Okay, I've made a new race and culture associated with it, in the style of the new version of races/backgrounds from the most recent UA. I present the Godspawn.
The Godspawn
Descended from the few demigods that survived the Great Sacrifice, the Godspawn are a race of humanoid-looking celestials that dwell on the Material Plane. Although their Empyreans and other divine ancestors bred with a diverse array of humanoid races, the divine blood that these celestial children shared allowed them to breed true with one another. The descendants of these first divine children eventually merged into one race, known as the Godspawn.
One of the first of these divine children, a male half-elf descended from Amaunator named Andorin Caelus, realized that within a few generations if these god-descended humanoids just bred with other non-divine humanoid races, eventually their divine blood would become so diluted that they would just become assimilated with every other race and their blood would lose its celestial powers. Andorin decided to write a treatise on how it was the duty of the spawn of the dead gods to preserve the "purity" of their blood and work to use their divine blood to eventually give birth to a new pantheon of gods. Thus the Codex Divinitus was written, the holy book of the followers of Andorin Caelus, which explains his ideology that practicing selective breeding, divine magic, and other forms of eugenics to increase the potency of their celestial blood could eventually produce a new pantheon of gods that would get rid of the Aether, retake the Outer Planes, and make the multiverse perfect. Many of these early divinely-blooded decided to follow Andorin Caelus and do as the Codex Divinitus instructed, forming a religious ideology that worshipped unborn gods and practiced eugenics to produce a new breed of humanoid-looking celestial people, which are known in modern times as the Godspawn.
Here are the Godspawn racial traits:
Godspawn Traits
Creature Type: Celestial Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 3–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this Race Speed: 30 feet Life Span: 120 years
As a Godspawn, you have these special traits.
Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet. Damage Resistance. You have resistance to Necrotic and Radiant damage. Small God. Through your veins flows the blood of the gods, granting you access to their divine magic. You know the dancing lights and thaumaturgy cantrips. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the bless spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the lesser restoration spell with it. Once you cast bless or lesser restoration with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race). Unconquerable Soul. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed and frightened conditions on yourself.
Here are the Godspawn sample backgrounds (technically only available to Godspawn, but the new system is so customizable that there's no purpose in restricting them):
You are the product of a religious forced-breeding program with the goal of producing a god, and likely have never met your parents. You grew up attending schools of theology and being taught by your people's priests that you had the potential of being a parent of a currently unborn god. From a young age you were taught to read the language of the gods so you could study the Codex Divinitus and spent much time scribing copies of your people's holy book. You also learned how to harness the divine magic inherent in your blood and were forced into an arranged marriage at a young age in hope that you would give birth to a god.
Although you are a Godspawn, you grew up outside of your people's society and are shunned by most other members of your race. Being considered apostate by most other Godspawn, you have had to be on the run for much of your life in order to avoid being killed by your own people. Through trial, error, and a bit of luck, you learned how to disguise yourself to hide in plain sight and live off of your surroundings while you didn't have a place to live.
(I'll add more in another post tomorrow.)
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Just came up with more lore for the Godspawn! Here's an explanation of their religion/culture:
The Blood of the Gods
The xenophobic religion founded by Andorin Caelus, known as the Blood of the Gods, practices the worship of gods that are yet to be born, which they believe they will be the ancestors of. The doctrine written by Andorin Caelus proclaims that Tor-eal's pantheon are false gods and proclaims that these perpetually forthcoming new gods, known in the religion as the Neodeos (pronounced "Nee-oh Day-ohs"), shall rid the sky of the Aether, overthrow Asmodeus and his baatezu, and reclaim the Outer Planes. Godspawn are taught from a very young age that they have the potential in their divine blood to give birth to these new gods and "save the world" from "eternal perdition". Thus, Godspawn are raised believing they're superior to all other races and they alone can save the world.
The Codex Divinitus
The Codex Divinitus is the holy book of those that follow the Blood of the Gods, written by Grand Vaticinator Andorin Caelus. The book declares that the Raven Queen is an unjust goddess, that all other "gods" worshipped by the people of Tor-eal are false idols, and that it is the right and duty of all with divine blood to work towards producing a perfect generation of those with "pure" divine blood that can reclaim the Heavens.
