Worldbuilding Thread I guess

I *tip my fedora* to you

>I *tip my fedora* to you
Can't say I wasn't expecting a token post like that.

>Gods
Haven't thought about them yet.
>Kingdoms
My setting has only city states separated by dangerous wilds. Wilds are pretty dangerous; the prey-predator arms race has entered hyperdrive. Thus people have huddled into city states for creater protection. City states still try to subjugate other other city states to make tributaries, but these conquests rarely last.
>Guilds
Warrior Clans are the equivalent of this.
>Continents
Only one so far, but more could be behind the oceans.
>Magicka
Song magic, whisper magic, yelling magic, dance-like magic, enchantment magic, potions, martial arts magic(ki?), ritualistic magic, etc.

Still working on my setting. With my work schedule, I'm lucky to get an hour to brainstorm it a week. What I have so far
>Gods
Left intentionally vague. In 'Normal' lands, they are about as they are now: people believe and associate acts to their God, but there are plenty that refute the existence of a god or any gods. However in the overtaken 'Devil's Lands' objects of faith hold some power. Regardless of what faith, they all have some repelling effect on the monster inhabiting the land. Be it a cross, a star of david, or a nusa(those wooden-paper things Shinto priests use to purify something), they all work.

>Kingdoms
Pretty much the state of the world was in 1870. Albeit with South America being swallowed up by a portal to another dimension. The southern states of the U.S are starting to warp as the 'Devil's Lands' extend their reach, but the weirdness that comes with it stays on one side of the giant, sea-to-sea spanning wall President Lincoln had built. It's paid for by a mix of taxes on the population, and trade from the new energy source Americans export to the rest of the world. They hold a monopoly on it as they are the only ones with access to it.

>Guilds
The Automation Union: People responsible for production, distribution and record keeping of all the super-engines(massive trains that run on 3 rails to maintain balance) that are currently in use. A tool that has only helped solidify the general weirdness of the Lands, as reports keep trickling back of engines being seen on and off the rails, whose numbers belonged to engines long ago decommissioned...

The Collector's Guild: A mish mash of merchants, salesmen, and carpet baggers that are responsible for buying the Devil's Due(the new energy source in ore form possible) from soldiers and mercenaries in exchange for goods that 'fell out of a wagon somewhere', then selling that ore to the various companies that refine and process that ore, powering the New Industrial Revolution.

>Magic
None really. At least nothing intangible. The Devil's Due is an enigma, it's energy output is quite high, exceeding even expected projections but beyond some physical applications no one knows what it actually is. Crushed, it makes for good gun powder. Burned, it produces several times more energy than coal. Leaving it alone in the dark, it emits a warm glow as machinery around it start to run spontaneously.

The fact that the monsters inhabiting the Lands carry the stuff inside them only adds to the mystery.

Religious relics and artifacts provide some protection to those carrying them.

>Gods
Actual: None
Worshiped: Plenty

Anu-Sazorah - Goddess of the Luwasati high elves. They believe it was Anu-Sazorah that created the elves and saved the Luwasati during the anarchic times making them her Chosen Children and founded the Everlasting Kingdom. The goddess then ascended to another plane to make a haven for the Luwasati faithful and left them with the task of ruling the lesser races and species and await the day of her return where she will lead them to a final victory upon the other races and make a paradise of the world.

The humans of the Empire of Gedask worship a pantheon of gods derived from legendary figures from the founding of their empire, some of which are adapted from gods worshiped by their former elven masters during hteir slave days.

The Alwara beastmen practice different forms of ancestor worship.

>Kingdoms
Way too many. In general, kingdoms in the north of the continent exist in the immediate shadow of the 4 empires. They are feudalistic and primarily human with very few Ruwan elf kingdoms near the Sha'haran border region. They normally consist of a central walled city/fortress with surrounding farmlands and a few associated villages and towns.

>Guilds
Small regional mercantile and craft organizations.

>Continents
About 6 with the eastern one being the one I'm working on. Its divided into a South, North and Far North where most of the major populations being concentrated in the North one. The North continent is divided into 3 major regions by 2 high mountain chains, the easternmost region, beyond the Stormbreak mountains is controlled by Sha'hara and is subject to storms, the central region is dominated by Gedask while the western dessert beyond the Jagged Peaks is home to the Fa'surre dah Xuande.

Still a work in progress, this is actually my first try at anything like this, I don't even know what I'm gonna do with it, mostly ideas floating in my head and some maps I'm making.

>Gods
There is an omnipotent universal entity, however; it isn't very interested in its creation, perhaps even largely unaware of it. Its motives are unknowable, its essence unpalpable etc etc

However, he did spawn minor deities, that in turn shaped the world and its various denizens and form a very varied squabbling pantheon.

>Kingdoms
Mostly human kingdoms centered in the middle of the world, fractured infighting states under the nominal hegemony of a central state. Very cliche yes, but that seems like the best choice to me. There are also non-human "kingdoms" and tribes further out, but they're pretty irrelevant politically, the world is very anthropocentric.

>Guilds
Not sure yet

>Continents
Basically, it's just one valley type of area, with inland seas, lakes and such, approximately the size of Europe, surrounded on all sides by impassable mountain ranges, where, yes again in a very cliched manner a wide variety of dangerous non-human species live.

The continents or even the coastline of that continent remains unreached by its denizens.

>Magicks
Come mostly from the minor deities that use the world as their playground, often granting magical gifts to their followers.

>Magicks
Still a hot mess.

The basic mechanic is that there is a subatomic particle that is affected by focused, coherent consciousness and this in turn is able to affect other particles to create magical effects.

I haven't fleshed out the touchy-feely aspect of it but I'm making the ability learnable by all with varying degrees of accomplishment due to difficulty. Currently I have 3 major levels of ability with the lowest being molecular manipulation, the next atomic and finally sub-atomic. Third level/sub-atomic ability practitioners are the most powerful and require the most study, discipline and constitution. They are also very rare due to the difficulty.

Alchemic transmutation is mostly taboo due to associated unexplained wasting disease and disastrous accidents, i.e. atomic explosions.

Practice and perception varies by culture and region with the leading professional R&D being in Sha'hara due to investment while Gedask has the most 3rd level practitioners due to wealth, privilege and more historical knowledge.

Nigga that's just the monster from Attack the Block.

I run mostly 40k stuff, but this chart may help you (or it may not, but I get points for trying, right?)

