Sometimes, I just like to mess around with maps, taking blanks of existing landmasses and reconfiguring them, or taking them as is and just slapping down a bunch of names and borders to make a whole new world out of regular old Earth. This was one such experiment, with no real interest in setting stories here, but possibly open to use for an RPG Setting.
My notes on this are actually very scattered, as most of it comes from answering questions on a forum I originally posted this to years ago. I'll try and cobble together what I had going here.
SETTING BACKGROUND
PRE-HISTORY
In the time of dinosaurs, Dragons emerged as a magical,
intelligent race that dominated the planet. They were ruled by Tiamat, the most
powerful of them all, but the dragons were also split into numerous tribes
based on their various elemental or environmental affiliations. Eventually,
however, Tiamat is betrayed, and in a great war, the Dragons effectively wipe
themselves out, with the most powerful of them so thoroughly damaged, they died
of either exhaustion, or fell into comatose states, buried in the Earth.
Incidentally, the Dragon War is what caused the Great Extinction that saw the
end of the dinosaurs.
Millions of years later, a tribe of pre-historic humans uncovered
and awoke Tiamat, whose long slumber had recharged his powers. Tiamat exalted
this small tribe into high-level superhumans in order to be his primary
servants, granting them nearly godlike magical power. This group, calling
themselves the Supernals, went forth and helped form human civilization,
playing the roles of various deities that would inspire the old myths and
religions we know today (though many of those myths and legends are wildly
inaccurate to the reality in detail, if not in scope).
Tiamat, of course, revealed himself to be a cruel tyrant,
unleashing horrific monsters upon the world and demanding fealty and sacrifices
from humanity. The Supernals soon rebelled against their master, but were
unable to kill him, instead sealing him away in an alternate dimension.
From there, the Supernals ruled over humans for a while,
spreading out the various civilizations to seek their own path. When the
civilizations began to clash, the Supernals did likewise, and after a few
brief, but devastating battles, they realized they could easily destroy the
planet during their struggles. Ergo, many left Earth to seek out other worlds,
taking some of their followers with them. Earthly civilization was left to its
own devices, as the Supernals agreed to have Earth be a neutral ground.
The Supernals found other suitable planets throughout the
galaxy, terraformed them, and settled their people on them. Eventually, though,
even the Supernals grew bored ruling their customized worlds, and most of them
ascended to a higher plan of existence once they were certain the civilizations
they had founded could self-sustain. Over thousands of years, those societies
advanced and developed into space-faring races, many meeting up and forming the
United Galactic Empire.
Back on Earth, life moved on and humans developed more or
less as we would recognize world history, until the late 21st
century.
MODERN HISTORY
Human society develops about as we know it from at least the
time of Antiquity. In the 21st century, however, scientists crack
the code in creating dimension-crossing technology. Unfortunately, their first
successful opening was to unseal Tiamat’s prison.
In the thousands of years since he was sealed away, Tiamat
has been trying to tear his way back to Earth. In the process, not only has he
enslaved and mutated the native creatures of his prison dimension, the Monster
Realm, but he has also torn open holes to other realms as well, subsuming the
civilizations into his legions, and drawing magical power from them. His
experiments with mixing alternate magics has caused him to grow insane, and
resulted in the creation of many strains of monster, feral and intelligent
alike.
When the Earth scientists open the door to the Monster
Realm, not knowing what it was, Tiamat came through, emerging onto North America. He immediately unleashed a massive series
of portal storms that ripped across the continent, spewing forth millions of
monsters and his personal army of mortal followers, which then attacked
humanity. Tiamat then flew eastward, ripping open more portals as he went
North America was virtually
obliterated in a matter of hours. Europe was overtaken in even less time, and
the monstrous hordes surged down into the northern halves of South America and
Africa, and across western Asia. Along with
the invading forces, waves of magic surged across the planet, causing mutations
in native wildlife, and the emergence of psionic, magical, and mutant powers
among the human population.
