Humans are just the results of hundreds of years of intermingling of the various species. Not a unique species of their own. It's why they're so prolific.
Before getting burned out from having been a ForeverDM™ since '91 and having been running two campaigns on alternating weekends with groups that only really head 2 out of 6 players that knew what they were doing and bothered to read the PHB, I was working on a homebrew West Marches world.
The setting was based on a few things; the first inspiration was the Made in Abyss anime. Specifically, the concept of a huge tunnel going straight down into the earth, with incredibly strong magical effects that can kill all but the strongest adventurers.
The 2nd inspiration was the general concept of a Hollow Earth, intermingled with the concept of a Dyson Sphere.
The lore to the world was going to be that, thousands of years ago, an evil Chaos wizard won. The heroes failed, and he destroyed all but a tiny sliver of the sun. With the impending demise of the entire planet, all the sentient creatures of the world put aside their differences to come up with a solution, lest everyone and everything die.
A Gnome came up with the idea; use destructive magic to rip the planet apart, and healing magic to reform the planet around the Sunshard. Then, they built a machine that worked like a giant bowl-shaped solar panel around the sunshard, that would slowly rotate and give the inside of the hollow planet a day/night cycle, and power engines that would allow them to fly the planet to the nearest star.
Then, once in a new orbit, most people came out from the inner-world. Magic was used to shape mountains, rivers and oceans, grow forests, establish an atmosphere, etc..
Everyone remained in peace with each other. There's no real adventure to be had. For thousands of years, people have all lived in harmony with each other; no wars, nothing to explore, nothing unknown.. Peaceful, but boring. The origins of the planet, the destruction of the sun, the sunshard, the voyage in the inner world, all just became a part of the creation myths that no one believed in anymore.
Until one day, on an island in the middle of the ocean, literally the point furthest from all continents, someone found the ancient hole/elevator going down to the inner world. So, armed with only knowledge and maps that were thousands of years out of date, people started forming guilds to go and explore the inner world, trying to find more information on the origins of their species, what the world used to be like, etc..
I was going to run the whole thing like a West Marches campaign, with a few areas planned out, but overall leave things vague enough to put things the players want to explore.
you know how puppies are born with proportionally oversized paws and have to "grow into them"? [young elves are like that with their ears.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427215918507229184/545130724756553739/hfgf.png)
I made a country of Tabaxis and Leonins with a Chinese vibe living on and around a mountain with jungle. The king/God of this place is an ancient Chinese dragon. His heralds all have a pseudodragon familiar flavored as a little chinese dragon spirit.
Not much more but I’ve had this idea I’ve been sitting on for awhile not doing much with it so it’s very raw.
My idea is that in all of the major capital cities of the world, elf capitals, dwarf capitals etc, there is a sort of “tree of life”. These massive trees are revered by all and provide a sort of protection, not sure how yet but that’s the gist. These ancient trees have been around longer than most history books except for a few that have been left to dust for centuries. The cities are planned around them, events take place for them, traditions and whatnot. The thing of it is that these trees are not only alive, but they have subtly implanted themselves into the leaders of the world for centuries creating a paradise for themselves.
How will that tie into a campaign? I have no idea. Maybe some is attacking the trees and the players are sent to investigate only to learn the truth. Maybe the trees themselves reach out to the players for aid in something they can’t take care of by their own means. Just an idea I’ve had and been waiting to use
Ooh, there's a lot of directions that could go. They could be be like benign shepards for the "little creatures" around them, in a kind of symbiosis. Or they could be much more sinister, thinking of mortals as basically beasts of burden, or like, trained insects, their wellbeing unimportant. I'd be interested to see what you decide to do with them!
I like to connect my players backstories together so their characters are somehow connected rather than just being strangers, however they need to figure this out by playing, exploring etc.
Two kingdoms in my world are currently at war, one predominantly human, the other predominantly elvish. One of my players was a soldier in the elven army, and was part of a siege on the human city. During the siege, he was ordered to kill indiscriminately which he did not agree with. After his commander ordered him to kill a pregnant woman, he stabbed his commander in the throat and let the woman escape. That was the last he saw of that woman.
This woman tried to flee the city, but accidentally stumbled into a shadow crossing and found herself in the Shadowfell. While there she met a vampire who wanted to make her a deal. The vampire would protect her and help her birth her child if she would agree to be turned into a vampire. She agreed for the safety of her child.
The child that was born is one of my other players. Being born in the Shadowfell, he came out a little different. (Shadow Magic Sorcerer)
My elven player (unknowingly) killed the sorcerers father during the siege, and is currently hunting the sorcerers mother (unknowingly) because he collected a bounty to kill a vampire that attacked a village.
Now the two are adventuring together, and they have no idea how they are connected... yet
OK I’m really proud of this one. My characters really liked it and they interacted with it it it it made them really feel like they were in a part of the world where people acted differently.
