Eladrinstar
2007-11-03, 09:59 PM
Alrune is a campaign setting I have tossed around in my head for seven years. It has gone through many revisions and overhauls, and you can find them on the internet. Do not look for them, they are bland and suck. Alrune will be a ridiculously detailed homebrew setting that you might not even be able to play because of the sheer amount of material I will be using from various sourcebooks. Alrune will be 3.5 and I will not update it. Okay, maybe a little, but I will ignore crappy 4e stuff like elves and eladrin being one.
Okay, an overview...
Alrune will be a setting that will be both familiar, and at the same time, exotic. Orcs and elves still hate each other, for example. But at the same time, Alrune will bring a fresh look at races. Alrune's theme will be diversity. Not wishy-washy-join-hands-and-sing diversity, but rather, a world where one culture hasn't dominated everything.
Okay, since I decided to start from scratch, I'm still in the brainstorming process. I will occasionally ask questions, they will usually be specific, like "What should this tribe be like?" not "What random crazy idea can I insert into the campaign." Random crazy ideas may rarely be included, if I really like them. If your ideas make it, whether asked for or not, I will give you credit.
First of all cosmology. I toyed with the idea of making my own cosmology, but I've since thrown that idea out the window. I'm connecting my cosmology with the Great Wheel, and Spelljammer will be occasionally referenced.
The reason for this is because I love the planes way too much, spelljammer makes my inner science fantasy nerd happy, and if I had too make new planes I would probably go way too much into detail with them and start referencing them way too often once I actually started on Material Alrune.
Alrune will have many gods, every ethnic group will have at least one (And remeber, Alrune is highly diverse, thats a lot of ethnic groups), but they will all be original, no gods from any other sources will make it in, except for these three (or two and a half):
Anubis-just because (I have a bad feeling I'll be saying that a lot)
The dual goddess of Yondalla and Dallah Thaun-because I liked the concept.
Also, some planar entities like the Lords of the Nine or the Celestial Hebdomad will be worshipped in some places.
The creation story will be that the Elder Gods created the world and the LeShay, elf-like beings of immense power. However, their experimentation led to the opening of massive portals to the Far Realm, from which crept the Elder Evils. These beings fought in a war with the gods that almost destroyed the world. All the Elder Gods were slaughtered save one. What the Grey Lady was goddess of is unknown, and it is said that to lift the masquerade mask off her face and stare into her sad eyes will haunt even the soul of a god in grief for all eternity.
The LeShay realized their grave error and each and every one willingly donated their souls to save all of reality. This formed a holy willow tree that burned with the radiance of a thousand suns, casting the elder evils back from whence they came and sealing the portals.
When the Grey Lady cast her eyes back to the world, she dissapated the tree, leaving the soul stuff of the world floating around. She set the up a new world, one that reflected the beauty of the Elder World but was still a mere shadow in comparison. It is often said that the Shadow Realm is the twisted remains of the Elder World, though planar scholars know better.
The Grey Lady (and I mean gray, but I like the idea of the alternate spelling for the word) created many races, and she knew gods would spring up shortly after.
She took a few fragmented souls of LeShay and imprinted them on the souls of the first elves. Obscure legends have it that in those wild, young days when the laws of magic weren't fully written, powerful elven spellcasters were able to recreate LeShay. Rare dusty tomes speak of LeShay sightings throughout history. This is D&D, dusty books are almost always right.
Okay, you might find this creation myth a bit cliched. But I like it, it is sufficently tragic that when I write the full version I'll have to have a Family Guy DVD on hand to stop from getting depressed.
Okay, I like to think that the Grey Lady would create the willow tree in memory of their sacrifice. In the old LeShay langauge, which I most now make a will save to stop from getting up from this computer right now and creating, okay...succeded, "Willow" means "sorrow of the sacrifice".
I'm going to rule that live willows turn abberations, and have a soothing affect on the minds of the mentally ill, and are thus planted at insane asylums and known entrances to the Underdark.
Speaking of trees...flora and fauna. I noticed the presence of dinosaurs in the monster manuals. I failed my will save on that one. All prehistoric animals, from the ice age to the triassic to the cambrian, all coexist and are slightly more uncommon that present day animals. Yay my low wisdom score!
How about the planet itself? Spherical, twenty four hour days, resolves around the sun, sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
One moon, needs name, dead world, still has LeShay ruins almost no one knows of, composed of red, yellow, and blue minerals that glow, creating a white light that makes up for the fact that the moon is only ever on the dark side of the planet, does not have phases, the same side is not always the showing, one side has a large bulge several miles high that causes tides on Alrune.
Okay, I have several continents and sub continents in mind, each loosely based of a cultural area from our world. I don't want them to line up nicely. For example, western-euro-land and eastern-euro-land can be on opposite sides of the world.
I'm asking for your opinions on how I should distribute the following:
-Pre-Colombian North America
-Pre-Colombian Central America
-Pre-Colombian South America
-Caribbean
-West Europe
-North Europe, Central Europe
-East Europe
-Mediterranean
-Russia, Siberia, Central Asia,
-Oriental Asia
-Polynesia
-India and Southern Asia
-Middle East
-Savanna Africa
-Ancient Middle East and Egypt
-Rainforest Africa
Please feel free to comment. Good or bad, I thrive off them.
