Note
“If you set the expectation for yourself that you’re gonna write a perfectly cohesive, realistic, functional world, and then present it to your players, fully formed, and it will work flawlessly for an entire campaign, you are going to be disappointed.”
— Ginny Di, 6 More Worldbuilding Mistakes DMs Make
I am a perfectionist. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do something absolutely perfectly, and when I mess up or get lost it’s very easy for me to feel dejected. As Ginny Di states in the above video:
“One of the kindest and most useful things you can do for yourself when building a world is allow yourself the space to make mistakes, and the space to fix them.”
That, combined with my tendency to overthink and get stuck in my head, leaves me paralyzed and unable to create the world I want to enjoy creating. It has led to this “world” (if you could even call it that at this point) feeling hazy and confusing, to myself and my players.
Therefore, I’ve decide to scrap everything. Anything I’ve made since 2019 is no longer completely canon. Everything is now on a clean slate waiting to be built from the ground up (imperfectly).
Theme
The theme is fundamentally what the world is about, the idea that ties all its various stories together into a consistent whole. Before I worldbuilt without any unifying ideas to tie together the many, very different ideas I had. Moving forward, the Departed Realms is a world built around change, the struggle between the new and old. Likewise, as the world belongs to the fantasy genre I can allow the world to supernaturally be able to elicit change, such as through the Obsidian Star.
Now this theme is both overt and not, characters need not be revolutionaries or reactionaries if they choose not to be. But, it will be woven into the threads of every story, and ever-present constant (ironically). Take for instance the change that came to Saltmarsh between the loyalists and the traditionalists, which framed the backdrop of the story, which was about stopping an evil cult and saving the world.
Boundaries
Another issue I’ve always had was the constant doubt that (a) what kind of world I wanted to build, and (b) what would appeal to my players. I again have the habit of overthinking even the tiniest of details so, I’m going to try and let go a little to build a world I will like but doesn’t have to be my magnum opus (yet).
Likewise I was building the world on what I thought my players liked, without really asking them what they actually liked. So to get off on the right foot, I’ve asked each of them what they like:
- Alex likes interconnected worlds, filled to the brim with things to do and see. Worlds where not everything is explained but everything is connected, and you are driven to adventure to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
- Marlie likes gothic stories, where characters deep desires, hidden histories, and inner-turmoil personified blend against a background of mystery and dread. It’s terrifying, so seductively so, you can’t help but not look away.
- Hanna likes drama, where nothing can be that easy. Choices are hard, ambiguously so sometimes. Reveals are angsty and theatric as the story twists and turns. Everyone and everything has some relevance to the story.
- Skylar likes weird fantasy, settings where the usual ideas of high fantasy are reinterpreted in novel ways and conventional tropes are eschewed. Anything from goblins with complex cultures, to reality itself being a dream.
Which have been codified as core anchors of the worldbuilding moving forward. Tapping on each ensures something always appeals to someone, and to make the game-world more interesting overall. And, taking those inspirations, I’ll combine them with the things that interest me:
- I like post-post-apocalypses, where the world burnt down long ago and from the ashes was reborn anew. But, the embers of the old world still smolder, even flaring from time to time. There are those who want to relight the flames anew.
- I like thought-out fantasy, where the implications of a world of monsters and magic are explored, not just tacked-onto medieval Europe. How would society develop in the presence of wonderous magic? In danger from woeful monsters?
- I like fairytale fantasy, where inversely there is a sense of poetry and justice to the world. The rules of the world are strange and fickle but always fair. Good will always conquer evil, should it have the courage to do so.
And together these form the boundaries to our creativity, keeping us from straying to far from the core ideas we all so love. They are the seven foundational ideas upon which all the lore of the world will be built:
- Interconnected world
- Gothic horror
- Drama
- Weird fantasy
- Post-post-apocalypse
- Thought-out fantasy
- Fairytale logic
World Concept
The hardest step of the process, the pitch. I’ll try not to bore you with an exhaustive description of the world and all its philosophies. The world concept is simply a statement of what the world is and what you can expect. For the Departed Realms, it goes a little something like this:
World Concept
A THOUSAND YEARS HAVE PAST SINCE THE DAYS OF FIRE, when the Forged Gods, wielding their arrows of poisonous light, razed the world to ashes, and from those ashes the world was reborn anew.
After an Age of Darkness, the world healed, and the survivors built their own pockets of Eden in the verdant green. With might and magic they created the menagerie of weird and wonderful peoples of the world.
But the world was left broken by the calamity, and the prior shaping of it by the elden magics of the Arken. Now much beyond the horizon is unseen and unknown, though many travel beyond it to learn her secrets, to put together the missing pieces of the puzzle once more.
For the world is a strange place, sung as a great song amongst the tapestry of the night. Fate is true and fickle, and though its many rules may seem strange, even nonsensical, the world is always fair and just, for good will always triumph over evil, should it have the courage to do so.
But the Age of Green was not necessarily one of peace. The dramas of countless actors played across the tapestry of the earth, for fame and fortune, for ruin and betrayal. For while the fires of old have long since gone out, the flames in ambition in the hearts of men still burn bright. Their passions, their desires, their undoing spelled out time and time again. The world can be a terrifying place, one that you both can’t run away from, and wouldn’t want to even if you could.
Because, unlike, the color of the current age and its people, deep below in the unable depths of the Arkenruins, the red embers of the old world still smolder, and there are those, with hungry hearts and greedy hands, who turn back to that age of old and wish to reignite the flames of empire anew.
FOR THE WORLD STANDS UPON A NEW AGE, the Churning Age. As more and more plumb the depths of their riches, the fledgling states grow more hungry. As mages push the boundaries of the natural order, monstrosities, both ancient and modern, awaken from their slumber of nothingness. For it’s not the artifacts or the monsters of that age of old that are so enticing, it is the legacy of the Arken, the whispers of the need for strength, for knowledge, for wealth, for power, and for banners of old to be hoisted once more.
And at the edge of this age stands you. You belong to this world, tied to its fate and made whole by its follies. You are destined, cursed to wield great power, but how you choose to wield it is up to you. Will you usher in the Churning Age despite its uncertainties, or will you defend the Green age despite its flaws. Or, will you cast all aside to turn the great wheel of history your own.
For great change is coming to this world, and you are its herald.
Welcome to THE DEPARTED REALMS.