Building a new world!

[Theik]

I've seen a project like this before, and for a while there was gigantic interest, then all of a sudden it vanished without a trace. (I think the one who started it left, or something?) Either way, timmyd123 (Valen) and I have decided to start a little project of our own, to kill time during server 'low-times'. (being European, the times when we're best awake there's few people online, so might as well use that time productively on something else.) Most RPers enjoy coming up with stories, and lore in particular, and we decided we want to build a Neverwinter Nights 2 module and build it heavily with lore. And then we figured, the other project had such a gigantic enthusiasm going on with tons of people replying their ideas, giving ideas for gods and races and the like, why not open up a topic in the off-topic here where people can chip in ideas? Build an interesting setting with the community, so to speak.

The Setting:
We want to really focus on building the lore of one place, rather than trying to go for a project ala 'build the entire world, then an astral plane, a dream plane and .....', so our story takes place in a large town called Aelden. What originally started as a small settler village by Elves and Humans quickly grew out to become a large centre of trade thanks to its position. Over time it grew larger, attracting people of all walks of life.

Yet recently disaster struck as a strange plague started spreading across the lands. At first Aelden served as a sanctum, but the town quickly grew full. As the plague reports got closer and closer, martial law was declared and the city gates were shut, the docks cleared and every contact with the outside world cut. The story begins for players as arriving in the city just before the lockdown and getting stuck.

The town:

A quick map I did in paint of roughly how the town is made up.

Dock District: What was once a bustling area of trade has now degenerated into drunken sailors walking the street. With martial law in place, only the fishing ships are still allowed to leave dock under strict guidelines, and no other ship may come or go, leaving many sailors stranded. Open drunkenship and unrest have started setting in as sailors want to return to the open ocean, but are disallowed from leaving.

Market District: Still relatively undisturbed, trade still continues from what the town itself can produce. This is where most inns and shops are located. The gate in the south has been shut closed however, and the muffled cries of peasants begging to be let in can vaguely be heard above the guards screaming orders.

Commons: The living quarters of the masses, this is where the majority of the humans live. Those living here live in relative luxury, compared to those who have to do with the slums. Most peasants are still fairly calm, believing the whole 'plague thing' will pass soon enough, something droned into their minds by the king's guard.

Slums: As the city grew larger, settlers came. Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings arrived, commonly seen as degenerates that are good for little more than labour. To prevent unrest, the slums were built, a rackety bunch of homes in a lower section of the city, separated from the rest of the city by walls. With the sheer amount of peasants seeking refuge inside the city, the slums are overflowing. A hive for criminals and bad hygiene, the place would have already been at unrest, but the lack of clean water made it even worse. Fearing that the river would carry in the plague, officials have dammed the only source of clean water leading to the slums.

The recent arrival of Orcs into the city's slums has only made things even more unruly down there.

Heavy Industry District: The mine and the forges are located here. Dwarven blacksmiths and miners work day in, day out to craft armour and weaponry, while Gnomes attempt to create concoctions that'll combat the plague. The air is thick with smoke and most avoid going there.

Noble District: Home to the King's castle, as well as the holy and the nobles, this place is a far step up from the commons. It's home to the elite, where posh traders discuss petty issues and priests preach about their religion.

Arcanum District: Also known as the 'Elven District' or the 'Park District', this place has been grown, rather than built. A waterfall feeds water to the section, which is then taken to the commons and noble district through underground masterpieces of engineering. Homes here are built into trees or placed around the park, and it feels incredibly natural. In the mighty wizard tower, haughty elves practise their magic here.

Races:
Races will be first and foremost the basic races provided in Neverwinter Nights 2, but provided with actual lore different from the default settings. Some still need to be fleshed out, so feel free to give your ideas!

Dwarf (Shield, Gold, Gray)
Miners and blacksmiths. Discriminated against, live in the slums. Might have to reconsider the various subraces so they all have proper lore.

Elf (Sun, Moon, Dark, Wood)
Might drop dark, depending on if we can get lore going. Elves were the original settlers, together with the humans. They are considered on-par with humans in the town, and mostly reside in the arcanum district. They are well known for their spell craft.

Gnome (Rock, Deep)
???. Good at alchemy, discriminated against and live in the slums. Not sure what to do with their subraces.

Halfling (Strongheart, Lightfoot)
Considered rather useless by the masses, discriminated against and live in the slums. Every crime in a mile radius is generally pinned on them.

Half-Elf
Just as respected as ordinary humans and elves.

Half-Orc
Are actual orcs in our setting. They were the original inhabitants of the lands, living in nomadic tribes. Aelden is built on one of their holy sites, which put them into constant conflict with the town. Raids against it had no real success. As the plague grew closer, panicking tribes laid down their arms and accepted surrender under near slave-like conditions, after their seers predicted the death of them all if they couldn't get into Aelden for safety.

Heavily discriminated against for their past war, generally don't like elves and humans either. Live in the slums.

Human
Original settlers with the elves. Not much to say here.











