/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Guess I'll post this again. Is it normal to keep discovering themes in your texts as you read them? Such as Vatas being picked for fire, since fire is destructive regardless, but the other elements only being destructive through his corruption? Like it works really well and I didn't actively think about it when I wrote it.

usually you don't fully know the theme of your story until the first draft is finished, yeah

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?

The largest dedicated military on Gethsemane is located in Helondish territories. This major supernation set out on making a military headstart for itself for what it believed would be a second colony war but lacked the technological core to properly build up to date designs.

Helonde bears similarities to N.Korea in that it is forever expecting a war to occur with either Dolmia or their Troan allies so maintain a chain of bloated military fortifications along its borders to the unaligned countries (the grey areas)

Unaligned countries are host to hundreds of piecemeal independent organisations, some funded by the major nations who basically employ them as another arm of their own military or hold no alliance and are fiercely independent. Xenophobic isolationism is rife in the Unaligned countries and most of the Habitats (domed off areas of civilization) in the territories are often in a state of petty skirmishes with each other.

The major nations only take real interest in the outcome of these skirmishes when rare Colony Tech is at stake but if so, no price is too much. This can be as small as gifting a mercenary band some better hardsuits to sending spec-ops to train or even join groups to ensure successes.

So for this particular region in the previous thread I was contemplating splitting a nation into city-states, which I went through. A 3 city-state league or confederation, they have an agreement to aid any in the defense of their state. There's still infighting because of the distinct cultural differences though, should be fun.
The Free City of Iuwine, the state of inventors and philosophers that like to fashion themselves as learned, free thinkers.
The Tarasians, steeped in mysticism and nature attuned. They're matriarchal hippies blessed with land that mostly makes them isolated.
Finally the Freimut Knights, while just a religious knightly order technically they became the ruling faction when during the last crusade there was unoccupied, lawless land that they brought law and order too while using the walled city as a base of operations to continue their crusades.

So its basically fedora tippers, hippie girls and DEUS VULT in one region with a pact to defend each other.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
The Infernal Legions, followed by the Celestial Hosts. The Infernal Legions control the largest territories and have the numbers, controlling hundreds of worlds, while the Celestial Hosts don't have the numbers, but have the strength of superior training and technology.

>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
The Infernal Legion is an eclectic mash-up of the various species and technologies they have conquered and absorbed. The backbone to their army is the Legionnaire, a 8 foot tall mass of muscle and infernal iron, and the Gazer, a void-born horror with the ability to fire cold rays from their massive eye and grasp their prey in hooked talons. Specialists and support in the army are things like the Bile Legionnaires, large frog-like creatures with the ability to project their stomach acid that have been surgically altered and enhanced; Voidlings, small unstable creatures that can detonate themselves into an explosion; Juggernauts, massive armored beasts used as living battering rams and bulwarks; Void Seers, bizarre floating creatures with powerful magics; and Lords of the Pits, massive flaming creatures that strongly resemble Christian demons of myth.

The Celestial Hosts take a more unified approach, using hit and run tactics and drop deployment to descend on the battlefield. The standard armament is a Spear of Light, a weapon that can fire a short burst of intense heat as the Chorister charges into battle. For heavy firepower, the most common artillery piece is a Throne, a device constructed of floating, spinning rings that can generate an beam of intense heat and light.

What I did was similar to Ars Magica's Vis - an inherently magical substance used to boost spell power and make magic items.
I typically allow them to show up in two ways: harvesting from natural sources (the trees of a particular grove, the ores from under a leyline, the body of an animal marked in a certain way); or created by expending (typically magical) effort - the dreams of a child caught in a silver-dusted spider web, the focused infusion of spells into alchemical liquids, digging a massive complex around a ley-node and dropping trash and monsters in there until the sheer magic makes the ingredients I need...
and is pretty good too.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
Hard to say, but its a toss up between the USSR and the JAAN (Japanese Alliance of Asian Nations). The UEA (United European Alliance) is strong in its own right but is bogged down by corperate beuracracy and rebels in Western Europe.
>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
EXO suits mainly, although rail-cannons are beginning to be used by the JAAN. Other than that, minor augmentations (retinal enhancements and the like) are widespread among most major militaries. Finally, the use of drones and DNIs (direct neural interfaces) are used in the reconnaissance and special forces teams of the major world powers (Germany, Japan, America, Russia, ect...)

