Game World Project i am working on

[Leshok Majere]

So here is what I'm trying to do!

I am working on a hobby of building a fictional fantasy world. I've done stuff like this before, but found my ideas alone were stale and hmm well not diverse, so I figure if I use other ideas than just my own, it will be more interesting. I plan to then plop these ideas into a map and then myself give deeper connection to them with some input from the people who helped with the ideas. This is really just a side hobby project, and I'm asking my more creative friends to give some input into this to help! So if you want to, please fire away!

I'm working on enlisting the aid of several people with different creative taste than mine to design
1. an individual area (mountain, swamp, ruins, etc), what lives there, what makes it unique (ie battle fought there in past, hero/villian born/died/lives there, item of great power lost there, etc),. Now give as little info about anything outside that area as possible (ie if there was a war just state "a great war between two nations/guilds/clans, etc. and if there was something like lots of demons, undead, magic, dead, etc), so only give info on the area.

2. come up with an idea for a "themed" city (ie floating city, mining town, town of mages, all of one race, etc, or even a pirate city) just state the relative size of the city, no info on what empire/kingdom/whatever its part of, but you can decide if it is a capital city of a monarchy/republic/magocracy, etc.

3. Design a person associated either in past or present with the area you designed (can be a monster too), why they are famous/important.

4. Design a prominent person associated with your city. why important, what they do/did there

5. Design an allie or villian for one of your designed npcs.


Stats aren't needed but if you would like to flesh them out as a d&d or other character, please feel free.

I'll of course gladly accept more input than just this, and will understand if any of you are too busy or not interested!

Thanks!

[Ivan the Mad]

Please change all proper names if you wish:

1) The Vydef ruins are now only inhabited by the undead, the revenants who fell in battle during the Fifth Era under the reign of Nrion.
Nrion's forces swept across the city-state of Ydeffe in his ploy to consolidate the entire peninsula.  Unfortunately, a Vydef necromancer
cursed the very soil of his native land, happy to see it fester with undeath rather than have it fall to invaders.  Only weeds and scavengers
dare intrude upon this ruined area. 

2) Enrionfi is a massive port city at the tip of the peninsula, and the capital of what is now called the Southern Marches.  Most of the
population of the Marches lives within 6 days travel of this city, namely on the shores of the peninsula.   The Southern Marches are
what is left of Nrion's Empire which in the Fifth Era spanned across most of the southern half of the continent.  Now it is still a bustling
city, but has seen better days.  It is surrounded by grey cliffs which shelter it from the harsh winds that come in winter.  Also,
the cliffs are mined for their superior yield of marble.

3) Nrion refused to call himself King or Emperor, stating that his glory was in the service of one greater, the Sun God Hhugain.  (Worship
of Hhugain had mostly fallen away during most of the Fourth Era, but Nrion's evangelistic crusades brought a revival to this religion.)  Many
debate his race, since albeit his appearance in most reliquaries suggest a human form, not a few believe that he had fey background.  At
the apogee of his power, he attempted to consolidate the Southern Marches only to find his army routed at the battle over Ydeffe.  Records
state that on that day, the sun itself turned red, and the Sulpitine River turned to blood.  Many died of the plagues that followed and Nrion
himself took on the form of the avatar of Hhugain called the Bleeder, now believed to be an aspect of primitive blood sacrifice meant to
scare away solar eclipses.  Nrion was said to have used gem magic in such fashion as to turn his eyes blood red and scar himself.  This
is why many Sixth Era carvings of Nrion depict him with a red hash on his chest and vermillion eyes. 

4) Governor Jaik of Enrionfi has been a wise steward of his city's wealth.  He is mercurial in aspect, changing mood quickly.  He is intelligent
and his knowledge of merchant lore has kept Enrionfi as a major player in the region despite the current Regent's failing influence. 

5) Ensign Piotro of the Pirate Islands has been plotting to murder Governor Jaik.  He has three reasons for this.  First, he believes that if
her could kill the Governor, he would advance in the eyes of the Pirate leaders.  Secondly, Jaik has been stalwart in his refusal to pay the
Pirates for safe passage, using mercenary boats (and sometimes even rival pirates) to guard his merchant boats from the Islanders' attacks.
Finally, he hates worshippers of Hhugain, since as a child he was kept as a house slave by Enrionfians who beat him savagely when the boy
refused to go to sunrise services and pay proper obeisance to their lord.  As governor, Jaik is also the highest civil Prelate in the church of
Gan, the church established by Nrion for the worship of Hhugain.  What he doesn't know is that he is also a reincarnation of the necromancer
who is seeking revenge on the Southern Marches for their invasion of Ydeffe.