So now what?
You know a bit about our general idea for the setting now. Unrest, disorder, the town's still doing pretty darn well compared to the ones hit by the plague, but slowly the place is turning more grim. Yet as you can see, we have gigantic gaping gaps in our lore.

What kind of religion to the humans and elves have? Where did the halflings come from? What's with them beardy dwarves?

We'll be using this topic to both keep people up to date as to what we've actually made (yay, screenshots of our sub-par level design.) as well as looking for input. So just grab a race and flesh it out! Do you want to design the religion of dwarves? Want to describe the halflings in more detail? Just make some suggestions and we'll work out something nice together as a community!

Note: Try to keep WoWism low. xD This is a new setting, not Azeroth after all. No Gnome tinkers or Holy Light!

[Painkillah]

I was browsing through said thread with the similar idea not long ago, I think yesterday. Anyway, last post in there seemed at the beginning of the month so yeah, it's been quite some time since then.

I personally think this is a great idea. I didn't involve myself in the last one because I would have rather waited and see if the ball could get rolling for a while. I would like to suggest a few things myself to your world though. I know when you get something in your head nobody gets it out. Unless Wink invents a new contraption. =)

Is this going to remain a thread here? Move to a freshly created forum?
Let me know about this and I'll throw in a couple of lines myself.

Cheers. :mrgreen:

P.S.: Gotta love the map so far. xD

[Kretol]

If you'd like, we could revive the CotHWorld forum and rename it to something like CotHWorlds, plural, and use it for various other settings that people might cook up. You could have whatever forums and subforums you might need on there.

[Theik]

If you'd like, we could revive the CotHWorld forum and rename it to something like CotHWorlds, plural, and use it for various other settings that people might cook up. You could have whatever forums and subforums you might need on there.

This does actually sound like an amazing idea. Just having some sub forums there would allow a whole bunch of different world building projects to go on at the same time. I think it'd make a great way for people to kill some time and show other people what kind of world building madness they've come up with. And feel free to suggest things Pain, that's what the topic is for! To make a world with multiple people. =P

Edit:
While trying to kill some time, I threw together a quick logo for it. ;P

[Roobald2]

Perhaps a race that was made out of jealousy of another god's creations (Elves or Dwarves?) An uglier specie, ogres, trolls or orcs?

[Painkillah]

Well I was about to say something last night but I waited until now to try and make it sound as less confrontational as possible. So here goes:

The Noble District is poorly placed there. It's probably one of the things they talk about when building such a place. The proximity to the sea offers little to none defensive capability and they would rather avoid making it there. I mean, the place where the king lives along with the elite of the city would be the most defendable position of all. One would suggest building the commons instead and the castle in the middle.

Unless it has proper defenses which you didn't mention. Things like: multiple walls, no access to the sea whatsoever, perhaps it's a cliff far from the sea level, maybe a higher ground like a hill. (Think of Stormwind's Cathedral in comparison with the Harbor. :P)
I'm trying to figure out what's the purpose of that brown line, perhaps one of these that I mentioned?

[Theik]

That's actually what that tiny brown squigly line is supposed to mean by the sea. It's higher ground, a cliff overlooking the sea.

The commons, noble district, market district and arcanum district are all on higher ground, while the dock district, slums and heavy industry district are all positioned lower. Because of their lower position, the slums in particular will be facing some water damage problems as the dammed river forms a lake, which slowly leaks into the slums.

Edit:
Map:

Think the brown lines as walls. The entire city is located on higher ground, aside from the brown areas, which are dug out to be located lower, at sea level. The purpley line is the natural cliff, but without a wall on it. :P

[Painkillah]

Ah alright. This looks better now.
I'll try and come up with all kinds of crazy good ideas in the close future that will hopefully catch your interest. :mrgreen:

[Theik]

With the revival of the Conquest of the Horde: Worlds project, it has been moved there, so please locate some bookmarks there, all those who want to help!

I'll also use this post to explain to people what the CotHW project is; a place where people can start their own world-building projects and get a sub-forum for it. This way you can truly let your imagination shine, build an incredibly rich lore and get feed-back and suggestions from other users! So why wait? Join today!

[Theik]

I've been working hard on the Dock District, and I figured I'd show off some of the screenshots here. =D

Note that none of this is final, most of it just has the bare bones thrown down, there's no actual NPCs yet, no houses, just a few landmarks and some roads, but I still wanted to share it with you all. =)


Caged animals. The man travelling with these 'pets' got stuck thanks to the plague. Where are you going to get food for a bear, a wolf, a boar and some bunnies? (Note: No, feeding bunnies to bear is not nice.)


The actual docks, hence why it's named the dock district. That big boat won't be going anywhere soon.


Any city worth its weight needs a place to hang their criminals, to set the right example.


The lighthouse, so idiots don't sail their boats into the city.


The entry to the market district. Obviously not finished in the slightest, but this shows the difference in height between the different districts better.

[Mikain]

The worlds area is actually pretty cool. If found myself bored enough to pick up an old project I had for it. Hehe.

Since you guys are all boring. Boring I say!