Homebrew world diary. Everborne.

[Cyclops08]

I like this forum and have decided to make my own world. I will start simple and not all the names are chosen. Feel free to make any suggestions, input is welcome (especially with names).
I am going to start simple with a small town but my first entry is the basic world setting. The town is Blackrock but I haven't decided on the kingdom name yet. It is more important to get my thoughts down while they are fresh...so I will update entries at least once a week.

also the main villain race are hobgoblins (they call themselves High Goblins). They look different than the MM. They share all the beauty and stats of Half elves, but they are a lovely emerald green. Still they want to take over the world. --I could use help with the name of a goblin Kingdom. Thanks in advance.
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Basics
The world. Everborne.
The campaign world is a new continent discovered by an ancient empire across the ocean to the east. The empire was a human one that conquered the known world and subjugated elves dwarves and all the humanoid races. When the empire discovered this new continent peopled only by savage goblinoid tribes, they allowed colonies to form along the coast. Various companies started various settlements. Elves and dwarves saw a chance to (more or less) free themselves and came across as well. Ruins of ancient humanoid civilizations were discovered, yielding strange magic artifacts and odd shaped golden coins. The fate of these lost civilizations remains a mystery.

The colonies prospered. And then a wave of refugees started to flow in. There was a civil war in the empire. People spoke in fear of deadly magics, rains of fire, and genocidal tactics. 100 years ago, there was a great cataclysm. An earthquake shook the entire world. Strange magical effects scoured areas of the land, some were temporary others were permanent (See Everwinter below). The last wave of refugees spoke of terrors that destroyed entire cities…and then there was silence.

No contact has come from the empire since. Ships that sailed back never returned. For a while, the colonial governors maintained the empires rule, but after 20 years, declared themselves kings and became independent. A few wars were fought, but nothing on the genocidal levels of the empire wars. --No divinations have revealed the fate of the old empire.

One of the High (hob)goblin tribes who actually traded with the colonies saw what was happening and spent 70 years conquering its goblin neighbors to become a kingdom itself. It has sent honey tongued ambassadors to the colonies to speak of peace while it consolidates its power to become the new empire.

The colonial kingdoms are based on the American colonies (kinda like the old Red Steel campaign). All are coastal nations except for the two elven kingdoms that occupy inland forests – but still bordering the coastal nations. The colonies range from 300 to 400 years of age depending on when they were founded. All command access to resources once important to the old empire.
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Deities: all moderate to major temples make and sell a limited stock of healing potions. These sell for 50 gold and heal 2D4 +4. The big temples mass produce these. Superior potions of course, cost more.

Pantheon:
Elemental Lords of Creation (Pantheonic Temples)
Priests can be of ANY alignment.
Air
Fire
Earth
Water

LG
The Lawgiver: Law, judgement, courts, loyalty
Moradin: The Forge, Artifice, Hardwork, patron of the dwarves
Karos: goddess of medicine and healing, patron of the poor, charity

CG
Shea Luna: Beauty Art Love The Moon CG (Uses Charisma as spellcasting stat), patron of the elves
Garl Glittergold, gems, jewelry, miners, hidden wealth, patron of gnomes
Apollo: Music, bards, performers, the sun, Light.

NG
Chauntea: Agriculture, family, home and hearth, patron of the halflings
Silvanus: lord of the wild, rangers, druids, hunters, Unicorns
Flanagan: Freedom, travelers, the road, escaped slaves, Navigation

N
Oghma: Books, wisdom, learning, literacy, schools and sages
Circe’: Magic
Nerull: God of the dead, great judge of the dead, Fair judgement in courts of law
Shinare: Goddess of money, wealth, trade, merchants

NE
Ares: War
Articus: Thieves, organized crime, Tax Collectors, Bureaucrats
Orcus: deity of the undead, liches, vampires, patron for those who seek to avoid punishment in the afterlife. Necromancers.
Dionysus: hedonism, brewing, wine, debauchery, casinos, gambling, festhalls

CE
LOKI: Prince of Lies, Murder, Actors, illusion
Lolth, Goddess of the drow
Grumish: lord of the orcs.
The wild hunt: murders, genocide, hunting sentient beings, patron of gnolls and lycanthropes.


LE
SET: Tyranny, royalty, the right to rule, oppression of the ruled.
Kratos: God of conquest, slave master. patron of the (hob)Goblins
Dracos: Invention, sorcery, Dark magic, patron of the kobolds
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Planar Cosmology

Prime Material --The campaign world

The world is flanked by
The Realm of Shadow. A sarcastic parody of the prime material. It is twisted and evil, full of dangers, but recognizable and navigable.