The following are some of the most important teachings found in the Codex Divinitus that define the modern lives of devout Godspawn:
Obey the Vaticinators. They are the true stewards of the Neodeos and obeying their teachings is the only way to achieve true freedom.
Embody the Neodeos. Being unwavering examples of the virtues you wish to produce in your offspring is essential to bringing them forward. These virtues are faithfulness towards their spouses, service to the church, patience in bringing forth the Neodeos, and recognition that the more holy are superior to you.
Conform. Agency is a small price to pay for salvation. Desiring individuality is unadulterated selfishness.
Perform the Rituals. The church's divine rituals (prayer to the Neodeos, weekly baptism to purify your souls, temple attendance) must be regularly practiced in order to prepare the Neodeos to come through your divine blood.
Reject the Unfaithful. Shun those that don't follow the Blood of the Gods, especially the apostate Godspawn that share the responsibility for hastening the coming of the Neodeos.
Happiness, Not Pleasure. Reject the "worldly pleasures", such as promiscuity, mind-altering drugs (including alcohol), and hobbies with the sole purpose of pleasure (games). True joy comes from serving the Neodeos, not dallying the day away. Any action not devoted to following these laws and bringing forth the Neodeos is an act against the Blood of the Gods and Neodeos.
Only We Can Prevent The End-Times. Unless we bring about the Neodeos, eventually the True Apocalypse will come and we shall endure eternal torment by the Raven Queen and Abomination.
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Wow, this thread is so creative. Good to see you've used the "unborn gods" idea for this world. Do you have any plans to consolidate this lore and turn it into a DMsGuild project or something similar? The content is so good that I'd almost certainly be willing to pay for it.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it.
I may publish some of this content on DMsGuild eventually, once I've playtested it enough and separated the good parts from the bad (I'll readily admit that there are quite a few dumb ideas that I've come up with in this thread, and I'll have to get rid of all of those if I ever want to publish anything like this). I'm in the process of doing some pretty heavy lore revisions and additions to this world to make it better, and I might even have to change this world into no longer being a variant of Toril. However, my plan is to eventually get this project into a publishable state and put it on the DMsGuild in some form (either in one giant setting book or a bunch of smaller individual projects that merge together to produce this world).
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I may publish some of this content on DMsGuild eventually, once I've playtested it enough and separated the good parts from the bad (I'll readily admit that there are quite a few dumb ideas that I've come up with in this thread, and I'll have to get rid of all of those if I ever want to publish anything like this). I'm in the process of doing some pretty heavy lore revisions and additions to this world to make it better, and I might even have to change this world into no longer being a variant of Toril. However, my plan is to eventually get this project into a publishable state and put it on the DMsGuild in some form (either in one giant setting book or a bunch of smaller individual projects that merge together to produce this world).
Good to know. I will say that I like it the way it is now, as a variant of Toril, because that gives it so much more character than some generic dystopian setting. Good luck with the project!
I (mostly) like it this way, too. But it would be near-impossible for me to get it published as a variant of Toril, because it both counts as a new setting (which can't be published on DMsGuild) and is made up of a bunch of Intellectual Property that's owned by Wizards of the Coast (so they would have to agree to have it published, which is never going to happen). Is it dystopian? I always thought of it as a more post-post-apocalyptic setting (a world recovering from an event that should have ended the world).
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I (mostly) like it this way, too. But it would be near-impossible for me to get it published as a variant of Toril, because it both counts as a new setting (which can't be published on DMsGuild) and is made up of a bunch of Intellectual Property that's owned by Wizards of the Coast (so they would have to agree to have it published, which is never going to happen). Is it dystopian? I always thought of it as a more post-post-apocalyptic setting (a world recovering from an event that should have ended the world).
I've been wondering about this, actually. I know that new settings technically aren't allowed in the Dungeon Master's Guild, but I've seen several non-Guild Adepts products like Doomed Forgotten Realms and the Rashemen Campaign Guide that I wasn't sure if the rule was still in place. As for the IP issue, I suppose there's no easy way around it. Still, it would be a shame to lose a lot of this precious flavor. A very tricky situation.
