Last week we did something a little different for our D&D game meeting. We had come to the end of the Heroic Tier game, and I wanted to put in a six-month gap into the fictional timeline. In this time, the characters would learn more about the strange continent that they now lived on. From a combination of their own explorations, speaking to natives, and reading local histories, it would be possible to gain an understanding of the local geography and history. But what was that geography and history? I've pretty much run the game module to module, so I was totally open to ideas.
So we met and ran a game of Dawn of Worlds with all the players to flesh out the world.
The rules are here. We didn't have enough time to lay out a full game... the eight player curse strikes again! But I think we ended up with a world that, if not fully fleshed out, gives us lots of idea space.
Rather than go turn for turn, I want to work through the map geographically, then talk about the races we built. Dawn of Worlds sets up a chronological divine creation story, so there is some causality amongst all of this (especially with the interactions between races). Still, we had a big posterboard map, lots of room to play with, and space to all do our own thing... unless our thing was dependent on somebody else's thing.
The First Age: Geography
We begin our look at the continent of Vinland in the Northeast. A great verdant plain stretches throughout this corner of the world, filled with rolling hills and bounded by mountains to the west and south. To the west, the ocean reached into the continent to form the Sea of Storms.
Midway down the coast, the land is divided between forest, river, and mountain. Great rivers flow from the midwest and out to sea. Inland by a few days is a great mountain range with volcanoes along the south. To the west is a strange crystalline forest, where great quartz formations make a mockery of trees for hundreds of miles.
Further south, a river delta turns into a huge swamp. Off the coast, an island springs from the ocean, new land that does not seem to bear the mark of volcanoes.
In the northern midwest, a range of mountains defines our map edge. This is the frozen north, and temperatures plunge. To the immediate south the land still bares the scars of a strange event. Once, whole sections of land fell away, leaving pillars of earth and mile-deep crevices. This is known as the Seven Pillared Hall. After their formation, mindless beholder-like Sentinels float up from the ground killing everything in sight. Then a massive 100-foot tall rock-crystal behemoth emerged. The Deep Colossus traveled a day to the south and creating a city by blasting out rock.
In the middle of the continent, rivers swell to an inland freshwater sea. A river takes it to the southern ocean through a giant canyon, miles wide and miles deep. North of the canyon is a great fungal forest. An upside-down waterfall flows out of the pillared-pit and into the fungal forest.
Along the southern coast are forests, jungles, and mountains. Much of the terrain variation is in the Underdark, where a massive cavernous compound known as The Ways stretches under the land.
In the northwest, two mountain ranges dominate the landscape. An icy volcano to the east is surrounded by glacier. A more traditional firey volcanoe range lies to the west. A great plain surrounds the volcano chains.
In the mid-west, a great range of plateaus rise from the ground. A caustic rain falls over plateau, which lets nothing grow. This causes a marsh of caustic water flowing to sea. In this Bog of Eternal Stench, the rivers are fuzzy and shift in course, cutting and eroding through higher ground. A desert of rainbow-colored sand stretches to the east of the plateaus Just to the north is the birthplace of the world's first race, dragons! Shortly afterwards, a meteor struck this ground. The dragons were scattered, and those hit create a sub-race of spectral dragons, merged into rocks themselves. These spirits inhabit rocks and can shape the land around them.
To the southwest stretches vast jungle.
The Second Age: Races of the World
In the second age of the game, we created worlds. The following section details the history of these races in general order of creation.
Dragons: The world's first race are dragons. While the land was still forming, they developed magic, but these magical experiments split the race into evil Chromatics and good Metallics. The Chromatics immediately scattered to rule fiefdoms, but the Metallics stayed by their plateaus to try and build a great civilization. Never high in number, they created the Dragonborn to help them raise a city. These Dragonborn turned against their creators and scattered them across the continent. Large populations ended up allied with the Ithlids and the Warforged in the north, and warring with the Glick-Glick on the center.
Draconids: These dragon-men arose naturally from similar stock to dragons, but developed in the east, not the west. They stand nine feet tall and generally sport wings and the ability to fly. They founded two great cities, Drog-Us and Drog-Soth. The race was evil and never advanced in any particular field before falling to a magical incursion from the elemental chaos.
Glick-Glick: The most dedicated source of evil on the continent is are the Glick-Glick, a race of evil prairie-dog-like people, covered in jet-black hair. They rose in the Rainbow Desert, but a semi-aquatic sub-race colonized the hot springs to the south of the desert. The Glick-Glick are devoted to conquering and the increase of their population, and their fantastic rate of breeding has allowed them to raise greater armies than any other in the world's history.
Frost-Born: From the northern glaciers comes a race not born so much as thawed. They are human-like but all dead. The only difference between themselves and traditional liches would be a lack of any memories before their release. As a race they have little match in magic. Later, they breed a race of physically powerful tiger-men, partially bipedal but large enough to use as mounts.
Triceratons: The Triceratons rose in the plains in the center of the continent. They spread into the central canyons where they built a great civilization in the rock walls. They have traditionally warred with the Canus, which once scattered them, but they were still able to build a great city and make advancements in healing.
Lizardfolk: The southern swamps are the ancestral home of the lizardfolk. They built a great city in these swamps, and defended their home against human colonists. Some of their number fall to barbarism and spread to the north, and others advance themselves in warfare. These "High Lizardfolk" create a city in the Crystal Forest.
Dragonborn: Metallic dragons created the Dragonborn as an intelligent labor force, but their servitude was quickly over once an avatar rallied them against their masters. Dragonborn armies threw out the dragons and claimed the city for themselves. With the Glick-Glick immediately to their east, the Dragonborn built a small empire that had super-science while the rest of the world was still in barbarism. Legends say that no matter their science, they were eventually overrun by Glick-Glick hordes. Remnants of their civilization were able to escape in great airships, however.
