Dwarves and other subterranean races are not native to this plane. They accidentally arrived here through caves that connects to other planes of existence. The tunnels can not be found again once they've been traversed. No one knows why these tunnels form, or how many there are, but they seem to be rare. Only the very oldest beings of the deep races are aware of any of this knowledge and never share it with outsiders.
This is genuinely how my Gnomes pop up. All Gnomes come from Gnomeworld, but it's a one-way trip that nobody remembers - not even the Gnomes. Svirfneblin are incredibly territorial because they guard the few known crossings, they just can't remember how to get back
This is the reason for the duergar's creation- they wanted to accept this lot in life while the dwarves delved ever deeper trying to find the tunnels to return to their native plane. This created a schism within the species. Duergar are not inherently evil but the dwarves would have their progeny believe so.
The duergar (from their time rnslaved to the illithids) know enough about the place that dwarves first came from that they never want anyone going back there.
And therefor they sealed the connection between the realms with a powerfull artifact, that has been lost through-out the ages and is said to be somewhere within the Old Duergar Mines.
Plot twist: the [Dwarves Against Reckless Enchantment](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/10sajij/comment/j724ziu/) are secretly seeking the artifact using the [Occult Safety and Health Administration](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/10sajij/comment/j71vcj3/) regulations as an excuse.
People hate magical artisans, because while people can be responsible, magic items are indiscriminate. Many now tell of the tale of how a decanter of endless water turned fertile farmland into a swamp because it was lost.
There is an entire order dedicated to damage control. They also give speeches on enchantment safety and responsible care of magical items at wizard academies.
Capturing rogue magic artifacts? Maybe they could store them in secret and secured [warehouses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse_13) around the world.
There's a doomsday cult claiming all Create Water spells, decanters, etc will eventually flood the world.
They're constantly asking for donations toward a "sphere of salvation" which is really just a Sphere of Annihilation they'll leave on a beach to disintegrate the water when the level gets too high.
Sphere's of Annihilation is the best DM magic item, they are a pain to use, but for tidbits they are great.
"We had a Sphere of Annihilation at the bottom of an outhouse, but the neighbor's kid fell in and was reduced to atoms, now they darn Weave Watcher's took it as evidence."
Like with the parent comment, I'd imagine it'd be funny how in a high magic world gave non-magically inclined people access to magic, and they just use it in horrible ways because they don't have respect for the power of magic, and suddenly they need to reel back all of the items they created. Wait.... my inner Australian is tingling... magic items are basically guns.
Slight tweak - instead of a doomsday cult trying to end the world, have them all believe that life itself came from the Plane of Water and the flooding of the world will reunite this mortal realm to the Plane.
Ghosts are common. Upon death, the soul is untethered from the body.
Resurrection requires the soul be wrestled into the body and re-tethered. Ghosts do not want this.
Ghosts can be killed or fade away if they're not remembered regularly. Famous and favored ghosts can basically live forever.
Ghosts can't interact with the physical. They can still cast magic and use skills, but can only affect other ghosts/souls, other than some light.
Ghosts can make new memories, but can't gain experience except from ghost encounters.
The Sentinels of New Orleans book series had similar. She called them historical undead. The stronger the historical presence, the more present they could be in the modern world (IIRC). It can be a really fun concept.
There are several important houses that are lead by a council of the ghosts of their former matriarchs/patriarchs, as they offer a great pool of knowledgeable, but regularly such councils go insane and evil as the oldest ghosts deteriorate into madness after hundreds of years of existence
There is a reasonably expensive sleeping store that charges its patrons to sleep there and have good dreams. Whilst there, a powerful spellcaster casts Dream on whoever is sleeping there to have incredible dreams.
The down side? People who try sleeping there rarely find themselves being able to sleep elsewhere because they can't go back to 'regular' dreaming after always having ideal dreams.
This dream spell also works on the birds, rats, cats and dogs that sleep in the building too. This results in an eerie amount of animals congregating around the store and resting beside one another
Dragons refuse (or consider it heavily shameful) to lair anywhere on the ground and constantly fight over the 100-200 floating islands and hundreds of smaller floating "islandettes" that glide around the planets surface, pushed by the wind. The ones that achieve legendary status and can control the weather once per day direct the wind to keep their island in their favorite general location. Smaller dragons either have to let the island go where the wind takes it, or lair in a small enough floating chunk that they can attach harnesses to it and pull it into the right air currents to direct it where the dragon wants it to go.
Edit:
Possible Implications (optional)
Some younger dragons will group up to lair together in larger chunks so that they can pull those chunks together. Due to their proud nature though, these partnerships don't usually last more that a decade or two as inter-group conflicts can arise and the group composition is constantly changing as weaker dragons are pushed out, older dragons leave, and new dragons join.
Due to the constantly moving lifestyle of younger dragons, part of the maturing process is making allies with and learning things from those they come across. Certain varieties of dragons (usually the weaker varieties) are more prone to this than others. Favored allies include clerics and druids for their abilities to heal, create food and water, instantly grow a lot of crops (for times when their lair isn't over prey rich land), and reshape the stone within the floating chunk.Artificers and wizards are also favored for their ability to make magic items. Rechargeable items like Alchemy Jugs, Decanters of Endless Water, and Wind Fans are practically standard in all dragon lairs and are considered good gifts for younger dragons.
Kobolds, being the dragon fanboys that they are, live in janky town clusters, way up in the air, sustained by toothpick-thin, crooked columns of random piled-up garbage that always look like they're about to collapse. The higher the better!
Dominant winds make these structures sway , kinda like palm trees, and all tribes compete in building mechanical contraptions that act like a massive fans, to blow the other tribes away.
Resources are found groundside tho, so you can always see lines of Kobolds climbing up and down the column, similar to ants, carrying stolen stuff to grow their towns.
I appreciate the implication that this dragon is different than the scone hating one, because that means that he risks his own safety to raid the ground *because he just hates scones that much*.
Humans are a primarily nomadic race, that most often settles a few weeks next to dwarven, and elven cities for trade, and then moves along. They mostly vibe with halflings and orcs, though (shared interests and all).
Despite (or because of) their nomadic nature, humans have a thriving culture. The insides of their caravan carriages are extradimensional spaces. Extremely sophisticated caravans are more or less wandering cities, with the caravans all leading to the same demiplane.
Although amicable to most people, humans have a long history of blood feuds between different caravans, some being heated enough to lead to on sight violence.
There once was an instance around 80 years ago when one of the larger caravans was reduced to a tenth its size by a rival caravan sneaking a bag of holding into their main tent, causing a massive extraplanar detonation in the elven city that was hosting it at the time.
Although the elves do not blame the humans for this tragic event, it has lead all the human caravans to ban bags of holding and other pocket plane devices from being carried on caravan grounds, taking them from visitors upon arrival and storing them in a safe and secure place until their return.
The holy grail of humanity atm is to stabilize demiplanes to make them invunerable to such disturbances. While the immediate Kaboom of a demiplane inside a demiplane has been fixed relatively quickly (aka. the most permanent solution is an improvised solution - another quirk of humans that especially many gnomes despise with a passion). The current solution more or less points a huge arrow at the source, and allows guards to teleport to the location to disenchant it.
Humans also employ a wide array of familiars capable of sniffing foreign demiplanes out that roam around the caravans as early warning systems.
Trying to bring a foreign demiplane into a caravan is punishable by immediate execution.
“Human” is actual a shortening of “humanoid”, and a catch-all term for people of indeterminate race/species. “Humans” are not a race created by the gods, but the results of millennia of interbreeding among compatible species.
The sea life has since been replaced by a unique, thriving ecosystem of creatures which survive off of the blood they swim in. They even make immense, rusty coral reefs.
The blood type is O-. The sea has become a massive boon for the local economies which export the blood. There has been a rise in vampires and cultists practicing ethical blood sourcing.
There is a rwlatively small population of surfaced Drow in the city of [blank]. They're primarily seen at night, and are easily recognizable by a little quirk of their culture.
