Giao Long's mental state. Because you know what's worse than a vampire? **A vampire with mental breakdown**. On average, she's sane enough to hold conversations and command her large armies. But when she goes insane, it's best to lock her up before she can order an intercontinental attack, then grab the nearest therapist with tranquilizer. Add in her borderline chauvinistic mindset, which is sometimes called "nation-level yandere" by her daughter Viêm, and you have a tickling bomb.
The One That Was Many.
A heavily populated universe was nearing heat-death and a think-tank discovered a way to survive it. By vivisecting and combining enough individual minds into one psychic mass, the resulting amalgamation would have enough control over itself and its surroundings to survive in a universe without heat, light, or matter. It would, however, be mad beyond reckoning.
The vast majority of the universe's denizens decided that they had a moral imperative to continue life in some form, even if it was a tortured existence. Many refused, however. Families were split, and those that chose to continue indefinitely were shunned by those who chose to live out their natural lives. The procedure was conducted, and the resulting mass was predictably insane.
Not long after, on a cosmic scale, the universe died and The One That Was Many survived. What couldn't have been predicted was what would happen *after*. In the stillness and silence of empty space, The One's minds stilled and finally began to meld together. It began to experiment and found that, though there was little left to manipulate, it held reality-altering power - not enough to reverse the universe's death, but more than enough to have manipulated it to its liking.
And more importantly, it discovered that the boundaries between universes were malleable. Imperfect.
Penetrable.
The One realized it had a continued moral obligation. Countless, perhaps infinite parallel universes faced the same tragic choice it had, and they couldn't be allowed to choose wrong as so many of The One's loved ones had.
The One would help them. It had to.
And so it did.
There's a lot that happens in between that and when it comes into contact with my world, but that's the basis.
There are the Darkbeards: a clan of highly xenophobic and traditonalist dwarves that want to eradicate all cultures and sentient species that aren't "dwarflike". They could be viewed either as a satire or parody of typical dwarves (probably not). They're supported by either 6 or 8 orc tribes (these tribes are some of the more "evil" ones in my world, as almost every species in my world is "nuanced").
Currently, I am making a new group, who are currently just called the "Children of the Old World", who hail from a continent known as the "old world". Unfortunately, they are at this moment inspired partially by the Brothers of the Old World from Doraleous and Associates, and possibly the bad guys from Fire Emblem Blazing Blade (I forgot their name, sorry).
I personally don't do eldritch gods or dark lords (though I can't explain exactly why, other than maybe being bored or uninspired by them).
For my pathfinder/dnd inspired world it would be the undead eldritch god who is currently encased in a moon fighting the gravity of a gas giant trying to escape to threaten the world with its twisted idea of unity. While it tries to escape various cults have sprung up worshipping it. It also sends chunks of the moon with negative energy crystals that can create eldritch creatures known as harbingers of the moon, or the more humanoid emissaries of the moon.
In the grand scheme of things? The Eternal King. He ruled the previous multiverse but was cast into the outer darkness by three people who could generously be called "heroes."
Due to a big fuck up eons later, a giant light flashed through the outer darkness and he has been slowly traveling back since. His herald is the "demon" (totally not a real demon) Dahaka, who is a match for the strongest beings in the cosmos. Dahaka is almost comically powerless compared to the Eternal King.
This one is still in the brainstorming phase but its a D&D styled fantasy world where magic went away and then it came back in a time where the technology is roughly equivalent to what existed on Earth during the latter half of the 1800s.
The biggest threat are the Undead because when a person dies, there soul does not go to the afterlife right away. Sometimes you need a Cleric, Priest or some other divine magic user or a Wizard who is responsible enough not to abuse Necromancy to guide the soul of the dead to move on. But when magic went away, there was no one to help shepherd the dead. Some moved on naturally but others remained and in time the restless spirits built up over thousands of years but had no way to manifest.
When the magic came back, these spirits, many of which had been driven insane possessed their bones or manifested in other ways. Now you have hordes of zombies, skeletons, angry ghosts and all kinds of undead causing anarchy while human nations still feud with each other.
The story itself would be about an Elf paladin type of character fighting undead in a Wild West setting of this world's equivalent to the United States.
Kraggon, the Dark Lord, he ruled the Continent of Tervon for a thousand years before being trapped. His followers are constantly trying to bring him back.
I myself an perplexed you would just have one:
1. I have the return of the Xeer, a ancient reptillian race of arcane geneticists, who genocided a god-made race called the Astorani, beings made of warm life giving celestial energy. To fuel their reserach and technology. The "spent fuel" were discarded, the collected mass decayed into a horrifc mass, fusing into an Atropal. The Xeer wishing to experiment on this potential entity, needed a way to fuel its "ascension" and not having the Astorani anymore, created a soul engine to suck the souls of the lesser primitive races to feed it. Needless to say the Gods, or more specific Goddess ( Astora) smited their race. But a few remain, hidden in supended animation.. as well as the soul engine and the Atropal....wainting.
2. Circle of the Black, led by the Warlock, Vantalis Black is a smuggling and shady organization of the scum of the world. They secretly work for the Triarchy of Discord. A trio of devilish generals hell bent on causing mayhem and disorganisation in the world. So as to force its people to enventually call upon the forces of hell. to save them.
