Pathfinder settings in Custom Built World

[Brudark]

Hello all!

I am currently building a world to fit within the PFRPG system & I am trying to create my own pantheon of deities, history, and cosmology (cosmology being only a thought for the time being). So far I have mapped just a small portion of the world (seen below) which I think is enough to get started, but I know that at least half of my PCs are curious individuals who like to RP more than fight and will want information pretty quick.

Do you guys have any tips or advice to how to flush out my own living, breathing world?

Here is some info about the world (at least what I have so far!)
- Seudo-Steampunk setting : not ALL steam & zeppelins but just a dash for flavor.
- Segregated Magic Use : there are places that are filled with it, there are some places that have never seen it (and of course places somewhere in between).
- Ancient Civilizations : two races that destroyed each other in an ancient war, leaving behing only ruins & artifacts.......but maybe they are still alive...waiting dormant below the surface to rise once again to seize what is truly theirs....

.....thats about all I have for the moment. Any ideas or input would be great ;)
Thanks!

~Brudark

oh yeah...heres the map I've created so far. The campaign starts in Port Esperul on the north east tip of the continent. It is a major trade city with ties into the Valkan sea and the Finros river.

*EDIT* The linked map now shows a marker (of sorts) to gauge how big Nambius is.

[Dark_Mistress]

Nice map though, with no distance marker it makes it hard to judge scale. I would strongly recommend checking Iron Kingdoms for some steampunkish inspirations.

My only other thing that I think would fit would be fae, think from Hellboy 2.

[Wolfsnap]

Very nice map!

[Brudark]

Thank you both ^_^ I'm quite proud of it myself. I've created a few maps using software (CC3 & PS) or by taking a pre-existing map and mishmashing it into my own creation , but this is my first completely hand drawn map.

Dark_Mistress : For being such a simple thing, I can't believe I forgot the distance marker :p Will make modifications soon...Also the Hellboy universe is a favorite of mine, so I will definitely look there to find some inspiration ;)

[boring7]

Everything I come up with is a rip-off, so I'm just going to accept that and go forward.

Steampunk stuff: You have one or two nations that are managing to go steampunk, possibly race based (knew a world that did that with the Gray Elves). To take a single step away from stereotype how about making it less Victorian England and more Brisco County Junior? Either way their country is Steampunk central, and their airships are seen flying around making dicks of themselves the way only imperial jerk-asses can. I recommend a reason their tech doesn't propagate, either barrier countries that have magic everything, or geography, or psychotic obsession with keeping their secrets and their power.

Segregated Magic Use: Obviously religious prejudice and the murder of "wytch-childes" is going to happen here and there, but to really have zones where magic just. doesn't. happen. you need a reason. Otherwise any two-bit magical person or creature would go set itself up as a god-king for fun, profit, and concubines. I recommend "static" that reduces caster levels, makes magic harder (but not totally impossible), no "talents" can be born there and any enchanted items/effects will eventually fade away.

Whole plots can be dedicated to [u]why[/u] this is the case. and whole other plots can be dedicated to if it suddenly stops, or suddenly starts favoring one type of magic over another.

Ancient civilizations? Make them non-human. Have the first one have been a race of giants dedicated to magical and physical perfection (monks and wizards, all) they could do amazing things and make amazing magicks, but no more. When their enemies made war on them they struck back with a powerful ritual meant to ruin their enemy, root and branch. It rebounded upon them, turning their monastic serenity into chaotic savagery and their magical wisdom into fearful ignorance. They have great magical treasures but no idea how to use them anymore. But a barbarian warlord doesn't NEED magic to crush his enemies if he can unite the clans behind his banner.

Their enemies, the tech-using elves (which are more than occasionally looted by Steampunk Nation) were cursed by the magic to mutate into ephemeral and iron-allergic fae. Their attentions diverted by shortened attention spans the fae abandoned the industries they could no longer use, but over the decades their capacity for ambition and desire for power re-ignited, now backed by tricky and venomous fairy magic instead of heavy industrial steel. They retreated (mostly) from their old lands to nearby woods and such, but they still use their overgrown old metal-filled cities as places to test their strength against adversity and hone their crafts of poison-throwing and deception as they dream of grander games and greater kingdoms.

For slightly more local politics, pirates and slaver activity is on the rise but the anti-magic Steampunk island nation of (I dunno, Homnia?) and the Typical Fantasy Kingdom of (...Sargos?) are too busy gearing up for war over trade rights, resources, and more than a few ignored debts (Homnia makes more money on trade, but Sargos is the only source of some magical goods) while the free city of Port Esperul is maintaining neutrality while gearing up to be invaded by both due to its strategic position and sizable wealth. Steampunk nation is nominally ruled by an empress but mostly controlled by an oligarchy of businessmen that is a delightful mix of meritocracy and kleptocracy. Fantasy Kingdom is ruled by a Lord (prefers "lord" to king) with a mandate from the local good pantheon, is best friends with one of the mage guild leaders, and is rumored to be sleeping with the other one.

