Don't let the title fool you, i real can be a lazy GM, however that is not the case the time, this time around I've simply hit a road block.
Heres what is up, in this setting we have an island that is shaped by its leaders, if you are the ruler of domain it is shaped by your image/personality. an ice queen would turn the place to snow, a necromancer may turn the land barren.
But they're not always that simple.
so I've got these 12 domains and I've written down ideas for some of them, but they all seem to be way too tropey (the desert area, the snow area, the lava area, etc...) some of them I've fleshed out and like. however the rest I've run out of ideas and i was hoping you guys would be willing to contribute.
its loosely based off raventloft, in the idea there are lords of domains. but otherwise unrelated, its a fantasy setting, and the tech has reached pistols but not zeppelins. and practically anything you need to exist does exist. (dragons/cthulu/Bird people/etc...)
Otherwise you have free reign to pitch whatever ideas for whichever area you feel like, anything helps!
Any other questions, ill be here to answer them.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help me out.
Feel free to be as creative as possible, if you had an idea for a land that is entirely controlled by ratfolk and they enslave all the humans and use them like cattle, that can work.
If you've had an idea for a specific city or land cooking for awhile let it rip!
and i just realized i went from 11 to 13 because I'm an idiot
>>45935309
Right, so, the missing twelfth realm. The master of it accidentally thought himself out of existence; alternately, it's right there, between the eleventh and the thirteenth, but it doesn't show up on a map and you can't get there by walking.
Speaking of the dangers of letting your environment reflect your innermost self, how about a realm that has been transformed into a maze-like prison meant to confound and contain the lord of the realm's darker inclinations, which his subconscious has made manifest in a kind of horrible monster. The lord twists the realm into an endless labyrinth of ever-changing, ever-treacherous corridors to keep his demon at bay. The kind of place that constantly defies logic. Denizens have built some unusual towns out of necessity.
Similarly, any mentally disturbed lord or lady could make for a strange environment.
Have a Kingdom that's the bourgeoisie dream.
Buildings are all towers with solid gold penthouses that the rich live in, while the peasants crows into the lower floors.
Celebrations are held atleast 3 times a day, often more.
Meanwhile the working class have been totally crushed after a recent failed uprising, losing the will to fight.
And I suppose for the Lord you could have some excessively gluttonous and pompous bastard, but thanks to his money he can afford the best in guards, healthcare and technology such as the latest weapons.
>>45935248
Your map reminds me of the LEGO Throwbots world for some reason.
I like copying real-world politics, particularly the way countries get divided after wars, and who allies with who prior to major wars breaking out. My world has two nations that split in half due to a revolution/coup and a following war that ended in a stalemate. One country is a totalitarian dictatorship and the other is egalitarian, and both feel that the entirety of the other nation belongs to them and refuse to have diplomatic talks. The border is uncrossable and both nations are technically still at war with each other. You just need to invent an interesting reason for why the war started in the first place.
Don't want to derail, bur /r/ing that fantasy map with all the criticisms on it that is actually Europe sideways.
>>45935248
What are the borders between domains like? Say a fire kingdom borders an ice kingdom - is there a sudden dividing line where the ice stops and the ground turns to magma? Or is there a more gradual transition?
How important are borders? Are the formally defined or more loose? Is there a wall/fence/moat/whatever along some of them? All of them? Is it legal to cross willy-nilly? Are Lords allowed to enter others' territory, or is that forbidden? What about for diplomatic purposes?
Do borders change? How long have they been in their current state? Have there always been the same number of regions? Can they grow/shrink or is everything static? If a lord is killed/replaced/whatever does the new guy's domain change?
>>45935248
The volcanic area doesn't just look like a red and black wasteland. It's covered in fields because of the good soil, and a lot of the mountains that have been thought to go extinct have nice castles growing out of them. The humans and possibly gnomes farm the land, and the duergr (who are not necessarily evil, but very materialistic) mine the mountains.
Isn't this just the Anima map with Varja being land connected?
Honestly, just steal from the lore what you like, since most of the continent isn't that weaboo.
Land of Blues.