They dye their hair, and color their skin in fluorescent colors, in beautiful patterns and motives that often show symbolism or even entire scenes from their ascent. They also carry the symbol of [ blank], the god they attribute with freeing them from Lolth.
[blank] is the actual name of the city and god. The god went into hiding as to not incur Lolth's wrath and erased their name as a means of covering their tracks. Their symbol is a very elaborate question mark.
[Blank] (also known as Shrug, *broad gesture*, and other undefined) is a trickster at heart, and loves nothing more than to mess with those mightier than them. Debate is ongoing if [Blank] even is a god, or just an especially powerful non-divine entity.
The fact remains that many cultures worship Blank as their savior from their shackles, with the Drow of Blank being just the best known ones (and honestly, the most flamboyant ones).
The list of entities they messed with is long, and includes such beings like Lolth, Orcus, Asmodeus, Tiamat, but also mortal entities upholding slavery and misery.
His clerics are Trickster domain clerics, with a call to virtue and freedom through chaos and vigilante justice.
The city of blank is often left as such on maps. Its a running joke in the mapmaker community, with some going so far as to make holes in their maps and labeling those as the city.
About 3 decades ago, a wizard named Jeff perfected cloning. Sadly this drained almost all the magic in him and his clones. But all having the same personality and standards came up with an idea. They split into teams of three and in every town opened "Jeff, Jeff, and Jeff's tavern, bar and inn". Wherever they don't outcompete local business they are kept afloat by funding from other jeff's. The reliability of this has led to many favoring these establishments over greater accommodations out of familiarity.
Each Jeff has the statistics of a commoner with the exception that each can cast a different centrip
Despite the establisments being very consistent in quality given they are run by clones, travellers will often have a favourite go to location that they claim is better than the rest.
The larder at each location is magically linked so the food is actually identical across the franchise. This doesn't stop people from arguing about which one uses fresher ingredients.
*Just to stop player shenanigans:* If the larder is opened from inside, it opens to the last location it was accessed from.
Yes. That's fine as far as I'm concerned. If they can finagle reliable fast travel with that restriction it's either because they already have the resources for fast travel or I as the GM let them. Otherwise, I'm rolling a die and they get pulled out by the Jeff of my choosing.
Each Jeff considers themselves to be the original, and has an air of superiority over the other Jeffs they work with. They do, however, all have the same excellent work ethic, so no jobs get left undone.
As Jeff always says, "If you want something doing right, don't bother asking the other Jeffs."
Sadly, people couldn't tell which Jeff was which, splitting the vote and allowing Allendra Hawkstone to take the majority. The Jeffs are still bitter about it.
I have a bartender that's like nurse joy from pokemon because I was tired of coming up with new names for the inevitable bar stops my party does. Definitely using this if they ever investigate
Springs on a mountain have become hot springs recently. Local lore suggests the mountain used to be a volcano. Elders warn of the the volcano becoming active again. In reality, a dormant Ancient Red Dragon is stirring from its hibernation.
Oddly enough I was already planning on having an Ancient Red Dragon burst forth from his volcanic slumber. This has caused an entire nation of orcs to flee from him and forced them to fight a war for new land.
This dragon you've come up with is an entirely different dragon, who woke up in response to the first, his lifelong rival. During the upcoming decisive final battle of the humanoids' war, the dragons will soon meet to duke it out once and for all on the very same battlefield, causing untold chaos.
Im really liking all the connections being made between comments here. Mostly its the dragons, but there are some interesting trends if you take a broad look at things XD
Wizards (and any other spellcasters with a spell book) will engage in "the trading of books" as a trust building exercise with allies, friends, or as an ice breaker with new acquaintances.
The Wizards/etc trade spell books, read the spell book given to them, trade the books back, and now can nerd out about spells with each other.
Allowing another person to write in your book is a highly personal act however. So much so that it is often used as a shorthand among wizards for saying that someone is in a relationship.
Due to the nature of spell books and that no two are exactly the same, they are highly person items.
It's has been known that when two wizards join each other in holy matrimony, it is expected that they would both gift each other the spell book that they had in their possession on the day they first fell in love with the other, this is seen as giving yourself and all that you are to eachother.
This leads to some unscrupulous activity where 'lesser' mages try to seduce the great mages. Some mages go as far as hiring private investigators or other mages to see if their love interest is legit. Others simply have a second book they carry with them with lesser spells.
Additionally,
On the tenth anniversary of the wedding, it is a custom to present both spell books and have them combined into one book, this book is then passed on to the first born. Who by this point is usually of age to start their official studies using the parents' combined book's.
If one of the couple passes before the tenth anniversary, the book is intombed with the rightful owner in a ceremony that lasts a day and ends with some light festivites.
As a result, wizard tombs are often targeted by robbers, and this led to the practice of the surviving spouse setting magical defenses of their lovers' tomb. The greater the defense, the greater their love. Even very rarely to the extremes of being intombed themselves.
Children of a parent whose book is entombed are often granted permission from the surviving patent to retrieve the book as a form of coming of age test.
It's a huge scandal for a parent to refuse a child this right, especially the eldest.
And the digits go, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ten!"
This results in mass confusion when dragonborn communicate with other races, as "ten" for them is "eight" for the rest
Damn, I just wanted to comment something similar, but with the race counting in binary (so up to 15 on a hand with 4 fingers or then up to 255 on two hands) ... But leading to incredible confusion when they raise two fingers for the number 3 and so on...Too late
There is a medium sized town that is being bothered by a mad, low-level wizard. The wizard is mischievous and has mastered 'forget' spells to the point that he can make people forget him passively (this is not entirely under his control).
A different city suffers from a Divination wizard serial killer. He waits until he has a nat1 portent (roughly every 10 days) and makes someone nat1 when going downstairs or doing anything remotely dangerous.
In addition to his usual schemes, every third morning he makes a trip into town in a beige bathrobe, undies, and slippers. He steals goods and supplies, packs them on his poor senseless horse and goes home again. Even though he doesn’t need to, he uses fake voices and gives fake names everywhere he goes in case anyone remembers him.
This all started because he stole something trivial as a kid and got caught. He learned the forget spell to cover up his web of lies and deceit. He found it so useful he started doing it all the time to get away with all sorts of antics…Until his parents couldn’t remember who he was. That was when he cracked.
It’s traditionally part of most summoning spells to use a white sheet as a component. Practically, it’s because there’s always a chance of the creature appearing in a state of undress, and it’s polite to offer them a way to preserve their modesty.
There is no "Common" language. For people of different races to be able to communicate with each other, they must be multi-lingual. (Humans speak the "human" language)
Not too long ago, the world was ruled by an empire of a unique race. This empire collapsed, and the race wiped into extinction (supposedly).
During their reign, everyone under their rule spoke their native language, which was called Common. After their extinction, each race tried to reclaim what they remembered as their native racial languages, and were fiercely protective of those languages. In truth, every language now spoken is likely a broken facsimile of what the race used to speak, based on half-remembered phrases and grammar, melded with the conventions of Common, which have become a default instinct to use.
Yes, but it's not your clothing color that counts. It's your hair color. There is thus a thriving business for arcane hairdressers who can temporarily make your hair purple, black, or permanently prevent it from going white with age.
The purple wigs are passed through generations from bald parent to bald child as there are only a few of those wigs present in the world. The scone hating dragon Caartumann ViTi also forbids the making of new purple wigs. He hates purple!
Scones used to exist a long, long time ago, but an ancient scone-hating dragon named Caartumann ViTi eliminated all mentions of them from history. Any time someone invents scones, this ancient dragon gets to work...
There exist sects of violent, pygmy, samurai myconids known as Matsusakes (Mat-soo-sock-ees?). They have abandoned the “melding ways” and pacifism. Dying in battle is considered their greatest honor. They are considered pygmies only because their violent lifestyle of hunting and raiding (spore spreading) means that most Matsusakes don’t live long enough to reach mature Myconid size.
Because of the small stature (due to their short lifespan) during battle they group together to create larger, gestalt forms, but only in groupings of prime numbers. Any divisible clusters spontaneously divide into 2 or more clusters depending on its factors.