Pic related is a map of the setting.

I've always found it somewhat weird when an entire nation takes up a whole continent. But I do like your map. It reminds me of the one from Ace Combat.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
Largest military? Or strongest?

Hmm. Largest would probably belong to the Badlands gangs, though they're not particularly coordinated and have only actually become a major power thanks to strong leadership from the latest to claim themselves King of the Bandits.

For most powerful, that's a tough one.
The Masonic Templars have a large number of well trained and disciplined soldiers and the aid of weaponized psychoactive drugs, as well as the benefit of calling on members of the Wasteland's most popular religion for militia.
Central has Frankenstiened super-soldiers stitched together from the most ideal parts available and outfitted with Old-World superscience weapons.

Boomtown's also got decent guns, but they spend most of their time using them against each other.

>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
Considering the people with the best stuff are the most isolationist, war doesn't tend to feature more exotic stuff.

However, the Tinmen do have some homemade battlesuits, and Masonic missionaries have gas-grenades that can induce a variety of hallucinogenic effects to bolster their own side or hinder the enemy.

>Dat giant six-shooter
All of my want.

>All of the middle east is Soviet
>The actual Soviet republics aren't Soviet
I'm going to be sick.

I didn't know I was on Veeky Forums

If you're going to use Earth, at least get some believable geopolitics.

>implying I'm the guy that posted the map

I've been duped

Yeah, I should clarify that the dotted line borders are countries and states as and of themselves just amalgamated under the ruling of the major powers. I've not included the names on that map for clarity's sake.

Troa is the only truly singular country nation whereas all the others are a sum of their parts.

Here's some more nation fluff i'm fiddling around with.

"Ostra is currently trying to prevent its outward territories and islands from separating and with it complete Balkanisation of the countries. Most of this is due to a push from these territories for trade with Dolmia and Lorin which is forbidden under a post-colony war treaty."

"Astrudia rules its countries under a questionable monarchy based on who they believe was the colony vessels original pilot and rightful ruler. Now a mere nerve stem chilled and suspended in the middle of a re-purposed colony tray the now Astrudian queen rules her territories through several networked clones in her stead under technology closely guarded by Astrudian engineers. Despite the bizarre appearance of the queen and her offspring being common knowledge worldwide, Astrudians are very patriotic and proud of their 'royal family'."
totally not image related

Thoughts and ideas?

Heh, yep.
A result of tech discrepancy.

See, they used to have battlesuits with much better guns, even some primitive beam weapons, but after the world blew itself to bits, the people left over in the backwater colonies couldn't really reproduce what the Old World used to make.

Mechanized suits were also used for heavy lifting and civilian work, so there were enough of them left over to get a working knowledge of how to make more. Beam & heavy weapons were less common, so the Tinmen make due by building oversized variants of their usual guns, since that's what they know how to make.
Don't be rude to Australia

Its so cute...

Oh so they are more like international alliances than anything else? Or something like that?

I like the idea of Ostra being on the edge of Balkanizing, though I think trade relations between Ostra and Dolmia should mainly be relegated to the eastern regions of the country. There is little reason why the many small colonized nations of Ostra would want to trade with western Dolmia.

The thing you have going with Astrudia is cool, but seeing how I don't know the entire theme/set up for the setting, it comes off a bit stilted and out of place. That may be just me though. It really depends on what kind of world yours is.

The robot, or Australia?

The robot.

Look up World War Robot on google images. More where that came from.

That would be the dominant kingdom of humans, Aranor. There army is certainly the largest due to them being the largest human kingdom, but all other races owe allegiance to them anyway should they call upon it. Apart from having a form of powderless muskets and cannons, Bound Wizards can also be called upon to fight (basically state alchemists from FMA).

Did GUSA get nuked or something?
How are they not in control of the entire world?

Isolationism senpai. The world takes place in an alternate cyberpunk future

When does it branch off? 60s?

Technically WWII, but the first major divergence happens in the 1950s.

Please post a timeline of the setting, and what geopolitical fuckery you had to jump through to get a map that looks like it's straight out of 1984.