And to the southeast? In the deep dark forest? Agents of the fairy queen are performing wicked experiments with the local wildlife. Could be another test, or maybe they're planning...expansion.

Fires on the horizon, troubles at home, and a slaver ship that was just captured by a heroic captain and dumped, with cargo, in the city of Port Esperul (where slavery is illegal) because he didn't know what else to do with them.

I'm out of ideas for now. Getting hungry.

[Dark_Mistress]

Yeah I just thought the Fae in Hellboy 2 really fit the steampunkish setting really well.

Also if you are going to have some places be magic lite. I would play up weird steampunk tech and or herbalism/alchemy to take it's place. Things like alchemy lightbulbs(think glow sticks) you activate them and they use up the alchemy compound held with it. Allowing them to be switched off. Once used up, you need to refill them. Things like that, that have a weird science feel and replicates basic magic.

Or maybe lighting batons. 2-3ft metal rods with a two alchemy compounds that when joined creates lighting. Push a button on the rod and some of the alchemy chemicals drain into tubes. Flick the rod forward and they move down to a chamber at the end and combine where they produce lighting which channels along a gold wire to the end where it "throws" lighting.

[boring7]

I recommend having custom alchemical item: Healing Salve, which acts like a potion of cure (caster level 0) but takes a full-round to apply and you can only use so much before your wounds are treated and you're just rubbing yourself like a dang weirdo.

Also fun?

Mad scientists who may or may not be receiving influence from dark places. (places with tentacles)

Dinosaur valley.

Tesla-coils vs. Behirs.

Dragons scampering around in disguise acting like stereotypical vampires (you know, politics-obsessed ageless jerkasses who think they're better than everyone else?)

Vampires that act like pathetic junkies enslaved by better, smarter monsters.

Decide whether or not the mystery of Null Zones has/will have an answer, and if so what it is.

Strange "savage" tribes that have lived so long in the Null Zones they have somehow developed spell resistance (I'm thinking the barbarians from Heroes of Might and Magic 4, if you ever played it). Not necessarily actually "savage" just not steam-tech or tied to magic kingdoms.

Permanent magic portals between locations, which have at least one nation which exists in multiple disparate "patches" because of them.

Pirate Kings, undersea empires, a secret ancient magical base on the moon from a bygone era, a "pocket empire" ruled by a not-that-evil-just-amoral lich, and a partridge in a pear tree.

[Brudark]

Yes! Thank you for all the awesome ideas! Keep em coming , cause I can feel those creative gears whirring!

[proftobe]

Just my opinion but hasn't magic dead areas kinda been done. How about instead either a strong cultural aversion to arcane magic because of ancient legends about what was done with it or go one step further and create a nation where they think that, again arcane, magic shouldn't be used because its to much power in the hands of an individual with no one and nothing to answer to how those powers are used. Think of how much fun a steampunk witch hunter would be as an antagonist.

[boring7]

It's one trope or another, and my own headspace has trouble with a culture that truly refuses any kind of technology or power they can get their hands on. Plus I like the idea of boosting or debuffing certain kinds of magic in certain areas, like demiplanes with magical alignments.

Anyhoo, other ideas. Have that portal nation be on a bunch of plateaus that were (surprise surprise) outposts from the giant empire back when they still worked magic. Hard to get to, but great for high-speed travel if the locals will let you in.

Stealing from an old friend (what was probably stolen from Morrowind), Psions on a flying island with psychokinetic engines and (rumor has it) a taste for slaves. Are they as evil as the rumor say? Are lies being told by enemies of their state? Is it true they are the only thing keeping the Illithid concordance from destroying the sun? Are they secretly the Reno to Sigil's Vegas?

I've always had a special place in my heart for Dark Sun's Cannibal Halflings. I once built a world where halflings had been blood-cursed (world-wide magic ritual, could be undone if anyone still knew how) to devolve into crazed, people-eating little Gollums.

Expanding on the busybody dragons, a complex web of byzantine politics called the Council of the Kin (dragons call themselves Kin) decide what political games are allowed and provide general upkeep for hunts and keep feuds from getting too messy.

A vast, world-wide conspiracy to keep the hidden dark secret that Gnomes are descended from a clan of dwarves that was sentenced to complete extinction.

A paranoid, backwards nation to the west (beyond the mountain ranges) ruled by a (literal) demigod. Not particularly dangerous to its neighbors since its people are kept poorly-armed and ignorant and its corrupt priest class don't like risking their lives. Outsiders visiting though, have a tendency to get sacrificed if they aren't careful.

Weirdly-high rate of demon cults forming in the past 50 years, secretly-related to an upcoming celestial event that could have...repercussions if the wrong powers managed to set up the right rituals. maybe to involve opening really big portals to the abyss for slaughter and plunder for the blood war; maybe an attempt to keep some monstrosity (Turaglas the Ebon Maw, Tharizdun the Chained God, Kronos the Titan) stuck in its prison.

Sheogorath, Wabbajack Wabbajack Wabbajack.

All right, way past bedtime.