The World of Darknoth....Campaign Idea for New D&D World


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With the rolling out of 5th edition, I have decided to forgo my previous campaign world of Greyhawk and go back to my roots...creating a world of my own. I do not know for certain if I will use 5th edition or retain 3.5, but nonetheless, the campaign world can be developed under either rule set.

Its been many years since I created a game world and now that I am older I would like to give it another go, this time going all out on details of the world. Here is a sketchy idea of what I have thought of so far. Please read it, feel free to make comments and please introduce your ideas on what you would do to make this a more exciting and viable world. Here's my initial thought...

Darknoth is a world spewing of an ancient evil history that goes back for thousands of years. The world recycles itself by being purged by the Abyss and Nine Hells. There are hidden wells throughout the world which serve as portals for these vile creatures to come forth. These wells are often hidden in deep and dangerous dungeons from long ago which served as ancient temples to the creatures of evil. Every time this purging takes place, the world is reduced to a much more primitive state than its previous form. The knowledge of magic and technology are reduced to mere ashes requiring the races to begin again anew.

During this purge, kingdoms fall into a state of decay, most of which simply collapse and become long forgotten. Stories abound of these portal wells and all of mankind (all dominant races upon the planet) is aware of the demonic creatures usurping their world.

Each purge requires the evil forces to work together in order to achieve complete domination and annihilation of the world. The governing beings of both the demons and devils work together to achieve the overall goal but at the same time undermine one another. Each purging is orchestrated differently by these rulers of the hells and abyss by playing an elaborate game of chess with the World of Darknoth being the prize. Should one side ever find a way to take over the world, the game becomes checkmate and comes to an end, with Darknoth becoming a new level or Hell or layer of the Abyss. Each purging allots the evil creatures a limited amount of time to complete their work before an unknown force (or law of physics/magic) sends them returning to the Abyss and Hells, leaving Darknoth left in ruin.

The goal of the campaign is for the PCs to attempt to do their best to prevent the next purge from arising or at best slow it down, its possible that they could stop the purge which would end the vicious cycle the world finds itself in.

First question that comes to mind...how advanced has the world become since the last purge?

I will tell you right now, I'm not adding firearms or similar higher levels of technology to the world simply because it is not my cup of tea nor my vision of the spirit of D&D.


It's a video game cliche...
...in other words monster come up kill things, heroes have to kill them, repeat, rinse, DC al capo...
Which makes for great high fantasy conflict (I need to close the gates of HELL!) very Diablo
...But what would suffer is civilization...survival doesn't create great art, peace and civilization create great art. Look at the difference between hundred years war Germany, and the Germanies in the Wiemar republic.


Perhaps it is common to video games, I don't play them so I wouldn't really know. I think you have missed the point of the world entirely, it is intended to be a abnormally dark world, with strong demonic influences throughout the ages. A previous cycle (or the current one) could have still reached pivotal moments of great art before the next cycle begins. Its a lot deeper than a video game idea, if one puts the thought into it.

HarbinNick wrote:

It's a video game cliche...

...in other words monster come up kill things, heroes have to kill them, repeat, rinse, DC al capo...
Which makes for great high fantasy conflict (I need to close the gates of HELL!) very Diablo
...But what would suffer is civilization...survival doesn't create great art, peace and civilization create great art. Look at the difference between hundred years war Germany, and the Germanies in the Wiemar republic.


Hi Eileen!!!!!


Hi there, Freehold DM, always good to see you. Starting a new project as you can see.


-Um no...you haven't delt with the reality, namely that this is a world with a potential APOCALYTPIC end of the world time cycle. Please compare Dark age europe (Black Death, Decline of Trade, Cultural collapse) with say 1400's North Italy (Venic and Friends)
-Also as described there isn't a strong Demonic Influence (What does that even mean? Art? Cusine? Literautre? Music? The Pan-Succubi waltz?)
-Where is the geography? The languages? The religion? The climate? The level of trade? How good are the roads? These are the things that matter in world building...


EileenProphetofIstus wrote:
Hi there, Freehold DM, always good to see you. Starting a new project as you can see.

I'm sorry I couldn't be a bigger part of the Legion Of Super Heroes game. I didn't know much about messageboard gaming at the time and I was really bad at it.


