The Feywild and the Shadowfell are two new planes added in the last editions to the D&D cosmology, and these are wellcome, but sometimes I miss something more. I have interested in the plane of the mirrors, but this works better for stories type gothic horror. Some time I imagined a remake of "Council of Wryms" where "Io's blood" islands were demiplanes within the elemental chaos working like the dark domains (Ravenloft) or the domains of delight(Witchlight) but ruled by overlord dragons.
The inspiration for the phase of "storm of ideas" may change radically. Then I wanted something more linked with the elements, but not too hard for low-level PCs, and with some touch of post-apocaliptic "hyrborean-punk" as dark-sun. This place would be the home of giants, elemental beings of all type, genies, and some dragon. And I also remembered the "spirit plane" of "Kara-Tur", and the "wasteland" from the videogame "Death Stranding".
Then the image in my mind was a ravaged land, but not by the defiler magic from Dark Sun but because elemental magic is too hard for ordinary vegetation. After the damage the recovering is usual, and faster with primal magic for healer effects, and it can be damaged again easily.
Not all it is totally desert, because when some kami or spirits are "atunned" with certain zones, then the local vegetation can stand better the damage by elemental forces. Then zones are true treasures for the local population who needs farming to eat, but any spirits don't like the forestal zones the forest area where they live are cut down to build settlements, and when they away the attunement with that zone is lost, and vegetation lose the previous resistance against the elemental damage.
The "kami" or spirits can "be born" from elements in the landscape like a tree or a waterfall. This can be detected by spellcasters because they have a special aura, and later the vegetation starts to stand better the elemental forces. Then some evil spellcasters "gather" those "unborn spirits".
Zones of civilitation can be found, but the origin of most of these isn't easy to be explained, because really they are "shards of broken time spheres". A "time sphere" is like a "wildspace" in Spelljammer, but based in alternate timelines. When time-travelers cause troubles about paradoxes or rewritte History then some "time spheres" are "broken", and the "pieces" are special demiplanes with the name "time shard". The ultimate fate of these demiplanes floating within the space-time continium is "landing" in the "primashard" plane. Some "timeshards" are sent intentionally to the "Primalshard" by deities or geat powers because these have got a great value to keep the space-time, for example to allow the birth of a legendary hero or to fix some possible time-paradox.
..
Other type of transitive plane: the Timeghyll, a mixture of time-loop, spirit realm, purgatory, backroom and "hollow earth" (style Julio Verne's title and Mystara's spin-off).
If the time is a river then the uchronic demiplanes are the "aqueduct" and the timeghylls are like ravines created by diverted and later returned a river. When the History or the timeline is rewritten (but later corrected) by time-traveler and chronomancers...(TEFERI ASOKA, I AM WATCHING YOU, AND BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO POINT BECAUSE IT IS NOT POLITE!) a "trace" or imprint remains in the space-time continium. In the beginning they seems "dreamlands" what later merger with the Feywild as domains or special regions. Some time-dragons and chronomancers use the timeghylls as "raw material" to build (uchronic) demiplanes. Maybe the main clue to recognize a timeghyll is because they are totally dessert, like a city evacuated hours ago, or the population behove like nPCs of a old videogame (really bad social interactions). But there are some native with soul, people who would be born only with the alteration of the timeline (because their parents married other people and things like this). Also feys like to visit, explore and live here.
Some timeghylls are rebuilt by great powers to punish or hold/contain certain sinners or menaces. For example there is a timeghyll where the kingpriest of Istar is the supreme deity, but the world suffers a planar invasion of elementals, constructs and plant monsters, with the irony the sacred champions were too specialiced to fight undead and infernal outsiders. In other timeghyll lord Soth is allowed to be with his wife and son, but with a trick. Sometimes these are replaced by his first wife and son (a half-orc), or the shape, or the soul, or both. Both children, the half-orc and the half-elf, hate each other.
...
