what's Lord Ao doing in this?

Quote from iExist >>

what's Lord Ao doing in this?

Just letting it happen. He's the Overgod, no one knows what his agenda or goal is, if he even has one. There are rumors that he may have helped put up the shield around the Inner Planes, but required the deaths of the deities as a price, but no one has been able to confirm this. 

Quote from Mezmerro>>

I just started reading and I have questions.

Why did Drow fee up their slaves after overthrowing tha matriarchy?  I mean slaver economy is a massive handbrake on the society and fere enterprising economy makes way more money, but I don't think Drow mages were that well versed in economical mathematics modeling to realize that "free" slave labor actually cost them much more that it's really worth. And even then freeing slaves and letting them go (to get eaten by the monsters of Underdark) makes no sense when you can immediately employ them on their previous jobs, now with less expensive oversight and infinitely better workplace motivation.

The new magocracy wanted to erase all traces of the previous matriarchy, which included freeing the slaves. They were escorted to the surface world so they wouldn't die in the Underdark. 

With their new powers over arcane magic, they were able to make up for any economic loss that came with losing the slaves. A big chunk of the slaves did choose to continue working in their previous jobs, being payed this time, but the majority of the slaves chose to return to the surface. 

Hey, sorry if this has already been mentioned, but what happened to the priesthoods of all the gods that sacrificed themselves, as they no longer can call upon divine magic or command worship?

Quote from Redpelt >>

Hey, sorry if this has already been mentioned, but what happened to the priesthoods of all the gods that sacrificed themselves, as they no longer can call upon divine magic or command worship? 

Most of them just fell away, as their deities stopped giving them powers after their deaths. Some of them were granted magic items to protect by their deities, allowing them to have a small purpose in the multiverse of a while. 

What happened to the physical Abyss itself, as it is meant to have limitless numbers of demons etc, so did the devils just conquer it or what?

Quote from Redpelt >>

What happened to the physical Abyss itself, as it is meant to have limitless numbers of demons etc, so did the devils just conquer it or what?

It was either destroyed, banished, or completely rid of the demons and taken up in residence by the Devils. It isn't important to the world, really, so it's up to the DM for minutia like this. 

Okay, just a small update on the status of this world today. I currently am at the phase where I feel comfortable enough running a campaign in this world, as I personally feel like I know it well enough to run a campaign in it. I will be the DM for a PbP campaign on this site, as a way of both playtesting my homebrew subclasses and races while also experiencing the new world for the first time ever. 

If any of you are interested playing in this campaign, send me a Personal Message letting me know, and I will add you to the list of possible players. 

Just read up on the lore and its great. Lots of details and i would love to see it in a campaign. I have spent part of today reading up on everything so I won't be able to fully combine all the details yet. So I will not comment much on the lore itself its got a lot of effort in it and its really good. I feel this part is mostly someone's idea anyway so i just take it as its written and enjoy that part of it. 

I do have a comment on a subrace (i focussed on some things possible players chose because players tend to pick OP ones). Its about the Golmeng Prysmex

Blinding Cone.

As an action, you may create a 15-foot-cone of blinding light to be emitted from your hands in a direction of your choice. Each creature within this area must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier, or take Xd6 radiant damage, where X is your proficiency bonus, and become blinded for 1 minute. On a successful save, a creature is not blinded and takes half as much damage. A blinded creature repeats the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the condition on a success. 

Once you use this feature, you may not do so again until you finish a short rest. 

Most of this is on par with the Dragonborn breath weapon but its a lot more powerfull for 2 reasons:

• Its damage type is radiant, this type is resisted by very few monsters and none have immunity. And (some) undead are vulnerable to it. Making this type more powerfull. But this is situational so not a real problem.
• But what makes this vastly overpowered is the fact that on a failed save it blinds on top of the damage. For 1 minute. Making this an ability that you can do rougly every other fight vs multiple if not all enemies that could seriously impact the combat abilities of the creatures for up to 10 turns. They can make the save again but still. If you compare it to the Blindness/Deafness it has similar effect but its a lv 2 spell vs a single target. This could rougly target 5 bundled up enemies making it similar to casting blindness at up to level 6 (and blindness does not even do damage). But a player could do this every short rest. To make this somewhat balanced and not ruin what could be a balanced fight I would suggest making it only untill end of the affected creatures next turn. And even then the damage should become a d4 to balance it to what a dragonborn can do. But i think with making it only one turn its more like a bright light effect that someone's eyes would need a few seconds to adjust again. You would still get a similar effect but not be totally OP. 