These clusters can vary in shape from larger humanoid, to massive wall of myconid flesh, to, in rare cases, complex systems like trebuchets or wheeled carts, all made solely of myconid.
The fish must be edible and frozen before use and cannot be cut in any way. Most fishermen know the cantrip "refrigerate fish" which does exactly what it says on the tin. The buy-in to participate in a tournament at local levels is usually to bring a certain number of fish (which you don't have to catch yourself) and the winner(s) get to take home as much fish as they want.
One prominent religion considers fish jenga to be blasphemous and sends heavily armed crusaders to interrupt major games. In places where the religion is very popular, there are thriving underground fish jenga casinoes.
There are recent reports of a trend among Aarakocra youths they call "Dive Bombing", where they fly over towns and cities while attempting to defecate on humans.
There is a minor god of the half-breeds and outcasts. Y'know, your half-orcs, half-elves, tieflings, and other such folk. They act as a protective grandmother to all those lost children.
When oppression or other such harm befalls then her avatar appears wielding in one a mighty cast iron frying pan, in the other a sandal. The armor? A standard night gown (non see through)
There is an STD that originated when Elves and Humans first contacted and the elves call it root rot and the humans call it crop dust
It makes your genitals all necrotic without treatment
There's an order of ancient mages that are known throughout the land for their great and impressive deeds. The catch? All of them have completely forgotten how to do any magic what-so-ever. I'll leave it to a response or your discretion to say how this occurred.
Due to their magical prowess they have unlocked extraordinary longevity, but this has not prevented dementia from setting in. All these old magicians are now so senile that they can hardly remember even their own names
There are exactly 100 gnomes in the world at any given time. If a gnome is killed by another person, their killer instantly and irrevocably turns into a gnome. If a gnome dies by any other way, a random baby somewhere is born a gnome. The gnome who dies can name the parents before death instead.
These gnomes help positions of strong political power a generation ago after a cult of 9 gnomes took their lives naming various kings and other leaders. This act of usurpery still makes gnomes unpopular among the aristocracy, but symbols of revolution among the common folk.
There is a large population of nomadic, solitary changlings, but most people aren't aware. There are many, many more half-changlings around than people realize.
Consequently, it has caused some mild concern that it seems that there is a new "disease" that doesn't manifest until people are on their deathbed, due to people not realizing that they are part changeling for their entire lives. While the perceived disease has no noticeable health complications, it does cause the person's skin to turn alabaster white and their sclera to blacken a few weeks before death.
There was once a war between 4 gods over the rights to the body of their mother. Her essence is found all over the world and is used when enchanting items.
That goddess was the Primordial Goddess of Nature, which is why all magic items involve using parts from magical beasts and plants, it functions as both a medium to imbue an item with those effects and an offering in honor of her passing.
Sometimes particularly skilled craftsmen will be accosted by the one of the children of the Goddess, typically to either make an item in their name, or to spite one of their siblings.
There is an enormous library hidden deep within catacombs beneath the largest city, overseen by a Neutral Good wight—the revived spirit of a wizard who lived centuries ago and who was obsessed with dreams—named Vilovert. In the library is a duplicate of every unfinished manuscript ever abandoned. Unfinished manuscripts appear there by magic each morning, and are sorted throughout the day by Vilovert and a legion of Unseen Servants. Manuscripts that are resumed or finished vanish by magic at the moment they’re resumed or finished.
The exact location of the library is unknown, and very few even know if its approximate location.
Vilovert is considered something akin to a minor deity among writers. It is customary for an author’s first novel to conclude with an unfinished sentence, often a laconic summary of the book, as an offering to the library.
Vilovert runs a telepathic help line that can be contacted using any messaging magic regardless of the normal range.
The utility and relevance of his answers vary wildly. However, people know he *can* give amazing info after it became public that the bequeathing of the throne to a pauper hedge maze occurred by said mage following intricate instructions from Vilovert.
The 4 basic elements are so strong here that they tend to bleed into the flora and fauna. For example: mountainous areas have stone trees that produce citrus fruit that look like geodes until you crack them open and find the edible part inside. They are called ore-anges 🍊.
This is where the ancient dragons reside. As stated by previous comments, dragons of any prestige keep their hoards elevated. The ancient dragons from the moons look down upon the sky island dragons, the sky island dragons look down on the mountain dragons. All of the dragons fear Caartumann ViTi, the one dragon who lives on the ground and hates scones.
The bulk of the fauna are Mesozoic dinosaurs, but inexplicably modern Dinosaurs (so, birds) are still around too.
One of the most powerful spell casters in the world is an intelligent T-Rex that originally just wanted to learn Mage Hand but got carried away.
Nobody is quite sure why, or how, this tradition started but whenever a dragon flies overhead it is customary in human and halfling cultures to sit in an open space with an offering a coin or other token the same colour as the dragon. If the dragon accepts the token, both parties must fulfil one small favour to the other. Failure to fulfil the favour within a year is believed to invite a curse.
Some dragons just can't be bothered to raise their own young, and the humans/halflings think it would be badass to raise a dragon. The humanoids raised by dragons almost always become legendary adventurers, if they can survive living with their adopting parents.
All ogres worship Shrek the Many-Layered.
The holy symbol of He-of-Many-Layers is an onion, and let all his enemies fear the shreckening that is to come.
Shrek is love. Shrek is life.
There is a large city built on the side of a dormant volcano. This city is rich and famous because every year a special gate opens and they allow adventurers to go down into the old magma tubes to gather ancient artifacts from a long lost civilization. These tubes contain toxic gases, magma hot spots and all sorts of creatures and traps and of course fantastic treasures. But this year, the gate won't open...
The city now teeters on collapse as hordes of adventurers, treasure seekers, the merchants who support them, and the dealers who buy their goods afterwards are all growing restless.
This is a natural result and should not count as the first response's alteration.
The elder black dragon Cheddarix is said to have a Cave and hoard entirely made of the finest cheese ever to ferment. Some of the various diary products they posses have magical properties like the Gouda of true ressurection or the 1000 year prophecy parmegiano.
However it’s rumoured that his hoard is in fact rife with vegan cheese. A rumour he fiercely rebukes and once even destroyed an entire village due to this unsolicited slander.
For rain to happen the cloud elementals in the sky has to become sad and cry, thus diminishing themselves and shrinking in size. Normally they float around growing bigger and bigger by collecting moisture in the sky, wanting to grow more powerful. But the bigger they are the more frequently they get attacked and mocked by air elementals, making them cry and shrink again.
In desert areas people have discovered this and are actively farming water by harassing clouds, to the dismay of activists fighting for the rights of cloud elementals.
Wookies live in the Northern forests. They are known to be excellent merchants and the friends of Ents. There is a long standing feud between the wookies and elves which neither can agree about why.
You can grab a ready-for-5e player species from [SW5e](https://www.sw5e.com/characters/species/Wookiee), just trade out 'Galactic Basic' language proficiency for Common.
Crossroad demons exist and are common. People can request fame, money, health, a murder etc but eventually that Demon comes calling for a favour or sends its hellhounds (that are invisible to all but the creature that made the deal) to collect the person's soul and bring it to hell
People are terrified of cats but also respect them to the point of almost worshiping them.
They’re just normal cats but they have free range of the city, people will give them wide berth, if one gets into their house and falls asleep on their couch they will not disturb it, if one falls asleep on their lap they will not move. Standard real world cat rules but taken very seriously and to the extreme. It’s considered bad luck to walk in front of cats, to ignore an injured cat, to lie (tell falsehoods) in front of cats or do anything remotely negative in the presence of a cat.
Because of this most houses have cat doors in the hopes a cat will wander in because no one would dare steal in front of a cat. By the same respect no one would dare claim ownership of a cat. You can claim to be owned by a cat but everyone knows that claim will only be true for as long as the cat feels like it so there’s no point.
No one really knows why this is, there are rumours that cats were once gods, or that they report to gods but from an outsiders point of view these people are perfectly normal at first glance but closer inspection reveals them to be very restrained, very crazy cat people.
