Inyssius Tor
2008-05-20, 02:43 AM
Cross-posted from RPGnet:
I just read Worlds and Monsters. It's a great book; probably not something I'd buy, but still great. When reading it, though, I got the distinct impression that the world was littered with so many ruins that you could not physically find a single patch of land unoccupied by ancient and mysterious abandoned structures erected by one or another vast but long-fallen empire. Just leafing through it, I see...
All of the massive empires of the mountain giants, hill giants, fire giants, frost giants, and cloud giants (ruled by their titan overlords) on the Material Plane and the Elemental Chaos. Destroyed by dwarven rebellions, wars with the humanoids, and the fall of their primordial creators--the Astral deities who killed the primordials presumably did not embrace their ancient foes' servants and foot soldiers.
The death giants' Shadowfell empire, destroyed for many of the same reasons as above plus planar sympathy with the Prime Material (in an "as below, so above" type of arrangement).
The Fomorians' Feywild demesnes, which fell in pretty much the same way as the death giants' empire.
The all-encompassing--intergalactic--Illithid empire. Destroyed by the Gith rebellion.
Many abandoned Dominons in the Astral Sea, created by exarchs, demigods, and deities long destroyed (or who simply moved elsewhere, like the Raven Queen).
Zannad, ruled by flesh-warping Yuan-Ti mages and destroyed by rampant mutants and societal decay.
Cendriane, the latest Eladrin empire to span both the Feywild and Prime Material (wiped clean in hours by some mountain-dwelling Sealed Evil); also, the Anauli Empire and the Realm of the Twin Queens before it, and various others before them.
Bael Turath, the mighty demonic empire of the Tieflings (destroyed by Arkhosia).
Arkhosia, the mighty draconic empire of the Dragonborn (destroyed by nasty demons summoned by Bael Turath, who actually still inhabit many Arkhosian ruins).
Nerath, the last great human kingdom; destroyed a hundred years ago by the Ruler of Ruin... and also the countless but little-mentioned great human empires preceding it.
The territories controlled by the gnoll Ruler of Ruin and his (goblinoid, troglodyte, and other savage humanoid) followers and slaves.
Now, that is quite a few fallen empires. I think each of them have an interesting and (more or less) unique aesthetic, even. There's a lot of good material there I'd like to use, but I'm not sure I can think of many different reasons for adventurers to delve into these ruins. You can only use "delving into the abandoned city for cash or MacGuffins" or "hunt down bandits who use the forgotten complex for shelter" so many times before it gets a little tiresome...
The city of Bael Turath has a good plot hook associated with it, in that the place is something of a magnet for tiefling cults and mad prophets; perhaps the players or their patrons need to get in touch with one of these lunatics. The book mentioned a dragonborn city in a huge canyon, ripped apart by a tiefling-sent earthquake dragon; I can imagine that newer towns have grown up almost against the sides of the chasm, but no plot hooks beyond "something bad is lurking in the canyon" or "hey, I wonder if the Arkhosians left any shiny things down there?" (I imagine it would be pretty cool if some recent disaster left the city half-submerged in water, but that doesn't give the players any other reasons to go in there.) The book covers a Cendrianian cloud city--Amethystra, and yes that's the best name they could come up with. It's a cool locale, made from slender, beautiful, and loudly echoing crystal spires. There are no scars of war there, since the place was wiped clean with very little opposition by whatever can of evil the Eladrin had opened. It would be a perfect place to put lunar ravagers, or possibly winged fey of some sort, but that's the "hunt bandits who lodge there" scenario yet again.
So, does anyone else have any ruin-based plot ideas?
I just read Worlds and Monsters. It's a great book; probably not something I'd buy, but still great. When reading it, though, I got the distinct impression that the world was littered with so many ruins that you could not physically find a single patch of land unoccupied by ancient and mysterious abandoned structures erected by one or another vast but long-fallen empire. Just leafing through it, I see...
All of the massive empires of the mountain giants, hill giants, fire giants, frost giants, and cloud giants (ruled by their titan overlords) on the Material Plane and the Elemental Chaos. Destroyed by dwarven rebellions, wars with the humanoids, and the fall of their primordial creators--the Astral deities who killed the primordials presumably did not embrace their ancient foes' servants and foot soldiers.
The death giants' Shadowfell empire, destroyed for many of the same reasons as above plus planar sympathy with the Prime Material (in an "as below, so above" type of arrangement).
The Fomorians' Feywild demesnes, which fell in pretty much the same way as the death giants' empire.
The all-encompassing--intergalactic--Illithid empire. Destroyed by the Gith rebellion.
Many abandoned Dominons in the Astral Sea, created by exarchs, demigods, and deities long destroyed (or who simply moved elsewhere, like the Raven Queen).
Zannad, ruled by flesh-warping Yuan-Ti mages and destroyed by rampant mutants and societal decay.
Cendriane, the latest Eladrin empire to span both the Feywild and Prime Material (wiped clean in hours by some mountain-dwelling Sealed Evil); also, the Anauli Empire and the Realm of the Twin Queens before it, and various others before them.
Bael Turath, the mighty demonic empire of the Tieflings (destroyed by Arkhosia).
Arkhosia, the mighty draconic empire of the Dragonborn (destroyed by nasty demons summoned by Bael Turath, who actually still inhabit many Arkhosian ruins).
Nerath, the last great human kingdom; destroyed a hundred years ago by the Ruler of Ruin... and also the countless but little-mentioned great human empires preceding it.
The territories controlled by the gnoll Ruler of Ruin and his (goblinoid, troglodyte, and other savage humanoid) followers and slaves.
Now, that is quite a few fallen empires. I think each of them have an interesting and (more or less) unique aesthetic, even. There's a lot of good material there I'd like to use, but I'm not sure I can think of many different reasons for adventurers to delve into these ruins. You can only use "delving into the abandoned city for cash or MacGuffins" or "hunt down bandits who use the forgotten complex for shelter" so many times before it gets a little tiresome...
The city of Bael Turath has a good plot hook associated with it, in that the place is something of a magnet for tiefling cults and mad prophets; perhaps the players or their patrons need to get in touch with one of these lunatics. The book mentioned a dragonborn city in a huge canyon, ripped apart by a tiefling-sent earthquake dragon; I can imagine that newer towns have grown up almost against the sides of the chasm, but no plot hooks beyond "something bad is lurking in the canyon" or "hey, I wonder if the Arkhosians left any shiny things down there?" (I imagine it would be pretty cool if some recent disaster left the city half-submerged in water, but that doesn't give the players any other reasons to go in there.) The book covers a Cendrianian cloud city--Amethystra, and yes that's the best name they could come up with. It's a cool locale, made from slender, beautiful, and loudly echoing crystal spires. There are no scars of war there, since the place was wiped clean with very little opposition by whatever can of evil the Eladrin had opened. It would be a perfect place to put lunar ravagers, or possibly winged fey of some sort, but that's the "hunt bandits who lodge there" scenario yet again.
So, does anyone else have any ruin-based plot ideas?