>Gods
No actual Gods apart from the Creator. In-setting "Gods" are like the Greek Gods, incredibly powerful with human flaws.
>Kingdoms
Early Victorian-Era Nations; A couple Constitutional Monarchies, an Imperial Republic, United City-States, a Republic of Beastman Tribes. There's some tribal savages living on the undeveloped continents.
>Guilds
Adventurer's Guild is a big one, with transnational influence. Good Adventurers are treated like superheroes.
Dwarves have a Guild for everything, and they all answer to their King. Some Dwarven crafting guilds have branched out into other nations, but they're more of "Skilled Craftsman Clubs" than a union.
>Continents
Main continent is ~4.8 million sq miles, and is the only "civilized" continent. All proper nations can be found on it.
The other big continent is ~3.414 million square miles of undeveloped forests and plains, populated by Fae, Giants, and tons of Wyvern.
not!Australia is ~252,000 sq miles. It's a magic dead zone filled with aberrations and lingering evil.
not!Jurassic Park is ~949,000 sq miles of dense rainforest. It has tons of huge insects and a small variety of dinosaurs.
>Magicks
Formulaic. The question isn't "Can you do ?", it's "Should you do ?". The peoples figured out Druidism first, but had to have their hand held for Wizardry.

Stupid sculptor putting the shield on the statue the wrong way around...

Anyone by chance have some good tutorials on making world maps? Preferably in photoshop, if you kindly.

I always use this one. Don't follow it exactly, some things like the grass/forest texture should be altered.

cont.

Part 2. Do this first to get your landmasses, then do the "Map Making Guide".

Should note: this first guide's Rivers step is shit. Do the second one's river step when you make your landmasses.

>>Gods
It's basically the Gods of Pegana. Their games can never be understood by any mortal man, their faces can never be glimpsed and their aid or their ire are so unreliable that even their unreliability can't be relied upon.
>>Kingdoms
Each major race is in control of one to three different kingdoms, republics, empires or whatever. There's also multi-species and multi-ethnic states and cities.
>>Guilds
I haven't given much thought to merchant and artisan's guilds yet, I guess it differs a lot from region to region.
>>Continents
The setting only consists of the continent Levia and the surrounding islands. It consists of a long and broad stretch of land going from the arctic circle down south to the equator (or its equivalent) with a large subcontinent down south and major peninsulas jutting out to the east and to the southwest. A large range of mountains separates it from the plains and steppes of Noria, and the dry deserts to the far west.
>>Magicks
Mental processes and physical things are very much the same thing in this world - the difference to ours being that individual and collective consciousness can take influence on the physical world. The stellar circuits of consciousness translate to different schools of magic, with the lower circuits sometimes being used as shorthands.

I asked this last night but I guess Veeky Forums was asleep.

I'm planning on making an atlas for a fantasy setting that I'm making. But what sort of content is necessary for an atlas aside from maps and some descriptions of interesting places?

for the table of contents I was thinking:

>Map
A map, either this pseudo-artistic one or a more "medieval" one that's not really cartographical and more like the primitive maps that just fit rivers and city names into a geometric shape.
>History of Mannax
A brief history of the kingdom, giving some explanation for the feudal structure, the political factions, and why adventurers exist.
>Key Castles
Some of the castles that players would see often or be interested in working towards claiming.
>Economy
A small section on what the kingdom produces and what it imports and exports
>Neighboring Countries
As it sounds, a brief overview of the nations bordering the setting.

Is there anything else I should add, or anything that doesn't need much explanation and could be a very short section?

>Watcha buildin', teeg?

A mess I can't get to work.

>What are the

>Gods

There are no true gods and the inhabitants of the world understand very little about the true nature of the universe and their religions at best grasp straws of the truth and at worst are complete bullshit. There are 'higher' beings in the form of pseudo-celestials who are in a cosmic war with Lovecraft monsters because their respective realities don't work together.

>Kingdoms

I'm trying to borrow from real history and cultures but I've also been inspired by the 'Early Dark' setting to make most of my human cultures hybrids. So, for example, instead of making the proto-civilization notMesopotamia or notEgypt as usual I'm going for a mixture of the Indus Valley civilization and the early West African states. notChina/South Asia will have Mesoamerican influences, notMesoamerica might have Indian influences, the rocky desert Iran-Afghanistan-type region might be a mixture of real world equivalent populations mixed with Nazca elements and maybe that African ethnic group (whose name I'm blanking on like an idiot) that lives in rock caves, notfeudalEurope will mix celtic and germanic influences with Native North American tribes and civilizations as well as some stuff from East Africa, etc.

Dwarves are divided between Slavic, Nordic and Scottish styles with the first being largely in decay after DIGGING TOO DEEP and the last being ascendant at the moment. I might also through in Mesopotamian dwarves styled like the Dwemer is ES and some pseudo-Buddhist (they worship the eternal earth or something) living (literally) inside the notHimalayas.

Elves and their history are giving me trouble at their core but I know I want both Japanese/Spartan warrior culture elves and notPolynesian tropical sailor elves and well as a variety of wild elves for every climate from forest to jungle to desert to tundra.

>Guilds

Traders, knights, mages, etc. I haven't fleshed anything out but more or less the usual.

>Continents

The primary one is a slightly larger notEurasia/Africa except Africa is more centralized to be under notIran/India and notArabia is to the west and not the east.

notCentral/South America is wider than it is long and comes closer to notEurasia than in real life so there is some - limited - trade but that's about it.

notNorth America is a forested wilderness dominated by wild elves with a Native American flair that are long separated and unknown by both humans and other elves.

The southern third of the world is dominated by an Americas sized continent that is basically Australia meets Zendikar and is full of CRAZY and ADVENTURE. It's still largely unknown during the settings timeframe.

>Magicks

Low to midpower. Magic exists but is rare and the vast majority of the population has never met a mage or seen one perform magic and thus has both bogus supernatural superstitions and a fear of 'witches' and the like much like their real-world pre-modern counterparts.

Magic is generally elemental and 'divine' magic is just a name given to arcane magic guided by religious traditions. A good mage can summon/manipulate maybe a few cubic feet of fire/water/earth but causing walls of fire or tidal waves or a full blown storms is the stuff of mythic figures. Utility magic exists but generally functions as a flashy yet valid alternative to the more mundane way of doing things rather than being outright superior.

Healing magic exists but at great cost to the vitality of the healer so there is ultimately a limit to just how far fucked up someone can be to magically healed and to what extent they'll be 'pretty' afterwards. True resurrection in right out as is stuff like teleportation and the summoning or transformation of complex objects. Necromancy is your standard fantasy type- frowned upon and pretty rare. And of course, certain, stranger magic might exist in the more remote regions of the world.

