A Primer on Primes

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A Primer on Primes

I want to write up some prime worlds showing off features that would effect the way they interact with the planes at large. Other write-ups and planar ideas are welcome as well as comments on these two planes.


Araloth - The world sliding into corruption.

This prime sphere has seen the rise of a great civilization over the past couple thousand years under the open rule of an arcanaloth, called "The Old Father" by his people. Overall the 'loth has been a very efficient ruler building an extensive but flexible bureaucracy that has allowed its peoples to flourish.

Outwardly the society is well ordered with minimal crime and corruption, built around a series of great cities built around mountain temples. In fact the 'loth has managed to capture, kill and bind several of the native deities of this prime impaling their forms on giant black obelisks that allow his followers to harness and use the power of their former gods. The 'loth has long term plans to slide the plane into the four fold furnace directly.

However, several powers with holdings in this and other worlds have worked together to create a barrier around the world, cutting it off from the planes at large to prevent the spread of the 'loth's power. Recently, portals to Gehenna have been opened piercing the barrier and allowing the 'loth to draw in reinforcements and the help of his fellow yugoloths.

The dominant society of this prime world is structured into many different classes and castes, based partly on birth but mostly by rank and achievements. Backstabbing and exploitation are considered to be the way to get ahead in life. Philosophically the people look to strengthen their wills and resolve, and believe with the will anything can be done; after all they've conquered the gods.

Though the levels of society are actually very complex they can be divided into four major levels: the generals, the offices, the laborers, and the thrall. The generals are the highest ranks in society and are responsible for planning and management of resources, both military and civil. The offices are the middle managers, doctors, lawyers, magi, and academics, and this level of society has the greatest amount of backstabbing and intrigue to get ahead. The laborers are the lower middle classes, and are made up of both artisans and students working to enter the higher levels of society. The lowest level are the thrall; slaves that can possibly rise in station if they show signs of excellence. Thrall are people that either live on the sparsely populated outposts of society or in the great hives that surround all the mountain cities and are commonly used and abused, worked to death or used in experiments.

In almost all cases, planewalkers from this world are from the upper three tiers of society, mostly from the second and third tier. What is striking is they are almost exclusively all arcanaloth descended tieflings. The Old Father has long instituted a series of programs to interbreed his people with both himself and others of his kind as well as programs to weed out undesirable traits. Cutters from this world are marked by a generally callous air of self-assurance and superiority. While this has led to several notable instances of cluelessness; cutters from this world have also shown potent and unusual magics and abilities that have caught several planars off guard.

The World of Veiled Stones - A prime with little separation between the ethereal, shadow and astral.

This sparsely inhabited world is made up of heavily wooded islands dotted throughout a cold fog-covered ocean. The planes of ethereal shadow and even in places the astral all seem to seep into this world, mixing smoothly that the lines between worlds are blurred.

Ruins of once great and powerful civilizations litter the landscapes of this world with roaming undead common. The very landscape seems to be flowing, with currents that can carry an unwitting traveler hundreds of miles with only a few steps and at other times keep someone from crossing a small room. A few of the islands are actually the stone corpses of dead gods, and throughout this world is saturated with magic. Wild magic effects are common.

Planewalkers from this world are rare, even though the few living inhabitants are often used to crossing between planes; there are just that few sods that survive here. Those that do tend to have more than a few drops of fey blood, and the faerie are almost as common as the undead.

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A Primer on Primes

Another day another plane. Please if you have your own primes that you have thought up or used in game post them to the thread.

Okskas - The barren land of shifting sands and rippling magic.

Among the most barren of primeworlds known to the greybeards, Okskas, has at times been used as a harmonium training ground and "re-education camp." Outwardly this world is a never ending wasteland of shifting sand dunes and wind scarred rock formations. However, below the sands, occasionally uncovered as the dunes shift, are the remains of a great forest.