Yeah, it is tricky. It's possible (but very unlikely) that this could fall under the DMsGuild "you can publish content for official 5e settings" rule, but I highly doubt it due to how different it is. It's basically a new setting, while also depending on the Forgotten Realms IP.
As for the dystopia point, I really meant post-apocalyptic. I was just trying to use it as a catch-all term for a setting where "things are bad". Sorry about that.
No need to apologize. That part of your post just confused me a bit.
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I've been wondering about this, actually. I know that new settings technically aren't allowed in the Dungeon Master's Guild, but I've seen several non-Guild Adepts products like Doomed Forgotten Realms and the Rashemen Campaign Guide that I wasn't sure if the rule was still in place. As for the IP issue, I suppose there's no easy way around it. Still, it would be a shame to lose a lot of this precious flavor. A very tricky situation.
Yeah, it is tricky. It's possible (but very unlikely) that this could fall under the DMsGuild "you can publish content for official 5e settings" rule, but I highly doubt it due to how different it is. It's basically a new setting, while also depending on the Forgotten Realms IP.
True enough, but the Doomed Forgotten Realms book on the DMsGuild (which I haven’t bought but have noticed floating around on the bestseller lists) seems like a fairly similar project, and that doesn’t appear to have any problems. I’m no lawyer, but I believe most of the IP issues you’d normally encounter would be solved through the Guild’s Community Content Agreement.
That said, you’ll probably wanna talk to someone that has actual experience on this subject (definitely not me) before you start publishing stuff…
Yeah, I'll definitely do that once I get the world to a publishable state. I still have quite a bit of work to do (I'm making a post right now listing the main things I still need to finish and explaining them a tiny bit).
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While I'm here, I might as well make a list of the stuff that still needs to be completed for this project. Here's what I can currently think of (I might add more later):
In-depth exploration of the Orcs. The Orcs now worship Ubtao, are kind of similar to Eberron's druidic orcs, but they train/ride Dinosaurs, decorate their bodies with magic tattoos (the ones from Tasha's plus a few homebrew ones) and are the peace-keepers between the Primeval and Civilized (often Rangers, Druids, and Totem/Beast Barbarians).
A Gazetteer for both the capital city of the Sheiohn Foulen (Phren) and the capital city of the Yikkan Contingent (Kantamyn). Phren is a diverse psionic city primarily populated by the Felshen, but also Gem Dragonborn, Verdan, and other psionic races. It relies heavily on psiotech innovations, like telepathy-enhancing crystals, mental libraries, and dream hubs. Kantamyn is a three-tiered goblinoid city built atop a terraformed mountain and protected by a giant wall of force that covers the whole city and uses other forms of magitek to enhance day-to-day life (conjuration/creation magic to provide the day-to-day necessities, abjuration-based security systems, magic hospitals with Doctor-Clerics, and transmutation-based construction companies).
Spelljammer in Tor-eal. A couple of recent 5e products have completely changed my plans for Spelljammer in Tor-eal. I was originally planning on using Sardior (who apparently died before Toril even existed from the lore in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons), the Crystal Sphere with the shut-off Phlogiston (I guess I'll use the Aether now? But that might change the Stars, which would drastically change the Sürdrae), and excluding the Rock of Bral (which now is probably shut inside Realmspace, I guess). I'll still keep most of the major parts (the Githxei, the Illithid Empire, Gem Dragons, and non-Evil Ceremorphs), but Tor-eal Spelljamming is going to be substantially different from how I originally planned it.
An in-depth explanation of the Factions and Renown similar to Guildmaster's Guide to Ravenloft. Current factions: The Night Lotus (providers of non-lethal illicit activities for the purposes of pleasure, such as drugs, gambling, and sex work), the Society of the Emerald Viper (an assassins guilds made up of well-dressed, always polite Magnificent Bastards that are not only extremely skilled in their craft, but also extremely calm and noble), the Bearers of the Flame (wizard-librarians/teachers that chronicle major historic events while they happen and spread knowledge to prevent history from repeating itself), and the various religious factions/ideologies (Cult of Terror, the Somnambulant, the Forsworn, the Daywalkers, etc).