>Gods
Actual: Just 1, a kind of extra dimensional psychic parasite/symbiote that happened to spread to an alternate dimension earth just as humans finally evolved their intelligence
Otherwise, humans worship and have faith in all sorts of things as they do in reality only made more complicated because mass illusion and hallucination can make people think the deities they worship are actually real and furthermore what they believe can actually effect them.
>Kingdoms
Don't know yet, but initially it's just tribal hunter gatherers
>Guilds
Ditto
>Continents
Shit I only really thought of the premise, nothing much is done yet
>Magicks
Finally something I can answer. The closest thing to magic is psychic influence. There are no fireballs or controlling weather. There is however ( making others think you are ) shapeshifting into animals, violently insane brainwashed "zombies", "invisibility".
Basically, as long as it is based on influencing a living things perception and thoughts, you can do it, but you're otherwise never actually effecting the material world. I mainly came up with this premise because I wanted a magic system in a way that made sense, wasn't overpowered reality breaking, and was consistent.
Now I need to actually work on the setting and worldbuilding. I hope some user can ask me questions about the magic system and what it can do so I can further elaborate and build upon it because just relying on my own brain power isn't bringing satisfying results.

Food? Religion? Interesting geographical marvels like Niagara Falls?

If you're making an atlas/campaign setting book, you're trying to breathe life into the setting. You shouldn't hold back and be stingy, you should be creative. Maybe not to the extent of Forgotten Realms, where every little spot on the map has 500 years of backstory, but there should be some sense of why the kingdom exists, what makes it unique, and why you'd be there.

Y'know, OP's pic is a really bad image for the thread. I can never find it in the catalog.

I was going to mention that I thought the lamps were at the north and south ends of the world but the existence of the sun and moon, to say nothing of Numenor suggests this is way after that time period anyways. So what is that in the west?

The Undying Lands.

>Gods
Largest religion is monotheistic and felt mostly as a social and political force, the existence of its God is supported about as well as gods in our world. In the wastes the prevalence of undead warbands and various fields of study in raising the dead much stock is put into necromancy, though these have not yet developed into a unified system of belief. An increasing number of people are re-adopting the old shamanistic tribal religions as well as imported animist beliefs which have a more tangible effect on everyday life these days
>Kingdoms
The western feudal kingdoms are increasingly pooling their resources to resist civil unrest in their growing industrial centers, as well as to stall the advance of the empire in the east. The empire in question has a centrally planned command economy with impressive applied magical technology, but is grappling with a wasting blight filtering in from the northeast that renders fertile land barren. It is also in a slow burning armed conflict with the Elves to the south.
>Guilds
Quickly losing power to enterprising industrialists in the west. Collectivized, forcibly if necessary in the east.
>Continents
All trade from the land beyond the empire's eastern border wall has ceased. No organized states are presumed to have survived the myriad undead plagues or blight, though fleeing remnants have settled in relative safety and preserve their ancestral culture as best they can. An effort by the empire to colonize the continent across the ocean ended in complete disaster. Subsequent reconnaissance missions suggest a corrupting magic or spiritual presence unlike anything seen on the homeland. Officially no survivors have been found, though colonists did have contact with native human populations
>Magicks
Applied as a science in the empire, a scholarly and highborn pursuit in the east (though that is changing). Raising the dead to do one's bidding is historically novel, but has quickly destroyed most of known civilization.

>Gods
A multi-heirarchy of gods that each cover important aspects of their godly duties
>Kingdoms
I havn't hashed out a concrete setting of all the kingdoms, but the main kingdom is the kingdom of Highfield, which was once a massive, continent spanning kingdom, until infighting over the throne caused the kingdom to split into four separate ones a large portion of territory lost to outside factions/races, until the legendary hero Dorland reunited the four kingdoms back under a single banner
>Guilds
Havn't thought much about this
>Continents
So far I only have one continent in mind, which is the 'main' land of the setting
>Magicks
All magic in the setting is based on true-naming, as true-naming is very very heavily integrated into the setting in general, and is the most important aspect of the world.

>Gods

So far only three vague faiths in mind, none of which may have a direct tangible presence of their deities.

"Serpent" is a martyrdom/cyclical rebirth oriented faith believing that the primordial dragon committed seppuku in order to create the universe/universe as we know it. Periodically your great and noble gurus, prophets, holy men or women or heroes will mimic this self-sacrifice. Inadvertently similar to the dank soul flame business but unintentional - idea was born out of the idea of a "faith of blood and sacrifice"

"Sun" is work in progress after I saw topic mocking the ubiquity of "sun/fire religion". My inspiration to read and study came from a high-school book on zoroastrianism I read and I like that theme & sol invictus, but I have to figure out how to make it rich and novel like I did the serpent.

"Word" is like Thoth having his own religion. Inspired by the sacred nature of the Vedic sanskrit language and the idea of language and word/sound responsible for the creation of the world. Could exist in indirect magical form - no 'my name is a killing word' harry potter avada kebaba. May be subsumed into Sun faith.

>Kingdoms

Many. Proscribe to the Homeric "catalogue of ships" and Herodotian "Xerxes' army' love of a rich, full and overwhelming world albeit with narrowed focus. Central will be the great kingdoms/empires: the Raoxshani, Hekensut or Mefket, Arazalan, and then a Maharaja state, a Sino & Indo-China state, an Aksumite state, possibly a Khanate.

>Guilds

N/a

>Continents

See pic.

>Magicks
Limited/nonexistent.

Fug I already did that guide, but your's sounds neat for auto-making rivers for me. I didn't like the first's river system. Tanks bud.

Stronger cosmic radiation
Being outside for long periods of time without protection causes sickness. Prolonged exposure has mutated elves into humans. The poor elves that could not afford shelter gradually mutated into humans. The elves that could are now the ruling class.

Fully artificial geography
The increased need for shelter from cosmic radiation means that the land is completely covered in dense cities.

Extremely low temperature
The stronger cosmic radiation comes from a thinner atmosphere, which also makes this apparently nightmarish planet colder as well.

Mostly plants
Plants benefit from the thinner atmosphere as they get more sunlight. Very few animals can withstand the cold and the radiation. Plants grow quickly, and cover most buildings. Seas are green from all the plant life within.

Age of Exploration
You guys know what this be.

Elves/tall humanoids
Elves share their enormous cityscapes with humans, which were originally once elves themsELVES! Elves are on the top, humans are on the bottom. You walk into a store, an elf owns it and a human is working there.

No supernatural
This world is horrible enough without monsters.

Three civilisations
Three nation states formed from the same ancient empire

Co-Operation
This cruel world has made the Elves see teamwork as very important.