The leader is a real Tom Waits like figure and before rising to power, was always the kind of folk to be simging at the piano with a raspy voice, while juggiling a bottle and cigar in his hands.
New Orleans like archetecture would suffice. The mood woyld be very cowboy bebop esque. Half the time its raining, theres plenty of trains,and maybe crossroad demon or two.
>>45936143
Glad to answer, ill answer as best i can in order.
1. when you reach a new domain they merge, so say an ice and maya meet, there will be both ice and magma in the exact locations, neither will stop the other, the further into ice you go, the less magma (it may only stretch a couple meters past the border)
2. the borders are really important each domain has their own rules and rulers and laws and customs, its very important you do not accidentally stray into another domain you don't know the laws of.
some domain lords allow passage freely, they love to trade and whatnot, other have banned all trespassing and will kill on sight. the lords are interesting ill cover that in the next answer.
3. the borders change constantly, the thing about these borders and domains is they are endlessly changing, should a domain lord capture land it then is incorporated into his territory and thus shaped as such to his image near instantly. this has led to a constant war among the whole island, because the size of your territory directly influences the amount of power you gain from it, but at the same time they can't ALWAYS be at war, so while their armies wage battle they choose to keep damage to a minimum.
a lords power is determined by the size of the land, and also the lord is determined by who the land deems the ruler, the land isn't technically sentient, but it can choose a new ruler based on if the new person is a better ruler (its selection process is unknown, which is why there are so many varied lords) but a lord tends to stay in power until they die. when a lord dies the land goes into a cataclysm state of destroying itself for a few days until a new ruler is chosen and then begins to reshape. (people who live on this island fucking hate it)
Cont.
>>45935248
The desert area is ruled by a massive slumbering ant lion, whose dreamself is out and about actively pretending to be a mere mortal and twisting shenanigans to its own ends. Every hundred years or so, it needs to awaken and devour a bunch of people. The dreamself shimmers like heat haze when using powers, and disappears to reform elsewhere when 'killed'.
Basically, a town disappears every century, then the records disappear, then the memories. Since the lord is hidden, it's actually one of the freer places in The Land- The Sleeper doesn't actually care what happens as long as it gets its town every century. Political rebels, exiled kings, extra princes, whatever. Occasionally the dreamself will follow someone around and use its illusions to make them think they're the lord of the realm, but those don't tend to last long.
>>45936278
when it comes to a domain lords ability to leave, they can't, a domain lord can never cross his border, he is limited to it, this means domain lords can never fight each other and that all their fighting is done by minions and armies, or possibly hired adventurers wink wink.
there haven't always been the same number of regions, but the starting number is unknown to the inhabitants, because not even the oldest domain lord has been around long enough to know. but most recently a domain was wiped out which is why its N/A, it was so badly destroyed that it is no longer considered a domain. should the land pick a competent ruler to make a new domain, it will then be avery small plot of land and the new ruler will have to conquer more in order to gain power.
>>45936029
>>45936185
why yes, yes it is, i liked the look of it and decided to steal it to suit my purposes, i stole the easier to photoshop one too.
>>45936161
For a different and odder idea, the current queen of blastedvolcanoland is super nice, almost to a fault. She also made a decree that any member of the realm that carries her mark has nothing to fear from the heat of earth's blood, leading to some very unique and bizarre industries. And also lava baths.
>>45935248
Snowlandia is the domain of an ancient and powerful thaumaturge, rumored to know many names of hidden power and to see through the eyes of the realm's ever-present ravens. Frost develops at a much slower rate, but grows into arcane swirls and squiggles that eventually complete words.
Destroying writing is a capital offense, carried out by packs of magebred wolves, their coats proof against swords, axes, and spells. When on "Official business", they shine with silver light and interfering with them is a crime- Otherwise, the lord leaves them to roam and only intervenes in extreme cases (wolves wiping out a town, a town wiping out a whole pack)
Anyone with at least a page of text on their person can find the lord's castle within a day's ride. Anyone else is SOL. His time is precious, wasting it is perilous, and the wolves are always thickest around the base of the tower.