Bear-Men: The north-east is lined with forests were Bear-Men make their homes. They are led by a mighty avatar and are some of the few races allowed beyond the Ithllid wall to the north.
Ithlids: The races of Vinland have come up from local fauna, from other planes, or from across the sea. The Ithlids, however, are colonists from space, their ancestors using some unknown means of transversing vast distances in the physical realm. They formed a lawful good society, advancing in naturalism and science. One of their most benevolent acts was to create the Order of the Artificers, through which they founded the Warforged race.
Lithnauts: The elemental race of the Lithnauts emerged from the Pillared Depths and created elaborate mines. They can phase into the rock themselves, and their skills in stonecraft, steelcraft, and architecture are legendary. Their will was once slightly beholden to the powers of the Depths and found themselves serving the Deep Golumns once these creatures emerged. Later, when the Beholder race awoke, the lithnauts were pushed from their under-cities and forced to flee into the mountains of the world.
Canus: The Canus are a race of wolf-men that arose on the southern forests of the continent. Early canus were builders, but more martial elements of their civilization quickly became dominant under the leadership of the godlike Wolf-Mother. They successfully warred against the Triceratons but grew to live next to the Shifters in the jungle to the west of their lands.
Goliath: The Goliaths are a race of rocklike humanoids living in the frozen mountains of the north. They hover just above barbarism and rarely leave their peaks. In the Third Age, a tribe of Goliaths entered into a strange and powerful ritual which changed them into Frost Giants. The remaining goliaths are now subservient to their giant betters.
Humans: In the forests of the south-east coast, human settlers arrive... from boats, other planes, no one knows! They establish three settlements, but attempt to expand into the lizardfolk area, and it doesn't go well. One of these settlements must have been the lost city of Parhouk, containing the Tharkan slave race.
Kuo-toa: A hardy breed of kuo-toa arose in the inland sea, and colonized the island as well. Here they built a city, but it was wiped away a milenia later by the Glick-Glick.
Chuul-Men: A race of lobster-like Chuul-Men appear on the Southern island. They keep to themselves, even in regards to the Oni that they share the island with.
Tidehunters: A barbaric race of semi-aquatic Tidehunters populate the southern coast of thd continent. Hmm, Tidehunters, I don't like that. "Slitherblade Tidehunters" is their World of Warcraft miniature name. They're kind of like Sahuagin crossed with Yuan-Ti. Sahuan-Ti. Ask for it by name.
Githyanki: A population of Githyanki arrived from the Astral Sea and took up residence in the North, less than a hundred miles south of the Ithlid population. Historically, in the various planes of existence, the Githyanki were the escaped slaves of Ithlid masters, but the Ithlid here were a benevolent civilization. The Ithlid quickly reached out and embraced the Githyanki, gathering them into their population centers. The Githyanki now mainly live to the North of the Great Wall.
Gnolls: A population of Gnolls emerged from the Underdark to the east of the Rainbow Desert. They are close enough to the Glick-Glick to war with them constantly. Unlike other gnolls in the worlds, they are a well organized, military society, strongly matriarchal and organized around their Avatar. The Gnolls and the Glick-Glick poor divine power into their war, shaping the landscape into 100-foot high obsidian spikes to help one party or the other at various times.
Warforged: The Ithlid Order of Artificers labored to create the Warforged race. The race breathed its first in five great armies, which immediately spread out to sheperd the remaining metallic dragons to safety in the NorthEast. They then scattered the Kuo-Toa off the islands and built the city of Automata.
Deep Golumns: The deep golumns stand 12 feet tall, but they are still miniature versions of the millenia-old Deep Colossus that some unknown party forged them to replicate. The golumns emerged from the Columned Depths and moved into the cities built by the lithnauts. To commemorate their emergence, their avatar constructed an arcane wonder that blasts light into the heavens. When the Beholders awoke, the Deep Golumns were scattered, going on a fifty-year hygeria. Exactly fifty years from the Deep Colossus's assault on their city, the Golumns all entered into a state of hybernation, stopping inanimate where they were.
Shifters: The Shifters develop in the southern jungles. In their home, their traits are mammalian, but becomes reptilian in the east. The shifters are mercurial and are able to relate to a huge variety of races. This has helped them become the traders of the continent. The jungles are traced with their caravan routes.
Salamandars: Among the western volcanoes lives the Salamanders, creatures of scale and fire. They might have stayed in barbarism if not for the Frost-Born nearby. The seemingly eternal War of Ice and Fire forced them to organize into a more militaristic society.
Bullywug: The Bullywug people claim the southernmost jungles as their own. They... well, what do bullywugs ever do?
Beholders: Floating autonomous orbs emerged in time emmorial from the Pillared Depths, mindlessly guarding the area. Late in the second age, some viral sentience spread through the sentinels, creating the Beholders. They seem to be the new face of the Power of the Depths, signified by the Deep Collosus defending them and assaulting the City in the Mountains. The Deep Golumns and Lithnauts free throughout the continent, leaving the Beholders to occupy the city.
So this is our world, as of 500 years before gameplay starts. Given this amount of time, populations could move or diffuse, civilizations could collapse or be replaced. But the best intelligence that the players have access to points to this picture.
This was a fun exercise. It's given me a lot of ideas, but most importantly, this makes the vague plans I already had, and will enact anyway, fit into more than an amorphous void. In 2010, we are trading off narrative control to other players/DMs. By letting us all build a portion of the world, the dungeon that we run will be set in terrain that we built, populated with races we birthed. Quite a few players spent the game building out their section of the map, where they're build their hole, filled with their own special orcs. Awesome!
Thanks to everyone for coming and playing!
