Worldbuilding Thread

>LotR
A bunch of gods create a world by singing but one of them has daddy issues and fucks it up for everyone else. A long time after he's btfo his buddy comes back after making a magic mcguffin and being a dick to everyone but he gets btfo by a rich fuckboy. Eventually the magic mcguffin falls into the hands of a midget with hairy feet who must now go destroy it before the evil big bad can reclaim it. The humans don't trust anyone, the dwarves have big noses and love gold, and the elves are pompous shitheads who are too busy running away to contribute meaningfully.

Is its destruction the story?

Or are you having the ruins of the collapsed/destroyed civilisation as a huge part of the setting?

Ancient bloodlines are pretty good sources for heroes, people of note and special abilities - be it from gods, demons, ancient rituals or what have you - depending on the needs of the story or game it could be a good source of high-power individuals

The original gods each created empires and cultures that they populated with their divine servants only for the mortal races to pop up out of nowhere. The gods subjugated the mortals and ruled over them in an age of peace and prosperity but it turns out that the mortal races were the unwitting divine servants of an evil god. The evil god waited until the mortals had reached a point where they couldn't be wiped out and then triggered something in them that started turning them into monsters. The transformation of mortals triggered the collapse of the god's empires and the gods themselves have since disappeared and all that is left is ruins, the divine servants themselves, and the few mortals who have held the transformation at bay as they try to rebuild.

The former, the process of the destruction is the story.

Though, I imagine it'll get towards the ruins part within the last third or so.

>What race do you think would fit that best?

Elves and humans, of course.

Elven magocracy is refined and natural to them. Human magocracy is a tyranny of wizards, propped up with a hefty dosage of classic human superiority complexes.

Geomancers dominated the ancient state due to their ability to pull metals from the core and form gemstones close to the surface. As the richest school they supply the armouries and fill the treasuries of their civilisation.

The yearly ritual as part of the Mageocracy to show magic ability and dominance among the various schools has the arrogant geomancers overextend themselves and pull the nearest magnetic pole over the capital city and destroy their entire civilisation in earth shattering tremors.

Yeah, I can see how that'd work. Especially if they are or have been at war with each other in the past.

Which of the elves do you see as having that kind of government (y'know, High, Dark, Wood, etc), unless it's common to all of them.

One thing I should've said before guys, I've already got what the cause of the destruction is decided.

It's just what is getting destroyed that I'm stumbling on.

An apocalypse story then?

For that I would suggest that you've either got "the magic is going away" as a big cause of strife, or you've got a sort of cold war type scenario where magic is at its peak and people keep making bigger and better weapons until someone throws the first fireball

For either you can have people looking into ever-more dangerous magics - either digging up old stuff, or creating new ones, and this could be a source of tension and threat.

It's a bit of a cliche, but themes from the fall of the roman empire (and things inspired by the fall), and themes from the world wars are all pretty good

what's the cause of destruction? it'll help make a suitable world if we know that

So then what's the cause of the destruction?

See Though you might still have some usable stuff with the "people looking into ever-more dangerous magics" idea.

This isn't so much the fall of the roman empire, more like the Mongol Invasion of Europe, only if it didn't stop.

A horde of alien monsters that are spawned by a meteorite and rapidly begin propagating across the land, taking on some of the traits of those they encounter (so, those that fight lots of elves will start being able to cast rudimentary spells and so on).

ongoing cold war between the mage-controlled 'nations', meteor arrives with alien passengers, everyone assumes their enemies were behind the alien attacks and everything goes straight to shit

I would imagine High Elves having a "benign" magocracy while Dark Elves have a more evil kind. Wood Elves would probably be the type to reject that kind of government.

Ooh, yeah, that could work. Especially if the place it lands in is close to one of the mage nations, they could think it's a surprise attack on one of their allies or something.

I've got an urge to do somewhere that's based a lot on knightly/chivalric traditions, although that's probably because I was reading up on Bretonnia before I had this idea.

Any thoughts on how I could work that in? Pic sorta-related.

Hrm, okay, makes sense.

Why do you think the race would've split into three in the first place. I think I had an idea for something that could work for this but I can't remember if I wrote it down anywhere.

