Elementalist

Sorry about that. I figured that if waited for replies before putting up information on magic, dragonworlds, and races, nobody would ever reply because my post had no content, and then it would never get any content because it had no replies... So I chose the lesser of two evils. This does seem to be the standard format for setting showcases on this forum.

It looks like I need to clarify the Arcus section- the Legion was founded 50 years before Arcus began to hit heat death, and it took them about that much time to conquer the world, but several centuries passed after that. During that time they both solidified their control on Arcus and began to wage war against the lesser realms. Arcus has the advantage of possessing magic and technology TLR didn't, allowing more effective surveillance. Additionally, the reason the movement was so popular in the first place was because the plane had previously been torn apart by religious wars fought between its previous nations, causing a strong anti-religious sentiment. I think we may need to agree to disagree on the angels.

Thanks for the feedback! I had noticed that some of the elements of this setting didn't mesh with mainstream D&D; I'm considering swapping out any proprietary materials (like illithids) for original creations and divorcing the setting from D&D entirely. I hadn't noticed the similarity to Eberron, but on second glance you're entirely right; I'm not sure what I could do about though without invalidating the setting's premise. With regards to the angels, their moral ambiguity is actually my favorite thing about them, since it distinguishes them from similar beings in other settings and makes them more unique. The world of Arcus is completely under the Legion's political control, but their manpower shortages mean that there are some areas that have almost no Legion presence, where the Chainbreakers or religious remnants can hide. The Chainbreakers are currently the only religious resistance of note, since the Legion was quite thorough in stamping out religion, similar to how the Lord Ruler destroyed all opposing religions in Mistborn. As for ideological resistances, there are numerous little sub-factions within both of the Legion's corps that interpret Victus's mission differently, but I'd regard that as an internal struggle rather than actual rebellion. I should point out, though, that the Chainbreakers rebellion isn't purely religious; rather, they adopted a religion that advocated resisting higher powers after the group was already formed. They accept anyone who wants to overthrow the system (mostly orcs).

Though this is a d&d setting, I'd say it's original enough to post here on the Creator's Corner. I'm always looking for feedback, so if you see an area in need of improvement, please do point it out.

Reserved for technology

Races When a sapient being dies, its soul discharges its heat into the dimension it's in. The husk then sinks into the ground. When it reaches the mantle (or lava sea for a lesser realm), it floats on top of it, gradually absorbing heat from the world. Once it has absorbed enough, it is drawn back to the surface and reincarnated. There's a small chance that a soul may instead be flung out into the Spiritvoid. A soul that had a connection to a spirit at the time of death (the soul of a divine practitioner) is far more likely to be flung into the Spiritvoid. Spirits consume the heat of such souls, and then frequently fight over the husks. The victor can then use the husk to create a sapient in a lesser realm they create, or inhabit and fuse with a husk to make it easier to gain entry to a dimension (because souls can pass through the veil effortlessly, but spirits cannot). Spirits occasionally create more esoteric afterlives for their realms that defy the rules presented here. It is possible to harvest soul-husks directly from the mantle or the lava sea. Whatever heat these husks have collected can be expunged, and the husks themselves can be made subservient to the practitioner and used to animate dead bodies to the practitioner's will. This practice is called necromancy. In most cases, husks on the lava seas of lesser realms are drawn out to the edges of the world, and are far less plentiful than husks on dragonworlds due to the smaller populations of lesser realms. This makes it easier to collect husks through drilling operations on dragonworlds than it is to dredge them from the lava seas of lesser realms. For some reason, some races- such as humans, dwarves, and elves- can be found both in the dragonworlds and numerous lesser realms across the cosmos. Theories abound to explain this phenomenon. The two most popular on the dragonworlds are as follows: either the lesser realms' creator-spirits were attempting to mimic the accomplishments of the dragon-gods, or those realms were settled by travelers from the dragonworlds long ago. Non-dragonworld-centric theories have entirely eluded the dragonworlds' esteemed scholars. Many lesser realms also possess entirely unique races designed by their creator-spirits. These races can range in biology and culture from the familiar, to the absurd, to the horrifying. Angels Dragonborn Dwarves Elves Gnomes Goblins Halflings Humans Illithids Kobolds Orcs Spirits Tieflings

