Veeky Forums creates a setting

Overtime some of these beasts have been tamed by a few cities to assist in digging, hauling, and serve as a source of milk / meat.

Since the dangers of the day make pit cities almost a requirement for survival, the mountains are mostly untamed wild lands where only the bravest dare to thread.

Some dwarven clans however endure life in the mountains by relying on high mobility and vast tunnel networks dug by their ancestors in the "days before the sun".

This Sun is not the first one, but it is malevolent with a sickening light.

It's literally a boulder wider than the door that they shove up a hill and put a block under. This lets them seal the gate super quickly.

The real sun was surrounded by an unknown being ages ago turning its light to evil

Elves are evil monsters that prey on nocturnal beings by looking like humans but must return to the daylight to recharge. They're reverse vampires.

The moon is made of sacred silver, purifying the light of the Second Sun to wound the horrors of the Day

The Second Sun grants second sons of second sons a cursed magic.

Some cities keep a registry of all second sons ready to kill their second son should the need arise to prevent this.

>Fire comes in two forms, with moonfire being the preference of the night dwelling non-monstrous races. This is harvested through a mysterious, secret process known only to the clergy of the moon based pantheon of gods.

Humans and dwarves born during the first full moon of the year or during a total eclipse of the sun experience surface madness some time during their coming of age, for an entire week they will attempt to reach the surface. If they succeed they gain lycanthropy and will hunt the nearest sun beast until sundown.

If successful in this quest they become some of the most dangerous predators of the surface world, this is based entirely on how they acquit themselves on their first week in the eyes of the moon pantheon.

The most powerful of these become guardian demi-deities themselves, protecting their former homes despite bestial sentience.

The trickster god protects the cities by planting landmines at their borders and covering them with strawberries, and because the monsters' blood is black, so he wanted to add some red to this violence.
Because of that, the humans started to call him The Crimson God. He finds it funny and rewards his followers with occasional fruit rains during the famines.

The being is actually an eldritch god slain at the dawn of the world.

It is said, that the elves have been a non-predatorial species, until they were almost murder-raped into oblivion by an unknow deity for their arrogance.

As the sun cannot so easily pierce the oceans depths its creatures are more 'normal'. There exists many a flotilla of nomadic gnomish on strangely complex ships.

Bears are widely domesticated and used for companionship and hunting similar to how dogs are used in real life.

It is said that the artifacts to combat the monsters above are hidden beneath the cities by those who came before them.

Elder temples are occasionally found during expansion and mining although the artefacts rather than being used are confiscated and locked away by the clergy due to fear of their danger and bizare side effects.

Due to its association with sunlight, the colour yellow is considered taboo.

>danger and bizare side effects.
Such effects consist of random bursts of energy when used by strong-minded individuals

And the colour blue is sacred

Thus has created a sacred breed of pet bear with a blueish black fur, called a Moon Bear.

*cave-bears

AW SHIT MA NIGGA

I remember reading 'bout those in one of the old Magic Treehouse Guide Books about the Ice Age. Awesome shit.

Strawberry picker is an actual profession, a highly dangerous and well-paying one due to the danger of the landmines and the fact that monster's blood blackens the berries and makes it harder to see at knight.

Fuck bears man

At night, loose bones roll uphill towards the bone-cursed moon.

>not wanting a cer-bear-us friend.

The Crimson God uses those bones to create dice in honor of the previous pantheon he outlived.
When people mourn the dead, they call it "rolling the bones"

Surface explorers and underground explorers are two different professions.
Surface explorers scout the surfaces far away from their pits from dawn till dusk. At day they lay beneath a blanket, invisible to the monsters. Their weapons, to be used in cases of ABSOLUTE NECESSITY, consume moonlight ammunitions to ward off monsters.
Underground explorers emerge when miners dig into caves, or into ruins of cities long abandoned. They are expert miners, archaeologist, and speleologist. They know, that the dangers of the underground are worth that of the surface.

