I’ve been thinking of writing up a play-by-post story thread for some cooperative roleplaying but I’m not sure if there’s enough interest.
The premise is simple; a generation or two from our current woes the factions have started to erode from all the wars and with the defeat of the last big vauge threat to unify the world against a bigger fish, the long held resentment, tensions and territorial ambitions of supposed allies finally shatters the factions.
Players of all races band together in the chaos for a number of personal reasons and here I need some input on worldbuilding and a preferred starting location.
The general outline of the world is that the eastern kingdoms have balkanised into kingdoms new and old, some fiercely imperialist while others would rather wall themselves off. Notably, Stormwind is rivalled by Arathor across the thandol span, both with pretenses of being mankind’s true home and the dwarven clans being bogged down in another great war to determine who’s to rule after emperor Dagran II died from illness and was absolutely not poisoned at a feast.
Kalimdor is more evenly split into north and south as the dwindling kaldorei struck hard in retaliation, among the first to go independent with the support of various nature spirits. The south barrens and mulgore is contested between orcs and tauren with the darkspear seeking refuge in zandalar, now a fortress city ruled by a strict prelate theocracy. Centaur khans claim the desolace and parts of stonetalon, taking advantage of the situation to conquer, though they’ve yet to unify…
Kul tiras was overrun with pirates, Boralus now a proud “last free city” but in truth an anarchic mess somehow rendered stable by its mercenary economy. A possible starting point?
Northrend is similarly a refuge with risks attached with New Agamand becoming a proper home city for the world’s free willed undead but with a number of caveats for living guests.
Pandaria, seeing the rest of the world collapse, turns inward under the firm hand of the shado-pan. For protection, or so it is said. Conscription swells their ranks as they become a rigid martial state with some wondering if the grandmaster will soon be declared emperor.
The broken isles see a suramar returning to isolation while the vrykul high king sets out to raid and plunder in this new age of battle. Glory to Odyn! Notably, warlord Rolf has been granted Moonbrook from Stormwind in a machiavellian move to stop the raiding and gaining a defensive ally against further raids.
The goblin cartels have siezed upon most legitimate trade in this chaotic time and booty bay has seen a hostile takeover, booming into an innovative though plutocratic “merchant republic” with a zero tolerance on piracy in their waters. All plunder is goblin property by law!
Interested players would need to present a basic character sheet with name, race, class, backstory and some specialty skill that can be worked into the game.
Would this be interesting and if so, how could I improve on this idea?