Often, it seems to me that "every" world map for a fantasty setting has:
-Mountains in the 'north'
-Water along the West, and South, edges of the "main" continent of the story taking place; everything else is "somewhere far away"
-Big Forests are always somewhere in the 'middle' of the map
-A River runs through the continent; or large parts of it at least.
-The Desert is... "in the east"
-Sometimes a Chain of mountains will go north-south, and divide the continent; usually between a "safer" side, and a "more dangerous side"
The sort of things that sort of make every 'map' look pretty generic after a while.
So, I started making my world. It had a massive central ocean, that was surrounded by land on all sides, north, and south continents; and then a long, sort of wide peninsula made up of volcanoes and jungles.
The basics of species distrubution was that the different races lived in different areas, and either warred with their neighbours; or controlled empires; or were giant hive-minds; or were independant power-brokers.
The major groups were:
North Continent:
-Arctic: Typical winter stuff; also, undead. Masses, and masses of undead. They're not affected by cold, and during the winter they come down like a plague. Sometimes the undead are lead by powerful draconic necromancers, who often recruit humanoid, and monsterous necromancers, and their armies, for the war on the living. Every year, the undead almost always seem to get stronger; but they never actually win, and retreat to their arctic fortresses as soon as the spring thaw begins. Sometimes, if a Draconic commander is killed, then the armies in an area will be easy to destroy, but not always
Warning: Massive Spoilers on the nature of the undead.
These hordes of undead are controlled by individual necromancers who travelled to the north (with, or without their own armies) in order to join a mad draco-demi-lich that wants to "play" the world dominance game; but is willing to both 1) take forever, and 2) not lose ever.
He does this by 1) having so many 'commanders' that losing his whole army is impossible. He has lots, and lots of Draconic Commanders, far too many to be normal, and of all different types of colours. Some are Draco-Liches, and the supreme commanders are Draco-Demi-Liches. The Draco-Demi-Liches are amost impossible to find; and no one has ever recorded a story where one was actually killed or destroyed and did not come back to exert retribution.
2) Having tons and tons of troops. It's pretty much a zombie/skeleton army. This makes mass production of 'fodder' easily, as there are things like Black Sand or the Dragon-Flute that just 'make' Undead for free. The Dragon-Flute makes 3 zombies per user, but you can keep handing that flute around to different people and get lots of extra zombies in there, as long as each unit has a single Dragon-Flute to share among its members (or maybe even 1 per squad of intelligent creatures).
3) Keeping other undead as elite elements. Vampires, Ghouls, Hulking Corpses, Blasphemes, etc. are specialists to solve problems for this massive zombie army.
The basic idea of the armies is simple, but the implementtion is probably not.
The zombies are mass produced for free, or close to it.
They are commanded to do more complex things; like march in formation, or drag siege engines. The Skeletons are used as archers, and the Zombies as infantry.
The zombies are used to maintain a battleline either of living sheilds, ablative hitpoints, and sometimes even difficult or dangerous terrain if lots of them are killed.
The commanders spray the area with cold damage spells, and if they are Uttercold Commanders, they will both heal their troops, and damage the enemy each time. Uttercold Commanders are usually kept in reserve to heal badly damaged zombie formations, while other casters fire cold spells as they will, since those spells won't harm their own troops.
The leader also maintains a high level of power among his commanders by turning every high-ranking member of his command into a Dragon, via a series of "smart" Polymorph any Object uses to make the changes either permanent, or very long lasting.
At 11th level, the now dragons, are changed into liches; and at the right level, are changed into Draco-Demi-Liches. The 'head' of this army can beat any one head, and keeps the entire army in line by having every position split into even halves. If one half performs better at any task, they always get a reward; so competition is fierce among the Necromancer Commanders.
The ones that can plane-shift do; but that's not the point. The point of this 'group' is to completely conquer a material plane with undead. The 'leader' doesn't care about extra-planar politics anymore, and is sort of underground.