As Tiamat himself reaches Europe,
a squad of Supernals appeared to battle him. Tiamat, his power somewhat
weakened by the effort of creating the portal storms, engaged five Supernals in
direct combat, tearing up the land as they went. Likewise, however, it turned
out that many of the more intelligent monster and demihuman species that had
spent millennia under Tiamat’s tyranny saw the opportunity to free themselves.
They united against the more feral monster swarms and joined forces with
surviving humans to save the planet.
Ultimately, the returned Supernals were able to finally kill
Tiamat this time. A handful of them stayed behind to keep a watchful eye on
Earth for any further extra-dimensional or alien threats, but in doing so, were
effectively exiled from the Ascended Supernal civilization, reducing their own
powers to comparative demigod levels. Between this, and the fact that
attempting to fumigate the occupying forces from the world would only do more
damage to the planet, they have decided to watch over the world either from
afar, or to create their own personal kingdoms.
The damage to the world was severe. Human civilization above
the equator is essentially eradicated, and south of the equator, the countries
remaining are on tenuous terms of non-aggression with the occupying invaders.
The ex-followers of Tiamat, as well as other immigrant species that took advantage
of the portal storms to reach Earth, have settled and formed their own
civilizations across the ruins.
For the most part, however, many of the demihumans and even
some monster species are not that interested in fully conquering the planet.
Some, in fact, betrayed Tiamat once they reached Earth. Many were simply dumped
on the world accidentally as Tiamat ripped open portals to many realms
indiscriminately. Some species existed on Earth prior to the Dragon or Supernal
Wars and are happy to re-inhabit the planet of their ancestors. Others are
immigrants from less hospitable worlds, who see Earth as a greener pasture. And
thus we end up with the world as seen in the Map above.
NOTES
The background of this setting has been reused in a few
different configurations across several of my projects. Several Tabitha Cain
characters were re-imaged as Supernals, as well as Tiamat and the Dragons being
readapted for this. One of my adult modern fantasy settings repeats the idea of
an extra dimensional god battling humanoid deities as the historical origin of
that world’s supernatural elements.
Most significantly, the Natural Forces superhero universe
has basically the same backstory as listed above, but the results were much
more devastating, with most of the planet completely wrecked, only a few
Supernals still alive at the end of the fight, while Tiamat’s death freed the
remaining Dragons to form their own territories in the ruined continents.
Humanity, meanwhile, is forced to pile together in a magically-hospitable Antarctica, guarded by ragtag teams of superheroes.
The theme of a “god/dragon war transforming the modern
world” was something I got stuck on for a while, and this version of that
setting concept was little more than a random thought experiment along the way,
toying with maps. Still, it’s interesting to look back on, and see how many
elements got reused for other things.
COUNTRIES and SAPIENT SPECIES
HUMANS
Strictly speaking, humans are still the dominant species by
number, but have the least amount of real political and economic power. Most of
the surviving countries are south of the equator, with hold outs in a few northern territories
only being truly facilitated by supernatural or superhuman leverage. Humans do
also dwell in other countries, but are largely treated as occupying
non-citizens, pests, or bottom-class citizens at best.
Human territories are categorized by “Human Controlled” and
“Human Inhabited”, as well as “Human Inhabited, Protected/Ruled by [Other]”.
“Controlled” indicates humans rule the territory with sufficient military and
economic might that they are officially recognized by the demihuman nations,
and their borders respected. This mainly applies to Australia,
and the southern halves of South America and Africa.
Due to the path of the invading forces, Southeast Asia was also largely spared
the onslaught, enough to retain Human Control, as well as a small section of India.
“Inhabited” means that humans live in the area, but mostly
as scattered subsistence-living settlements that have no real ability to defend
themselves if an invading force were to come and take the territory. Countries
like Japan and New Zealand are
Inhabited, only left alone largely due to geographical isolation.
“Protected” territories indicate that while humans make up
the majority, or even totality, of the civilian population, the actual power
that rules and/or defends the nation is supernatural. The Djinn
Republic is ruled by sorcerers,
Oceania is protected by the Weresharks, humans throughout Europe are protected
by the Werewolves, Alaska
is protected by Bearfolk as well as humans, Celestia is ruled by the Supernal
Celestian, and the Wastelands are “ruled” by roaming bands of mutants,
controlled by brutal warlords.
