A World of Mystery
Floating cities, legendary spells, sinking islands, and a missing king.
On the continent of Vermillion, there was a great nation called Byzel. In the middle of Byzel, stood the great palace of King Alexander. Eight prosperous cities surrounded the palace forming a circle. Each city specialized in a certain area. In Mai, the food and wine was superb. Beckford was renown for its scholars. Dryad excelled in magic. Smithville made the best weapons. Nod was the best place to go to learn the arts. Merrille was famous for its doctors. Ervi was the town where military families stayed. Audai was a town of worship.
The king was renown for his kindness and cheerful attitude, but one day, it all changed. A person in a black, hooded cloak was seen entering the palace and speaking with the King. Slowly, the king became ill-tempered and moody. He raised the taxes to ridiculous prices, forcing many people into poverty. A dark cloud appeared over the city, blocking the sun.
Many people took this as a bad omen. The packed up and moved several miles southeast of Byzel, forming a small village called Myner.
A year later, the King sent his troops out to other lands, conquering everything that stood in his path. Only the great nation of Rymiela dared stand against Byzel. For years, the war continued with neither side wining nor losing.
Two years later, a battle between Rymielian and Byzelian forces take place on a small island called Ete. No one knows what happened that day, but every soldier was killed on the field and a month later, the entire island sank to the bottom of the ocean. Only a few surviving natives still exist in the world, but they claim they have no memory of what transpired that day.
The frightening events lead to a peace treaty between Rymiela and Byzel. Even still, the two countries bear a grudge against each other. After the treaty was signed, King Alexander disappeared. No one knows what happened to him or the person in the black, hooded cloak.
Since that time, many rumors have sprung up of floating cities, a land inhabited by soulless creatures, rare items, and legendary spells of immeasurable and possibly destructive power.
Possible Plots:
A close friend or relative of the King travels the world to find the missing King.
A thief agrees to find a rare item in order to join the Thief Guild.
A high level mage seeks to learn the forbidden arts.
A survivor of Ete is hunting down the person in the black, hooded cloak to find out what happened in Ete.
An adventurer is journeying aimlessly through the world, looking to help those in need.
The possibilities are endless I suppose.
Not Registered Yet? No problem.
Do you want Strolenati super powers? Registering. That's how you get super powers! These are just a couple powers you receive with more to come as you participate.
- Upvote and give XP to encourage useful comments.
- Work on submissions in private or flag them for assistance.
- Earn XP and gain levels that give you more site abilities (super powers).
- You should register. All your friends are doing it!
? Responses (6)
Domo arigato, goziemashita.
This is a good idea. It could become a homebrewed world with a little work. Nice work.
I love these kind of ideas. If I ever get the shopping cart idea to save favorites this is another great one to put in the myth/historical section. This could be used as a great history of an area that gives depth to the world you game in. The players themselves could come up with plot hooks if you give them a little history and a little mystery.
This does not appear to be a plot as such since there is nothing specific for the PCs to do. It is, however, good background material with some interesting ideas and, as Agar suggested, could easily be expanded into a setting. Just needs some fleshing out.
3/5
While the author of this isn't around anymore, it's still an example of a submission that, while definitely not uber-quality, has enough to be inserted into a campaign or world with relative ease. Point in fact, it seems to me that we should be less harsh on submissions that don't have massive gobs of content, and consider whether they are, like this one, self-contained.
An interesting myth or mystery for ones world.