Lord Tataraus
2008-03-26, 05:43 PM
Premise: The premise of this thread is to provide an exercise in world building, in terms of building cultures, relations, organizations, etc. around a given set of rules and basic setting. The aim of this exercise is to create the framework for a single world, contributers are encouraged to make various suggestions and discuss the plausibly and attraction of those suggestions, however as the director of this exercise, I reserve the right to make a final decision on any topic to keep it moving.
General Rules: The world will be built based on suggestions from various contributers which will be fully explored and developed through discussion or privately on the contributor's part. After which the suggestions will be combined and a vote shall determine which suggestion will be added to the project. The elements to be built will be outlined in the setting rules. All suggestions must be plausible within the limits of the setting basics such as the amount of magic, planar influences and already determined content. Be courteous and respect others views and contributions and ultimately, have fun!
<hr>
The Sundered Veil
"The time has come, my friends, to sunder the Veil. Too long has it created a rift in our search for knowledge, we must remove this menace to our advancement. Previously we could only lift the Veil, but only for so long, I have uncovered the power to destroy it forever! My friends, we are about to enter into a new age!!"
- Serath the Great addressing the assembly of mages before the ritual to sunder the Veil.
"Pretty worm, tasty tasty you are, squirmy squirmy!" The veiler elf smiled and played with the corpse, "*Tee hee* Black is red and red is blood, let me lick your heart!" He picked up the still warm heart and began to sniff it and lick as a lover. "Scourge of the Veil, Thunar give me strength!!" A knight in tarnished silver armor sank his axe into the veiler's head, spewing black fluid everywhere. The knight stood and viewed the corpse, his hardened eyes glistened with a tear that would not drop, sadness plagued this land now, his tears had run dry long ago. "Fly free spirit," the knight blessed the corpse as he bathed it in mystic oils, "fly free..." The green and purple flames reflected in his glazed eyes and he knew, one day, that would be his fate...
Setting Basics: The Sundered Veil is a small world with average D&D technology, city society, and magic with the follow exceptions. The events that cut the Kingdom of Tartan off from the rest of the world have had many effects on the nature of magic. Arcane magic has been all but banished from the land and divine power is weakened. This has given rise to new magics from more direct sources: binders, warlocks, and shadowcasters are the most common, but all drawing directly from the mystic source.
This world consists only of the small Kingdom of Tartan and a few outlying areas, below is the map of the world. Tartan's history is filled with advancement and splendor, the kingdom was the richest in the land, hosts of knights and priests of the great gods of good gathered in the great city of Elisom and Golden Fields for Tartan was truly blessed by the gods. Yet, it was this blessing that brought about the events that led to the Sundering of the Veil. Tartan's prosperity allowed for powerful wizards and researchers to go about their work with access to many exotic ingredients and gained much power and influence in this great nation, but the Knights of Thunar kept them in check, throwing out the vile necromancers and power-hungry enchanters allowing only those of the pure of heart to remain. The evil of the Sundering of the Veil was an evil so great, only a wizard of pure heart and good intentions could bring it about, and that was their downfall. Serath the Great, a might archmage, attempted to open the way to the world of pure arcane, to unleash it wonders onto the world and thus destroyed the veil. He gathered all the great and lesser mages in the land to perform the complex ritual, but when he realized his mistake, it was too late, the Sundering unleashed a deadly force, killing the mages instantly, but saving the rest of the kingdom, however, the land was cut off, the planes collapsed. The Kingdom and the intersections of the planes it touched collapsed into a single plane causing horrendous after effects. Death, no longer existed, nor did birth. Nothing could escape, not even the truest of souls. The gods could reach out to help their strongest followers, but with limited power.
At first, the world fell to twilight, a twilight that would never fade, magic was disrupted and their was confusion, but the strength and faith of the people allowed them to survive. But then the first veiled came. Those who died returned, shadows of their former selves. The souls of the dead could not leave and this limbo drove them insane, those of the strongest faith descended the worst into madness and were the first to form new bodies, blasphemies constructed out of their victims' flesh. The veiled plagued the world, killing and creating more and more veiled. The Knights of Thunar repelled them, but when victory seemed just over the horizon, they discovered that the veiled came back. One could destroy the body, but the soul remained as mad as ever. Only two options remained, the souls must be recycled or destroyed. At first recycling seemed the best thing to do, forcing the soul to be born again, yet such infants were blasphemies, the newer souls, untouched by insanity developed quirks, whispers of memory that caused instability, but the insane souls caused horrible creatures from the births, usually killing the birth mother. Thus the binders, formerly feared, were embraced and they led the way to committing the terrifying atrocities of destroying souls.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9462/kingdomoftartansn1.jpg
{table=head]#|Location|Description
1|Elisom|The capital of Tartan and home to the grand Silver Cathedral inside the castle gates.
2|Port Levith|
3|Golden Fields|The jewel of the plains, Golden Feilds is the wealthiest city in Tartan due to its role as a trading city which funnels all foodstuffs out of and throughout Tartan.
4||
5||
6||
7||
8||
9||
10||
11||
12|Serath's Tower|Home to Seraph the Great and the grandest wizarding university in the world before the Sundering.