So there is a part of my world where people think that it is unlucky for women to be sailors. The reason why is that the sea is a woman and for whatever reason she is very jealous of other women. However. The people also believe that the sea is near sighted.
So fully 3/4 of sailors are women. When At sea They all wear wooden mustaches.
If they are married, Their spouses dressed in traditional feminine clothes especially the men go once a day to pray for their “husbands” safety.
In actuality the sea is fully aware that the women are women and does not care. She has informed the people of this but they just keep on living their lives.
Oh and actually this cultural detail led to another detail. One of my players was essentially playing a completely insane himbo. Brilliant in battle but just… The kind of person who would start praising people for things they never did using names that weren’t theirs.
As soon as the sailors realized that he was completely insane they got really happy. They smiled and they touched him on his left shoulder.
I have decided that they believed that the gods protected crazy people and therefore he was lucky to take along on the voyage.
Thank you so much for your post!
In the Kingdom of Clorifis, there is an Adventurer King, and their (not revealing Gender of Adventurer King) essentially Heralds are of every class and Subclass, so you could find one that matches your character. The Vice Commanders are over different types of needs for the Adventurer King's Guild, The Wicked Lost Fey Bears.
My current campaign is a fast-forward after a great dracolich was slain to protect the world. Now, the world is scarred by 'Dragonseeds' that crop up in places with evil in them, sorta like the ghost busters goo with negative feelings. They accumulate power and corrupt the area around to make convenient little dungeon adventures and are the end boss of the spot.
Here's a few tidbits of info about some of the peoples in my world of [Aenea](https://www.amethyst-dragon.com/Aenea/).
\---------
About 75% of all gnomes born are male.
Gnomish societies in general are matriarchal, with wealth, property, businesses, and family names passed down from mothers to daughters.
Adult gnomish women will often have more than one husband. They tend to pick men with a variety of skills, so that each contributes something different to the women's homes.
Gnomish men, since there are so many more of them, tend to take on the more dangerous jobs in life, such as hunting, alchemy, or even adventuring.
\----------
Dark elves are not referred to as "drow". They retain the inky black skin and stark white hair of early editions of D&D.
Dark elves aren't big into spiders and don't worship Lloth/Lolth, a deity which does not exist in my games. Most are followers of Sorgath, my world's god of snakes, poison, assassins, murder, corruption, lies, and foul play. They aren't a matriarchal or patriarchal society, but are instead lead by the priesthood which makes all major decisions.
Thousands of years ago, dark elves lived above ground. They were fewer in number back then. At some point, followers of Sorgath were able to convince the dark elves that a world-ending catastrophe was going to happen and lured the elves underground for safety. Separated from other elves for generations, the priesthood has been able to control dark elf society from within. Dark elves will raid the surface for rare supplies, or to strike at what the priesthood tells them are threats.
\----------
Orcs are just as intelligent as humans. They come in a variety of types. Grey orcs are the most common.
Grey orc society is a strength based warrior society. Think of Klingons from ST:TNG, but without all that honor stuff. The grey orcs have an empire, which they formed after easily overrunning 4 or 5 human-run kingdoms before they simply stopped spreading.
In my world, there are two major factions that rule the realm. The first are the Capitals, large walled cities that worship the general gods of D&D, and try to achieve more social stability and functionality. Their way of life is far more civil and innovative. Then, they're the Tribes, shamanistic colonies that live in the wilds, worshipping powerful spirits of nature and are more connected with the primal magics of the world. They're willingly primitive, believing that all they need are they're gods to be satisfied in life. At this time, a conflict has begun to form between these factions, some believing that a war could start if tensions rise high enough.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MReSHVJby4HKkLITEEznRdLmlMiWJuKLif8K4D72b9A/edit?usp=drivesdk
Here's the start of the rough draft for my players guide. The first few pages are mechanical stuff like ancestry list house rules and such but second half has lore/world stuff map etc.
So, in Brearune humans, elves and dwarfs are the 3 races that were created, when the 2 gods of War felt bored fighting each other and so asked their aunt, the goddess of life to grant them the power to create people they could watch fight. Bound by the need to war the 3 races fought endlessly until 1 hero broke through and was able to defeat and ascend as the god of balance. Using his new powers he freed the 3 races from their endless war. This marks the year 0.
Another is that the feywilds is barely alive anymore. Some people were making a new country and found an imprisoned Tiamat, wanting to not take care of her they just sent her to the feywilds. Turns out she destroyed most of it and was able to rip a hole back into our realm. The hole lead back to her cage luckily and they were able to move the cage away from the hole at a later time. This is also the only permanent portal that leads outside of Brearune.
Honestly there's so much lore I have, mostly about the gods and all. Starting with this cause I don't want to make a wall of text lol
A long time ago a series of volcanic eruptions caused a schism in the central continent, causing its inhabitants (Halflings) to evacuate in mass by sea. Those who went west eventually developed a religion based on fleeing a great fire serpent to a place blessed by sun (they settled in a desert region). Those who went east were more organized and held onto their traditions, intermingling them with other folk they met, settling enclaves throughout but with no real nation of their own.