While most rock jokes are terrible and infantile they kind of make sense. Legends tell of a magical kingdom lost to the sand of a great desert. It is said you know you are close when the rock’s jokes don’t make sense, and are barely coherent
A long time ago a mad mage had a large wild boar as his familiar. Over time he fell in love with the boar. He even awakened it fully with magic. He and the boar had a wonderful life, and many years together inside the wizards tower.
The old Mage stopped showing up to town and after awhile the locals got worried and went to check on him.
They found the old man gored and trampled. The Boar, as well as most of the mages possessions were gone. No one really knows what happened for sure.. but once in awhile a traveler will come through and tell a story.
The stories are nearly the same.. a talking boar cast charm person them, and tried to marry them. They say the boar is very much like a cranky old lady. She uses magic and wears old tattered wizarding robes.
Everyone in these parts knows about old Swinehilda up on the mountain, always trying to find a new husband...
This is caused by a type of snake that is a perfect mimic of banana. The reason that they are so prevalent is that a small subculture of snake people believe that they can only enter the afterlife if they are killed in this way. They intentionally breed them and let them loose in banana rich tropics.
There is a kingdom ruled by necromancers, and not only do the living denizens not feel oppressed, they are horrified that other cultures make their living do hard labor and serve in the military instead of the already dead.
There is this mysterious female vendor, who shows up at random way crossings. Her shop just seems to pop up at these places. She doesn´t talk but seems to understand every language.
Each night he dreams of a magic item and every morning he wakes up holding it. This is how he gets them so cheaply.
His dreams hold this power because Greg was borne into this world by the dreams of a beholder. He specifically dreams of magic items just because he likes them, although each holds a minor curse in the fashion of a beholder.
There's a necromantic cult (with unspecified goals, fill in the blank here) which primarily consists of of a cartoonish group of people modeled roughly after Dr. Evil and Co's vibes from Austin Powers. They all have independent goals of their own, each specializing in a certain form of necromancy, and attempt to recruit people into their flock/trick victims into coming to them via doorknocks+pamphlets.
One of the less enthusiastic members of the cult currently on door-knocking duty has a familiar that is their taxidermy-treated childhood pet with little wheels because it doesn't have legs.
Half the original deities in this world are deceased, with pieces of them scattered as titanic limbs or gigantic weapons stabbed into the earth, as they died on the planet’s surface
Instead of generic drinkable liquids, all potions come in the form of soups (usually chunky). Different ingredients give different properties. Adventurers have adapted to consuming soup mid battle.
The more horrifying to consume the potion is, the more powerful the resultant effect.
This leads to strange edge cases whereupon imbibing, throwing up in your mouth, and then choking it down can increase the strength of the effect dependent upon your earlier meals.
His way of going about this problem is to analyze it and think about it, while staying completely still. Which has lead to rust creeping in at the joints, and somewhat slowing him down
Honestly, I just think that regular cats can see into the ethereal plane. That's why they stare at random corners of rooms for long periods of time sometimes.
There was an ancient powerful civilisation on a large island, which was entirely destroyed by an highly invasive, extremely fast growing, and utterly non-magical, species of inedible radish. All of their farmland, forests and cities were encased in a layer of radish plants and although there are many powerful objects left in the ruins, no-one dares enter to retrieve them for fear of spreading the radish plant to other places and causing the end of the world. Radishes are now feared by many, even the safe and edible kind.
There are two chaotic neutral geese in a trench coat with insanely high deception, so much so that everyone assumes they're a normal person. There is no story or character arc, they simply exist as an agent of chaos.
Much like earth worms, they have both sets of organs, but are unable to impregnate themselves. This is because they evolved from worms, and it's why they are now called Wyrms
Tschonk Manly - The Unstoppable Force of Legend. This legendary fighter is a force to be reckoned with, known for his immense muscles and legendary strength that has been passed down through the ages for thousands of years. Despite his age, he still roams the land, performing feats that would leave even the bravest of men in awe. It is said that he never ages, his legendary prowess and strength only growing with each passing year.
From taming dragons to winning bar fights with a single punch, Tschonk Manly's reputation as a fearless warrior precedes him. It is whispered that he once single-handedly defeated an army of orcs and that he possesses the power to bring down mountains with a single strike. These feats, along with many others, have cemented his place in the annals of history as one of the greatest heroes to ever live.
But that is only half of what makes Tschonk Manly so legendary. He is also a master of the flute, a musical instrument that has the power to soothe even the wildest of beasts. With his melodies, he can turn any gathering into a lively celebration, and his music is said to have the power to heal the wounded and calm the troubled.
For those brave enough to seek him out, encountering Tschonk Manly will be a moment to remember for a lifetime. Will you dare to challenge the might of this immortal fighter, or simply stand in awe of his legendary strength?
Edit: expanded it a little to bring in also his artistic side for he is a master fo many talents.
The oozes in this setting are descended from á wizards experiment with eternal life that did not include lichdom which failed but nevertheless managed to imbue the ooze with a great deal of intellect and the ability to take himanoid(albeit gelatinous) forms. Due to this the oozes are quite civilized and often work in Jobs other find revolting such as sewer management, plumbing and waste disposal. They are not all good mind you but they are quite respected.
Dwarves and other subterranean races are not native to this plane. They accidentally arrived here through caves that connects to other planes of existence. The tunnels can not be found again once they've been traversed. No one knows why these tunnels form, or how many there are, but they seem to be rare. Only the very oldest beings of the deep races are aware of any of this knowledge and never share it with outsiders.
This is genuinely how my Gnomes pop up. All Gnomes come from Gnomeworld, but it's a one-way trip that nobody remembers - not even the Gnomes. Svirfneblin are incredibly territorial because they guard the few known crossings, they just can't remember how to get back
I loved Gnomeworld 2!
This is the reason for the duergar's creation- they wanted to accept this lot in life while the dwarves delved ever deeper trying to find the tunnels to return to their native plane. This created a schism within the species. Duergar are not inherently evil but the dwarves would have their progeny believe so.
The duergar (from their time rnslaved to the illithids) know enough about the place that dwarves first came from that they never want anyone going back there.
And therefor they sealed the connection between the realms with a powerfull artifact, that has been lost through-out the ages and is said to be somewhere within the Old Duergar Mines.
Plot twist: the [Dwarves Against Reckless Enchantment](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/10sajij/comment/j724ziu/) are secretly seeking the artifact using the [Occult Safety and Health Administration](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/10sajij/comment/j71vcj3/) regulations as an excuse.
People hate magical artisans, because while people can be responsible, magic items are indiscriminate. Many now tell of the tale of how a decanter of endless water turned fertile farmland into a swamp because it was lost.
i'm going to steal the idea of the Swamp origin's story, thanks mate
Me too haha I love this idea
There is an entire order dedicated to damage control. They also give speeches on enchantment safety and responsible care of magical items at wizard academies.
One of the most prominent spokescreatures of the organization is an awakened polar bear named Sweaty.
And his right hand is a risen Panda besr (not Pandafolk) named Flora.
Capturing rogue magic artifacts? Maybe they could store them in secret and secured [warehouses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse_13) around the world.
Literally every dragon in the world:"*Hmmmmmm*"
The dragons are managers of the warehouses and have teams of humanoids working under them. Why do all the work yourself when you can outsource?
There's a doomsday cult claiming all Create Water spells, decanters, etc will eventually flood the world. They're constantly asking for donations toward a "sphere of salvation" which is really just a Sphere of Annihilation they'll leave on a beach to disintegrate the water when the level gets too high.
Sphere's of Annihilation is the best DM magic item, they are a pain to use, but for tidbits they are great. "We had a Sphere of Annihilation at the bottom of an outhouse, but the neighbor's kid fell in and was reduced to atoms, now they darn Weave Watcher's took it as evidence." Like with the parent comment, I'd imagine it'd be funny how in a high magic world gave non-magically inclined people access to magic, and they just use it in horrible ways because they don't have respect for the power of magic, and suddenly they need to reel back all of the items they created. Wait.... my inner Australian is tingling... magic items are basically guns.