The only native intelligent life is a race of small insect-like creatures, called Okski, that lives on the constantly shifting dunes of the world. Shattered trunks and dried rivers can be found almost everywhere under the sands and it is amongst these partially petrified stumps that the Okski live, burrowing up through the dunes during the night and retreating down through the sands in the day.

The harmonium has little to say about this world, other than it is off limits with out a permit, and that there is little reason to go there. There are some dark rumors going around that the world has been set off limits after an expedition found the ruins of an ancient city guarded by rusting steel hulks each with a killing gaze. The only known expedition currently on the plane is a mixed party of Harmonium and Guvners working to translate the Okski language, as spells are only partially effective on the plane.

One of the most striking and interesting features of the plane is the magical nulls that sweep over its surface. All casters on the plane suffer a 10% spell failure chance at all times when casting spells, this chance rises by +5% for every spell level above second. Furthermore, all spells and magic items will fail as a wave of antimagic passes over any given area. These waves pass like the weather, moving in patterns across the deserts. For any given day roll 1d6. On a 1 there is little activity and such a wave will pass over any area once every hour or so. On a 2 to 3 the waves will pass by once every thirty minutes. On a 4 or 5 the times between waves is about 15 minutes, and on a 6 waves will pass by once every six minutes or more. Furthermore on a roll of a 6 increase the spell failure by +10% in addition to other penalties.

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A Primer on Primes

Aquila: A generic cyberpunk world
The world of Aquila is almost your stereotypical cyberpunk world. The people with money live in glittering steel towers, and work their lives away in sterile corporate offices, while those without live in the shadows of the towers, and live on the corp's scraps. Meanwhile, the corps use mercenaries as 'deniable assets' to strike against each other, given that open warfare would damage the bottom line considerably. Most of the mercenaries are cyborgs up to their gills in cybernetics, though most such groups also possess vehicle specialists cybernetically linked to their vehicles, robots (with varying degrees of intelligence, though only the most advanced could truly be called self aware) for recconnaisance and combat, and VRnet noderunners to perform VRnet overwatch, using the enemy's own security systems against them.

An interesting note is that while magic functions perfectly fine for planars who come and visit, the natives universally don't use it. It's not so much that they can't; it's just that they think it doesn't exist- it's just a primitive superstition, or sleight if hand.

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Another one :D

(I made this up when I thought Oerth was a good name...I didn't know it had been used before)

Oerth is a flat plane, a perfect rectangle inside it's crystal sphere. Lining the edges of the rectangle are the continents, with one large ocean in the middle. In the center of the ocean is the 5th and smallest continent. 5 moons circle the plane, each one defining the cycles of Lycanthropy for it's cursed residents. (More about that will be coming Laughing out loud)

This plane is a plane of elemental pull. At each corner of the plane is an elemental vortex, with the positive at the farthest vertical point and the negative at the lowest. As one moves closer to the points, the climate and landscape drastically changes to meet the elements. Examples are the firey magma pools of the northwest corner and the nearly unscalable mountains of the northeast, the arid plains of the southwest and the unfathomable depths of the lakes and swamps of the southeast.

The city of most notice is in the central continent, a glistening marble capitol surrounded by farmland and smaller communities. This is the town of Brookwood. The center of the city (and the exact center of the plane) is marked by three huge star shaped pillars reaching into the clouds. The tallest of these, it is said, reaches to the crystal sphere itself.

Also in these pillars lies the famed Academy of Brookwood, known for its teachers and intelligent students, a small number of which are Lycanthropes, including the Headmistress, a thin elven with large yellow eyes. The students are robed by rank, and herds of them can be seen bustling through the market place, looking for spell components, books and specimens for assignments.

The plane is usually a very balanced and well taken care of place...but something has gone terribly wrong beneath the surface of Brookwood...

((I'd write more, but I'm at work...if you guys want to hear more, send me a message or reply and I'll do so Laughing out loud I've been working on this place for like......5....6 years now?))
-pb-

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A Primer on Primes

Ohhhh - in that case, definately drop us a bit more?