The commanders that remain are split up into two groups. Those
He does this by 1) having so many 'commanders' that losing his whole army is impossible. He has lots, and lots of Draconic Commanders, far too many to be normal, and of all different types of colours. Some are Draco-Liches, and the supreme commanders are Draco-Demi-Liches. The Draco-Demi-Liches are amost impossible to find; and no one has ever recorded a story where one was actually killed or destroyed and did not come back to exert retribution.
2) Having tons and tons of troops. It's pretty much a zombie/skeleton army. This makes mass production of 'fodder' easily, as there are things like Black Sand or the Dragon-Flute that just 'make' Undead for free. The Dragon-Flute makes 3 zombies per user, but you can keep handing that flute around to different people and get lots of extra zombies in there, as long as each unit has a single Dragon-Flute to share among its members (or maybe even 1 per squad of intelligent creatures).
3) Keeping other undead as elite elements. Vampires, Ghouls, Hulking Corpses, Blasphemes, etc. are specialists to solve problems for this massive zombie army.
The basic idea of the armies is simple, but the implementtion is probably not.
The zombies are mass produced for free, or close to it.
They are commanded to do more complex things; like march in formation, or drag siege engines. The Skeletons are used as archers, and the Zombies as infantry.
The zombies are used to maintain a battleline either of living sheilds, ablative hitpoints, and sometimes even difficult or dangerous terrain if lots of them are killed.
The commanders spray the area with cold damage spells, and if they are Uttercold Commanders, they will both heal their troops, and damage the enemy each time. Uttercold Commanders are usually kept in reserve to heal badly damaged zombie formations, while other casters fire cold spells as they will, since those spells won't harm their own troops.
The leader also maintains a high level of power among his commanders by turning every high-ranking member of his command into a Dragon, via a series of "smart" Polymorph any Object uses to make the changes either permanent, or very long lasting.
At 11th level, the now dragons, are changed into liches; and at the right level, are changed into Draco-Demi-Liches. The 'head' of this army can beat any one head, and keeps the entire army in line by having every position split into even halves. If one half performs better at any task, they always get a reward; so competition is fierce among the Necromancer Commanders.
The ones that can plane-shift do; but that's not the point. The point of this 'group' is to completely conquer a material plane with undead. The 'leader' doesn't care about extra-planar politics anymore, and is sort of underground.
The commanders that remain are split up into two groups. Those
-Northern Plains Giants on giant grazing animals; mastadons, Wooly Rhinos; Dire Elk; Dire Horses; anything that's Huge, has four legs, and you can see surviving on grass, and other vegetation in a cold environment. Frost Giants obviously have a leg-up on everyone; as they can survive in the more northern areas; however the more northern areas are also full of roaming hordes of undead.
-Humanoid Barbarians in the northern continent's plains (a large area)
-A Goblinoid Empire/Kingdom to the one side in the north; it's pretty complicated, Outsider-touched Bugbears rule and constitute the nobility.
Bugbears are generally treated as elite soldiers, or spies/assassins. Bugbears are also the only race that can own land normally, and that count as nobility just b/c of their race. Most nobility is organized into Noble Houses, whose history ledgers can go back hundreds of years.
Most Bugbears spend a lot of time like ancient Spartans; partying; fighting; warring barbarian; killing their somewhat rebellious slaves/serfs via ninja tactics or outright massacres. They're also sort of buggers, and they are usually better groomed than lower caste races. Yeah, I made that one about buggery up right now.
Hobgoblins are the bureaucrats, common soldiers, engineers, etc.. They represent the bulk of the taxpayers, craftsmen, artisans, smiths, etc. They're the industrial backbone of the empire.
Goblins are on the low-rung; they do the common labour, get drafted in every major conflict, but are generally left to manage their Bugbear overlord's farmlands.
