This is my entry for the Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam, based on the Slizers/ThrowBots theme. You can find it in PDF form here. Let me know if you have trouble accessing the file.
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In the
beginning, there was Chaos.
From
Chaos, the Judge arose. The Judge wished to study and understand Chaos. They
judged it to be composed of seven basic elements: Ice, Water, Fire, Jungle,
Rock, Energy, and City.
The
Judge formed a piece of Chaos into Order, as a perfect sphere. This world they cut
scores in, dividing it into seven equal slices. Next, they created seven Slizers,
one out of each element. Every Slizer was given one slice of the world as their
own realm. They would shape it as they saw fit, and the Judge would judge their
efforts.
The
Slizers completed their task, and the Judge saw that they had all done well.
Every Slizer had filled their realm with their own element, eliminating all
others. But then the Judge spotted a flaw. The City was imperfect, full of
lesser beings composed of all seven elements. The Judge questioned the City Slizer,
who said that these beings were humans, an essential part of the City. This
presented the Judge with a conundrum. With humans in the City, the world was unbalanced,
the elements not perfectly divided. Yet if they were taken away, the City would
be lessened, and the world still not in balance.
Before
the Judge could reach a decision, a worse calamity struck. From out of Chaos
came a horde of enraged demons. They screamed that judgment of the Judge was
false, that the infinite variety of Chaos could not be understood or
categorized. They invaded the world to tear it apart and return it to Chaos.
The
Judge and the Slizers fought the demons, and eventually drove them away. But
the damage was done. While the seven realms still stood, they had all been
stained by elements not their own. The flora, the fauna, and the land itself
had been twisted by demonic influence.
The
Judge built a great palace at the northern pole, where the seven realms met,
and retreated there with the Slizers. They would leave the shaping of the world
to the humans and the other beings dwelling there. The Judge would judge their
efforts.
The Seven Realms
The Ice
is composed of tundras, glaciers, snow-covered peaks, and frozen lakes. Life is
tough on the Ice, but hardy communities and fierce animals still survive there.
Ice tunnels and frozen caverns fill the underground - easy to slip down, difficult
to escape from. And sealed in the deepest ice are those chaotic things which
the Judge could not destroy, yet also refused to let lesser beings find.
The
Water or the Sub-Realm reaches all the way down to the world’s core. A few tiny
islands poke above the surface, but the true realm lies below. Tall peaks rise
from the depths, overgrown by coral and riddled with caves. Some have air
trapped inside, letting humans and other surface beings dwell there. The
Sub-Realm is so vast and dark that, after the invasion, a demon lord managed to
hide from the Slizers in the deepest depths. It remains there to this day,
waiting, whispering to mortals, and twisting sea creatures into monstrosities.
The Fire
is a landscape of volcanoes, basalt plains, and rivers and seas of lava. It is
a realm inimical to most forms of life, yet life persists. During the demonic
invasion, the Fire and Rock Slizers worked together to create soldiers to fight against the demons. They
heated rock and smelted it into strong metal, then filled it with living fire.
These war-forged beings still live in the Fire, and have built many thriving
civilisations.
The
Jungle is a vast forest, where every species of tree imaginable can be found at
least somewhere within. Many rivers run through the Jungle, sometimes swelling
into large swamps. The water, the ground and the trees teem with animals preying
upon each other. The Jungle Slizer was the Slizer most reluctant to abandon her
realm. Before she did, she elevated a number of animals and plants to become guardian
spirits, tasking them to protect the Jungle. The spirits have done so ever
since, but also compete with each other, the way all life does.
The Rock
consists of mountains, plateaus, badlands and canyons. Rivers are found here
and there, hurtling through rapids and waterfalls. Few plants or animals
survive on the barren slopes. In this realm, the underground is more hospitable.
A dense network of caverns stretches to the world’s core, home to many forms of
life unlike anything seen on the surface. These tunnels reach into the
neighboring realms, and even further beyond.
The
Energy is possibly the strangest realm: An open abyss, filled with thunder clouds
and twisting storms. Pieces of land float in the air, suspended by antigravitic
energies and blasted by lightning strikes. But even this realm is not
uninhabited. The people of the Energy traverse their realm in flying ships and
skiffs, powered by lightning. Reliant on Energy itself, these flyers work
poorly in other realms.
The City
is an urban sprawl of skyscrapers, apartment blocks, malls, factories, highways
and railways. Some parts are darkened by intense pollution. Below the streets
are basements, sewers, subways, and underground districts. It is said that
before the demonic invasion, the City was fully inhabited by humans, but today
only a fraction is. Most buildings are empty and decaying, sometimes torn down
for resources.
The most
common animals in the City are the wheel beasts, mechanical creatures that move
on two, four, or even more wheels. They charge down highways and streets at
terrifying speed, running down anyone in their way. Most wheel beasts are
completely wild and untameable. The exception is motorbikes, which the
City-dwellers have managed to domesticate and use as steeds.