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I grew up playing in the fantastic worlds created by TSR: Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, etc. As an adult I’ve dabbled in other words: Eberron, Golarion, and many others. However, now that I’ve been gaming for over 25 years I’m getting more persnickety in my old age and have decided to create my own homebrew world. I’d love your thoughts/feedback.
Before I begin, most of the settings I’ve played in and read about have a similar overall theme: good is the established norm among the civilized races but an ominous darkness looms on the horizon which the PCs must work to defeat (a la Tolkien). I want to reverse that scenario. Evil is the established norm but good is emerging promisingly on the horizon.
The campaign setting is called “Shattered Dawn” and the name of the world is Alendor. From the beginning of recorded history, Alendor has been ruled by infernal powers of darkness (I’m using AD&D 1E arch-devils and demon lords as “gods” though they are not called that in Alendor). The ongoing feud between law and chaos has gradually escalated and is playing itself out on the prime material plane especially in Alendor. The more intelligent races have chosen sides and have been embroiled in constant conflict for millennia. Sick of the tyranny and bloodshed, many of the mortal races are now turning against their dark overlords and opting for other forms of piety. Elves are becoming animistic. Dwarves are opting for ancestor veneration. Halflings are becoming spiritists. Gnomes are evolving in a rationalistic direction, etc.
Among the humans, however, entirely new religions are appearing. Beings of unspeakable power and goodness have begun revealing themselves to humanity. They have shown themselves to be champions of goodness and virtue: something entirely new to Alendor. What role will the PCs play? Cruel tyrants seeking to maintain an infernal stranglehold on the world? Defenders of newly discovered virtue? Or perhaps just opportunistic tomb raiders out for personal gain and glory? You decide but regardless of your path, Alendor awaits!
I’ll spare you all of the other details but I’d welcome any thoughts on the overall backdrop of Alendor.
Thanks!
Err, sorry about that forum freaked out, and ate my post. *sigh*
The only issue I can see from the brief description is that in this scenario it sets up humans to be more heroic than the other races. Humans are embracing goodness and light. And, others are just rejecting darkness.
It may not play out that way in the actual setting of course. But, it's something to keep in mind. Otherwise, it sounds to be an interesting role reversal.
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Thanks for the feedback, Nahara. It is much appreciated!
I’ll provide some additional details.
In Alendor, humans are among the first to embrace “gods of good” but the diverse faith systems of the demihumans are not just a rejection of dark overlords but also leading them to embrace goodness and virtue. The dwarves, for example, honor and venerate ancestors who have striven to make Alendor a better place to live for their clan. Elves are seeking to live in harmony with the world around them as opposed to mastering and ruling over it. Gnomes are seeking to use logic and reason to better their lot in life. Etc. Humans were just stubborn enough to need direct revelation to find their way into virtue. ;-)
What I’d like is a sense of religious diversity. I’ve never really cared for the “these are the acknowledged gods and all races have the exact same take on them” approach. I prefer more of a real world analog where different races and cultures have religions entirely different from others (more so than just different gods in the same pantheon).
Lots more could be said, of course: strict monotheistic minotaurs seeking to conquer all of Alendor in the name of their new god, a civil war among the elves, escalating tension between dwarves and humans, etc.
Thanks again for your feedback and I welcome any additional comments!
I think "the world powers are basically evil, but we the heroes are helping to change that" is a good premise. I would have fun with that. There would be less of the PCs siting out in the open expecting the world to behave in a certain way. Connections and favors would be important, as would having a hideout. You would have to play your hand quite closely. I hope you post more details.
One statement I wanted to pick at was that all of the campaign worlds you mentioned were basically good with evil fighting to gain a foothold. I was obsessed with Grayhawk when I was young and I can say that is far from the truth. Many of the kingdoms were actively or on the brink of war. Many kingdoms were bastions of evil. Of the other kingdoms, most were likely to protect their own borders and agendas than to risk defeating evil.
