I'm hungry for your lore!
JackTheMapper
🖼️ 3 images Traveler
Show me a map you made. A town, a castle, a dungeon, a kingdom, a continent. Whatever you like. And then tell me about it! If its a kingdom, who rules it? Who lives there?
Maps are a glorious way we make something tangible out of the mighty creative impulses that drive our imaginations. I want to know more than just how your map looks--tell me about it, and introduce me to your fantastic world!
Comments
What a cool idea for a thread! I've been working on the lore for my world for five or six years, but it's been less than six months that I've finally started to learn Campaign Cartographer, so I don't have a lot of maps to go with the lore.
But here's a map of a Greco-Roman inspired temple (more images in one of my galleries), and the lore to go with it:
This religion is loosely inspired by Greek/Roman mythology -- temples are in that style, and the gods are depicted in art wearing tunics and togas, even though the populace doesn't wear that kind of attire anymore. I will give you a condensed overview. In the pantheon, there are eight major gods who are consorted couples that rule over the four spirit realms: the heavens, the seas, the land, and the underworld. Iliós, the Sun God, is the god of thunder and lightning, battle and war. His consort, Vasilissa, is the goddess of governance, law, and civilization. Together with their adult children they reside in a palace of gold and fire, called Aurinko, which traverses the sky as the sun. The gods of the sea are Thálassi, god of salt water and oceans, and Révma, goddess of freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams. They reside in Helmi, a spherical palace carved from a giant pearl that traverses the oceans of the seas and the skies as the moon. The gods of the land are Thirío, god of animal life on the earth, and Iouloúdia, goddess of plant life. The live in Trypóno, a palace on earth most often shown as being nestled in a hallow of a giant oak tree. The gods of the underworld are Dikastís, the Judge, Adjudicator of Souls, and his wife Éleos, goddess of mercy. They live in Kólasi, an icy, gloomy palace in the underworld. It is said that evil sinners are punished in Kólasi when they die until they are allowed to reincarnate to try again. The spirits of ordinary folks reside in Helmi until they reincarnate. The most heroic are brought to Aurinko to reside with the gods for eternity. (This is a very condensed version that doesn't go into the details of the twelve lesser gods who are their children.)
This temple is meant to worship the entire pantheon. Outside, the barbecue pits are used by temple priests to sacrifice offerings to the gods (great bulls, stags, sheep, and other animals). The gods "feast" on the aromas and then the earthly remains are served to the poor. The pool in front is meant to honor the gods of the sea. The lion statues on the stairs represent the gods of the land, as does the bronze inlaid tree symbol inside the temple. At the peak of the temple is a statue representing the gods of the heavens. In front of the temple there are double rows of eight columns, representing the eight principle deities. There are 17 columns on the sides (in the Greek style of double the front columns plus one.) Inside the temple, which has two giant statues representing Iliós and Vasilissa, there are four niches, each decorated with mosaics representing the four spirit realms: Aurinko, Helmi, Trypóno, and Kólasi. These mosaics are made from luminescent crystals that shed colorful light -- you can see reflections from these mosaics in the second image above.
That's a super condensed synopsis of one of my world's religions (and one of the two principle religions in the main kingdom that will be a starting point). I'm still in "learning and experimenting" mode with CC3 and haven't designed a whole lot of maps to go with the rest of the lore yet.
Crestar started out as a game world with nothing special about it, not a parallel Earth nor a shadow of Amber. I got asked.
A few years ago I came up with it being made by an Apprentice World Overlord. Something like that. Full story on my site.
There are two flat planes that make up the world. The inhabitants think its a sphere.
Transitioning from one flat plane to another is instantaneous. Dig down far enough, and a character will encounter scrith. A substance mentioned in the Man-Kzin Wars.
There are also portals/gates similar to the ones mentioned in Andre Norton's Witch World series. And Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers is part as well.
In other words, it's an artificial world in a pocket universe.
Stunning! Not only are the maps gorgeous but I love the religion you outlined. My BA is in religion and history, and my MA in religious studies, so this is my bread and butter. Not only are the Gods fascinating, the religion makes sense, and I absolutely adore the concepts of the sun and moon being Aurinko and Helmi--mobile sky palaces.
