Which bits from the Campaign Setting are sticking out most in your mind at the moment?

[Mikaze]

Now that you've had a chance to read it(but probably not enough time to fully digest it), what elements are standing out most in your head right now?

The Final Blades -

Spoiler:

Galt was grim already, but learning about these. Yeesh. Makes that pic from the Gazetteer even more depressing. It really drives home how insane that country has become.

I can see a lot of good PCs, especially paladins and clerics(not to mention those whose loved ones may have been executed with them), wanting to storm into that country for the sole purpose of destroying them. And then run the risk of being the blades' next victims.

Hermia -

Spoiler:

Sci-fi nightmare "utopia" in my fantasy setting? I have to admit Logan's Run(and to a lesser degree, THX 1138) kept popping in my head though I know many other sources probably influenced this one. I can see this place getting really creepy really fast for PCs that take them up on an invitation. I don't think I'll ever get around to using it, but it's one of those places you can't help but hope the heroes manage to tear down.

White Estrid - Just brings up a lot of awesome visuals. Given the piratical leanings of my players, I might actually get to use her too. Awesome potential ally.

Irrisen's Border -

Spoiler:

The huts. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. This ramped up that country's scare potential exponentially for me.

Being familiar with that damn Robert the Doll story doesn't help matters either!

[Darrin Drader]

Given that I just recently immersed myself in the setting when the book arrived, I'm still forming my opinions.

Cheliax

Spoiler:

I like that the flag bears more than just a little resemblance to the swastika. The whole prophecy gone horribly wrong and the influence of Asmodeus is quite compelling.

Molthune

Spoiler:

I'm getting this real communist Russia feel here, and I like it. The flag again bears more than just a little resemblance to the USSR flag with the hammer and the sword on the red background. The division between city dwellers and laborers, the strong military governance all just screams Soviet Union at me. It's pretty cool that they figured out a way to work this in.

I actually find myself the least interested in the portions of the setting that are intended to reflect traditional fantasy/medievel settings. The cool stuff either seems to be outsider related, or pulp related.

Great setting though. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and looking forward to running it.

[Dark Psion]

The Four Arch-Daemons as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

This is why I so loved Dragon magazine, I would read something like this and it is like; "Oh, I never considered that."

And now I have to go back a take another look at daemons becuase I now see them in a diferent light (or darkness I guess).

[Mikaze]

Darrin Drader wrote:

Cheliax

** spoiler omitted **

Speaking of which:

Harbingers -

Spoiler:

On the matter of prophecy gone wrong that is. I LOVE these guys. I really want to have my PCs employed by them at least once, possibly building up a working relationship, and then revealing them as crazy, although somewhat sympathetic, villains.

[Gailbraithe]

Blackfire Adepts -- These guys have "major campaign villain" written all over them. I can totally see one of these guys operating from the shadows, playing good against evil, manipulating every side of a conflict, all in pursuit of some bizarre and completely unexpected endgame. I can imagine a whole campaign pitting Andoran against Chellix that culminates in both unable to stop a single Blackfire Adept from completing his masterstroke.

Spawn of Rovagug -- An excuse for random high CR nastiness? Brilliant!

The Vudrani -- Finally a vehicle to explore my interest in Southeast Asian culture!

[Set]

So many of the cultures have little things that jump out and scream 'RP hook!'

I could imagine a character who came from Geb, perhaps a Necromancer, perhaps a Cleric of Urgathoa, who was born part of the 'feeder' caste, and spend his early years as a walking snack-bar to his vampire owner, only managing to 'earn his freedom' by learning magical skills that impressed her more than his flavor.

A barbarian ranger who belonged to one of those tribes who subdue giant children and raise them as tribe-members, with giant as a Favored Enemy, who hates, hates, hates giants, because his tribe had a giant tribesman who both invalidated the worth of the merely human members of the tribe with his incredible feats of strength, and later, when he reached maturity, turned on his tribe, frustrated by the notion of never having a mate, killing most of them in a night of treachery and confusion. He killed his enormous blood-brother, whom he'd raised himself, but his guilt was not sated...

A Hellknight Signifier of the Order of the Gate, who has taken on a quixotic mission to organize a mission from the Hellknights to the Worldwound, to show these faint-hearted namby-pamby 'Paladins' exactly how demons *should* be fought, with diabolic intensity! "The demons want hell on earth? Let's give it to them, boys!"

[Insert Neat Username Here]

Cayden Cailean -- One of the 4 people ever to pass the Test of the Starstone, only he did it while drunk.

Rovagug & His Spawn -- bonus points for calling the Tarrasque the "Armageddon Engine."

The Cyphergate's purpose(Shadow in the Sky)

Spoiler:

More Karzoug time-traveling goodness.