It is the home to the Realm of the Dead where souls are judged and sent to respective eternal rewards.

It is also home to a necropolis of the undead…a little known refuge for those who wish to escape a much deserved fate/eternal torment by becoming undead. It is also a home to the greatest school of Necromancy in the known universe.

Various Ravenloft Lands can be found here as well.

The Elemental Chaos. All the elements of creation are jumbled together here in large and small chunks, connected by mixed borders Like a volcanic plain with rivers of Lava connecting a fire and Earth domain.

Small oasis and bubbles of the elements can be found everywhere. A bubble of elemental water can be very welcome in an Earth Node. Further it would not be heated at all in a Fire Node

Powerful wizards and clerics have spells to pull small portions of the elements into the prime material. A simple fireball is one such spell. Other spells can open a temporary or a permanent opening to one of the planar nodes -making a planar bubble here on the Prime. Every pantheonic temple of the Lords of Creation will have four such bubbles.

The Ethereal/Astral planes are combined here. This is just the place between the planes. There is nothing to be seen here, it is empty. Rumors of the Astral Dreadnaught are just to scare wizard apprentices. And don’t believe the fables of Gith ships searching the emptiness…there is nothing to see here, move along.

Outer Planes

Paradise: This is where all the good dead go. Those who dedicated themselves to a deity bypass the Realm of the Dead and wake up in the Halls of their Chosen. The good who did not have a chosen are sent here after they are judged.
The good deities all have their homes here and are surrounded by the faithful. Fabulous glittering cities surround the divine palaces.

But even in between the glorious realms, the plane is a joy to be on. Food grows everywhere, always ripe and ready to be gathered. Towns and settlements are everywhere.
This plane is home to joy, and song. A fitting reward for a life of goodness.

The Outlands: The is a place for the neutrals from the world. The neutral deities can be found here (even a few NGs and all the NEs). This realm is a place of balance where good and evil can be found.

The terrain is beautiful but predatory beasts can be found here as well. This plane actually has colonies of living humans who find the in between places to their liking.

The NE deities locate here to avoid the chaos of Hades. They do not want to deal with the mess.

Hades: This is the realm of evil. Devils and demons are here fighting the eternal blood war for control of this plane. The evil deities have their toxic realms here as well. Walled off to keep the pointless war OUT.

The faithful dead will wake up in the halls of their chosen. The unfaithful will wake up as larva near the battle plains.

One note: Set, the god of tyranny (mentioned above) has a realm here that “looks like a paradise. The ruling elite live in splendor served by miserable slaves (larva transformed by the whims of the elite). BUT. They are entrapped in a brutal dance of intrigues, assassinations, and conspiracies. Where an assassination cannot give true death it takes them 60 torturous years to reform. The elite do not realize it but they are as miserable as their slaves.

Still, this is a respite from the raging Blood War. Supplies can be bought here, and the casinos are the wonders of the outer planes (just do not lose). The House never cheats here…surprising for an evil realm.

[Cyclops08]

Kingdom of ___________________
One metropolis, two cities, many towns and hamlets.
Borders a vast western frontier filled with monsters and goblinoids.
Built upon the ruins of several ancient civilizations.
Formerly a colony of an ancient empire, no contact has been established with the mainland empire for generations. No ships that set sail for the empire have returned.
Leadership. Mildly oppressive. Nobles all worship Bane the tyrant lord. Adventurers are tolerated as they have proven themselves needed in a frontier state. Still, ALL adventurers need to register with the state and carry a charter scroll with them.

Neighbors: Branock, a kingdom to the north. Several wars have been fought with Branock. The last 20 years have shown an uneasy peace.

To the south are seven coastal city states. With an elven nation just inland

Across an eastern sea is the goblin nation of, ______________. High Goblins rule the nation (hobgoblins). Goblins are all green skinned, and high goblins look like green half elves but otherwise fit the MM rules. The nation was at one time a major threat to the coastal nations, but spent the last 70 years in a brutal series of civil wars. Recently they have settled into an empire once again. Surprisingly, their ships have been trading. No one is sure if they have changed or are scouting out weakness.

Starting Location: Blackrock. On the frontier border.

Blackrock is a town in the foothills of a mountain range. It is named for the massive lava flow that nearly destroyed the town during the cataclysm. On one side of the town lies a black jagged field of rocks marking the boundary between civilized land and the frontier. The flow is a mile wide and makes for an effective barrier from the savage goblinoids. On the other side are lush fields and glorious farms. The crops are sown upon fertile volcanic ash. The roads are black, and the buildings are very sturdy to survive the occasional earthquake.