>to get a map that looks like it's straight out of 1984.
but that's the point

So then you have a 1984 future, and not a cyberpunk future? I'm confused.

>cyberpunk wasn't around in the 80s

Are you being purposefully obtuse.

Probably the pacification armies of the Demiurges sent out to bring worlds under the rule of the god-pretenders.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
The largest peacetime standing army belongs to Nordenmark, a second-tier kingdom that's in the process of transitioning into a fascist military state. Under full mobilization for war, the Cyrelian Empire fields the largest combined-arms military, while Saddath-Leng edges them out slightly in terms of sheer numbers of infantry.

>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
The most commonly used weapons worldwide are single-shot cartridge firing smoothbore muskets, generally with large bayonets or halberd blade attachments, while elite units and the standard troops of the most technologically advanced nations have moved on to early bolt-action rifles. Aside from rare artisan-crafted pieces, automatic weapons are still only available as crew-served emplacements.

Special weapons vary enormously among the major powers. Cyrelia's armies are each anchored by a massive unique landship supported by a squadron of roughly WWI-equivalent tanks. Nordenmark has a corps of large power armor/light mechs that serve as super-heavy shock troops. Saddath-Leng makes wide use of poison gas and horrific self-igniting alchemical flame weapons. The Machine State uses mechanically reanimated corpses as the bulk of its army. The Meridial League city-states favor defensive tactics with walls, trenches, and fixed artillery emplacements.

There are three nations with a large military

>The Holy Empire
They recently became the largest military force on the continent. The force consists of eight Herjazkruppin [Legions]. Each Herjazkrup has 13,312 men in them with specific roles, units, squads, and so on. The sheer discipline of the soldiers comes from two years of persistent training by the veterans of the military. Battlefield communication involves elaborate flag and banner waving. These bannermen are a separate entity from the military and actually come from the Church. They are trained in various forms of light magic, first aid, and self defense. The military grew so large after a continued pressure from eastern tribes and the rise of orcs in the south. The Empire never fights offensive wars, as they are forbidden inside the Holy Scripture [on a side note, you are doing well, keep up the good work]. Defensive wars are not though. This is how the Empire not only survives but expands as well.

>The United Emirates
For three centuries, the Emirates held a military unlike any other. They are very in tune with their mana, so magic in all forms is very common among their people. The history of each emirate is not very long, but each developed a unique style of preparing an army. After unification these unique forces melded together to create a force as deadly as it was diverse. The largest Emirate, Nasrin provided a force of almost 10,000 trained warrior mages to the overall military force of roughly 70,000. Unlike their neighbors, men and women are allowed to join if they can prove their skill. When they reached that peak force of 70,000, the Empire was still sitting with only four Herjazkruppin [~54,000 men]. It was not until a horrific event shattered centuries of peaceful unification and coexistence among the Emirates that their military fell below a force of 10,000 warrior mages. They resorted to desperate measure to bolster their military later on.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
"Largest" is too vague. The Kedran military is the most diverse, with War Mage artillery, a state-run Paladin order, and the Knights of Kedra. If united, the Dwarven Kingdom wins numerically; with most of their population able to militarize "for the Greater Good!".
The other nations are weak militarily, allied in some way with the Dwarves/Empire or relying heavily on the Adventurer's Guild.

>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
"Used in war" also doesn't fit well, as there hasn't been a major war in centuries. Most conflict is Man vs Nature, often Undead or Chimera.
Alchemy is excellent at eliminating Undead, particularly utilizing Alchemical Silver and some Greek Fire. It helps that the nation with the world's foremost Alchemists is the one ruled by a state religion that condemns Necromancy.
Cities in the northern territories often have larger-than-normal ballistae for dealing with wyverns and flying chimera, and griffons have been bred since the Great War for use as mounts for scouts and messengers.

It's a "High Magic" setting, even if the power-levels are generally low. 90% of people will have some access to healing magics. We're one step from being post-scarcity, if any of the Wizards gave a shit.