To navigate their way around the land, the surface explorers use a titanic mountain that can be seen from all points of the continent. It is said that on top of that mountain are the treasures of great power. No one has managed to reach it.

The bard had been wandering the bear warrens for days in search of The Denmother, a mighty magical beast the local communities worship as guardian of the forest and fertility goddess of sorts.

Finally the bard reaches a hidden grove within the enchanted woods as an overwhelming scent of beastly musk overwhelms all his senses. The village elder was right. It is her mating season.

Thereupon he laid his eyes on a gigantic bear in light-brown fur, laying near an idyllic stream. The bard approached and The Denmother noticed the bard and rolled over as if to invite him further.

"Fuck bears, man..." The bard uttered as his hand went for his beltbuckle.

>from dawn till dusk
I meant like uh the opposite

>dumb underground explorer doesn't know about the day/night cycle

The horrors of the world have grown accustomed to daylight because the glow of the moon purifies the land and harms them if they go out at night. However, they originate from traditional beasts and monsters of the night, which existed before the Sun was corrupted/replaced.

On nights of a lunar eclipse, the entire world is swarmed by terrors finally able to come out in their true element, and the results of the blood moon are often disastrous. A similar event occurs on nights of the new moon, but it is not as severe because the blood moon isn't there to empower them.

>underground explorers and surface explorers have rivalries
>surface explorers get all the glory while nerd underground explorers mumble about finding elder artifacts or something
>most people genuinely don't know about the day-night cycle

The Crimson God tricks the moon pantheon into descending upon the world of mortals so they would fight off the brunt of the horrors' armies.

During that time, the elven king leads his armies against humankind. Most of them perish. Covered in red.

Despite being infused with evil energies sunlight is still necessary to grow crops. Moonlight, while benevolent is simply not strong enough to help most plants grow. Humans have to go to great lengths to feed their populations. Some few species of crop can be grown underground without sunlight. Cave mushrooms and various forms of edible rock moss being notable examples. Other staple crops like wheat are harder to manage. Some cities have set up vast mirror networks around their pit cities to direct sunlight in to separate growing pits. These are mostly abandoned during the day as the top needs to remain open so that the sun may come in but must be cleared of any horrors that might have sneaked in each night. Other cities have set up vast orchards around their cities. These take less maintenance but also require vast amounts of land to be viable. Still other cities, mostly those that are less capable or advanced, simply plow normal fields on the surface around their cities. These exposed fields are often protected either with traps or simply by placing them in hard to reach areas. The yields from these crops are sometimes sparse as the more intelligent monstrosities stalking the day light will not hesitate to ruin a season's harvest.

All of this culminates in societies that are often left with a slim excess of food in good years and near starvation supplies in lean years. Population growth is relatively slow because of this, especially in smaller settlements. Meat is a rarity. Most human cities simply do not have the extra grain needed to feed larger animals. Most meat comes from night time hunters. It is a rather lucrative profession.

Due to the food problems many citys now have a centralized "druid" school to help raise the next generation to best tend their underground plots.
An actual wizard who could create food and water is now so rare due to the loss of information when the second sun came that they are treated like kings and guard the secrets to the spell to maintain this status.

Screw wish, flight, or teleport. Create food / water is the sign of a powerful mage.

The most feared monster is Fenrir, the Wolf of Dusk. Fenrir was a gigantic wolf god, which once tried to eat the sun itself at dusk when it is weakest, to plunge the world into an eternal night. In his attempt, Fenrir almost succeeded. He is now a corrupted beast, with a chunk of the sun forever glowing in his belly. Though Fenrir is considered a myth, word is that you can see him at the surface during blood moons, commanding legions of beasts terrible.

Wise and ancient mages whisper of Fenrir's new plan: to devour the Moon when it itself is weakest: during the blood moon. No one knows how soon he'll be ready to try.

When he did that, every souls in the world was able to hear some strange voice, laughing and saying "The absolute madman".

Fenrir is said to devour the souls of the damned, and they burn forever within the sun in his belly.