Could be as simple as three different tribes who went their own ways and developed independently.

Or it could be the result of a massive civil war.

Mm, as I recall my idea was something along the lines of what happened to Alexander the Great's empire after he snuffed it.

How do you think their magics would differ, and why? I've got some vague ideas myself, but I want to see if you've got anything first.

Ah, you might have told us that beforehand.

A fairly magic-resistant race/group might be a good "and now you're fucked" thing for the aliens to consume - when you're resistant to most other people's strongest method of attack, you're on to a winner.

Thinking of the mongol invasions: conquering/consuming/absorbing a strong race/culture that has a significant strength that the aliens originally lacked (a la the mongol recruitment of chinese siege engineers) would be a good sign that they're becoming a serious threat.

A Baghdad/Alexandrian Library or similar expy might be important - a huge centre of learning that gets wiped out, rivers running black with ink etc.

An arrogant race/civilisation might have an "unbeatable fortress" that goes down, always good for shock value

>Ah, you might have told us that beforehand.
Yeah, I'm really sorry. I keep doing this when I'm brainstorming, always hold most of the details back.

Anyway...

The magic-resistant thing, perhaps that could be given to the Orcs(-equivalent) of this setting? I feel as though it'd fit their racial character pretty well, perhaps they could be off in some distant part of the globe to explain why they don't run into the other magical races very much (or maybe they just pay them off).

Strong culture being conquered, perhaps the chivalric culture I mentioned before? Feel like that'd be a good way they could start out, and the feudal government would give them enough time to build up proper momentum before having proper armies set against them.

Library of Bagdad-expy, could probably give that to the High Elves. I see it as one of the keystones of their culture, with stuff in it that they brought with them from their homeland. Be very demoralizing for them.

As for the fortress, perhaps that one could go to the dwarves? Feel like they're the usual suspects for making buildings of that sort of nature.

High Elves specialize in fire magic. The power of the sun. Sacred, holy fire that burns away impurities and cleanses evil.

Dark Elves specialize in frost magic. The power of the moon, night, and winter. Wicked frost that destroys crops, freezes innocents, and creeps across the world while threatening to engulf it.

Ah, okay.

I was thinking of something similar in that they use the same magic but for different things.

High Elves use the power of light and fire for healing and helping grow crops and so on, whereas the Dark Elves use it for burning stuff.

I think I like your idea better though.

Unless you're Tolkein and you're a genius at world building and all that shit and the world is super important to your masterpiece (the simarillion) then the world should be built to fit the story. It's all well and good having an appendix of houses like GRRM does but that isn't why his books are decent. Spending hours and hours wanking off to how clever you are for the idea of an ancient Godess who swapped a kiss for the secret of fire is fun in theory but if it isn't important to the story it isn't important.

Well, it *is* important to the story because they're going to be destroyed. They have to actually be there in order to be destroyed.

Though I do see your point, which is why I'm not looking for a totally-original masterpiece here.

Shit, I'm going to need to make a map for this...

Pic unrelated.

I had a destruction story for my old campaign. The tl;dr version is:

> Arrogant Wizard tries to become God, in a realm/setting where it's a pantheon of deities, angels, demons, devils, and all the planes of existence intermingling in one large capital city

> Spell fails spectacularly, nukes the city and causes such a powerful magical backlash severs the Material Plane off from the rest of the planes of existence. Half of the pantheon dies in the process, losing all their faithful followers keeping their divine portfolios active. The other half barely succeed into escaping to the Material Plane, along with a handful of devils, demons, and angels/celestial beings.

> The resultant magical nuke sets off a series of global earthquakes and fractures half of the tectonic plates, resulting in volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Oh, and a centuries long ice age caused by so much shit thrown into the atmosphere.

> Civilization recovers eventually, that event passes into myth and legend, as the remaining gods remain hidden amongst the mortal masses.

> And the arrogant wizard crawls out of the magical nuke crater, the first lich ever made in my setting.

Hrm, most of this isn't of much use to me, but the idea could be handy. Like, maybe the Dark Elves (whose history relative to the other two factions I'm still trying to work out/remember) end up doing the whole "magical nuke that inadvertently turns them into liches" thing by accident in an attempt to stave off the monsters.

