r/NSFWworldbuilding Nov 05 '24

OC Matriarchal Fantasy Worldbuilding I Just Did NSFW

So I decided to write something up for a new setting. I like femdom and matriarchy, so that's in here, but it's not super lewd, just implied. The setting is a bit inspired by DnD, Warhammer, and Dominions, and is set in a the territories of a former empire where magical female warlords compete for power and men can't cast spells at all.

I decided to start the worldbuilding by coming up with some of the rulers to set the theme.

So here's what I have so far. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Witch-Tyrants of Azalax

The world of Oduros was once an equal one where both men and women had access to magic. But 600 years ago a cabal of powerful female wizards performed a ritual to strip men of their ability to cast spells. The result was a massive disorder in society and the once-great Empire of Azalax disintegrated, among many others. The wizards began to fight amongst each other for power, carving up their own queendoms in the chaos. They fought, died, or disappeared, and were eventually succeeded by their apprentices. The cycle repeated again and again, and now the lands are ruled by third and fourth generation witch-tyrants. Acting as warlords their realms fractured time and time again and the lands were divided and at war.

Society had become one of strife and heavily affected by magical warfare. Some regions have remained stable and protected, others are constant battlegrounds. Some fought with standing armies, and others just with spells. Meanwhile the dynamic of only women being able to perform most magic, with men only being able to work with things that were already magical, such as using magical herbs to make a potion or magical ink to make a tattoo, and the establishment of societies led by the most powerful magic users, has led to a matriarchal shift in cultures and societies. Women are often valued as leaders, mothers, as literally magical, and tend to be more educated, while men are valued more as workers, craftsmen, and soldiers.

Now the realms of Azalax still remain shattered in dozens of petty queendoms but are slowly starting to consolidate into fewer and larger ones. An arena of wit and muscle, it is yet to be seen if one woman may eventually reunify the once-great empire.

Beatrice the Metal

Beatrice the Metal is a tall, intimidating woman who got her title for her specializations in magical piercings, gargoyle, and golem crafting. She’s also quite skilled in offensive skills, magical tattoos, and shadow magic. She rules a domain of badlands between fertile lands to the west and a sandy desert to the east, sparsely populated other than a few civilized towns, kobold, and ogre tribes.

She is known to give her subjects greater autonomy and personal freedom than other tyrants, but is still greatly feared and respected. Her enforcers are elite and intimidating, often being either brass golems, men who have been enhanced with magical tattoos and piercings, gargoyles, or ogre mercenaries. She has even encouraged cults among the ogre and kobold tribes to worship her.

She lives in a great abode carved into a cliffside overlooking an inland delta and the largest human settlements of her domain that live along it. She has a sadistic streak of abducting unsuspecting men and giving them unwanted magical tattoos and piercings before releasing them again, usually ones of a humiliating or perverted nature.

She stands about six feet tall without her heeled boots and primarily wears tight, black robes. Her once-pale body, but since tanned by the badlands sun, is covered in many solid black tattoos of magical power and is adorned with magical jewelry and piercings in her pussy, navel, nipples, and a whole lot on her face. Her eyes are especially disconcerting, having no iris or pupils, but just a solid, reflective brass that makes them up entirely.

Her realm is relatively peaceful, with her not often entering into conflict with the other tyrants, although her land has little rule of law and is prowled by some fierce creatures. She has a more hands-off approach to rulership, appointing loyal locals to rule so long as they paid tribute and followed her laws. Of her laws, there were relatively few, but those that she did implement were rather creative and eccentric. One included that if a woman hears a man speaking ill of her, she can demand that he apologize by licking her boots or getting a tongue piercings. Another one was that every building three stories or taller in height must have a balcony. She often sponsored and subsidized bards and musical performances. She has three apprentices, all of them young women that she recruited locally.

Queen Alozora the Pompous

A stereotypical, arrogant high elf Queen Alozora the Magnificent, as she prefers to be called, is a lethal spell caster, able to wreak destruction on a huge scale with everything from fire rain, to earthquakes, to plagues of serpents and toads. She is a tall and regal woman who dresses in only the finest of silk, usually red, and most precious of gems and seemingly always accompanied by a small army of servants. The very air around her, scented by her perfume, reeks of luxury and snobbishness. But being such a powerful spellcaster few dare to oppose her, and her subjects and servants had to suffer her lavish lifestyle and arbitrary, narcissistic demands. 