Dragonworlds Arcus Derrethorn Zuryl

MagicDISCLAIMER: The basic concept of this magic system (the idea of magic in some way powered by other dimensions) belongs to a friend of mine, and is used with his permission. All worldbuilding and magic system beyond that is my original creation.All magic in the dragon-dimensions has a price. The dragon-gods were (according to their worshipers) divine beings of glory and fire, and it was infusing that fire into their worlds that gave them true life. All flowery religious trappings aside, it is clear that magic in the dragon-dimensions is undeniably linked to the energy available in each of those dimensions; specifically, their net heat. In addition to being a physical property of matter, heat in the dragon-dimensions is also a property of the soul, and like any heat, soul-heat can be used as a resource by the desperate or immoral.Regardless of the source, the energy from all spells must come from somewhere.Practitioners of Arcane Magic draw energy from mage-beacons.Practitioners of Divine Magic draw energy from spirits.Both spirits and mage-beacons ultimately drain heat from the world they're in; in turn, this causes the soul-heat of living things to drain back out into the world in a twisted version of thermodynamics. As a world begins to run out of heat, the borders between it and the Spiritvoid become thin and eventually fracture, allowing spirits to physically enter it. Such spirits consume the heat of the world even more quickly, perpetuating the vicious cycle and reducing the world to a frozen hellscape. After significant time in this state, the world dissolves back into the Spiritvoid.Casting a spell requires that the practitioner think along specific paths. Verbal, somatic, and material components are mnemonic aids that place the practicioner in the correct mindset to use a spell. With practice, the correct mindsets can be achieved without the help of aids, allowing a practitioner to eschew verbal, somatic, and/or material components.AUTHOR'S NOTE: This system could best be described as being hard magic with regards to power sources but soft magic with regards to effects produced. The general rule is that the magical capabilities of each individual character are set in stone, but the possibilities for what capabilities are available are limited only by the power source rules. Arcane Magic Divine Magic

The Dragon-Dimensions Campaign Setting Cosmology There are three dragonworlds that form the core of the cosmology. These are Arcus, Derrethorn, and Zuryl, each named after the dragon that created it. Each dragonworld is a dimension (supposedly) created by a dragon-god, wrought wholesale from nothing by the dragon-god's magic. However, in order to create their dimensions, the dragon-gods had to permanently expend their own power, infusing it into their world. Most believe that this killed them, though some religions believe that they live on in the land and worship nature, while others believe that the dragon-gods actually left their worlds and await those gods' return. There was once a fourth dragonworld, known as Nil; however, it fell to heat-death as a result of the overuse of magic.Numerous (though not infinite) other planes of existence surround the three dragonworlds. These worlds were generally created by particularly powerful spirits, and are known (to the inhabitants of the dragonworlds) as "lesser realms." Some of the creator-spirits infused themselves wholly into their realms like the dragon-gods did, but others only expended a part of their power to create their worlds, and rule over them still. The Spiritvoid is not a dimension, but it separates every dimension. Each dimension contains only a single planet- no satellites, no sun, no greater universe. Lesser realms frequently contain even less; a single continent or even a single region floating on a sea of lava on a flat plane. There are exceptions to this, however. There are spells that allow a practitioner to travel from one dimension to another. Additionally, it is possible to create gates, arcane constructs of both magic and technology, which even non-practitioners may use to pass between worlds en-masse.

Looks interesting! I like how you created a dualistic system without falling into the cliche of creating an ethical division between each side (like, making one side good and the other evil). I think the bright-siders could turn out to be quite unique, but you'll need to be very cautious to distinguish them from the "Vulcan" stereotype that hits a lot of logically-minded cultures. Having the more logical group on the bright side and the more emotional group on the dark is a nice contrast to how those ideals are usually portrayed; it makes thematic sense that an Enlightenment culture would be more exposed to the light.

Not sure where else on the Creator's Corner to ask this question, so I'll fall back to the old standby of Creation Daily. In your opinion, would an self-made D&D campaign setting count as an original creation, or would it count as a fanwork? I've recently had my brain hijacked by a D&D setting idea which I'd like to show off, but I'm not sure if the Creator's Corner is the right place for that if it doesn't actually count as an original creation.

Sorry to necro this thread, but I've emailed Chaos and I haven't gotten a response. I'm experiencing this validation error; can anyone help me contact Chaos to fix it? My original display name is Elementalist.

How did you come up with ideas for such unique and interesting cultures as the Chaod Leu and the Taravoy? Do you have any tips another aspiring worldbuilder could use to make their own cultures and religions less derivative?

The Empire is definitely isolationist and hoards its tech, but that's actually part of the problem. Because none of the other nations have the same level of technology, it's difficult to reconcile a story set in the Kajhal Baronies with one set in the Amadorian Empire. I worry the shift would cause too many problems for readers. I'm not certain there's room in the plot to have any of my characters travel to another nation. However, what I could do is have a character start off in another nation for a couple of chapters before traveling back to the Empire. That would give me enough time to showcase the differences in enough detail that the next few books wouldn't seem totally off.

