Shattered Worlds

[the_david]

This is nowhere near finished, but I thought that I might as well toss this out here and see what other people have to say about it. The idea is largely stolen from 2 other worldbuilding threads from 4 years ago. I might come in later and edit stuff or add some new worlds, or I might not. There's 2 things I want to steal from Eberron's design philosophy and that is that everything in D&D has a place in this setting and that there isn't a canon for this setting. If you want to add your world to the smörgåsbord, feel free to do so. If you want to use this setting but don't like a world, ignore it.

The premise:

1. The world has been shattered into a million different worlds that are all unique and wondrous.
2. The artifact that was used to shatter the world was also shattered into a million pieces, and fragments still hold some power.
3. The god who shattered the world and his sister who tried to stop him have also been shattered into many deities. The least of these are known as Chwingas.
4. Powerful entities and those who hold a fragment of the artifact have the power to break or fuse shards, and do so to increase their influence on the shattered world.
5. The laws of nature and the laws of magic vary between worlds to such an extent that even the passing of time is different between shards.
6. Dragons have the ability to split and fuse because they were part of the 2 progenitor dragons, Bahamut and Tiamat, who were also shattered when the world was shattered.

[the_david]

the Pearl of the Desert.

This world was once a thriving planet but it was never capable of sustaining life. It slowly became a dying planet. That all changed when the handsome shah Azul was banished here and decided to build his palace on this desert world. The noble Marid created a city surrounded by fertile farmland, thanks to an ingenious irrigation system.
Every year, shah Azul holds a tournament in his amphitheater. The winner is granted a single wish.
The shah has many magical treasures in his collection, including a Blue Orb of Dragonkind which protects his city from Blue Dragons like Catatumbo.
The rest of the world is a desert. Ruins of a forgotten civilization can still be found out in the desert, as well as powerful monsters and dragons.

Inhabitants: Water Genasi descendants from shah Azul are encountered more frequently in the Pearl of the Desert. Blue and Brass Dragonborn are also common. Aarakocra, Leonin, Tabaxi, Thri-Kreen and Yuan-ti are native to this world. Other species that have build civilizations have long been extinct.

Beyond the Pearl of the Desert.
- A two-headed blue dragon known as Catatumbo has a lair near one of the last lakes of this world. He wants to imprison the daughter of the shah in an Iron Flask, so he can exchange her for the dragon that is imprisoned within the Blue orb of Dragonkind of the shah. Catatumbo plans to fuse with this dragon so that he may grow more powerful. He is willing to exchange a Canopic Jar for the Iron Flask or the shah's daughter.
- The mummified remains of a once powerful pharaoh are trapped within a pyramid. The mummy won't come back to unlife until all four Canopic Jars are placed on their pedestals within the pyramid.

[brian 333]

The Bridges:

After The Shattering some being, possibly using a shard of the artifact, attempted to create bridges to reunite the various scattered worlds. Some remain intact, some are broken ruins, but each was unique to its point of origin in style and appearance.

From the Shard World of Volcano a black lava tube vaults into the heavens, its terminus shrouded in smoke and ash-clouds. Those who climb it find themselves exiting onto a pillow lava field on the coast of a tropical sea, flanked by black sand beaches backed by tropical jungles climbing the slopes of a cone volcano.

The elfin city of Tar'i'elnninar has a suspension bridge of spider-silk and silver fir planks and beams stretching out from the Great Chasm At The End Of The World. No one travels it because its terminus broke away long ago. However, sages are studying it in hopes of eventually linking it to a new shard world one day.

A tightrope unites Jagged Peaks and The Treehouse City of Fi'alad where arboreal humanoids trade with baboonfolk.

[DeborahSheperd]

Nice, I like it.

[brian 333]

Two cultures existed on opposite sides of a broad canyon, the upper rim of which was at the limit of vision from its opposite rim. The cultures were in a virtually constant war, (though trade, communication, and even movement between them was not uncommon.

Their point of conflict was that they worshipped the same deity differently, and each was offended by what they considered the heresy of the other. They even built massive temples on their rim of the canyon opposite the temple of their foe.

When the Shattering happened their worlds divided along the canyon, seemingly defeating their foe forever. There was revelry and rejoicing on both shards at first. Until both sides realized their prayers were no longer being answered.

At first, many thought that their God had abandoned them. Later it was learned that the deity had been divided, and that the half-diety that remained on either side was insane and mostly catatonic.

The call has gone out for the faithful to take up the challenge of finding the other half of their God and reuniting him before the disasters caused by his occasional awakenings and the lack of his blessings cause the society to crumble.