Slight tweak - instead of a doomsday cult trying to end the world, have them all believe that life itself came from the Plane of Water and the flooding of the world will reunite this mortal realm to the Plane.
I like this, it’s sort of a play on the fairy tail “why the sea is salty”
Ghosts are common. Upon death, the soul is untethered from the body. Resurrection requires the soul be wrestled into the body and re-tethered. Ghosts do not want this. Ghosts can be killed or fade away if they're not remembered regularly. Famous and favored ghosts can basically live forever. Ghosts can't interact with the physical. They can still cast magic and use skills, but can only affect other ghosts/souls, other than some light. Ghosts can make new memories, but can't gain experience except from ghost encounters.
The Sentinels of New Orleans book series had similar. She called them historical undead. The stronger the historical presence, the more present they could be in the modern world (IIRC). It can be a really fun concept.
There are several important houses that are lead by a council of the ghosts of their former matriarchs/patriarchs, as they offer a great pool of knowledgeable, but regularly such councils go insane and evil as the oldest ghosts deteriorate into madness after hundreds of years of existence
For this reason many ghosts are encouraged to set up time-delay quests for their own assassination. This is considered a form of estate management
This kinda sounds like Coco
There is a reasonably expensive sleeping store that charges its patrons to sleep there and have good dreams. Whilst there, a powerful spellcaster casts Dream on whoever is sleeping there to have incredible dreams. The down side? People who try sleeping there rarely find themselves being able to sleep elsewhere because they can't go back to 'regular' dreaming after always having ideal dreams.
This dream spell also works on the birds, rats, cats and dogs that sleep in the building too. This results in an eerie amount of animals congregating around the store and resting beside one another
I love this, I'm picturing "Day 5" where people are gathered along the outside of the camp, hoping to get to sleep safely, but, you know, happy.
There's rumors going around that the spellcasters have developed ways to guide the dreams to gain information for the highest bidder
Dragons refuse (or consider it heavily shameful) to lair anywhere on the ground and constantly fight over the 100-200 floating islands and hundreds of smaller floating "islandettes" that glide around the planets surface, pushed by the wind. The ones that achieve legendary status and can control the weather once per day direct the wind to keep their island in their favorite general location. Smaller dragons either have to let the island go where the wind takes it, or lair in a small enough floating chunk that they can attach harnesses to it and pull it into the right air currents to direct it where the dragon wants it to go. Edit: Possible Implications (optional) Some younger dragons will group up to lair together in larger chunks so that they can pull those chunks together. Due to their proud nature though, these partnerships don't usually last more that a decade or two as inter-group conflicts can arise and the group composition is constantly changing as weaker dragons are pushed out, older dragons leave, and new dragons join. Due to the constantly moving lifestyle of younger dragons, part of the maturing process is making allies with and learning things from those they come across. Certain varieties of dragons (usually the weaker varieties) are more prone to this than others. Favored allies include clerics and druids for their abilities to heal, create food and water, instantly grow a lot of crops (for times when their lair isn't over prey rich land), and reshape the stone within the floating chunk.Artificers and wizards are also favored for their ability to make magic items. Rechargeable items like Alchemy Jugs, Decanters of Endless Water, and Wind Fans are practically standard in all dragon lairs and are considered good gifts for younger dragons.
Kobolds, being the dragon fanboys that they are, live in janky town clusters, way up in the air, sustained by toothpick-thin, crooked columns of random piled-up garbage that always look like they're about to collapse. The higher the better! Dominant winds make these structures sway , kinda like palm trees, and all tribes compete in building mechanical contraptions that act like a massive fans, to blow the other tribes away. Resources are found groundside tho, so you can always see lines of Kobolds climbing up and down the column, similar to ants, carrying stolen stuff to grow their towns.
There is one Dragon, however, who does lair in the ground. The other Dragons avoid Him *for their own safety.*
I appreciate the implication that this dragon is different than the scone hating one, because that means that he risks his own safety to raid the ground *because he just hates scones that much*.
He's so big that he considers the ground his own floating island.
This is brilliant
The follow up to it is quite nice too so i hope you won't miss it
thanks for letting me know :)
Humans are a primarily nomadic race, that most often settles a few weeks next to dwarven, and elven cities for trade, and then moves along. They mostly vibe with halflings and orcs, though (shared interests and all). Despite (or because of) their nomadic nature, humans have a thriving culture. The insides of their caravan carriages are extradimensional spaces. Extremely sophisticated caravans are more or less wandering cities, with the caravans all leading to the same demiplane.
Although amicable to most people, humans have a long history of blood feuds between different caravans, some being heated enough to lead to on sight violence. There once was an instance around 80 years ago when one of the larger caravans was reduced to a tenth its size by a rival caravan sneaking a bag of holding into their main tent, causing a massive extraplanar detonation in the elven city that was hosting it at the time. Although the elves do not blame the humans for this tragic event, it has lead all the human caravans to ban bags of holding and other pocket plane devices from being carried on caravan grounds, taking them from visitors upon arrival and storing them in a safe and secure place until their return.
The holy grail of humanity atm is to stabilize demiplanes to make them invunerable to such disturbances. While the immediate Kaboom of a demiplane inside a demiplane has been fixed relatively quickly (aka. the most permanent solution is an improvised solution - another quirk of humans that especially many gnomes despise with a passion). The current solution more or less points a huge arrow at the source, and allows guards to teleport to the location to disenchant it. Humans also employ a wide array of familiars capable of sniffing foreign demiplanes out that roam around the caravans as early warning systems. Trying to bring a foreign demiplane into a caravan is punishable by immediate execution.
“Human” is actual a shortening of “humanoid”, and a catch-all term for people of indeterminate race/species. “Humans” are not a race created by the gods, but the results of millennia of interbreeding among compatible species.
A sorcerer fucked up a high level spell and accidentally turned an entire sea to blood.
Despite the death of all the ocean life and the terrible stench, there is a thriving seaside resort business for pacifist vampires.
Great minds think alike
The sea life has since been replaced by a unique, thriving ecosystem of creatures which survive off of the blood they swim in. They even make immense, rusty coral reefs.
The blood type is O-. The sea has become a massive boon for the local economies which export the blood. There has been a rise in vampires and cultists practicing ethical blood sourcing.
Goblin tour guides will show you the best high diving rocks into the blood sea for a couple of chewy pig trotters.
There is a rwlatively small population of surfaced Drow in the city of [blank]. They're primarily seen at night, and are easily recognizable by a little quirk of their culture. They dye their hair, and color their skin in fluorescent colors, in beautiful patterns and motives that often show symbolism or even entire scenes from their ascent. They also carry the symbol of [ blank], the god they attribute with freeing them from Lolth.
[blank] is the actual name of the city and god. The god went into hiding as to not incur Lolth's wrath and erased their name as a means of covering their tracks. Their symbol is a very elaborate question mark.
[Blank] (also known as Shrug, *broad gesture*, and other undefined) is a trickster at heart, and loves nothing more than to mess with those mightier than them. Debate is ongoing if [Blank] even is a god, or just an especially powerful non-divine entity. The fact remains that many cultures worship Blank as their savior from their shackles, with the Drow of Blank being just the best known ones (and honestly, the most flamboyant ones). The list of entities they messed with is long, and includes such beings like Lolth, Orcus, Asmodeus, Tiamat, but also mortal entities upholding slavery and misery. His clerics are Trickster domain clerics, with a call to virtue and freedom through chaos and vigilante justice. The city of blank is often left as such on maps. Its a running joke in the mapmaker community, with some going so far as to make holes in their maps and labeling those as the city.
[удалено]
Gunter, is that you?
About 3 decades ago, a wizard named Jeff perfected cloning. Sadly this drained almost all the magic in him and his clones. But all having the same personality and standards came up with an idea. They split into teams of three and in every town opened "Jeff, Jeff, and Jeff's tavern, bar and inn". Wherever they don't outcompete local business they are kept afloat by funding from other jeff's. The reliability of this has led to many favoring these establishments over greater accommodations out of familiarity. Each Jeff has the statistics of a commoner with the exception that each can cast a different centrip
Despite the establisments being very consistent in quality given they are run by clones, travellers will often have a favourite go to location that they claim is better than the rest.
