Why I Made Yet Another Fantasy Setting
For a while, I’ve wished there was a fantasy setting with an open source attitude. Something with a traditional high fantasy feel, where all kinds of classic stories could easily fit. Something along the lines of Forgotten Realms, but with a very permissive copyright scheme, so that anyone could use it and even sell their work without permission. A setting that could collect the contributions of strangers without creating a legal nightmare for writers, just like open source software.
It seemed like an obvious idea, but I couldn’t find anything like what I was looking for, aside from a couple of dead forum posts with very little traction. (A dark glimpse into this post’s future?)
During the past year, I sketched out the basics of my own high fantasy setting, The Veiled Age. This was out of necessity. My interactive story, Secret of Gloam Lake, started out as a homebrew scenario I made for a Pathfinder game with my friends. As such, it was set in their official setting, which they call the Age of Lost Omens.
In publishing it to the internet, I had to remove references that world, while retaining an implied world with a vague D&D vibe. That mostly worked, but there was something missing. The adventure takes place in a shrine, but unanchored to any setting-specific religions or gods, what was it a shrine to? I had a character who poked fun at nobles. But it fell flat because I had no clear concept of any kingdom or culture the noble would be connected to. Even though it was a small-scale scenario, without a wider world to reference, some of the details and dialog felt contrived or bland.
Now that I have the basics of that world sorted out, I’d like to offer it up for others to contribute to. That starts with posting a concise overview of my world as a Creative Commons document and inviting others contribute their own lore. Maybe one day, it will be that community-created, free to use, open culture fantasy world I’ve always wished I had.
Download The Veiled Age Primer 
A concise overview of The Veiled Age, a high fantasy world and the setting for the Mage Hand browser game.
Contributing to the Setting
Simply post to the Worldbuilding category with any ideas you have about the setting, perhaps inspired by something in the above Primer or another user’s post.
But before you can post or reply to Worldbuilding, you must join the Worldbuilders group to confirm you’re on board with how it works. See this post for more info.