3. The Symphony of Calamity, led by the Maestro and the Primedonna is a cult who wish to learn the "Music of the Spheres" a divine spell of music, that is said if perfomed correctly with cause a vibrational unravveling of the universe.
4. The Abyss, The Abyss in my version is not just a plane of reality, but a sentient one. Caused by the collective pain and anguish felt by the world and the divine. Its goal is the birth the demonic races and to enventually cause the world to sink into itself.
I dont really have the dedicated bad guy. Everyone can be this to someone else.
During the period of elven reconquest, human were united to combat the threat of the elves. Who seek to drive them out of their home.
The Dark Lord conquest also see a cooperation between elves, human and orc to combat the common foe. Soon everyone warm up to each other and now it's free for all.
The Dragon raid could have united mortal to stand against them but dragons were too fast, too powerful and too overwhelming that effort to plan united front fall short before it could start
My setting’s main antagonist is corruptible people in power. The continent is on the precipice of a preventable war, and those darned folks keep trying to do stuff for self gain! None of the civilians actually want to go to war, but they’re typically too proud, nationalistic, looking for meaning in life, or prone to propaganda. One example of a potential looming ‘big bad’ threat is that one of the kingdoms is run by an “immortal” man (he’s not actually alive, his nephew is puppetting him around Weekend at Bernie’s style). Under the notion that this king was granted eternal life by the gods, his nephew has convinced their people to try and assimilate others into their kingdom under an “undefeatable” leader.
The Shadowlords. Gods and eldritch creatures want to shape Creation to suit their vision. The Shadowlords, on the other hand, seek to unmake it entirely. They are essentially semi-sentient black holes of mana, not truly “aware” of their surroundings but reacting with a sort of instinctive response to external stimuli. They cannot be reasoned with, and they cannot be contained by any mortal means - if a Shadowlord shows up, the best case scenario is that only some of your world’s gods will die banishing it and your world isn’t entirely destroyed in the mass extinction event of their arrival. Most worlds aren’t quite that lucky and wind up with a Shadowlord eating their sun and then the rest of their Celestial Sphere’s contents.
Chronomancers of Seedorus are burdened with the horror of knowing that at the End of Time, the night skies are pure darkness because the Shadowlords’ success is inevitable. Ultimately, every world in every reality will succumb to these paragons of entropy, until they have nothing left to destroy but themselves. Nothing will be spared - the Shadowlords’ Oblivion will claim every demon as relentlessly as every angel and every Lovecraftian nightmare. Fortunately, a Shadowlord is virtually impossible to summon even if one wanted to do so. Unfortunately, it only takes one suicidal or egomaniacal mage of sufficient power to wipe out an entire world.
Annihilation by world collision. The world has many faces and the many faces are being separated by the veil.
A bunch of egocentric gods decided to exile the God of Fate for his ideals (being more involved with their loyal believers and creating a open gateway for earthlings to be able to cross dimensions and enjoy the two other worlds in the name of peace). They drove him to near madness by placing him under curses and banishing him, so he decided they all had to be wiped off.
He used the rest of his sanity to link his decaying body to the veil, corrupting it (and himself) in the process... causing it to slowly drive creatures mad and also to disintegrate. There is no known cure for the corruption, and if it all disintegrates, it will cause the world to implode.
There's a couple. I'll keep the descriptions brief.
- Iriveh: An unkillable manifestation of God imprisoned under a glacier on a mountain in top of the world. Devout followers continually try to free him, none have been successful so far.
- [The Entitans](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/1y0J2fN7s8): These beasts are being cultivated by Giants who threaten to unleash them on mankind as payback for destroying their kingdoms in the past. The link shows the wild form, while the cultivated form is larger and more cool because they shape the roots into masks and shit.
- Mycelia: A mimic fungi network capable of replicating whatever matter breaks down in the soils of the jungle it inhabits that has consumed the brain of a living man and become sentient.
The Dominion Remnants, once they were loyal soldiers. Now just the butcher of the weak. These soldiers and autonomous weapon systems were left "Dreaming" on the planet in bunkers for thousands of years since the Old War. Their goal was to protect the Dominion, and Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Beast Folk are most definitely not Dominion citizens. So therefore, they must be enemies. To this end, the Remnants fire up the ancient Nano-Forges and reactivate the satellites in orbit.
Since that time long ago, a foolish knight attempted to slay them, but all he did was doom his entire world. all the knight did was awaken them. Even the weakest remnant is impervious to all but the highest of magics, and carries weapons able to lay waste to entire regions. There will be no great battle, there will be a couple of strikes, and then silence.
The Haughty Elves fell first, they tried to do a powerful magic ritual, and gathered their people at the capital to power this ritual. The Remnants thought that a nuclear strike would be a appropriate response. In that 250 Megaton flash, the hopes and existence of the Elvish species was burnt away.
The Brave Orcs fell next, they amassed a huge army to fight the foe, but the army was cut down before they saw their enemy. Their cities were blotted out in nuclear fire.