Outsiders are usually slaves, but 'value' can vastly vary. Some races like say, Trolls, usually only serve high ranked people as personal bodyguards/slaves. This is because a Troll is both expensive to feed; expensive to train, and only a powerful creature would keep a Troll as a slave. A weak creature will seriously be eaten alive if the Troll suspects that it's in it's best interests to do so. This doesn't mean that most Trolls are treacherous; but rather that they only will willingly serve powerful creatures who can feed them well.
Any creature can be elevated to a higher position. This is done by a higher-ranked creature; and involves the granting of ownership of land. Usually a home base is given, and an amount of land a certain radius away from that Home location is also given to the rewarded creature. As a result, there are one or two Human and Ogre Noble Houses founded by Barbarian adventurers who joined the Empire, and rose to power. The bulk of the noble houses are Bugbear; with a few Hobgoblin, and a very few Goblin noble houses.
Basically... Fuedal Japan/India castes, imposed by race; Spartan terror-rulership tactics; and I don't know what for army composition. Hobs and Gobs form the bulk of the armies. Bugs are the elite, special forces, heroes, etc.
Most Bugbears spend a lot of time like ancient Spartans; partying; fighting; warring barbarian; killing their somewhat rebellious slaves/serfs via ninja tactics or outright massacres. They're also sort of buggers, and they are usually better groomed than lower caste races. Yeah, I made that one about buggery up right now.
Hobgoblins are the bureaucrats, common soldiers, engineers, etc.. They represent the bulk of the taxpayers, craftsmen, artisans, smiths, etc. They're the industrial backbone of the empire.
Goblins are on the low-rung; they do the common labour, get drafted in every major conflict, but are generally left to manage their Bugbear overlord's farmlands.
Outsiders are usually slaves, but 'value' can vastly vary. Some races like say, Trolls, usually only serve high ranked people as personal bodyguards/slaves. This is because a Troll is both expensive to feed; expensive to train, and only a powerful creature would keep a Troll as a slave. A weak creature will seriously be eaten alive if the Troll suspects that it's in it's best interests to do so. This doesn't mean that most Trolls are treacherous; but rather that they only will willingly serve powerful creatures who can feed them well.
Any creature can be elevated to a higher position. This is done by a higher-ranked creature; and involves the granting of ownership of land. Usually a home base is given, and an amount of land a certain radius away from that Home location is also given to the rewarded creature. As a result, there are one or two Human and Ogre Noble Houses founded by Barbarian adventurers who joined the Empire, and rose to power. The bulk of the noble houses are Bugbear; with a few Hobgoblin, and a very few Goblin noble houses.
Basically... Fuedal Japan/India castes, imposed by race; Spartan terror-rulership tactics; and I don't know what for army composition. Hobs and Gobs form the bulk of the armies. Bugs are the elite, special forces, heroes, etc.
-One half Insectoid/Hive type territory, controlled by intelligent insects
--This faction controls the equatorial landmasses, and expand during the heat, and retreat during the winter; they're almost as hated as the Undead in the South; but in the North they really aren't paid attention do due to low amounts of incursion, and low native population density in the north in that region. All kinds of powerful creatures that can control Vermin live here. So, Verminlords, spell casters; aberrations that can 'make' creatures etc..
[added] Beholders, Aboleths, Mindflayers all build Verminoid armies to try and conquer each other, or to invade the southern/northern continents for stuff/slaves.
-Reptilianoids control the other half. Massive Volcanic ranges separate both sides from each other. Dragons control this faction
Funny enough; people know that lizardmen and insects come from the equator, but don't realize that they never really seem to be at the same place. This is b/c they really don't face each other. Even when they go south/north, they try to hug the equator as much as possible, and tend to stick to the shorelines; forcing them to move away from each other, and towards other races in the temperate zones.
-The Bulk of the PC races live in the south; they are decadent, engage in petty wars; and are pretty balkanized into Adventurer-run city-states.