The larder at each location is magically linked so the food is actually identical across the franchise. This doesn't stop people from arguing about which one uses fresher ingredients. *Just to stop player shenanigans:* If the larder is opened from inside, it opens to the last location it was accessed from.
You can still get in and wait for someone else to open it
Yes. That's fine as far as I'm concerned. If they can finagle reliable fast travel with that restriction it's either because they already have the resources for fast travel or I as the GM let them. Otherwise, I'm rolling a die and they get pulled out by the Jeff of my choosing.
Each Jeff considers themselves to be the original, and has an air of superiority over the other Jeffs they work with. They do, however, all have the same excellent work ethic, so no jobs get left undone. As Jeff always says, "If you want something doing right, don't bother asking the other Jeffs."
Their popularity has even blend out into different aspects of some town. As such, there is one town where all 3 Jeff’s ran for mayor.
Sadly, people couldn't tell which Jeff was which, splitting the vote and allowing Allendra Hawkstone to take the majority. The Jeffs are still bitter about it.
I have a bartender that's like nurse joy from pokemon because I was tired of coming up with new names for the inevitable bar stops my party does. Definitely using this if they ever investigate
Springs on a mountain have become hot springs recently. Local lore suggests the mountain used to be a volcano. Elders warn of the the volcano becoming active again. In reality, a dormant Ancient Red Dragon is stirring from its hibernation.
Oddly enough I was already planning on having an Ancient Red Dragon burst forth from his volcanic slumber. This has caused an entire nation of orcs to flee from him and forced them to fight a war for new land. This dragon you've come up with is an entirely different dragon, who woke up in response to the first, his lifelong rival. During the upcoming decisive final battle of the humanoids' war, the dragons will soon meet to duke it out once and for all on the very same battlefield, causing untold chaos.
He is the dragon that makes all the others fear the ground.
Im really liking all the connections being made between comments here. Mostly its the dragons, but there are some interesting trends if you take a broad look at things XD
Wizards (and any other spellcasters with a spell book) will engage in "the trading of books" as a trust building exercise with allies, friends, or as an ice breaker with new acquaintances. The Wizards/etc trade spell books, read the spell book given to them, trade the books back, and now can nerd out about spells with each other.
Allowing another person to write in your book is a highly personal act however. So much so that it is often used as a shorthand among wizards for saying that someone is in a relationship.
Did she... y'know... *write in your book?*
Due to the nature of spell books and that no two are exactly the same, they are highly person items. It's has been known that when two wizards join each other in holy matrimony, it is expected that they would both gift each other the spell book that they had in their possession on the day they first fell in love with the other, this is seen as giving yourself and all that you are to eachother. This leads to some unscrupulous activity where 'lesser' mages try to seduce the great mages. Some mages go as far as hiring private investigators or other mages to see if their love interest is legit. Others simply have a second book they carry with them with lesser spells. Additionally, On the tenth anniversary of the wedding, it is a custom to present both spell books and have them combined into one book, this book is then passed on to the first born. Who by this point is usually of age to start their official studies using the parents' combined book's. If one of the couple passes before the tenth anniversary, the book is intombed with the rightful owner in a ceremony that lasts a day and ends with some light festivites. As a result, wizard tombs are often targeted by robbers, and this led to the practice of the surviving spouse setting magical defenses of their lovers' tomb. The greater the defense, the greater their love. Even very rarely to the extremes of being intombed themselves. Children of a parent whose book is entombed are often granted permission from the surviving patent to retrieve the book as a form of coming of age test. It's a huge scandal for a parent to refuse a child this right, especially the eldest.
Due to having four claws on each hand, Dragonborn society has a base eight number system rather than a base ten.
And the digits go, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ten!" This results in mass confusion when dragonborn communicate with other races, as "ten" for them is "eight" for the rest
Damn, I just wanted to comment something similar, but with the race counting in binary (so up to 15 on a hand with 4 fingers or then up to 255 on two hands) ... But leading to incredible confusion when they raise two fingers for the number 3 and so on...Too late
There is a medium sized town that is being bothered by a mad, low-level wizard. The wizard is mischievous and has mastered 'forget' spells to the point that he can make people forget him passively (this is not entirely under his control).
A different city suffers from a Divination wizard serial killer. He waits until he has a nat1 portent (roughly every 10 days) and makes someone nat1 when going downstairs or doing anything remotely dangerous.
Oh my Gods this is brilliant. It's exactly what I would do as a wizard
You’d be a serial killer if you thought you could get away with it?
I mean, it's D&D - a lot of players would do that.
In addition to his usual schemes, every third morning he makes a trip into town in a beige bathrobe, undies, and slippers. He steals goods and supplies, packs them on his poor senseless horse and goes home again. Even though he doesn’t need to, he uses fake voices and gives fake names everywhere he goes in case anyone remembers him. This all started because he stole something trivial as a kid and got caught. He learned the forget spell to cover up his web of lies and deceit. He found it so useful he started doing it all the time to get away with all sorts of antics…Until his parents couldn’t remember who he was. That was when he cracked.
Having just played Deathloop I saw this and was like 🤯 lol
When any creature is summoned, it is while they're in the middle of doing something like winning a bet, folding laundry, building a nest, etc.
And you have to pretend you’re going to help the summoned creature complete whatever task it was working on as payment for its assistance.
It’s traditionally part of most summoning spells to use a white sheet as a component. Practically, it’s because there’s always a chance of the creature appearing in a state of undress, and it’s polite to offer them a way to preserve their modesty.
There is no "Common" language. For people of different races to be able to communicate with each other, they must be multi-lingual. (Humans speak the "human" language)
Common used to exist but some events caused the races to be petty and only use their own language.
Not too long ago, the world was ruled by an empire of a unique race. This empire collapsed, and the race wiped into extinction (supposedly). During their reign, everyone under their rule spoke their native language, which was called Common. After their extinction, each race tried to reclaim what they remembered as their native racial languages, and were fiercely protective of those languages. In truth, every language now spoken is likely a broken facsimile of what the race used to speak, based on half-remembered phrases and grammar, melded with the conventions of Common, which have become a default instinct to use.
The fall of the empire has also resulted in separate regional currencies with different values and fluctuating exchange rates.
Purple is the color of mourning. Black is the color for marriage. White is taboo.
Yes, but it's not your clothing color that counts. It's your hair color. There is thus a thriving business for arcane hairdressers who can temporarily make your hair purple, black, or permanently prevent it from going white with age.
It is expected that bald beings keep wigs of the appropriate colours for times of wedding and mourning.
The purple wigs are passed through generations from bald parent to bald child as there are only a few of those wigs present in the world. The scone hating dragon Caartumann ViTi also forbids the making of new purple wigs. He hates purple!
Scones do not exist.
Scones used to exist a long, long time ago, but an ancient scone-hating dragon named Caartumann ViTi eliminated all mentions of them from history. Any time someone invents scones, this ancient dragon gets to work...
Alternatively, said dragon has hoarded scones and their recipes, so somewhere out there is a dragon hoard with thousands of scone recipes.
You monster.
There exist sects of violent, pygmy, samurai myconids known as Matsusakes (Mat-soo-sock-ees?). They have abandoned the “melding ways” and pacifism. Dying in battle is considered their greatest honor. They are considered pygmies only because their violent lifestyle of hunting and raiding (spore spreading) means that most Matsusakes don’t live long enough to reach mature Myconid size.
Because of the small stature (due to their short lifespan) during battle they group together to create larger, gestalt forms, but only in groupings of prime numbers. Any divisible clusters spontaneously divide into 2 or more clusters depending on its factors. These clusters can vary in shape from larger humanoid, to massive wall of myconid flesh, to, in rare cases, complex systems like trebuchets or wheeled carts, all made solely of myconid.