An in-depth explanation of the main different nations and major conflicts that are ongoing (Giant-Aboleth War, Githxei-Illithid War, Felyik Conflict, etc).
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Great list! Do you have any non-racial monster stat blocks yet? Not the peoples of Tor-eal, but the monstrosities, beasts, and aberrations that have evolved in the last thousand years? Sidekicks and companions for the characters too. A bestiary like that would really complete the product.
Yes, actually, I do have a few non-racial monster stat blocks. I've made the monster stat blocks for the Dream Watchers, Dream Catchers, Petrified Treants (from the volcanic region of Chult), Beholder Dreamers (Beholders that purposefully put themselves into endless comas in order to control reality through the Realm of Dreams), and a few others that I can't think of from the top of my head. I'm definitely going to make more, too. I'm thinking it should be at least as long as Eberron's or Exandria's bestiaries.
I do have some race-based ones, too (Vezyi Iremongers and Palmbearers, all 5 variants of the Golmeng, 6 different types of Reforged, etc).
Maybe a short one-shot too, like the one in Mythic Odysseys of Theros? Even a simple dungeon crawl using one of Dyson Logos’ maps and showcasing these incredible cultures would be phenomenal.
Oh, I've actually already written a short adventure (5,00 words, spanning levels 3-5) for Tor-eal. It's called The Nightmare of Corrin's Mound, and it will be published in the digital EN5ider subscription magazine in about a month. It involves the Cult of Terror, a religious communal village of the Sun-worshipping Halflings, and a Dream Watcher.
As for the Spelljammer stuff, I don’t think you’ll need to change much of it. Cosmetic changes between the Phlogiston and Wildspace/the Aether, maybe. The other changes, maybe? As for Sardior, I feel like you had some lore on him surviving and guiding the dragons, but all I’ve been able to find says that he died during the Catastrophe. Either I’m imagining things or I missed it in the 11 pages of lore. Here’s an idea: I remember a sidebar in Fizban’s that described a gem dragon council attempting to resurrect Sardior. What if, in the thousand years since the Catastrophe, they succeeded? Now, only a shadow of his former glory, he watches over Tor-eal from a distant planet in Doomspace.
Sardior was going to be dead, but I was going to have Sardior's Ruby Palace orbit the planet in the Tears of Selune. It would have been ruled by Sardior's council of Gem Dragons and be in alliance with the Sheiohn Foulen (the Felshen psionic organization) and the Githxei as one of the main ways to get to Realmspace and fight against the Illithid Empire. But Fizban's Treasury of Dragons made no mention of it, and if it did ever exist, it was only in the First World (which was destroyed long before the Catastrophe ever happened). So, I could still do a similar idea, but it wouldn't have to be explicitly the Ruby Palace, and just some other Gem Dragon Space Council.
(Also, the Aether would prevent everyone inside Realmspace from leaving. Doomspace isn't accessible anymore, and even if it was, all of the planets/moons inside of it would have degraded into the Eye of Doom by now. However, a reborn form of Sardior or some vestige of him could work possibly as a new god/demigod. Thanks for the idea.)
Oh, and those two cities sound really cool! I can’t wait to hear more about them.
That was the goal!
One last thing: there’s so much here that this thread could really use a ToC linking to post numbers. If you don’t want to make one, I can do it myself and add it in later. It’d really make finding stuff a lot easier. Thanks for listening :)
Sure, I can get onto that. I'll edit the OP to add that in. Thanks for the recommendation (it will actually help me a bit, too).
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Okay! Done editing the OP with links to all of the content, notes on things that need changing/expansion (wow, I need to change much more than I thought I did), and I added the list of Upcoming Content. Next, I'll go in-depth on the Orc culture and religion of Ubtao. Magic tattoos and primeval dinosaur magic, here I come!
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Here's the lore for Orcs! After giving it a thought and looking over the lore I wrote . . . over two years ago. It's been that long already? Gods, I do need to get this finished soon.