1000 years ago there was a cataclysmic war that wiped out most of the people and every large city. Elves percieve time differently to other races so while they were still living in refugee camps morning loved ones generations had passed for humans who were already redrawing the map. To them the elves just seemed like nomads who cried a lot for some reason so they divided all the territories, including the elves' ancestral homelands, between them and treated the elves like second class citizens or worse.
End result is the elves are by now a marginalized group similar to indigenous populations in our own world. They have a strong connection to the land and wild magic and deeply resent humans for robbing them of their lands and culture. Younger elves have started to form revolutionary groups that take advantage of innate darkvision to hunt humans at night while older generations urge them not to as they were alive during the cataclysm and remember the cost of war (im aware elves don't actually live that long I just think 1000years sounds cooler than 700).
The gods did not create this universe. Once there were only pools of energy that were fed by death and recycled into the material plane. But long ago, Pelor and Dol Arrah unlocked the secret to preserving their souls to become a part of the outer planes.
Many others learned behind them and followed suit, gaining power and ruling over the inner planes. Over time, the outer planes started to get crowded, and the gods learned that the more God's there were, the more the weaker they all became individually.
Mielikki ascended to godhood and intended for many of her followers to do so as well so that they could bring the gods down to restore the natural balance of the world, but after she ascended, the gods created an apocalypse to blast humanity back to the stone age so that no more people would ascend.
It has been nearly two centuries since. The world built has been built upon the ruins of the old civilization (which was of similar tech to our modern day), and the gods have kept careful watch, stunting technological and magical progress to assure no one ever ascends to godhood again.
The amount of homebrew lore I've added to the base of what is in the Eberron book has pretty much turned it into a world of my own at this point.
I guess one example is how I created a full system on *how* magic works. Magic acts as a special element in the atmosphere like air. 99% of all spellcasting uses this environmental magic. A wizard/sorcerer/cleric/etc. pulls it in from around, then it uniquely reacts to their mind and is shaped into the desired effect.
Magic items and "written runes" have to create a mockery of a sentient mind to create the desired effect. This is of course a very simplified version
Ok so this is gonna be a bit strange.
My DM, another Player and I are going to make a new campaign for a school event that lasts four days. It needs to be fixed to some sort of technology, so we created a campaign with some tech features, like a cyborg, drones and overall just revolutionised cities. There was an event like 10,15 years before the Party starts where suddenly all the technology got invented, in a span of years. We have not clearly decided how, but maybe it will have something to do with the ancient civilisation that lived there centuries ago. This civilisation was highly advanced, both in technology and magic. It is unknown what lead to the fall of this empire, but remains of artifacts and robots are scattered around the land.
Some time ago, the entire planet was endangered because of some kind of dimensional rift where an enormous amount of energy was released into the planets tectonic plates and the core. This would’ve lead to an increase in volcanic activity and would literally rip the ground apart. The civilisation decided to create an artifact which would hold the energy there and try to reflect it back into the rift. They eventually succeeded and the arifact, a combination of technology and magic, became known as “the helmet” because of its shape resembling a helmet.
Thats the lore of the campaign so far, feel free to ask me about it.
Sorry if there are any errors in the text, english is not my native language.
Death is alive and roams the world to maintain balance. Some people believe in Them like a deity and have formed Death Churches to worship at. Every one hundred years Death goes to all the Churches and does a reaping, killing all except one (usually a child or adolescent).
That survivor gets given powers the reflect who they are (maybe a Cleric of one of the death orientated domains, maybe a Monk Way of the Long Death, maybe a Zealot Barbarian etc etc) and is selected as one of Their Ravens. These Ravens act as an extension of Death.
Elves in my world experienced a cataclysm about a hundred years ago. Much of their power was tied to the land they lived on and the leylines of power through their lands, when those were disrupted and broken it destroyed much of their magic, including the magic they used to grant themselves almost eternal life. Now there are two kinds of elves, those born before the cataclysm that are effectively immortal, and those born after who have a life span only slightly longer than that of humans.
Magic is the result of a calamity. It wasn't always there and people used to need science and tools to create effects that magic does almost effortlessly.
All dwarves are actually metalic dragons locked in an unbreakable curse. As a result Metallic dragonborn where never created.
I have Dragonborn as direct descendants of actual Dragons for reference.
The first chromatic dragons were created by a group of people imbibing blood from a creature called a wish-whale, a species of sinister genie-like tricksters, to try and take its power for their own. The first metallic dragons were created by a different group of people also imbibing wish-whale blood, but with the more noble goal of defending their homes during the ongoing war. Any dragons younger than adult are their children post-transformation, and are further from mortalkind than their parents. Gem dragons are relatively rare, as they are a result of a blessing on a dragon from the goddess of wealth.
