum is the industrial city of the Confederation. Most of the ore and fuel in the Four Rings is produced in the foothills, but Forum is built atop large deposits. In addition to the ironworks, Forum is also pioneering the Confederation's first ever nuclear reactor. Forum is more religiously diverse than most of the cities in the Confederation, though gods of material things and crafts are privileged.

Gwaednerth
2017-06-13, 04:05 PM
The Desert
Naturally, in a setting called the Whispering Desert, the desert must play a role.
The desert is vast, and requires several days' travel to cross by most conventional means of travel. Moreover, it is perilous. Heat and thirst are the least of it. It is said that the ghosts of a thousand lost civilisations lurk beneath the sands, and that the sand dunes are not the only thing that moans in the ever-present wind. There are stories of wonders uncovered in the shifting seas of dust, but for every tale of unexpected wealth, there are ten that tell of curses, inescapable dungeons, and violent death.

Inhabitants
The most obvious inhabitants of the desert are the caravans that traverse it. Mostly consisting of gnomes and gnolls, caravans can be the salvation of any traveller who survives long enough to come across one. However, there are many less-obvious denizens. Mystics wander the desert, following unknown paths and pursuing unknown agendas. The saying goes that desert sages are like leeches: every encounter you have with them, they grow wiser while you grow more confused. Nonetheless they have been known to help the lost and helpless. More mercurial are the wandering gods. For some reason (some have speculated that the mystics are to blame) the gods seem drawn to the desert. They have been known to test mortals they encounter, and travellers must always be wary of unusual strangers. Finally, there are the dead. Most of the dead are just pitted, sand-blasted, sun-bleached bone, but others walk the night. Humanoids who died mad and parched and full of spite walk the desert for eternity. Stranger things prowl as well. The skeletal remains of times long forgotten, driven mad by the centuries and now determined to pull mortals beneath the shifting sands to drown.

Places
There are few fixed places in the desert. However, over time, a myriad of submerged ruins, castles, and dungeons unearth themselves briefly before delving back beneath the concealing sands. Some of the structures seem to be warped, malformed architectural experiments constructed by the insane. These have given rise to the folk-theory that they are the creations of the desert itself, though there is no real evidence either way.

The desert is not a place most people stay for long, but it offers great potential for adventure.