Hello everyone! I wanted to get some suggestions and insight from the great minds here to piece together a world concept I have. First a bit of background:
The world was initially Rhydin (for those of you who participated in the AOL days, you got a jist) - a portal world to other dimensions and planes. It often was a world in which beings could traverse from one world to another. Weird combinations of creatures (again, if you were there during the AOL chatrooms...) existed and all levels of technology were present. One day, the portals closed. The powers that be quickly turned on one another, laying blame and attempting to seize some form of dominion. This war tore the world apart - literally.
It was a pantheon of deities that showed up to put the world back together with whatever survivors there were. Time was short because the atmosphere was falling apart and the earth literally shattered to pieces. A new world was reborn out of the remnants of the old one. This new world would be renamed __(Not yet named)____.
The key points of this historical blueprint is that a stolen adventure idea was during the last days of the catastrophic war had heroes fighting for their lives. In their final moments they were turned into stone. Fast forward into the future they were released from their stone state in a whole different world and existence. Worshiped as gods due to their realistic look, they quickly ascertained the situation of the world.
The major players in the war that tore the world apart, at least that survived and were significant in the battle and reparation were chromatic dragons. In the setting there are no metallic dragons. The "brood lords" or "primarchs" of the various chromatic lines were named: Magdela (Green Dragon, from a friend's idea); Behemoth (White Dragon); Leviathan (Blue Dragon), Apollyon (Black Dragon) and finally Jormangandr (Red Dragon). These dragons would make colossal or gigantic dragons look like ants. The two largest being Behemoth and Jormangandr. The finally battle was an attempt to bring down Jormangandr and his plans to become a deity by eating the core of the world. It was the other Chromatic's betrayal of him that ultimately brought about his defeat.
When the pantheon of deities arrived to restore the world, Jormangandr was actually placed under the largest continent as his prison. His body and soul were separated and his body became dormant rock. His soul in the body of a fat, televangelist type swindler who actually lead the "worship" of the statues that were the people put into stone. (This was all a previous Pathfinder game). The other chromatics were placed in charge of defending Jormangandr's prison. Various continents and races associated with them fell under one of the chromatics and Magdela set up a veil to prevent passage between the locations.
Jormangandr used the newly released "heroes" from their stone prisons and manipulated them to believe these overlord dragons were oppressing the world. First to fall by their hands was Magdela, and the other Chromatics turned to hunt down these would-be heroes. Jormangandr used this opportunity to undo the prison that kept his body and soul separate. Eventually, the final Chromatic lord was killed. The heroes of this story learned of Jormangandr's trickery taking place the entirety of their adventure and a race to his body commenced.
Jormangandr's mortal body jumped in a suicidal way into his body's mouth and the soul and body were once again reunited. The continent was split apart as he broke himself free of his underground prison. He gathered easily manipulated followers to himself to once again reach for transendance - this time by eating the celestial sun that acted as a gateway and conduit between the pantheon and the world.
The heroes and their followers fought with Jormangandr and his armies as he prepared for his ascent into the sky. In his final hours Jormangandr made one last ditch effort to reach the sun with the heroes on his body doing all they could to stop him. The end of the story? They failed. The sun was devoured by Jormangandr and his deification took place. He isolated the world he was entrapped within out of spite of the previous Pantheon (similar to war of souls in Dragonlance).
He took pleasure in slowly and excruciatingly eradicating the elven races. Except for his personal domain of residence, Jormangandr made the world a desolate horror. His "glory" is the light of the world - such as movies that emphasize a colorless hue effect like the world being seen gray color, for instance. Monsters that would have otherwise feared being outside could freely move about during the day as well as night. Many areas outright dieing and being haunted by all manner of monsters.
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Now, with that backstory laid out - how would you populate such as world that is still livable but terrible. Horrific, but survivable for the inhabitants? I am looking for a way to portray a feeling of dread and hopelessness.
I want to introduce the characters as commoners the come into contact with *a* pantheon outside of Jormangandr's reach that receive blessings (character classes) to eventually defeat him. I am simply here to pick everyone's brains to make a fantastic campaign for my future players! Thanks for any assistance I receive. I hope you also got some enjoyment reading my homebrew campaign's backstory!
A big backstory is all fine and dandy, but the big question is "How does this translate to an interesting world to play in?"