This project comes from a huge mix of ideas that have been bouncing around in my head, pushing me to finally dive in and create another world, but this time put it into writing. The blog posts may come sparsely and thin, I’ll try to update them as I write further, but keep in mind that I am aiming these posts to be for be by me.

I’m re-purposing an already built world that I used to run a once-west-marches now-single-group campaign where we playtested my own TTRPG system which for now I’ll call it LMNTS (pronounced elements because I’m cool like that).

I will use and re-use maps, but the main points—pitch and inspiration— have changed. I had some ideas of what I wanted to change and try out in my previous campaign in Itreas Gate, but I thought it was too much to test a new-ish system alongside some new-ish ideas—or rather new interpretations and permutations. So I played it safe and populated old Itreas with DnD-esque monstres, cultures and magic. But this changes now. Having said that…

Welcome to Itreas Gate🔗

I am pretty sure I grabbed this image from google and I believe the artist is Mihail Topalov.

But… Why Now?🔗

I have had the idea ruminating in my mind for a while, but recently I have found some excellent content online—most of them published books/booklets and blog posts—that made me feel compelled to start making some of my own stuff more public, even if the quality may not be of my liking all the time. Here I give a small-non-extensive list of some of my inspirations that actually made me pull the trigger on this project.

Goblin Punch totally changed how I think about darkness—not just as an absence of light, but as something alive and relentless. The “Hungering Dark” stuck with me—a force that chases adventurers, ignoring locked doors and only briefly held back by light. That idea reshaped how I see fantasy worlds. Here is said article.

When I read that I thought to myself — OMG I’m so gonna YOINK that SHIT!. — emphasis mine … And being totally honest, I feel this way at least every third article I read from Goblin Punch. Will be looking into future articles to see what can be repurposed in my world.

Into the Wyrd and Wild brings the wilderness to life in a way that’s both beautiful and terrifying. The Wyrd, the force that drives unchecked natural growth, got me thinking about chaotic magic and how nature isn’t just peaceful—it’s unpredictable and dangerous. I have used the wilderness dungeon procedure extensively in my west-marches campaign and I loved it. So, when I saw that there was a new book but for city adventure during Bundle of Holding March 2025 bundle… it really got the creative side of my brain running. Here and here are non-affiliated links to the books if you are interested or just visit Feral Indie Studios Itch.io website. And do yourself a favor and look into Bundle of Holding.

Once again, “yoinking” me ready to go. I will dive deeper into the procedures and what I like and do not like later in the series. But just to re-iterate. I believe that dice dropping is one of the most efficient ways to get in creative flow, it really works wonders on me.

Talking about creativity… Lost Pages!. If I had to summarize it with just one word it would be FLAVOR. It stands out as a publisher with games imbued with fantasy, occult, and weird elements. Their commitment to producing content with a distinct, often unsettling flavor has motivated me to delve into the darker, more enigmatic and moldy facets of world-building. It also set me to the task of wanting to explain typical clichés with in-world, diegetic lore. If you want distilled flavor, look into Wonder & Wickedness, Marvels & Malisons and Book of Gaub—brilliant.

I have some rough ideas as to what I want to do with everything that Lost Pages provides, but for now nothing concrete. Jut the feeling that I will use it in the future.

ICON by Massif Press mixes classic mythic fantasy with anime and video game elements. I love how it blends narrative-driven play with tactical combat, giving me ideas for balancing story and strategy in my own work. I really enjoy the break between narrative play and combat role. I like how good it feels when played, and also how much different characters the players are able to play. No more “intelligent warrior” being useless because strength is not maxxed out.

My main idea from a game-design perspective is to have “mini-games”—or small groups of recurring actions inside the world—defined by their own rules, giving a sorta modular game system where we can pick and choose what areas are we interested to include in our games. Of course, there’s no free lunch. Said rules would be rather minimal and have sparse interaction between them, which for my play style is not a downside on its own.

And finally, the Gygax 75 Challenge turned the huge task of world-building into something manageable. Breaking things down into weekly goals has helped me shape scattered ideas into something solid and playable. Here is the link to the PDF.

Although the main “challenge” is supposed to be done in a weekly fashion, for me it will be more like monthly—if not every two months. Unfortunately, I cannot invest too much time on an average week, but hope to gather enough for a full post every once in a while. I’ll make sure to sprinkle some of my design ideas in-between.

Week 1 - The Concept🔗

In the first part of this project—I will start calling it project since I am not challenging nor being challenged by anything, only my lack of creativity—I need to focus on shaping the core concepts and ideas behind my fantasy world.

There are two main parts for it: Pitch and Inspirations.

The Pitch🔗

The Pitch is supposed to be a compelling list of 3 to 7 concise points that capture the essence, excitement, and tone of my world. I tried my best to put here my ideas:

1. Iron is antithetical to magic. Gold, silver, copper, and some other rarer metals can absorb and store it and—similar to Feruchemy from Mistborn—later be used as foci of spells and rituals. Vows made on iron are soul-binding, like in Ironsworn, and breaking an Iron Vow incurs Woe from the world.

Unlike Mistborn, I do not plan on focusing on the different properties of each metal. The ideas is that a knight with full armor is almost impervious from a huge array of magic. Which introduces a very interesting focus on the relationship between mages and the so-called warriors, bridging the “power-gap” found in other fantasy systems.

2. The Dungeon is sentient. The planet itself is a prison, holding an ancient, unworldly entity captive at its core. The Dungeon is not just a labyrinth—it is the physical manifestation of the being’s struggle to break free. Like bubbles rising from the depths of the ocean, entrances to The Dungeon emerge sporadically. If left unsealed, these openings burst, pouring waves of darkness and corruption on the surface world.

