I've been wanting to create my own D&D world for a while. Normally, I just have a generic, unnamed Earth-like world with the standard planar system. I was hoping to get out of that loop by making a world, but I don't have many ideas. Any suggestions?
I don't have a pantheon or planar system decided, all I know for my world is that most of the 'generic' races went extinct or left to distant realms because of.... something. Here's all the races I think will be around (free to be changed around, of course):
Arachne
Lizardfolk
Tortles
Tieflings
All Goblinoids
Yuan-ti (no magic resist)
Grung
All the 'normal' races of dwarves, humans, elves, halflings, etc. are gone. Other than that, let your imaginations run wild!
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Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
Huh... it seems like the species that survived are ones that live in remote areas. Maybe some sort of disaster fell upon the kingdoms of the other races, and now it's sort of a fable among the surviving species. "Be sure to eat your gruel, or you'll end up like the humans did." That kind of thing.
Maybe the other races's own greed was the cause of their destruction. Their constant scheming and vying for more and more power led to the annihilation of all of their peoples, possibly through some magical calamity.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Huh... it seems like the species that survived are ones that live in remote areas. Maybe some sort of disaster fell upon the kingdoms of the other races, and now it's sort of a fable among the surviving species. "Be sure to eat your gruel, or you'll end up like the humans did." That kind of thing.
Maybe the other races's own greed was the cause of their destruction. Their constant scheming and vying for more and more power led to the annihilation of all of their peoples, possibly through some magical calamity.
Ooh, I like that idea!
Perhaps the normal races went into an all-out war over... something (probably some incredibly powerful artifact or magic item, like the Maze Engine), and by the time they stopped, there were so few stragglers left that the uncommon races decided to finish them off and take power themselves?
If there was "a world before" with the "more normal" fantasy races, that gives me some thoughts:
- This leads to plenty of potential for buried/ruined cities, structures, artifacts of power etc; great fodder for adventures.
- Some of the surviving races (Lizardfolk, Tortle, Yuan-ti, Grung, Tieflings etc.) make me think that this world might be a lot warmer than the "norm": more jungles tropics,, deserts, swamps, that sort of thing. Which could easily when combined with the first lead to some fun fantasy meets fallout/mad max sorts of things
- Having this different spread of races might mean a different sort of pantheon of gods: most human and human-analogous pantheons tend to have very anthropoid gods,a and generally fairly simple moralities. Having this many non-human-like races might mean they have more primal, morally grey deities. Which means you could draw from different pantheons than the norm and have some more exotic things to play with.
- It's a good idea to think about what sort of technological level you want both the "new" civilizations, and those that came before. Personally I love the "ancient magi-tech" aesthetic that some of the Legend of Zelda games went with for their version of ancient Hyrule; but that's just my taste. How advanced each was will determine quite a lot about the world; simply how inter-connected things are alone for instance.
- Is this a "post-apocalypse"? Or a "Post-post-apocalypse"? By which I mean; is the disaster that changed the status quo of the world still fresh on everyone's minds (Fallout, Mad Max, etc.)? Or has this world recovered and entered a "new normal", and it's all the stuff of legend (Zelda: Wind Waker, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.)?
Personally, I suggest tortles, since turtles were on track to be the dominant species instead of humans, and would have been were it not for an evolutionary fluke a couple hundred million years ago.
Personally, I suggest tortles, since turtles were on track to be the dominant species instead of humans, and would have been were it not for an evolutionary fluke a couple hundred million years ago.
I sort of like that; based upon their existing lore, Tortles tend to be pretty friendly/laid back in their general mind set, so that would make for an interesting dynamic as your "default NPC character" as it were. Considering that outlook, the fact they all have natural armor, and the relatively "tribal" attitude of some of the other species listed; it would probably be more "soft dominance" than anything else. IE: they're the most populace because they're the most readily cooperative and relatively unlikely to die to factional violence more than anything else.