Medicine
Curing the radiation sickness is a big part of the economy.

Native American folk religion
Dancing? I don’t know.

Secret cabal
An elite group of elves controls the government, with a front of representative democracy.

Pretty unique but pretty fucking miserable

>Gods
There are many gods. The ancient gods died, from their bodies emerged life.
Some life was pure, the mortal races of man. Their belief shaped the pagan gods, and the dwarven ancestor gods.
But some life emerged corrupted and evil. Monsters in all forms. The most powerful of these monster races claimed divinity and sought out the hearts of the ancient gods, feasting on their power.
Still, belief reigns superior, and the gods that guard our races are supreme in power, but outnumbered.
There came a time, where the humans desperation after decades of intense losses, that their fear gave birth to belief, and a new caste of gods came to be. The amber pantheon, the gods of the sun. The largest human empire outlawed the pagan gods, causing a massive conflict between them and the elves, and pagan humans.

>Kingdoms
The dwarves rule beneath the ground. They loathe the surface, for they age like humans when they travel it. Every city has its primer, its ruler and representitive in the dwarven council.

There are nine known human kingdoms, and one empire. The empire is almost as big as the two largest kingdoms combined. It was once many small states.
The elves have no kingdom, for they are the eternal nomads.

>Guilds
The guilds are few but powerful. Since civilisation is isolated by cruel wilderness, most travel and interaction between nations and even cities is sponsored and guided by one of the guilds.

>Continents
The bodies of the ancient gods became the continents, their blood the seas. Caysus is the seat of the human and dwarven nations. To the west are the humans, beneath the ground are the dwarves. The east is a lost wilderness.

Odiv is the desert continent far to the south. It is far bigger than Caysus, but less inhabitable. The eidol people once lived here, and their tales tell of beautiful jungles and rivers. For some reason they were exiled beneath ground...
>Cont...

I'm trying to come up with a backstory and cosmolgy for my main setting.

It began as a very gritty and realistic(even though I hate this word) settin with a lot of attention to detail for versimilitude and a chance for stupid deaths. I was aiming for a bit of roguelike feel and it was set into an expy of the Thirty Years War cause it was some of the most callously and pointlessly brutal phases of history. The whole thing was built bottoms-up, pretty much nothing was told to players except the very basics and things just grew on their own as they discovered more and more. After a couple years of playing we are slowly sliding into high power campaigns so I will need to to make up my mind on gods and magic. I know some shit about particle phyics and quantum mechanics and I would really like to give magic a science-y flavor based on them.

So far I got:

>crystallized mana meteorites bombard the planet
>their vast energy causes the planet to behave erratically, multiple time dimensions, topological defects, parasite dimensions forming
>mana follows an exponential decay curve and starts to quickly drop to lower energy states
>a mana circulation system develops with ley lines and focal points, exotic material deposites form
>sentient races emerge, their thoughts are seemingly able to shape matter, souls exist as shadows in the gestalt mana fields
>several of the more powerful, willful or lucky individuals ascend to godhood and get attached to parasite dimensions
>energy levels drop further, the most powerful gods merge into pantheons, their followers coalesce into states and empires
>eventually in thousands of years the empires grow increasingly unsustainable because their magic is no longer functional, high energy spells become uncastable, materials like soulsteel evaporate into mana
>the ancient races split into a multitude of younger subraces, the decay of magic eventually becomes so slow that its only noticeable on the timescale of an elven lifetime.

First thing to pop into my head when I saw that pic. God, I could not get through that movie.

I lost my message. And don't want to retype it all, here's a TLDR.

The eidol's still serving minions are acting on forgotten orders to prevent this "invasion."

To the west is a continent raptured by rivers, or perhaps it is just a collection of many small islands. This is the target of human colonies. Some heretic dwarves fled the mountainhomes to live here, suffering a life on the surface.

Even further to the west is the home of the Ungols, once-dragons who gave up their immortal lives to stop a cursed disease from destroying the world.

What lies to the east of Caysus is largely unknown, but various travellers return with conflicting tales of ruins, wilderness or fledging, weird civilisations.

>Magic
Magic is the art of dancing with the ancient, slumbering gods. Bask in their power and weave it around yourself.

It comes with many dangers, for the monsters are starving. They desire more and more of the ancient gods powers. You will lure them to you.

>Gods
The collective spiritual energy of all their adherents rearranged in certain fashions as tomorrow create a distinct entity. Essentially, thought and faith, through worship or simply from stories, create their subjects.
>Magic
Spirit magic is the power of lifeforce concentrated and arranged in patterns. It encompasses all supernatural abilities - anything fantastic which isn't one of the other forms of magic. Basically animism crossed with rationalization of experience allowing you to rise above the ordinary.

>Tfw can't decide on worldbuilding my fantasy setting, my sci-fi setting, or my weird fantasy/urban fantasy setting

Yeah, that shit gets me all the time.

Build all of them.

I already am. The question is not which but which right now?

>committed seppuku
Come on, don't make an ass of yourself. You mean he commited sudoku.

>They loathe the surface, for they age like humans when they travel it.
That's a really cool idea. But why would there be any dwarven adventurers? I'd stay underground all the time if it meant I could live forever.

no gods just space and math
>Kingdoms
A dozen empires and species each trying to outwit and subject one another to their whim through whatever means necessary while a galactic council trying to maintain power and stability throughout the galaxy.

>Guilds
more so vassals or factions, companies etc
>Continents
ehh random garden worlds and partial terraforming

>Magicks
none Hard science all up in this bitch

Here's a bunch of cool old maps from the Atlas Maior, 1645. I thought someone might enjoy these.
digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0017r9p5

I'm tired and sick but here's my continent map for my setting. it's about 1/5th of the world if I'm remembering the scale I set correctly

I'll post more details in the morning unless I'm dying

ill be floating around for awhile if anyone wants to wants to know more.

How do your humans differ from real humans? Do they live longer? Are they bigger or more attractive?