Since you're developing lore so deeply, might I suggest fandom.com? You can make your own wiki there for free, illustrate it, and do a lot. I use it for my own world (sadly I've neglected it for too long but am back to working on it)--it's a wonderful resource and if you use your maps and lore for RPGs it's a boon to your players!
Ok, two flat planes make up the world, people think it's a sphere. This is a wonderfully interesting concept that definitely plays with physics! I'm going to check out your site and read up on it!
Thank you for the tip -- I will check out Fandom.com. I actually started my own wiki about my world of Adnati on my WordPress-powered website. I use a plugin called Yadawiki for the wiki functionality. The Religion section is the most developed, followed by Geoscience. (History so far covers ancient history but not so much "modern" history.) I have tons more plotted out in MS Word docs that have not yet made it onto the wiki, much of which would have to be kept private until players learn those elements of the world.
Now that I am finally starting to learn CC3+ and FT+ (after owning the software for about six years but being too intimidated to learn it), I can finally start doing some mapping. (I decided about six months ago to start watching the tutorials and surprise, surprise, learned so much more than I did on my own with the PDF manuals.)
I don't actually have any players at the moment. Just having fun worldbuilding. But I have a fully fleshed out concept of how the players will meet, the circumstances that get them into a group and kick-off the story, and the major elements (and end goal) of their campaign arc.
I'm looking at your Wordpress now. Lord, it's lush and beautiful! Well done, and amazing art! I'm going to start reading through a lot of it as soon as I can!
Here's my own world of Virana. The map below is my world map. This is my first campaign in it, and the areas with colored borders are the areas the players have been operating in. Well, parts of them anyway. I made the map in the Mercator style from the very first annual. It is one of my favorite styles to this day, especially when it comes to world maps like this. I deliberately kept the map clean and simple, and make more detailed maps of continents and regions as I need it.
More maps on my wiki. Many of the maps in the geography setting are zoomable and have clickable hotspots. The wiki is a bit spare when it come to information, but it has the basics.
Virana is more or less a classic fantasy setting. I keep it somewhat low-magic, because having magic play too much a role in everything never appealed much to me. I mean, it is still an AD&D campaign, with mages and priests and spells, but the everyday inhabitant rarely if ever see anything magical, and as far as magical items for the players go, I try to keep the amount low, but rather make each item meaningful instead of yet another +3 sword. Right now, the players are playing their first campaign in this world, and I am making this campaign about setting up a lot of the background story of the world.
To allow players to be part of the process of shaping the history of the world, I am actually playing a split campaign. The main campaign is set in the campaigns present time, which is the more or less typical AD&D fantasy medieval-inspired time. But, every so often, typically just as they are about to discover something important, I switch timeframes on them, and switch to the secondary campaign, where they play as dragons (under the Council of Wyrms rules), the first rulers of the world, and where their choices and outcome influences what that important discovery in present time is. Dragons are extinct in the present time, mythical beasts just existing in some forgotten lore, but in the past, they were the rulers and world-shakers.
We have now almost completed that first campaign, so I have a good grasp of the world history, so let me outline the basics.
1st Age - The Age of the Great Dragons
In this age, dragons rules the world. They operate in clans (as per the Council of Wyrms rules, but I use my own world and my own clans and my own politics, disregarding the setting from those rules) and the various metallic dragons live on Kambaria, the continent outlined in green on the map. During their time, they see the younger races, Dwarves and Elves rise from small barbaric tribes to a civilization in their own right, and serve as their protectors. The dragons to learn of a threat to the world, the evil dragon-god Tiamat is trying to enter the world and take it over. A lot of the characters time as dragons focused on learning about the threat, figuring out what the treat was all about, before finally learning about Tiamat and trying to stop her. However, the dragons have learned that stopping her permanently will probably not be possible, so their mission is two-fold, prevent her entry into the world at this point in time, as well as prepare the younger races for the fight they will face in the future.
2nd Age - The Age of the Great Races
By this time, the dragons are all dead, the threat from Tiamat has been prevented for now, and the younger races, the elves and dwarves build their great civilizations. It is a good and prosperous time, a time of great civilizations, art and crafts.