Heavily inspired by the Wheel of Time. What can I say? It’s a banger. I haven’t finished the series so far, so hopefully I’m not spoiling anything on my own, but the main point of this idea is that the Gods sealed some thing long ago, and used Earth’s rich metal core to contain this entity.

3. Fallen stars contain the Flame of Divinity. Unlike iron, which repels magic, Starforged Iron—found withing these celestial remnants—is one of the rare substances capable of containing divine energy for ages. In some fallen stars, the very Flame of Divinity still burns inside, waiting to be awakened. In this world, gods were once mortals who ascended, their journey marked by fate and transformed by the celestial spark.

Cannot think of a single source of inspiration, but the general idea comes from BECMI, where characters start as normal folk but their journeys can bring them to immortality and godhood. I thought it could be good to have some fact in-world that could make this sort of journey a possibility for my players. Although a very long one.

4. Law vs Chaos. The archetypal struggle of the universe. Government is largely tribal, dominated by warlords and sprawling city-states vying for control. Civilization itself is divided, with towering city-states serving as bastions of order while nomadic cultures roam the wilds, adapting to the ever-shifting chaos.

My own answer to the “unexplored wilds but highly advanced society” dilemma. I am eager to explore how good of a fit it is for my table, but I find it an elegant solution to offer rich city intrigue and also vast mysterious wilds. Cannot guarantee anything, but will inform of my findings.

5. The world is in a constant struggle for light. (Typical light vs darkness and law vs chaos struggle, but materialized)

What can I say… I am a sucker for these epic-style conflicts. I really like the law vs chaos angle, but I wanted to materialize it in a more souls-like way, hence the use of light vs darkness approach. Once I read The “Hungering Dark” from Goblin Punch I knew I wanted to put it inside my dungeons and as the unworldly entity captive in the earth’s core. Also, this idea got woven with the “bubbles of evil” from Wheel of Time, giving a very evocative enemy/entity.

The Inspirations🔗

The Inspirations are books, games, TV series, movies or anything—really—that inspires me and evokes “Itreas” in my head. Here are they in no particular order.

1. Dark Souls series by FromSoftware, directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. These games offer a moldy, entropic atmosphere and a storytelling method rooted in implication, archaeology, and despair. The sense of rot, ambiguity, and beautiful ruin is a direct influence on the tone and aesthetic of the underworld, not so much the overall despair and hopelessness.
2. Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui and ICON by Massif Press. These two bring a sense of grounded fantasy and strong internal logic to the world—where magic, ecology, and economy intertwine in a very credible and realistic way. ICON’s minimalistic clarity, heavy asian culture strokes and heterogeneous/non-humanoid cultures pairs well with Dungeon Meshi’s richly integrated worldbuilding and character-focused storytelling.
3. Jean Giraud “Moebius” and classic/OSR D&D art by Erol Otus, Russ Nicholson, etc. The juxtaposition between Moebius’ crisp alien dreams and the rough-handed sketchiness of old D&D zines helps differentiate the common from the alien. Both sides of the coin are essential.
4. Folklore traditions from Japan and Europe. These serve as a creative spark, offering creatures, motifs, and narrative rhythms that feel ancient and uncanny. Think “myths told in whispers”—a cultural wellspring for monsters, ruins, and fairy logic. Coming from Europe myself, I’ve been inspired since childhood by dragons, castles and knights, hence the need to populate my world with them, but also fell in love with Japanese folklore, aesthetic and myths, which I believe can pair very well in Itreas.
5. The Witcher series (books by Andrzej Sapkowski, games by CD Projekt Red), Monster Hunter by Capcom, and Roguelike games such as Darkest Dungeon or Caves of Qud. These influence the brutal ecology of monsters—things are hungry, huge, and dangerous. The lone hunter versus massive beast is central to the tone alongside the traditional permadeath mechanic of the roguelikes. Itreas is not a typical Epic Fantasy setting, and I couldn’t describe it better than how Andrzej Sapkowski did:

“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling… makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another, I’d rather not choose at all.”
— Geralt of Rivia, in “The Lesser Evil”

6. Warhammer Fantasy (primarily the old world aesthetic). Its decayed, baroque grandeur and grotesque interpretations of classic fantasy races made me fall in love with orcs and goblins, which I want to give a resemblance of justice in Itreas.
7. “Titanic Ruins” – A non-textual theme seen in games like Shadow of the Colossus, Elden Ring, and some heavy metal album covers. The idea of massive structures built atop long-dead colossi captures the sublime scale of the setting. A guiding principle: size matters—big ruins, big bones, big mysteries.

Wrapping Up🔗

So that’s Week 1. The big soup of ideas. Honestly, this might’ve been more a brain-dump than a cohesive blog post, but I needed to get this stuff out there and create some scaffolding I can hang actual design on.

This post might feel dense, but that’s kinda the point: it’s a ritual of crystallization. A necessary first step before I start refining, trimming, expanding. There are still tons of loose threads I didn’t tug on. What does light actually do? What is Woe mechanically? What does a dungeon “breathing” feel like at the table? All that’s coming… eventually.

Thanks for reading—if you did. If not, thanks me, for finally getting it out of my head and into some words. Even better, to all the brilliant minds behind Goblin Punch, Feral Indie Studios, Lost Pages, Massif Press, and all the other blogs I cannot name, to all the artists, designers, and writers whose weird, moldy, fantastic magical work lit a fire under me—thank you. Your blogs, booklets, and busted-up worlds keep dragging me back into the deep dark dungeon that is our hobby. And I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Next up: Week 2 of Gygax 75, where I take all these murky concepts and start carving out a small home base. A town, a settlement, a place that clings to the edge of dark. Hopefully with a bar, a god, and a reason to care about those two.

Until then—

Stay weird, write often, delve deep.

The dark doesn’t wait.

—MHS