And finally

>The League
Spawning from just a single mage, the League quickly grew to almost 400 members before its discovery. They remained in the shadows for one very specific reason: they had discovered Necromancy. A spin off of an established school of magic in the Emirates, Summoning Magic, Necromancy was a complete perversion to the greater magical community. Light mages in the Empire, Head-Magus of the various Schools inside the Emirates, and the Druids among the Elves all looked on the new form of "magic" in disgust. The OG Necromancer wielded all the power of his newly founded School. Necromancy in this world is like a big pyramid scheme. You give up a part of your own power in exchange for the secrets of Necromancy. This meant it spread fast among mages desperate to obtain greater power in a society full of other magically inclined people. The League amassed a force of almost 10,000 mages before the Emirates reacted. When they moved to engage the League with a force of 25,000 mages they encountered a force of nearly 30,000 undead and familiars. Along with them were the thousands of necromancers that raised and enslaved the undead army. The war between them and the Emirates produced thousands of casualties... which are swiftly raised by the necromancers after each battle.

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
The largest is under the control of a marauding demi-god who hasn't found the right kingdom to settle down in quite yet, the strongest is under a sorcerous Legatrix who uses ancient artifacts to observe her enemy's actions.
>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
I've not thought out the magic system too much, Gae Bulg style barbed spears are quite often used by the richer warlords to destroy enemy shields before the charge, and thrown into ground in order to make some nice leg mincers for enemy cavalry.

What would you call a nation ruled by a Legate/Legatrix?

Give me some irl dog breeds that a nomadic tribe would keep

The runes are written in the blood of god. Without it's master, the force of creation is chaotic and formless. But as you give it form, you give it purpose and power.

Countless words of power have been lost and found throughout the ages, now sleeping in the tales of ancient ruins. Many an adventurer braves these graves of civilisation in search for these treasures because even if of no use for one self, spells and their fuel are traded for a high price.

What kind of illustrations inspire you guys?
I like historic ones since that's my main inspiration.

All of them.

If you don't find random magazine ads inspiring, you're not human. More likely you just forget or don't realise how much they inspired you.

>>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
The theoretically largest military would be that of the Rybalian tribes but since they're very divided they've never mustered a very large force.
The current largest military belongs to the only organized kingdom in my setting(Bor), it numbers about 4000 well trained professional soldiers, as well as 500 mounted nobles with their respectable mounted companions(numbering anywhere from two or tree to over a hundred men).
There also may or may not be hidden legions of dark forces numbering in the tens of thousands.
>>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
The world is rich in magical weapons and powers granted to chosen heroes and devout followers of the gods, or found as a leftover of the time of greater beings. Individuals or groups who have these things usually assume roles of leaders or champions of their people(as well as mandatory old sages).
Monsters and wild beasts are common in combat, fierce dogs and cats of Bor, water beasts of the Gorgomundians and many more.

Probably just wild dogs
Also Bankhar dogs are native to the steppe of Mongolia so might be worth looking into

>tfw a friend asks me to help them with worldbuilding
>tfw he likes my lame ideas

I don't believe you.

>he doesn't care for your ideas, he wants your dick but is too shy to ask directly

>tfw I want his dick more than he wants mine, probably.

Sorry this thread isn't for discussing the ins and outs of your faggotry.

>probably
No baseless speculations, go and confirm the threory.

Oh wait what am I saying that's literally all this thread is.

pray provide better ones, my good fella

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
in no particular order :
the army of Dalevande, it's an elven country they are pretty polyvalent and they are the best technologically, they have the best swords, bow etc.
the army of Atasia they are the strongest human country, reputed for their battlemages that can go on par with races that are more skilled in magic
The Orc Empire they are the largest army and the greatest warriors
Damelor country a race a created. Best way to describe them is that they are an amalgam between draenei and tieflings.
>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
Hybrids. The best at it are the Orcs. They can make hybrids of orcs and trolls. In my setting, normal orcs are similar to TES orcs but hybrid orcs are hulkish like wow orcs. How it works is that basically you take a bit of troll DNA mixed with chemicals and potions, inject it inside a normal orc and he turn into a more hulkish orc that are hybrid orcs. Other races also have hybrids but most are from non sentient species, exept humans who have something similar but with ogre DNA instead (but they are less common than orc hybrids)

Most of them suck because they're excessive; they don't need to be there. You just cut them out. Like the culture thing, or those horrible worldbuilding blogs.

