Original Fantasy Setting

[Manji187]

On the contrary, it is rather interesting. A double mystery; what is Topside really (wasteland, utopia, something else entirely?) and who is Trilligan really?

What I am curious about is Trilligan's methods of keeping everyone in line and his motivation for doing so. What does he get out of being "king of the slaves"?

No matter how powerful he is, fact is that he needs the people more than they need him, so when all the workforce starts to rebel en masse and eventually they will (for instance because they have come to consider even death to be a welcome release from their pitiful existence), how will Trilligan manage the situation and get everyone working again (and not plotting the next uprising)?

Also, who is the main character/ protagonist? Some youth who wants to escape the drudgery of work and see Topside for himself?

Thank you for the encouraging words!

My biggest problem, at this point, is building the mystery and it's resulting revelations in such a way that the end result - the answers to questions about who Trilligan is, what his penultimate motives are, the actual state of Topside, etc. - doesn't disappoint the audience by falling short of their imagined expectations.

The protagonist I have in mind is one Taylor Crosse, who isn't one of the Gap's laborers; he hails from Cliffwall, and descended into the Gap in pursuit of someone (though I'm still finding a reason for this pursuit that fits thematically); the biggest feature of Taylor at this point is his addiction to a drug called Epiphany, which gives him visions of the future.

The drug is part of Trilligan's control apparatus, of course, but the prophetic elements are so far functionally unique to Taylor.

The other part of Trilligan's control apparatus is a woman known as Minerva, who is at this point his Dragon, but who I hope to flesh out a great deal more over the course of the novel.

I see. Keep in mind though that you are the one who gets to set the expectations. As the author of the work, you can lead the reader into expecting one thing while keeping your options open to come up with a surprise reveal.

Who is Taylor Crosse? If he is pursuing someone, is he a detective/ investigator? Or is he a wanted felon who wants to clear his name (falsely accused/ wrongfully convicted)? Or something else entirely?

Be careful if you opt for the detective route though. Combined with his drug addiction he might resemble a character named Nick Bottom, the protagonist from a novel called Flashback by Dan Simmons (yes, Nick Bottom is also a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the link was intended by Simmons). In Flashback, the protagonist uses a drug called flashback (yeah lol) to relive the past.

I wonder how exactly the drug is part of Trilligan's control apparatus. Sure, it could keep the populace passive/ docile but they still need to be fit for work, right? Is the drug free from adverse effects?

Interesting choice for a name, Minerva. Minerva as in the Roman Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice? People are likely to associate, even if that was not your intention. The thing is, how will you use that association? Will you use it at all?

 

[penguindude42]

I've been formulating a D&D setting without all the elves, dwarves, orcs, what-have-you.

There isn't even humans. Just beastfolk. And golems.

 

[Overusedname]

No. You'll just steal my ideas.

I'm paranoid and egotistically and my ideas are that valuable.

Leave me alone.

 

[konor77]

I'm currently working on a world for an RPG campaign, theres not that much in the in the way of true originality in it, with huge swathes being taken from other sources most notably from ravnica but there's warhammer, rivers of London, ankh-morpork, shadowrun and a million other sources, but I like how the different bits and bobs combine.

Spoiler

the world began with was. At some point was made the gods and they made the titans(or perhaps it was vice versa) at any rate there was a war between the gods and the titans. The titans were defeated but the war desolated was with it's gleaming remnants forming the suns and the stars. The titans couldn't be destroyed and so a prison called is was made.

Is is where the story is set. It's impossibly large with no mortal and perhaps not even any god knowing it's true size or even shape, the most popular hypotheses being infinite, ring-shaped, a disc and perhaps even a sphere. Every possible environment and countless others exists on is. The RPG focuses on a region dominated by a city called reikech.

Reikech is an enormous melting pot of a city teeming with hundreds of races, humans are most populous with over two million freemen alone, Next are the dwarves, founders of reikech they are far less populous but most are quite powerful, with many being judges, buildmasters, bankers or lawbringers. Elves are nearly entirely gone. Elves as a whole were poorly equiped to deal with both the rise of city life and of industrialisation with the remnants found as mercenaries or recluses in the citiy's few remaining wild places. skaven are a rising power in the city being highly capable engineers, survivalists and tinkerers but their history of war with the dwarves and humans notably still haunts the race and to this day most skaven clans are still fighting a war against the with the commonwealth with a mere 13 clans of a total 168 having joined the commonwealth, ogres are a relatively new race to the streets of reikech with their northern kingdoms having joined the commonwealth only 150 years ago.They aren't that common at society's top but their greed, ambition and drive makes them natural matches for the middle and lower classes. There are countless other races such as the wolfir, mer, vampyr( I enjoy spelling things slightly differently where I believe they're different enough to warrant it), goblins, knoblar, trolls, demons, devils, angels etc

The politics of the city and by extension the commonwealth is rather strange. At the centre of reikech, where three of it''s great rivers meet there is and island palace known as rav. Whenever a new nation enters into the commonwealth it's nobles are given citizenship of rav. Each noble house is allowed a speaker who is has the power to speak and vote at the great forum that decides the future actions of the commonwealth. The day to day running of the commonwealth is done by the high council on which each lord of rav sits. Lordships are not hereditary and the process for attaining one is impossibly complex. The only constant fixtures are the 21 seats held by representatives of each of the Mage-guilds. At any given moment there are usually approximately 100 Ravi lordships.

The Mage guilds are the heart of reikech with each being a superpower capable of besting most nations. Their constant feuds and machinations are at the core of city life. Each guild specialises in two of the seven wind of magic and has a specific duty it performs in service of the commonwealth.

Well that's a lot of writing I have way more to say but that is almost certainly for anyone reading to comment on whether they think it would be a fun setting to play in. So what do you think?
Edit: I can't get the spoiler tags to work what am I doing wrong?