Is their philosophy and culture alien to Earth's humans?

physical
>overall taller, thinner, more attractive
>age better (look 5-10 years younger than Earth counterparts starting around age 30)
>females more androgynous, smaller breasts/hips
>wounds heal much faster (this seems to be standard in all fiction)

cultural - setting is focused on cultures so I'll have to stay broad
>overall more focus on hygiene and fashion, people obsessed with their clothes which are much more elaborate and covering than Earth clothes
>no true Europe counterpart, the closest thing are brightly robed caucasians near the desert whose society depends immensely on trade, not fond of conquest
>overall more tolerance of polygamy
>blood magic is the norm, most religions have sacrificial holidays or prayer styles where animals or human blood are given up, and there is usually a dark aesthetic and theme surrounding these sacrifices (wearing masks and throat singing overtone incantations while we sacrifice goats? that'll show those foreigners how hardcore we are)
>female-female sexual contact generally considered clean and pure, universally considered a better alternative to straight sex out of wedlock. However, homosexual relationships are no less frowned upon than in medieval Earth.
>women more creative and more likely to develop skills outside of managing families
>almost every culture considers others to be heretics or witches

I know, but what does that torch thing represent?

As I talked about in my post earlier, I'm trying to make hybrids of various real-world cultures rather than aping them directly.

Also, the barbarians and conquerors are more technologically advanced than the more culturally developed societies. The most peaceful cultures are those that the barbarians couldn't find, while those that were conquered had their technology absorbed.

Not much. I guess I'm going usual route of making them taller then real medieval folks, because it's easier to have references in front of my eyes. But you'll probably never know. Except for one group that have unusually pale skin and no hair. They look like chemo patients because they killed their god and feasted on his flesh to gain his divine powers.

Most of my differences should be from placing counterpart cultures in odd places and have them interact and merge in ways their counterparts did not.

Kings are inexplicably larger and stronger and they get their own over-the-top anime outfit and weapon.

Do people grow as they gain authority and status?

It's only been done with bosses so far in the campaign, some generals and officers were also giant. Probably more based on authority and status within a military setting than plain old authority and status as there were still some sly schemers who had completely ordinary appearances.

>How do your humans differ from real humans? Do they live longer? Are they bigger or more attractive?
They are mostly smaller and live shorter, because the world is harsher than our modern world. There is a pronounced ethnical diversity in my world: different ethnical groups have slightly exaggerated physical traits, and there are some phenotypes that don't really exist in real world (People with almost olive skin tone, a society of almost entirely albino people etc...)
In appearance they are as diverse as people used to be: beautiful and ugly, old and young, thick and thin. I do like to play with variety of characters in my world.

As for philosophies and cultures: most of it is based on real-world cultures, but generally speaking: the philosophical outlooks of majority of the population of the particular part of world I'm focusing on are somewhat darker and more resigned to what we might be used to. The world is very old, and has seen multiple cycles of great advanced civilizations rising and then falling back down - it has seen several major cataclysmic events, major ecological catastrophes etc... while direct accounts of these events are mostly not left behind, vague sentiments remain in philosophy and mythology, leading to a general belief that time is cyclical and decaying, that there is nowhere to "progress" too as everything has been done already, and turned into nothingness.
There is quite a large popularity of gnostic-like sects and beliefs too.

Heck, I'll bite.

I'm making a post apocalyptic scenario with ghosts involved. One user commented how its similar to Blades in the Dark, but with a modern/futuristic, non-fantasy setting. Basically, a spookier, more haunted Mad Max.

>Gods
No real gods per say, but some of the stronger ghosts are worshiped as such due to their plethora of supernatural powers. Of note is a cult known as the Transmortists, who believe ghosts are the next phase of evolution for human beings and that in order to evolve, humanity must die and shed their mortal trappings.

>Kingdoms
The remnants of the civilized world live in city-states known as Bricks, named for the iron architecture that resemble rectangular box shapes. These are the closest to Kingdoms.

>Guilds
The closest thing to a guild would be the Exo-sec forces of the Bricks, which are basically an elite police force staffed by Exorcists, people with spiritual powers that allow them to combat ghosts.

>Continents
Based on regular ol' Earth. Just spookier.

>Magicks
Exorcists come in different categories:
1)Binders - Can bind ghosts to a physical medium or object. Only weaker ghosts can be subject to this. These guys are responsible for the weaponry and technology of the Bricks, which often use the souls of their deceased citizens as a power source (being bounded upon death also cuts down the risk of the person coming back as a vengeful spirit, though the stronger spirits will become this regardless).
2) Channelers - Spirit mediums on steroids. They store "docile" ghosts in the pentagram tattoo on their palms, which they can summon and control. A channeler will often force a ghost to possess his/her power in order to gain their powers briefly.
3)Astrals - People that can project their own souls out of their body as a powerful ghost.
4) Ritualists - The closest thing to a caster. Uses a wide variety of mystical phrases and talismans to combat ghosts.

>>Gods
Each kingdom has their own pantheon of gods and goddesses that represent the "character" of the nation. They may or may not be real, but many scholars theorize that all the gods are just different manifestations of multiple "Overdeites" who represent a concept. Because of this, most civilizations are tolerant of other beliefs.
>>Kingdoms
Many, many kingdoms, all of which are ruled and populated by humans or "Half" Humans who have traces of Elven/Orc/Troll/Dwarven blood. Humans have outbred them to the point that there are essentially no pure races left. The Novan empire (basically Not!Romans/Byzantines) are a prominent kingdom with a zero tolerance policy towards "Mutts". There are also sentient automotons that have an advanced artificial intelligence that have varying levels of rights and tolerance throughout the world.
>>Guilds
There's the Armaments guild, the Splicing guild (as in gene splicing), the Guild of Mercenaries, the Robotics guild, it's all very near-future fantasy stuff.
>>Continents
There are 5, one of which had been recently discovered in the past 300 years and has some of the last vestiges of pre-human civilizations. The main continent is where most of the action is at.
>>Magicks
Magic is a new thing, discovered by Splicing guilds who activated latent genes found in people with traces of Elven ancestry. Magic is basically psionic bullshit, and "Mages" are carefully controlled and deployed as mind-wiped super soldiers created by the guilds and employed by governments. So yeah, not the brightest of settings.

Most are normal, but some have non-ancestry that occasionally manifests itself, though it's subtle. Faster healing and muscle mass in the case of Trollkin, red eyes and sharp teeth for Orcbloods, tall frames and pointed ears for Elfborn, stocky frames and long beards for Dwarf-sons.
>Do they live longer
Some are genetically engineered and live longer lives, but the average man lives to about the same age we do today.

They're basically like real world humans with all the varying cultures and conflicting philosophies. The political structure is fairly conservative however, and technological and societal progress has been extreamly slow compared to our history.

>How do your humans differ from real humans? Do they live longer? Are they bigger or more attractive?
At first glance, you would think they live longer lives. 100 years in my setting is ~82 years in this world, so the math evens out.
My Humans are physically stronger, and have a higher potential threshold than this world's. They're also almost entirely on the white/tanned spectrum, as darker skin doesn't conduct magic as well. The "dark skin" parts of the sphere are populated by Elves, anyway

Would a setting with mad dragon kings be a bad idea?