Mapmaking:
Fountain mavichist.wordpress.com/
Hexographer hexographer.com/free-version/
GIMP gimp.org/downloads/
Or for best results, use a pencil&paper. Inkarnate is an evil trap for newfags.

Possible Inspiration:
Threads on Veeky Forums, /x/ (someone else confirm) and Veeky Forums.
libgen.io: for all your pirating needs (gutenberg.org, for all your free&legal needs). Check out the SFF thread on Veeky Forums if you want inspo.

>giss.nasa.gov/tools/gprojector/
And this, which hasn't been in the copypasta for nearly a year.

Depends on what's going on. Technically every dwarf is in the army and if the High King says so they can all mobilize. Actually doing this is another matter entirely, it has only been done once. Largest standing army is probably the normal human empire. But every country with an army has one around the same size.

It pretty much depends on the country. Each one specializes with specific units. For example Dwarfs have superior was machines, European humans have gunpowder and enhancing magic stuff, The Arabian empire can summon djin, etc. etc.

This vvvvvvv
Flirt and post results

>What are the largest militaries in your setting?
The dark elven theocracy has the single largest military. Combined, the armies of humans would be larger, but humans have been split into multiple kingdoms ever since the fall of the Ta'shaarian empire around a millenia ago, while the dark elves have a large unified empire.

>What special magic, weapons, technology, or monsters are commonly used in war?
Humans for the most part use "conventional" weapons. Swords, polearms, trebuchets, bows and crossbows. Gunpowder weapons do exist, but are quite primitive so they haven't phased out bows/crossbows and melee weapons yet ("pike and shot"-style tactics are common in the militaries that can afford a lot of firearms, though). Any self-respecting military also maintains an order of battle-mages. While few in numbers (mages in general are pretty rare, and the ones that are powerful enough to have real battlefield utility are even rarer and take a long time to train), could have a major impact on the result of the battle (nobody likes fireballs dropping on their soldiers).
Dwarves employ a variety of golems as guardians and war machines. These are constructs made from stone and iron and animated with magic, and largest of them are several times the size of a man and immensely strong. During its heyday, the sorcerers of the Ta'shaar empire created their own magical construcs for the imperial army, and the descendants of the empire still make use of similar constructs. They're inferior to the dwarven versions, but still quite powerful.
Dark elves make use of large amount of summoned creatures, as well as other monsters. Particularly common are the so-called abominations, highly resilient and nearly mindless creatures (which are actually the failed result of a program to create hybrids of elf and eldritch beings) that are used as disposable shocktroops. They are unleashed on the enemy and attack anything nearby without regard for self-preservation until killed.

Don't forget to add specialized counterspelling squads in decent armies

>What are the worst diseases to catch in your setting?

>What drugs are used recreationally?

>What are the worst diseases to catch in your setting?
Don't touch a cloyflower. If you do, you'll pine for it in your dreams, and then you'll do something really stupid like open your wife up to snatch up all the cloyflowers inside.
>What drugs are used recreationally?
Alcohol.

>What are the worst diseases to catch in your setting?
Probably rad sickness from The Haze, but since most people avoid the North and have no reason to go there, it's a limited phenomenon.

>What drugs are used recreationally?
All of them.
Pharmaceutical tech has actually advanced somewhat since the Old World fell, and New World plants induce some pretty interesting sensations.
The High Inquisitor of the Masonic Church has actually attempted to adopt the use of hallucinogenic incense into popular religious practice.

The drug runners in Boomtown also carry some fun stuff. Brothels owned by the Capulet Family feature opium lounges and smoking rooms, as well as private playrooms for the really hard stuff

>What are the worst diseases to catch in your setting?
Lurt, believed to be caused by a rare fungus from far southeast infecting food. Causes the vomiting of blood and black bile, slow bleeding from all orifices, high deliriousness, and can give the victim grey skin with black spots. Usually lethal within two weeks. It is spread through bodily fluids and is not known to have epidemics.
The Kisec Bug is also dreaded, although incredibly isolated and rare. It is caused by small isopods burrowing into the skin where they feed, reproduce, and grow. Large cysts form in their nests which rupture to leave craters in the flesh and disperse more isopods to other hosts or into the host's organs. Extremely lethal and painful.
Rift sickness only affects those that go through the effort of taking the risk to get it, traveling between realms. Not all rift travelers are affected and the severity and duration of rift sickness differs greatly between individuals. Its symptoms include intense psychosis, amnesia, dissociation, and hallucinations. People suffering from rift sickness have little concept of reality or time and can lose track of weeks or months thinking they are hours. Some victims can recover to slight functioning but remain insane, while most are doomed.