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A Primer on Primes

Vormanth - The frozen citadels.

Vormanth, is often referred to in the oldest texts as the frozen citadels, but climatically the prime is fairly temperate, if on the cold side of temperate. It has earned its name for the peculiar fact that all of its major cities are built onto high mountains in the frozen north of its largest continent. My order has yet to explore the other continents first hand but we are told that the practice is continued, with all major settlements set on mountains, those of solid granite preferably.

The reason as I have been told is that the peoples of this land once somehow slighted their major goddess and a curse now resides over all of the farmland. Apparently, the people somehow duped her into a promise that she would always provide excellent yields from the land in exchange for the sacrifice of some person or object--the stories are unclear. However, a hero managed somehow to find a loophole in the promise. In retaliation she provides excellent weather and fertility until the first cold winds of winter. Then the land is plagued by creatures called the shadowy ones that come up from the soft earth. Apparently, these creatures are unable to travel through stone and weak when faced on the surface. Thus the civilization has moved to its mountain citadels growing crops in the summer and then rushing to pull them all to the north as soon as harvest time comes. The organization and mechanization of the harvest process is breathtaking, and truly a model which I believe a great many planes may do well to aspire to.

Though the prime has had relatively few planar contacts in recent times, there has been planar trade in the past and the aristocracy as well as people in general seem to be fairly open, if not quite entirely understanding of it, to the prospect of planar trade. I am currently on my way to the citadel known as Orn's Keep, and may not be able to make contact again for a while as this plane is not one that is easy to get to via spell. I recommend a follow up expedition be sent to observe the "shadowed ones" first hand and with proper survey equipment. Powerful clerics of deities associated with the sun will most likely be vital as I believe these creatures are shadow, and at least partially undead in nature.

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A Primer on Primes

'Clueless' wrote:
Ohhhh - in that case, definately drop us a bit more?

Indeed the idea sounds interesting.

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A Primer on Primes

Well fine then! Laughing out loud Because I'm at work, I don't have the whole story with me, names and all, but here's a run down of Brookwood's history and a bit more about the plane.

Thousands of years ago, Brookwood was a small hamlet by the name of Lamplight. A river ran to the south of the town and farther south lay a large and dark forest, but the land was rich and good. The town was small but happy with a population of about 100. One of these humble and happy residents, a wizard, unintenionally brought in the most evil that this plane had ever seen. His student, a young man named Westram, had a dark heart and dark motives. He used the kind wizards instructions on magic and twisted them into dark summonings. One day, while in his study outside the forest, he created a summoning circle to Baator that he quickly found was two-way. Such a circle could not regularly be created, but being so close to the center vortex to the plane, the ley lines assisted his deeds.
A horde of baatezu quickly realized the convenient form of travel to the Prime world, and they swarmed the city. Their weapon of choice other than decietful destruction? Lycanthropy. Lord Bel wanted to test it on a group of mortals, to see if the evil would corrupt them to their side.

