Kith and Kin: d12 Campaign Settings

 Some settings in Kith and Kin. These are all survival-sandboxes, just with a different (likely changing) status quo for each one. Some are easier to survive in than others.

1. Verdant Labyrinth

Life flourishes in the eternal rainforest, even the fires from the heavens or the monuments of great empires only scar it for a generation, before the Green closes in and reclaims what rightfully belongs to it. Tribes cautiously migrate among the tangle of life, for while the tangle feeds all equally, so too does it hide both hunter and hunted. They are not alone, as animal life surges with equal vitality to the green itself, and things far more alien dance on branches that should not hold their weight. Even the plants themselves can be dangerous, to those who lack knowledge. The berries of one tree may make a feast, while those of another may be filled with the most potent of poisons. Yet these are said to barely compare to the secrets hidden deep in the tangled green itself. Some of these hidden secrets are sure to still live, not a ruin swallowed by the rainforest, but a place in tandem with it.

2. Along the Great River

For generations many tribes have called the savannahs home, the era has been one of peaceful stagnation. Now, however, some have settled along the great river, building monuments to their revered leaders and to spirits who's names you have never heard, and who's nature is different to those you are familiar with. The spirit of the river grows restless, and thus so do all other spirits along its bank. Soothsayers see fires on the futures horizon, but if they are the fires of a warm hearth, or of a great conflagration, none yet can say. The future remains unwritten, even as some prepare for conflict, and some prepare for new alliances.

Ring of Brodgar, Orkney

3. Valley of Megaliths

The stones were here before all others. Great matricies and concentric circles of immense megaliths, set into the earth to ensure their lasting stability. Many are etched with strange symbols and diagrams of a nature unknown. Their very presence seems to charge the valley with a spiritual presence. Who built them, none who still live can say. As new cultures establish themselves in this strange place, the spirits grow restless. Rumors and stories of strange figures with burning eyes, wearing cloaks as black as pitch, of man and beasts with with masks that depict the other and of things far far stranger still, emerging from hidden places deep within the earth, and wandering among the great megaliths. The entire valley holds its breath, waiting.

4. The Archipelago

Humanity thrives, the islands and the sea grant bounty incomprehensible, but the spirits of the sea remain ineffable and inhuman. Each island, or small cluster of islands, holds but one tribe that lives by the grace of the islands spirit, the tribes patron. A comfortable situation, for most, as even an uncaring spirit may show kindness on a whim. But spirits that have been active for generations have grown silent, and spirits that have laid dormant for ages have begun to stir. Mountains that billow plumes of smoke and ash whisper prophecy, and things who's forms belong to no animal recognized by the islanders reach for the surface and invade the dreams of mortals. Few are unaffected, especially as strange groups have started to form, seeking to understand the mysteries of the deep.

5. The Eternal Winter

Creeping ice and snow is all that is known to the tribes who dwell here. The night, temporarily held at bay by the soft rays of the sun, laughs with glee. The dead grow restless as the dark encroaches, and spirits darker still creep between the pines. The glacial spirits of the great mountains of ice hold their court with no concern for the brief flickering flames of mortal life. Food is scarce, even between the evergreens. But still the living endure, even as things that never should be named lurk just beyond the edge of the camps, eager to snatch away what scraps of life they find. When summer comes, there is brief respite as the latest of snow melts under the brief surge in the suns strength, but when the deep winter returns, the daylight is swallowed by midnight for an entire moon.

Thorn Tree, In the Namib Desert

6. The Deserts Due

The Desert is a harsh land. Its shifting dunes and mirages confound even the keenest of senses. Yet even here, humanity endures. The hardy plants that grow here act as a source of nurturing water, their roots and berries filled with the essence necessary for life itself, and game is equally vital to the survival of those who dwell here. The great tribes that dwell here migrate between great oases, who's spirits favor may be the life or death of entire cultures. Yet even those who do not rely on the oases may survive. Spirits of illusion, flame and sand rush through the desert, and all pay their due to the great storm spirits, for when the rain comes the harsh scarcity of the desert is banished for a short time.

7. Herders of the Steppes

The mammoth steppes are a testament to the vast power and scale of the great Mammoths, for their very presence forces the spirits to acquiesce to their will. While the mammoths are hunted occasionally, the cultures here prefer to herd smaller animals. Goats, Yak, Auroch and more. This has been for millennia, but strange times are always ahead. The spirits the herders so revere have begun to recognize the presence of a few mighty spirits, who's potency and scope are said to cover the whole of the steppe, and who's wisdom is said to elevate them yet further. This new paradigm has split the herders, some of whom differ to these new mighty spirits, some of whom wish to continue the elder ways. A few, however, turn to darker things, sorcerous arts to enslave spirits, either to field against the new paradigm, or for it.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

8. Sky-Spires of the Alchemists

Great spires of earth reach for the heavens and in the forests between them people make their lives. The peaks of these great mountains are reserved for the most sacred of shrines, wisest of mystics and the spirits themselves, for few others even survive the treacherous journey. Rope-bridges and ladders make the journeys easier, but the fear alone makes even these journeys harsh. In recent years, some trained by the mystics and who possess knowledge of the stones and herbs have taken to a novel path of study, refining and studying the physical and metaphysical properties of the substances of the world. The spirits aid and hinder this path equally, and the old authority is split. Does this new path equate with Sorcery? Or Mysticism? Or is it something entirely new?

