Well, I can't sleep quite yet, so I'll tackle some early questions.
A Brief Overview of Druica
Druica is a kingdom settled on the very western shores of the Altean continent. Druica was founded by human settlers taking advantage of the largely flat coastal plains and the accessibility to the sea. The earliest Druicans expanded to the mountainous North and down the the southern forest, which help provide security against rival clans, and later kingdoms.
Druica grew into a large merchant empire, largely due to the massive amount of coastline it occupied. While most of the goods flowing through the kingdom were foreign, Druica sustained itself on the trade taxes and many of it's citizens opted to work as security and infrastructure for these trade companies. Druica's lax trade laws (compared to their neighbors) as well as the hospitality of a people utterly dependent on your business made the kingdom a favorite among traders, leading to the creation of the Noble Druican image.
The end of Druica can likely find it's roots traced all the way back to the transfer of power to House Drangolin. Ruling Houses rarely changed in Druican history, and the longest running rule was that of House Ettica. The last Ettican ruler, King Dervin, ruled during a time where his house was severely depleted in members, and his end ultimately came without a solid line of inheritance. In his will, Dervin passed the throne over to his advisor, Saroin Drangolin. The Drangolins were a house shrouded in controversy, Saroin usually seen as the voice in the king's ear behind every action of ill-repute or controversy during the Dervin's reign.
Despite flaring tensions during his rein, Saroin was no fool and managed to lead Druica to ever more prosperity. Despite his success, many speculated that he had sold his house to a devil or other evil entity for power, finding Dervin's illness and willingness to name his advisory heir over any member of his extended family. I wasn't until a protest over a wildly unpopular tax was violently and forcibly that rumors of the Drangolin's ties with the darkness were more than a whisper, thus earning the Drangolin's the nickname "the Damned".
Saroin's grandson was much less subtle about his interest in the darkness. A man fascinated by death, he sought to legitimize the art of Necromancy. Under him a royal commission of Necromancers was founded to find practical uses for the art, beyond human suffering. His goals were noble, or rather as noble as the necrotic arts can be; he sought to create a utopia where the dead served the living, who were then free to pursue interest that they would otherwise be too busy with labor the accomplish. The Grandson's dream of a peasant less and free future were ruined by a revolt spurred by rumors of dark experiments and armies of the dead being formed, and ultimately the grandson was slain by his own cousin and had his name stricken from the history books. Even with noble intentions, many consider his ambitions another stain on the family, making them the "Twice-Damned".
History was quiet since that bump of activity. Druica continued to accumulate wealth, many of which going to line the pockets of the friends of the current king. The image of the kingdom, once noble, became that of wild parties among the aristocratic elite, and where money could buy a free license for all sorts of business. While the trade empire continued to flourish, a darker underside was starting to show through the cracks.
The fall itself was ushered in the the last King of Drucia, Desious Drangolin. Desious was a paranoid man, always afraid that someone was scheming to take his power. At the time of his reign, many of the forefather decision in the interest of gold had left severe impacts on the land. Large cuts to the military and weapon production sectors in favor of foreign mercenaries lead to many disgruntled ex-soldiers, many of whom took to banditry out of both necessity and to spite the kingdom that had left them to dry. Many of the mercenaries tried to exploit the crown for more money, and turned to banditry themselves when their "offers" were refused. Without a strong military, the hidden practices of necromancy introduced to Druica by Saroin's grandson had a resurgence, as many of the less moral practitioners made their presence more public. To make matter even worse, the curse of Lycanthropy took a deep hold in the forests of Druica, without armed soldiers to weed out their communities.
This situation, as well as a general lack of anyone that he could trust, lead Desious deeper into his paranoia. He continued to lash out against groups he considered plotters until one day he finally did attract an assassin. The assassin failed to kill Desious, but the attempt justified all of the King's actions in his own mind. Out of paranoia induced madness, he called for a festival to celebrate the harvest and perform ancient rites to ensure a good crop next year, gathering many of the strongest mages in the kingdom to this event. He then sabotaged the equipment and materials so that instead of life and growth, the event would spread blight and darkness. A final act of revenge for the world out to get him.
The next assassin succeeded in killing the King, but the damage was done. The corruption brought monsters into the land, and with trust in the crown completely destroyed, the kingdom shattered. Many who could leave did so immediately, while others reveled in the chaos. Now Druica lies as a blighted ruin of it's former self, a seed started with the ambitions of a house and ending with the madness of one man.
Must we be humans, or may we be monsters?
Monsters sound fine, as several will have the potential for more human like characteristics. Also including standard fantasy stuff: Elves, Dwarves, Drow, and Tieflings (the latter so less common). They're just not the... main group of settlers, although the population of Druica has changed quite a bit since the fall.
Also, going to post more monster stuff tomorrow. I know it's dreadfully... blank right now, but I think I started with too many ideas and couldn't really put it into words too well. I wanted to start a base and build from there, realize what I was missing. Not just throw a lore bible at people and tell them "read it". I've always enjoyed more interaction with creation, and this sort of scatterbrained approach can hopefully help me not overbuild something and end up making something only I would want to play.