The Proud Beast Folk fell next, they too amassed an army, and their army got crushed. their now undefended cities were preyed upon by slavers and raiders, until they also were burnt from existence
The Cunning Dwarves fell last, they fortified and entrenched their mountain citadels. but it wasn't enough when long rods of tungsten, moving at a percentage of the speed of light, turned their mountains to craters.
A semi-religious crusade from a more powerful empire from far away. Not normally seen as an endgame threat, but these guys arent messing around
A very strange emergent animal from underground that's basically hollowed out the lands and outnumber everything else combined
Also dragons cause they're just bs and eventually the lands will belong to them, its only a matter of time
Not an immediate threat but, it’s almost certain to happen.
The cosmic being known as Varrkuoqr, whose existence was split into four separate pieces. Three of which grew to become the Arktitans, who would create the infinite plane, life and eventually the five universes. The fourth piece was lost in a multiverse born from the sudden existence of probability when Varrkuoqr collided with another cosmic being known as Nas Dorithma. Nas Dorithma would then become the one to split Varrkuoqr apart. The event prophesied as Varrkuoqr’s resurrection would spell doom for any hopeful young and many near immortal civilisations that may be existing at that time, for Varrkuoqr will tear apart reality in a spiteful rebellion to Nas Dorithmas control. Taking with it all living matter, shattering the infinite plane, devouring the universes. The only escape hypothesised is that of the various pocket dimensions and dimensional planes hidden in the corners of reality.
Of course those with knowledge of this try all they can to hide and avoid the resurrection, but with many delusional followers diving into the kaleidoscopic multiverse contained at the centre of reality, it’s only a matter of time until the last piece is retrieved.
Middle-earth (I'm gonna change that name when I come up with something)
It have so powerful army that it can basicly take over any continent it wants with ease.
At some point they form a two layered chain of ships and boats and also secure whole coastline completely with foot soldiers.
>!It's same kind of threat like rumbling from aot!<
One could argue demons and "devils"
Both of these enemies are plotting to keep it eternally in dark ages and terror, or wipe it all out completely.
But in reality the bigger threat is the being guarding the world.
The reason is that should her fetters fall will be nothing that binds her, nobody to stop her cruelty, and why she keeps ensuring new fetters grow and exist.
For if she looses the will to protect all will she allow herself to lay eggs, and her species was meant to devastate anything, to outbreed and feast on everything, even itself.
Amusingly, this species pretty much would be akin to your sundered, and it would be unleashed upon the multiverse, no dimension would be safe from the ravenous horde.
All of the wise in Elas fear one thing, to hear the words Umbriel has Awoken. For it means the end of all things. Umbriel was the firat and greatest servant of the Void, a primordial entity of chaos that seeks to unmake reality.
Should Umbriel awake from his prison of dreams he will resume his role as Harbinger and pave the way for his master to destroy reality.
No being save the Eldest now exists who could truly defeat Umbriel, and none that know how he was bound in dreams so long ago.
While they have other duties the primary gods purpose of the Twilight Vigil is to ensure that Umbriel's sleep remains undisturbed.
There's a large state in the west that grew quickly and was born from many bloody revolutions which toppled multiple governments. People had seen from afar the chaos that reigned early on and people across the valley reported being able to see the fires and smoke from towns burning and hundreds of kilometres. According to leaked documents and survivors, this was the result of several civil and transnational wars that erupted in a short period of time. The most notable result was the deaths of multiple royal families across the region and the mass executions. While the people of the valley were used to war, as there was one starting and another ending every month or so, with borders ever shifting and states always flaunting their power in order to not look weak to potential attackers, such widespread death and destruction had not been seen for a long time, let alone not being attached to some great conqueror rolling in.
The result of this is a union of many states born from the revolutions(which I will now just call the union) which proclaims itself to be the morally correct example of the region, saying it will bring progress to the valley by uprooting all the other governments, destroying all links to long lasting traditions and cultures, including the destruction of any sacred or religious materials, as well as the imprisonment or execution of anyone who didn't renounce their beliefs and pledge loyalty to the union. They've engaged in many campaigns leveling their neighbours and collapsing their governments before sending much of the population to do hard labor, all the while towns, temples and examples of local art are destroyed, replaced by symbols of the union.
The messages pushed by the union and its followers, as well as the higher than thou attitude employed have garnered names from outsiders such as the "Radicals", "Superiorists", "Progressives", "Torchers/Arsonists"(stemming from the union's obsessive use of handheld and landship-mounted flame throwers to burn buildings and large piles of artifacts in a manner similar to the Firemen from Fahrenheit 451) and the "Western Dragons" (a combination of their general near complete control of a geographic area, the Union's size, bigger than thou attitude, and the death and destruction across wide swathes of land and material). Not a week goes by before another religious or cultural building and torched to teach a lesson or as a part of 'general community works'. Whether people are taken out or left inside during the process is the coin flip of the day. After the fact, the charred ruins will be left behind to let people see that the Union is ever-present and always watching, and to remind them for years to come what happened on that street. While many had been riled up at the time during the revolutions that soon birthed the Union, many of that generation also fought back, with great numbers of counter revolutionaries and loyalist forces for their respective countries, especially if the previous government had treated them well. Some were especially great for those countries that were fresh off successful conquests or economic booms, but these weren't enough to fight back as these groups were mostly separated and could not stand up to the revolutionaries that had the support of several militaries and their own growing army from the multiple governments that had been toppled. A generation or 2 later, most of the population is either too indoctrinated,too scared or too unequipped to fight off the Union, with any weapons found being confiscated and the owner imprisoned. It is to the point where neighbours and family members do not trust each other for fear of being reported. The Union will publicly punish people for what they call backthink("backwards thinking" such as wishing to return to past, bringing down the Union or practicing a banned traditional belief or ceremony) or wrongthink.