The people prayed to their gods and they answered, sending archons to battle the demons that had arisen from the forest. After years of battle, the demons were finally vanquished from the plane. The earth was left scarred and scorched but luckily, the people had survived due to heavenly protection.
They met in their ruined square and devised a plan to raise up their city once again. Many of the members of the town had become were-beasts, unintentionally hurting or even killing their loved ones. Some felt they too should be killed for their crimes, for their demonic taint; while some felt that they should move to another continent where they wouldn't bring pain to the town. The old wizard, still alive though broken, devised a system where the Inflicted would be kept underground and caged when their moon was full to protect the citizens. The town would have to change, and so would it's name. Due to its location, the town was renamed Brookwood.
At first, the cells were built near the sewers and were little more than prisons for the inhabitants. But soon, the Inflicted realized that they still had so much to give to each other. They built more rooms, turning these into makeshift classrooms where herbalists would teach their art, or woodcarvers would instruct artists. Soon, word spread across the continent of the haven for the Inflicted and citizens came from all over to bring their children, wives and parents that had been touched by the demons.
The demand for new housing and buildings was great and much of the great forest was cleared away to make buildings, bridges and carts. A marble quarry was found to the north, providing the pink and grey veined marble that now builds the walls.
The popularity of the underground academy grew until it was supported entirely on donations. Rulers of far of lands had been affected by the demons and brought their veiled children to learn in a place where they would be safe.
The three towers were finally built about 500 years after the demons first came to Oerth. The reigning wizard had studied the ley lines and built the tallest tower directly under and on top of the vortex. The tower rose several miles into the air, disapearing into the clouds. Two smaller were built on either side, one for student dormitories and the other for the library.
The tower for the dormitory extended far below the ground to accomidate for the locking cells for the lycanthropes. Some needed only a locked door, but for were-bears and boars, metal walls were built with heavy iron doors.
The mage who had originally brought the demons, Westram, was believed to be dead, but one student had found his ancient and run down hut and had found his notes of summoning. The student also had evil in his heart and sought to bring back the demons who had given him his gift. He was a were-raven and was proud of his dark blood. One night, while working in one of the laboratories on dark magic to bring back the demons who would turn the whole world to lycanthropes, another student found and reported his deeds. The student was dealt with swiftly and without mercy, magically stopped from transforming at the next full moon and ripped apart by his own kind.

Westram's influence appeared another few hundred years later which is when our story begins.

And that's where the set-in-stone history ends, and the tweaking on my part begins. In order to use the first adventure in Well of Worlds, I had my characters find out that some of the students had run off and find Westrams old hut, kept together by magic. The summoning circle was still there, but now just one way, due to the broken ley lines, which is another adventure Laughing out loud
Westram had lived and become a lich who became a bit of a planewalker, at least to another Prime Material. He returned to Oerth for revenge on the town and the people who had caused him to lose his dream of overruning the world with demons. He travelled through the marble quarry to the Negative Energy vortex of the plane, which took shape as a puzzle maze. After defeating the maze, he took the Negative Sphere, a black orb the size of a small bowling ball, and returned to the other Plane. The orb has given him a number of powers including travel to the Negative Energy Plane. (the others are yet to be defined ;D) and is also now slowly sending the plane into imbalance.
Without the negative energy, the plane is becoming good. Very, very good. Some of the gods, St. Cuthbert, for example have begun to see this slip and have started sending champions to find out why. None of the other planar Vortexes have ever been touched, save for the Positive, which the tallest tower in Brookwood touches. The headmistress is the only one able to reach this room in the tower and few have ever seen it.

So one I finish up the Planescape that my group is planning on doing (Modrom March and Dead Gods) I think I'll have them retrieve that orb from Westram.

-pb-

p.s. I found one of the first incarnations of the story, it's on my Elfwood Story gallery at http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/libr/m/e/mel3/mel3.html and I don't know if I like Inflicted or Cursed better....Hmmmmm......

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A Primer on Primes

*bump*
I'm going to post more soon

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A Primer on Primes

So, what do you think of mine? Now that I wrote a big ol thing ;D

-pb-

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A Primer on Primes

"The Blink World"

They say that given an infinite space and an infinite amount of time, anything can and will evolve.

Imagine a sponge the size of an entire world. The vessels and pockets in the sponge would range in size from the size of a small state to the size of a small hut. Now imagine that the matrix of this great sponge is hard adamantine and locked within these vessels are entire ecosystems of creatures. Now open your eyes. See? A computer screen!

Ah, but such a land does, in fact, exist. It is a strange place, indeed. Many of the various cells of the plane contain air. Illumination is provided by phosphorescent plants and animal life and the balance between animal respiration and plantish photosynthesis keeps the atmosphere quite breathable in many of the largest pockets. But imagine, how would creatures evolve when their dens are made of stone too strong to dig through and with no entrances or exits?