WEREWOLVES
Werewolves were humans bitten by Lycans (wolf-like humanoids
from the Monster Realm). This would normally turn humans into mindless thralls
of the Lycans, but due to magical plot contrivance, the human werewolves
retained their own minds and control of their powers. They can transform between
human, hybrid, and wolf forms at will, recover from injury quickly, and have
enhanced strength and senses even in human form, and can speak even in wolf
form.
They became protectors of humans throughout Europe, and turned many of the surviving humans in a
desperate bid to try and save humanity (this was set in motion prior to the
arrival of the Supernals, and continued even despite Tiamat’s defeat). After
the Invasion, the Werewolves attempted to form their own nation in the United Kingdom.
However, at that point the Draconians were taking over, and they had a brief
war, which the Draconians won. Similarly, the Gargoyles would not cede any
territory to the Werewolves.
Throughout Europe,
Werewolves and Humans exist as non-citizens in the Gargoyle Nation and the
Draconian Kingdom. The only two areas they can exist relatively free of
harassment are 1) the Free Trade Zone, where they can make a meager living
running outpost towns where the Gargoyles and Draconians can trade, and 2) The
Isle of Man, which was given to the werewolves to be their "nation"
more as something of a mockery by the Draconians; still, it was either that or
they'd annihilate the species outright, so the werewolves took it. The nation
doesn't haven't any actual power. The Isle of Man
is 99% werewolf inhabited, with the only humans being those who simply refuse
to be turned. Throughout the rest of Europe,
humans outnumber werewolves about 10 to 1.
Humans generally accept werewolves into their communities
and the werewolves do their best to protect them in kind, but it’s somewhat of
a double-edged sword: Draconians might not care for humans, but generally don’t
see them as a threat. Werewolves, on the other hand, are a potential danger,
and thus are more prone to being killed or “put in their place” by Draconians,
and any humans with them tend to suffer along with them.
BEARFOLK
Sorcery was used to transform a large number of bears
throughout the Alaskan and Yukon
territories into sapient creatures, in the hopes they
could aid against the monster hordes. A similar spell was used for wolves, but
that didn’t work for some reason. Bearfolk and humans co-exist as brothers in
arms, keeping the undead hordes from the Dead Lands at bay. Humans still
technically “rule” the land as they have the highest positions of authority,
but bearfolk are present within the government, such as it is.
ROUCUAN and OPHIL
Werejaguars and wereserpents respectively, these are
actually the descendants of humans from the Monster Realm. Their ancestors made
pacts with monsters to be transformed into werecreatures. They have simple,
tribal societies. Despite being effectively two separate species, they have
co-existed together for so long, they see one another as kin. They feel no real
kinship for humans despite their common ancestry, but don’t have a problem with
them. There’s a general sense of live and let live. Any distrust the humans
might have for them is largely mitigated by the fact that the tribes are pretty
good at keeping the monsters of the Wild Amazon in check.
THRYTH
Sapient giant spiders. They keep to themselves. While they
won’t necessarily kill another sapient species upon first encountering them,
they won’t tolerate their presence for long. Humans, Roucuan, and Ophil avoid
the Thryth and the Thryth avoid them in turn.
CEPHELIANS
Psychic sapient octopi. Cephelians are similar to the Thryth
in that they don’t reveal themselves much. However, this is mainly because they
are a deep water race and regular contact with the humans isn’t practical. They
occasionally make contact for educational and minor trade purposes. The whole
of their species currently lives in the Sea of Japan.
WERESHARKS
These are humans who willingly underwent the transformation
to become weresharks via magic rituals. They are thus honored as national
heroes. After Oceania was wrecked by tsunami’s
and sea monsters, the weresharks were the ones who really enabled the human
survivors to pull back together. As such, the weresharks also just ended up
taking over as leaders of the various villages. Unlike werewolves, weresharks
have no hybrid form, though they are naturally 30% stronger than humans on
average. They can only shift from human to shark form, and can only become
sharks while in water.