Also as a sidenote. I like the fact that you made new races or evolved versions because it fits the lore but i wonder why you changed so many racial names (some drastically). The reason i mention this is because this creates a huge learning curve to get into this world. If you look at the player handbook its based on humans, elves, dwarves because every player knows roughly what kind of race that is making it very easy for new players to pick up. But by creating a lot of new names for a lot of things it really does increase the difficulty of getting to know the world. For example Daervak is a subrace of Lizardfolk. You know this and I know this atm but no new players would be able to gues it. Why not name it 'Polymorph Lizardfolk' for example? I get that might be a silly name but it would greatly help new players recognize what they should be thinking of. 
Basically im asking where the tradeoff is between something that sounds cooler vs something that is easily recognized. 

I think that is also why a lot of people that have followed this thread this past year say they want to take out a few of your ideas. Ofcourse that depends on your goal for all this lore. 

 For the last remark I am very biased but will make it anyway. Since you want to playtest the world I would suggest not taking a full party of homebrew races and classes on top of a homebrew world. Simply because you need some grounding to determine if something works. If you have mostly homebrew then you would have a lot of trouble to determine:

• if a players race or class is overpowered/underpowered 
• or if the world/campaign is not offering that race/class options to use their abilities fully
• or if they just look overpowered/underpowered because another homebrew race/class is doing much better/worse
• etc its just to many variables 

I applied with official race/class so i am biased but i know playtesting can be a nightmare with to many variables. Take half homebrew at max even if you dont pick me. Trust me I have tested before and the best tests are in a contained environment. 

Okay, today I will be doing a lot of additional lore and mechanics for Tor-eal. First, I will be doing something unique, creating swears and slang terms used in this world. 

"What the fell?" - Regarding the Shadowfell, their version of "What the hell?". This phrase originated in Wadhaven, but quickly spread across the world. 

"Vithin" - This curse originated in the Yikkan Contingent as a slur used to refer to someone as a blight or disease. This phrase is most often used among the Yikkan Goblinoids, but is occasionally used by other races. This word is never used in the settlements of the Sheiohn Foulen, as it is their equivalent of the n-word, being the Yikkan word for psionic peoples. 

"That's yik" - This term is derived from the word "Yikare" and is used as a derogatory term, commonly used in the Sheiohn Foulen, essentially meaning "that's fake/an illusion" or "looks/appearances can be deceiving". This phrase has become fairly popular among civilizations outside of the Sheiohn Foulen, but is never used by those who are members of the Yikkan Contingent or anyone who worships/serves the Yikare. 

"Zil" - This also originated among the Yikkan Contingent, derived from the name "Zilya", as Zilya Darkcord betrayed the Yikkan Contingent to serve Vecna. The Yikkan Contingent sees Zilya as a worthless traitor, a piece of crap. This curse means a traitor, also being their equivalent of the s-word, and it has spread to common use among most other cultures of the world of Tor-eal. "I don't give a zil" means, "I don't give a shit", and other uses of this word are the insult "Zilhead", meaning "shitbrained", "Zilling" as leaving behind waste/traitors or taking a crap, and "Worth a zil", meaning "worthless". 

"Godless Snake!" - This refers to Dendar the Night Serpent and her followers, the Yuan-Ti, being their equivalent of the "*****". If one is referred to as a "Spawn/Son/Daughter of a Snake", they are being called a slippery backstabber. In many cities and countries, such as Wadhaven, Sylvarin, and Neverumber, "Snake" is commonly used as an alternative of "criminal". 

"Fair Folk" - This is a general term, meaning any person or race that dwells in the Feywild, including seelie and unseelie fey. Most of the Fair Folk are viewed by those of the Material Plane as whimsical, detached, and immature, which is definitely not objectively true, but this fact doesn't stop the stereotype from spreading.

"Fell Folk" - This is a general term for any of the races or peoples that dwell in the Shadowfell, including sharar-kai, nemrav, sharbolg, vezyi, nagpae, and fehntüm. Most people of the Material Plane don't know much about the Fell Folk and tend to generalize them as unemphatic and uncaring.  