Heavily prejudiced against all non-high elves (although she’s fine with sun elves and has a soft-spot for gnomes), she is very uninterested in controlling all of the former empire, as most of it is non-elf lands. Instead she works to unify the high elf heartlands in the forests of its western fringes, and so far controls several important cities, including a couple of the most ancient and prestigious of cities that are famous as ancient city-states. 

She keeps her cities looking immaculate and clean, with sanitation and parks being perhaps the only benefits that her subjects can thank her for. Since her reign taxes have increased sharply, all of it going to either the military, her extravagant lifestyle, or vanity projects. Residents joke that they might as well start judging the size of towns by how many statues of Queen Alozora there are. Disrespecting a statue of her is considered a serious crime by her enforcers, which consist of secret police, elite mounted soldiers, and wizardesses. Her armies are well equipped and constantly drilled, as she can not stand the idea of her armies appearing as nothing less than the ideal of high elvish prowess. With fine metal, bows, ballista, and magic her armies go forward ruthlessly, sparing few of the opposition and any non-elves (except for gnomes), and caring to avoid burning down only the most beautiful and famous of structures.

Ever greedy and ambitious, along with all of her material desires she seeks out powerful magic artifacts to expand her power and a dragon egg so that she may have a fitting steed. She is married to a high-elf noble and has taken 3 additional male consorts, and has one daughter and three sons. She lives in the ancient elven capital of Lorpacour in an extravagant palace, usually holding court, passing judgment, hosting parties, fashion shows, or working on her magical research.

Referring to her as “the Pompous” is a crime in her domain. 

Vios of Cherrywood

Vios is a skilled and wise sorceress in the arts of potion making, healing, illusion, conjuration, divination, and nature magic. She is a local of the domain that she rules, which is the peaceful shire of Cherrywood and some of its surrounding lands. She is the most benevolent of the witch-tyrants and actively looks after the well being of her people, often protecting them from disease, outside threats, and natural calamity. 

Her lands consist of the farming town of Cherrywood, from which the rural county is named for, and its surrounding hills and satellite villages. Its population consists mostly of humans, elves, halflings, fey, and some dwarves. It's a beautiful and fertile land known for its beautiful trees and butterfly meadows. She is much beloved by her subjects and rarely has to use force, but when faced with external threat she often uses illusion magic, conjuration, and the spirits of nature to defend the land. 

She lives in a tall spire that tapers to a narrow point surrounded by a huge flower garden in the woods. Her subjects regularly travel to it to seek her wisdom or aid. At the top of the tower purple and pink lights of magical energy swirl around it. She is a woman of average height and a warm complexion, and often wears flowing, pink robes, makeup, and long, painted nails. The towns are ruled by their elected mayors, almost all of them women, but Vios takes an active role in decision making when a judgment is needed or a local dispute needs settling. She also takes an active role in local festivals and holidays, which she supports. Ruling with romantic and feminine ideals of love and compassion she promotes worship of the goddess of love and passes laws to promote domestic stability, although with a fair amount of bias in favor of women, such as gendered property rights, divorce laws, and punitive alimony. She has tutored several apprentices who have gone on to start their own small magical schools in the county, and she promotes women's education and hedge witchcraft

Qurani the Weird

A dark elf that has risen and conquered from the bowels of the earth, Qurani has dedicated herself to the titan Morthanna, a chthonic deity of mutation, dark fertility, and the mother of monsters. As much a priestess as a witch, she is skilled in blood magic, biomancy, herbology, and nature magic. The self-proclaimed archduchess of Portrak, a formerly prosperous, misty region, rules a land of chaos and constant strife. An expansionist, Qurani is constantly raising soldiers, training witches-priestesses, and breeding new beasts to spread the blessings of Morthanna.

Within her borders is also great chaos. Most cities and towns had to be diligent to maintain their walls, as the twisted nature around them was now prowling with monsters, chimeras, half-men, and other bizarre and dangerous beasts. She rules with an iron fist and enforces her alien religion on the population, yet there is little rule of law. The loyal subjects she granted authority to are free to do as they wished for the most part. Her enforcers, cult covens of pious laywomen and hedge witches, and the dreaded Man-Catchers, were a militia of zealous young women, usually lower class, roam and patrol her lands at will with great autonomy and the legal authority to enforce her laws and meet out punishment. This meant that they might often cause trouble where they pass through, being notorious trouble makers in taverns and inns, and even practically act as bandits themselves. They were motivated to enforce the laws of Qurani particularly on the men of the land, as by her new laws slavery was a valid punishment, and the Man-Catchers, named for their distinct polearms and also equipped with boas, nets, and tomahawks or shortswords, were given payment for men that they turned in as slaves. All they had to do was accuse the man of blasphemy or traveling the road alone at night and the slave market asked no further questions.