Anyway, as I was saying, I was reading the original lore that I have for them and my recent idea of them worshipping Ubtao, riding dinosaurs in battle, decorating themselves in magic tattoos, and all of that stuff, and I realized that the two ideas I had; the Orcs had to come to a reckoning with the world after they found out their gods were terrible and they needed to change to fit in with the world and the modern Orcs ride dinosaurs, have magic tattoos, and worship Ubtao, don't really work together. Why would a culture that was eventually forced to reject their gods wait around for nearly 700 years before a new god came back and begin worshipping him? That doesn't really vibe with my original concept for them, so I've decided to make some pretty heavy changes. I do like the concept of Dino-riding, magically tattooed, Wardens of the Wild-style Orcs . . . it just doesn't fit.
So, after giving it a bit more thought, I have a new concept I'm playing with. The Dino-Orcs could exist as a small, splinter subculture of Tor-eal's Orcs, but they're definitely not the major players in this world that I originally thought they would be. But my main new idea ties together the "Orcs are really angry" and "Orcs realized how badly their gods played them for millennia" parts of their identity in this world. So, I present the new Orcs! They're iconoclasts, antitheists, and really, really hate the Gods. Say hello to the Orcs of Tor-eal Reborn!
Orcs of Tor-eal (Revised)
Long having abandoned their previous, um, predatory culture of Gruumsh worship, the Orcs of Tor-eal have developed a new culture over the past thousand years.
"Godless Heathens"
Following the Great Sacrifice, the Orcs of Tor-eal completely abandoned their former religious culture, having been told by their gods that their war with the Goblinoids and other humanoids was ultimately pointless. They learned that their gods had been sacrificing their lives (and souls) for millennia for a pointless personal grudge with another god and witnessed the deaths of their gods in the Great Sacrifice. The cataclysmic events of the Catastrophe irreparably destroyed Orcish culture and religion and left the race without a purpose. This permanently fractured the Orcish peoples and forced them to come to a reckoning with their existence and the state of the world. While the culture of the Orcs was forever split throughout the hundreds of different tribes across the world, one major theme defined Orcish culture for hundreds of years after the Catastrophe: hatred of the Gods.
Orcs learned how they were taken advantage of by their gods and shunned by the gods of the so called "good" pantheons that stole everything from them. They learned of the trickery and lies that all the gods use in order to win the devotion of mortals. They recognized signs of their previous religion in the churches of other deities, and decided that they were done with the Gods and all others that act like them (powerful Celestials, Dragons, Giants, Aboleths, priests/cult leaders, etc). While not all Orcs abandoned religion, the vast majority felt so betrayed by their own gods that they took it as a warning against religion as a whole and swore to teach their children a way that would prevent them from being taken advantage of the way they had been.
Thus, a new Orcish tradition and culture was born: rejecting the Gods and those that claim to be divine. This culture spread quickly throughout the many orc tribes and was taught to their children post-Catastrophe. These younger generations of Orcs were taught to reject all gods and people that demand worship and to turn against those that claim to be authorities over the Orcs. The Orcs still kept their rejection of other gods and anger at other people, but only those that claim to be above them. This new generation's culture was one of extreme antiauthoritarianism and being masters of their own fates.
(To be continued . . . )
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Okay, this is a bit unexpected, but came up as I was brainstorming ideas for the Orcs. Orcs in Tor-eal don't worship Ubtao, so I needed a race/culture that commonly does. My new culture that worships Ubtao prominently are a group of Minotaurs, because of their woodland labyrinths and the fact that Ubtao is a god of mazes. I'll detail this more later.
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Would it be possible to revive the gods? If a gods power is measured by their followers, you could create one. The Kuo-Toa do it all the time.
Hmmm. Interesting question.
I think this is probably impossible in the context of the world's lore. Because the dead gods' souls/spirits were all merged together into a new god, the Vistaesh, by the Raven Queen. Worship in D&D does have power, so you could make a new god similar to the dead ones through a new religion, but bringing back an old god from the dead would be near impossible.