People tell each other stories of a far away land, where the gateway to the forces of creation lies, protected by it's corrupted draconic guardians. Heroes travel to that land in hopes of gaining the powers to restore the world. None return.

>Hell is literally in a giant wolfs sun belly.
Neat.

Mushroom tending cave druids. Fuck that is good.

I imagine people clad in drab, gray cloaks to help them blend in with the cave walls. You can tell how experienced they are by seeing how bent their backs are. Years of stooping through low openings and crawling through small tunnels to far away mushroom patches leaves them a little crooked. Some of the most devoted intentionally blind themselves to better adapt to life in the deep caves. Instead of shape shifting in to bears or falcons cave druids instead learn to change in to the forms of star nosed moles or blind cave spiders. Instead of staves which are too long or unwieldy in the caves they tend they wield small hammers or picks. Useful tools for trying to find nutrient rich patches of rock on which to grow more moss.

Can see it now. Bunch of mole shifted druids are waiting in ambush just behind a cavern wall. When the time is right they dig free and revert to normal, plunging their picks into whatever threatens them.

Heaven is supposed to be in the moon, where goodly person are called upon death. People who believe this use cremation, or leave their dead to the vultures (which are said to live in the moon in some cultures, ignorant of the surface).
To dwarfs, and to other human cultures which bury their dead as deep as possible, heaven is in the underground deeper than any man can ever go, where no ray of sunlight can ever reach. Some fanatics dig and dig their entire life, looking for heaven.

Turns out its both as the moon pantheon literally live within the silver moon hollow earth style.

The Heaven beneath is home to the dwarven pantheon who have over time come to welcome humans.

The longest the tunnel the most dangerous it is, as mole-lions, creatures as big as cattle and as smart as 8 year-old children, create pitfalls in the least visited tunnels.

I'm starting to be reminded of Avernum

Been a while since I witnessed one of these going anywhere. Thanks Veeky Forums, just when I think the best times are over you come around and surprise me.

I'm using this setting after we finish our current campaign.

Traders are often escorted by engineers and miners as well as mercenaries. Some of the tunnels between the kingdoms are quite dangerous and unstable. The average trading caravan as a 40% chance of making it to their destination without having anyone die or get stranded.

Maps of safe routes are extremely precious and are worth dying for.

Dwarven kingdoms tend to be larger than their human counterparts as their tunnels are safer. The few empires that exist are led by dwarves.

This is pretty kino. Would collecting all of this in one google doc be a good idea or will I get shit on for appropriating stuff I didn't come up with?

it'd do everyone a favor probably

Just do it.

Since humans cant see in the dark they have to rely on the few species of glowing fungus and the enchanted moonlight they store in magical items to shed light. Touches would just suffocate everyone down there.

Do it.

Dwarves are the only species which is able to live underground at all time. They have evolved to see in the dark, and to eat rocks, though to eat a regular rock is like to eat dirt to them. They find precious stones and ores to be rather succulent.

The most powerful cities boast well maintained, well guarded trade routes between major cities. Safe roads is a sign of prosperity and wealth. Roads are often constructed, smooth, straight and fully walled from outside tunnels. Encroachment from underground monsters does happen but it is rare and dealt with quickly. Much of the cost of these roads involves paying large numbers of soldiers to patrol them. Tiny rest stops tend to pop up in the middle sections of longer routes. A place for food, rest and light as well as a station for patrolling soldiers.

Routes between smaller settlements are on the opposite side of the spectrum. Routes take twisting, wild routes. Few paths are constructed. Most are simply found cave systems that happen to flow in the correct direction. Guides between smaller cities demand high prices for their services though they also have a high mortality rate. Monster attacks are far more common along these routes.

All of this means that small cities require trade more desperately than larger ones. Their demand for goods far outstrips the capacity for people to bring them. They have to pay more for it and their caravans by necessity have to be smaller. Trading between small cities is lucrative but dangerous. Trading between large cities is relatively safe but also brings in less coin.

Poorer districts tend to be quite dark while rich ones tend to have quite a lot of glowing fungus. Due to the constant darkness only the extremely rich, druids and priests know how to read and write.