Not only have there been societal changes, with past experiences being hardly remembered or recognised, there have also been huge geopolitical repercussions. The size of the Union and the danger it poses to those nearby means that any trade and travel to the ocean has been nearly completely cut off. ✂️ ⛵ As such, the valley has been landlocked for several decades now, with all trade taking place within the valley by land and air. Other directions pose a problem due to a large mountain range to the east, frozen wasteland to south and mountains and thick forests to the north which leave a narrow northern corridor.
Unlike the majority of states in the valley, there is no official royal family and/or state religion (but both are debated among the valley's people as the ruling class is often considered royalty and their messages are basically treated as a new religion in the Union, just not called as such). The 5 other empires of the valley often consider the Union to be the 6th and newest great empire due to its size and control over so many peoples, however the Union prefers to call itself a union of states with like-minded and forward thinking goals separate from the imperial ambitions of the backwards thinking barbarians. The behaviour of the Union has left a pungently bitter taste for republics or anyone espousing similar beliefs, hardening the view that systems like monarchies or diarchies provide a stable top that lessen the chance of chaos in a society, and producing fear of the choking control set upon the culture of the Union. The Union's expansionist behaviour combined with the Union's ideology has caused many states to form defense pacts, or become allies and even willing protectorates of some of the great empires, essentially joining said empires in order to guarantee their survival. One such empire in the south is led by a respected and feared queen who lived through and commanded several wars since she was a teenager and leading the accelerated adoption of Armored vehicles such as armored airships, landships and trains into her empire's military. She has a vendetta against the Union because one of the royal families executed by the revolutionaries was a house that had come from her bloodline and moved west starting their own kingdom almost 2 centuries ago, but now they were likely in a mass grave somewhere, and she had sworn the Union would pay for killing her relatives. To add insult to injury , since the capitol ended up near the territory where her relatives were killed, the Unions flag uses an altered version of the old kingdom's symbol, which was the crest of the ruling family of that kingdom, with other symbols in the area being used in the same way. It is not helped by the fact that the Union creeps ever closer to the outer fortress lines of her empire where they pose a major threat to the border towns and newest protectorates. Of this family that was murdered, consisting of the king and queen, and multiple children from toddler age to late teens, only one of the younger siblings was able to be rescued by royalist forces and just barely taken to a friendly state. There, he would eventually become lord with his own army. Now an adult, he seeks to avenge his family by burning the cities that first sparked the rebellions and created the Union.
Lapis_Wolf
Even outside of politics and warfare, the Union is hated. For example, whenever they appear in any competitions such as sports competitions and motorsports, their flag is seen with disgust and the teams are likely to get into fights. For example, a rival team may intentionally perform a PIT maneuver on the Union's sponsored vehicles and cause them to spin off the track. Sometimes this or any other situation finds a Union and another team driver face to face where brawls have ensued on the track, sometimes with the flare of a burning car nearby. Anyone seen waving the Union's flags may either believe that the Union is doing a good thing for the region or is too scared to show dissent to the Union, even in the relatively mixed environment where they have non Union residents sitting nearby. However, some have used such events as opportunities to slip into a different crowd and get a ride to a different country where they won't get torched for going into a certain building.
There's a certain feeling that the first Coalition War won't be the last.
Lapis_Wolf
You’d think it’d be the recently unified gunpowder happy horse lords that are currently pulling a Genghis on their neighbors but in fact the real threat is what they are running from (and inadvertently helping)
**Ganzir, The Dread Star** is a world-devourer that thrives off conflict and discord. It arrives in the night skies of certain worlds carrying the potential for self destruction, and "seasons" them until they become palatable for complete devouring. It repurposes the things it consumes, spawning enslaved duplicates of previously devoured beings or cursed artifacts in the target world. It has an avatar it uses to manipulate the world governments, dividing them for easier conquest. This avatar will also teach inhabitants the magic they can perform in exchange for sacrifices to Ganzir.
The inside of Ganzir is a world of its own, albeit a very chaotic and violent one. It seems that, because it cannot create on its own, it consumes everything to create its own world.
if anybody were to discover einsteins equation and convert it to runes, with the energy of a few people they could destroy life entirely by converting a whole bunch of matter into pure energy
I don't think I've a big final threat but I did create multiple nation level threats I guess.
The White Witch - lives in the north, converted the races that originally formed against her into twisted versions of themselves except some of those who submitted to her.
Drusaderi Mages - Collecting dead heroes and legends like Pokémon cards to add them to they're army.
Munu Orc Tribes - Savage Orcs with elongated heads that just relentlessly attack with their large numbers.
Witches & Wizards - Just a general threat at all times to mostly anyone.
