As the aspiring author in my group, my dM wants me to world build something for a pathfinder campaign. So far I have a general concept of the world and the major powers of the world, but am unsure how to continue. ANy adive?
As a player i don't know what to do because well, my DM usuall does something in this case, but according to him he thinks that i may have better ideas than he does
SO far its a world with 9 kingdoms, most of which hate eachother.
1 kingdom is run by a 1000 year old lich who controls her kingdom soley with the help of her very loyal now skeletal champion guard and a vampire anti paladin general who can do anything he want.He wants control and has spent over 100 years trying to find the Queens phalactery, with no success.
Another is a magocracy that has banned necromancy. anything that has to do with undeath is banned or killed depending. It is run by a council of about 60 mages of varying power (6th -10th level), and generally is seen as a haven for good.
2 of the kindgoms are run by dragon slayers, each of whom are the only survivors of the groups they lead to kill the beasts. both are allies due to this fact. both killedchromatic dragons of diffrent power. (one lead 50 men to kill an anciet red, 1 led 25 men to kill 3 adult whites). Niether are actually tht strong being older, but are great tacticly.
1 kingdom is run by giants.
1 is run by godknows what at this point, as i have been through 4 people, all either underpoweredcommpared to the other kingdoms, or overpowered interms of if the characters encounter them.
1 is a smallish kingdom of well farmers with a small army, surviving due to their halfcelectial protector and his "strike team" of warroirs who ride griffons.
Cant figure out the other two kingdoms to be honest, though my gm wants the nine, i dont blame him based on the rest of the party, and how we accidentally topled the last kingdom he built. In reality this was harder than i expected and now see why most camaign guides are huge.
The Main issue i have is fuguring out 5 things
1) how would giants organize themselves into any form of government
2) how do i make the leaders not so powerful that Me and the rest of the payers aren't gonna be over powered?
3)Is it logial for any of these kingdoms not to exist
4)reasons for the kingdoms to be at odds, not counting the mage council and the lich
5) gods. Im not sure which if any gods from the core book would exist or if i should make more....
1) Top Down, might makes right.
2) leaders should be overpowered for you until you're high level
3) it's logical for them to exist or not you're designing the world after all
4) usually people don't need much of an excuse but resources, religion, and old fashioned ethnocentrism usually function
5) gods tend to be cut and paste what you need in homebreww worlds my homebrew worlds have borrowed from greek, norse, fearun, egyptian really whatever you need
Maybe giants don't have much of a government, it's just a place on the map where a lot of giants live.
Maybe there are small tribes and villages that squabble a lot, but that will band together if someone invades their land.
A series of excellent articles in book form is the Kobold Guide to World Building - I've got this guide and really enjoy it for ideas on world building.
How about a kingdom of savages on an open tundra led by a great barbarian king or something similar. They use elephants and all manner of plains beasts in their ranks. The other kingdom being a religious kingdom the only catch is their main "god" who is revered as their master is a dead god and the divine casters have no spell abilities, but rule through faith and the occasional trickery of the "common folk".
Really monster controlled kingdoms should be somewhat rare. Humans are typically the most common and Charisma is the strongest attribute for ruling a kingdom (see kingdom rules.) That means CLASSES are more likely to determine who rules a kingdom like Paladin, antipaladin, summoner, bard, sorcerer, and clerics all have good reason to have reasonably high Cha scores.
SO far its a world with 9 kingdoms, most of which hate eachother.
1 kingdom is run by a 1000 year old lich who controls her kingdom soley with the help of her very loyal now skeletal champion guard and a vampire anti paladin general who can do anything he want.He wants control and has spent over 100 years trying to find the Queens phalactery, with no success.It's fine for there to be 9 kingdoms, so long as they're all about of equal power, or at least all have a reason to have not been absorbed/ destroyed. If one kingdom is super weak then why hasn't it been consumed / turned into a vassal state by one of the stronger? Is it because the stronger states would see this as an act of war and it would upset the delicate peace that the world has now? Just be sure to give some thought to the macro of the world.