I started the world concept/dilemma about 3 hours ago so before we get to critical why don't we let the idea blossom a bit before getting carried away with criticism.


Very true. This is a rough idea. Let the fair lady Eileen continue her stream of consciousness. I have seen her Legion of Super Heroes work and it was UTTERLY AMAZING. Just give her time.


Freehold DM wrote:
Very true. This is a rough idea. Let the fair lady Eileen continue her stream of consciousness. I have seen her Legion of Super Heroes work and it was UTTERLY AMAZING. Just give her time.

Thank you Freehold DM, I'm looking for positive people with positive ideas. Like You!


Um...sorry...I thought this was a campaign setting...not a Points of Light Mirobrazivanya...
Anyway...Here is what I suggest you think about for a campaign setting (I've written two one 59,000 words, the other 20,000 words)
-A concept is a GREAT place to start but thing about what you want...
There are two examples
Kitchen Sink-A world where our world is re-created, or a narrow part of our world. The two Kitchen sink settings would be Forgotten Realms and Golarin. Almost anything happens in those settings...
Small World-Eberron is a good example of small world, as is DarkSun or Ravenloft, a much smaller world. You don't try to create our reality, but only a place where everybody does indeed speak common.
-Moving on from the gross-concept, what makes your world special. In your world it seems the Demon Concept is well known. As I see it you'd have both a very religious society, (LG-CG) at odds with the cultists who wish to side with the Devil powers. You have left a traditional pantheon out of your description? Was that intentional? Or simply an oversight...?
-Next humans...is this is a small world...all humans look the same, speak human, worship human, and eat human food? Or are humans the major race, with the many races and cultures that are common to us? Or something else?
-Other races...describe other races and their relations to both cosmology and their race-relations? Do elves hate dwarves? Why?
-History...did devils have temples of evil built to them? Why? When? Still used for worship?
-Monsters-Are monsters mindless target fodder? Or do they have civilizations of their own? Are the Devil/Demon worshippers? Why?

Scarab Sages

Why only use literal wells/portals - why not use a combination of subtlety and bluntness?

Some sort of metaphysical tide / constellation between the lower planes and the material plane could not only work to activate hidden wells/brood chambers in the debths of the world, but also strenghten the corrupting influences of certain places or object (if the objects are inert in between the cycles of the tide, maybe they are well known to collectors, museums, sages or even priests as artifacts of the past suddenly starting to corrupt or dominate their owners / nearby folks).

For the advancement of cultures I would probably go with larger cities that present the 'high culture' think ancient Greece or Rome, or maybe early renaissance. These cities could stand on the ruins of foremr cities (both literally and in the sense that artifacts and written history of former ages sped up their cultural advancement - at the same time that would make the cities home of the corrupting influence of artifact of the last purge as well as fonts of knowledge, hidden in vast libraries)

Rural places would be more dangerous (monsters and spawn left from the last purge, perhaps ancient races that have fallen into a barbaric state, tainted by the power of the lower planes (if you want to use 'mostly evil' races like orks, goblins or ogres that might be their place).

Some smaller places might have survived the last purge because their cultural advancement didn't catch the eye of the lower planes (small islands with a higher culture of art and muse but with very little in the way of war and magic, perhaps).


EileenProphetofIstus wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Very true. This is a rough idea. Let the fair lady Eileen continue her stream of consciousness. I have seen her Legion of Super Heroes work and it was UTTERLY AMAZING. Just give her time.
Thank you Freehold DM, I'm looking for positive people with positive ideas. Like You!

I really need a motivational poster of you saying that you want me for your project..

The Exchange

Just to add in...How long is it between the Purges (I hate that name because of the movie). My suggestion would be around 1000 years or more. Any less and repopulation and reinvention is difficult...perhaps you could even get away with something like 3000years and the time that the demons/devils have to kill off humanity is something like 30-50 years. Something like the Demons returning in the Shannara series only with rules about their return having a built in limit.
I love the idea that monsters are either controllable by the devils/demons or that they worship them if intelligent. They stay behind after purges to harass the remaining humanity and stem the tide of progress.
You could actually play this at any tech level from bronze age up to advanced but I would stick with the standard. Perhaps a few history books still exist in remote corners of the world and as the purge is closing in an ancient order seeks more knowledge to help fight the tide leading to some good tomb raiding or ruin exploration. The knowledge that is already uncovered is protected and secreted away by the order and used to try to guide advancement and development and help with how to survive the Culling.