... And suddenly I have the mental image of a low-level party trying to go all murder-hobo on this world and constantly wiffing attacks against the first peasant they encounter. "Stop it... Knock it off! ... A few minutes of this and I'll start getting mad..." - Tortle farmer
It's a good idea to think about what sort of technological level you want both the "new" civilizations, and those that came before. Personally I love the "ancient magi-tech" aesthetic that some of the Legend of Zelda games went with for their version of ancient Hyrule; but that's just my taste. How advanced each was will determine quite a lot about the world; simply how inter-connected things are alone for instance.
I'm also a fan of the Legend of Zelda games and the concept of ancient technomancy hidden within the world. While reading through the ideas in this thread, one idea of my own was to modify some of the LoZ: Breath of the Wild concepts to fit with this lack of normal races concept. My thought would be to replace the idea of Calamity Ganon with another evil deity (such as Asmodeus), who ultimately led to the major races being wiped out.
I personally like the idea of Asmodeus being the key figure for multiple reasons.
First and foremost, I like the idea of Asmodeus subtly influencing and corrupting the humans, dwarves, elves, etc. over the decades/centuries. He builds upon their greed, gluttony, and pride as the civilizations thrive and grow. The races not only prosper, but they make great leaps in technomancy and magic… However, they start to grow envious for the other civilizations advancements, and they eventually succumb to wrath as they all start destroying one another.
The less common races, who are more morally grey, weren’t as affected due to them being less prone to the deadly sins of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus collects the souls of the humans, dwarves, elves, etc. as their hubris wipes them from the face of the known world, and the other races start to fill those voids.
The once great civilizations are gone, but their ruined cities and technomantic achievements can still be found hidden in swamps, dense jungles, and deep underground.
All the 'normal' races of dwarves, humans, elves, halflings, etc. are gone. Other than that, let your imaginations run wild!
Building on the Asmodeus influence that I references above, I would possibly even build in the following concepts to the world’s lore:
While the “normal” races might no longer exist, they weren’t as completely wiped out as history would indicate…
The human race is gone, but some humans made a desperate bargain with Asmodeus near the end of the calamity to save themselves. This infernal pact created the tiefling race in this world as Asmodeus agreed to spare the humans but permanently placed his mark of protection upon them. Centuries after the calamity, most tieflings don’t recall their ancestors being fully human… They just know that they bear the sins of their forefathers.
Similarly, the elves reached out for assistance before the calamity claimed them all. They beseeched an ancient force of nature known as the Serpent of Law to protect and preserve them. Their pleas were heard and answered, but not without a cost as well. They elves were tainted and transformed until the Yuan-Ti race was born… Unknown to most, the Serpent was an alternate aspect of Asmodeus, and he claimed another race to fuel him for the centuries to come.
My lore might be a little Asmodeus heavy, but I liked the idea of having his different aspects tying in to some of the remaining races. I also like the idea of having some of the "normal" races being gone but due to them evolving into another form to survive whatever calamity occured and continue to exist and survive.
I think we're making great progress! I'm not sure if Asmodeus is going to be in the pantheon as they are more of a 'normal' deity, but I love the creation story behind the Teiflings and Yuan-ti! Ancient Technomancy probably won't be anything as advanced as, say, a BOTW Guardian, but it would probably be leaps and bounds ahead of present technology.
Speaking of which, how rare is magic in this world. Is it common enough that magic is commonplace? Is it so rare that only a few even know about it? Somewhere in between?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
It's not sentient or anything, that's just the name of the world, like Earth is the name of our world.
"Greetings, fellow travelers! I doth hail from the whimsical, enigmatic kingdom of.... Dave.
I like the name Exoltua. It seems to fit with a strange world that is different from all others.
This is what I think the history seems to be: [world name] used to be like many others. The standard races across D&D flourished and were prosperous. Slowly, though, these races became evil and greedy, and made a pact with an evil deity, known as [name]. [name] destroyed many races, and now the standard races are gone.
If there was "a world before" with the "more normal" fantasy races, that gives me some thoughts:
- This leads to plenty of potential for buried/ruined cities, structures, artifacts of power etc; great fodder for adventures.