"Shaper" - This is a slang term that refers to any shapechanger that can turn into humanoids, such as shifters, ecubi, and many fey. This term also applies to any humanoid magic user that can cast disguise self or alter self. If someone puts on a lot of makeup and nonstandard clothing that is unusual for their personality, someone may exclaim "Are you a shaper?" as a compliment or joke. 

"Ban" - As a shortening of the word "banish", "ban" is similar to our word, "damn". "Ban you to the fell" has the same general meaning to "damn you to hell", while the exclamatory use of "damn!" is not used for ban. 

"Dhaer-faced" - This is used as an insult, calling someone extremely ugly. It is derived from the monstrous race imprisoned and warped by the duergar, the Dhaer. Surdrae do not use this term. 

"Süran" - This term has two meanings. First, it is used by the Sürdrae as the name for people of their ethnicity/culture, referring to anyone who watches the stars at night in hope for a brighter future. Its second meaning is as a derogatory term for superstitious or gullible people, commonly used by both non-theists and the devout. "As naïve as a Süran" is a commonly phrase when someone wishes to offend someone over their beliefs. 

"I'm not a Keeper" - This phrase refers to the international faction of High Elves known as the Keepers, whose purpose is to keep the records and histories of the world safe and to teach others of it. This phrase is sometimes used when someone is asked a question they don't know the answer to, as a version of "I'm no scholar". 

"Stop with the cyphers!" - Referring to the demipower known as "the Cypher", who speaks only in coded messages and riddles. This phrase means "stop speaking in riddles" or "get to the point".

"Send me" - Tor-eal's equivalent of "text me", used when someone has a way of communicating at long distances, such as through the sending spell or the ihnzule towers of the Sheiohn Foulen. Most wealthy families have multiple sending stones per family members, but middle class families typically only have one or two for the whole house. 

"I'm not 'pathic" - A term used by races not of the Sheiohn Foulen, as a way of saying "I can't read minds". This is due to a misconception among these peoples about how telepathy works, as many of non-telepaths believe that telepathy allows people to read minds, causing many superstitions about the Felshen and other telepaths to be widespread across Tor-eal. This results in many non-telepaths in being uncomfortable and wary of telepaths. 

More adult/mature terms below, may not be appropriate for younger users:

Okay, let me know if you like these terms. 

Quote from acoolnamehere>>

Just read up on the lore and its great. Lots of details and i would love to see it in a campaign. I have spent part of today reading up on everything so I won't be able to fully combine all the details yet. So I will not comment much on the lore itself its got a lot of effort in it and its really good. I feel this part is mostly someone's idea anyway so i just take it as its written and enjoy that part of it. 

Thanks! I appreciate you doing the work to learn about it. Take your time with comprehending it, I'm sure it is a bit difficult to learn all of it at once. 

I do have a comment on a subrace (i focussed on some things possible players chose because players tend to pick OP ones). Its about the Golmeng Prysmex

Blinding Cone.

As an action, you may create a 15-foot-cone of blinding light to be emitted from your hands in a direction of your choice. Each creature within this area must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier, or take Xd6 radiant damage, where X is your proficiency bonus, and become blinded for 1 minute. On a successful save, a creature is not blinded and takes half as much damage. A blinded creature repeats the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the condition on a success. 

Once you use this feature, you may not do so again until you finish a short rest. 

Most of this is on par with the Dragonborn breath weapon but its a lot more powerfull for 2 reasons:

• Its damage type is radiant, this type is resisted by very few monsters and none have immunity. And (some) undead are vulnerable to it. Making this type more powerfull. But this is situational so not a real problem.
• But what makes this vastly overpowered is the fact that on a failed save it blinds on top of the damage. For 1 minute. Making this an ability that you can do rougly every other fight vs multiple if not all enemies that could seriously impact the combat abilities of the creatures for up to 10 turns. They can make the save again but still. If you compare it to the Blindness/Deafness it has similar effect but its a lv 2 spell vs a single target. This could rougly target 5 bundled up enemies making it similar to casting blindness at up to level 6 (and blindness does not even do damage). But a player could do this every short rest. To make this somewhat balanced and not ruin what could be a balanced fight I would suggest making it only untill end of the affected creatures next turn. And even then the damage should become a d4 to balance it to what a dragonborn can do. But i think with making it only one turn its more like a bright light effect that someone's eyes would need a few seconds to adjust again. You would still get a similar effect but not be totally OP. 

