Worldbuilding Concept
<work in progress>
by Orni
GM here
I've gamemastered about 30 sessions by now and realize the need for a proper world to set my campaigns in,
including a cosmological backstory. I've looked at different rpg systems and their worlds, but they never seemed
plausible or satisfying to me - especially since I like to have limited magic in my games. So I started outlining my
own ideas and would like to hear your thoughts on it
Obviously there's quite a lot left to be done - but before delving into the details and figuring out specific persons,
kingdoms and story threads - I'd like to make sure to have a satisfying and convincing general setting
It's quite a long read, be warned.
Also, please excuse any mistakes or weird verbalizations, I'm not a native english speaker
let's start at the beginning:
-there are multiple planes of existence which work more like other universes and less like
other dimensions. you could describe the cosmological structure as a multiverse, centered
around the so called "material plane". while planes don't have any borders, they do have sizes
- how this might work differs for each plane. as a result however, you can't travel from one
plane to the other by usual means - in fact it's next to impossible for most beings to leave their
plane
-while there is only one material plane, there are so called "immaterial planes", which
references the fact that they consist of more than just matter, sometimes considerably so. all
immaterial planes came into being as opposing pairs. two of such pairs have existed since the
beginning of the multiverse, these are the 'plane of creation' & 'plane of destruction' as well as
the 'plane of chaos' & 'plane of order'. since these planes repel each other, something had to fill
the gap in between them - this is how the material plane came into being. these 4 immaterial
planes also constitute the elemental forces of the whole multiverse
-over time other immaterial plane pairs came into being, some more significant than others,
but all of them revolve around the material plane, which keeps them in a cosmological
balance. if for some reason one immaterial plane would disappear, its counterpart would
slowly drift away from the multiverse and become totally isolated over time - which would
mean the fundemental laws of creation, destrucion, chaos and order would cease and the
plane would become totally "inert"
-the material plane lacks anything not made of matter and therefore is only goverend by
natural laws that affect matter. while the immaterial planes have these same natural laws, they
always have additional phenomena to them
-most planes are void of life, often because such phenomena make prolonged survival
impossible. most importantly all of the four basic immaterial planes are highly hostile to life.
the material plane also started out without any life - similiar to our own universe
-some of the later immaterial planes, namely the pair: 'plane of heaven' and 'plane of hell'
were the first to develop indigenous life. some of these lifeforms became incredibly powerful,
to the point of being able to leave their planes. after finding out about each other they quickly
declared war and have been fighting against each other ever since. these fights mostly
happened within the material plane, as it's effectively neutral ground and easier to reach than
other planes. however, this war happens on an incredibly huge timescale and all of the
following events practically happen "in between" two clashes
-beings that travel to other planes are initially unaffected by this, but start to loose their power
over time and prolonged stay in other planes might result in them loosing all their power and
essentially become simple material beings, or die if their nature necessarily requires specific
immaterial phenomena to function
-one powerful being of the 'plane of heaven' was a bit bored and decided to create some
simple lifeforms on the material plane, basically pets. these lifeforms developed incredibly
fast, compared to the lifeforms on heaven and hell, and essentially developed into concious
hummanoid life "over night". (not exactly over night, it took millions of years - but their
creator didn't think such change would happen this "fast" and simply didn't check up on them
sooner)
-while the lifeforms are akin to classical fantasy creatures, like elves, dwarfes, goblins and
humans - they don't posess any magical or fantastical properties. for example, elves might live
longer than other races and tend to be more nature focused and civilized, but that's about it.