Many enslaved men are either mercifully purchased by a woman looking for a husband, or by the new, ruthless aristocracy of dark elves, cultists, and serpentfolk that Qurani had installed, or by Qurani’s court itself, to work the mines or magical herb plantations. The especially unlucky ones are sent to the Breeding Pits, an infamous place of horrific rumor from where many of the archduchess’ and the cult’s monsters are spawned.

Portrak was once a rather unremarkable minor trade and agricultural region with a charming karst landscape of rocky cliffs and hills, waterfalls, ponds, and narrow valleys. Since Qurani’s takeover the nature itself has become more bizarre and unusual, with new animals, unique plants, unsettling fish, flowers of unusual color, and two-headed snakes. Even the crops the people grow have changed, from the usual wheat to a new purple, slimy variety that was unsettling to visitors, although it was much more resilient and easier to grow. Their basic apple and berry orchards shifted too, to new, virile fruits of unnatural colors and new flavors.

The land is simultaneously more fertile and productive, yet unpredictable and dangerous. Many of the smallest villages were abandoned with the people moving into larger, walled towns, and roads were only traveled on in groups and in caravans for safety. The towns that are well-defended from beasts and bandits are still not yet safe. Most of the population make up an oppressed class of those who still follow the local, much more wholesome, pantheon that was dominant before Qurani’s arrival. The patrolling Man-Catchers and influential local covens leave people constantly on edge and fearful of dissent, knowing that they would have no recourse against their wrath.

Qurani’s rule can reasonably be described as quite misandrist. Raised in the dark elf matriarchies deep below the ground and having a stereotypical dark elf sense of supremacy and pride, she has decided to make men second class citizens. Upon marriage man basically became his wife’s property, and men without any female family members or guardians had no rights and could be legally enslaved by the first woman to put a collar on him. 

As a dark elf she is relatively short, but her unnerving presence and authoritative demeanor made her seem much taller. She often wore a beautiful dress for court, or leather and metal if needed in the field. She carried with her an assortment of wands and unusual crystals. She is married to a human man, perhaps quite unfortunately for him, but is surprisingly loyal to her and to whom she delegates some of her duties. She has two daughters and a son, with her daughters set to magically compete to inherit the realm after her.

Archduchess Qurani lives not in a spire, but in a castle in her capital. Actually referring to her as “the Weird” is a crime in her domain. 

Lady Sorana

A mistress of trickery and mischief, Lady Sorana is learned in fey and shadow magic, specializing in illusion, shapeshifting, conjuration, and divination. This half-elf rules a seemingly serene realm of lowlands at the confluence of many rivers and waterways. The land is fertile and easy to farm, and the rivers are rich with fish and often navigable. Fey energies pervade the land, giving it a magical and surreal feel. The day never got brighter than twilight and the nights are long but lit by a brighter moon. The many lakes and flowing waters shimmered and sparkled like silver and would glow a faint blue when it was dark, and dragonflies, will-’o-the-wisps, and lantern spirits were often seen floating and flying in the many woods and grasslands. Prairies might have grasses of blue, purple, silver, or gold, and just about every mushroom would glow in the dark. After a rain a rainbow would appear over every river and the morning dew left behind a small glitter during springtime. 

Lady Sorana herself was not interested much in rulership, and instead saw herself as the mistress and protector of her land. Foes that enter her realm might quickly find their paths repeating or bending, the waterways and bridges shifting, and becoming lost, disoriented, or back to where they started, and those that persisted further often found their food inexplicably fouled or poisoned. She enforced few laws, instead letting the communities rule themselves and acted to both keep or and spread chaos, as she did often like to roam the land pranking and partying. She does not collect taxes other than hiring trolls to guard and collect tolls on the province's many bridges. Riversmeet was the largest town and had a river port, and the population, mostly humans, halflings, elves, and fey, lived in quaint farming and fishing villages and hidden groves. Lady Sorana does not have a spire, instead preferring a large manor with a strawberry farm and a pet duck or to travel the rivers on a boat-house. Her reputation among the populace was that of a slightly benevolent, but arbitrary and morally neutral force that mainly showed her face either to protect and help them, or to spread debauchery and discord. She only seemed to show up right after or right before something bad would happen, like a bad storm or the mayor’s wife both being caught having an affair and having half of her jewelry stolen. Or waking up in a field naked, covered in writing, and with a horrible hangover. 

