Dwarves are good at small scale and precise construction of things like tunnels and tools but the moulds are better at large scale...
Missed how the second half was talking about moulds.
Some dwarves believe that the inevitable doom can be delayed by blood sacrifices.
There are at least two or three inevitable dooms. Please be more specific.
((Guys, anybody here's a painter? We need someone to paint a bit of this world, sell that as album covers, then funnel the funds into the Bay12 Space World Domination Program.))
((I may even use this setting for a world in a D&D campaign or even in a story I'll write for fun...
Provided it's ok with everyone here?))
Sure. Share what happens, though.
By the way, anyone know of any good sphere-mapping programs?
The Titans' RealmThe land is broken into a number of little islands surrounded by a sea of volcanic fog (and ash, judging by later things). It is filled with the souls of the dead (hence the common tradition of sending corpses of the dead into the sea); their siren songs drive men living by the coast mad. The tides are the only natural way to mark time. The islands "evolved" (formed?) from volcanoes.
The largest group of islands surrounds an impossibly tough, evidently-hollow obsidian spire that reaches to the sun, which some dwarves believe they made while others think it was made by the humanoid molds. Every 50 tides, the dwarves (who have a curious affection for the spire) hold a ritual of bravery which involves ascending the spire. None return; eventually, the heat of the sun incapacitates the ascendant champions, and they collapse and die. It is believed, however, that the dwarves have reached a kind of promised land, where the air is pure and without poison. Every 200 tides, the spire releases a burst of energy that makes manaroc gems glow. Every nineteen such bursts, the tower is observed to crack a little, which is disturbing as it is generally known that, should the spire fall, creation will follow. Wise men from all civilized races are trying to find a way to either repair the spire or stop the blasts;
none have even come close to success, and their efforts are impeded by religious individuals who believe that they are tampering with the tools of the gods. Moulds put in more effort than other races,
but their hive-minded nature makes their efforts less innovative and hence less likely to succeed.Underground, there is an extremely valuable metal known as orichalcum which is believed to have fallen from the sun. Dwarves have made several expeditions to find the source. These expeditions also allow dwarves to determine the thickness of the shell in various places, obviously important for miners and such.
The air is poisonous, similar to Venus (but presumably not
quite as hot, dense, or...acidic as Venus's, not as prone to permanent continent-sized storms, because screw Venus).
The sun is in a stationary position in the sky; this is because the world is on the inside of a hollow sphere. Outside the shell is Oblivion; anything thrown there is destroyed and ceases to have ever existed. Traitors are typically tortured before being sent into oblivion. Some claim there is a second sun called the moon, but none in living memory have seen such a thing. Orbiting the suns are fifteen spheres, actually the sleeping forms of more giants, each different from the others.
The volcanoes are inhabited by a species of sentient lava (magma?) squid. Other sentient races include maggot-men (resistant to the perils of the outside world, and hence commonly found in professions which makes them need to travel outside), a hive-minded humanoid mold (called "mould"), dwarves (known for their fine handiwork and craftsmanship), and elves (which are rare and live mainly on an island; they enslave the members of the sentient species, locking them in massive desolate lighthouses made of stone, used for the navigation on the ash seas. However, the influence of the spirits of the dead, as mentioned before, causes the keepers to slowly go insane. Those who survive the prolonged exposure, as rare as it is, are physically changed by the experience, gaining a strange sort of bond with the souls and the seas). Ash elves are a subtype of elf, which sails the sea in ships of bone and survive on a combination of raiding and "whaling". A race of intelligent, though perhaps not quite sapient, trees is also present; their boughs shield some areas from the harsh atmosphere, creating habitable areas underneath. Given that they also block the light, though, no plants can grow there; inhabitants of these "habitable" areas need to venture out to get food from the surrounding areas. The trees and the mold have an antagonistic relationship, due to the trees absorbing their kin. On the other hand, the indigestible maggotmen enjoy camping with the trees, who have learned not to try and absorb them
and hence have formed an odd, informal alliance.
Maggot-men live under the rule of a single Lord. The lava squid do not have any formalized government, instead operating on a tribal system, with popular "big-squid" and the occasional elected Chief who rules several schools. The molds do not have any kind of central organization, nor do they need one; they do, however, have breathtaking monuments and structures. Dwarves are fractured into a number of feudal states.
The elves have a few city-states, mainly democratic, as well as a confederation between them to deal with dwarves raiding them frequently for sacrifices.
Ash creatures live in the sea; the large ones are worshiped as gods in the outer isles. Some believe even larger creatures slumber beneath the lava (magma?); others believe the whole world is on the back of a very large such creature. (See more below.) There is also a species of ash-living, soul-eating "jellyfish" evolved from the magma squid, which uses "heat-pouches" to swim through the sea.
There is a religion known as Akupara which believes that the world is supported on the back of a giant creature sleeping under the magma, and which fears that it will one day awaken and shake the world off. One sect is dedicated to preventing this threat, while others typically accept this as an inevitable--perhaps not even a bad--fate of the world.
The setting is slightly disturbing.
Parentheticals are guesses as to interpretation. Bold things are things I just added.
P.S. I refuse to go past here until someone else contributes to the organizative post. Organizing it better would be appreciated, I apparently suck at that.