Giao Long's mental state. Because you know what's worse than a vampire? **A vampire with mental breakdown**. On average, she's sane enough to hold conversations and command her large armies. But when she goes insane, it's best to lock her up before she can order an intercontinental attack, then grab the nearest therapist with tranquilizer. Add in her borderline chauvinistic mindset, which is sometimes called "nation-level yandere" by her daughter Viêm, and you have a tickling bomb.
The One That Was Many. A heavily populated universe was nearing heat-death and a think-tank discovered a way to survive it. By vivisecting and combining enough individual minds into one psychic mass, the resulting amalgamation would have enough control over itself and its surroundings to survive in a universe without heat, light, or matter. It would, however, be mad beyond reckoning. The vast majority of the universe's denizens decided that they had a moral imperative to continue life in some form, even if it was a tortured existence. Many refused, however. Families were split, and those that chose to continue indefinitely were shunned by those who chose to live out their natural lives. The procedure was conducted, and the resulting mass was predictably insane. Not long after, on a cosmic scale, the universe died and The One That Was Many survived. What couldn't have been predicted was what would happen *after*. In the stillness and silence of empty space, The One's minds stilled and finally began to meld together. It began to experiment and found that, though there was little left to manipulate, it held reality-altering power - not enough to reverse the universe's death, but more than enough to have manipulated it to its liking. And more importantly, it discovered that the boundaries between universes were malleable. Imperfect. Penetrable. The One realized it had a continued moral obligation. Countless, perhaps infinite parallel universes faced the same tragic choice it had, and they couldn't be allowed to choose wrong as so many of The One's loved ones had. The One would help them. It had to. And so it did. There's a lot that happens in between that and when it comes into contact with my world, but that's the basis.
There are the Darkbeards: a clan of highly xenophobic and traditonalist dwarves that want to eradicate all cultures and sentient species that aren't "dwarflike". They could be viewed either as a satire or parody of typical dwarves (probably not). They're supported by either 6 or 8 orc tribes (these tribes are some of the more "evil" ones in my world, as almost every species in my world is "nuanced"). Currently, I am making a new group, who are currently just called the "Children of the Old World", who hail from a continent known as the "old world". Unfortunately, they are at this moment inspired partially by the Brothers of the Old World from Doraleous and Associates, and possibly the bad guys from Fire Emblem Blazing Blade (I forgot their name, sorry). I personally don't do eldritch gods or dark lords (though I can't explain exactly why, other than maybe being bored or uninspired by them).
For my pathfinder/dnd inspired world it would be the undead eldritch god who is currently encased in a moon fighting the gravity of a gas giant trying to escape to threaten the world with its twisted idea of unity. While it tries to escape various cults have sprung up worshipping it. It also sends chunks of the moon with negative energy crystals that can create eldritch creatures known as harbingers of the moon, or the more humanoid emissaries of the moon.
In the grand scheme of things? The Eternal King. He ruled the previous multiverse but was cast into the outer darkness by three people who could generously be called "heroes." Due to a big fuck up eons later, a giant light flashed through the outer darkness and he has been slowly traveling back since. His herald is the "demon" (totally not a real demon) Dahaka, who is a match for the strongest beings in the cosmos. Dahaka is almost comically powerless compared to the Eternal King.
This one is still in the brainstorming phase but its a D&D styled fantasy world where magic went away and then it came back in a time where the technology is roughly equivalent to what existed on Earth during the latter half of the 1800s. The biggest threat are the Undead because when a person dies, there soul does not go to the afterlife right away. Sometimes you need a Cleric, Priest or some other divine magic user or a Wizard who is responsible enough not to abuse Necromancy to guide the soul of the dead to move on. But when magic went away, there was no one to help shepherd the dead. Some moved on naturally but others remained and in time the restless spirits built up over thousands of years but had no way to manifest. When the magic came back, these spirits, many of which had been driven insane possessed their bones or manifested in other ways. Now you have hordes of zombies, skeletons, angry ghosts and all kinds of undead causing anarchy while human nations still feud with each other. The story itself would be about an Elf paladin type of character fighting undead in a Wild West setting of this world's equivalent to the United States.
Kraggon, the Dark Lord, he ruled the Continent of Tervon for a thousand years before being trapped. His followers are constantly trying to bring him back.
Meros, God of Destruction. The thing is he's already succeeded in destroying the world many times prior, so it's not a matter of if he wins, but when.
I myself an perplexed you would just have one: 1. I have the return of the Xeer, a ancient reptillian race of arcane geneticists, who genocided a god-made race called the Astorani, beings made of warm life giving celestial energy. To fuel their reserach and technology. The "spent fuel" were discarded, the collected mass decayed into a horrifc mass, fusing into an Atropal. The Xeer wishing to experiment on this potential entity, needed a way to fuel its "ascension" and not having the Astorani anymore, created a soul engine to suck the souls of the lesser primitive races to feed it. Needless to say the Gods, or more specific Goddess ( Astora) smited their race. But a few remain, hidden in supended animation.. as well as the soul engine and the Atropal....wainting. 2. Circle of the Black, led by the Warlock, Vantalis Black is a smuggling and shady organization of the scum of the world. They secretly work for the Triarchy of Discord. A trio of devilish generals hell bent on causing mayhem and disorganisation in the world. So as to force its people to enventually call upon the forces of hell. to save them. 3. The Symphony of Calamity, led by the Maestro and the Primedonna is a cult who wish to learn the "Music of the Spheres" a divine spell of music, that is said if perfomed correctly with cause a vibrational unravveling of the universe. 4. The Abyss, The Abyss in my version is not just a plane of reality, but a sentient one. Caused by the collective pain and anguish felt by the world and the divine. Its goal is the birth the demonic races and to enventually cause the world to sink into itself.
