The world meta, is where
Foundation
Scope
Motivation
An outlet for my creative juices. It is being built for the players to marvel at creative ideas, amazing scenery and wonders. It should feel lighthearted, and give them energy and ideas for what they want to explore. But also bring up some important parallels to deep thoughts and great tropes.
Goal of project
This is a D&D setting, where I will DM. I want to make it easier to improvise if I know the setting by heart. I want to surprise players with connections and historical consequences of what they have been told earlier.
Unique selling point
A young world, where the gods meddle and participate to a high degree. The death and disappearance of certain gods, have had a huge impact on the world. Temporary global analfabetism, A century of Night, Souls blocked from passing to the realm of Death, The fracturing of Magic. Magically assisted technologies have already shaped the world as well. Travel, transport and communication through permanent Teleportation Circles. Soul driven machines. Great feats of geomancy.
Theme
Genre
Magical steampunk, a world that has moved too fast towards pre-industrialization for every nook and cranny to keep up. Magic is prevalent, and part of most tech. The Gods are Crazy!
Player experience
Lighthearted, challenging, in the cities. Chaotic, life-threatening, when visiting the wilds.
Tone
Bright, for the most part. With streaks of extreme darkness. But lets not stay in the darkness for too long. Let it be a good contrast though.
Recurring Themes
Magical scenery, prevelant magic, many characters and a thriving world. Many races, unknown monsters. The world acting weirdly.
Character Agency
Factions might react to the players actions quickly. They might be noticed by the gods and given assignments. They might build their own city or raze on. They might become gods. They might alter the worlds history.
Focus
- Class relations town / rural areas.
- Worker exploitation, policing commercial monopolies.
- Death and respect for souls and remains.
- Respect for Religious movements based on badly behaving Gods.
Drama
The Guild of Transportation is becoming more controlling of Aetherflux and jacking up the prices, forcing many smaller places to let some, or all of their portals degrade. In a world addicted to Teleportation Circle Travel, this is uncomortable.
Death is not what it used to be. Factions have started making money off of the soul trade, reprehensible to many, lucrative to some. Many long back to the time where souls would pass on to the realms of Death on their own accord.
Certain schools of magic have become unstable, they are outlawed in the cities, and magic users are becoming more and more worried.
Demons keep flying into the continent from south-east. No one knows how to stop it.
Several hidden societies have started moving in the shadows. Most dont even hear rumors.
Scene
Laws
- Magic is real
- It is quite possible for mortals to become demi-gods, and later gods.
- The Gods are real and active participants
- Weird magical landmarks are frequent, often made by the gods (infinite sky pillars, floating islands, mountains of flesh)
- The Gods portfolios are directly affected by them (Things that happen to the god of death, affects how death works in the world.)
- Magic is broken - Death is gone, souls linger in the world - Persisting knowledge is hard
Cosmology
The Gods are believed to originate from other unknown realms. They created Zarthuga to have a “playground” where they could meet, play, show off, be creative. Some of the wonders of the world still linger from this fase. Some believe the whole world is the inside of the corpse of a monster the gods banded together to kill. At some point they got bored, and wanted a bigger audience. So they introduced the first sentient races, kicking off history.
Principal geography & Features
The gods have shaped the land, there are many wild places resembeling our earth, but also many landmarks touched by the gods in some way. Floating Islands, hollow volcanoes to frozen wastes. The mainland of Zarth is bio-diverse, with glaciers to the North-west, chilled fog to the North-east. Jungles to the south-east, desert to the south-west. And everything in-between represented.
Active Setting
The Continent of Zarth, probably there are other landmasses, as Zarth is cold on the top, and warm at the bottom. Because of the prevalence of Teleportation Circles the chances of the players visiting several of the greater cities is high.
People
History so far
Religions / Gods
- The Scholars of Librus
- Schools of Wedn
- Cults of Ymigard
Cities / socities lost during the Curse of Illiteracy
Cities / socities lost during the Night Century (not reclaimed)
Arkarak during the War of the Swarms
The wyrding of Northhelm
Inspirations
Litterature
Terry Pratchet’s Discworld for its humor, brightness, some of its sillyness. Dune for its focus on the consequences of a tightly controlled substance from a desert wasteland, allowing essentail travel.
Gaming etc.
Warhammer 40ks handeling of Souls among the Necrons and Eldar, Eldar Craftworlds Zelda Ghibli - Laputa in the sky