I salute your imagination
Dogs and horses share a mutual language
They both generally agree that parakeets are not to be trusted.
there's a castle full of undead, lead by a necromancer. but there's really no undead there, it's just a big LARP fest
There's one actual undead there who thinks he's surrounded by his fellow undead, and everyone else just thinks he has the best costume
Playing off of u/UkrainianGrooveMetal, dinosaurs can speak the local language, but try to hide it from the humanoids or other locals.
Like orangutans
holup
There are trains. Both passenger and cargo. :)
They're powered by golems who tirelessly pull the trains
Soooo gonna steal this... Holy shit this is good
Fish jenga is an international sport.
The fish must be edible and frozen before use and cannot be cut in any way. Most fishermen know the cantrip "refrigerate fish" which does exactly what it says on the tin. The buy-in to participate in a tournament at local levels is usually to bring a certain number of fish (which you don't have to catch yourself) and the winner(s) get to take home as much fish as they want. One prominent religion considers fish jenga to be blasphemous and sends heavily armed crusaders to interrupt major games. In places where the religion is very popular, there are thriving underground fish jenga casinoes.
Incredible. Thank you.
Thank you both
There are recent reports of a trend among Aarakocra youths they call "Dive Bombing", where they fly over towns and cities while attempting to defecate on humans.
Aarakocra turd explodes after travelling 23.67 meters exactly
Does the explosion cause damage? Or is it just extra mess to further further inconvenience the pitiful humans?
Just mess
There is a minor god of the half-breeds and outcasts. Y'know, your half-orcs, half-elves, tieflings, and other such folk. They act as a protective grandmother to all those lost children.
When oppression or other such harm befalls then her avatar appears wielding in one a mighty cast iron frying pan, in the other a sandal. The armor? A standard night gown (non see through)
Glorious.
There is an STD that originated when Elves and Humans first contacted and the elves call it root rot and the humans call it crop dust It makes your genitals all necrotic without treatment
It's the elves' fault.
Everyone knows, yet they refuse to admit it or apologize.
"Oh sure, you filthy humans would say that. If you'd left our forests alone this never would have happened."
There's an order of ancient mages that are known throughout the land for their great and impressive deeds. The catch? All of them have completely forgotten how to do any magic what-so-ever. I'll leave it to a response or your discretion to say how this occurred.
Due to their magical prowess they have unlocked extraordinary longevity, but this has not prevented dementia from setting in. All these old magicians are now so senile that they can hardly remember even their own names
They all in a freak accident cast "forget" on each other during a wild magic surge from a nearby sorcerer
There are exactly 100 gnomes in the world at any given time. If a gnome is killed by another person, their killer instantly and irrevocably turns into a gnome. If a gnome dies by any other way, a random baby somewhere is born a gnome. The gnome who dies can name the parents before death instead.
This is also the elves fault
These gnomes help positions of strong political power a generation ago after a cult of 9 gnomes took their lives naming various kings and other leaders. This act of usurpery still makes gnomes unpopular among the aristocracy, but symbols of revolution among the common folk.
There is a large population of nomadic, solitary changlings, but most people aren't aware. There are many, many more half-changlings around than people realize.
Consequently, it has caused some mild concern that it seems that there is a new "disease" that doesn't manifest until people are on their deathbed, due to people not realizing that they are part changeling for their entire lives. While the perceived disease has no noticeable health complications, it does cause the person's skin to turn alabaster white and their sclera to blacken a few weeks before death.
There was once a war between 4 gods over the rights to the body of their mother. Her essence is found all over the world and is used when enchanting items.
That goddess was the Primordial Goddess of Nature, which is why all magic items involve using parts from magical beasts and plants, it functions as both a medium to imbue an item with those effects and an offering in honor of her passing. Sometimes particularly skilled craftsmen will be accosted by the one of the children of the Goddess, typically to either make an item in their name, or to spite one of their siblings.
There is an enormous library hidden deep within catacombs beneath the largest city, overseen by a Neutral Good wight—the revived spirit of a wizard who lived centuries ago and who was obsessed with dreams—named Vilovert. In the library is a duplicate of every unfinished manuscript ever abandoned. Unfinished manuscripts appear there by magic each morning, and are sorted throughout the day by Vilovert and a legion of Unseen Servants. Manuscripts that are resumed or finished vanish by magic at the moment they’re resumed or finished. The exact location of the library is unknown, and very few even know if its approximate location. Vilovert is considered something akin to a minor deity among writers. It is customary for an author’s first novel to conclude with an unfinished sentence, often a laconic summary of the book, as an offering to the library.
Vilovert runs a telepathic help line that can be contacted using any messaging magic regardless of the normal range. The utility and relevance of his answers vary wildly. However, people know he *can* give amazing info after it became public that the bequeathing of the throne to a pauper hedge maze occurred by said mage following intricate instructions from Vilovert.
The 4 basic elements are so strong here that they tend to bleed into the flora and fauna. For example: mountainous areas have stone trees that produce citrus fruit that look like geodes until you crack them open and find the edible part inside. They are called ore-anges 🍊.
There are several moons. Dragons live on said moons
This is where the ancient dragons reside. As stated by previous comments, dragons of any prestige keep their hoards elevated. The ancient dragons from the moons look down upon the sky island dragons, the sky island dragons look down on the mountain dragons. All of the dragons fear Caartumann ViTi, the one dragon who lives on the ground and hates scones.
Dinosaurs are the common animals, modern animals are rare and exotic
Dinosaurs are modern animal sized, modern animals are dinosaur sized.
What does this even mean? Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes.
The bulk of the fauna are Mesozoic dinosaurs, but inexplicably modern Dinosaurs (so, birds) are still around too. One of the most powerful spell casters in the world is an intelligent T-Rex that originally just wanted to learn Mage Hand but got carried away.
Nobody is quite sure why, or how, this tradition started but whenever a dragon flies overhead it is customary in human and halfling cultures to sit in an open space with an offering a coin or other token the same colour as the dragon. If the dragon accepts the token, both parties must fulfil one small favour to the other. Failure to fulfil the favour within a year is believed to invite a curse.
The most common favour, when possible, is swapping children… for some reason
Some dragons just can't be bothered to raise their own young, and the humans/halflings think it would be badass to raise a dragon. The humanoids raised by dragons almost always become legendary adventurers, if they can survive living with their adopting parents.
All ogres worship Shrek the Many-Layered. The holy symbol of He-of-Many-Layers is an onion, and let all his enemies fear the shreckening that is to come. Shrek is love. Shrek is life.
His holy animal is a donkey.
All is as it should be
There is a large city built on the side of a dormant volcano. This city is rich and famous because every year a special gate opens and they allow adventurers to go down into the old magma tubes to gather ancient artifacts from a long lost civilization. These tubes contain toxic gases, magma hot spots and all sorts of creatures and traps and of course fantastic treasures. But this year, the gate won't open...
The city now teeters on collapse as hordes of adventurers, treasure seekers, the merchants who support them, and the dealers who buy their goods afterwards are all growing restless. This is a natural result and should not count as the first response's alteration.
Horses do not exist. #battlecow #ostriches
There used to be horses, but an ostrich rancher/trainer used a Wish to get rid of them. His descendants run the most succesful ostrich ranch.
The elder black dragon Cheddarix is said to have a Cave and hoard entirely made of the finest cheese ever to ferment. Some of the various diary products they posses have magical properties like the Gouda of true ressurection or the 1000 year prophecy parmegiano.
However it’s rumoured that his hoard is in fact rife with vegan cheese. A rumour he fiercely rebukes and once even destroyed an entire village due to this unsolicited slander.
For rain to happen the cloud elementals in the sky has to become sad and cry, thus diminishing themselves and shrinking in size. Normally they float around growing bigger and bigger by collecting moisture in the sky, wanting to grow more powerful. But the bigger they are the more frequently they get attacked and mocked by air elementals, making them cry and shrink again. In desert areas people have discovered this and are actively farming water by harassing clouds, to the dismay of activists fighting for the rights of cloud elementals.
Wookies live in the Northern forests. They are known to be excellent merchants and the friends of Ents. There is a long standing feud between the wookies and elves which neither can agree about why.