I would use this world to setup 3-4 separate campaigns, the first one would be very low tech, almost stone age, with the goal being finding a good hiding spot for as many people as possible and finding magicks to help secure and hide them. Campaign 2 would be more bronze age with the ultimate goal to protect several areas and keep some knowledge protected.
The 3rd and possibly 4th would be more about fighting back and securing the portals and their destruction. These 2 would be higher tech than the previous one, with one being normal and one being slightly more advanced, possibly even steampunk if you wanted to explore that.

That's my thoughts. Love the idea.


I liked the idea for the Purge, I'm not sure if I saw it though.


I thought that introducing my campaign world idea here would be a good way to get the creative thoughts moving along so I can put the words on paper.

HarbnNick In your world it seems the Demon Concept is well known. As I see it you'd have both a very religious society, (LG-CG) at odds with the cultists who wish to side with the Devil powers. You have left a traditional pantheon out of your description? Was that intentional? Or simply an oversight...?

Yes I think the worlds demonic past will be known to the common person. True facts are often obscured with myths and rumors. The truth of the Purge (lack of a better term) will be considered factual history of the world. Stories of demonic figures doing terrible things, heroes rising up against them, tales and discoveries of ancient empires will become the basis of the world history as well as the beginning of a spiritual mythos.

I'm thinking of using the unique demons and devils as figures of worship. I would have to detail out each of them in order to provide a suitable difference from one to the other. They would serve as my evil deities for the campaign.

I'm uncertain what to do about worship for good and neutral individuals. I think its possible that the common person feels that worship is fairly unimportant to their daily lives. Obviously I need to have some sort of good/neutral religious embodiment for characters and various NPCs throughout the world. I don't think I necessarily want to go with "Gods" as most other worlds have, but I do need a replacement. Any suggestions?

HarbnNick Next humans...is this is a small world...all humans look the same, speak human, worship human, and eat human food? Or are humans the major race, with the many races and cultures that are common to us? Or something else?

I want to use the standard races in the Players Guide for certain, though I want to make humans less populace than most game worlds. I would probably make 3-4 different types of humans based on geographical areas of the world. I'm thinking of trying to make racially pure creatures the norm and those that are mixed more of an outsider in order to throw a bit more chaos into the mix. It's possible that the humans would vary also based on where they stood technologically and magically, each empire could be different from one another and thus far away from one another.

I would be open to either creating new races to fit the worlds needs or take existing monsters that fit well into the world and turn them into character races. I don't have any specifics at this time other than perhaps having some sort of demon or devil half-breed race which would have to be well balanced and not completely restricted to evil alignments.

HarbnNick Other races...describe other races and their relations to both cosmology and their race-relations? Do elves hate dwarves? Why?

The first area I want to populate will be a bit of everything in order to put the most D&D has to offer in the hands of the players right away. There will be a human kingdom who's family has ruled for the past several centuries, all of which has taken place between purges. The king will suffer from a mild form of demonic influence and his immediate lands are cursed, though not the entire kingdom. The curse has turned a lush lake and forest into a barren, icky, lifeless area which produces little goods. The part of the forest affected once belonged to an Elven kingdom and as such the relations between the elves and humans is very poor. The exact details of the cure (how it came into affect are yet to be determined).

There will be a dwarven kingdom that lies on the other side of the human realm. They provide considerable trade with the humans and have a positive relationship with them. The exact commodities that the humans can provide the dwarves is unknown, possible access to the humans rich mines.

HarbnNick Ancient temples will have been built by devils to honor the most powerful of their kind. Human cults will certainly be in existence. Many of them are still used, others lie in ruins and may serve as dungeons for the game for PC exploration.

HarbnNick Most monsters will exist as they do in most D&D worlds, they have their own existence and live as monsters live. Races which are more intelligent may be slaves or servitors to the demonic forces or have truces which are easily broken. Other races may elect to break the common D&D expectations and align themselves with races they normally would not in order to further protect themselves from the demonic forces.