Maybe take a hint from Midnight and have it that the world has not always and originally been evil, but that Evil started at some point in the distant past and now there is an opportunity to put an end to it. In Midnight, the God of Evil was trapped the material world while all other deities were blocked from entering it.
Having a situation in which the primary source of supernatural Evil has been destroyed a decade or generation ago and forces of Good are now starting to take back the world could be interesting. There still would be the Generals of Evil, trying to hold on to their power, but also starting to fight against each other, as everyone wants to succeed their dead master as supreme Lord of Evil.
One issue I see is that this would quite likely (or even obiously?) a rather grim and gloomy setting. In such a setting, I think Good does not work well if it is to bright and spotless. Simply walking through the world and shining Care Bare Beams at all the Evil to make it go away purely with Faith and Love probably wouldn't really cut it.
However, it could be a really interesting setting if the struggle to restore Good is going to be dirty and sometimes nasty. If Evil can't be removed by the Power of Love (TM), it will have to be destroyed by force. And restoring Good with bloodshed might onoccasion get a bit difficult. When PCs and the leaders of Good have to find a balance between destroying Evil and not compromising Good, then you have a really solid basis for conflict that actually has a meaning. Smite Evil first and ask questions later is not going to work all the time.
Also, pretty much all the humanoid races would once have been slaves of Evil and also commited evil in service to their masters. An orc or a goblin might be a member of an evil race now, but if humans and elves could reject Evil and embrace Good, there is no reason why the other races would not be able to do so as well. But how can you convert them to Good when everything they get from the forces of Good is death? But on the other hand, every show of mercy to these servants of Evil wil also mean additional strength for Evil in the future battles.
One could also take some hints from the Diablo games. While it is primarily a fight between Heaven and Hell, who are both antagonistic to mortals in one way or another, there are also the mortals fighting this established system that ultimately has them suffering the most. While there is a Paladin in D2 and the Wizard/Sorceress might also be considered "good" in a traditional sense, you also have rogues, necromancers, assassins, witch doctors, and so on, who really don't seem to conform to conventional Goodness. But they all fight to drive the Greater Evil out of the mortal realm and create a world where mortals are able to survive again. If you fight against a single monolithic greater evil, working together with lesser evils might be unavoidable.
I think you have the bones of a good campaign here. I think it'd be interesting to play a Paladin in this setting. On one hand, you're trying to be a beacon of truth, virtue, and all things that are good. On the other, you have to be careful lest you endanger innocents (well people who are on the path to redemption at least) and your allies. It could be interesting to see how the general population reacts to the person in armor trying to give them hope. Depending on how things go, it could be not only a matter of keeping to the code, but also keeping your faith and not fall into despair and just going through the motions. Imagine the scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender where Katara is trying to rally a group of Earthbenders to stand and fight, but no one answers. That's what I'm picturing.
I see things you could do to make this setting more interesting, and feel free to ignore my ideas if they don't fit where you want to go. First have some of the dwarf ancestors become gods or demigods responsible for the initial contact with these ancient deities or have the fight against evil started by more traditionally evil races like orcs or minatours then spread to humans through half orcs.
I have a very similar concept for my home-brew world.
Basically great rifts opened up after a gods war many years ago where most of the goodly deities were slain or imprisoned. The world is ruled 99% by evil tyrants, overlords, wizard kings and beings of pure evil who crossed into the world from the rifts.
There are a few "bastions of good" left, but they are quickly diminishing and fighting a losing battle.
The way I leave it to my players is to either try to defeat all the evil as they were born to this evil world in a good city, or they can be opportunistic evil characters who want to get rid of the good guys once and for all while rising in their own power to become the next evil overlords.
My feedback: I obviously like this sort of thing and find it interesting. I think yours sounds pretty well thought out and don't really have anything to add to what you put down without you having more details on the intricacies of your world. It sounds like a ton of fun to play in though.