No, they would make for good quest NPCs and bosses in any RPG. It really depends on how the rest of the setting looks, though.

Thiking standard fantasy.

How powerful are they?
How many heroes would it take to slay one of them?

>Gods
Om, an all-powerful demiurge that stays out of pretty much anything but threats to the universe's structural stability. The Four Primes, primal deities that represent the creative and destructive aspects of the sun and flame, ocean and water, (Ignis & Tare, Profus & Merg respectively) that maintain a balance of opposition. Then there are the Mortal Gods who have more earthly concerns, having gained apotheosis. Of these, there is Orthan(god of civilization, law, and temperence), Balisan(goddess of passion, warfare, and hedonism), Sisca and Sicar(both goddesses of knowledge, though directed towards either the betterment of all or for personal gain/welfare.) Beyond them, there are the Old Gods, who weakened with age and the coming of the Mortal Gods.
>Kingdoms
There are three subterranean empires of ant-people that are themed on the various stages of Rome development/fall, a king of the cat people who is more of a figurehead for the Clowderlords to rally around, but beyond that nothing particularly large. Mostly independant city-states. Outside the material plane, you got the following: Fae Courts, who lack magic but amazing technology, due to having an inherent understanding nature and natural law. The Infernal Aristocracy, each major player themed on ways good intentions paved their way to Hell, and how people suppress their conscience in order to commit "necessary evil."
>Guilds
Plain ol' trade guilds. There is an old man's club for aging warriors that decide to die full of glory and the herbal equivalent of steroids, PCP, and Speed.
>Continents
Five. Two at the artic caps(Antaris to the south, Kalt to the north.) The other three are equally spaced around the globe.
>Magicks
Wizards and sorcerers produce their effect by tapping into the Neither, which is a dimension of eternal contradiction, where everything happens simultaneously(including non-existence.) Beyond that, it's business as usual for D&D.

There are three of them, most chained up and hidden to prevent further damage - a temporary measure at best.

Oh, I guess at least of band of Epic Level Heroes.

Just tinkering with the theme Power Corrupts: with dragons being one of the most powerful things in the world, they gradually go insane - i.e. lose out in the war between their destructive instincts and their personality.

Cont. for Kingdoms: There is also the League of Angels, a loose conglomeration of powerful, good-aligned outsiders who mete out justice or succor as they see fit. Basically super-heroes in the most Justice League Unlimited sense.
>afterlife
When someone dies, they pass through the Murk, a plane of dreams and outsiders. Gods dwell here, and those who worship them are given places in their realms, with the exception being Om and the Four Primes, the latter which reincarnates them. Souls who are either undecided, ignorant, or outright refuse to worship anyone stay in the Murk, which is kind of a free for all in terms of who is going to save or beat the shit out of you(Om worshipers go here as well, as Om doesn't give a shit.) From here, it's either undeath(which requires a great deal of earthly attachment), transformation into an outsider(requires a devotion to an ideal such as good, evil, or a specific concept), or destruction at the hands of another entity, at which point your soul goes to Asphodel. Basically an ocean of soul-stuff where the self dissolves like sugar in coffee; little tidbit, the soul of a sleeping passes through the Murk and into Asphodel to replenish itself.

How's this for an FTL system?

Basically, it's your typical Fold/Jump/Warp drive, except for a few quirks. These quirks influence just how interstellar travel works and happens.

Essentially, the ship jumps from point A to point B, but leaves a temporary 'ripple' in space. This ripple is mainly a gravity/radiation anomaly(ie, it leaves behind a big fucking chunk of radiation that dissipates over time whereas the gravity 'ripples' outward. Because the object the gravity was from isnt there anymore, so it just dissipates.)

Then, it arrives at its destination. Thing is, it is preceded by a 'premonition wave', ie, the gravity and heat of the ship appears before the ship does. And, depending on the size of the ship, the earlier the premonition wave appears. Say, a small ship weighing a couple 100 megatons will have its pre-wave show up ten to twenty minutes before it appears itself. but a big ass juggernaut of thousands of gigatons will have a pre-wave that shows up like an hour before it appears.

ie, the bigger the ship, the more likely to be detected.

As such, pirates and military are careful as to when they jump and where they jump. Many also split their fleets into smaller crafts so as to get a surprise jump on targets.

>Gods
The central gods of the setting is the pantheon of the Tetrarchs whose worship is centered around the great empire of the Holy Empire of the Tetrarchy.
As the name suggests, there are four of them; Knowledge, Fertility and their two sons Creativity and Capacity. These names are more descriptive than accurate as they are given different names in different societies and cultures. None of the god's are particulary effective on their own as they rely on the assistance of their kin to be able to act in most parts. As such in unison they are perfect while seperated they are flawed.
Tetrarchial canon holds that there are no other gods beside the Four; all other worshipped deities are really just aspects of them or based on human misunderstanding of their true nature.

>Kingdoms
As the setting spans the whole existance of the Holy Empire of the Tetrarchy (HET)(it's really more of a book writing project) there are many states and tribes that rise and fall throughout it.

The central state is the former mentioned HET, which is heavily inspired by the historic Roman Empire. It was founded by the conquest of a up and coming regional power by a barbaric confederation that was fleeing from their northern homelands for some unknown reason. These northerners quickly assimilated into the culture of the previous state, adjusting their ancient beliefs and most customs to fit better into their newly adopted culture. Seen as a growing threat by the powers in their vicinity (the various Tyran Leagues and the Empire of Gastram) wars soon broke out in which the HET in the end came out on top. Over the years the empire engulfed the Empire of Gastram and all the Tyran Leagues, kingdoms and city states aswell as untold tribes, kingdoms and other types of states.

1/3

Their most opposing foe was the Arsanid Empire, which was a steppe and river empire based on a mixture of historic persia and babylonia.The Arsanid Empire lay to the west of the HET. It came to be from an alliance of a city state and a nomad people who realised that they could never achieve their goals on their own. As such they united, marrying into each others noble houses, and conquered, under the rule of the first emperor, Arsan, who gave the state its name, most of the river states in the region. The monopoly on the massive river trade, which is central for the transcontintental trade system made them ridicoulosly wealthy and afforded them the capital to carve out their massive empire and tame the wild steppe tribes beyond.
Some other significant states was Tivania and the Holy Queendom of Sandarmark. The former was a semi-barbaric oligarchial state to the north east of the HET, ruled by a council of noblemen from the most significant Noble houses. This state was tremendously wealthy due to the many mines in the great mountain chain that split the state. The border between the two states became over the years wastly militarised with imposing fortress cities dotting the landscape on the tivanian side. Eventually the tivanians succumbed to the much stronger HET and the last part of Tivania when its legendary capital Tiv-vid-Valda/Tiv-by-Valda was conquered after years of siege to it.