But trouble lures in the shadows. This time, Tiamat doesn't have the power of the worship of the evil dragons to rely on, but she is sneaky, planning for the long term. By subtly using her influence, she manages to trick people into believing in her and praying to her, in the guise of 5 benevolent gods. Once she has enough worshipers, she starts to twist the religion, and soon brutal religious wars breaks out, believers in the old true gods versus believers in the new fake gods (Tiamat's aliases). This starts to go well for Tiamat, but she had overseen one thing, with elves and dwarves being killed by the millions, and their civilization collapsing, an opening for a new race to rise to power opened up. The humans entered the scene, and with their short lifespans and rapid breeding, they quickly took over, and at this point, the false gods she had constructed was not very palatable for the humans. She was not defeated, but this setback temporarily halted her plans. However, the civilizations of the great races was now in ruins.
3rd Age - The Age of Humanity
Humans quickly rose to power, and as the years passed, the elven and dwarven civilizations were more or less forgotten, just existing as ruins for the intrepid explorers to discover. The elves and dwarves are now in a minority, and most of them live in the human cities, being outnumbered 100-to-1, generally finding some respect as master craftsmen.
Tiamat quickly realized that these humans was probably even more susceptible to religious manipulation than the older races. She didn't have enough power at this time to maintain more aliases, so she dropped the old ones that had worked against the dwarves and elves and started a new fake pantheon of 5 gods; Marcus the red (Sun; War), Avina the White (Winter, Peace), Khalim the Black (Death, Afterlife, Birth, Life), Kira the Blue (Skies, Seas), Varinda the Green (Spring, Plants, Growth). This new pantheon soon completely replaced the old one (This is partly because she takes a much more active hand, while the old gods, the real gods, take a much more passive approach and expect their followers to govern the world themselves. This was also why her ploy worked in the 2nd age).
The 3rd age is where my main campaign takes place, and it started out with several of the players being priests and paladins of Marcus. The campaign have been a journey towards learning the truth about the world, the gods, and finally learning about Tiamat and stopping her, using the tools they helped create/discover when playing as dragons in the first age. The players are getting close now, I expect the campaign will be over in a handful of sessions.
Awesome work! I love the old-style Mercator maps myself, and yours is elegant and clean with a beautiful look. Your lore is well-developed and fun as well. I also aim for low-magic in my own setting, and try to make each item meaningful. Too much magic and that's all the game revolves around--see Forgotten Realms! I also like the way you've created a unique history that still draws upon D&D tropes (standard races, Tiamat, etc) but gives them a new interpretation. Dragonlance used Tiamat as a goddess (Takhisis) but didn't do the creative thing you did--using each head as the basis for a new, even if false, god.
As for religion, I adore the idea that several characters were paladins of Marcus, and are going to find out over time who and what their god actually is. I imagine the role playing on that is going to be a lot of fun!
Wonderful lore!
@JackTheMapper wrote
I also like the way you've created a unique history that still draws upon D&D tropes (standard races, Tiamat, etc) but gives them a new interpretation.
I've found that it is easier to make things relatable for both me and the players when building on existing building blocks where they exist. Getting into and appreciating a new world where everything is different is pretty hard. So my races are actually pretty standard, I just gave them a nice backstory that slots neatly in with the history of my world.
As for religion, I adore the idea that several characters were paladins of Marcus, and are going to find out over time who and what their god actually is. I imagine the role playing on that is going to be a lot of fun!
Yea, it was. They went from burning heretics (followers of the old [true] gods) on the stake, to becoming followers of them themselves and murdering the high priests of their old religion [Said high priests are now clearly evil, so not a violation for the paladin to off them]. The paladin (They were 2 priests and 1 paladin) was the first to turn, he started seeing issues and starting learning more about the old gods in secret. We had great fun with the last priest holding on to his religion for a long time, claiming that it was all the other followers of the religion in the world that had turned from the true faith and needed to be terminated.
Ah, link worked that time.
Lore, Start of Crestar, there are 3 pages.
I've linked all 3 via a small navigation menu below the large navigation menus.
Oh first edition, glorious! As far as D&D goes, it's always first or second edition for me. Couldn't get into later editions, although I have been Frankensteining a system together from other ones, which is working out nicely!