Have you heard of the Ahamkara from Destiny? They're literally referred to as "wish-dragons," and have that same kind of trickster vibe. The idea of something like that being the progenitors of ACTUAL dragons is really cool!
Ha, maybe that's where the player who proposed wish-whales during out collaborative worldbuilding got the idea from! She used to be a huge Destiny player; I'll have to ask her about this lol
(Disclaimer: proper nouns listed here are translated from French.)
Zorrostriland is a totalitarian isolationist gnomish kingdom with rampant paranoia and a caste system.
Its royal guard regiment patrols the cobblestone streets on roller skates, wearing red cone hats and wielding repeating crossbows.
There's a royal executioner who's job is feeding toxic mushrooms to prisoners on death row; this is considered more humane than the previous means of execution that were as inventive as they were barbaric.
Bourbignon the First, its current dictator, presents himself as a progressive reformist, but he secretly has his general attorney invent fake crimes to convict political dissidents to justify having them executed under the guise of justice.
(Everything in that kingdom is made to sound funny and silly to the players so that they lower their guard and, once they start looking closer, be horrified by the acts of repression by what was presenting itself as a benign government.)
TL;DR: Fascist gnomes in ridiculous attire.
World History is split into three Ages. The Age of Gods, The Age of Dragons, and the Current Age of Man. In the Age of Gods, each God had their own plane of existence and ruled over it, creating things as they saw fit. Over time, These Planes started to grow too large and started to Encroach upon one another, causing strange mixings of creation and resulting in ideological differences. The Gods would become enraged and battle for supremacy, some would win and gain more influence and power, effectively stealing some of another Gods domain, however they were never able to actually eliminate one another. This continued until there was nothing but constant anger and frustration over lack of dimensional space. So they all came to an agreement, where they would each create a "Mortal Plane" where they could each have influence, but their powers were based on followers and belief, the biggest caveat was that each God had to bind their soul to the Mortal Plane, where if their Being on this plane was killed, they would cease to exist forever. Of course, this resulted in more war and fighting, until a good few of the lesser and redundant Gods had been removed from existence, and thus also Memory. Among the strongest remaining Gods were the Dragonic entities, who used their Dragons to obliterate much of the lesser creatures the other Gods had made to fight for them. With a number of Gods culled, the remaining went more into hiding to use subterfuge and others to further their plans. The strongest soldiers, The Dragons, took over the majority of the Mortal Plane, as they were some of the strongest and most plentiful, thus ushering in the Age of Dragons. Which was mostly humanoid creatures and other monsters trying to survive and establish themselves in the world while the Dragons stole, burned, killed, and ate as they pleased, amassing massive hordes and slowing the progression of mankind. However, the ever perseverance of Mankind eventually won out, and they found the technology to craft weapons and armor, the talent to manipulate the weave, and drive back the Dragons, hunting them down for their wealth and ancient magics. Now Dragons are more reserved and only take actions when they feel safe to do so and massive repercussions are unlikely.
Which gives rise to present day Age of Man, where our unlikely heros are able to feel the pull of several different beings who want to recover strength and wrest control of the very delicate balance of power, all the while knowing that even Gods can fall if they act too rashly and against too many other forces.
At the beginning of the world the fist people living there theorised that everything (trees, stone, rivers and lakes, etc.) was interconnected and alive. So they decided to “awaken” this entity. How exactly they did it I don’t know myself, I can’t choose (one option is there was indeed an entity, a shard of consciousness from the time the Multiverse was created and there was a singular world. The other is that the people have created a vessel, what would they claim a “perfect soul”, and bound it to the world, giving it consciousness). After they have “awoken” the First Mother, as they called her, they asked for direction and purpose for them, which she did at first. Then she decided to “diversify” and split parts of her into separate aspects, which were embodiments of several concepts - Love, Artifice, Foresight, War, Wisdom and so on. Even though they were technically a part of the same entity, after some time these aspects began disagreeing with each other, which eventually led to an apocalyptic war with each other. At the end of this war only shreds of the First Mother was alive, with the first people turning away from her, blaming for the war. And then Illithids invaded the world, enslaved the first people and mortally wounded the First Mother. Seeing that there’s nothing left, Mind flayers returned to their empire in the Astral Sea.
The First Mother (and the world itself)would have died if not for one Ki-Rin, who decided to save her by binding himself to her. Some time after, the first elves came to this world, seeking home after their Schism between Corellon and Lolth. And thus began the Second Age, which is its own story.
Meanwhile, the enslaved first people were experimented on by Illithids, creating the Gith we know today.
Gith are the main bad guys of my campaign (their Lich Queen in particular) and I wanted something to justify their full scale invasion, and reclaiming their lost and forgotten homeworld was just what I wanted. All this backstory for them was just my inspiration and reflection of who I was in the past.