2/3

The Holy Queendom of Sandarmark was conquerered quite early in the history of HET and turned into a province named Sandarmark. It's located to the south of Tivania and just east of the Nualtan peninsula which is the center of the empire where the capital of Nyhem lies. The native religion of the place was never quashed however, but remained alive, spreading its influence all around the HET, become quite popular in the former independet Tyrannian lands to the south east. Throughout the history of the HET this religion has been viewed as just another one of the many benign misguided understanding of the true faith or a vile and destructive heresy that needs to be purged. As such the followers of the religion has suffered through a fair few purges. However the religion has also been the cause of some of the most destructive internal armed conflicts of the empire as a result of its (female) prophetess and High Priestess/demi-god proclaming holy war against the HET. Each time these have been crushed with a lot of effort but non the less the faith has never been fully eradicated, which have left the possibility open for its followers to find the immortal spirit of their prophetess reborn into a new body which most likely will result in the faithful once again taking up arms to avenge themselves on the unjustices that the HET has commited aswell as retaking their eartly state.

3/4 (more text than what I thought.)

>Magicks

Magic is really non existant in the world. However the vast number of inhabitants of the world are not aware of this and are in fact convinced of its existance, allthough they hold it as something rare and potentially dangerous that only the initiated are capable of performing. Most forms of "magic" takes the shape of elaborate dances, rituals or songs, or a combination of the three. Many different schools and societies exists throughout the world who strive to perfect their niche of practiced magic. As such people and states seek the aid of different magi depending on what services they need. HET armies are usually accompanied by haruspices and some ritualistic battle dancers or chanters. The formers role is evident from their job descripition and the latter ones act out their dances or chants in an attempt to grant the soldiers of the HET increased strength, courage and ferocity while decreasing the same in their foes.
Women are generally considered to be closer to the supernatural than men and as such more often take up the call of the magi or some religious office.

4/4
Allthough if anyone want to hear more let me know.

>How do your humans differ from real humans? Do they live longer? Are they bigger or more attractive?

Made them a subspecies of beastmen like 2 or 3 other guys in /wbg/. Root stock looks african with variations appearing in regions. They can cross breed with most other beastmen subs like elves and orcs.

>Is their philosophy and culture alien to Earth's humans?

There are various cultures in the world and the setting is intended to allow for both analogues and alien concepts to be presented.

The setting is a wast, decaying, organic city, whose denizens are all sorts of mutants and degenerate freaks, that descend from humanity.

>Gods
There are no gods, though the denizens of the city worship many, ranging from worshipping their Noble blood rulers as manifestations of divine power, to worshipping the city itself as cruel god. The greatest religion within the city is however, the cult of the Vat Mothers, who actively spread their faith among the freak populace. The vat mothers posses great understanding of the secrets of life, and are the only faction that can reliably mass produce new, nearly mutation free, freaks. They are seen as prophets of life, and many freaks flock under them for the promise of rebirth in a new, less sickly body.

>Kingdoms
The city is divided into various realms belonging to various different noble houses, powerful factions whose might and control over their realms, and it's denizens, come from both their carefully cultivated blood lines, as well as the knowledge of secrets of both arcane bio technologies, as well as that of the city itself.
Constantly vying for power and influence, the wars of the noble houses are a major reason for the sorry state of the city.
The guilds fuel their regimes by controlling the sources of the lifegiving biogel, an organic substance that can heal nearly any wound, and is essential in the manufacture, grafting, and usage of many more advanced augments. Without biogel, the society of the city would collapse into anarchy, as every aspect of the freak society needs this priceless substance.
Great wars have been fought over the control of major sources of this substance.

>Guilds
Countless guilds exist under the rule of the nobles, some providing services ranging from transportation to mercenaries, others manoufacturing goods, items and weapons of great value, for the highest bidder. Guilds are second in power only to the Nobles, and the Vat Mother cult.

>Continents
The city is wast beyond imagination, and is divided into various districts, that can differ from one another greatly.

>Magicks
Mystical, even super natural powers, at least in the view of the freaks, exist within the city, possessed by the privileged few, who have the access to learn these esoteric arts. The two biggest types of "magic" are "Fleshbending" and "Mythic Canticles".
Fleshbending involves one ingesting copious amounts of life giving biogell, and using the force of their will to shape both their body, as well as any organic substance they can touch. It is extremely dangerous, as well as taxing form of magic, that can utterly destroy and consume the user, should he overestimate his abilities.

The art of the "Mythic Canticles" involves the usage of ancient words of power, weaving them into sentences, in order to affect the world around oneself, and even the denizens of the city. The effects of these words can range from merely soothing the city, convincing it to grant safe passages trough regions that would otherwise be filled with it's zealous organic guardian drones, to horrifying displays of supernatural fury, where the city's streets burst out into ossified spikes, impaling all those who trespass upon the streets.

While Fleshbending is not common among the average denizens of the city, most freaks know few of the common, and well known canticles. These prayers do not have any great power to them, but even knowing one that allows you to open a doorway, that would otherwise remain shut, can save one's life.
The more powerful canticles, are well kept secrets, and often sung in a distorted tongue, so that anyone who might hear them, won't be able to make out the precise words used. To learn how to use such awesome power, one must dedicate oneself to the study of the ancient tongues, and search far and wide, for snippets of this lost language.

What's your ancient technology like in your setting?

WE

Mysterious, and unknowable, often with extremely dangerous powers beyond the understanding of the degenerate denizens of the city. They are often characterized by inorganic nature, and almost complete lack of indication to their function.
Noble houses are known of collecting these half forgotten artifacts of lost eras, for purposes only known to themselves.

How do a make a mythological feeling setting? It's not going to be too big, maybe a bit larger than a kingdom scale map.
I'll be using D&D 5e as the base, so the setting will be adapting to RAW, rather than creating the setting then excluding and altering rules to fit it.

My idea so far is that it will be a kingdom that sees themselves as the last true remnants of a fallen empire, and they are surrounding by vicious barbarians that are responsible for the downfall of said empire. What I want to do is have the kingdom be more or less grounded, while the surrounding lands are as though they were exaggerated tales derived from ignorance and unreliable tales of travelers made real

But I don't really know the structure of folk mythology or how they come about.

