Our Fractured World...
The Only Survivor of a Devastating Attack
The year is 428 M.A. (Moli Aistas; High Elven for "Since Impact"). Our planet, left in tatters by a meteor impact more than 400 years ago, is held together by the crystalization of the raw magic power from which we all draw our energy to perform magic.
Due to this, our continent has been seperated from all others. Worse than that (even though it should be a blessing), our continent has one of the largest crystal "spires" compared to all the other continents. This massive concentration of pure magical energy causes all sorts of anomalies around it, and what compounds this problem is that Dragons of all types have quite an attraction to it for various reasons. Being one of few beings that can cross the incredible chasms between worlds, these creatures gather on our continent. Preying on us, our livestock, and even our enemies as if they were snacks after a long trip, looting our treasuries to decorate their newfound lairs. Our previous enemies are enemies no more; we now unite against the common foe that threatens our very way of life.
The best of us aspire to become Dragon Slayers, hunters that seek out the most dangerous of these beasts and quell the threat they pose to nearby humanoid dwellings. These Dragon Slayers often come from all walks of life, and some have even been scarred or traumatized by Dragons in their past. Still others merely seek the glory, and some plan to line their pockets with the deceased's hoard. Regardless of intention, these are the people who now protect us from the claw, teeth, and fire that drive us from our homes.
How Could This Happen?
The history of our planet is a long one... However, the importance of the Impact on our way of life is the most powerful event in our history, and even some of the uneducated know the particulars of this tragic event.
The planet has existed for longer than any living being has been able to trace it - any attempts at doing so with Time magic results in a horrid mess of singularities, improbable events, and a strange deterioration of magic itself. It is theorized that this is because the planet existed long before magic, and the planet itself gave birth to the magic that everyone from the common tavern bard to the most sophisticated of members of the Guild of High Sorcery now use.
Early on in history, magic flourished on the planet, and soon the Guild of High Sorcery was developed to govern its use. Starting off as a mere guild for practitioners to belong to and gain advice and techniques to further their own development, it soon began to outgrow its original purpose at an unfathomable rate. Soon it became the governing force even over that of kingdoms, able to solve disputes between nations. Of course, it held a special place for magic, and it sought to ensure that no form of magic, no matter how primitive, mundane, unethical or otherwise would be limited.
When magic had reached its peak, a budding college under the University of Divination, known as the College of Astronomical Divination started to launch projects that involved using magic to scry into the depths of space. This created knowledge of other planets, and the nature of the 'sun system' to which the planet belonged. For a brief period, people were fascinated with the thought that perhaps there might be other life on nearby planets, but specialized druids who belonged to the college were able to justly determine that no such thing existed, at least not as far as our sun system.
One fated evening, a professor of the college was working on his thesis - the combination of a Detect Magic spell into the magic that had been used to scry to the ends of the sun system. This would allow practitioners of magic to detect all major sources of magic within the sun system. Of course it wouldn't pick up miniature details, like for example the magic box in his desk, but it should be able to determine the power of nearby planets and if they too held magic, like their own. After casting, it is entirely unknown what had happened exactly as his journal entries abruptly ended on the night he had intended to cast. However, his body was found shortly afterward, and his head was blackened as if it had caught fire.
At first the event was passed as if it was merely a failed casting, but after careful study it was determined that it was because something exceptionally powerful must have been detected by the spell. Members of many of the divination colleges united to solve the issue, and soon a weakened form of the spell was developed and cast. A strange, massive, incredibly magical… thing was flying at an immense speed through the sun system. The next few days were spent tracking the object. It intercepted with the coordinates where a planet had previously been detected, and visual scry magic revealed that it had been utterly destroyed. This was when the first visual sighting of the object was witnessed.
It was seen drawing an immense amount of magical power from the planet, a sort of blue mist. Shortly after the magical aura dissipated, a glance of the object was caught: it appeared to be a massive black meteor of a sorts.
As if with a will of its own, it redirected its course for the planet - our planet. It quickly hurtled across the solar system, and knowing it was mere months before it would impact, the entirety of the Guild of High Sorcery united to develop some sort of defense.
Months, however, was not nearly enough time. Towers were constructed at key points across the planet, and within each was concentrated immense magical power. Time wizards, clerics… all manner of specialists began to focus on their studies like never before, and soon the Guild of High Sorcery authorized the casting of what was to be two of the most immense spells ever casted - not cast by one individual, but by thousands stretched all across the planet. The first, was a form of time altering spell that increased the relative speed of time within the aura. This caused the planet itself to experience a much heightened sense of time, allowing them to get more things done before the black meteor impacted. The second, was a form of atmospherical type spell, which strengthened the ozone of the planet to nearly adamantine strength: it was theorized to be able to hold even the planet together, nevermind let a black meteor pass through.