- Some of the surviving races (Lizardfolk, Tortle, Yuan-ti, Grung, Tieflings etc.) make me think that this world might be a lot warmer than the "norm": more jungles tropics,, deserts, swamps, that sort of thing. Which could easily when combined with the first lead to some fun fantasy meets fallout/mad max sorts of things
- Having this different spread of races might mean a different sort of pantheon of gods: most human and human-analogous pantheons tend to have very anthropoid gods,a and generally fairly simple moralities. Having this many non-human-like races might mean they have more primal, morally grey deities. Which means you could draw from different pantheons than the norm and have some more exotic things to play with.
- It's a good idea to think about what sort of technological level you want both the "new" civilizations, and those that came before. Personally I love the "ancient magi-tech" aesthetic that some of the Legend of Zelda games went with for their version of ancient Hyrule; but that's just my taste. How advanced each was will determine quite a lot about the world; simply how inter-connected things are alone for instance.
- Is this a "post-apocalypse"? Or a "Post-post-apocalypse"? By which I mean; is the disaster that changed the status quo of the world still fresh on everyone's minds (Fallout, Mad Max, etc.)? Or has this world recovered and entered a "new normal", and it's all the stuff of legend (Zelda: Wind Waker, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.)?
It would be cool if the gods of this world were Celtic-esque and the mythology was nature oriented.
- Is this a "post-apocalypse"? Or a "Post-post-apocalypse"? By which I mean; is the disaster that changed the status quo of the world still fresh on everyone's minds (Fallout, Mad Max, etc.)? Or has this world recovered and entered a "new normal", and it's all the stuff of legend (Zelda: Wind Waker, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.)?
Whatever happened to the common races, it was about a hundred years ago. It's not on the minds of many of the younger folk, and many of the elderly still remember (or maybe experienced firsthand) the calamity, but the world is just starting to recover from it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
I would like to suggest for the Hobgoblin empire being in a state of civil war. Hobgoblin banners found outside the empire working as mercenaries or in very reclusive colonies. Inside the empire the legions are at each others throats. The hobgoblin government have loss the blessing of their gods and have collapsed. The sitting emperor have abdicated the throne and now seeks a future for their people. May that future be in the form of visionary to birth the dream of republic, an heir to reforge the empire, or will the proud hobgoblin race be doom to mediocrity. Without their gods to guide them, for the first time in their long existence the future is now theirs to write as they see fit.
I notice that most of the creatures live about 40 to 60 years, with the exceptions of tieflings and yuan-ti. Since the disaster happened about twice that time ago, it would probably be largely forgotten among tortles, grungs, lizardfolk, and goblinoids. You don't really have any long-living races left, now that the elves are gone.
I've been wanting to create my own D&D world for a while. Normally, I just have a generic, unnamed Earth-like world with the standard planar system. I was hoping to get out of that loop by making a world, but I don't have many ideas. Any suggestions?
I don't have a pantheon or planar system decided, all I know for my world is that most of the 'generic' races went extinct or left to distant realms because of.... something. Here's all the races I think will be around (free to be changed around, of course):
All the 'normal' races of dwarves, humans, elves, halflings, etc. are gone. Other than that, let your imaginations run wild!
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
The world should be called Dave.
It's not sentient or anything, that's just the name of the world, like Earth is the name of our world.
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
"The disaster can be described in 3 words. Big. Darn. Fireball." - Lorkis, Tortle snail herder.
Wizards should bring back old settings and try to stop neglecting the other continents of the Forgotten Realms.
Yes I like realmslore, why do you ask?
I like dragon quest and deltarune. Yes I realize this invalidates both me and my opinion.
I hate how Fantasy words like Mezoberainian get the little red spellcheck line.
I believe in TORTLE SUPREMECY
"Hey all Scott here and this is bad, real bad"- Scott Wozniak (also every session I seem to run)
I think I made this a bit too long.
Huh... it seems like the species that survived are ones that live in remote areas. Maybe some sort of disaster fell upon the kingdoms of the other races, and now it's sort of a fable among the surviving species. "Be sure to eat your gruel, or you'll end up like the humans did." That kind of thing.
