The world with no name

As I write this, I'm thinking about the notebooks of handwritten scrawl that I have peppered throughout my bedroom. For the past 6 years or so, I've been slowly coalescing ideas for a fantasy setting. My notes on this world range from organized descriptions of elven social interactions to drunken sentence fragments about "totally awesome dino-riders". The point of this blog is to bring all of these notes together and try and make a cohesive whole.

Originally, I'd wanted to introduce this world to the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 scene, but I never quite felt it was ready. The only time I attempted to run a game in the setting, we stalled out during character creation because I didn't feel like I had enough info for my players. With the release of 4th edition D&D back in 2008, I dug up some of these notes and started making adaptations to include Eladrin, Dragonborn and Tieflings. Unfortunately, those revisions just didn't feel right and I went back to the drawing board with some of my core elements -

• Humanity is at the bottom of the totem pole - savage tribesmen living far to the northwest


• Goblinoids are everywhere and are a constant nuisance


• Dwarves live almost exlucsively in the vast and winding halls of Karaz-Garak - a mountain unlike anything on Earth (think Olympus Mons)


• Elves are jungle dwellers with deep ties to the forest


• Dwarves and Elves have a vehement hatred for one another and have only just recently called a ceasefire to their multi-generational war


• A great desert south of the human territories is guarded by eternal sentries and is a breeding ground for undead


• Dragons are nowhere to be seen, but are persistent in every race's legends and mythology

Nowadays, I have no definite system in mind for playing in this setting. Hell, the world doesn't even have a name yet. Still, I feel like there's a lot of potential here and I want to start bringing my notes together. Hopefully a little focus and a solid foundation will get the juices flowing.