And now I also other idea: the akasha realms. These demiplanes are like "theme parks" and "computer backups" in the space-time continium to avoid possible time paradoxes caused by time-travelers and chronomancers. The akasha realms are like copies/replicas of timelines (in the way how this is remembered, not how it happened really). They can be explored to know the past, but this can't be altered because the akasha realm is only an imitation of the past, but not the real past. At least they can be useful to know ancient artworks and documents before these were destroyed or lost in the real past.
----
What do you think? I know you may say it is a crazy idea, but sometimes you have to start with the crazies ideas and keeping working with these to develop something better.
Now I have been thinking about something like realm of dark faes, close to the concept of the Hedge from Changeling: the lost, and with a lot of thorns.
Thornmaze.
A lot of time ago there was a pantheon who were worshipped in several worlds, and to travel between these they created a cosmic tree as a planar bridge, but a day a meteor fell, and this caused a plague of horror and abominations. To stop the unholy spread this "tree" had to be pruned. Eons laters this plane was rediscovered by dark faes, although there are still some horror, mixture of plant monster and clockwork construct, but these weren't too hard to be defeated by the brave explored. Too dangerous to create permanent sentlements or to be used for travel trade it could be used as prison or a hidding place.
Today the look of this plane is like a maze by ciclopean thorny hedges. Within this sometimes buildings or dungeons can be found.
The local flora is mainly spiny climbing plants, with a dark blue color instead the classic green. Only some fruits can be eaten. The wildlife is mainly creatures what mix plant and animal traits, but there is also a lot of giant vernims. Some populations within special domes have been possible, but the links between the different towns aren't easy at all, because the terrain isn't static. Hills or rivers appear and disappear in a different place without warning. Other times a mountain start to float and fly for months or years until to land in other place. The sky isn't too dark, like a cloudy day before sundown, but farming is not easy. To grow farmers need special lanters.
The biomechanical horrors are dangerous, but not too much to allow the rebuild of the civilitation, and today these are hunted to collect a special "oil". The dark faes using their own version of reverse engineering have created their own biomechanical horrors, but these are under their control, and they can be identified by their runes (or runic tattos). Explorers have discovered some groups of biomechanical horror fight against each other, and some arcane investigator tell some biomechanical horror are under the control of some spirit.
Duskmourn has been source of inspiration to create a new plane. Let's say it is like mixing Friday 13 and Mad Max, post-apocalypitic and serie B horror.
During the "Ascension" of Valgavoth some survivors tried to find a way to escape, and they successed... relatively. And now they live in outdoor, or almost. Now they live mainly in caravan cars and other type of housing-vehicles. There are also "floating cities" thanks "skyships" althought these are more like giant hovecrafts than classical ships from seans and ocenas. Thanks crafting a special ally working like artificial carvorite these "boats" can "float" on the air. The civilitation can survive but the settlers can't stand during a too long time. After several years they have to evacuate because the power of Valgavoth will try to catch those survivors. One of the first warning signs if the raids by gnolls, pirates or warlords.
The geography is too variable to create domains beyond city-states but trade is possible most of time.
There is also industry and factories but almost all of them are by sentient constructs, closer to animated mannequins that true andoids with AI. These "puppets" can't feel enough fear to feed Valgavoth's hunger, therefore this isn't interested into to catch them to torture psychologically. The "puppets" are willing to trade but they can defend themself against hostile raids.
There are ruins of megalopolis where you could find remains of forgotten magitek but lots of times they are inhabitted by zombie-like creatures, not really undead but more like a mixture of plant and construct, like a biopunk version of grey-gloo. The infection has got an incubation time relatively short but not too much, and the healing is possible but expensive and the no-magic vacuums don't work so good against new strains.
Curiously Valgavoth can't catch suvivors from underground vaults, and here the civilitation is more advanced technologically, or at least they have enjoy enough time to evacuate toward a safer zone because be hunted by Valgavoth. Some times abandonded vaults become the new home of "okupas", working like a classic D&D dungeon, even with traps and other surprises.