Looking back at the process of building my world, Sihjul, I can't believe it's been 14 years… Unfortunately, the amount of development I've actually gotten put up doesn't reflect the number of years it's been percolating 😁. I start, go strong for a week or a month, then stop, only to pick it up again a week or a month - or a few months - later. And when I pick it back up it's often because I've had an idea for development, then as I work up that idea other things already in progress get reworked. It's FAR more developed in my mind than it is on "paper."
Sihjul started as a mapping exercise, which then began to spark worldbuilding ideas. I've put the world map up here on the forums before, so I won't post it in this thread, but clicking the link below will take you to the site where Sihjul currently lives. There is a world map (which can be zoomed in on significantly) as well as an animated globe linked toward the bottom of the home page, as well as links to everything I'm currently working on there.
At first my intention was to try to publish it as a setting for one or more game systems, but a friend has been encouraging me to use it as a setting for short stories or novels. Some parts are far more fleshed out than others, and there are some parts (including areas on the map) that are hidden away from eyes other than my own so that they can be discovered later, assuming I ever push this forward to publication of any sort.
Sihjul Homepage | World Anvil
I haven't been there for awhile and forgot about the details in my history pages. They are all linked now with the small navigation menus just below the large orange bar.
Looking at your site--it's a magnificent piece of work! The menus are elegant and the art is incredible! Do you source it somewhere, or make it? The temple on the landing page for instance, and the picture of Hamara Bay! Lord, this is the type of site I'd like to set up myself! I'm not much of an artist, but have used an AI app to generate original art for characters and cities for my own wiki site. One great use has been improving the heraldric images I've made in CC3--I've attached one from CC3 and the result.
You've made a stellar site! You and the others who posted theirs too. It inspires me to make an actual site rather than rely on Fandom. com!
Hah! I only wish I could do art like that! The maps are mine, the pictures are AI generated. I do really try for a unified look as far as style in the art, which takes a lot of finagling of the wording in the AI request and lots of "re-do's." Also, a lot of photoshopping to get the dimensions correct, blend different pics, etc.
Thank you very much for the kind words!
Also, I forgot to mention that those heraldic symbols are excellent - I especially like the AI reboot of the original!
Since the move to a new web host, I have yet to fix/update all of the small navigation menus. But I'm working on it.
Two places I haven't seen mentioned here yet are Chaosium's Glorantha (which has so much lore it's effectively a real place for many who RPG there; plus avoid all those silly mapping projection problems in a world which is on the upper face (only) of a cube!), and of course out own Community Atlas world of Nibirum. Not everyone provides detailed descriptions for their maps there, but some do (I've been adapting bits and pieces from my own nearly 50 years of RPGing to what I've added there, for instance), and even without that, those maps are always worth exploring.
Jack, if you don't mind sharing (and you can send me a private message if that's preferred, not sure of the protocol), which AI did you use to generate your heraldry shield? I used to use a site called Blazons (I think) to create basic heraldry symbols, which was good for the lesser noble families, but I couldn't get the monarch's to look the way I wanted. I have the CC3+ Annuals Vol 2 (2008), but it doesn't have the symbols I need (dragons rampant and swords). I am looking for public domain images I can import to use, but figured I'd try other approaches, too. I've tried a few AI image generators but either my prompts weren't good enough or the AI generators weren't.
Tulëz Kar can be found on the southern most island of Lues, in the archipelago known as the Isolate Isles. Most of the islands in the archipelago are quite dangerous, some completely uninhabitable, and one is an obsidian hellscape of blackness. Lues and it's neighbor Critgua, have many settlements scattered about the strange and intriguing landscapes of the Isolate Isles.
Tulëz Kar is a tropical resort city for the rich and famous with a lot of gold to spend and a penchant for high adreneline adventure. Here adventure excursions can be taken from any of the many resorts and private villas. There are the typical vacation excursions available, like snorkeling, etc., however the nature of the island, being the perfect habitat for some dangerous creatures, makes even the most innocent of fun, quite the risk and adrenaline rush.....Base jumping off the Cliffs of Insanity, where wyvern nest in the caves dotted along the cliffs to Serpent Watching in Lake Yana Riti, Tulëz Kar has something for everyone.