SARKAN
Sarkan are a race of scorpion-folk, and like the Thryth,
they keep to themselves. Sarkan are an extremely violent and hostile species,
and their only real interest in humans is either as enemies to be killed, or as
a good source of weapons. Sarkan were engineered by Tiamat to essentially be
berserker infantry. The few tribes existing are technically mentally deficient,
in that unlike their original design, they are capable of restraint and wisdom.
They struggle to reign in their instinctive rage, and currently take their
aggressions out on the monsters of the Sahara.
They are working a campaign to hunt down every monster from
Tiamat’s realms (and any of their Earth-born spawn) down to extinction as a
means of symbolic revenge against their maker. The humans of Africa
keep a wary eye to the North, awaiting the day the Sarkan finally snap and try
to murder their way southward. Of course, Africa is currently a giant war zone
as it is; very occasionally, a Sarkan might be hired by humans as mercenaries
in the Northern Territories
to wipe out an enemy encampment, but this is an extremely dangerous
proposition.
DRACONIANS
Draconians are former followers of Tiamat, descended from a
human tribe loyal to him before the Supernals first sealed him away. As such,
they got sealed into the Monster Realm with him. The original Draconians were
suffused with dragon blood, transforming them into weredragons of a sort. They
can’t transform, but are born as human/dragon hybrids, of the sort with bipedal
bodies, and human torsos and heads, but with dragonscale skin over the rest of
them, clawed hangs and feet, and dragon wings, tails and horns. They are
naturally stronger, faster, tougher, quicker to heal, have enhanced senses, and
are more magically resistant than humans. They can also spit fire or acid.
Draconians don’t care for humans. The only reason they
helped the humans battle Tiamat’s forces is because they came to the
understanding that Tiamat had gone completely batshit insane. Despite being
indirectly descended from dragons themselves, they could no longer follow their
nihilistic god, and so joined forces with humans and the Gargoyles to fight off
the monster hordes. This, of course, was mainly so they could stake a claim of
territory, and if the humans didn’t like it, the general response was “Hey, who
was it again who managed to save your asses? There’s not a whole lot of you
left, you know, and we could totally finish the job.”
Draconians get along famously with the Gargoyles, splitting Europe between them. However, while they allow humans to
live in their territories, they treat them, like cheap foreign labor and pets
at best, and as non-entities and vermin at worst. Draconians don’t simply kill
off the rest of the humans because they have a sense that doing so is beneath
them and, although they won’t admit it, sometimes humans have their uses.
Still, as bad as humans have it with the Draconians, the
Werewolves have it arguably worse. As mentioned, the Draconians forced the
werewolves into submission and near extinction. Blow for blow, a Draconian is
generally equal in physical might to a werewolf, and so the main reason
Draconians don’t push them around as readily is that the average werewolf is
actually capable of killing a Draconian barehanded in a fair fight. Ergo, they
don’t care to “poke the alligator” so to speak, but if a werewolf starts
causing trouble, a Draconian police squad will readily beat them down quite
savagely. As well, what few considerations and pity a Draconian will give a
human will not be extended to a werewolf.
GARGOYLES
Gargoyles are a goblinoid race that come in a variety of
body types and sizes, ranging from muscular ten foot tall humanoids to three
foot tall imps. They appear quite similar to the stone gargoyles found on
European cathedrals, with a vaguely devilish appearance. Many have wings and
tails, but some do not.
Gargoyles come from one of the many other dimensions Tiamat
gained access to during his experiments. The Gargoyles themselves made a home
in a dark, underworld style dimension, but Tiamat’s forces subjugated them upon
gaining access to it. They hence ended up in the Monster Realm, trapped there
as conscripts to Tiamat’s armies. As such, they were quick to ally with the
Draconians in their conspiracy to betray the tyrant dragon. When the time came
and the Invasion ended, the Gargoyles split territory with the Draconians,
taking eastern Europe, while the Draconians took western Europe.