9. Endless Village of Stone

Where land meets sea at the mouth of a great river, the First City sprawls. Founded so many generations ago that none know its true origin anymore, it stretches from horizon to horizon and beyond, its great concentric walls divide it both from the outside, and the inside. The hundreds, potentially thousands, of spirits once of the land it now occupies, were granted shrines and temples to satisfy their need for a dwelling, and they have grown potent and strange off of the worship, sacrifices and environment of the city. The culture of the city is far different than you are used to, there are classes and inheritance and poverty, but so too is there strange hope and joys. Yet there are whispers of something beneath the city, that it was not the first to stand here, that the sewage system connects to deeper tunnels where things stranger than spirits dwell.

10. The Sacred Delta

Of all the lands, this delta holds the most sacred substances known. A vast delta that becomes an even vaster wetland. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of different entheogenic substances here, such that even some animal life is said to bestow visions when consumed. The great spirit of this place is not a passive occupant, like others. A many-headed serpent-crocodilian of venom and poison, who slays by simply severing the spirit from the flesh. Yet it is not an evil spirit, merely wild and protective. A necessary trait to have, for those from outside the delta sometimes seek to conquer it for its rich mystical bounty, wielding enchanted and metal weaponry, yet none have succeeded thus far.

11. Desolation

Mountains upon mountains, climbing high into the clouds. Lava flows and noxious fumes plume into the skies, and the rains carry the very hunger of the earthly spirits themselves, eating away at metal and flesh. This land is the most hostile to life of all mentioned thus far, its spirits are wild and uncaring for the living and even other spirits. Burning serpentine beasts wheel through the heavens and hungering beasts descend from the clouds of noxious fumes, riding the acidic rain itself. So few dwell here that some call it bereft of all folk. Yet there are pockets of life even here, clustered in caves and rock shelters, only daring to leave to hunt and forage when things are relatively calm.

12. Islands Woven by Hand

In the open ocean, life is lived by boat or by island. The seas bring bounty that cannot be measured, but so to does it bring doom and hardship. Most of the open ocean live by the sails of their great ships, pausing briefly at islands and beseeching the spirits of wind and storm to aid them in their travel. Yet a new innovation has arisen. Certain sea plants can be forced to grow upon other structures, anchoring too them. It was first used by those nautical nomads, to cultivate food as they travel, supplementing their diets, stabilizing their ships (albeit slowing them down a fair bit), and acting as a lure for aquatic game. However, some island cultures have learned to use it to artificially expand their island homes, weaving vast nets of tough sea-plant anchored to cliff-faces, coral reefs and other tough shallow places. Thanks to this innovation, the population and power of these island-tribes has boomed. Yet the sea may not tolerate much more intrusion into its dominion, and though these floating villages are hardy and flexible, they have yet to become fully immune to the ravages of the great storms.

Inspiration List

Verdant Labyrinth is inspired by how some rainforests, if given the right infusion of soil-repairing nutrients, can transform a very deforested and lifeless zone into more rainforest in just a decade or two.

Along The Great River is basically proto-Egypt or proto-Mesopotamia. Any "river valley leads to sedentary culture" case really.

Valley of Megaliths is inspired by the various megalithic sites around the globe, and the notion of living among the remnants of a much older culture.

The Archipelago is mostly inspired by, of all things, the How To Train Your Dragon books, but its mostly my invention. If it lines up with any real cultural stuff that'd be neat, but I kind of doubt it.

The Eternal Winter is basically circumpolar land meets a bunch of undead, dark spirits and ice-fairies.

The Deserts Due is mostly just inspired by how desert forager cultures live, with little else. The spirit description is probably inspired by Djinni and similar concepts though.

Herders of the Steppes is inspired by some of the history around the Proto-Indo-European cultures, the idea being that this is before even them, the "Gods" are new in this one.

Sky-Spires of the Alchemists is inspired a little bit by Avatar: The Last Airbender (with mystics living on the top of spire-like mountains), but is mostly an excuse to have the emergence of Alchemy (neither "western" or "eastern", ideally an invented tradition) in this setting.

Endless village of stone pulls a bit from City of A Hundred Gods, but also from pretty much every other fantasy metropolis.

The Sacred Delta is an old setting of mine (initially for Pariah), and probably has these floating in the rivers and wetlands (but more in line with pariahs entheogen format).

Desolation is inspired by "The Great Dying", the worst extinction event that has occurred thus far on earth, but also by the Siberian Traps, which are the result of the volcanic shit that caused it.

Islands Woven By Hand is one of my favorites of these, but I think I need to write out a full post before I'm actually satisfied with it. The seaweed-net stuff is cool, but I think I'll need to go into detail about it before I'm fully fine with it. Inspiration-wise I'm unsure.

The places where its harder to survive have less "plot" going on since the likely focus is going to be "survive." Not that I wouldn't put some shifting status quo in the background...

Anyways, I'll probably have more of these locked and loaded sooner or later. These being both settings and lists/tables like this.