If you could find way to kill/sunder the Vistaesh, then maybe you could do something like that. But creating a new god and bringing a dead and absorbed one back from the dead are a bit different in terms of feasibility.
If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
Hey this is a great read cannot wait for new lore to come, sorry if you have already answered this but what happed when the duergar taught the kobolds to master alchemy. Did anything come from their experiment or did they just act the same?
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- Someone once told me that it is possible to play an artificer without collateral damage. They were wrong. Without collateral damage, what is the point of playing an Artificer?
- Nothing solves a problem better than a little gnome power!
Okay, I've made a new race and culture associated with it, in the style of the new version of races/backgrounds from the most recent UA. I present the Godspawn.
The Godspawn
Descended from the few demigods that survived the Great Sacrifice, the Godspawn are a race of humanoid-looking celestials that dwell on the Material Plane. Although their Empyreans and other divine ancestors bred with a diverse array of humanoid races, the divine blood that these celestial children shared allowed them to breed true with one another. The descendants of these first divine children eventually merged into one race, known as the Godspawn.
One of the first of these divine children, a male half-elf descended from Amaunator named Andorin Caelus, realized that within a few generations if these god-descended humanoids just bred with other non-divine humanoid races, eventually their divine blood would become so diluted that they would just become assimilated with every other race and their blood would lose its celestial powers. Andorin decided to write a treatise on how it was the duty of the spawn of the dead gods to preserve the "purity" of their blood and work to use their divine blood to eventually give birth to a new pantheon of gods. Thus the Codex Divinitus was written, the holy book of the followers of Andorin Caelus, which explains his ideology that practicing selective breeding, divine magic, and other forms of eugenics to increase the potency of their celestial blood could eventually produce a new pantheon of gods that would get rid of the Aether, retake the Outer Planes, and make the multiverse perfect. Many of these early divinely-blooded decided to follow Andorin Caelus and do as the Codex Divinitus instructed, forming a religious ideology that worshipped unborn gods and practiced eugenics to produce a new breed of humanoid-looking celestial people, which are known in modern times as the Godspawn.
Here are the Godspawn racial traits:
Here are the Godspawn sample backgrounds (technically only available to Godspawn, but the new system is so customizable that there's no purpose in restricting them):
(I'll add more in another post tomorrow.)
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Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Just came up with more lore for the Godspawn! Here's an explanation of their religion/culture:
The Blood of the Gods
The xenophobic religion founded by Andorin Caelus, known as the Blood of the Gods, practices the worship of gods that are yet to be born, which they believe they will be the ancestors of. The doctrine written by Andorin Caelus proclaims that Tor-eal's pantheon are false gods and proclaims that these perpetually forthcoming new gods, known in the religion as the Neodeos (pronounced "Nee-oh Day-ohs"), shall rid the sky of the Aether, overthrow Asmodeus and his baatezu, and reclaim the Outer Planes. Godspawn are taught from a very young age that they have the potential in their divine blood to give birth to these new gods and "save the world" from "eternal perdition". Thus, Godspawn are raised believing they're superior to all other races and they alone can save the world.
The Codex Divinitus
The Codex Divinitus is the holy book of those that follow the Blood of the Gods, written by Grand Vaticinator Andorin Caelus. The book declares that the Raven Queen is an unjust goddess, that all other "gods" worshipped by the people of Tor-eal are false idols, and that it is the right and duty of all with divine blood to work towards producing a perfect generation of those with "pure" divine blood that can reclaim the Heavens.
The following are some of the most important teachings found in the Codex Divinitus that define the modern lives of devout Godspawn:
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Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it.
I may publish some of this content on DMsGuild eventually, once I've playtested it enough and separated the good parts from the bad (I'll readily admit that there are quite a few dumb ideas that I've come up with in this thread, and I'll have to get rid of all of those if I ever want to publish anything like this). I'm in the process of doing some pretty heavy lore revisions and additions to this world to make it better, and I might even have to change this world into no longer being a variant of Toril. However, my plan is to eventually get this project into a publishable state and put it on the DMsGuild in some form (either in one giant setting book or a bunch of smaller individual projects that merge together to produce this world).