Okay, an overview...
Alrune will be a setting that will be both familiar, and at the same time, exotic. Orcs and elves still hate each other, for example. But at the same time, Alrune will bring a fresh look at races. Alrune's theme will be diversity. Not wishy-washy-join-hands-and-sing diversity, but rather, a world where one culture hasn't dominated everything.
Okay, since I decided to start from scratch, I'm still in the brainstorming process. I will occasionally ask questions, they will usually be specific, like "What should this tribe be like?" not "What random crazy idea can I insert into the campaign." Random crazy ideas may rarely be included, if I really like them. If your ideas make it, whether asked for or not, I will give you credit.
First of all cosmology. I toyed with the idea of making my own cosmology, but I've since thrown that idea out the window. I'm connecting my cosmology with the Great Wheel, and Spelljammer will be occasionally referenced.
The reason for this is because I love the planes way too much, spelljammer makes my inner science fantasy nerd happy, and if I had too make new planes I would probably go way too much into detail with them and start referencing them way too often once I actually started on Material Alrune.
Alrune will have many gods, every ethnic group will have at least one (And remeber, Alrune is highly diverse, thats a lot of ethnic groups), but they will all be original, no gods from any other sources will make it in, except for these three (or two and a half):
Anubis-just because (I have a bad feeling I'll be saying that a lot)
The dual goddess of Yondalla and Dallah Thaun-because I liked the concept.
Also, some planar entities like the Lords of the Nine or the Celestial Hebdomad will be worshipped in some places.
The creation story will be that the Elder Gods created the world and the LeShay, elf-like beings of immense power. However, their experimentation led to the opening of massive portals to the Far Realm, from which crept the Elder Evils. These beings fought in a war with the gods that almost destroyed the world. All the Elder Gods were slaughtered save one. What the Grey Lady was goddess of is unknown, and it is said that to lift the masquerade mask off her face and stare into her sad eyes will haunt even the soul of a god in grief for all eternity.
The LeShay realized their grave error and each and every one willingly donated their souls to save all of reality. This formed a holy willow tree that burned with the radiance of a thousand suns, casting the elder evils back from whence they came and sealing the portals.
When the Grey Lady cast her eyes back to the world, she dissapated the tree, leaving the soul stuff of the world floating around. She set the up a new world, one that reflected the beauty of the Elder World but was still a mere shadow in comparison. It is often said that the Shadow Realm is the twisted remains of the Elder World, though planar scholars know better.
The Grey Lady (and I mean gray, but I like the idea of the alternate spelling for the word) created many races, and she knew gods would spring up shortly after.
She took a few fragmented souls of LeShay and imprinted them on the souls of the first elves. Obscure legends have it that in those wild, young days when the laws of magic weren't fully written, powerful elven spellcasters were able to recreate LeShay. Rare dusty tomes speak of LeShay sightings throughout history. This is D&D, dusty books are almost always right.
Okay, you might find this creation myth a bit cliched. But I like it, it is sufficently tragic that when I write the full version I'll have to have a Family Guy DVD on hand to stop from getting depressed.
Okay, I like to think that the Grey Lady would create the willow tree in memory of their sacrifice. In the old LeShay langauge, which I most now make a will save to stop from getting up from this computer right now and creating, okay...succeded, "Willow" means "sorrow of the sacrifice".
I'm going to rule that live willows turn abberations, and have a soothing affect on the minds of the mentally ill, and are thus planted at insane asylums and known entrances to the Underdark.
Speaking of trees...flora and fauna. I noticed the presence of dinosaurs in the monster manuals. I failed my will save on that one. All prehistoric animals, from the ice age to the triassic to the cambrian, all coexist and are slightly more uncommon that present day animals. Yay my low wisdom score!
How about the planet itself? Spherical, twenty four hour days, resolves around the sun, sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
One moon, needs name, dead world, still has LeShay ruins almost no one knows of, composed of red, yellow, and blue minerals that glow, creating a white light that makes up for the fact that the moon is only ever on the dark side of the planet, does not have phases, the same side is not always the showing, one side has a large bulge several miles high that causes tides on Alrune.
Okay, I have several continents and sub continents in mind, each loosely based of a cultural area from our world. I don't want them to line up nicely. For example, western-euro-land and eastern-euro-land can be on opposite sides of the world.
I'm asking for your opinions on how I should distribute the following:
-Pre-Colombian North America
-Pre-Colombian Central America
-Pre-Colombian South America
-Caribbean
-West Europe
-North Europe, Central Europe
-East Europe
-Mediterranean
-Russia, Siberia, Central Asia,
-Oriental Asia
-Polynesia
-India and Southern Asia
-Middle East
-Savanna Africa
-Ancient Middle East and Egypt
-Rainforest Africa
Please feel free to comment. Good or bad, I thrive off them.