Maybe the other races's own greed was the cause of their destruction. Their constant scheming and vying for more and more power led to the annihilation of all of their peoples, possibly through some magical calamity.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Ooh, I like that idea!
Perhaps the normal races went into an all-out war over... something (probably some incredibly powerful artifact or magic item, like the Maze Engine), and by the time they stopped, there were so few stragglers left that the uncommon races decided to finish them off and take power themselves?
Looking for a campaign? Or, perhaps, trying to start one? Come join Rolegate! Just send me a friend request (same name as here) and I'll help you get started!
Ducks are just geese lite. Focus on the future. It'll become the past soon enough.
Istari and White Counsel in Club. Not the wish-granter of a thread.
Become a Plague Doctor today!
Join the Knights of the Random Table and Calius and Kothar Industries!
Homebrew: Artifact, Dungeon
May be offline due to school
Do the normal races have to be destroyed or left or could they have never existed in the first place?
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
Or, perhaps, fled to another plane?
Looking for a campaign? Or, perhaps, trying to start one? Come join Rolegate! Just send me a friend request (same name as here) and I'll help you get started!
Ducks are just geese lite. Focus on the future. It'll become the past soon enough.
Istari and White Counsel in Club. Not the wish-granter of a thread.
Become a Plague Doctor today!
Join the Knights of the Random Table and Calius and Kothar Industries!
Homebrew: Artifact, Dungeon
May be offline due to school
If there was "a world before" with the "more normal" fantasy races, that gives me some thoughts:
- This leads to plenty of potential for buried/ruined cities, structures, artifacts of power etc; great fodder for adventures.
- Some of the surviving races (Lizardfolk, Tortle, Yuan-ti, Grung, Tieflings etc.) make me think that this world might be a lot warmer than the "norm": more jungles tropics,, deserts, swamps, that sort of thing. Which could easily when combined with the first lead to some fun fantasy meets fallout/mad max sorts of things
- Having this different spread of races might mean a different sort of pantheon of gods: most human and human-analogous pantheons tend to have very anthropoid gods,a and generally fairly simple moralities. Having this many non-human-like races might mean they have more primal, morally grey deities. Which means you could draw from different pantheons than the norm and have some more exotic things to play with.
- It's a good idea to think about what sort of technological level you want both the "new" civilizations, and those that came before. Personally I love the "ancient magi-tech" aesthetic that some of the Legend of Zelda games went with for their version of ancient Hyrule; but that's just my taste. How advanced each was will determine quite a lot about the world; simply how inter-connected things are alone for instance.
- Is this a "post-apocalypse"? Or a "Post-post-apocalypse"? By which I mean; is the disaster that changed the status quo of the world still fresh on everyone's minds (Fallout, Mad Max, etc.)? Or has this world recovered and entered a "new normal", and it's all the stuff of legend (Zelda: Wind Waker, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc.)?
One of those races should be the "dominant race".
Personally, I suggest tortles, since turtles were on track to be the dominant species instead of humans, and would have been were it not for an evolutionary fluke a couple hundred million years ago.
pm me the word "tomato"
she/her
I sort of like that; based upon their existing lore, Tortles tend to be pretty friendly/laid back in their general mind set, so that would make for an interesting dynamic as your "default NPC character" as it were. Considering that outlook, the fact they all have natural armor, and the relatively "tribal" attitude of some of the other species listed; it would probably be more "soft dominance" than anything else. IE: they're the most populace because they're the most readily cooperative and relatively unlikely to die to factional violence more than anything else.
... And suddenly I have the mental image of a low-level party trying to go all murder-hobo on this world and constantly wiffing attacks against the first peasant they encounter. "Stop it... Knock it off! ... A few minutes of this and I'll start getting mad..." - Tortle farmer
I'm also a fan of the Legend of Zelda games and the concept of ancient technomancy hidden within the world. While reading through the ideas in this thread, one idea of my own was to modify some of the LoZ: Breath of the Wild concepts to fit with this lack of normal races concept. My thought would be to replace the idea of Calamity Ganon with another evil deity (such as Asmodeus), who ultimately led to the major races being wiped out.