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
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I (mostly) like it this way, too. But it would be near-impossible for me to get it published as a variant of Toril, because it both counts as a new setting (which can't be published on DMsGuild) and is made up of a bunch of Intellectual Property that's owned by Wizards of the Coast (so they would have to agree to have it published, which is never going to happen). Is it dystopian? I always thought of it as a more post-post-apocalyptic setting (a world recovering from an event that should have ended the world).
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
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Yeah, it is tricky. It's possible (but very unlikely) that this could fall under the DMsGuild "you can publish content for official 5e settings" rule, but I highly doubt it due to how different it is. It's basically a new setting, while also depending on the Forgotten Realms IP.
No need to apologize. That part of your post just confused me a bit.
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Yeah, I'll definitely do that once I get the world to a publishable state. I still have quite a bit of work to do (I'm making a post right now listing the main things I still need to finish and explaining them a tiny bit).
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While I'm here, I might as well make a list of the stuff that still needs to be completed for this project. Here's what I can currently think of (I might add more later):
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Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Yes, actually, I do have a few non-racial monster stat blocks. I've made the monster stat blocks for the Dream Watchers, Dream Catchers, Petrified Treants (from the volcanic region of Chult), Beholder Dreamers (Beholders that purposefully put themselves into endless comas in order to control reality through the Realm of Dreams), and a few others that I can't think of from the top of my head. I'm definitely going to make more, too. I'm thinking it should be at least as long as Eberron's or Exandria's bestiaries.
I do have some race-based ones, too (Vezyi Iremongers and Palmbearers, all 5 variants of the Golmeng, 6 different types of Reforged, etc).
Oh, I've actually already written a short adventure (5,00 words, spanning levels 3-5) for Tor-eal. It's called The Nightmare of Corrin's Mound, and it will be published in the digital EN5ider subscription magazine in about a month. It involves the Cult of Terror, a religious communal village of the Sun-worshipping Halflings, and a Dream Watcher.
Sardior was going to be dead, but I was going to have Sardior's Ruby Palace orbit the planet in the Tears of Selune. It would have been ruled by Sardior's council of Gem Dragons and be in alliance with the Sheiohn Foulen (the Felshen psionic organization) and the Githxei as one of the main ways to get to Realmspace and fight against the Illithid Empire. But Fizban's Treasury of Dragons made no mention of it, and if it did ever exist, it was only in the First World (which was destroyed long before the Catastrophe ever happened). So, I could still do a similar idea, but it wouldn't have to be explicitly the Ruby Palace, and just some other Gem Dragon Space Council.
(Also, the Aether would prevent everyone inside Realmspace from leaving. Doomspace isn't accessible anymore, and even if it was, all of the planets/moons inside of it would have degraded into the Eye of Doom by now. However, a reborn form of Sardior or some vestige of him could work possibly as a new god/demigod. Thanks for the idea.)
That was the goal!
Sure, I can get onto that. I'll edit the OP to add that in. Thanks for the recommendation (it will actually help me a bit, too).
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Okay! Done editing the OP with links to all of the content, notes on things that need changing/expansion (wow, I need to change much more than I thought I did), and I added the list of Upcoming Content. Next, I'll go in-depth on the Orc culture and religion of Ubtao. Magic tattoos and primeval dinosaur magic, here I come!
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Here's the lore for Orcs! After giving it a thought and looking over the lore I wrote . . . over two years ago. It's been that long already? Gods, I do need to get this finished soon.
Anyway, as I was saying, I was reading the original lore that I have for them and my recent idea of them worshipping Ubtao, riding dinosaurs in battle, decorating themselves in magic tattoos, and all of that stuff, and I realized that the two ideas I had; the Orcs had to come to a reckoning with the world after they found out their gods were terrible and they needed to change to fit in with the world and the modern Orcs ride dinosaurs, have magic tattoos, and worship Ubtao, don't really work together. Why would a culture that was eventually forced to reject their gods wait around for nearly 700 years before a new god came back and begin worshipping him? That doesn't really vibe with my original concept for them, so I've decided to make some pretty heavy changes. I do like the concept of Dino-riding, magically tattooed, Wardens of the Wild-style Orcs . . . it just doesn't fit.