>What drugs are used recreationally?
The most common drug is alcohol, followed by Shedas Grass or "shed". Shedas grass is very easy to grow and is actually a pest plant because of its easy growth, and that grass is compressed and lightly burned then compacted further and further into a resin, which is usually squashed into "coins" for sale and use. Shed causes mild euphoria and dissociation, and numbs pain. It is highly addictive and long term use causes itchiness, rashes, and delusions.
Hashish is considered a merchant or noble's drug, while shed is rampant with the poor.
Rarer is the valk root, usually boiled into a tea. Causes euphoria, heightens imagination, and quickly puts the user to sleep.

>What are the worst diseases to catch in your setting?
Lycanthropy, probably.

>What drugs are used recreationally?
Alcohol. Super tobacco. Dried, powdered pixie, also known as fairy dust.
>What drugs are used recreationally?

Inspired by a thread earlier, I'm adding a Paladin order into my world that serve a fertility goddess. They act as midwives, bless crops, protect peasants, the whole shebang. I'm just drawing a blank as to what they should be called, I was thinking of maybe Daughters of _____ as they're mostly female but can't think of anything that seems good. The goddess' name is Leveny if that helps. Any suggestions?

Maybe some kind of herding dog, if they have any kind of livestock. If not, then probably more specialized hunting dogs, depending on what kind of food they hunt most.

For small-to-medium mammals, you want a hound (bloodhound, coonhound, greyhound, whippet). Curs help when hunting larger mammals.

For birds, then you want a retriever (to retrieve dead birds), a spaniel or a setter (to flush them out of brush cover), or a pointer (to find them). There are also water dogs for waterfoul.

If their prey lives in burrows, then they'd have terriers.

(I don't hunt, I'm just going off of Wikipedia.)

D'aww.

The Maternal Order of Leveny?

The Waiting Maidens of Leveny

Need some geography help.

What would happen if another island the size of Britain just rose up out of the middle of the Atlantic? In terms of weather and currents, of course.

Waste of a quadquad...

That depends where it would appear. If you look at the map of Atlantic ocean currents, you'll see a massive region of "stale" water where even Britain-sized island would not do much anything. If it had appeared in a middle of a current, that might cause some troubles, of course. Not that big ones, though, the current would just adjust itself to flow around it, probably along one side, and continue where it was going in the first place.

Also, you have a UK-sized landmass appearing out of nothing in the middle of the ocean, so maybe you should not take real-world climatology as too important to your world.

That actually sounds pretty solid, thanks ohana

How married are you to the "Daughters of" thing?

Back-of-the-envelope calculation:
The deepest points along the mid-Atlantic ridge are a bit over 7.5km deep. We'll call that 7km. (The specific location is important, since the ocean floor tends to have long patches of relatively flat ground with sharp descents, so the depth varies wildly. I'm just going with the deepest.)

Britain has a land area of 209,331 km^2, which I'm gonna call 210,000 even. So that's 1.575 million km^3 of water displaced, which is just over 0.1% of the ocean's total volume (1.35 billion cubic kilometers). So there would likely be an increase in sea level, but not much.

The much more significant aspect would be if the island were to interrupt the North Atlantic current. This carries warm water up to Europe and is responsible for its relatively warm, stable climate. Temperatures in Europe would drop dramatically, while the part of the Atlantic surrounding the new island would be pretty warm; the island itself would be very rainy and potentially prone to hurricanes. It'd also mess up the thermohaline circulation, which regulates the distribution of salt in the ocean. The region of the Atlantic is high in salt, which would stop being carried away by the deep-sea current that accompanies the gulf stream (at least, not as smoothly.) This would be bad news for sea life.

Eventually it would even out as the current readjusted, but the sudden dramatic changes in temperature and salinity could be catastrophic.