The population is 50% human and 50% halfling. There are 2000 citizens of the town. Another 500 halflings live in the southern farms outside of town. A new Lord has taken office, and he just built a new temple to the Tyrant god. There is no wall, the Lava flow is protection from the west.

Features:
Road of the dead. The New lord has hung the bodies of bandits in trees alongside of the road. This is a warning to the lawless. The PCs will have an opportunity to free a living bandit left to die in a giblet. They can choose either way.

The Valley of Fire. High in the mountains there is a valley where the ground has split. A lava lake has formed in the rift. The valley is dead, nothing but black cinders and boulders tossed out of the earth. The earthquakes, ashfalls, and the lava flow all come from here.

Everwinter: To the north is a natural feature that has been there since the cataclysm. It is a 100-mile diameter field of snow. It is cold here year-round and there has never been a thaw. Apart from snow on the ground there is no obvious boundary. No one has explored the interior, because, ya know, it’s cold and stuff. There is a small castle on the warmer side of the border as the king is uncomfortable with an uncontrolled magic phenomenon within his borders.

Vineyards: Most of the fields run by the halflings are vineyards, taking full advantage of the rich volcanic soil. They all work with the halfling winery in town, “Old Tom Nobbins.” This wine is very sweet and fruity and is famous the world round. One bottle is worth 80 gold. The exports sell for hundreds of gold. Matta (below) sends a case of Old Tom Nobbins to the Goblin King every year. The rich and powerful are well aware of this brand and will open doors to get it.

The Ruins: This area was inhabited by several previous civilizations. Including a Goblin kingdom. Ruins are everywhere and remarkably well preserved (magic).

RanchLands. Further east of the vineyards are cattle and horse ranches. The ranches are a hardy folk living far from the protection of the town.

The Town:
There is the New Temple to Lord of tyranny. An older temples are to the halfling deity, the goddess of agriculture. A pantheonic shrine to the Lords of Creation is here staffed by an older cleric and his daughter, a 1st level adventurer wannabe. There is another shrine to the god of knowledge, a small library manned by the married school teachers in the town. They have a secret fund and will buy books from the PCs.

The Lord is Jarrick Whiteraven. He replaced the longstanding mayor of the town at the behest of the king. He lives in a newly built manor house (fortified) along with 30 soldiers (chainmail, swords and shields), a 20 strong medium calvary. These men cooperate with the soldiers of the temple of tyranny to maintain order. Jarrick disbanded the old militia and confiscated their weapons. He barely tolerates adventurers, but recognizes their usefulness. If he must deal with them, Jarrick will use a servant as an intermediary.

The taxman also lives in a nice house with two bully boy flunkies (studded leather and clubs). He is not paid and makes a living taking more in taxes than is owed. He is hated by the people. He lives to confiscate anything Adventurers might gain. No citizen will turn in an adventuring party who beats the crap out of the taxman.

Notable NPCs.
Matta. She is a beautiful High Goblin (hobgoblins have all the beauty and stats of half elves), and owner of the Starlight Inn. She claims to be an exile an enjoys full kingdom citizenship. She worships at the temple of tyranny, and is a good friend of Jarrick. Her staff of beautiful serving wenches are all doppelgangers (unknown to any save Matta).

--in fact, she is a spy for the goblin king. Adventurers always stay for half price as they are an endless source of information.
Once a month a trader comes to buy wine. He stays at the inn and takes Matta’s report

Tarek Firewalker. 5th level Pantheon Cleric for the Lords of Creation (fire domain). He mans the shrine here with his Tara, his daughter. This is more of a retirement for him, he is here to enjoy the volcano. He will trade healing spells for food, pies or credit that he never seems to remember. He lives on a pension from the pantheon. He also has a staff of healing. Tarek loves adventurers being one himself…he laments he never struck it rich, but is satisfied he helped people.

Toby Heathertoes. This halfling runs the Weary Wyvern Inn.

High priest Malik. 3rd level cleric of the tyrant Lord. He leads a staff of four 1st level clerics, and 6 acolytes. He is new to the town and is disliked by the people. He is mulling over the idea of making worship at his temple mandatory, but he fears the people just ignoring him. He hates adventurers, and charges double for healing. Once a week he and his staff armor up to drill with Jarricks guards.

Thalmir 6th level Mage/evoker. He retired to Blackrock and does not like the new lord and his per tyrant clerics. He was a warmage for the kings armies and just wanted to get away from the stuffy court. Thalmir is most likely to hire the PCs. He has two apprentices, Jered and Jamie.

Gorin and Garrin. Dwarven brothers working the smithy. They also sell weapons and armor and have secretly resupplied the town militia