As for kingdom 1 itself: Is the lich really so assured of herself that she's willing to ignore the fact that the vampire anti paladin general who has basically complete agency to do whatever he wants is looking for her phalactery? Why is he still around and still looking? Does the lich not know? I've never played in a game with a lich, but I'd assume that she'd be paranoid as crap about the thing. It sounds like he's trying to oust control of the country from her overall though, so maybe he has a cult of personality- he is a paladin after all- and people are working with him?
And just as a warning cause I see this happen a lot with 'evil undead kingdoms' people still live there. It might suck but if it was too horrible terrible awful bad people would be risking their lives to try to get out!
It's a good idea though, and I'm super excited to see a female ruler! Most people automatically assume that if it's a position of power it has to be a male. A+ for allowing either gender to have positions of power.
The Lich queen was something i had thought of for a while. the lich queen is a powerful foe in her own right, and keeps the antipaladin's "benefactor" pretty much on a leash as she summons the beast n and off, and itll work with her generally. She isnt that tyranical and yes people do live there, othere than the fact it is lead by a lich who wishes to nearly end humanity, the place is a prety well of kingdom. The Antipaladin has looked for the last 100 years, but came no where close to finding it. Effectively she put it where no one would dare take it, and wished it to be un detetable by scrying, near invincible, and to be hidden in the nine hells, so no matter what the anti paladin tries he canot find it. his "benefactor" is a deamon, and the antipaladin can't do anything on his own to get to the nine hells. all he knows is that it is not in the Liches kingdom. by near invincible i mean nothing short of a great gold wyrm(2 known in existance on the world), a solar angel, or a tarrasque (1 that has been in torpor for over 50000 years), or a god can destroy the phalactery.
As for the Queen notking thing, i have thought that such determination and cunning in which the kingdom is ruled may be a bit beyond male patience. As a guy i dont mean to isult, but to be honest the queen has waited 1000 years and still has not declared war, though with her necromancy she could pose a threat to about any kingdom, and while the vampire anti paladin(who i have named Bergion the bloody, formerly bergion the just before his fall) is trying to get control, he remains loyal with no way to beat the lich. I think that the 1000 years and the way she has maintained control makes a female better than a man, because of her patiece and considering that the kingom is technically a tyranical kingdom, she rules more with a velvet glove than an iron fist.
I do want the giants to have something diffrent from the book, but it is confusing so....
How about a kingdom of savages on an open tundra led by a great barbarian king or something similar. They use elephants and all manner of plains beasts in their ranks.
Thank you for this idea, i had not thought of it and it seems brilliant
and wished it to be un detetable by scrying, near invincible, and to be hidden in the nine hells, so no matter what the anti paladin tries he canot find it. his "benefactor" is a deamon, and the antipaladin can't do anything on his own to get to the nine hells. all he knows is that it is not in the Liches kingdom. by near invincible i mean nothing short of a great gold wyrm(2 known in existance on the world), a solar angel, or a tarrasque (1 that has been in torpor for over 50000 years), or a god can destroy the phalactery.
This was done by her husband when he was alive. TOok him forever to wish the power in to the phalactery and he died of age shortly after.
The lich queen sees the people in her kingdom as children, specifically her children. she is partially insane and believes her children should not have to deal with outsiders. all of her insanity and desire for lichdom came when her daughter died at a young age, and the lich queen wished to stop death. While she succeded for herself and her guard, she hasnt for anyone else, which drives her crazy. She hates the kingdom opposed to necromacy as she thinks necromancy is true power.
The kingdom opposed to necromancy is agaisnt most aspects of necromancy, but things like gental repose and undeath to death tend to be favored by many as they are not "evil" like the rest of necromancy, such as false life and anything to raise undead
Kind of sounds like Vecna (of the hand and eye Vecna) and his traitorous vampire underling Gax (of the sword of Gax). Think this was all originally done by the Great Gary Gygax. For more ideas maybe check out how he handled them.