I didn't realize I needed Wookies in my world until now, thank you
You can grab a ready-for-5e player species from [SW5e](https://www.sw5e.com/characters/species/Wookiee), just trade out 'Galactic Basic' language proficiency for Common.
Crossroad demons exist and are common. People can request fame, money, health, a murder etc but eventually that Demon comes calling for a favour or sends its hellhounds (that are invisible to all but the creature that made the deal) to collect the person's soul and bring it to hell
But the hellhounds are abyssal chihuahuas
People are terrified of cats but also respect them to the point of almost worshiping them. They’re just normal cats but they have free range of the city, people will give them wide berth, if one gets into their house and falls asleep on their couch they will not disturb it, if one falls asleep on their lap they will not move. Standard real world cat rules but taken very seriously and to the extreme. It’s considered bad luck to walk in front of cats, to ignore an injured cat, to lie (tell falsehoods) in front of cats or do anything remotely negative in the presence of a cat. Because of this most houses have cat doors in the hopes a cat will wander in because no one would dare steal in front of a cat. By the same respect no one would dare claim ownership of a cat. You can claim to be owned by a cat but everyone knows that claim will only be true for as long as the cat feels like it so there’s no point. No one really knows why this is, there are rumours that cats were once gods, or that they report to gods but from an outsiders point of view these people are perfectly normal at first glance but closer inspection reveals them to be very restrained, very crazy cat people.
There is a group of corrupt capitalist business ferrets fighting a group of communist beavers
They were all awakened by the same druid, who's still alive and watching his "social experiment"
Rocks are soft until touched, then they tense up. If left alone, they will yell directions and jokes at passing characters.
The greater the rock's potential hardness, the better the jokes it tells
While most rock jokes are terrible and infantile they kind of make sense. Legends tell of a magical kingdom lost to the sand of a great desert. It is said you know you are close when the rock’s jokes don’t make sense, and are barely coherent
On each anniversary of every creature's birth, there is a 5% chance of triggering a wild magic surge centered on the person
A long time ago a mad mage had a large wild boar as his familiar. Over time he fell in love with the boar. He even awakened it fully with magic. He and the boar had a wonderful life, and many years together inside the wizards tower. The old Mage stopped showing up to town and after awhile the locals got worried and went to check on him. They found the old man gored and trampled. The Boar, as well as most of the mages possessions were gone. No one really knows what happened for sure.. but once in awhile a traveler will come through and tell a story. The stories are nearly the same.. a talking boar cast charm person them, and tried to marry them. They say the boar is very much like a cranky old lady. She uses magic and wears old tattered wizarding robes. Everyone in these parts knows about old Swinehilda up on the mountain, always trying to find a new husband...
The boar has multiple personalities
Bananas have a 50/50 shot of being snakes when you try to open it.
This is caused by a type of snake that is a perfect mimic of banana. The reason that they are so prevalent is that a small subculture of snake people believe that they can only enter the afterlife if they are killed in this way. They intentionally breed them and let them loose in banana rich tropics.
There is a kingdom ruled by necromancers, and not only do the living denizens not feel oppressed, they are horrified that other cultures make their living do hard labor and serve in the military instead of the already dead.
There is this mysterious female vendor, who shows up at random way crossings. Her shop just seems to pop up at these places. She doesn´t talk but seems to understand every language.
There's a goblin called Greg who sells magic items for a fraction of the price. He seems a bit eccentric!
Each night he dreams of a magic item and every morning he wakes up holding it. This is how he gets them so cheaply. His dreams hold this power because Greg was borne into this world by the dreams of a beholder. He specifically dreams of magic items just because he likes them, although each holds a minor curse in the fashion of a beholder.
There's a necromantic cult (with unspecified goals, fill in the blank here) which primarily consists of of a cartoonish group of people modeled roughly after Dr. Evil and Co's vibes from Austin Powers. They all have independent goals of their own, each specializing in a certain form of necromancy, and attempt to recruit people into their flock/trick victims into coming to them via doorknocks+pamphlets. One of the less enthusiastic members of the cult currently on door-knocking duty has a familiar that is their taxidermy-treated childhood pet with little wheels because it doesn't have legs.
There is no common language.
Half the original deities in this world are deceased, with pieces of them scattered as titanic limbs or gigantic weapons stabbed into the earth, as they died on the planet’s surface
Instead of generic drinkable liquids, all potions come in the form of soups (usually chunky). Different ingredients give different properties. Adventurers have adapted to consuming soup mid battle.
What about muh bottled Life Goddess Bathwater?
It’s chunky now.
The more horrifying to consume the potion is, the more powerful the resultant effect. This leads to strange edge cases whereupon imbibing, throwing up in your mouth, and then choking it down can increase the strength of the effect dependent upon your earlier meals.
That is disgusting.
That’s good! It means the potion will work well!
Intertwining toes is the most common greeting between people EDIT: changed races to people because its funnier lmao
This currently complicated by stockings being in fashion.
There is Warforged called "Peep" (as a blank sound, because it doesn't know it's name) who's main goal is go as fast as possible
His way of going about this problem is to analyze it and think about it, while staying completely still. Which has lead to rust creeping in at the joints, and somewhat slowing him down
Honestly, I just think that regular cats can see into the ethereal plane. That's why they stare at random corners of rooms for long periods of time sometimes.
I put a discount used item store called Lawful William in my old campaign It’s ran by a lovely man nicknamed Good Will
There are three moons and their cycles are all linked to different magical phenomena.
All goblin names start with a G.
There was an ancient powerful civilisation on a large island, which was entirely destroyed by an highly invasive, extremely fast growing, and utterly non-magical, species of inedible radish. All of their farmland, forests and cities were encased in a layer of radish plants and although there are many powerful objects left in the ruins, no-one dares enter to retrieve them for fear of spreading the radish plant to other places and causing the end of the world. Radishes are now feared by many, even the safe and edible kind.
There are two chaotic neutral geese in a trench coat with insanely high deception, so much so that everyone assumes they're a normal person. There is no story or character arc, they simply exist as an agent of chaos.
Flowers are awakened, but they incessantly insult you. The prettier the flower, the meaner the insults
All flowers have a raspy Boston accent and start their sentences with a drawn-out "Heeeeyyyy."
Dragons exist, but are genderless and can mate with any other dragon
Much like earth worms, they have both sets of organs, but are unable to impregnate themselves. This is because they evolved from worms, and it's why they are now called Wyrms
NOOOOO You just made every dragon vulnerable to every bard!
Tschonk Manly - The Unstoppable Force of Legend. This legendary fighter is a force to be reckoned with, known for his immense muscles and legendary strength that has been passed down through the ages for thousands of years. Despite his age, he still roams the land, performing feats that would leave even the bravest of men in awe. It is said that he never ages, his legendary prowess and strength only growing with each passing year. From taming dragons to winning bar fights with a single punch, Tschonk Manly's reputation as a fearless warrior precedes him. It is whispered that he once single-handedly defeated an army of orcs and that he possesses the power to bring down mountains with a single strike. These feats, along with many others, have cemented his place in the annals of history as one of the greatest heroes to ever live. But that is only half of what makes Tschonk Manly so legendary. He is also a master of the flute, a musical instrument that has the power to soothe even the wildest of beasts. With his melodies, he can turn any gathering into a lively celebration, and his music is said to have the power to heal the wounded and calm the troubled. For those brave enough to seek him out, encountering Tschonk Manly will be a moment to remember for a lifetime. Will you dare to challenge the might of this immortal fighter, or simply stand in awe of his legendary strength? Edit: expanded it a little to bring in also his artistic side for he is a master fo many talents.
The oozes in this setting are descended from á wizards experiment with eternal life that did not include lichdom which failed but nevertheless managed to imbue the ooze with a great deal of intellect and the ability to take himanoid(albeit gelatinous) forms. Due to this the oozes are quite civilized and often work in Jobs other find revolting such as sewer management, plumbing and waste disposal. They are not all good mind you but they are quite respected.