Back in 2023 I made a short sort of video-pitch for a setting linked on the blog here. In the years since I've been fleshing it out into a big bloated setting thing after work, but I've been hesitant to properly put it out there. Thanks to Hilander, Isabelle, EcksianRaven, and Archon's Court for giving me a reminder to just post and let things go how they will.
Imagine if the universe was a cup.
Falling into that cup are countless upon countless droplets.
Each of those droplets is a world, sometimes inhabited by life and sometimes not.
Eventually each of those droplets splashes and breaks apart into that cup.
Each planet follows this same trajectory, falling from the top of the universe before breaking up due to its Roche Limit and Splashing across the infinite wide flat plane of earth at the bottom of the universe.
As most planets are uninhabited and most of that plane empty, a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it.
Some planets do harbour life though, and they react to impending cataclysmic doom in different ways.
- Some planets don't have sentient life, or aren't advanced enough to even be aware of whats going on until it's too late.
- Others may be cursed with awareness through charts, optics, or magic, but be entirely helpless to do anything. They can only watch as their world ends.
- Many societies and civilisations may embrace the promised Splash that will end them.
- Some very lucky forms of life have some form of advantage to survive the Splash.
- Even more rarely: a society will do something.
The focus of this setting is following the descendants of these Splash-survivors, eking out survival on a specific portion of the bottom of the universe known as The Mound.
The Mound is a statistical freak on the surface.
Hundreds of years ago: Ite, the Four-Fold World fell and Splashed. Thanks to the unique physiologies of the four species who lived there, all survived and went about rebuilding their society amidst the ashes of their world.
Then only a few centuries ago: Torrid, the Warring Realm, Splashed down in the exact same spot. A war-torn world home to dozens of species, only a precious few survived the Splash thanks to retooling doomsday bunkers or employing arcs meant to outlast their enemies.
Only a few decades later, a third planet fell in nearly the same spot, however this one didn't even survive entering the atmosphere. It just burned up in a bang. It's referred to as "Old Blare" or "The Haunt" colloquially.
Then came Uisge of Blue Waves- a world entirely dominated by endless blue seas. Most denizens of this world died, however some denizens from the deepest depths managed to survive the impact thanks to the water.
Then came the 5th Splash: Feerbodo, the Quiet Place, a relatively-peaceful world that came together and tried to do whatever they could to survive and preserve their culture; to mixed success.
Thus: The Mound was formed. A vast crater with a mound of planetary debris in the center from so many ruined civilizations.
Mound society became defined by the Splashes.
The surface was a barren, inhospitable place. No light or warmth, like the surface of the moon if it got shelled into a crater every few generations. To try and wander off into the infinite cold abyss is suicide, and doesn't even guarantee another planet won't fall on your head.
Most denizens took to living underground, living in tunnels in the earth formed from layer upon layer of broken planetoid. Their societies formed in relation to building up enough resources and protection to survive complete upheaval whenever the next Splash might come, and digging through the wreckage of The Mound for whatever relics of past worlds might help them survive.
Some though, the exiled or mad sorcerers, formed civilisations on the barren surface as well.
This status quo lasted until around 70 years ago.
As The Mound braced for the next Splash, a cool blue dot rapidly growing in the sky, something miraculous happened.
It just stopped.
A glowing rock, defying every known law and just unbelievably hanging in the sky. So it was named: The Gudgeon Moon.
After a while of poking their heads out and checking for safety, the denizens of the Mound came to adjust.
Some societies look at the Moon as a threat, a bomb waiting to go off. Better to just stay down below and wait it out.
Others have moved above ground and settled on the surface, flourishing in it's cool moonlight and rapidly expanding beyond the bounds of any underground culture.
This is the age of exploration and expansion the players find themselves in- whether expanding out across the moonlit surface, reaching for the fringes of the infinite expanse, plotting to build ladders to the moon, or digging through the hidden depths of the Mound.
- Despite the apocalyptic tones, I am shooting for a sort of hopefulness throughout it. Like this isn't a pacifist game, but I imagine combat-as-a-puzzle and violence as a desperate solution. And despite everyone living in a planetary mass burial site, it's more about building and growth as opposed to Mad Max'ing it.
- And despite all the planets and such, the overall tone is definitely sticking more to gonzo weird swords and magic as opposed to science and technology.
- System-wise, I originally was building everything for OUH; but actually I'm shifting it more toward HOU instead now.
- Purposefully: this setting has no humans, dwarves, elves, etc. It's purely weirdo gonzo alien type guys. Expect lots of posts about speculative or magical biology.
- (I heavily debated this one. Originally, I'm an all-human setting / keep things simple and relatable kind of guy in play to keep things approachable for players. But goddamn do I like writing weirdos so now my players will have to build sentient buddha statues and ghost powered mecha).
- While there are all sorts of creatures, I am sticking to the One-of-a-Kind model for Monsters. Every one unique, with a name.
- There's a lot of setting mysteries that I have write ups for I may allude at but not include here, just since I have players whom may read the blog.
- What's out there on the edges of the world?
- What's up with the Gudgeon Moon?
- What's down below the flat plane if we dig greedily and deeply?
- etc etc
It's something I've spent the last few years writing a few hundred documents on, and I just hope its something to somebody.
Thank you for reading.