So, after giving it a bit more thought, I have a new concept I'm playing with. The Dino-Orcs could exist as a small, splinter subculture of Tor-eal's Orcs, but they're definitely not the major players in this world that I originally thought they would be. But my main new idea ties together the "Orcs are really angry" and "Orcs realized how badly their gods played them for millennia" parts of their identity in this world. So, I present the new Orcs! They're iconoclasts, antitheists, and really, really hate the Gods. Say hello to the Orcs of Tor-eal Reborn!
Orcs of Tor-eal (Revised)
Long having abandoned their previous, um, predatory culture of Gruumsh worship, the Orcs of Tor-eal have developed a new culture over the past thousand years.
"Godless Heathens"
Following the Great Sacrifice, the Orcs of Tor-eal completely abandoned their former religious culture, having been told by their gods that their war with the Goblinoids and other humanoids was ultimately pointless. They learned that their gods had been sacrificing their lives (and souls) for millennia for a pointless personal grudge with another god and witnessed the deaths of their gods in the Great Sacrifice. The cataclysmic events of the Catastrophe irreparably destroyed Orcish culture and religion and left the race without a purpose. This permanently fractured the Orcish peoples and forced them to come to a reckoning with their existence and the state of the world. While the culture of the Orcs was forever split throughout the hundreds of different tribes across the world, one major theme defined Orcish culture for hundreds of years after the Catastrophe: hatred of the Gods.
Orcs learned how they were taken advantage of by their gods and shunned by the gods of the so called "good" pantheons that stole everything from them. They learned of the trickery and lies that all the gods use in order to win the devotion of mortals. They recognized signs of their previous religion in the churches of other deities, and decided that they were done with the Gods and all others that act like them (powerful Celestials, Dragons, Giants, Aboleths, priests/cult leaders, etc). While not all Orcs abandoned religion, the vast majority felt so betrayed by their own gods that they took it as a warning against religion as a whole and swore to teach their children a way that would prevent them from being taken advantage of the way they had been.
Thus, a new Orcish tradition and culture was born: rejecting the Gods and those that claim to be divine. This culture spread quickly throughout the many orc tribes and was taught to their children post-Catastrophe. These younger generations of Orcs were taught to reject all gods and people that demand worship and to turn against those that claim to be authorities over the Orcs. The Orcs still kept their rejection of other gods and anger at other people, but only those that claim to be above them. This new generation's culture was one of extreme antiauthoritarianism and being masters of their own fates.
(To be continued . . . )
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Okay, this is a bit unexpected, but came up as I was brainstorming ideas for the Orcs. Orcs in Tor-eal don't worship Ubtao, so I needed a race/culture that commonly does. My new culture that worships Ubtao prominently are a group of Minotaurs, because of their woodland labyrinths and the fact that Ubtao is a god of mazes. I'll detail this more later.
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Would it be possible to revive the gods? If a gods power is measured by their followers, you could create one. The Kuo-Toa do it all the time.
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Hmmm. Interesting question.
I think this is probably impossible in the context of the world's lore. Because the dead gods' souls/spirits were all merged together into a new god, the Vistaesh, by the Raven Queen. Worship in D&D does have power, so you could make a new god similar to the dead ones through a new religion, but bringing back an old god from the dead would be near impossible.
If you could find way to kill/sunder the Vistaesh, then maybe you could do something like that. But creating a new god and bringing a dead and absorbed one back from the dead are a bit different in terms of feasibility.
If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
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Hey this is a great read cannot wait for new lore to come, sorry if you have already answered this but what happed when the duergar taught the kobolds to master alchemy. Did anything come from their experiment or did they just act the same?
- Someone once told me that it is possible to play an artificer without collateral damage. They were wrong. Without collateral damage, what is the point of playing an Artificer?
- Nothing solves a problem better than a little gnome power!
- Check this out https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?594932-The-TSAR-Tiny-Servant-Actuated-Robot-a-Revolution-in-Artificer-Combat for a work of pure genius (A little outdated but it should give you some ideas)