They may be attempting to develop either a weapon or spell to fight the monsters, or to extend their lives to keep soldiers alive for the fight.

Hell, a general explanation of, "arrogant Wizard fucked up hardcore and set off a magical nuke" is a good, generic answer that most people would be happy with.

Indeed, works for me.

Okay, going back to the elves for a second, I've figured out that they originally arrived at this continent where the Humans are fleeing their own homeland due to climate change and orcish invasion.

They were led by a great king of theirs, under whose leadership they won several battles against the primitive humans and carved out a small empire for themselves.

Then he died, and the empire split in two.

Those who were okay with what they'd gained and didn't want to push their luck stayed where they'd first settled, becoming the High Elves. They held on to the majority of their race's culture from their homeland, as well as a great deal of ancient magical weapons which they keep safe from any who might use them for evil.

The ones who wanted to continue the war and fully conquer the continent they'd arrived at become the Dark Elves. Lacking the numbers they first had when they arrived, they've ended up resorting to the use of various black magics to supplement their forces via the raising of the dead, use of demons, blood magic and so on.
Not entirely sure where they should live, though I've got an idea that their frost magic could be the reason why the top and bottom of the planet are so cold.

As for the last load, they were the ones who didn't want to fight the Dark Elves' war, and yet chafed at the High Elves' authoritarian system of government (magocracy). These lot just went off to go and live in the forests further inland, becoming the wood-elves.

As I said, the location of the Dark Elves, as well as the vague strengths of the various groups, I haven't figured out yet. Any ideas would be welcome.

So they are Dark Elves only in the sense of being evil - or at least more inclined to do forbidden stuff - compared to the High Elves being mostly stereotypical elves.

Any large forest near the north and south poles would work, possibly a forest nestled into the side of a mountain that they mined into for resources. Hell, maybe they grew the forest in a valley surrounded by nigh-impassable mountains as a sort of 'impregnable fortress' idea, looking to grow and develop safely out of the way while they built their army up for more conquering.

Dark Elves in the sense that their kin and the humans (who are most often attacked by them) see them as evil. Objectively, it's more because of the forbidden thing.

As for the forest thing, is this in aid of the Dark Elves or the Wood Elves.

Trying to draw up this map now...

Ok, so Dark Elves are called that because of using forbidden stuff, and appearance-wise look similar to Wood Elves and High Elves, at least before this calamity affects them.

I was saying that the Dark Elves went off and hid themselves after being kicked out of the High Elves' lands, to insulate themselves from their own kind and the "primitive humans" on the continent.

Right, gotcha. What I meant initially by them living in the poles was that their use of frost magics was *why* the poles are so cold, but perhaps I could ditch that and go with a more realistic idea.

Which brings me onto my next problem, I'm struggling to figure out how to fit in a good sized ocean(s) that'd allow the Elves' initial exodus, whilst not being big (or numerous) enough to impede the monsters when they arrive.

Pic related is the map I've got so far (yes I know it looks like shit, it's just to help me keep track of where everything is).

Well, here's the thing: land bridges are a thing, and any sort of ice age or arctic activity can toy with ocean size greatly.

It could be that the Elves left over a vast band of ocean or did a series of sea to land to sea journeys to get to where they end up at. Then the Elves interact with the humans and they have their schism.

Few hundred years pass, the Dark Elves start causing shit to happen with ice and making the arctic form, oh look, the water levels drop a bit and that vast ocean now has a narrow land bridge that connects it to the continent where they retreated to. And after centuries of raping and pillaging and decimating that continent's resources, are going to swarm over that bridge by the thousands to rape and pillage these new lands.

The idea was that the land on the left was where the Elves had fled from, across the sea to the continent on the right, where their new home was and where all the stuff went down.

I've since scrapped that map, and now I'm wondering if I *needn't* need to have them all be connected via land after all. Originally I didn't want the various places to be completely cut off from each other by sea, so that the monsters would be able to find a way through to each of them without being stopped by the ocean. Now I'm wondering if I could have them be able to cross the seas somehow without ruining the whole vibe I have set up for them.

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