Incidentally, a PC in my campaign, the daughter of royalty from far off lands, was kidnapped here as a toddler, and her parent "disappeared" deep in the jungles trying to find her, thus beginning her orphaned PC backstory and the catalyst to a huge arc in my campaign overall.
Wow, I'm looking at the site now.What an incredible amount of stunning work!
I used Leonardo AI, which is a website. A free account will give you a certain number of credits a day, or you can subscribe for more. It took a little bit of playing about to learn how to have my CC3 generated images loaded in, and then a few runs of generating until I got one I liked, but it's been an overall good experience. If you have an iPhone they apparently have an app version; being an Android man I'm still waiting!
Love it! Do the rich ever go on safari-style hunting excursions to try and bag a wyvern, or other monster? Trophy hunting?
Of course. Whatever gold or platinum can buy, you can find someone to bring to you it. It's really like Jurassic Park for the rich and bored. There is treasure to be found there, so often treasure hunters and adventuring teams go for riches and glory
I can just imagine an enterprising owner of a tourist company hiding treasure in specific places for the rich to "discover"!
My rather old world of Myirandios.
Slightly smaller than Earth, with less of a n axial tilt, and slightly warmer global temperature.
Sentient beings: Draconians, and Muru (water dwellers) native to the planet. Most have 6 limbs and 2 tails and 2 spinal cords and 4 eyes.
Humans 'crash-landed about 20,000 years ago - went to war with the natives, and won. Developed mutant subspecies of Aiefa (elf-like), Filanthru (were-like), Fampeir (Vampire-like), Davarin (dwarf-like and Grim (orc-like). All can interbreed with each other, but miscarriages are very high.
The native species have a form of electro-magnetic abilities to use the EM spectrum directly - and this was also genetically engineered into humans. It was found however, that a gene on the X chromosome greatly enhanced the ability, so females are far far stronger in this 'etheric' ability than males, and so have become culturally the stronger and dominant sex.
The war against the native sentients was won only after a massive miscalculation by the human leaders (who eventually became so god-like in their genetically enhanced powers that they in fact became the human gods). A 10,000 year ice age descended quickly, decimating both human and non human species. A slow recovery began, but by then all ancient tech had been largely lost. The first to recover were the equatorial black human species - and so today, the black women fill the role that white men on earth have had.
The planet has three moons - red white and blue. And a series of rings - the Girdle of Lerate. It is made of dark reflecting rocks, so doesn't produce that much nocturnal light - however, night time on Myirandios is a lot lighter than on Earth. And the tides are about twice as high/low.
The main site of the story is based on the hegemony of Klemtos surrounding the Menosiran sea - a theocratic empire ruled by a triumvirate of three priestesses - the Magen, Maden and Midin. The Magen is the main political leader, the Magen the spiritual leader and the Midin the equivalent of Secretary of State. When one dies, the others move up in the hierarchy, and a new member is chosen from twelve candidates who have been training in a special school for priestesses. Those that miss out, are appointed as governors or Justices etc. So the leadership is highly trained and the succession is almost always ordered. And so of course, there is a degree of social and technological stagnation.
The current crisis involves increasingly successful incursions by an alliance of grim and tribal humans who worship just one God (the Red Goddess, Shalene) instead of all 18. They have discovered how to use gravity in the same way as others use etherics (E-M manipulation) and this has caused the hegemonic armies to suffer very rare defeats.
Etheric ability is genetically endowed, but like intelligence, some have virtually no ability (the etheric cretins), most can light a flame, or produce enough power to defend themselves (the equivalent of 'normal' intelligence) - and because females are far stronger, males can easily be subdued. Finally, only a very small proportion are of genius level, with the ability to use most of the E-M Spectrum, and so be actually useful in their abilities in military, health, communication etc.
This is the area for adventures, set 1000 years after the fall of the Hegemony. Most of my maps in the Atlas plus others are in this area.
If this was novelized, I would devour the entire series. (Also, coincidentally, my world has also three moons that are white (or gray), red, and blue.)
This is phenomenally well developed, with a fascinating backstory and the deep potential for social commentary. Amazing work, and I'd read it just as quickly as @Royal Scribe should you ever write stories or books!
Thanks, guys