I may have gotten over-ambitious with Hybris again. Really, the original goal was to produce a very simple fantasy RPG and throw together a simple setting for it to work in. Getting bogged down in detailing dozens of different realms and such is probably counter-productive.
First, I need the basic system down pat. And it needs to be generic enough that it's not hard to drop a new or unique race into it.
Second, the setting might ought to be simplified and made starker... make the Endless War grander and more terrible, with Hybris being an isolated refuge in the midst of this realm-destroying conflict. Then almost everything would be an internal conflict inside the city itself, with the occasional foray into one of the more accessible realms. The existence of nice, "safe" realms might only be a rumor... the safest ones are probably horrific tyrranies where you have no rights or privacy and outsiders will always be second class citizens at best.
The war between the demon armies is endless... and they tend to attack out of rifts. Folks who are nearby when a rift opens may be able to escape into it. Also, major teleports (like sending in a big army) tends to open smaller portals at random, so people sometimes fall into them, too. Normally they'd be lost forever (possibly landing in a random realm somewhere), but Hybris has a weird funneling effect that causes a few folks to make it there safely.
The city is something of a grim oddity. It's a harsh life, but it could be so much worse. The Gray Man keeps order and keeps would be dictators from taking over. They were subjugated once, after a godlike being came through from a destroyed realm, but he was slain mysteriously.
One of the major factions is a group of mage/priests who create/nurture food with their magic. No one dares touch them for fear of being denied the free food that they distribute... not unless they have access to food of their own, of course.
The occasional demon-thing makes it to Hybris... whereupon folks kill it. Unlike most other realms, they can't summon their kinfolk here, so it's possible to survive. In other realms, the arrival of the first demon is a sign that more are coming.
Posted by Kiz at March 17, 2005 10:19 AMCommentsPost a comment