Nah. Don't wanna ruin 4 years of friendship. Still wanna do good for him.

An idea that he responded pretty well to was the idea of a giant 'underchurch' that's being endlessly added onto by automatons devoted to finding the Holy Grail.

Of course, I don't want to make a giant megadungeon, even though those are fun to build.

The problem being is that I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out where the Underchurch should surface, specifically looking for holy places that could make for some fun encounters.

My my only idea has been:
>A sacked holy city that's been long abandoned, lost in the woods and far off the roads traveled, effectively forgotten in recent history. The automaton Helmed Horrors/Skeletons/Constructs that guard it are so in disuse that ivy and plants started growing on them

Ugh. I don't know what's happened to me where I got so creatively buttfucked to the point where all I can think of is ruins, ruins, ruins.

Thanks! I had an idea about Avalon suddenly returning to the world and suddenly magic pagan bullshit everywhere, but I like to ground my fantasy, so the question about oceanic currents and weather and such.

Thanks again!

What would your idealized self-insert character be, /wbg/? I don't care how mary-sue it feels, I just need some ideas for reasonable/not-so-reasonable "player characters".
Don't worry about power level, the setting's elastic enough to allow for Werewolf Clerics, magical realm Lamia, and several flavors of chuuni.

Why not create conflict with other religious denominations deriving from the same root?

So for example, Muslims would want some of the same artefacts that Christians would because they're both Abrahamic religions.

So you could have them try to invade an actively inhabited Grand Temple that has an artefact that's both important to them and the people currently living there. Cue the Great Monk/Robot War

The above conversation makes it sound more like the problem is you're not getting buttfucked enough.

Immortal 100+ year old Russian.
He's personally met and fought alongside Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, all the greats.

Has an intimate knowledge of economics and political strategy as well as revolutionary tactics & weaponry.
Can fluently converse in most major languages and has an understanding of world culture and theology that would impress a college professor of the subject.

Grizzled, somewhat grumpy, but still a fun guy to be around or drink with. Doesn't give a flying fuck 90% of the time and even stays pretty cheery when in fuck shit up Russian Bear mode. (Exception: Do not talk about Yeltsin within 200 feet of him)

After the Soviet Union fell, he moved to the United States because he figured if he was going to live in a capitalist shithole, he may as well live in the biggest capitalist shithole.
Currently fucking with historians who try to interview him and plotting glorious revolution as a hobby on the side.

Oh, of course, that's the primary conflict of the game. There's the main church that's based primarily off of Catholicism (at least, when it comes to architecture and iconography) that has knightly orders going around and crusading, looking for the Holy Grail.

Meanwhile, there's the Underchurch. Way back, there was effectively a Unification instead of a Schism in the church, and these guys refused to integrate as one. They're based primarily around Orthodoxy, and they're also crusading, it's just that they're treated like a dangerous cult, and most people have forgotten about them. Their knights became helmed horrors/shield guardians/giant constructs, their worshipers became skeletons and different flavors of zombies, and the highest members of the church are either ageless or have went full Lich. They're looking for the Holy Grail too, with the undead endlessly digging around underground, sometimes rising up and emerging up at holy sites looking for it.

That's legitimately a good idea though. Maybe a temple that contains Caliburn (if we're going for knightly, arthurian-inspired shit), the favored weapon of a long dead, great, king is being sieged by the dead/automatons?

What's interesting is that:

A) If the players are moving through the Underchurch, they can march behind the dead, and eventually perform the mother of all sneak attacks and maybe take out some sort of mummybishop from behind the ranks, crippling the undead that are dependent on orders from a higher power.

B) The undead could enter through some super secret, long forgotten, burial chamber or tomb that only the heads of the Underchurch are aware of (due to everyone else who would know being dead). This could contain clues to get them closer to the Holy Grail.

Well played, user.

Agreed.
The issue is that th

Neato beans my dude.

What if the underchurch fellas started infiltrating catacombs and morgues and replacing the corpses there with sleeper agents?

That way, they'd have an army ready to call upon in all major holy sites as well as in large cities.