The creatures of the "Blink World" are a strange bunch, having found ways to circumvent the stone that surrounds them on all sides. Swarms of incorporeal insects roam the world and many creatures have developed the ability to nip from place to place by sidestepping the physical. Others can leap straight through walls by opening portals through stone and leaping out the other side. There are tales of blink horses, metal swimming cheetahs, and even phase trees! The most civilized beings on the plane are the blink dogs who dwell in complex warrens throughout the planet. Some planar gnomes and halflings have even allied with the dogs, using their "mounts" to travel through the world.

But the strangest creatures are found in the locked and dark pocket oceans. With no room to "surface" for air, the cetaceans of the world have devised a strange method to find breath. When they have used up their stored air for as long as possible (for whales and dolphins are not fish, despite the beliefs of many uneducated peasants), they breach the veil between this plane and the ethereal , passing out of the material for only long enough to catch a breath and then reappearing in a great wave of tumultuous current. These phase whales are a strange and unique breed, though some biologists have since theorized that perhaps such creatures exist in the depths of other prime oceans where surfacing for air would become far too dangerous.

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A Primer on Primes

Hee. I remember the conversation that sparked Blink World. Way to flesh it out!

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Heh. Its not really suitable for a whole campaign, but I can already see adventure seeds and such for such a crazy world. But watch out for the blink rhodedendrons!

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It gave me a lot of good images actually, I *like*. Smiling

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A Primer on Primes

WIP comments welcome.

A treaties on a most interesting set of nine worlds located deep in the primes. All of these primes are in the deep prime, with a depth between 23 to 26. A caster level check that misses by four or less will instead redirect the spell to one of the other eight planes. See: /forum

When these worlds where first explored it was not even thought that they could even be connected, let alone to the state at which we have later found them to be. At first our scholars simply counted them as a coalition of eight prime worlds, and thought little more of it. Then the ninth world was found and with the discovery of alternate versions of individual persons living in each world the pieces fell into place. These nine worlds are actually alternates of one another where the alignments of their peoples have all shifted in a way roughly corresponding with the great wheel. That is to say that the alternate individuals of each world have different alignments compared to their alternates in the next. Through careful (and sometimes dangerous) research our scholars have found eight individuals who we believe are alternate versions of one another, each individual has an alignment of personality corresponding to one on the great road. Other examples of individuals being alternate to one another with the greatest difference being their alignment have also been found, but this individual (his names here kept secret) is the only one we have found as a complete set, or rather as complete as we probably will ever find. Perhaps to better understand these worlds it may be prudent to give an outline of each one on their own merits.

Kopetal is the first world and is the seat of power in the eight-worlds' coalition. The majority of the populace and dominant alignment of the plane is one of neutrality towards chaos and law, but with a strong affinity towards evil. Through both war and diplomacy the dominant nation of this world, originally calling itself the Autharch, has taken control over both its own prime sphere but also the spheres of the other nine worlds. Kopetal is a world of lush farmland, dense tropical forests, and great wilderness areas dotted with bustling cities. Strict immigration controls have been put into place in order to preserve the relative pristine environments of this world, many of which now grow on the ruins of other defeated nations. The government claims to rule through the use of science though their research is generally skewed heavily towards political ends. It is a world that at first glance would seem to be peaceful and prosperous, but closer inspection reveals the ruins of towns and the shallow graves of many.