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(Sorry, copied and pasted from Enworld forum).
The Feywild and the Shadowfell are two new planes added in the last editions to the D&D cosmology, and these are wellcome, but sometimes I miss something more. I have interested in the plane of the mirrors, but this works better for stories type gothic horror. Some time I imagined a remake of "Council of Wryms" where "Io's blood" islands were demiplanes within the elemental chaos working like the dark domains (Ravenloft) or the domains of delight(Witchlight) but ruled by overlord dragons.
The inspiration for the phase of "storm of ideas" may change radically. Then I wanted something more linked with the elements, but not too hard for low-level PCs, and with some touch of post-apocaliptic "hyrborean-punk" as dark-sun. This place would be the home of giants, elemental beings of all type, genies, and some dragon. And I also remembered the "spirit plane" of "Kara-Tur", and the "wasteland" from the videogame "Death Stranding".
Then the image in my mind was a ravaged land, but not by the defiler magic from Dark Sun but because elemental magic is too hard for ordinary vegetation. After the damage the recovering is usual, and faster with primal magic for healer effects, and it can be damaged again easily.
Not all it is totally desert, because when some kami or spirits are "atunned" with certain zones, then the local vegetation can stand better the damage by elemental forces. Then zones are true treasures for the local population who needs farming to eat, but any spirits don't like the forestal zones the forest area where they live are cut down to build settlements, and when they away the attunement with that zone is lost, and vegetation lose the previous resistance against the elemental damage.
The "kami" or spirits can "be born" from elements in the landscape like a tree or a waterfall. This can be detected by spellcasters because they have a special aura, and later the vegetation starts to stand better the elemental forces. Then some evil spellcasters "gather" those "unborn spirits".
Zones of civilitation can be found, but the origin of most of these isn't easy to be explained, because really they are "shards of broken time spheres". A "time sphere" is like a "wildspace" in Spelljammer, but based in alternate timelines. When time-travelers cause troubles about paradoxes or rewritte History then some "time spheres" are "broken", and the "pieces" are special demiplanes with the name "time shard". The ultimate fate of these demiplanes floating within the space-time continium is "landing" in the "primashard" plane. Some "timeshards" are sent intentionally to the "Primalshard" by deities or geat powers because these have got a great value to keep the space-time, for example to allow the birth of a legendary hero or to fix some possible time-paradox.
..
Other type of transitive plane: the Timeghyll, a mixture of time-loop, spirit realm, purgatory, backroom and "hollow earth" (style Julio Verne's title and Mystara's spin-off).
If the time is a river then the uchronic demiplanes are the "aqueduct" and the timeghylls are like ravines created by diverted and later returned a river. When the History or the timeline is rewritten (but later corrected) by time-traveler and chronomancers...(TEFERI ASOKA, I AM WATCHING YOU, AND BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO POINT BECAUSE IT IS NOT POLITE!) a "trace" or imprint remains in the space-time continium. In the beginning they seems "dreamlands" what later merger with the Feywild as domains or special regions. Some time-dragons and chronomancers use the timeghylls as "raw material" to build (uchronic) demiplanes. Maybe the main clue to recognize a timeghyll is because they are totally dessert, like a city evacuated hours ago, or the population behove like nPCs of a old videogame (really bad social interactions). But there are some native with soul, people who would be born only with the alteration of the timeline (because their parents married other people and things like this). Also feys like to visit, explore and live here.
Some timeghylls are rebuilt by great powers to punish or hold/contain certain sinners or menaces. For example there is a timeghyll where the kingpriest of Istar is the supreme deity, but the world suffers a planar invasion of elementals, constructs and plant monsters, with the irony the sacred champions were too specialiced to fight undead and infernal outsiders. In other timeghyll lord Soth is allowed to be with his wife and son, but with a trick. Sometimes these are replaced by his first wife and son (a half-orc), or the shape, or the soul, or both. Both children, the half-orc and the half-elf, hate each other.
...