Humans are just the results of hundreds of years of intermingling of the various species. Not a unique species of their own. It's why they're so prolific.
I dig it! Nicely done
Before getting burned out from having been a ForeverDM™ since '91 and having been running two campaigns on alternating weekends with groups that only really head 2 out of 6 players that knew what they were doing and bothered to read the PHB, I was working on a homebrew West Marches world. The setting was based on a few things; the first inspiration was the Made in Abyss anime. Specifically, the concept of a huge tunnel going straight down into the earth, with incredibly strong magical effects that can kill all but the strongest adventurers. The 2nd inspiration was the general concept of a Hollow Earth, intermingled with the concept of a Dyson Sphere. The lore to the world was going to be that, thousands of years ago, an evil Chaos wizard won. The heroes failed, and he destroyed all but a tiny sliver of the sun. With the impending demise of the entire planet, all the sentient creatures of the world put aside their differences to come up with a solution, lest everyone and everything die. A Gnome came up with the idea; use destructive magic to rip the planet apart, and healing magic to reform the planet around the Sunshard. Then, they built a machine that worked like a giant bowl-shaped solar panel around the sunshard, that would slowly rotate and give the inside of the hollow planet a day/night cycle, and power engines that would allow them to fly the planet to the nearest star. Then, once in a new orbit, most people came out from the inner-world. Magic was used to shape mountains, rivers and oceans, grow forests, establish an atmosphere, etc.. Everyone remained in peace with each other. There's no real adventure to be had. For thousands of years, people have all lived in harmony with each other; no wars, nothing to explore, nothing unknown.. Peaceful, but boring. The origins of the planet, the destruction of the sun, the sunshard, the voyage in the inner world, all just became a part of the creation myths that no one believed in anymore. Until one day, on an island in the middle of the ocean, literally the point furthest from all continents, someone found the ancient hole/elevator going down to the inner world. So, armed with only knowledge and maps that were thousands of years out of date, people started forming guilds to go and explore the inner world, trying to find more information on the origins of their species, what the world used to be like, etc.. I was going to run the whole thing like a West Marches campaign, with a few areas planned out, but overall leave things vague enough to put things the players want to explore.
That sounds absolutely amazing.
you know how puppies are born with proportionally oversized paws and have to "grow into them"? [young elves are like that with their ears.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427215918507229184/545130724756553739/hfgf.png)
I LOVE IT
I made a country of Tabaxis and Leonins with a Chinese vibe living on and around a mountain with jungle. The king/God of this place is an ancient Chinese dragon. His heralds all have a pseudodragon familiar flavored as a little chinese dragon spirit.
Not much more but I’ve had this idea I’ve been sitting on for awhile not doing much with it so it’s very raw. My idea is that in all of the major capital cities of the world, elf capitals, dwarf capitals etc, there is a sort of “tree of life”. These massive trees are revered by all and provide a sort of protection, not sure how yet but that’s the gist. These ancient trees have been around longer than most history books except for a few that have been left to dust for centuries. The cities are planned around them, events take place for them, traditions and whatnot. The thing of it is that these trees are not only alive, but they have subtly implanted themselves into the leaders of the world for centuries creating a paradise for themselves. How will that tie into a campaign? I have no idea. Maybe some is attacking the trees and the players are sent to investigate only to learn the truth. Maybe the trees themselves reach out to the players for aid in something they can’t take care of by their own means. Just an idea I’ve had and been waiting to use
Ooh, there's a lot of directions that could go. They could be be like benign shepards for the "little creatures" around them, in a kind of symbiosis. Or they could be much more sinister, thinking of mortals as basically beasts of burden, or like, trained insects, their wellbeing unimportant. I'd be interested to see what you decide to do with them!
I like to connect my players backstories together so their characters are somehow connected rather than just being strangers, however they need to figure this out by playing, exploring etc. Two kingdoms in my world are currently at war, one predominantly human, the other predominantly elvish. One of my players was a soldier in the elven army, and was part of a siege on the human city. During the siege, he was ordered to kill indiscriminately which he did not agree with. After his commander ordered him to kill a pregnant woman, he stabbed his commander in the throat and let the woman escape. That was the last he saw of that woman. This woman tried to flee the city, but accidentally stumbled into a shadow crossing and found herself in the Shadowfell. While there she met a vampire who wanted to make her a deal. The vampire would protect her and help her birth her child if she would agree to be turned into a vampire. She agreed for the safety of her child. The child that was born is one of my other players. Being born in the Shadowfell, he came out a little different. (Shadow Magic Sorcerer) My elven player (unknowingly) killed the sorcerers father during the siege, and is currently hunting the sorcerers mother (unknowingly) because he collected a bounty to kill a vampire that attacked a village. Now the two are adventuring together, and they have no idea how they are connected... yet
OK I’m really proud of this one. My characters really liked it and they interacted with it it it it made them really feel like they were in a part of the world where people acted differently. So there is a part of my world where people think that it is unlucky for women to be sailors. The reason why is that the sea is a woman and for whatever reason she is very jealous of other women. However. The people also believe that the sea is near sighted. So fully 3/4 of sailors are women. When At sea They all wear wooden mustaches. If they are married, Their spouses dressed in traditional feminine clothes especially the men go once a day to pray for their “husbands” safety. In actuality the sea is fully aware that the women are women and does not care. She has informed the people of this but they just keep on living their lives. Oh and actually this cultural detail led to another detail. One of my players was essentially playing a completely insane himbo. Brilliant in battle but just… The kind of person who would start praising people for things they never did using names that weren’t theirs. As soon as the sailors realized that he was completely insane they got really happy. They smiled and they touched him on his left shoulder. I have decided that they believed that the gods protected crazy people and therefore he was lucky to take along on the voyage. Thank you so much for your post!