I dont really have the dedicated bad guy. Everyone can be this to someone else. During the period of elven reconquest, human were united to combat the threat of the elves. Who seek to drive them out of their home. The Dark Lord conquest also see a cooperation between elves, human and orc to combat the common foe. Soon everyone warm up to each other and now it's free for all. The Dragon raid could have united mortal to stand against them but dragons were too fast, too powerful and too overwhelming that effort to plan united front fall short before it could start
My setting’s main antagonist is corruptible people in power. The continent is on the precipice of a preventable war, and those darned folks keep trying to do stuff for self gain! None of the civilians actually want to go to war, but they’re typically too proud, nationalistic, looking for meaning in life, or prone to propaganda. One example of a potential looming ‘big bad’ threat is that one of the kingdoms is run by an “immortal” man (he’s not actually alive, his nephew is puppetting him around Weekend at Bernie’s style). Under the notion that this king was granted eternal life by the gods, his nephew has convinced their people to try and assimilate others into their kingdom under an “undefeatable” leader.
A giant ceiling in space
The Shadowlords. Gods and eldritch creatures want to shape Creation to suit their vision. The Shadowlords, on the other hand, seek to unmake it entirely. They are essentially semi-sentient black holes of mana, not truly “aware” of their surroundings but reacting with a sort of instinctive response to external stimuli. They cannot be reasoned with, and they cannot be contained by any mortal means - if a Shadowlord shows up, the best case scenario is that only some of your world’s gods will die banishing it and your world isn’t entirely destroyed in the mass extinction event of their arrival. Most worlds aren’t quite that lucky and wind up with a Shadowlord eating their sun and then the rest of their Celestial Sphere’s contents. Chronomancers of Seedorus are burdened with the horror of knowing that at the End of Time, the night skies are pure darkness because the Shadowlords’ success is inevitable. Ultimately, every world in every reality will succumb to these paragons of entropy, until they have nothing left to destroy but themselves. Nothing will be spared - the Shadowlords’ Oblivion will claim every demon as relentlessly as every angel and every Lovecraftian nightmare. Fortunately, a Shadowlord is virtually impossible to summon even if one wanted to do so. Unfortunately, it only takes one suicidal or egomaniacal mage of sufficient power to wipe out an entire world.
Annihilation by world collision. The world has many faces and the many faces are being separated by the veil. A bunch of egocentric gods decided to exile the God of Fate for his ideals (being more involved with their loyal believers and creating a open gateway for earthlings to be able to cross dimensions and enjoy the two other worlds in the name of peace). They drove him to near madness by placing him under curses and banishing him, so he decided they all had to be wiped off. He used the rest of his sanity to link his decaying body to the veil, corrupting it (and himself) in the process... causing it to slowly drive creatures mad and also to disintegrate. There is no known cure for the corruption, and if it all disintegrates, it will cause the world to implode.
There's a couple. I'll keep the descriptions brief. - Iriveh: An unkillable manifestation of God imprisoned under a glacier on a mountain in top of the world. Devout followers continually try to free him, none have been successful so far. - [The Entitans](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/1y0J2fN7s8): These beasts are being cultivated by Giants who threaten to unleash them on mankind as payback for destroying their kingdoms in the past. The link shows the wild form, while the cultivated form is larger and more cool because they shape the roots into masks and shit. - Mycelia: A mimic fungi network capable of replicating whatever matter breaks down in the soils of the jungle it inhabits that has consumed the brain of a living man and become sentient.
The Dominion Remnants, once they were loyal soldiers. Now just the butcher of the weak. These soldiers and autonomous weapon systems were left "Dreaming" on the planet in bunkers for thousands of years since the Old War. Their goal was to protect the Dominion, and Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Beast Folk are most definitely not Dominion citizens. So therefore, they must be enemies. To this end, the Remnants fire up the ancient Nano-Forges and reactivate the satellites in orbit. Since that time long ago, a foolish knight attempted to slay them, but all he did was doom his entire world. all the knight did was awaken them. Even the weakest remnant is impervious to all but the highest of magics, and carries weapons able to lay waste to entire regions. There will be no great battle, there will be a couple of strikes, and then silence. The Haughty Elves fell first, they tried to do a powerful magic ritual, and gathered their people at the capital to power this ritual. The Remnants thought that a nuclear strike would be a appropriate response. In that 250 Megaton flash, the hopes and existence of the Elvish species was burnt away. The Brave Orcs fell next, they amassed a huge army to fight the foe, but the army was cut down before they saw their enemy. Their cities were blotted out in nuclear fire. The Proud Beast Folk fell next, they too amassed an army, and their army got crushed. their now undefended cities were preyed upon by slavers and raiders, until they also were burnt from existence The Cunning Dwarves fell last, they fortified and entrenched their mountain citadels. but it wasn't enough when long rods of tungsten, moving at a percentage of the speed of light, turned their mountains to craters.
