Soaring Skies This is a setting which I created from the concepts of good, simple, colorful fun. It’s not grim dark (though certain parts, I’m sure, certainly are) and it’s not traditional, but I’m hoping that it will still be fun.

Essentially, the style of the setting is that of a vast world, essentially the elemental plane of air, wherein there are no actual land masses. Miles below, the world is nothing but a continuous ocean, but above, hundreds, if not thousands, of floating islands soar through the skies.

This is a high-magic campaign setting wherein things are fantastic and wondrous, and these individual floating worlds are separated from one another by open air. As such, races will, more than likely, all have a racial ability which allows them to fly in some fashion.

Races of Soaring Skies

I wanted to go with something different this time. Having played in numerous campaigns which were all just… Well, orcs and dwarves and elves and all that nonsense, I kinda wanted to mix it up a little.

Eladrin These aren’t your 4e eladrin, oh no. These are more like the race as they were initially presented in 3.5. However, they are also not true angels. Instead, they are essentially the aasimar or the deva, and are, for all intents and purposes, mortal angels. They appear largely human or elven, save for the fact that their hair, eye, and skin color can range to nearly any possibility. Despite this, the vast majority of eladrin possess eyes and hair of gold, silver, or platinum color, regardless of what their skin color is. Flight Option: If we use player-based flight in the game, eladrin will possess the ability to focus and manifest wings of pure magical force. These wings are angelic in appearance.

Kaevar The kaevar are a bird-like race of warriors, who focus on developing and focusing their combat skills above all else. Bound by a code of honor, the kaevar see it as their sacred duty to rule the skies. These beliefs, however, do not take hold often outside of the Roost, the largest known landmass in the Soaring Skies, where the kaevar originated, and those who live beyond its borders are simple traders, merchants, mercenaries, and villagers like anyone else. Kaevar generally resemble birds of prey in appearance, but are otherwise similar to kenku/tengu/other bird-people. Flight Option: Wings!

Djinn In the same boat as the eladrin, the djinn are mortal elementals, who live, love, and die just like any other creature. As spirits of the air, the Soaring Skies are their homeland, and they typically travel across the realm as nomads. Djinn skin tones range anywhere from purples to green, and they occasionally develop strange markings which glow under certain conditions. While many of them are bald, some have hair which always seems to be blowing in a non-existent wind. Djinn typically find themselves as mages or shamanists, as their close connection to the sky allows them to excel in these capacities. Flight Option: Wind!

Dragonborn Like in other settings, dragonborn are the long-lost scions of the ancient dragons of old. Powerfully built and universally tough, dragonborn are powerful warriors and excellent mages, capable of unleashing great bouts of flame from their maws. While they come in many shapes and sizes and colors, the most common are certainly red-scaled. Their appearance varies greatly, however, as some might resemble crocodiles, others true dragons, others still ancient predatory lizards, and many other such things. Flight Option: Wings!

Warforged These guys are pretty standard as well. Ancient constructs, left over from some long-forgotten empire. Oftentimes, they are found and wake up once they’re poked, prodded, and annoyed enough. Some, known as the Rusted, have been active since that time, rather than in suspended animation, and appear quite old, worn, and battle-scarred. Either that, or the new ones (since it really does seem funny that the ones who have been sitting for who knows how long aren’t worn and rusted like their more active counterparts) are constructed by some other group of people, though I’m uncertain who. Flight Option: No idea. Rocket boosters? Iron Man? Gundam Veriners?

Jikkat An insectoid race because I want an insectoid race. Bipedal, four-limbed, and more human than the average insectoid race. Another race which values skill at arms, the jikkat are a people of battle, intrigue, and espionage. Of the thousands of floating islands which exist within the Soaring Skies, many of them are uninhabitable by the sheer fact that they have no buildable surface, and are instead merely massive boulders. The jikkat inhabit these locales, referring to them as “Hive Cities” or “Hive Islands.” Flight Option: Wings or psychic powers, can’t decide.

The next most important thing I want to talk about, are options. Options are good, they let us make decisions which will better affect our happiness and well-being. Or the suffering of others. Either way, they’re good (for us)!

Flight or No Flight? Obviously, in a setting like this, we have to decide whether or not the characters themselves are capable of flight. Obviously, the safest route is- yes. However, that also brings up a lot of complicated mechanical jargon that I am not certain I feel like dealing with, and to me removes some of the flavor of the setting.

Think of it this way. We purposefully decide to play in a setting where there’s no surface, and instead we all live on flying islands. Okay, that’s cool. However, we then grant ourselves the ability to fly at will. Essentially, if we’re free to move from Place A to Place B on our own without worry, why not just have a normal setting and walk there, other than “Floating Islands Are Cool”? Which, bear in mind, is a totally valid reason.

Me personally? I’d rather go with no personal flight (or at the very least make it very limited) and rely more on mounts, vehicles, and other means of transportation to get places. What are your thoughts?

A World of Air and Water? As I stated above, the setting is basically an entirely oceanic planet where flying islands take up the skies, and that’s where people live. Should that be the case? In this situation, I’ve come up with three options.

Firstly, is the World of Air and Water, and is the setting I described above.

Secondly, is the World of Air, where it’s just nothing but air up and down.

Lastly, is the Tempest. Essentially, it takes the concepts of the first and second ideas and mashes them together. Kinda. What this version of it does is make the setting more like… I dunno, a gas giant? Basically, there’s air up and down, but the further down you go, the more turbulent and violent it becomes until there’s nothing but a massive hurricane. It stretches all across the world and nobody has ever been to the other side.

Setting as a Whole? What if none of this appeals to anybody? Well, I’ve got a few other things cooking, but one of the underlying ideas is that I’d like unique races and places.

Have a request for a race? Or an idea? Talk to me and we’ll work something out!

Other than that, the only stuff that I have going on as far as ideas are concerned are…

The Dungeon Archipelago Essentially a pirate-like setting. Very bright, colorful, cheerful sort of colors (Caribbean, really) where we’d have more ocean-themed races than air-themed. Not sure how I feel about this, since most oceanic games tend to putter out and die very quickly in my experience (though that may just be coincidence.) This setting would be very Pirates of the Caribbean and Black Flag inspired, but with a few heaping spoonfulls of Pirates of Dark Water.

Boots and Brass This kind of takes things in a different direction than I was directing us at first, but could nonetheless be fun. I’m not sure what I would do with races in this setting (probably just switch eladrin for human, or simply add-in human), but basically steampunk. And I don’t mean just putting gears and whistles on things for no reason (though I’m certain many an eccentric scientist will do exactly that because reasons), I mean actually thinking about the vicious upper class exploiting their workers, the effect that such technology can have on people, and very likely, a lot more grim sort of world in general. Greasy and smoke-filled, essentially, a lot like the games Dishonored, Thief, Fable III, and, in a way, Bioshock (what with its focus on brass and the disparity between those with power and those without.)

It is, of course, possible to have a non Grim Dark steampunk game, if that would be more desired.

Insanity A world in which the industrial revolution occurred, and steam-powered airships and trains move through the skies between floating islands. In a far-off corner of this space, a series of islands known as the Dungeon Archipelago lures treasure-hunters and fortune-finders alike. Recently risen from the Tempest, the storm which churns at the bottom of the world, this place promises to contain ancient secrets, powerful magic, and enough wealth to buy a kingdom.

As before, non Grim Dark is always a possibility.

Essentially, it’s all the ideas rolled into one setting.

So, let me know your thoughts, and we’ll see what we can come up with!