Nathal is the next world containing a majority of people who are of lawful evil in their tendencies. Much of this prime has been mined and heavy industry rules the lands. The huge cities of this world are almost entirely dependent on Kopetal and the other worlds of the coalition for their food supply. Nathal joined with Kopetal at the outbreak of war on several of the other worlds and supplied a great deal of the weaponry used to defeat them.
Matchal is the world that is lawful neutral in its majority and is still somewhat independent from the rule of Kopetal. Its government was already fully formed by the outbreak of the war between the worlds and it remained neutral through out. Only recently after the conflict had been settled has its rulers agreed to join in with the rest. This prime supplies most of the grain for Nathal, and also a good deal of fresh water to Nathal's cities. With its citizens' natural tendency towards law Nathal has a surprisingly weak law-enforcement and police establishment. Some have suggested that it is because of the natural tendency towards obeying laws that Nathal has not needed to develop a strong military or police force. However recently with the collapse of the resistances to the coalition on other worlds refugees have come to Matchal and the need for such a force has grown.

The first world on the losing side of the coalition war is Norral. Its populous tend to be lawful good in disposition and it once was the leader of vast and strong armies. Now the world is scarred with battlefields and in the midst of slowly rebuilding shattered towns and cities. Kopetal has instituted a military government on the world that is ruthlessly efficient in quelling even the hints of uprisings. It has been thirty years since this world surrendered to coalition forces and the world population is less than a quarter of what it was at the start of war, and still falling. Forced labor camps are common, and there are substantial rumors of far worse.

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'princessbunny99' wrote:
So, what do you think of mine? Now that I wrote a big ol thing ;D

-pb-

Sorry I didn't comment before, but very cool.

I sorta intend to compile these (with author's permission for the ones that are not mine) into a format that can be submitted to planewalker.

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That would be great. I insist! Smiling

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'Primus, the One and Prime' wrote:
But the strangest creatures are found in the locked and dark pocket oceans. With no room to "surface" for air, the cetaceans of the world have devised a strange method to find breath. When they have used up their stored air for as long as possible (for whales and dolphins are not fish, despite the beliefs of many uneducated peasants), they breach the veil between this plane and the ethereal , passing out of the material for only long enough to catch a breath and then reappearing in a great wave of tumultuous current. These phase whales are a strange and unique breed, though some biologists have since theorized that perhaps such creatures exist in the depths of other prime oceans where surfacing for air would become far too dangerous.
Whoa... A sponge! Nice Cool.

I imagine torrents of ethereal material rushing in through the breaches these phase whales make... and the sponge-like nature of the Blink World itself working to "soak it all up".

Slowly but surely... the nature of the Blink World changes as more of the Ethereal works its way into the "sponge".

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Illiarth

There are those who think Illiarth's cosmos is entirely separated from the known multiverse, and only reachable in the same way other "Alternate Prime" worlds are found--by a long journey through the Plane of Shadow. That is one way to get there. However, another path was discovered recently. If one travels out from any of the chaotic gate-towns, and travels far enough into the Hinterlands, one just might encounter a giant ten-thousand-mile-wide whirlwind.

Within that vortex appears to be a strange, foreign system of Outer Planes, which happen to be the Outer Planes recognized by the world of Illiarth. There are five of them. Yes, this is about Illiarth, a prime world, but it is very tangled up with its Outer Planes, and it's very fortunate for the rest of you that it's got its own set of the things, or else the 'planar leak' phenomenon might start spreading or something. Large tracts of the landscape on Illiarth are subjected to planar leaks. This isn't just an elemental or alignment trait seeping in, we're talking a whole area of land basically merging with the outer plane, so that it exists on both Illiarth and whatever outer plane is involved. One place with two locations if you can wrap your mind around that. Leave the area and you've got a basically even chance of ending up on Illiarth or the outer plane.

Illiarth is typical for a prime world in many ways. Thousands of years ago, there was the continental empire of Yuinar. Eventually it was overcome by the thirst for exploration, and ships were sent into the east and west to find new lands. Unfortunately, some of them were inhabited by dragons, and the explorers had unknowingly broken an ancient truce, and thus began the Dragon War. In the end, Yuinar was utterly destroyed, as were other lands, but the metallic dragons helped the survivors reach refuge in the small southern continent of Menkir and its Northward Isles. This last refuge of civilization has prospered for four hundred years. The three major nations--Goldmoor, a kingdom founded by the descendants of Yuinar; Gansdor, the land of the native people; and Kaburuk, an empire of goblinoids--and numerous island states have suffered several wars, but none devastating enough to leave the region vulnerable to the dragons. But several of the elder dragons are still eager for a chance to finish off the civilized races once and for all, and some of their plans are close to fruition.