Feytharn Why only use literal wells/portals - why not use a combination of subtlety and bluntness?

Some sort of metaphysical tide / constellation between the lower planes and the material plane could not only work to activate hidden wells/brood chambers in the depths of the world, but also strengthen the corrupting influences of certain places or object (if the objects are inert in between the cycles of the tide, maybe they are well known to collectors, museums, sages or even priests as artifacts of the past suddenly starting to corrupt or dominate their owners / nearby folks).

I'm not certain what you mean by meta-physical tide, so if you could elaborate that would be great. I do like the idea of using constellations as focal points in the world to help dictate when or how things happen. The idea of activating portals or places or objects as a result of constellations or other types of natural phenomenon is an excellent idea and would fit well into the idea.

Certainly the kingdoms that are current would be curious of ancient texts, magic or technology that previous empires had, and as a result want to locate and research them in order to collect wealth, protect themselves, or otherwise better their position in such a dismal world.

Feytharn For the advancement of cultures I would probably go with larger cities that present the 'high culture' think ancient Greece or Rome, or maybe early renaissance. These cities could stand on the ruins of foremr cities (both literally and in the sense that artifacts and written history of former ages sped up their cultural advancement - at the same time that would make the cities home of the corrupting influence of artifact of the last purge as well as fonts of knowledge, hidden in vast libraries)

Rural places would be more dangerous (monsters and spawn left from the last purge, perhaps ancient races that have fallen into a barbaric state, tainted by the power of the lower planes (if you want to use 'mostly evil' races like orcs, goblins or ogres that might be their place).

Some smaller places might have survived the last purge because their cultural advancement didn't catch the eye of the lower planes (small islands with a higher culture of art and muse but with very little in the way of war and magic, perhaps).

These were exactly my thoughts and intentions. I think it makes sense and provides the world with some cultural diversity.


Hi Eileen. Welcome Back!

Hmm. Your premise strikes a similar chord as the premise for the old Earthdawn setting by FASA. You could consider looking into some of the more accessible details of that setting to help your own thoughts on the matter.

If you are looking for a deity replacement, consider Philosophies and/or Emotions/Aspects/Passions

edit: i think the metaphysical tide comment is something like...'the level of magic rises and falls over the centuries, and when it reaches it's peak...portals open' or similar. that's just my own impression though.


Fake Healer: Just to add in...How long is it between the Purges (I hate that name because of the movie). My suggestion would be around 1000 years or more. Any less and repopulation and reinvention is difficult...perhaps you could even get away with something like 3000years and the time that the demons/devils have to kill off humanity is something like 30-50 years. Something like the Demons returning in the Shannara series only with rules about their return having a built in limit.

I would like the purge to take place every 1200-1500 years or so. This enables the elves that lived through it to have died of old age but at the same time not to many generations of elves would have passed. This gives elves a purpose in the game in regards to how long they live. Accounts would be written down as well as told orally. The elder elves living today would talk about how their great grandfather lived during the last purge and how their grandfather helped re-establish civilization afterwards. Elves may elect to live a bit different than the standard D&D elves since they know that other purges would come and they would do more than other races to maintain their way of life and culture.

I'm not familiar with the Shannara series, I've heard of them but not read them.

Fake Healer: You could actually play this at any tech level from bronze age up to advanced but I would stick with the standard. Perhaps a few history books still exist in remote corners of the world and as the purge is closing in an ancient order seeks more knowledge to help fight the tide leading to some good tomb raiding or ruin exploration. The knowledge that is already uncovered is protected and secreted away by the order and used to try to guide advancement and development and help with how to survive the Culling.

I would use this world to setup 3-4 separate campaigns, the first one would be very low tech, almost stone age, with the goal being finding a good hiding spot for as many people as possible and finding magicks to help secure and hide them. Campaign 2 would be more bronze age with the ultimate goal to protect several areas and keep some knowledge protected.

I'll stick with the typical D&D for my first area of development of the world. It gets things off with a faster start than having to re-think past civilizations. Other kingdoms that follow can be separated enough that they are further behind in their re-built culture. Each culture, regardless of its advancement would have to handle its own difficulties and may seek out different alternatives. The more advanced kingdom is likely to search for ways to protect their history, magic and technology in order for it to survive the next purge.