I am aware that it's quite a bit better than the dragonborn breath weapon, and that was intentional. A large portion of the community considers Dragonborn to be an underpowered race, specifically pointing to their breath weapon as an underpowered feature (I will direct you to this thread for an explanation why this is). 

I could do "end of the next turn" or something similar to keep the feature reasonable, but I don't think the feature is as OP as it may first appear. 

Also as a sidenote. I like the fact that you made new races or evolved versions because it fits the lore but i wonder why you changed so many racial names (some drastically). The reason i mention this is because this creates a huge learning curve to get into this world. If you look at the player handbook its based on humans, elves, dwarves because every player knows roughly what kind of race that is making it very easy for new players to pick up. But by creating a lot of new names for a lot of things it really does increase the difficulty of getting to know the world. For example Daervak is a subrace of Lizardfolk. You know this and I know this atm but no new players would be able to gues it. Why not name it 'Polymorph Lizardfolk' for example? I get that might be a silly name but it would greatly help new players recognize what they should be thinking of. 

Mostly because names and language evolve over time, and these are the names that those races call themselves. A human may call a Daervak "Bronze Lizardfolk", or call an Othriler a "Dragonborn", but they don't call themselves that. To them, that would be like a Deutsche person calling themselves "German". 

For others, their name is changed due to an adaptation or change that happened to them. "Firbolg" as a race no longer exist. There are Sharbolg and Feybolg, with their ancestral race being wiped off of the face of the multiverse. "Shar" means "shade", so it replaces the "Fir" part of their previous name. 

Basically im asking where the tradeoff is between something that sounds cooler vs something that is easily recognized. 

I could try to make this easier, giving simpler base names that humans would call them, with a side note of their actual name and what they call themselves.

 For the last remark I am very biased but will make it anyway. Since you want to playtest the world I would suggest not taking a full party of homebrew races and classes on top of a homebrew world. Simply because you need some grounding to determine if something works. If you have mostly homebrew then you would have a lot of trouble to determine:

• if a players race or class is overpowered/underpowered 
• or if the world/campaign is not offering that race/class options to use their abilities fully
• or if they just look overpowered/underpowered because another homebrew race/class is doing much better/worse
• etc its just to many variables 

I have been making this world while simultaneously making my homebrew for an upcoming DMs Guild product. The main point of the PbP was to playtest my homebrew, with the secondary purpose being using my homebrew world. I am very familiar with this system and how to balance subclasses/races and other features, but still need to playtest my features for refining them. 

In the campaign I will make sure to adjust the balance of any homebrew that is unbalanced while also making sure the world and campaign and world is engaging. I understand your concerns, but I am positive that I can do both. 

Wow, that slang is really nice. The words have a nice mouthfeel, and aren't overcomplicated like some fantasy words I've seen. 

Quote from JoeltheWalrus >>

Wow, that slang is really nice. The words have a nice mouthfeel, and aren't overcomplicated like some fantasy words I've seen. 

Thanks! I tried to make them have a semi-modern feel while still being setting-inspired (i.e. "fell", "vec", and "not a Keeper"). I'm glad you like them. 

Okay, here's a new race! They're called the Ecubi, and are now replacing Changelings with this race. They are descended from incubi/succubi, and are scattered across the Material Plane. 

If you have any thoughts, please let me know. 

Idea for an on-death ability for the Prysmex, as they are made of glass/crystal- sort of like the undead warlock- they explode into shards that do piercing damage on death but don’t revive, as reviving might be too op. Just a suggestion.

I wish I saw this sooner. amazing!

Thank you! I have developed a bit more lore that I need to put up on this thread (mainly about the Plane of Dreams and two new factions I've created), if you'd like to see it. 

I know I’d like to read more about your world, as I’ve enjoyed what I have read so far. This thread (as well as a few others on the site) make me will want to try making my own homebrew world thread to share my own ideas. Your thread in particular is great inspiration. 

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

Thank you! I have developed a bit more lore that I need to put up on this thread (mainly about the Plane of Dreams and two new factions I've created), if you'd like to see it. 

 yes please!

I’m going to post here so I get notifications when new lore comes