A world with no magic, only psionics (fluff version)

[JustPlayItLoud]

There's an idea I've been kicking around in my head for awhile, an all psionics world. A world where magic no longer exists and has been displaced by psionics. I polled a few friends who have been playing regularly just to think about the idea of a psionics only world and give me some feedback. Instead of feedback I got "THAT WOULD BE AWESOME YOU SHOULD RUN THAT" pretty much immediately. I haven't played regularly in five years, but I've been wanting to get back into it for a while now, so I figure now is as good a time as any.

I'm going to split this into two separate threads, one for mechanics and crunch for the homebrew forum, and one for fluff and flavor for the world building forum.

Fluff version:

Geography

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I think I've decided the world will divided into to primary continents. One will be a complete wasteland, basically operating as a magic-free version of the Dark Sun campaign setting. The campaign will not start out here, and travel here will be very difficult, so I'll have time to flesh this out later.

The other continent will be the primary setting for this campaign. I'm picturing a variety of terrain types, with a slight preference for hotter, more arid terrain like desert and grassland. That's all so far.

History

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At some point in the past, the main continent was engulfed by the flames of war. The constantly warring human kingdoms throw out diplomacy in favor of force. Being the most numerous race, the other races have little option but choose a side. The eventually culminates in a Drow excursion to the surface to engage in a full out war with the elves. Both sides were wiped out and both Drow and surface elves are effectively extinct in the modern world. At some point here, the prevalence of magic in the war dramatically dwindles the number of spellcasters. There was no single event that caused the death of magic in the world. Theoretically the power of arcane magic is still out there, there's just nobody who can use it in the modern day. I still don't have a reason that it doesn't spontaneously pop up in sorcerers, however. See the cosmology section for why divine magic doesn't function.

After years of war destroyed much of the intelligent population, another calamity came threatening to eclipse the great war. Seeking asylum from mind flayers, several enclaves of githzerai band together for safety and plane shift en masse to this material plane. Initially their arrival is largely ignored by the warring races, and they set about fortifying themselves. Eventually a party of mind flayers manages to track them down on this plane. Returning with news of numerous humans and potential slaves, the mind flayers follow the githzerai as they attempt to enslave as many as possible. The great war is now overshadowed by a far greater enemy. Eventually the large mind flayer presence draws the attention of the githyanki, and they decide to bring the fight to this plane also. As the two races try to send each other back into the astral and come back from the astral, a planar accident severs the world's connection to the astral plane, leaving all three new races stranded.

Cosmology

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In this world, the astral plane serves as the conduit from the material plane to the upper planes. This link being severed is what causes divine magic to cease functioning, as the gods are no longer able to channel their power to their servants. Eventually the PCs would have the ability to create a minor conduit directly from the Prime Material to a specific outer plane, thereby reintroducing the possibility of divine magic, but the connection to the astral will remain severed.

The inner planes don't require the astral plane and are linked directly to every material plane and are what allow the powers of the elements to function properly in that world.

The positive and negative energy planes no longer exist. Instead each plane has an ethereal and shadow plane that are both coterminous with itself. The ethereal plane is the natural home of fey creatures and is the source of positive energy. The shadow plane is the source of negative energy in the world. It's currently a crowded place overrun with the souls of the dead that are unable to cross over in to the outer planes. This means incorporeal undead actually exist simultaneously on the material and shadow plane, but otherwise function mechanically as normal.

In this setting, the two planes overlapping the material make it difficult to travel to either. Those without the natural ability to travel between these planes have to find specific locations where the planes spill over into each other. Plane shifting can only take a person to one of the four elemental planes.

Races

Standard races

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Humans - Humans are still the most prominent race on the surface. They become more and more civilized the farther they are from the current mind flayer empire

Elves - Extinct, but more on this later

Dwarves - The standard dwarf from the PH, now known as Mountain Dwarves, were affected by the war, but their mountain strongholds far from the mind flayer empire have left them largely unaffected by it

Gnomes - The gnome lands were near where the initially mind flayer excursion onto the world happened. Realizing the serious threat, they abandoned their homes to seek asylum with their dwarf allies. Over many thousands of years the two races became so intermixed that they are no longer considered separate races. Those with dwarf racial traits are Mountain Dwarves, and those with gnome racial traits are Hill Dwarves. Dwarvish is now a composite language that mixes in gnome words using the dwarf script

Half-orcs - Half-orcs have actually come to be more respected than before. Orcs are still savage foes, but their half-breed children have come to band together in the modern world to earn work with the special training they've developed to defend against and hunt mind flayers

Halflings - Halflings have a tough lot in this world. The mind flayers initially appeared on the borders of their lands and the gnome lands. With no place to run, most were enslaved. The empire is served still by halflings born into slavery. Some halflings survive in freedom, hardy nomads that roam the arid grasslands in the south of the continent

Psionic races

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Dromites - I like these little guys, always have, but I haven't given any thought to how they fit into this world

