I have investigated your webpage and have found you have done your homework. Too much, perhaps, but more on that in a bit. Your world is well-realized and you have given due consideration to various factions of the social order and how you, as Creator, would like them to respond. There are stories posted there, and overall the webpage is easy to view and the links are clearly marked.

Your story universe has excellent potential for a certain type of story, and less so for others. I understand from your above quotes that you intended to explore the sociological ramifications of your extended universe changes, but unfortunately I don't see that emphasis in the online documents you have provided. All of the major sociological dilemmas--religion, the media, politics, commerce, warfare, and the safety of nations and people--have already been investigated and their fates decided: decreed, one might say, by the documents provided. Because you have diligently explored the universe for yourself, I suggest it has become more difficult for an author to break new ground. For some writers, a framework is very good, and helps them to write. For others, it is a prison.

For any subject or character an author chooses, you have already decided the

outcome: dragons are shunned, elves are mistrusted, inhumans are non-sentient and murdered on sight, and so on. The author is therefore forced to choose between following your rule, and writing a story with a predictable outcome, or breaking the rule to write a story that holds the reader in suspense.

You have presented a unique idea in each Heart of the dungeon, in that its capture reverts the surrounding landscape to normality. I find the idea intriguing. You have also gone to great lengths to declare how difficult this should be, and the very stiff penalty for failure. You appear careful to emphasize that unwary or unwise Dungeon Delvers quickly meet their deaths.

I wonder if this will have the effect you wish. To my mind, it will not encourage writers to avoid the Dungeons and create safe, conservative characters with a healthy dose of common sense. It will probably not foster stories with intricate social dynamics. Like AD&D itself, I believe it will spawn the ever-bigger and ever-better Dungeon Delver characters who always succeed because the author cannot bear to lose his character--er, to kill off a character. I have DM'd numerous adventures over the years and it is more difficult for D&D players to abandon dead characters than it is for writers to judiciously prune their cast list when a story calls for it.

As a writer I am always lured to the fringes of society, not to the centers. A job of a writer is to speculate aloud and ask, on paper, "what would happen if?" I would rather write about the soldier who goes to war than the farmer who stays comfortably at home. I would rather write about the pastor holding his congregation together in what may the Last Days, instead of the Sunday School teacher who is only mildly disinterested in her dull routine. In your universe, I would rather write a story about a misunderstood ogre than a misunderstanding human. Is this allowed? Or have you already decided which creatures are sentient and which are not, and how they are to be treated? If you have not, then what flexibility and author latitude did I miss in your documents? :)

For what it's worth, I also think of universes with well-realized settings, and I do myself explore the breadth of the sociology. Perhaps this is confining to other writers; perhaps it is an aid. I could not say. I know that the writers who contribute to my settings are few, but of excellent quality. But for fear that I repeat what others have already suggested, it works best to let a story universe grow into the role. Post the stories, if you can; let us read them and see if they inspire. If they trigger our imaginations, you will have a following of writers. If they only garner respect, you will have faithful readers. Which you will have remains to be seen.

I cannot immediately think of a suitable story line for your setting, but that doesn't mean I won't. If I eventually come to the beginnings of a plot I'm sure I'll come back with questions.

FISH

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read. --Groucho Marx

Hmm, a real thought provoker. The first truly insightful, deep, and meaningful criticism. What do I do?! Ok, one step at a time.

The Dungeons and all this craziness is still only about a year old, there's plenty of room for growth and change. What I'm laying out is the initial knee-jerk reaction of the world. I assure that if someone wrote up a story where in things shifted away from what I have posted, so long as it made sense, I'd only be happy. For example. Why not form an Otherworldan Rights party? A menagerie of mundane and Otherworldan alike, fighting to get basic human rights extended to our sentient non human visitors. It could happen, it -should- happen. It just didn't happen right away.

Yes, the dungeons are eating people. Will they always eat people? Probably not, but they are now, chump, yum! Why are they doing that? Is there some kind of greater thingie going on in the background? Everything I write, I write in present tense. Nothing is wraught in stone. If they were, it'd be a very boring universe, and as you put it, a prison. I not only hope for, I fully expect, to have to re-write whole sections of things as the overall story pushes forward into future months/years/decades/until people get bored.

Also, many of the views I gave are sweeping generalizations. There's no reason for a single person to not fit in. Maybe Sam the butcher happens to have a thing for dragons. Maybe Cindy wishes she were an elf, sigh.... Remember, this is Earth, there are people with fantasies out there. :)

Misunderstood Ogre? Bring it on! Hm.. I think that covers that. I'd be happy to see stories from Otherworldan or Terran POV. How he's treated depends on a whole slew of factors. I mean, ok, how about this. We can say fairly confidantly, 'In the past, black people were not treated well in the south.' Great, now I want to write a story about a black guy, in the South. What happens? Well, he could run into other black folk, run into sympathetic white folk, get beat up on, go to a picnic. Maybe he doesn't even run into anyone who gives a fig. Not -every single person- is out there at that time in that place looking for black people to be mean to, after all. Same with my universe. Bring your misunderstood ogre, have fun. :)

BTW, I am thoroughly impressed by your review and thoughts, could I convince you over to our nifty forum to further share your ideas? :)

Provoked into further consideration,

Nuku Valente