Though both sides have completely lost contact with the other, each has responded to the crisis in virtually identical ways. Both blame the other for the sundering, and the folk trapped on the 'wrong' side have been treated badly, both sides assuming the other was responsible. Until very recently there was very little evidence that the other side even survived, and the majority still believe it did not. A very small minority interpret some mad ramblings from various attempts to commune with their god as implying the other half of the god survives on the sundered other half. On both sides a new heresy is beginning which espouses the belief that continued worship of their half-god will allow it to grow a new half to replace what is missing, thus giving them a full god once again without the need to pollute their worship with the ancient heretical beliefs they blame for all misfortunes.


Phase-Shifted

Consider the possibility that at some level the world may still be united, and that beings capable of achieving that level of existence can cross over to the adjacent world.

Phase Spiders come to mind. They may be able to freely cross between adjacent shards when out of phase.

Time travelers could easily go back to a point prior to the shattering, cross to a new locale, then advance in time in the new world. A Time Lord character could do so.

[the_david]

Boomtown.

This Shard is now mostly known for the aptly named Boomtown, a boomtown that appeared overnight after the discovery of a dungeon from the time before the shattering. The dungeon is filled with riches from a long lost age, and adventurers from all around the Shattered Worlds can be found here. Most of Boomtown is owned by the Succubus known as madam Desiree. The sheriff is Prudence, a friendly Spectator Beholderkin who was summoned here to guard the town. Prudence has since manifested a Gazer Beholderkin who helps them.

Hidden in abandoned quarry in the mountains is a strange village where Dwarves, Gnomes and Kobolds live together and worship a strange god that lives inside a machine. (the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad.) Their society is a cast system based on whether the machine god blesses you, curses you or ignores you during your rite of passage.

There's a ghost town next to the abandoned gold mine. The Aurumvorae that plagued this area have made their way into the dungeon under Boomtown.

[the_david]

I just realized something. I normally dislike that fantasy religion is vague about the why and how. In my mind, religions are supposed to answer the philosophical questions and fantasy religions just don't do that. It doesn't have to be complex, just something like the purpose of life is to die in battle so you can fight and die (again) alongside the gods during the end of the world.

But that doesn't matter for Shattered Worlds. The gods are dead, broken apart into a million divine sparks. Whatever fate or grand design they had is gone and irrelevant. If there is an answer to the question of what the purpose of life is, it's either that there is no answer, there is no purpose or there was a purpose, but it's been forgotten and it is no longer relevant anyway. Or 42, it could be 42. This is something I've been looking for for a long time, and I just created it by accident!

I still don't know if there should be an afterlife. I'm also thinking of making those with a divine spark elementals, weirdly enough. Chwinga are elementals, and the noble marid is an elemental too. I guess this setting favors spirits over deities, so maybe some form of animism would be appropriate. Or big divine sparks are deities and small divine sparks are spirits. I think I'll keep it like that, for now.

[brian 333]

Are the elementals tied to a particular shard world?

Let us suppose a Djinn rules a cloudscape world where everyone is able to walk on clouds and travel from the mist-shrouded lowest stratus cloud layer to the wispy cirrus clouds is accomplished by flying, ballooning, or parachuting. The Djinn is the Great and Benevolent Emir of the land, and it is by its generosity that the masses are fed, clothed, etc.

My priest of the Djinn religion finds herself in a shard occupied by followers of an Earth Elemental. Can my priest still receive the blessings of the Djinn? Can the djinn move to another shard? Can worshippers from another shard follow the Djinn and receive its blessings?

[the_david]

Are the elementals tied to a particular shard world?

Let us suppose a Djinn rules a cloudscape world where everyone is able to walk on clouds and travel from the mist-shrouded lowest stratus cloud layer to the wispy cirrus clouds is accomplished by flying, ballooning, or parachuting. The Djinn is the Great and Benevolent Emir of the land, and it is by its generosity that the masses are fed, clothed, etc.

My priest of the Djinn religion finds herself in a shard occupied by followers of an Earth Elemental. Can my priest still receive the blessings of the Djinn? Can the djinn move to another shard? Can worshippers from another shard follow the Djinn and receive its blessings?Whatever works best for you. Like I said before, there is no canon for this setting. You can just mix and match whatever you like, and if you don't like the idea of an individual spirit or deity, you can just ignore them as if they never existed.

But in my mind gods can have power over a group of worlds, or a single world. So you can build your own main pantheon of gods who have a lot of influence over most of the worlds that come into play, and you can also sprinkle in some gods who have a smaller area of influence.

The elemental spirits would have less influence. They are more like nymphs, representations of nature. You'd thank the naiad for the water she provides, but they generally don't grant spells. Genies can be warlock patrons, though.

[the_david]

Is there a a bad afterlife that is not included in the Great Wheel Cosmology? I feel like Gary appropriated all of them, and I want to make a bad place that isn't really linked to any of the lower planes.