After the casting of these spells, the world now had some more time to spare, but it was still a meagre Seventeen years. These Seventeen Years are considered to be the most iconic in the history of our planet, for it was during this time that Good, Evil, Chaos, Law… all but a few were united in the protection of our planet. A small cult, unnamed but known to worship this black meteor, was the exception as they believed that the destruction of the planet was the coming of a new age. However, they never had any real impact on the turn of events - no pun intended.
The Seventeen Years, as unfortunate as it is, did not see rise to any new defenses against the meteor. People rotted away in their laboratories and churches, desperate to find a solution. However, those that currently were in place were all that could be thought of. Some suggested things that were far beyond human capacity, and others suggested some of the most absurd things you might have ever heard of. In short, the planet lived every day in dread as the black meteor drove itself ever closer to destroying our planet.
The black meteor, on 000 M.A. (Moli Aistas; High Elven for 'Since Impact'), somehow slid through the adamantine ozone as if it were some massive ghost, and impacted our planet, shattering it into pieces. Many millions died, for certain. However, upon shattering, the magic deep within the planet exploded, and oddly enough, crystallized almost instantaneously, puncturing many of the larger chunks of our planet. This strange event, curiously, succeeded in holding our planet together, but only barely. The previously constructed adamantine atmosphere held the gasses within, and thus some of us have managed to survive the event - very few of us. The small continent once held by the Gnomes was not punctured, and they say that it hit the adamantine atmosphere with such force that no one could possibly have survived. Thus why Gnomes are such a rare species on this planet these days. Another important note is that the black meteor failed to collect any of this magical aura from our planet, as it did with the first that it impacted in our system.
Shortly after this impact, a most strange device seemed to appear out of nowhere. Appearing to have been carved out of a planet, it floated in and seemed to "collect" the black meteor - puncturing it through the center - and fastening it to itself. It is still unsure what exactly this device is, but it has remained there, orbiting just outside of the adamantine atmosphere of our planet, ever since.
Well, we live just as we did before the impact, though with much less glory and on a much smaller portion of land. Magic is not nearly as powerful as it once was, though a few individuals of repute survived the attack and have passed on their knowledge to few students. Before passing away of old age or other effects, they managed some last attempts at determining what the consequences of this attack are on our way of life.
First of all, time seems to have gone awry. The time spell used to buy more time for our planet was disrupted heavily by the impact - it is believed that the planet is sectioned into different "Time Regions", wherein some continents experience an accelerated or decelerated sense of time compared to all others. This matters little, however, as we have no means of travelling between continents as of yet. Only creatures capable of flight over immense distances for weeks on end can cover these; this excludes travel to all but the strongest of Dragons. Some practitioners of magic are said to have the power as well, but any who can travel keep it well a secret.
Luckily, our "adamantine" atmosphere holds in all of the gasses that living creatures need so desperately to survive. This adamantine is, of course, not really a big shell of adamantine - it is actually a large sphere of Force magic that is supplemented with a thin mist of adamantine around it. This gives our sky a strange light-grey hue during the day (rather than the blue that was seen by our ancestors before the impact).
What is My Role?
Starting Gold: As DMG
Classes: Any from PHB, DMG, MM, Draconimicon and Complete Series of books
Races: Any from PHB, MM, and Draconimicon but please keep the number of Gnomes less than 2 - they're rare
Magic: PHB, DMG, MM, Complete Series, Spell Compendium, Draconimicon
Equipment: PHB, DMG, Draconimicon, Complete Series
- No more than 2 Gnome party members is preferred
- No Artifacts
- No obviously-overpowered classes, races, combinations, or variants (i.e. Paragon, Gestalt, etc.)
If you don't know if what you're gonna use is overpowered, then it likely isn't, so go ahead! Remember, DnD is a roleplaying game, not a number-crunching game!
Remember, you will be killing dragons - so don't be ashamed of building your character around that concept. You're a fresh new Dragon Slayer, after all.
Although it may look like a Sci-Fi game because of the pictures, it really isn't. It really is your ordinary 3.5e fantasy game, with a few small homebrew items and effects introduced later on. Everything that appears "scientific" is entirely just a magical item/artifact of some form. Perhaps the other continents might be different, due to their accelerated time rates, but those shouldn't even matter unless the party seeks those kinds of things out.
Let me know if there's something I missed, or if you have any other questions! Or if the pictures are too big and cause the thread to load super slow. =P
Note: The images were not created by me, nor do I own them. The images of the planet-related anomalies were made by Adam Burn of Deviant Art, whereas the image of the black meteor is Black Materia by synthesys of Deviant Art. Should they request removal of these images, I will do so.