Gargoyles have no enmity for humans. In fact, they kind of
find them amusing. It’s cute how they try so hard, and damned if the hairless
apes are nearly as tough as cockroaches when it comes to surviving. That said,
Gargoyles extend no real care towards them either, so humans in their nation
are still treated as non-entities. However, Gargoyles are more willing to look
the other way when humans might set up a shanty town some where, and are more
willing to take on humans as lesser laborers.
NARTS
Narts are a race of magically gifted humanoid giants who
migrate from Realm to Realm every few hundred years. Ranging from twenty-five
to thirty feet tall, Narts possess immense physical strength and durability,
but this pales in comparison to their magical power, which can match even that
of human Sorcerers.
They were easily able to clear out the monster hordes from Russia, and as
such, established their territory there. They also used their magical power to
imbue the whole of their territory with a spell of “eternal spring”, creating a
stable bubble of pleasant weather for ideal living conditions.
Narts are an overall quite peaceful race, but they tend to
be rather self-absorbed as a culture. They do some trade with other nations,
but by and large will not extend aid to them, unless they can get some benefit
from it. Humans are welcome to live within their lands, but they are on their
own if they do, and they are expected to never interfere with Nart activities
or trespass on privately owned Nart property. The same consideration is not
afforded to humans, however, as Narts will think nothing of taking a short cut
through a human’s farm. Overall, the Narts are largely dismissive of humans,
unless a human is either causing trouble, is a superhuman or sorcerer of great
power who demands their attention, or the human is useful to them somehow.
Unfortunately, the Narts are a much more insidious presence
then they let on. As a species, they are essentially magical locusts; their
powerful spells come at the cost of high mana use, and the reason the migrate
so often is they will completely burn out the natural mana power of any world
they inhabit. Earth is already suffering this fate, as the Narts drain the rest
of the planets mana to fuel their Eternal Spring spell. The only reason no one
notices at first is that the region most effected is the Dead Lands, which
feeds off its own form of “anti-mana”. Thus, not only are the Narts hogging the
resource of magic, they are unwittingly strengthening the thread of the undead.
It’s not until Draconian power cores (magical batteries used to power their
machines) start consistently failing that anyone actually notices. Earth’s Mana
field is already weaker than most Realms; the Narts have typically managed to
live in a Realm for about 300 years before needing to move on, but Earth may
only have 50.
ANDROIDS
Self-aware robots were just coming into existence before the
advent of dimensional portal tech. While not quite perfected yet, the
development of Magitechnology from Draconian, Gargoyle, and Sorcerer
experiments enabled the creation of truly living machines. However, the free
androids of the city-state of Axis want little to do with humans or the rest of
the supernatural creatures of Earth. They are content to seal themselves away
until they have established and experienced their own civilization, however
limited, to find themselves before facing the rest of the world.
SUPERHUMANS
Superhumans are people suffused with spell-like abilities or
effected by magical mutation or awakened to psionic powers or enhanced by
Magitech experimentation. Broadly speaking, most superhumans serve as the
defense force for the Allied Freed States, the remnants of North American
society that has not yet been completely subsumed by supernatural forces. Some
superhumans use their powers to assist in industry, while others become
outright supervillains, lending to the AFS feeling like something of a
superhero-themed territory.
Superhumans have a variety of classic “superhero” style
powers, most having only one or two major abilities, but some having several.
Super strength and durability is common, but flight, super speed, and energy
blasts of varying strengths are the second most common. Other powers may
include teleportation, telepathy, intangibility, shape shifting, elemental
control, rapid healing, etc. Most superhumans are on the “Street Level” of
power, but some can be strong enough to fight evenly with even Narts or High
Vampires one on one.
SUPERNALS
Five Supernals remain on Earth. While depowered into “mere”
demigod status compared to their kin who remained in the Higher Realms, the
Supernals are nonetheless unfathomably powerful compared to all other species.