Goldmoor hosts one of the major planar leaks on Illiarth. The White Fields, a plain covered in pale grasses, lie in the southwest of Goldmoor, and also close to the center of the Eternal Battlefields, and allow the migration of several dire creatures and barbarian races into the area, rendering a large section of southwest Goldmoor perpetually untamable.

The Eternal Battlefields are a neutrally-aligned great plain ten thousand miles wide, contained inside the Vortex. They are called the Battlefields not just because of the native barbarian hordes that clash here, and not even because of the occasional confrontations between the various exemplars. It is because two gods have been locked in an eternal duel here since time immemorial. The plane is flat towards the middle, but moving towards the edges the ground starts getting folded and broken up into hills, valleys, mountains and canyons, and finally, mountains that break free of the ground and pits with no bottom. If you can catch a mountain that floats high enough, you can get into the good-aligned Celestial Hills. If you happen to fall into one of the bottomless pits, there's a good chance you'll find yourself in the endless caverns of the evil-aligned Black Pits. The other two planes require riding the Vortex. If you catch one of the large chunks of earth being ripped out and hold onto it, you just might make it to the lawful-aligned Great Puzzle, where giant earthen cubes of uniform size fuse into a variety of arrangements and slam together in a cosmic game of Tetris (whatever that means). If you let yourself be swept away in the Vortex, you'll just end up in the chaotic-aligned Primal Swirls and, unless you've got some kind of protection, almost certainly get dissolved, and probably die too.

It is believed that there is one major planar leak for each of these five planes somewhere on Illiarth, and numerous more minor ones. On Menkir are two of the major leaks. The White Fields link to the Eternal Battlefields, of course, and there is another link in the eastern badlands of Kaburuk, one to the Primal Swirls. The upshot of the latter planar leak is that the goblins have their hands so full dealing with incursions of chaotic creatures that the goblins are forced to be relatively polite to everyone else. Indeed, it may be nigh impossible for the elder dragons to succeed in starting a continental war on Menkir, but that won't stop them from trying.

The people of Menkir and the Northward Isles enjoy the benefits of being at the peak of civilization, and have learned to ignore the rest of the world map. The people of Goldmoor still feel some attachment to their ancestral homeland of Yuinar, so it might be interesting if they ever learn of the atrocities going on there, where the descendants of those who failed to escape the fallen empire have been reduced to cattle. At first glance the settlements seem like any other poor village, but the absolute absence of any concentrated population beyond 1,000 persons hints at the sinister designs of the dragons, the true rulers of Yuinar. The dragons are really treating the people like crops. When a particular town or village is 'ripe', the dragons descend upon it for the 'harvesting'.

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A Primer on Primes

Cool ideas for worlds guys!

Here's one that grew out of a (tasteless) joke, but we started to run with it so...

Deadworld

The inhabitants of this world simply refer to it as "the world." In fact everything about them seems simple, and even normal for your backwater peasant-types, at first. Then you realize they seem even more superstisious than peasants are wont to be. The doors are thick and bolted well at night, and the windows are shuttered. The common folk huddle in their homes, in fear of their lords who stalk in the darkness.

The nations of deadworld are ruled by the undead. The undying vampiric nobility maintain their feifdoms like heards of livestock, employing loyal mortal servants who hope to be rewarded with the dark gift themselves. They have dominated the land so long that the living accept them as the rightful rulers. Some are even fairly benevolent, wishing to keep their lands productive and secure. Others revel in blood and debauchery as only vampires who rule over hundreds of thousands of mortal slaves can.

