Introduction and World Meta

This section is both a basic overview of the setting and my workflow, and a reference i myself can return to to keep the work focused and grounded. It is based on the "world meta" prompts from World Anvil!

Theme

What genre is this world?

Ioraz is a constantly changing world, and by that nature could fit a lot of genres! Overall though, it's made for character driven, introspective high fantasy.

What is the player experience?

I want the players in this world to feel a sense of wonder. Ioraz is a land of great sweeping vistas, massive leviathans, and overflowing magic- beautiful, yet dangerous. Players characters are very small when compared to the world around them, and they should feel that at all times. Pairing curiosity with caution is essential: combat should be avoided whenever possible, and players will be rewarded for finding inventive ways to navigate around dangerous encounters.

What are the central themes?

Ioraz is focused on the intersections between belief and reality. It's a world where the gods gain power through the faith of others, where rumors can bend reality itself and superstitions of back luck can manifest as curses. It's also about living on after the end(s) of the world. The world and it's people have suffered many great cataclysms over the millenia, civilizations destroyed over and over- but life goes on. The cycle continues.

What is the tone?

Ideally a balance between light and dark. Terrible things can happen in the world, but the world and it's people are good. Heros may falter and sometimes fall, but this is a world that has it's heroes nonetheless.

Scene

What are the core natural laws that differentiate this world from our own?

In ioraz, all matter has a soul. The wills of those souls exerts itself upon the fabric of Ioraz's reality, and with enough force that reality is bent to match that will. This is the basis of magic- through a variety of methods, spellcasters are able to channel their own will or the will of others into wondrous effects. Even martial adventuring classes use this to accomplish great feats: from the barbarian's rage to the monk's flurry of blows, these are all expressions of a powerful soul's will. Most mundane mortals can only affect the world in small, mostly subconscious ways- but through channeling their faiths into a single entity, that entity can ascend to become something known as a Rune- one of the types of gods in Ioraz. Runes act as conduits for the wills of mortals, anchoring the world in stability but also being able to change it in more direct and drastic ways.

What is the cosmology of the world?

Ioraz is made of a single massive plateau, positioned on the very upper edge of reality. Below is the Abyss, a plane of infinite layers, each one swarming with demons. Above the plateau is an arcane sky dome, and on the other side is the Far Realm- the cosmic unknown beyond reality and the known universe. Two dreamlike planes overlap and intersect with the main, "material" plane of ioraz: the ethereal, a foggy realm containing echoes and imprints of the world; and the astral, the plane on which the soul resides. Many additional demiplanes intersect with ioraz, created for various purposes by gods or powerful mortals.

What is the geography of the world like?

Ioraz is thoroughly suffused with magic, so it's geography is equally fantastical. Rivers and tributaries weave through the sky, mountains rise up impossibly steep like needles from the ground, and gravity is made a mockery of in every direction. All sorts of biomes and climates are smashed together with no logic- if the god of deserts and the god of jungles happen to share a border, so be it.

How big is the world?

The surface area of Ioraz's main land is about half the size of Europe, split into two small continents. This, however, can't account for the verticality of Ioraz, with it's floating islands and deep caverns. Not to mention the many planes that intersect with and overlap Ioraz.

Focus

What are the main aspects of the world you as the author want to focus on?

  • the different eras of Ioraz. The world has undergone repeated cataclysms, leaving behind the ruins of many societies. I find it important for the world to have a history behind it, giving life to these previous eras beyond just vague hints and set dressing for dungeons.
  • High concept locations, and equally high concept encounters within those locations. Above all else, Ioraz is a setting for d&d- and it needs to be built as such. In any good TTRPG setting, it's important that the world provides opportunities for players to engage in the pillars of gameplay: combat, socializing, and exploration.
  • Strong environmental narrative. It's important that the themes of the world are reflected in all aspects of the setting.