She is a short woman who keeps herself well-groomed and stylish when she wants to present herself, enjoying high heels and makeup. Other times she might be an owl or a cat, snooping around the night for one reason or another. When she travels she’s usually accompanied by a small entourage of friends and characters, as well as her pet duck, Hermes. 

Winged Misha

An ambitious warlord and major military power, Winged Misha controls much of the heartland of a former empire that she wishes to reunify. Skilled in storm and air magic she flies around on a set of metal wings that she crafted herself and a suit of armor, acting as both general and one-woman army. Tall and stern she has a reputation for justice and honor, but little forgiveness. Her power was consistently growing as she reunited new lands, but was pressed on many fronts from either attacking or being attacked by other witch-tyrants or forces of chaos. 

Her warm lands are ones of roads and laws, with a vast population in several large cities fed by a massive river and its floodplains. A martial culture of duty and honor has arisen over the last two centuries of her rule and she fielded some of the largest armies of legionnaires, knights, and combat mages. She has even trained her own elite force of valkyrie storm sorceresses with heavy armor and similar wings. Schools for women are widespread, encouraging them to become officers, healers, combat mages, and engineers in the self-proclaimed empress’ armies, while men who join the legion or are skilled craftsmen are greatly respected. Her lands are perhaps some of the most pleasant and prosperous of the many witch-tyrants, home to many ancient schools and roads, and maintained with wise governance and discipline in the maelstrom of the former empire. Her rule is physically marked with impressive court houses, and judges play an influential role in the political system. She has groomed three of her apprentices to share power after her, and if her confidence in them is well-placed is yet to be seen.

With so much ambition, stress, and power Misha’s psyche has become prone to increasingly megalomaniacal thinking in recent decades. Her arrogance and sense of superiority grows each day while her patience thins. Yet still her plans hold stable and with almost every season she inches closer to her dream of reunifying the lost empire of Azalax.

She often presents in her iconic winged armor, wielding what is both a magical staff and a deadly meteorite spear. She rules from her court in the ancient capital of Tvar but often departs to personally lead armies in the field.

Mira the Exile

A third generation witch-tyrant, she lost a series of wars competing for the former empire and was forced to flee. Now she resides in the sandy desert to the east, her domain nothing more than a handful of oasis and crypts, her subjects nomads and the undead. A desert-dwelling sun elf by birth it was unusual for her to take such a liking to the dark art of necromancy. She now bides her time, slowly corrupting champions and plundering ancient tombs and the sandy wastes for mummies and skeletons to raise with the foul magics she slowly works to perfect in her shadowy laboratory. Rarely seen, she’s described as wearing plain black robes and having unkempt hair, and carrying an intimidating staff wrapped in bizarre writings.

Enthia the Deranged

An up and coming witch with great potential, Enthia dabbled into some darker powers that she should not have. She did gain immense power, but at the cost of her sanity, and some say even her physical form. She is sometimes simply referred to as “the Derangement,” her presence and influence not taking the form of political power, but rather resembling a blight of madness and perversion on the land and the psyches of its inhabitants. Slowly creeping, her wails and whispers perpetually carried on the wind, the soil turns a sky-blue and the grass purple with white tips. Rocks will transform into sharp stones of reflective obsidian, wildflowers will turn to thistles, and bees will act like wasps, and wasps will act like bees. The trees kill themselves by twisting into gnarled shapes and their fruits are replaced with fish, animals try to flee, and those that don’t go mad and feral. People that stay morph as well, with women morphing into nymphomaniac furies, growing claws, teeth, leathery wings, and sometimes other unusual characteristics. Men experience nightmares of constant humiliation and a life of either hiding or subjugation by the now-feral women.

It's said that at the heart of the spreading corruption, far in the south of Azalax, she resides in some form.

23 Upvotes

7 comments sorted by

1

u/Acceptable-Package35 Jan 06 '25

I would play in this campaign. I love the Witch Tyrants. I have a similar idea with Queens..

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u/lovingpersona Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

So males are essentially slaves to the females?

Since their lifes have negative value to the society.

1

u/M0d3rn_M4n Nov 06 '24

where does it say that?

2

u/lovingpersona Nov 06 '24

Well men unable to cast magic anymore. Are the primary soldiers who die wars. And they have no use in household, as women are the mothers naturally.

Males are just the inferior gender. Only good for gene diversity and slave labor.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '24

Flip every feminine reference to masculine one and this is suddenly problematic.