Does anyone else remember those "Veeky Forums builds a pantheon" threads from a while ago?

>Gods
Maybe some, maybe none.
The Judaist-originating capital G God has some evidence of his existence, but so does a lot of other ones and it's all equally vague.
>Kingdoms
I guess as many Kingdoms as you find in real life, but there's not as many any more and most kings are not important politically.
There's different tribal nations akin to First Nations groups in the USA, but that's a very small number and not commonly found in other countries.
>Guilds
It's just called a union in real life.
Or alternatively a business enterprise depending on how you use the term "guild".
>Continents
You know all the names already.
Though there's actually one less then most people thing because "Europe" is actually a subcontinent and is actually part of the "Eurasian" continent.
>Magicks
That's a really complicated question.
Thaumaturgy is the "publicly acceptable" magic and you can go to college and get your ThD if you've got the money and dedication to afford the specialized education; magic isn't the purview of a rare few, but expensive higher education IS in our society so it belongs to mostly those who can afford it. It's mostly based on Western Hermeticism am so it treats it as a rational scientific study involving understanding underlying universal forces. Magi (a common term for qualified ThD holders) tend to be very rational and scientific but also often have the kind of ego or social problems you see on doctors or lawyers and anyone else who spend thousands and thousands of dollars on education that took five to six years or more to complete. The fact that completing said education gives you limited control over the fabric of reality kind of strokes their ego too.
Hedge practitioners are like "natural medicine" experts; not really trained and sometimes their methods work and sometimes they don't, as they work more on fairytale logic then measured science and rationality. Like most alternative medical fields they're sort of looked down upon by much of society.

Witch is a general legal term related to any user of sorcery who breaks the law with it, at which point due to the potential danger they represent (along with a fair bit of institutionalized prejudice) they basically loose a lot of legal rights they have and are treated as extremely dangerous felons armed with very dangerous weapons.

During the 1970s the Pentagon put together a United States Fringe Science Division to study and fight paranormal activity from cults in the heart of the USA to Amazon warriors in the jungles of Vietnam.

I just wanted an excuse to have marines in veitnam fighting necromancer Chinese warlords and amazons.

I like this tables, they're fun, but the "optional rule" is pretty much mandatory and should be applied to, at least, 5 and 6 too.

i like it user, i have something similar but with "hyperspace windows" or quantum tunneling. You could also have the Point A ripple indicate which way the ship went, it would eliminate the "easy escape when SHTF"cliche, as they could be followed into and through their jump/warp/etc

user this is so good. It's like a Giger wonderland. I can't take it. How is the architecture in the city? Is it fully organic, or is it built from inorganic materials as well?

>I know, but what does that torch thing represent?
God.

tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Taniquetil'

>Taniquetil or Oiolossë, the great Holy Mountain, was the highest of the mountains of Pelóri and the tallest peak in Arda. On its summit was raised Ilmarin, the mansions of Manwë and Varda.

What size is considered too small for a castle, Veeky Forums? I'm thinking of having a motte-and-bailey/ringfort type castle be a base for players, that they can eventually expand upon, but which is vulnerable enough that they're not totally secure from enemies that might be powerful nobles or bandit clans.

Black lines are the major river systems. Anywhere I should add another river, remove an existing one, change its direction? I know rivers usually end at a lake or the sea or other rivers but I know others just disappear from evaporation if they can't reach one of the above. Felt kinda gimmicky to always have a river start or end at a lake or always end at the sea.

That doesn't sound too small at all. People might think of big ol castles but it could be as simple as a wee fort.

Being able to build and expand onto the motte and bailey sounds neato.

Alright i am stuck on this part of worldbuilding of mine. How the hell do i prevent the undead from becoming to over powered compared to the other civilizations?

I ran into this problem when I considered corpse crafting(because already dead to begin with so they can get really extreme with their modifications) and undead experts who don't die/keep improving.

I desperately want to include some undead civilizations but the above problems is really screwing me over.

Anyway as for the questions my setting has a number of different pantheons. Lots of different kingdoms and guilds...that one is a bit complicated. Not everything is organized as guilds as there are other types of organizations not to mention different kinds of guilds as well as same or similar guilds and organizations that often clash.

Continent wise there are a handful of them and that isn't including flying or floating continents and islands. Figured its fantasy anyway and flying ships and lands are cool.

Magics is also rather complicated subject but can be broken into three major groupings that being born, learned, and bestowed. I consider magic the manipulation/study of supernatural law where science is the manipulation/study of natural law. In setting this basically results in slowed tech development and magitech. There is also psi. For the three major groups are rather self explanatory but the effects they have on the setting is massive and this isn't even getting into magic itself merely those who use it. In my setting there is a huge variety of different magics which all interact with each other in varying ways. Those who use magic need to pay special attention to the kinds of magic they use and how it reacts with other kinds of magic. Very important as some magics will clash against each other with devastating consequences or work astoundingly well together among countless other possible effects. It all depends on the type of magic you tap into and how you use it.

>Gods
Closer to being human than we could know. Mortal races are essentially the god's form of reproduction. In moat, worlds humans are bound to discover ways to ascend to their level, but the chance is like one in a billion, and entire civilizations from evolution to extinction maybe produce two or three. Otherwise, they play the rolls you'd expect in a polytheistic RPG
>Kingdoms
For the most part, each member of each race belongs to a specific realm of rule, aside from a few seperatist states. Humans are a monarchy, following an eleven year old king, dorfs are ogliarchal and give power to the best buisnessmen, elves are democratic and the population is controled through hyper-nationalistic propaganda, Saytrs are Ancient Greek styled democracy, goblins are theocratic and worship the dragons, dragons basically live off offering from the goblins, and Orks have no formal government, they just sit around doing drugs and having sex.
>Guilds
Don't really focus on those
>Continents
Humans and dwarves share a megacontinent that takes up a massive amount of space, elves share an archipelago with the saytrs, Orks have their own australia-sized island, and goblins and dragons share twin Texas-sized islands
>Magicks
Humans draw their magical power from within, being the founding fathers of pyromancy. They cast these fire-based spells through sheer force of will. Elves get their power from the arcane energy that radiates from the cosmos. They learn to cast spells by studing the nature of magic. The dwarves, having no magic within themselves, draw power from arcane materials that they mine or harvest and infuse it into their crafts, this process is known as "dwarven enchanting". The goblins are summoners, an art gifted to them by the dragons. They use their knowledge to tear rifts in the world and call forth great beasts that are bound to them. Orks use pagan rituals, sacrifices, and dark deals with the gods to create powerful elixrs.