Or just bookmark the thread number and dredge it from some tg archive when needed. But honestly, this is just balling some shit around. Nothing to get worked up over.

Oooh. Maybe something like braille would be the dominant writing style. Knowing how to read visual writing would be a sign of wealth or prestige.

Sounds good. Also some form of language used in the lower castes that uses a lot of clicking sounds and hums to emphasize, while gesticulation is seen as a symbol of being of high birth, since there is little to no use to using it in conversation if you live in perpetual twilight or darkness.

Maybe dwarves have natural polyphonic voices, allowing them to hum a "background hum" to indicate if a sentence is meant as a question or an order.

Totally.

Most people know how to read sigil-speak (The braille of this world).

Writing it still requires the need of a scribe most of the time though as it is can take years to learn how to write a letter with the proper texture. Sigil-scribes are common among the people though as it is an easy way of accessing a good life-style.

There is a popular, heretical theory that the sun, in fact, is necessary to the survival of the human species, as it brings warmth and life.
This theory, however, is silly. The sun is bad and the moon is good, therefore, the moon brings life, and accepting this theory as a fact is akin to worshipping the sun which is blasphemy. Praise the moon ok.

Just how common is clothing underground? Is it necessary at all? Just for warmth? It's so dark there who would care what's exposed usually?

people who resist their moon based surface madness through willpower or by restraint, as it's also a symptom of suicidal depression, come out of the other end of the week more adept at purity based healing rites and spells but are physically less capable warriors.

The bird is a symbol of Prosperity, Riches and Freedom. It is an extremely prestigious symbol and as such Rich kingdoms and Dynasties are named after birds and use them in in their heraldry and flags. Lower ranked nobles and rich individuals are named after surface plants and animals.

Accordingly encyclopedias containing birds are some of the precious books while one containing ancient land animals and plants are precious but less so.

Bringing the appropriate plant or animal to the right kingdom or dynasty would bring prestige and significant riches to the surface explorer who did it.

The most prestigious of all birds is, obviously, the glorious owl, said to be in direct connection with the moon in all cultures. Then comes other nocturnal birds, and vultures.
Bats are also appreciated.

Fortuna, goddess of luck and Chaos is one of the most worshipped deities among both dwarves and humans.

Clothing would be pretty necessary. The temperature underground while far from freezing tends towards slightly uncomfortably cold. around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Stone tends to leech heat pretty quickly. People would tend to dress fairly warm. Hats would be a foreign thing. Helmets would be a near necessity. Even a fist sized rock dropping from a high ceiling can end a man's life. Warm boots would be a near constant. A few cities have been built near natural hotsprings or geothermally active areas so the need for clothing in these places is significantly lessened.

More interesting is how they get their cloth. Growing space is almost totally used for food and livestock is scarce. Leather from hunting trips is one source. Wool harvested from domesticated bats the size of medium sized dogs is another source. Initially used for companionship and path finding in the underground this specific breed has lost it's ability for flight. Hard to fly with a big, shaggy coat of thick wool. Forelimbs have shortened due to this and they act more like large rodents or cats than bats. Though they have very much retained their ability for echo location and they still tend to spend much time hanging from walls or ceilings. Though a bit slow on the ground they are very capable creatures and make for terrific guides in the twisting tunnels between cities. As an added benefit the bats make for amazing pest control. They climb the walls of the human pit cities and root out rodents, insects, snakes and all manner of undesirable vermin. They mostly feed themselves and provide several much needed services for the humans who keep them. Most families keep at least one wooly bat in their home. Bat breeding and the various unique breeds that come from it are points of pride in cities. All but the smallest settlements boast their own unique strain of bat.

Becoming an owl knight is one of the best ways to climb the social ladder, but to be even accepted as a hall sweep into one of their surface monasteries is a feat. One must first venture into the forests on the surface and find one of their monasteries, which are more akin to fortresses than anything else and survive for one full moon at their gates, asking for permission to serve each day and being refused each day.

