So, earlier this week, I made a post on Facebook about my latest DnD campaign (set in the multiverse of Magic: the Gathering), and several members of my church commented saying they love DnD and would love to get a game going, half-jokingly calling it "DnD Ministries." Ever since, I have been consumed by the thought of running a DnD campaign based on Abrahamic mythology applied on a more-or-less global scale. That's my approach to worldbuilding in DnD: taking a single concept and blowing it up to a massive scale (like what MTG does when designing planes). So, without further adieu, I present my basic sketch of this world, tentatively called "Abrama."
Quick rundown of locations:
1. Gibantak Herz - Land of Giants. Essentially, this is a massive territory inhabited by human beings roughly 12 feet tall (aka, the land of Goliath). In the past, these giants had enslaved humanity but a Moses-like figure led his people across the sea to settle the main continent, drowning his giant pursuers. Gibantak Herz consists of various city-states run by giants. In many instances, these giants hire themselves out as mercenaries on the mainland.
2. Irvmar. This is the capital of a large empire that spans much of the main continent. Djinn form the upper echelons of society, claiming that they are blessed by divine magic from birth, but humans play a major role in society too. In effect, this is an analogue of the Roman Empire. It is highly militaristic and highly structured.
3. Iusrida. Once an independent kingdom, a series of plagues led to a collapse of civilization here. The Irvmari Empire swept in and took advantage of the chaos, conquering the territory and brutally suppressing indigenous religious practices. There are rumblings of individuals starting a rebellion with a more-or-less religious bent to usurp the Irvmari and retake their homelands. In effect, this is an analogue of Judaea.
4. Dishov Herz - Land of Demons. Across the Blood River lies the land of demons. Millenia ago, a pit connecting the human world to, in effect, Hell opened up. Demons and their kind flooded the world, so God literally flooded the world in retaliation and separated demonkind from the rest of the world. Often demons find a way across the boiling Blood River and terrorize humanity, trying to reassert their former authority. Some human soldiers fight against this demonic incursion, and some take advantage of these incursions to boost their own desires.
5. Maloth Salungar - Place of Angels. Seeing the demonic threat, and fearing that God was too busy or apathetic to do anything further about it, a contingent of angels left, in effect, Heaven and established a gleaming city of gold on earth. They lay claim to a tiny island on the south of the continent and occasionally sweep across the land exacting divine justice on demonkind, and any humans they deem too close with those demons. Angels and demons often clash in massive skirmishes that leave no regard for any bit of the natural world or civilization in which they do battle. These battles leave massive scars across the land and leave many innocents dead in their wake. The angels see these skirmishes as necessary for the greater good. Angelic civilization is lawful good to the extreme, taking on incredibly Orwellian tones.
6. Abira. This is a loose collection of nomadic tribes, content to sit out the world's conflicts. Some of these tribes do occasionally ally themselves with the various other civilizations for their own benefit, but these alliances change on a whim. Moreover, these tribes reject the monotheistic traditions that the rest of the world ascribes to, believing that God is merely an incredibly powerful angel and that, in reality, a pantheon of all-powerful gods, apathetic at best and malicious at worst, rule the world as their playground. Very very loosely based on pre-Islamic Arabic tribes.