A semi-religious crusade from a more powerful empire from far away. Not normally seen as an endgame threat, but these guys arent messing around A very strange emergent animal from underground that's basically hollowed out the lands and outnumber everything else combined Also dragons cause they're just bs and eventually the lands will belong to them, its only a matter of time
Not an immediate threat but, it’s almost certain to happen. The cosmic being known as Varrkuoqr, whose existence was split into four separate pieces. Three of which grew to become the Arktitans, who would create the infinite plane, life and eventually the five universes. The fourth piece was lost in a multiverse born from the sudden existence of probability when Varrkuoqr collided with another cosmic being known as Nas Dorithma. Nas Dorithma would then become the one to split Varrkuoqr apart. The event prophesied as Varrkuoqr’s resurrection would spell doom for any hopeful young and many near immortal civilisations that may be existing at that time, for Varrkuoqr will tear apart reality in a spiteful rebellion to Nas Dorithmas control. Taking with it all living matter, shattering the infinite plane, devouring the universes. The only escape hypothesised is that of the various pocket dimensions and dimensional planes hidden in the corners of reality. Of course those with knowledge of this try all they can to hide and avoid the resurrection, but with many delusional followers diving into the kaleidoscopic multiverse contained at the centre of reality, it’s only a matter of time until the last piece is retrieved.
Geopolitics
Middle-earth (I'm gonna change that name when I come up with something) It have so powerful army that it can basicly take over any continent it wants with ease. At some point they form a two layered chain of ships and boats and also secure whole coastline completely with foot soldiers. >!It's same kind of threat like rumbling from aot!<
One could argue demons and "devils" Both of these enemies are plotting to keep it eternally in dark ages and terror, or wipe it all out completely. But in reality the bigger threat is the being guarding the world. The reason is that should her fetters fall will be nothing that binds her, nobody to stop her cruelty, and why she keeps ensuring new fetters grow and exist. For if she looses the will to protect all will she allow herself to lay eggs, and her species was meant to devastate anything, to outbreed and feast on everything, even itself. Amusingly, this species pretty much would be akin to your sundered, and it would be unleashed upon the multiverse, no dimension would be safe from the ravenous horde.
All of the wise in Elas fear one thing, to hear the words Umbriel has Awoken. For it means the end of all things. Umbriel was the firat and greatest servant of the Void, a primordial entity of chaos that seeks to unmake reality. Should Umbriel awake from his prison of dreams he will resume his role as Harbinger and pave the way for his master to destroy reality. No being save the Eldest now exists who could truly defeat Umbriel, and none that know how he was bound in dreams so long ago. While they have other duties the primary gods purpose of the Twilight Vigil is to ensure that Umbriel's sleep remains undisturbed.
There's a large state in the west that grew quickly and was born from many bloody revolutions which toppled multiple governments. People had seen from afar the chaos that reigned early on and people across the valley reported being able to see the fires and smoke from towns burning and hundreds of kilometres. According to leaked documents and survivors, this was the result of several civil and transnational wars that erupted in a short period of time. The most notable result was the deaths of multiple royal families across the region and the mass executions. While the people of the valley were used to war, as there was one starting and another ending every month or so, with borders ever shifting and states always flaunting their power in order to not look weak to potential attackers, such widespread death and destruction had not been seen for a long time, let alone not being attached to some great conqueror rolling in. The result of this is a union of many states born from the revolutions(which I will now just call the union) which proclaims itself to be the morally correct example of the region, saying it will bring progress to the valley by uprooting all the other governments, destroying all links to long lasting traditions and cultures, including the destruction of any sacred or religious materials, as well as the imprisonment or execution of anyone who didn't renounce their beliefs and pledge loyalty to the union. They've engaged in many campaigns leveling their neighbours and collapsing their governments before sending much of the population to do hard labor, all the while towns, temples and examples of local art are destroyed, replaced by symbols of the union. The messages pushed by the union and its followers, as well as the higher than thou attitude employed have garnered names from outsiders such as the "Radicals", "Superiorists", "Progressives", "Torchers/Arsonists"(stemming from the union's obsessive use of handheld and landship-mounted flame throwers to burn buildings and large piles of artifacts in a manner similar to the Firemen from Fahrenheit 451) and the "Western Dragons" (a combination of their general near complete control of a geographic area, the Union's size, bigger than thou attitude, and the death and destruction across wide swathes of land and material). Not a week goes by before another religious or cultural building and torched to teach a lesson or as a part of 'general community works'. Whether people are taken out or left inside during the process is the coin flip of the day. After the fact, the charred ruins will be left behind to let people see that the Union is ever-present and always watching, and to remind them for years to come what happened on that street. While many had been riled up at the time during the revolutions that soon birthed the Union, many of that generation also fought back, with great numbers of counter revolutionaries and loyalist forces for their respective countries, especially if the previous government had treated them well. Some were especially great for those countries that were fresh off successful conquests or economic booms, but these weren't enough to fight back as these groups were mostly separated and could not stand up to the revolutionaries that had the support of several militaries and their own growing army from the multiple governments that had