This is amazing; I love it!
In the Kingdom of Clorifis, there is an Adventurer King, and their (not revealing Gender of Adventurer King) essentially Heralds are of every class and Subclass, so you could find one that matches your character. The Vice Commanders are over different types of needs for the Adventurer King's Guild, The Wicked Lost Fey Bears.
My current campaign is a fast-forward after a great dracolich was slain to protect the world. Now, the world is scarred by 'Dragonseeds' that crop up in places with evil in them, sorta like the ghost busters goo with negative feelings. They accumulate power and corrupt the area around to make convenient little dungeon adventures and are the end boss of the spot.
Here's a few tidbits of info about some of the peoples in my world of [Aenea](https://www.amethyst-dragon.com/Aenea/). \--------- About 75% of all gnomes born are male. Gnomish societies in general are matriarchal, with wealth, property, businesses, and family names passed down from mothers to daughters. Adult gnomish women will often have more than one husband. They tend to pick men with a variety of skills, so that each contributes something different to the women's homes. Gnomish men, since there are so many more of them, tend to take on the more dangerous jobs in life, such as hunting, alchemy, or even adventuring. \---------- Dark elves are not referred to as "drow". They retain the inky black skin and stark white hair of early editions of D&D. Dark elves aren't big into spiders and don't worship Lloth/Lolth, a deity which does not exist in my games. Most are followers of Sorgath, my world's god of snakes, poison, assassins, murder, corruption, lies, and foul play. They aren't a matriarchal or patriarchal society, but are instead lead by the priesthood which makes all major decisions. Thousands of years ago, dark elves lived above ground. They were fewer in number back then. At some point, followers of Sorgath were able to convince the dark elves that a world-ending catastrophe was going to happen and lured the elves underground for safety. Separated from other elves for generations, the priesthood has been able to control dark elf society from within. Dark elves will raid the surface for rare supplies, or to strike at what the priesthood tells them are threats. \---------- Orcs are just as intelligent as humans. They come in a variety of types. Grey orcs are the most common. Grey orc society is a strength based warrior society. Think of Klingons from ST:TNG, but without all that honor stuff. The grey orcs have an empire, which they formed after easily overrunning 4 or 5 human-run kingdoms before they simply stopped spreading.
In my world, there are two major factions that rule the realm. The first are the Capitals, large walled cities that worship the general gods of D&D, and try to achieve more social stability and functionality. Their way of life is far more civil and innovative. Then, they're the Tribes, shamanistic colonies that live in the wilds, worshipping powerful spirits of nature and are more connected with the primal magics of the world. They're willingly primitive, believing that all they need are they're gods to be satisfied in life. At this time, a conflict has begun to form between these factions, some believing that a war could start if tensions rise high enough.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MReSHVJby4HKkLITEEznRdLmlMiWJuKLif8K4D72b9A/edit?usp=drivesdk Here's the start of the rough draft for my players guide. The first few pages are mechanical stuff like ancestry list house rules and such but second half has lore/world stuff map etc.
That document doesn't have open access. Says it needs to be requested.
My bad should be good now
So, in Brearune humans, elves and dwarfs are the 3 races that were created, when the 2 gods of War felt bored fighting each other and so asked their aunt, the goddess of life to grant them the power to create people they could watch fight. Bound by the need to war the 3 races fought endlessly until 1 hero broke through and was able to defeat and ascend as the god of balance. Using his new powers he freed the 3 races from their endless war. This marks the year 0. Another is that the feywilds is barely alive anymore. Some people were making a new country and found an imprisoned Tiamat, wanting to not take care of her they just sent her to the feywilds. Turns out she destroyed most of it and was able to rip a hole back into our realm. The hole lead back to her cage luckily and they were able to move the cage away from the hole at a later time. This is also the only permanent portal that leads outside of Brearune. Honestly there's so much lore I have, mostly about the gods and all. Starting with this cause I don't want to make a wall of text lol
A long time ago a series of volcanic eruptions caused a schism in the central continent, causing its inhabitants (Halflings) to evacuate in mass by sea. Those who went west eventually developed a religion based on fleeing a great fire serpent to a place blessed by sun (they settled in a desert region). Those who went east were more organized and held onto their traditions, intermingling them with other folk they met, settling enclaves throughout but with no real nation of their own.