I'm having some difficulty with my first plotline for Noctiva, set in the Amadorian Empire. I feel like the technology level of the Empire is just too incongruous with the technology levels other nations were at during the same time period. If I was to write the book set in the Empire, then write a second book set in Kajhal 100 years later, it would feel like we were going back in time, or switching to an entirely new world, because even 100 years later Kajhal is still significantly less advanced than the Empire. The problem is that for the storylines I have planned to work, the first book I write has to be the one set in the Empire. Additionally, one of the major plot points in the book is that the Empire's god-king, the Destroyer, really gets his power from a complex system of glyphic engineering. To properly forshadow this plot twist, I'd need to show off other examples of glyphic engineering earlier on in the book, and demonstrate that the Empire is an incredibly technologically advanced nation-state for its time. This makes sense in the timeline and history of the world, but I feel like it will create too much of a split when I write several other books set in other nations, which won't reach the same level of technology for several centuries. Do you guys have any ideas as to how I could reconcile this difference?

One possibility would be to add an element of construction time or physical exertion to the magic. Then, the sorcerers wouldn't be able to mass produce magic swords because the production of magic swords takes months, or because creating them leaves the sorcerer so weekend that creating another soon after would be hazardous to their health.

One good way to distinguish the heroes from the villains, if they are both trying to protect humanity, might be to vary how much they feel they should be rewarded for their work. If they are willing to work thanklessly, they're a hero, but if they feel their efforts give them the right to rule or to take whatever they want, they're a villain.

And the Nation-states section is complete!

Huggable soft salamancer plush, anyone?

It's likely that non-Threnodan silver doesn't have any special Investiture. If it did, it would probably be accessible through Allomancy, and silver is Allomantically useless. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have special properties relating to the Cognitive Realm without being Invested, of course.

Thanks to everyone for their support! Updated with new information on soul-form Potentia and the Elemental Spark in the Magic section, along with Kiyashima and New Shiman in the Nation-states section and Verdants in the Races section. Also made minor tweaks to several other things to make sure nothing contradicts itself.

The angels I'm writing are very... Old Testament in their methodology. Both sides tend to view humans as an annoyance more than anything else, and some early war crimes committed by the forces of Heaven disillusioned a lot of people, including my main character. Of course, the demons are just as bad, so it ends up being a choice between two bad options.The sides aren't that interested in collecting souls because this is the final accounting- at the end of the war, the world will end anyways, and the righteous will ascend to Heaven and the wicked will fall into Hell. Each side is more worried about mantles than souls, since it's the mantle of Heaven or Hell that provides the energy for a new angel or demon to be created, so only by increasing the size of their realm's mantle can that realm hope to break the stalemate. A human does have a tiny mantle that powers their soul, but it's so small that it will always dissipate before anyone can bind it, making humans useless as a resource except as Mantle Hunters or grunt troops. I've considered also adding in a third, smaller faction, led by witches. Witches are born with mantles from Purgatory, which in this cosmology is basically empty except for a few eldritch abominations. That faction would aim to create a new sanctuary in Purgatory for humans to escape the apocalypse, and want to set up a human-controlled afterlife there as well, since they believe that there should be "no damnation without representation." After they kill all the aforementioned eldritch abominations, of course.

I had an idea a while back (while I was desperately trying to create a hard magic system for Buffy the Vampire Slayer) about a world in the middle of Revelations. Essentially, Heaven and Hell are actively waging war on Earth, and neither cares much about the humans who were already living there. The magic system is based on mantles of power, or just mantles. A celestial or infernal being has a mantle of power given to it by Heaven or Hell attached to its soul. After the being dies, the mantle quickly (but not instantly) is siphoned back to it's home realm. In the system, there are three ways to gain power: 1. Enter the service of a powered being like a demon or angel and give them something they want in exchange for the ability to draw upon their mantle. 2. Bind a powered being to your service. 3. Bind a powered being's mantle to yourself after the being's death, before the mantle can return to it's home realm (only humans can do this). This method is the most reliable, but has an added danger- the binder will always bind a portion of the powered being's soul in addition to their mantle. Skilled binders will only bind a negligable sliver of soul, but less skilled binders may bind larger portions, which will influence their thoughts. An error in the binding ritual might result in the whole soul being bound along with the mantle, causing the binder to become possesed. Because a mantle returns to its realm, the forces of both Heaven and Hell have realized that open warfare is practically useless- kill all the enemy you want; their mantles will just be recycled. To counter this, each side hires human "Mantle Hunters," combination bounty hunters and assassins. Mantle Hunters are hired to assasinate enemy powered beings, bind their mantles, and bring them back to the gates of their employer's realm so that their employer can claim the mantle for its own realm. This is the only way to permanantly decrease the strength of a realm. I'm thinking of writing a story about a Mantle Hunter working for Hell who's just killed an angel with a sniper rifle, and is in the middle of binding the mantle- but she's distracted in the middle of the ritual, and ends up with an angel in her head.

Szeth is confident that Stone Shamans are powerful enough to defeat whomever killed him. Given that such an individual would likely be incredibly skilled in order to kill Szeth, and would possess Szeth's Honorblade on top of that, this implies that the Shamans have some sort of trump card- possibly Honorblades of their own.

Brilliant idea! I can see some interesting character development scenarios that a character in that position may encounter.