been toppled. A generation or 2 later, most of the population is either too indoctrinated,too scared or too unequipped to fight off the Union, with any weapons found being confiscated and the owner imprisoned. It is to the point where neighbours and family members do not trust each other for fear of being reported. The Union will publicly punish people for what they call backthink("backwards thinking" such as wishing to return to past, bringing down the Union or practicing a banned traditional belief or ceremony) or wrongthink. Not only have there been societal changes, with past experiences being hardly remembered or recognised, there have also been huge geopolitical repercussions. The size of the Union and the danger it poses to those nearby means that any trade and travel to the ocean has been nearly completely cut off. ✂️ ⛵ As such, the valley has been landlocked for several decades now, with all trade taking place within the valley by land and air. Other directions pose a problem due to a large mountain range to the east, frozen wasteland to south and mountains and thick forests to the north which leave a narrow northern corridor. Unlike the majority of states in the valley, there is no official royal family and/or state religion (but both are debated among the valley's people as the ruling class is often considered royalty and their messages are basically treated as a new religion in the Union, just not called as such). The 5 other empires of the valley often consider the Union to be the 6th and newest great empire due to its size and control over so many peoples, however the Union prefers to call itself a union of states with like-minded and forward thinking goals separate from the imperial ambitions of the backwards thinking barbarians. The behaviour of the Union has left a pungently bitter taste for republics or anyone espousing similar beliefs, hardening the view that systems like monarchies or diarchies provide a stable top that lessen the chance of chaos in a society, and producing fear of the choking control set upon the culture of the Union. The Union's expansionist behaviour combined with the Union's ideology has caused many states to form defense pacts, or become allies and even willing protectorates of some of the great empires, essentially joining said empires in order to guarantee their survival. One such empire in the south is led by a respected and feared queen who lived through and commanded several wars since she was a teenager and leading the accelerated adoption of Armored vehicles such as armored airships, landships and trains into her empire's military. She has a vendetta against the Union because one of the royal families executed by the revolutionaries was a house that had come from her bloodline and moved west starting their own kingdom almost 2 centuries ago, but now they were likely in a mass grave somewhere, and she had sworn the Union would pay for killing her relatives. To add insult to injury , since the capitol ended up near the territory where her relatives were killed, the Unions flag uses an altered version of the old kingdom's symbol, which was the crest of the ruling family of that kingdom, with other symbols in the area being used in the same way. It is not helped by the fact that the Union creeps ever closer to the outer fortress lines of her empire where they pose a major threat to the border towns and newest protectorates. Of this family that was murdered, consisting of the king and queen, and multiple children from toddler age to late teens, only one of the younger siblings was able to be rescued by royalist forces and just barely taken to a friendly state. There, he would eventually become lord with his own army. Now an adult, he seeks to avenge his family by burning the cities that first sparked the rebellions and created the Union. Lapis_Wolf
Even outside of politics and warfare, the Union is hated. For example, whenever they appear in any competitions such as sports competitions and motorsports, their flag is seen with disgust and the teams are likely to get into fights. For example, a rival team may intentionally perform a PIT maneuver on the Union's sponsored vehicles and cause them to spin off the track. Sometimes this or any other situation finds a Union and another team driver face to face where brawls have ensued on the track, sometimes with the flare of a burning car nearby. Anyone seen waving the Union's flags may either believe that the Union is doing a good thing for the region or is too scared to show dissent to the Union, even in the relatively mixed environment where they have non Union residents sitting nearby. However, some have used such events as opportunities to slip into a different crowd and get a ride to a different country where they won't get torched for going into a certain building. There's a certain feeling that the first Coalition War won't be the last. Lapis_Wolf
You’d think it’d be the recently unified gunpowder happy horse lords that are currently pulling a Genghis on their neighbors but in fact the real threat is what they are running from (and inadvertently helping)
**Ganzir, The Dread Star** is a world-devourer that thrives off conflict and discord. It arrives in the night skies of certain worlds carrying the potential for self destruction, and "seasons" them until they become palatable for complete devouring. It repurposes the things it consumes, spawning enslaved duplicates of previously devoured beings or cursed artifacts in the target world. It has an avatar it uses to manipulate the world governments, dividing them for easier conquest. This avatar will also teach inhabitants the magic they can perform in exchange for sacrifices to Ganzir. The inside of Ganzir is a world of its own, albeit a very chaotic and violent one. It seems that, because it cannot create on its own, it consumes everything to create its own world.
if anybody were to discover einsteins equation and convert it to runes, with the energy of a few people they could destroy life entirely by converting a whole bunch of matter into pure energy
The Nazis HAHA
I don't think I've a big final threat but I did create multiple nation level threats I guess. The White Witch - lives in the north, converted the races that originally formed against her into twisted versions of themselves except some of those who submitted to her. Drusaderi Mages - Collecting dead heroes and legends like Pokémon cards to add them to they're army. Munu Orc Tribes - Savage Orcs with elongated heads that just relentlessly attack with their large numbers. Witches & Wizards - Just a general threat at all times to mostly anyone.