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D&D Campaign: Relics of the Past

I've had a random shower thought about a D&D homebrew world I'm encouraged to pursue:

The world has lived through a generational event- war, followed by extreme isolationism. The humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and many other races separated themselves from the world, building the strongest fortresses possible. There they guarded their treasures and noble families, securing them against their foes.

As time passed, all of these fortresses fell to ruin. There were still people in the world: all the races had their cast-offs and undesired who had been left in the world. Others were conscientious objectors. Some were religious pariahs following ancient traditions.

In current times, people live in smaller communities. They have learned to accept one another and band together. The ruins of these ancient fortresses loom over the land. Their ancient traps and spells make them dangerous places to explore. Adventurers are valuable and well-received in the hope that they can make these sites safe once again.

The game setting will be large areas of open territory where people live in sparsely populated rural communities, with some large very metropolitan centers of civilization where technology and magic are beginning to rise once again. Ancient ruins dot the countryside and are adjacent to many towns and cities.

Each ancient race has very unique and memorable styles of architecture. Large open buildings for the humans, in the style of Chinese architecture. The elves has low, squared buildings covered with rooftop gardens reminiscent of illustrations of Babylon. The dwarves form large domes with highly decorative interiors, both above and below ground. The orcs build into the sides of canyons and mesas, burrowing deep tunnels into the earth. Dragons and dragonborn have ancient pyramids where the dragonborn would labor to exalt a particular dragon.

Some of the disasters that befell the ancients were demon cult worship, a plague of sentient undead and succumbing to the thral of powerful magics. These things all contributed to the ancient civilizations fighting and falling into ruin.

More to come as this idea develops!

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