>Rockstars of the fantasy world
Doing it wrong user

Probably some kind of rogue--more in the charlatan mold than the outright thief. Someone who know she stands no chance in a straight-up fight, so she prefers to outthink an opponent or else just plain make a break for it, if necessary. A pragmatist who doesn't worry about things like "honor" or "glory" when cornered and will happily throw dirt in your eyes if she has to. She's got a particular fondness for puzzles and codes and dabbles in illusion magic.

Pretty much any underground structure would need some kind of ventilation system; putting something close to a large body of water would be a good idea, since those tend to generate winds. Maybe there's an entrance by something like the Bay of Fundy, where it's a fundamentally different experience traversing the area at low tide than at high tide.

>Don't wanna ruin 4 years of friendship.
Okay, but if it just so happens that you casually graze each other's hands while reaching for something and it leads to a pause as you stare into one another's eyes and you laugh awkwardly but then start straight-up making out, you have to tell us.

Rate my setting

Deities gain and lose power for worship. When a new deity forms (usually from small groups that create them fictively at first, then give them true power through spreading faith) it pushes the influence of similar gods out from an area of the material plane that its worshippers are focused.

For instance, there's a region where, suddenly nobody seems to be dying right. All the sentient races keep coming back as skeletons, ghouls, vampires, or ghosts. This disturbs the local emperor but Clerics, Paladins, and their like have it under control. Those who worship death gods however come forth to confess that they can no longer reach their gods and their powers won't manifest.

This is because a great many former worshippers got disenfranchised with their gods' inability to compete with the gods of light, life, and good. They formed an enclave in a labrynthine dungeon deep beneath a mountain where they worship a budding God. To give it more power the high priests have formed a pact, becoming a Charnel Colossus to give it a vessel.

So I've run into a bit of a snag in my fantasy setting.

I'm kind of going for a Celestial (in this case though, called Telestial) Bureaucracy sort of thing going on, a bit like Chinese myth. The idea is tiny spirits, godlings, mythical creatures and all other sorts of personified flora, fauna and phenomena keep the world working as intended. Many spirits (depicted as rats) catalog everything that goes in in the world.

However the problems rises up in the afterlife. Basically when you die, your soul drifts up to heaven. After going through many years stuck in legal limbo (leaving recently dead ghosts still around in the mortal world), there you'll be expected to work, pay taxes and so on to join the heavenly world. The concept of divine and karmic punishment happens here too; those who kill others are expected to pay many lengthy sentences of labor and wealth to pay for their misdeeds to the injured party.

The problem with this though is that I kind of want multiple religions to be in the setting. This very factual and monastic afterlife clashes with having a rich fantasy worlds with many different religions.

What could I do to preserve this idea but make it more diverse and varied? Maybe have the Afterlife be a bit like the Egyptian one, requiring a great journey to get there. Maybe once you 'serve your time' more or less you are free to leave heaven, or maybe not. Maybe other religions free you from the orderly afterlife by some sort of other means?

Here's a fun one. Magic crystals, that appear and grow randomly in the game world. They can be found growing on just about any surface, such as the ground, the side of a tree, the roof of a house. Their color corresponds to their magical potency and rarity.

Because of the demand for them, people collect the crystals and sell them when they find them, so a small supply of common crystals can be found in the average city market. Obviously, the rarest crystals are found in the hoards of the wealthy, or in remote caves & dungeons.

Their appearance is a palm sized translucent crystal, similar in shape to quartz, but boasting many fantastic colors and patterns. Using a crystal drains it and it turns to dust.

I don't want to make them too aggressive, but that works. That also explains why they've lasted as long as they have, and it could make for a fun encounter when they really throw their weight around later on in the campaign. Zombie apocalypses are a whole lot more fun with intelligent zombies in crusader gear.

I mean, they're all either zombies or constructs, so, it's not necessary for them, but it definitely makes sense from a gameplay and story perspective to have areas leading up to surface locations.

Hmm... Maybe some sort of ancient baptism pool in a coastal temple, that rises and lowers with the tide?

At really, really, really low tides the alcove that leads deep into the Underchurch is revealed. Plus, hell, everyone has high constitution in the party so they can handle some swimming.

...Hm. Now, the question is, what kind of spooky water-undead with holy themes can I include? Nuckelavee?

Showed these maps a while ago, working on developing cultures now starting with languages.

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