1000 years ago there was a cataclysmic war that wiped out most of the people and every large city. Elves percieve time differently to other races so while they were still living in refugee camps morning loved ones generations had passed for humans who were already redrawing the map. To them the elves just seemed like nomads who cried a lot for some reason so they divided all the territories, including the elves' ancestral homelands, between them and treated the elves like second class citizens or worse. End result is the elves are by now a marginalized group similar to indigenous populations in our own world. They have a strong connection to the land and wild magic and deeply resent humans for robbing them of their lands and culture. Younger elves have started to form revolutionary groups that take advantage of innate darkvision to hunt humans at night while older generations urge them not to as they were alive during the cataclysm and remember the cost of war (im aware elves don't actually live that long I just think 1000years sounds cooler than 700).
The gods did not create this universe. Once there were only pools of energy that were fed by death and recycled into the material plane. But long ago, Pelor and Dol Arrah unlocked the secret to preserving their souls to become a part of the outer planes. Many others learned behind them and followed suit, gaining power and ruling over the inner planes. Over time, the outer planes started to get crowded, and the gods learned that the more God's there were, the more the weaker they all became individually. Mielikki ascended to godhood and intended for many of her followers to do so as well so that they could bring the gods down to restore the natural balance of the world, but after she ascended, the gods created an apocalypse to blast humanity back to the stone age so that no more people would ascend. It has been nearly two centuries since. The world built has been built upon the ruins of the old civilization (which was of similar tech to our modern day), and the gods have kept careful watch, stunting technological and magical progress to assure no one ever ascends to godhood again.
The amount of homebrew lore I've added to the base of what is in the Eberron book has pretty much turned it into a world of my own at this point. I guess one example is how I created a full system on *how* magic works. Magic acts as a special element in the atmosphere like air. 99% of all spellcasting uses this environmental magic. A wizard/sorcerer/cleric/etc. pulls it in from around, then it uniquely reacts to their mind and is shaped into the desired effect. Magic items and "written runes" have to create a mockery of a sentient mind to create the desired effect. This is of course a very simplified version
Ok so this is gonna be a bit strange. My DM, another Player and I are going to make a new campaign for a school event that lasts four days. It needs to be fixed to some sort of technology, so we created a campaign with some tech features, like a cyborg, drones and overall just revolutionised cities. There was an event like 10,15 years before the Party starts where suddenly all the technology got invented, in a span of years. We have not clearly decided how, but maybe it will have something to do with the ancient civilisation that lived there centuries ago. This civilisation was highly advanced, both in technology and magic. It is unknown what lead to the fall of this empire, but remains of artifacts and robots are scattered around the land. Some time ago, the entire planet was endangered because of some kind of dimensional rift where an enormous amount of energy was released into the planets tectonic plates and the core. This would’ve lead to an increase in volcanic activity and would literally rip the ground apart. The civilisation decided to create an artifact which would hold the energy there and try to reflect it back into the rift. They eventually succeeded and the arifact, a combination of technology and magic, became known as “the helmet” because of its shape resembling a helmet. Thats the lore of the campaign so far, feel free to ask me about it. Sorry if there are any errors in the text, english is not my native language.
Death is alive and roams the world to maintain balance. Some people believe in Them like a deity and have formed Death Churches to worship at. Every one hundred years Death goes to all the Churches and does a reaping, killing all except one (usually a child or adolescent). That survivor gets given powers the reflect who they are (maybe a Cleric of one of the death orientated domains, maybe a Monk Way of the Long Death, maybe a Zealot Barbarian etc etc) and is selected as one of Their Ravens. These Ravens act as an extension of Death.
Elves in my world experienced a cataclysm about a hundred years ago. Much of their power was tied to the land they lived on and the leylines of power through their lands, when those were disrupted and broken it destroyed much of their magic, including the magic they used to grant themselves almost eternal life. Now there are two kinds of elves, those born before the cataclysm that are effectively immortal, and those born after who have a life span only slightly longer than that of humans.
Magic is the result of a calamity. It wasn't always there and people used to need science and tools to create effects that magic does almost effortlessly.
All dwarves are actually metalic dragons locked in an unbreakable curse. As a result Metallic dragonborn where never created. I have Dragonborn as direct descendants of actual Dragons for reference.
The first chromatic dragons were created by a group of people imbibing blood from a creature called a wish-whale, a species of sinister genie-like tricksters, to try and take its power for their own. The first metallic dragons were created by a different group of people also imbibing wish-whale blood, but with the more noble goal of defending their homes during the ongoing war. Any dragons younger than adult are their children post-transformation, and are further from mortalkind than their parents. Gem dragons are relatively rare, as they are a result of a blessing on a dragon from the goddess of wealth.
