Runa: For every three that are visible, there is a fourth that is hidden.

[chronoplasm]

(Intended for D&D 4E, but I suppose it could work with any system.)

The elves and eladrin of the Fey colony Elocin worship three goddesses; The Maiden of Spring, The Mother of Summer, and The Crone of Autumn. They believe in a fourth goddess as well, but to worship her is a blasphemy punished by disfiguration and banishment to the barren east.

The dwarves of the three strongholds worship three gods; Prince South, Father West, and Grandfather North. They believe in a fourth god, who lives in the abandoned stronghold to the east, but they do not worship that god, for he is a traitor.

The people of Kire worship three gods as well;

The King of Pillars has four eyes; the one on the left sees the past, the one on the front sees the present, and the one on the side sees the future. No one knows what the eye on the back sees. The King's four eyes decorate the caps of pillars.

The Queen of Clocks has four arms; the arm that points upward represents height, the one that reaches to the side represents width, and the one that extends forward represents depth. The Queen hides her fourth hand behind her back. Whatever items she holds in her hands have symbolic meanings. The Queen's form is used as a decorational element on clock faces.

The Knight of Doors has four hearts; three of the Knight's hearts are revealed by open panels on the sides of its armor, while the fourth heart is hidden by a sealed panel. One heart is a chunk of ice, another is a bottle of water, and the third is a steaming pot. The fourth heart is a mystery.

There are two more gods in the pantheon of Kire, but these are evil gods.
The Fool of the Pit is a vile god of clowns and goblins. This god has four faces; the mask of Harlequin, the mask of Pierrot, and the mask of Death. If this god has a true face, it is unknown.
The three gods of Kire, working together, are able to keep the Fool in check, but a fifth god emerges to disrupt the balance. That god is called The Bastard of the Cage. This new god has many mouths and is gaining a following amongst the orcs and wild tribes of the east.

These three pantheons are united as nine to fight against the demons and evil gods of the east.


I'll have more information concerning the individual locations later.

[Murometz]

Well, that is pretty cool! The "Apparent Three" (of everything) and the "Hidden Fourth" is quite an original and flavorful approach! Looking forward to more.

[chronoplasm]

Thanks!

Heres some information concerning Kire.

Kire is an ancient city of marble and steel. Inside the city, there is a monument on every street corner. The outer walls of the city are cragged with battle-scars.
Kire has been able to survive thousands of years of sieges thanks to the domed greenhouses that cap every building. During times of peace, these greenhouses grow rare and out of season plants for trade.
Kire trades with the elven colony of Elocin using the silver road, and it trades with the dwarven stronghold of Westkeep using a subterranean trade route called Salamandarine.
While digging the wonderous catacombs of Kire, diggers found a large, winding tunnel carved by an underground river. The Ardrich party braved this miles-long river, and eventually found themselves in the dwarven city of Westkeep.
The dwarves call this river Salamandarine, for the blind cave salamandars that they fish from it for food. Leaders of the two cities came together, for the first time, to figure out how to use the river as a trade route. The river is far too treacherous for carrying goods, and it only flows one way, so the best engineers from both cities were called upon to figure out a way to make the journey safer. These engineers devised a system of trolleys, suspended from tracks on the ceiling of the tunnel, and pulled by water-wheels. Now, the Salamandarine route is the fastest and safest way to get to and from Kire and Westkeep. Irongate Station and Catacomb station are now important places of trade and cultural exchange.

I'll have more information a bit later.

[chronoplasm]

Kire is a constitutional monarchy with a half-orc king named Afatsum IV. He is descended from the legendary warrior Lahsiv.

Long ago, a noble family, the Firehawks, adopted a baby-orc captured in battle, and raised it as an experiment to see if the orcs could be taught to be civilized. They named this orc Lahsiv.
The greatest influence in Lahsiv's life was his adoptive brother Afatsum. After a rocky start, the two got to be great friends and had many adventures as kids. When they were young men, they joined the Kiren Infantry and fought many battles in foreign lands. Their most famous battle however, was the Juggernaut Siege.

With the help of their Giant allies, the orcs actually managed to lift their entire city of Juggernaut out of the ground and load it onto a cart to use as a massive siege engine. The orcs and giants of Juggernaut fought their way west, crossing the mountains, and eventually reaching the domains of Kire.

Afatsum and Lahsiv were called home to defend the homeland. Lahsiv knew that he would have to fight against his own kind, but he did not realize that he would have to fight against his own flesh and blood.

Lahsiv and Afatsum rode forth with a group of soldiers to try and slow the advance of the mighty Juggernaut. As their comrades fell, Afatsum and Lahsiv fought their way into the city, and actually managed to dislodge one of its wheels.

During the battle however, Lahsiv came into contact with his biological father. He was nearly tempted to switch sides until his brother Afatsum was slain. In a fit of rage, Lahsiv killed his own blood relatives and fought so fiercely that he shook the entire city of Juggernaut.
Lahsiv's reinforcements arrived just in time to see the Juggernaut topple over and fall into a ravine.

Lahsiv fought his way out of the rubble, killing every orc he could find as he searched desperately for his brother. It took over twenty Kiren soldiers to restrain Lahsiv so that they could pull him from the crumbling fortress.

Lahsiv returned home victorious, but grieving.
For his honor and bravery, Lahsiv was made the highest general of Kire, and he was allowed to marry into the royal family. His son, Afatsum II, would become crown prince of Kire, and eventually became king.

[chronoplasm]

The seven secret hells.

Everybody knows about the nine levels of hell. The prophecies say that the legions of hell will one day attempt to invade the world of Runa, but the armies of the nine hells will not be sufficient to defeat the nine gods. What the prophecy does not mention is that there is an additional seven hells.

The nine levels of hell are grouped into three groups of three. Each of those three has a fourth level hidden between them. Furthermore, there is a secret group four far below these. The nine hells, plus the seven secret hells, form a total of sixteen hells.

There are places on Runa where the secret hells overlap natural space.

There is a small, sealed off tunnel branching off from the Salamandarine that connects the catacombs of Kire to hell.
There is a gate deep within the ruins of Juggernaut that connects to a secret hell.

[Ancient Gamer]

Wow. Cool little sentences brimming with interesting ideas. Me like!

You could probably work on the write up, but the concepts presented are intriguing.

[Strolen]

Definitely some great ideas in there! Love the four eyes, arms and hearts ideas in the first post.

[dark_dragon]

This sounds like a pretty cool setting. I like the (3+1) theme you have going. I guess these would be very important numbers in your world. Perhaps the fourth son would be killed as a bad omen, or every fourth blade forged would be marked and buried instead of used.

Very cool, and  I like the idea of the Salamandarine route. lots and lots of potential. Entire adventures could be held there. Since It connects to a hell, I imagine it would need constant defence from the spawns.

d_d wants more!