I personally like the idea of Asmodeus being the key figure for multiple reasons.
Building on the Asmodeus influence that I references above, I would possibly even build in the following concepts to the world’s lore:
My lore might be a little Asmodeus heavy, but I liked the idea of having his different aspects tying in to some of the remaining races. I also like the idea of having some of the "normal" races being gone but due to them evolving into another form to survive whatever calamity occured and continue to exist and survive.
I think we're making great progress! I'm not sure if Asmodeus is going to be in the pantheon as they are more of a 'normal' deity, but I love the creation story behind the Teiflings and Yuan-ti! Ancient Technomancy probably won't be anything as advanced as, say, a BOTW Guardian, but it would probably be leaps and bounds ahead of present technology.
Speaking of which, how rare is magic in this world. Is it common enough that magic is commonplace? Is it so rare that only a few even know about it? Somewhere in between?
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
"Greetings, fellow travelers! I doth hail from the whimsical, enigmatic kingdom of.... Dave.
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
I like the name Exoltua. It seems to fit with a strange world that is different from all others.
This is what I think the history seems to be: [world name] used to be like many others. The standard races across D&D flourished and were prosperous. Slowly, though, these races became evil and greedy, and made a pact with an evil deity, known as [name]. [name] destroyed many races, and now the standard races are gone.
That's right, right?
I am an Arachpriest, Cat Cultist, Sauce Monk, Angel of Death, and First Spinjitzu Master.
I play Thirteen the necromancer elf, Timber the tabaxi child, and more at the tavern. Hope you like yams!
Oh yeah, don't forget to be kind and loving and stuff. Not on during weekends.
It would be cool if the gods of this world were Celtic-esque and the mythology was nature oriented.
I am an Arachpriest, Cat Cultist, Sauce Monk, Angel of Death, and First Spinjitzu Master.
I play Thirteen the necromancer elf, Timber the tabaxi child, and more at the tavern. Hope you like yams!
Oh yeah, don't forget to be kind and loving and stuff. Not on during weekends.
Whatever happened to the common races, it was about a hundred years ago. It's not on the minds of many of the younger folk, and many of the elderly still remember (or maybe experienced firsthand) the calamity, but the world is just starting to recover from it.
Former Spider Queen of the Spider Guild, and friendly neighborhood scheming creature.
"Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."
My pronouns are she/her.
Web Weaver of Everlasting Narrative! (title bestowed by Drummer)
Maybe all the dwarves just up and left to Arcadia when stuff started getting out of hand.
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
I would like to suggest for the Hobgoblin empire being in a state of civil war. Hobgoblin banners found outside the empire working as mercenaries or in very reclusive colonies. Inside the empire the legions are at each others throats. The hobgoblin government have loss the blessing of their gods and have collapsed. The sitting emperor have abdicated the throne and now seeks a future for their people. May that future be in the form of visionary to birth the dream of republic, an heir to reforge the empire, or will the proud hobgoblin race be doom to mediocrity. Without their gods to guide them, for the first time in their long existence the future is now theirs to write as they see fit.
Outside the Lines Fantasy – A collection of self published fiction stories.
I notice that most of the creatures live about 40 to 60 years, with the exceptions of tieflings and yuan-ti. Since the disaster happened about twice that time ago, it would probably be largely forgotten among tortles, grungs, lizardfolk, and goblinoids. You don't really have any long-living races left, now that the elves are gone.
pm me the word "tomato"
she/her
This world seems pretty rad. I hope it can become playable soon... and NOT be called Dave.
I am an Arachpriest, Cat Cultist, Sauce Monk, Angel of Death, and First Spinjitzu Master.
I play Thirteen the necromancer elf, Timber the tabaxi child, and more at the tavern. Hope you like yams!
Oh yeah, don't forget to be kind and loving and stuff. Not on during weekends.