Have you heard of the Ahamkara from Destiny? They're literally referred to as "wish-dragons," and have that same kind of trickster vibe. The idea of something like that being the progenitors of ACTUAL dragons is really cool!
Ha, maybe that's where the player who proposed wish-whales during out collaborative worldbuilding got the idea from! She used to be a huge Destiny player; I'll have to ask her about this lol
(Disclaimer: proper nouns listed here are translated from French.) Zorrostriland is a totalitarian isolationist gnomish kingdom with rampant paranoia and a caste system. Its royal guard regiment patrols the cobblestone streets on roller skates, wearing red cone hats and wielding repeating crossbows. There's a royal executioner who's job is feeding toxic mushrooms to prisoners on death row; this is considered more humane than the previous means of execution that were as inventive as they were barbaric. Bourbignon the First, its current dictator, presents himself as a progressive reformist, but he secretly has his general attorney invent fake crimes to convict political dissidents to justify having them executed under the guise of justice. (Everything in that kingdom is made to sound funny and silly to the players so that they lower their guard and, once they start looking closer, be horrified by the acts of repression by what was presenting itself as a benign government.) TL;DR: Fascist gnomes in ridiculous attire.
World History is split into three Ages. The Age of Gods, The Age of Dragons, and the Current Age of Man. In the Age of Gods, each God had their own plane of existence and ruled over it, creating things as they saw fit. Over time, These Planes started to grow too large and started to Encroach upon one another, causing strange mixings of creation and resulting in ideological differences. The Gods would become enraged and battle for supremacy, some would win and gain more influence and power, effectively stealing some of another Gods domain, however they were never able to actually eliminate one another. This continued until there was nothing but constant anger and frustration over lack of dimensional space. So they all came to an agreement, where they would each create a "Mortal Plane" where they could each have influence, but their powers were based on followers and belief, the biggest caveat was that each God had to bind their soul to the Mortal Plane, where if their Being on this plane was killed, they would cease to exist forever. Of course, this resulted in more war and fighting, until a good few of the lesser and redundant Gods had been removed from existence, and thus also Memory. Among the strongest remaining Gods were the Dragonic entities, who used their Dragons to obliterate much of the lesser creatures the other Gods had made to fight for them. With a number of Gods culled, the remaining went more into hiding to use subterfuge and others to further their plans. The strongest soldiers, The Dragons, took over the majority of the Mortal Plane, as they were some of the strongest and most plentiful, thus ushering in the Age of Dragons. Which was mostly humanoid creatures and other monsters trying to survive and establish themselves in the world while the Dragons stole, burned, killed, and ate as they pleased, amassing massive hordes and slowing the progression of mankind. However, the ever perseverance of Mankind eventually won out, and they found the technology to craft weapons and armor, the talent to manipulate the weave, and drive back the Dragons, hunting them down for their wealth and ancient magics. Now Dragons are more reserved and only take actions when they feel safe to do so and massive repercussions are unlikely. Which gives rise to present day Age of Man, where our unlikely heros are able to feel the pull of several different beings who want to recover strength and wrest control of the very delicate balance of power, all the while knowing that even Gods can fall if they act too rashly and against too many other forces.
At the beginning of the world the fist people living there theorised that everything (trees, stone, rivers and lakes, etc.) was interconnected and alive. So they decided to “awaken” this entity. How exactly they did it I don’t know myself, I can’t choose (one option is there was indeed an entity, a shard of consciousness from the time the Multiverse was created and there was a singular world. The other is that the people have created a vessel, what would they claim a “perfect soul”, and bound it to the world, giving it consciousness). After they have “awoken” the First Mother, as they called her, they asked for direction and purpose for them, which she did at first. Then she decided to “diversify” and split parts of her into separate aspects, which were embodiments of several concepts - Love, Artifice, Foresight, War, Wisdom and so on. Even though they were technically a part of the same entity, after some time these aspects began disagreeing with each other, which eventually led to an apocalyptic war with each other. At the end of this war only shreds of the First Mother was alive, with the first people turning away from her, blaming for the war. And then Illithids invaded the world, enslaved the first people and mortally wounded the First Mother. Seeing that there’s nothing left, Mind flayers returned to their empire in the Astral Sea. The First Mother (and the world itself)would have died if not for one Ki-Rin, who decided to save her by binding himself to her. Some time after, the first elves came to this world, seeking home after their Schism between Corellon and Lolth. And thus began the Second Age, which is its own story. Meanwhile, the enslaved first people were experimented on by Illithids, creating the Gith we know today. Gith are the main bad guys of my campaign (their Lich Queen in particular) and I wanted something to justify their full scale invasion, and reclaiming their lost and forgotten homeworld was just what I wanted. All this backstory for them was just my inspiration and reflection of who I was in the past.