13||
14||
15||
16||
17||
[/table]
That's all I got, though I plan to expand a bit on Elisom, Golden Fields, Serath's Tower and the Knight's of Thundar. However, you come up with something neat for either of those, I might use that instead. So, go at it!
General Rules: The world will be built based on suggestions from various contributers which will be fully explored and developed through discussion or privately on the contributor's part. After which the suggestions will be combined and a vote shall determine which suggestion will be added to the project. The elements to be built will be outlined in the setting rules. All suggestions must be plausible within the limits of the setting basics such as the amount of magic, planar influences and already determined content. Be courteous and respect others views and contributions and ultimately, have fun!
<hr>
The Sundered Veil
"The time has come, my friends, to sunder the Veil. Too long has it created a rift in our search for knowledge, we must remove this menace to our advancement. Previously we could only lift the Veil, but only for so long, I have uncovered the power to destroy it forever! My friends, we are about to enter into a new age!!"
- Serath the Great addressing the assembly of mages before the ritual to sunder the Veil.
"Pretty worm, tasty tasty you are, squirmy squirmy!" The veiler elf smiled and played with the corpse, "*Tee hee* Black is red and red is blood, let me lick your heart!" He picked up the still warm heart and began to sniff it and lick as a lover. "Scourge of the Veil, Thunar give me strength!!" A knight in tarnished silver armor sank his axe into the veiler's head, spewing black fluid everywhere. The knight stood and viewed the corpse, his hardened eyes glistened with a tear that would not drop, sadness plagued this land now, his tears had run dry long ago. "Fly free spirit," the knight blessed the corpse as he bathed it in mystic oils, "fly free..." The green and purple flames reflected in his glazed eyes and he knew, one day, that would be his fate...
Setting Basics: The Sundered Veil is a small world with average D&D technology, city society, and magic with the follow exceptions. The events that cut the Kingdom of Tartan off from the rest of the world have had many effects on the nature of magic. Arcane magic has been all but banished from the land and divine power is weakened. This has given rise to new magics from more direct sources: binders, warlocks, and shadowcasters are the most common, but all drawing directly from the mystic source.
This world consists only of the small Kingdom of Tartan and a few outlying areas, below is the map of the world. Tartan's history is filled with advancement and splendor, the kingdom was the richest in the land, hosts of knights and priests of the great gods of good gathered in the great city of Elisom and Golden Fields for Tartan was truly blessed by the gods. Yet, it was this blessing that brought about the events that led to the Sundering of the Veil. Tartan's prosperity allowed for powerful wizards and researchers to go about their work with access to many exotic ingredients and gained much power and influence in this great nation, but the Knights of Thunar kept them in check, throwing out the vile necromancers and power-hungry enchanters allowing only those of the pure of heart to remain. The evil of the Sundering of the Veil was an evil so great, only a wizard of pure heart and good intentions could bring it about, and that was their downfall. Serath the Great, a might archmage, attempted to open the way to the world of pure arcane, to unleash it wonders onto the world and thus destroyed the veil. He gathered all the great and lesser mages in the land to perform the complex ritual, but when he realized his mistake, it was too late, the Sundering unleashed a deadly force, killing the mages instantly, but saving the rest of the kingdom, however, the land was cut off, the planes collapsed. The Kingdom and the intersections of the planes it touched collapsed into a single plane causing horrendous after effects. Death, no longer existed, nor did birth. Nothing could escape, not even the truest of souls. The gods could reach out to help their strongest followers, but with limited power.
At first, the world fell to twilight, a twilight that would never fade, magic was disrupted and their was confusion, but the strength and faith of the people allowed them to survive. But then the first veiled came. Those who died returned, shadows of their former selves. The souls of the dead could not leave and this limbo drove them insane, those of the strongest faith descended the worst into madness and were the first to form new bodies, blasphemies constructed out of their victims' flesh. The veiled plagued the world, killing and creating more and more veiled. The Knights of Thunar repelled them, but when victory seemed just over the horizon, they discovered that the veiled came back. One could destroy the body, but the soul remained as mad as ever. Only two options remained, the souls must be recycled or destroyed. At first recycling seemed the best thing to do, forcing the soul to be born again, yet such infants were blasphemies, the newer souls, untouched by insanity developed quirks, whispers of memory that caused instability, but the insane souls caused horrible creatures from the births, usually killing the birth mother. Thus the binders, formerly feared, were embraced and they led the way to committing the terrifying atrocities of destroying souls.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9462/kingdomoftartansn1.jpg
{table=head]#|Location|Description
1|Elisom|The capital of Tartan and home to the grand Silver Cathedral inside the castle gates.
2|Port Levith|
3|Golden Fields|The jewel of the plains, Golden Feilds is the wealthiest city in Tartan due to its role as a trading city which funnels all foodstuffs out of and throughout Tartan.
4||
5||
6||
7||
8||
9||
10||
11||
12|Serath's Tower|Home to Seraph the Great and the grandest wizarding university in the world before the Sundering.
13||
14||
15||
16||
17||
[/table]
That's all I got, though I plan to expand a bit on Elisom, Golden Fields, Serath's Tower and the Knight's of Thundar. However, you come up with something neat for either of those, I might use that instead. So, go at it!