-the creation of material life resulted in a huge uproar within the plane of heaven, since they
realized the immense difference in speed of development (the concept of evolution is
absolutely alien to immaterial life, as its lifeforms are based on the wondrous properties of
their planes). essentially they are afraid of material life, as it might become more powerful
than them someday
-the plane of hell on the other hand welcomes this development and sees material life as a
powerful asset - if properly "managed"
-after the plane of heaven found out about hell's plans to manipulate the material lifeforms
into fighting against them, they very rashly decided to wipe the whole material plane clear. the
original creator of the material lifeforms was against this and argued for the innocence of this
new lifeforms, which created a political feud within the plane of heaven. most beings agreed
that innocent lifeforms, whatever nature they might be, should never be harmed, and after
some time almost everyone within the plane of heaven was convinced that material life was
not to be harmed. the commander of heavens forces however thought differently and tried to
annihilate all material life hastily with a huge energy projectile that would hit the material
plane and sterilize it. the original creator of the material lifeforms saw this and was able to
throw itself into the projectiles path before it could do any harm to the material plane, but
died in the process with it's dead "body" dropping onto the material plane
-this sacrificial act convinced even the last being on heaven of the moral value of material life
and so they vowed to fight hells influence not by obliterating material life, but by influincing it
themselves in a positive way
-the dead body of the (immense) heavenly being was quickly discovered by all material races
and they unintentionally absorbed its power into themselves. this happened due to the fact
that they themselves are results of this power
-the many "schools of magic" were born. these manifested in different ways, each in one
different lifeform. these first magicians are regarded to be "generation 0", since they quickly
found out ways to bestow their gift of magic onto others - although only a somewhat weaker
version of it. the next generation of magicians (generation 1) could do the same, and so on creating lineages of magicians of these different schools
-many people became afraid of these new powers and a general tension in between magicians
and non-magicians arose. the material world was on the brink of an all out war
-during this the magicians of the necromancy school declared to be the most powerful
magicians and to kill or enslave anyone who wouldn't accept their rule. this resulted in the
rest of the material lifeforms to see beyond their quarrels and unite against the necromants eventually being able to drive them back and exterminating almost all of them
-the last necromancers decided to hide and wait, since they had found ways to continue their
existance as undead beings - waiting for the day the other magic schools weaken due to older
generations dying off constantly. this way they could reemerge after a couple of hundred years
and try again, against weaker enemies
-the unified war against the necromants resulted in the remaining material life to get along
with each other, as well as necromacy to be regarded as the only evil school of magic
-however, different races regarded magic to be something different: humans see it as a tool
and use it for pretty much everything. dwarfs generally don't like any form of magic, other
than alchemy. elves seek harmony between the powers of magic and nature and regard magic
to be a living being. dark-elves too, think of magic to be alive, but try to enslave it. orcs
included magic into their shamanistic religions. gnomes have the highest talent for magic, but
rarely delve deeper than a superficial use of it. halflings on the other hand are both
uninteressted and untalented and rarely use magic, if at all. some other races - like goblins occasionally have a few magic users, but these are very rare and in between
-over time certain magical beings, like golems or treants, come into existence as a result of
magic users - making the material world very akin to a classical high fantasy setting and
therefore allow it to serve as a roleplaying setting
-in terms of story, magic is slowly fading away - since each new magician is weaker than the
magician that bestowed the gift of magic upon him. in addition some schools of magic became
very rare or exclusive - druids being a prime example of the latter
-magicians create elaborate rituals and artifacts to amplify their magic and try to keep magic
powerful through the generations. the most potent and difficult of these rituals even raise the
"generation level" of the magician permenantly
-magicians uncover the cosmological structure of the multiverse and start to explore other
planes - which makes the beings of heaven or hell, as well as other immaterial planes, anxious.
they try to manipulate material life by indirectly serving as gods for them, trying to guide
them in their own interest
-the current state of the multiverse allows for lots of classical fantasy roleplaying within the
material plane while also being able to mostly rationalize all its wondrous aspects and even
delve into them (immaterial planes). the conception of magical schools and generations could
easily be substituted by simply granting the material lifeforms the "gift of magic" after the
death of its creator (if you want a concept of magic more in line with d&d) I just like the
presented ideas and the roleplay and story opportunities it allows for
-next page is a list of the different immaterial plane pairs that so far have been found:
plane of chaos: truly impossible place where everthing changes constantly, including the laws
of nature
plane of order: consists of static immense geometrical objects without any way to support
lasting life
plane of creation: all matter rearranges into new shapes and forms constantly, making
staying there very dangerous and native life impossible
plane of destruction: wasteworld that decays everything that enters it very slowly into dust
plane of heaven: paradise world. beings have a very long life span and are empathic in nature,
yet don't allow travelers and banish anyone who enters their plane
plane of hell: dreadful world full of pain and suffering. beings are locked into a naturalistic
structure with powerful beings enslaving the less powerful
plane of dreams: diverse plane that seems to slowly adapt to its inhabitants, yet also slowly
dazes their minds over time
plane of void: endless grey desert with very few minimalistic structures in between. native
life seems to have no conciousness and acts robotic
plane of the tower: seemingly endless immense tower with each level being as huge as a
small country. climbing the tower is dangerous and it's almost impossible to descend down to
lower levels again. full of powerful artifacts, without any known origin, that allow native
lifeforms to survive and climb the tower. legends tell of unlimited power that awaits whoever
reaches the top of the tower
plane of rooms: rooms that exist without any connection between them. powerful beings of
other planes often create portals to such rooms and use them as their homes or sanctuaries sometimes even so called "demi-planes"
plane of elements: divided into different elements such as fire, earth, water and air. home to
respective elemental beings. this plane was one of the first to be found, since it's relatively
easy to travel to
plane of the arcane: void of all elemental forces that have instead been substituted by arcane
forces. native to beings such as djinni. also relatively easy to travel to and shortly discovered
after the plane of elements
plane of the black fog: remaining plane after its opposite plain vanished at some point in
time. everything is covered in a thick black fog that slowly renders all matter inert. exploration
is therefore immensely dangerous. traveling to and from this plane is very difficult