Duergar - In the wake of the extinction of the Drow, the Duergar were the only militant race left in the Underdark. Their rapid unopposed expansionism over the years since the Drow extinction has made them the undisputed rulers of the Underdark, as well as the most populous race in the world, out populating even the human population

Svirfneblin - Their settlements still dot the Underdark and they continue to operate as they have for thousands of years, although now with less fear as they've always had better relations with the Duergar than the Drow

Elan - I came up with an interesting idea about the genesis of the elan race. Mind flayers reproduce by infecting humans with a sort of tadpole that slowly transforms the human into a new mind flayer. Non humans are turned into half-breed thralls. Not long after the mind flayers set up a permanent base on this plane, a group of captured humans escaped. Wanting to study the tadpoles, they stole many as they escaped. They developed a method to purify them, developing a new variety that enhanced humans instead of changing them. Most of the tadpoles did not survive the purification, however, so the remaining ones have been hoarded over the years, leading the rarity of the Elan. Currently the original group of Elan are faced with the prospect of being forced to raid the mind flayer empire in order to continue propagation of their own kind

Githyanki - Stranded on this plane, the githyanki established permanent settlements, dividing their time between continuing the fight with the mind flayers and trying to find a way home

Githzerai - Facing potential re-enslavement, the githzerai were forced to ally with the native races, and were the first to introduce psionics to this world. One of their earliest alliances was with a nearby tribe of giants that proved to have a strong psionic affinity, leading to

Half-giants - Half-giants are descended from the giant race that allied with the githzerai. Some have stayed with their giant parents, some with their human parents, and other have gone out to forge their own small societies. I intend at some point to homebrew a psionically inclined variety of giant

Maenad - These are a boring race to me, they don't exist

Thri-kreen - A very old race that had always been barely noticed, with small populations. In the wake of the large depopulation of their grassland home and their development of psionic affinity, the thri-kreen have flourished. They are the most dominant race in the grasslands, with some even establishing semi-permanent settlements. They've developed close relationships with the nomadic halflings that roam the grasslands, often relying on them to act as interpreters when they deal with the other races

Xeph - Another boring race that has no place in my world

Organizations

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Only one so far. I want a small, secretive enclave made up of the only wizards left in the world. Basically I'm thinking a collective of eight wizards, a specialist for each school of magic, that have all come up with unique ways of extending their lifespans.

The necromancer should obviously be a lich

I think one should also be a vampire, and would be the one most likely to be encountered in the outside world due to the need to feed

An enchanter or diviner that is the last living elf (I'm thinking elves are naturally immortal in this world), but makes mention of hearing about a "degenerate breed" of elf that arose on the other side of the world (a reference to Dark Sun elves)

One wizard that transferred his consciousness to some kind of golem or other construct and directly controls the elemental spirit that animates it

One wizard that has transferred his consciousness to a stained-glass window with innate levitation (I'll name him Nunuzac, and bonus points to anybody that understands that reference)

One is a "soulbinder", a wizard that doesn't get very powerful on their own, but bargain for the souls of other mortal creatures based upon the results or a mage duel or some other agreement. As the others in the agreements die, the soulbinder draws their souls into himself, growing gradually more powerful. This one was so successful that he became the equivalent of a very high level wizard, and also attained near immortality by extending his lifespan by millenia

I still need two more

Do you all on the boards have any other cool ideas about how to make a psionics only world function?

[paddyfool]

Regarding your Organisations, here are some ideas for the last two:

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- A wizard who lingers on as a ghost. One way to make this fun would be if this wizard found a way to attach themselves to their bloodline, possessing generation after generation. Another would be if the "ghost" is actually a permanenced illusory replica of a wizard into which they managed to transfer their consciousness before expiring.
- A wizard with a gift for alchemy, who's found a way to create a potion of rejuvenation. Maintaining supplies for new stocks of this potion is an issue of prime importance for said individual; without it, they'll expire. EDIT: This might also work as a way to have a single druid in your setting. Perhaps at any given time, one individual is gifted with a connection to nature, and given a duty to protect it (yeah, I'm blatantly cribbing from The Authority here); but many generations ago, one such individual found a way to stick around.
- A wizard who remains alive through some pact with the Fey.
- An Abjurer who developed the ultimate protective spell, and lives inside it, protected even against the ravages of time.

Do you like any of those enough to use them?

[the_david]

I like the idea, but I would have changed a thing or two.
- Mindflayers have eredicated all arcane magic-users. They did so by creating tentacled horrors that survive on a diet of bards, wizards and sorcerers. They probably have some psionic ability to detect arcane magic.
- Sorcerer bloodlines have become nearly extinct. There could be a single Sorcerer, (PC or NPC) but he would quickly draw the attention of some tentacled horrors.

Some racial organizations would work in this setting. Githyanki, Githzerai, Mindflayers an Elan would all work perfectly.