Fantasy Setting Proposal

1. Core Ethos Sentence.

The world of Pharagos is a battleground, caught between two extraplanar armies.

2. Who are the heroes?

Natives of Pharagos or deserters from the warring armies, the heroes have little in common with each other, but they find common cause in protecting the world from outsiders who are ready to annihilate it in pursuit of their own ageless feud. This external threat to the world unites all of its natives: good and evil, lawful and chaotic, savage and civilized—creating opportunities for heroes to arise from any race or kind of creature.

3. What do they do?

Some defenders of Pharagos seek a way to bring a diplomatic resolution to the war that ravages their world, while others seek to muster the military and magical power necessary to drive the invaders away. Some merely seek to protect the lands around their homes, while many have taken up the cause of Pharagos beyond all regional and national borders. A few heroes with deep insight seek the reason both armies want Pharagos so much—or want to prevent it from falling into their enemies' hands so desperately that they are willing to destroy it.

4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains

A mighty army of githyanki has transported their enormous Astral fortresses to the edges of Pharagos. Githyanki knights riding ancient red dragons soar through the skies, while battalions of warriors march across the lands. Simultaneously, githzerai troops have appeared in their own monastic fortresses, surrounded by waves of swirling chaos transplanted from Limbo. Each army has only one goal: to gain complete control of Pharagos, or at least prevent the other side from doing the same. They treat the natives as vermin to be casually exterminated, preoccupied with some other quality the world possesses that makes it so crucial to their struggle.

5. Nature of magic

The ancient history of Pharagos holds a secret that could spell the world's doom, a secret that is intricately linked to the fabric of magic. Deep in a chasm at the heart of the Wasting Desert, the most desolate region of the world's surface, lies the petrified corpse of a long-dead deity. The divine power still emanating from the ancient stone is the source of all magical power on Pharagos, whether arcane, divine, or psionic. Pharagos' inhabitants remain blissfully ignorant of this fact, tapping into this power without knowing its source. To the githyanki and githzerai, however, it is both a potential weapon that must not fall into enemy hands and a part of their ancient history they would just as soon forget. The dead deity was once the patron deity of the gith race, when the two were still one, enslaved by the mind flayers. The gith abandoned their faith in this deity of patience and perseverance when they took up the cause of rebellion, and she grew weak. As the gith rebellion reached its height, an illithid demigod slew her, and she has lain forgotten on Pharagos ever since.

6. What's new? What's different?

Pharagos introduces a new twist on the familiar story of the popular gith races, while making them the central focus of a campaign setting. Since some giths have deserted their armies and taken up common cause with the natives of Pharagos, they can be heroes as well as villains in this setting. Similarly, Pharagos provides reason for adventurers of any race—from dwarves and elves to ogres and minotaurs—to adventure side by side.