Even an army of Narts or High Vampires or Sorcerers or Superhumans are easily
defeated by the might of a single Supernal. The ones still on Earth are:
Celestian, an angel-themed Supernal who rules his nation of
Celestia. He protects his country with his vast powers, but also rules them
with ruthlessly strict authority. Those he trusts to be his enforcers are
granted angel-themed powers.
Trismegista, a mad scientist-themed Supernal who lives in
the Gargoyle nations, minding her own business as she performs her experiments
with various magics.
Khal Morte, a liche-themed Supernal who rules the Dead Lands
with absolute authority, creating the hordes of Vampires, Ghouls, and Zombies,
with his High Vampires being his strongest generals.
Oasis is a sorceress-themed Supernal, and the weakest of the
lot, who aids the Allied Freed States in their defense against the Dead Lands.
Atzlan is a superhero-themed Supernal who is actually
stationed on the Moon. Far and away the most powerful of the lot, his primary
function is to protect the planet as a whole from further extraterrestrial or
ultraterrestrial invasion. He is also an ally to the United Galactic Empire’s
own superhero defense force, the Centurions. He eventually helps to defeat Khal
Morte and the Narts when their threat becomes too big.
SORCERERS
The Sorcerers of the Djinn Republic
are humans whose ancient bloodlines were awakened to immense magical power.
They protect the people of their nation from the Mutant Hordes and the monsters
of the Wild Sahara, but also rule over them with absolute authority.
NUCLEAR MUTANTS
Nuclear fallout mixed with magical energy to transform the
people of the Wastelands into hideously deformed abominations, whose sanity is
as malformed as their bodies. Scattered across the barren lands in roving
tribes, the Nuclear Mutants resort to pillaging, cannibalism, and monster
hunting to survive and make sport. They regard all other life forms as prey,
holding only the most grudging of respect for monsters more powerful than
themselves. As such, all other sapients and nations try to exterminate them on
sight, if able. Even still, they breed like rabbits in their native lands,
which no one wants to enter, making them impossible to fully wipe out.
THE UNDEAD
Vampires, Ghouls, Zombies, they want what you’d expect: to
consume and kill all life on Earth. Currently, all the nations of North America are at war with the Undead, who presently
control 80% of the continent. Ruled by the Supernal Khal Morte, their numbers
are seemingly endless, and their territory is too dangerous to effectively
reclaim. The Land is divided into territories ruled by High Vampires, who
possess enhanced physical power from a typical vampire, as well as magic strong
enough to rival human Sorcerers and Narts.
UNITED GALATIC EMPIRE OBSERVATION POST
The immense surge of magical power from Tiamat’s emergence
was detected by long-range sensors of the UGE. A scout team was sent to observe
the conditions of Earth without making direct contact. Located in the barren
wastes of the deep Arctic, the outpost is
staffed by several species. The fact that Earth was the home of their shared
ancestors is not lost on them, and there is some debate if Earth should be
asked to join the UGE; however, it’s present, highly dangerous condition with
numerous invasive threats, and including the reincarnated Supernals has
presently set the planet into quarantine status.
WILD TERRITORIES
These are parts of the world completely ceded to the Monster
Infestation, far too dangerous for any stable civilization to be maintained.
Certain demihuman tribes are still able to thrive here, but mostly only by
living a nomadic existence, or sealing themselves away in geographically
isolated territories.
Wild Amazon composes the northern half of South
America. Wild Sahara composes the northern half of Africa. Wild Asia consists of the central and western
regions of Asia, between China,
the Nart Lands, and the Wastelands. The Wild
Northlands consists of the Fennoscandian Pennisula, north of the Gargoyle
Nations.
Strictly speaking, the Oceans are considered Wild
territories on account of Monsters still roaming the open seas, but most of
them have been suppressed in areas of short range sea travel between nations,
and the sheer size of the Oceans means that there is less of a chance for
deep-sea Monsters to encounter random ships. That said, almost no one dares
cross the Pacific or Atlantic for long
stretches, lest they tempt fate in that regard.
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