The Grand Duchies

The fall of the last Vampire Queen was brought about, twelve centuries ago, by betrayal. Her consort, Duke Von Hesh, was a particularly strong-willed vampire of sorcerous powers, yet it was his brilliant strategems which had expanded her domain and preserved her rule. Thus she kept him around too long. Von Hesh rebelled, and managed to form an alliance made up of many bloodlines disgruntled with the Queen's iron rule. The Duke was careful not to take up the mantle of king himself. Instead, he bestowed the title of Duke on many of his allies and called himself the Arch-Duke, "first amoung equals."

The current Arch-Duke is the ninteenth, Arch-Duke Varz Von Frost. He has ruled over the Grand Duchies longer than any Arch-Duke since the first, nearly seven hundred years so far. Most of the Dukes and their bloodlines have sunk into debauchery, terrorizing the countryside with their noble hunts, holding nightly orgies of blood, and presiding over temples dedicated to dark powers of death and violence. Indeed, one of the surest ways for the living to safeguard their lives and families is to join one of the dark cults, but with how they treat their acolytes, it is by no means an assurance of safety. The Dukes are decadent and easily manipulated by Von Frost. His werewolf secret police watch over the populace and the cults, reporting their findings monthly via their howls.

The Lands of the Scarlet Order

If a traveler from another world were to find themselves in these lands, it would not seem so different from any other medieval world. Villages built around manor houses, small baronies, and the occasional crossroads town with a large castle all dot the countryside. On the roads, mounted knights contend with each other in jousts and other displays of martial prowress. Each of the Knightly Orders that exist are locked in traditional feuds and rivalries. Every knight hopes to one day prove himself worthy of joining the Sarlet Order, the rulers of the land.

The Scarlet Order pre-dates even the last kingdom. They have a long martial tradition, and see themselves as the immortal protectors of the land. They constantly engage one another in ritualized battles. Owing to vampires' regenerative abilities, these battles rarely end in the total destruction of a combatant, except where long-standing rivalries are concerned. The same cannot be said of the battles of mortal knights, however. A knight that proves his worth by slaying numerous opponents may be inducted into the Immortal Scarlet Order, and even comman soldiers who prove themselves extrordinarily skilled are 'recruited', thus there is a little more chance of 'upward mobility' in their lands than in the Grand Duchies. People living here are generally content, and often clueless. The Order sees them not as their playthings but as their power base. Their mortal troops are better trained and more loyal than the levies of the Dukes. Each Scarlet Knight is an opponent beyond formidable, but they allow no mages or priests into their ranks. Thus the Scarlet Order and the Dukes have fought many wars without one gaining a significant lasting advantage over the other for centuries.

The Empire of Death

To the south lie the wastelands. Every year, they move farther north. It is not a desert spawned by lack of water, but by lack of life. Not even bacteria can exist in the wastes, the only things that even rot are those unfortunates that have recently come there from elsewhere. The undead hordes that strike forth from the wastes, bringing the advancing death with them, are dry, with dark skin stretched over their bones. The Empire will one day engulf all the lands. The Great Necromancer hates the vampire lords almost as much as it hates the living. It longs to bring the true death to them all. It uses its underlings, the liches, to attack the lands beyond by animating armies of zombies and skeletons that grow larger with each enemy slain, each graveyaed captured.

Thus far, the Crimson order has been more successful in fending off the zombie hordes from the wastes better than the Dukes. Arch-Duke Von Frost has been courting those Scarlet Knights whose lands border his own, possibly with an alliance in mind. The Scarlet Order doesn't trust him, as he is a spellcaster (a cold-mage as his bloodline name indicates.) A few of the other Dukes still have ongoing border disputes with the "Uncouth Brutes" who have a history of destroying their dark cathedrals whenever they can. Thus the Grand Duchies and the Scarlet Order remain wary of each other even as the Empire of Death advances.

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