And now I also other idea: the akasha realms. These demiplanes are like "theme parks" and "computer backups" in the space-time continium to avoid possible time paradoxes caused by time-travelers and chronomancers. The akasha realms are like copies/replicas of timelines (in the way how this is remembered, not how it happened really). They can be explored to know the past, but this can't be altered because the akasha realm is only an imitation of the past, but not the real past. At least they can be useful to know ancient artworks and documents before these were destroyed or lost in the real past.
----
What do you think? I know you may say it is a crazy idea, but sometimes you have to start with the crazies ideas and keeping working with these to develop something better.
Now I have been thinking about something like realm of dark faes, close to the concept of the Hedge from Changeling: the lost, and with a lot of thorns.
Thornmaze.
A lot of time ago there was a pantheon who were worshipped in several worlds, and to travel between these they created a cosmic tree as a planar bridge, but a day a meteor fell, and this caused a plague of horror and abominations. To stop the unholy spread this "tree" had to be pruned. Eons laters this plane was rediscovered by dark faes, although there are still some horror, mixture of plant monster and clockwork construct, but these weren't too hard to be defeated by the brave explored. Too dangerous to create permanent sentlements or to be used for travel trade it could be used as prison or a hidding place.
Today the look of this plane is like a maze by ciclopean thorny hedges. Within this sometimes buildings or dungeons can be found.
The local flora is mainly spiny climbing plants, with a dark blue color instead the classic green. Only some fruits can be eaten. The wildlife is mainly creatures what mix plant and animal traits, but there is also a lot of giant vernims. Some populations within special domes have been possible, but the links between the different towns aren't easy at all, because the terrain isn't static. Hills or rivers appear and disappear in a different place without warning. Other times a mountain start to float and fly for months or years until to land in other place. The sky isn't too dark, like a cloudy day before sundown, but farming is not easy. To grow farmers need special lanters.
The biomechanical horrors are dangerous, but not too much to allow the rebuild of the civilitation, and today these are hunted to collect a special "oil". The dark faes using their own version of reverse engineering have created their own biomechanical horrors, but these are under their control, and they can be identified by their runes (or runic tattos). Explorers have discovered some groups of biomechanical horror fight against each other, and some arcane investigator tell some biomechanical horror are under the control of some spirit.
Duskmourn has been source of inspiration to create a new plane. Let's say it is like mixing Friday 13 and Mad Max, post-apocalypitic and serie B horror.
During the "Ascension" of Valgavoth some survivors tried to find a way to escape, and they successed... relatively. And now they live in outdoor, or almost. Now they live mainly in caravan cars and other type of housing-vehicles. There are also "floating cities" thanks "skyships" althought these are more like giant hovecrafts than classical ships from seans and ocenas. Thanks crafting a special ally working like artificial carvorite these "boats" can "float" on the air. The civilitation can survive but the settlers can't stand during a too long time. After several years they have to evacuate because the power of Valgavoth will try to catch those survivors. One of the first warning signs if the raids by gnolls, pirates or warlords.
The geography is too variable to create domains beyond city-states but trade is possible most of time.
There is also industry and factories but almost all of them are by sentient constructs, closer to animated mannequins that true andoids with AI. These "puppets" can't feel enough fear to feed Valgavoth's hunger, therefore this isn't interested into to catch them to torture psychologically. The "puppets" are willing to trade but they can defend themself against hostile raids.
There are ruins of megalopolis where you could find remains of forgotten magitek but lots of times they are inhabitted by zombie-like creatures, not really undead but more like a mixture of plant and construct, like a biopunk version of grey-gloo. The infection has got an incubation time relatively short but not too much, and the healing is possible but expensive and the no-magic vacuums don't work so good against new strains.
Curiously Valgavoth can't catch suvivors from underground vaults, and here the civilitation is more advanced technologically, or at least they have enjoy enough time to evacuate toward a safer zone because be hunted by Valgavoth. Some times abandonded vaults become the new home of "okupas", working like a classic D&D dungeon, even with traps and other surprises.