The Windswept Realms

The Windswept Realms is a high fantasy campaign setting that mixes clockwork technology without the punk element of steampunk. This world is for you if you like advanced technology mixing with more traditional fantastical technology, active gods, and long-dead beings of incredibly technological and magical prowess. The land derives its name from the intense winds that ravage the lower atmosphere. While most sea level areas are only slightly windy, the higher in altitude you go, the more intense the winds become, to the point where flying creatures are battered around ceaselessly and tall structures collapse from the wind. The denizens of The Windswept Realms possess the technological know-how to build airships, but the unpredictable nature of the winds grounds all but the most capable or foolish pilots. The advanced technology exists in The Windswept Realms because of the Ancients, a race of beings that inhabited the world before any other intelligent beings. They are believed to be extinct, but their monuments, the Skyscrapers, still stand, mostly unexplored. The little exploration of the Skyscrapers have allowed inventors to reverse-engineer many technological marvels that became the foundation of contemporary civilization in The Windswept Realms. However, the ruins have not been thoroughly explored because they are incredibly dangerous, filled with monsters, automata, and traps. In the wake of the Ancients, three prominent civilizations arose: the druidic elves, the industrious dwarves, and the martial humans. As the civilizations grew, they clashed with each other, and total war seemed inevitable when the gods interfered. Choosing the site of the largest Skyscraper as the meeting point, the gods had the three races talk through the hostilities and ultimately reach a peace accord. Seeing the value of continued communication, the three races cooperated to build a settlement around that Skyscraper, which eventually grew into the largest city in the world, Unification City. As the city grew, the governing of the city evolved, now run by a council of nine members, three from each race. The council speaks directly with the gods, so they serve as both administrators and spiritual leaders. Outside of Unification City, the three kingdoms have their own capital cities. The elves reside in the great forest of Mourning Winds, named after the sound the wind makes passing through the trees. The dwarves delve ever deeper in Barradh's Keep, a city built around an ever-expanding mine. The humans dwell in the shining walls of Chrome Citadel, a massive, impenetrable fortress housing some spectacular technological innovations. From these cities the three races rule the vast majority of the continent, though some places lie out of their control.