An area of the world that has less advancement may search out a different means of handling the situation, such as not having the foresight to protect and instead be more accepting into their terrible lot in life and therefore remain under a stronger demonic influence which results in they living like slaves and serving as food for their rulers.

The 3rd and possibly 4th would be more about fighting back and securing the portals and their destruction. These 2 would be higher tech than the previous one, with one being normal and one being slightly more advanced, possibly even steampunk if you wanted to explore that.

This is what I was looking at for the climax of the campaign when the characters have attained enough levels to be true heroes to the world. Your take on adventures that would take place in such a world at the various character levels and geographical locales are what I had in mind.


Rathendar wrote:

Hi Eileen. Welcome Back!

Hmm. Your premise strikes a similar chord as the premise for the old Earthdawn setting by FASA. You could consider looking into some of the more accessible details of that setting to help your own thoughts on the matter.

If you are looking for a deity replacement, consider Philosophies and/or Emotions/Aspects/Passions

edit: i think the metaphysical tide comment is something like...'the level of magic rises and falls over the centuries, and when it reaches it's peak...portals open' or similar. that's just my own impression though.

Hi Rathendar, Well as they say, their is nothing new under the sun. And so the fact that somebody else beat me to the punch is no surprise, buts that's ok.

I would be very interested in hearing any ideas you have in "If you are looking for a deity replacement, consider Philosophies and/or Emotions/Aspects/Passions".

Obviously as mentioned I need a replacement for good and neutral alignments if I don't have Gods per say.

edit: i think the metaphysical tide comment is something like...'the level of magic rises and falls over the centuries, and when it reaches it's peak...portals open' or similar. that's just my own impression though.

I agree I think that is the direction he was going and I like it.


Here is a thought. If your general campaign idea is trying to break the cycle, and the general public is aware of the portals/apocalypse hanging overhead...there would be a heavy focus on improvements to prevent just that. You wouldn't have idyllic fields, you would have always a faint sense of urgency hanging in the air.

Even the previous ages would have felt this and tried to stop things. When they failed, they would perhaps seal away research/items/other things so as to try to prevent their loss and you can have PC's 'adventuring; to try to find and recover them to give the rebuilding magic/technology a faster leg up to maybe make 'this' age the one that gets further then previous ones and can end things.


Rathendar wrote:

Here is a thought. If your general campaign idea is trying to break the cycle, and the general public is aware of the portals/apocalypse hanging overhead...there would be a heavy focus on improvements to prevent just that. You wouldn't have idyllic fields, you would have always a faint sense of urgency hanging in the air.

Even the previous ages would have felt this and tried to stop things. When they failed, they would perhaps seal away research/items/other things so as to try to prevent their loss and you can have PC's 'adventuring; to try to find and recover them to give the rebuilding magic/technology a faster leg up to maybe make 'this' age the one that gets further then previous ones and can end things.

Excellent idea, I'm going to do some writing tonight and start putting together an introduction to the world.

Scarab Sages

EileenProphetofIstus wrote:
Rathendar wrote:

Hi Eileen. Welcome Back!

Hmm. Your premise strikes a similar chord as the premise for the old Earthdawn setting by FASA. You could consider looking into some of the more accessible details of that setting to help your own thoughts on the matter.

If you are looking for a deity replacement, consider Philosophies and/or Emotions/Aspects/Passions

edit: i think the metaphysical tide comment is something like...'the level of magic rises and falls over the centuries, and when it reaches it's peak...portals open' or similar. that's just my own impression though.

Hi Rathendar, Well as they say, their is nothing new under the sun. And so the fact that somebody else beat me to the punch is no surprise, buts that's ok.

I would be very interested in hearing any ideas you have in "If you are looking for a deity replacement, consider Philosophies and/or Emotions/Aspects/Passions".

Obviously as mentioned I need a replacement for good and neutral alignments if I don't have Gods per say.

edit: i think the metaphysical tide comment is something like...'the level of magic rises and falls over the centuries, and when it reaches it's peak...portals open' or similar. that's just my own impression though.

I agree I think that is the direction he was going and I like it.

That was indeed what I meant.

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