To then become an owl knight, one must be chosen by a holy owl.

Once the training of a new owl knight is completed, the new knight is expected to wander the surface just like the owl does, wandering from city to city and bringing news of both the surface world and the other cities, never staying long enough for anyone to question their dedication however.

Maybe the type of flying creature could offer some insight into the "tendencies" of a noble house. Bats may be a symbol of the Druids, and a house bearing them in their heraldry would be patrons of farmers, healers and cave explorers while a nighthawk would signify vast military retainers and the financing of fortifications.

The Crested Owl Empire is a legendary system of old settlements that is said to contain riches and artifacts beyond imagining: farms, zoological gardens containing surface animals, underground forest, mines and many other things are said to exist within the system. It is the dream of all underground explorer to find it.

It is said that the gods destroyed the ancient Realm because it's people stopped worshipping them.

>A minstrel came by the town the other week
>He told stories of lands so fabulous, barely anyone believed he had actually seen him
>Those who doubted his words however, he invited to touch his cloak
>I tell you, it was soft as only a Krakbat fur could be

The Veeky Forums internet police are going to break down your door for taking our ideas without consent.

Most artifacts are believed to have come from Fortuna and as such have random effects than can be both postive and negative.

The most famous artifact is the crown of Glowing Light an artifact that illuminates all tunnels in a radius of 50 miles as it was day as long as one wears it.

The person wearing it will become permanently blind the moment they put it on though and they will gradually start to petrify as time passes. Turning one completely into rock after 100 days.

The crown is the most precious possession of the Gyrfalcon Kingdom and they have been in constant war since it's acquisition.

As long as I can keep my new van.

The Gyrfalcon Kingdom has a quite sizable population due to the underground farms created with the help of the Crown of Glowing Light.

Their people are strong and burly and often used as mercenaries in nearby kingdoms. They are one of the most common people groups of the Underground as unlike everyone else they don't have years of bad harvests.

There is an old tradition in Gyrfalcon. Every 100 days a new person is chosen to wear the crown as the previous wearer is petrified. One day of darkness is given between crownings to give thanks to the night. The person is chosen by lottery, by luck. A fitting method for an artifact of the goddess of luck and chaos. Every citizen over the age of 65 is entered in to the lottery pool. Lord and lady. pauper and beggar alike. This is not a burden for the young but rather a way for the old to contribute to the kingdom. The person who is chosen will be crowned in a public ceremony. Then for the last hundred days of their life they will reside in the temple of Fortuna in the very center of the city. They will be pampered and waited on for the three or so months of their 'reign'. Food fit for kings, the finest clothes, the softest beds. Any pleasure they could ask whether it be drink, music or physical companionship is provided. It is one of the highest honors a citizen can hold. Their name is etched in to the sides of the opulent temple and their life story is recorded and held in the temple library. The library is vast and the number of names etched in to the walls are numerous, almost beyond counting. After a crown bearer becomes fully petrified their body is displayed openly in the wide spaces of the temple. To outsiders it may seem a gruesome display of elderly corpses. To those of Gyrfalcon it is known as the statue garden of the light bearers. A holy place and a popular spot for weddings.

certain elves adept at profane sun magic can skin a lycan of their pelt, taking with it their lycantrhopy for their own transformation. any skin thief elf who dawns a stolen skin in immediately under the thrall of fenrir and can command sunfire

Wyrms are terrifying dragon-like creatures that attack settlements in search of shiny stuff and flesh.

Some bizarre metalic construction can be seen throughout the world. As if a great machine of cogs has broken down and fallen upon the land.

Pretty sure that's how Arabian equivalent of vampires works, as the day is deadlier time of the day.

elves are sluts

Why would moonlight cause creatures harm? It's just reflected sunlight. Not being a shit trying to expand your world

The moon was created by the trickster god, to ward off the corrupted sun's energy. It's not really natural.

Imagine the Moon like a filter that cleans the sunlight from its corruption before reflecting it.

Being the only survivor of the previous pantheon, he blames himself for the horrors of the present.