ideas for a world after aci

regice faces, they're like some sort of magic beings that maybe invented magic or were progenitors or chosen or something. their native tongue is just glowing with their weird face rocks. this maybe also??? https://media1.fdncms.com/stranger/imager/u/original/40256413/original-magi.jpg
okay so, these "ancients" actually have ORBS for heads, NOT regice things - though some might have stones laid in their orbs (possibly like piercings??? cultural shit) anyways. THESE GUYS ARE LEGENDARY FIGURES OF THEIR RACE: https://i.gyazo.com/6dc7f1a99e9cd24ad93fbcc445882288.png
magic comes from deep within the planet, usually through fault lines spewing gemstones out. the guilds harness it
elves exist, but they're very rare and all super powerful. half-elves might be a thing, but normal elves are too powerful to really be PCs, unless they're like, young?
ok so on the elf-as-PCs-idea: they're only wild magic sorc humans, which grow in power as they level, and upon hitting 20th level, they can get an epic boon (after some training with a real elf) that lets them choose the die result of their wild magic features, rather than rolling

birdpeople race, they've got arm-wings, and their feathers are sharp as fuck. have a trait where they can pluck them out and use them as darts, or use them as ammo for bows
race based on chimeras, kinda like this bitch https://pictures.hentai-foundry.com/j/JessicaElwood/137661/JessicaElwood-137661-Chimera.jpg
race which are sort of like salamanders or dragonborn but more slim, they each are a color of gemstone, and have to do something to stop themselves from aging, based on their color. can transition to a different color after living in a guild long enough. if they go too long without doing that thing, they become grey, and can never go back. all have titles, like "Vaath the Bloody", the title being based on their color - but when they go grey, they lose their title, so like just "Vaath"

MAKE SURE THAT NOT EVERYTHING IS FUCKIN' CITIES AND SHIT!!! civilization should exist, but at the same time, it shouldn't be everything.

a legion of the dead walks the world, searching for the royals that once were living, wishing to bring them back. for, as much as the elder priests and neophytes alike wish it, the gods are dead, and nobody knows how to bring them back.

a core theme of the setting, especially if i write a book in it: you must rely on yourself and those that care for you, because the world and its gods--both literal and figurative--will do nothing to help you. perhaps not out of negligence, but because they are unable to. not that one should be selfish, but that one should rely on their own abilities, fall back on those they can trust, and not blindly put said trust in those who will let them fall.

how to define gemstone meaning: month associated with it and its holidays, positive aspects, negative aspects, gems of that color and what they've been used for in the past, and the color itself
grey/colorless is also a symbol of harmony and the combination of negative and positive elements
ancient kingdoms used the exact opposites of gemstones for their alignments, such as black/white and red/green - they're believed to be why the kingdoms fell, even if there's no proof of it

take more inspiration from music, like have a crimson king
crimson king: a ruler who believed that evil should be purged through sacrifice and blood, bled many people that were suspected of being evil, some dying, some lived. patron to plague doctors, held back medicine and hated magic. some still worship him, but usually they use their faith in him as an excuse to kill. the king himself was some kind of birdperson, and sort of permanently made people think of the birdpeople as violent, even though he was more like an outlier that was VERY well known

something with a fire witch (crimson queen)

black queen is sort of like "eternal rest", almost like Death from that The First Egyptians short film thing

yellow king is something like a jester + hastur, uses puppet strings and stuff

blue king is based off ELO's Mr. Blue Sky, and was enemies with the black king

i like the idea of maybe there's always a king and queen of a color, and that means something? or maybe they're all tied to the stones
make an exodia-esque thing, perhaps that's the white king, as he is Purity Above Pure? nah actually the white king literally only has his right arm visible to the world, ever, based on Clamioh

master quartz-ish from trails, there's 6 stones. guilds are always 2 stones

left is bloodstone (Red), up is dawnstone (white), right is... something [lifestone???] (green), bottom is duskstone (black)

there's eight guilds, which are all immediate color neighbors. only black and white have guilds with grey. the guilds are the sort of "manufacturers" of magic, handling the distribution of the gemstones (mainly just to their guild members/leaders), and they don't like the royals, like, at all. they see that mortals should rise up against the royals. the royals only distributed gems to their followers and themselves, so the still-living followers are very against the guilds - though for the most part, the guilds lead everything, almost like each one is its own country. because they pretty much are.

royals made the ancients, which is why they're the only race that can manifest magic from pure gemstones, instead of having to train their bodies for years and years, do alchemical rituals to fuse their bodies with it, or refine it *extremely*. people don't really like ancients!
the dragon guys were a sort of alchemical creation originally made by one of the guilds (an old guild, hundreds of years old, probably Green/Black), but it was a failed experiment.

alternatively, i could do 6, with dawn and dusk being the same, but then red is top left, green is bottom left, blue is top right, yellow is bottom right - or maybe swap around blue and yellow?
there's a 7th, which is like "grey" or "colorless", and it *only* has a king. it's sort of "mechanical"

all races can interbreed, but they don't form halves - rather, the child's true race will be determined by the amount of heritage in them. if there is equal amounts of blood, then they will simply be one seemingly at random, though it is truly the grey royal, in all of his mechanical wisdom, that decides which one shall fit its destiny more.

before there were the old gods, and the royals, and the world, there were monsters. monsters that defied reality, monsters that *were* realities in a sense, that had many living on them and in them, as their blood, their flesh, their thoughts, their desires. there wasn't a time before these monsters, for these monsters were time itself, and though they are dead, the universe lives on in the heart of one such monster, a monster that is somewhat dead, but somewhat sleeping, and somewhat alive, slow to wake, but yet still willing to do so, one day. when the monster awakens, the world may end, or it may stay the same - it might simply change, and bring new things with it, as its blood intermingles with other monsters. or, the new blood may invade and kill all. alternatively, the heart may burst from adrenaline and teeth, killing everything.

the world is old, and though the royals are silent/dead, they were not the first gods: instead, there were old gods, almost all of which were cruel and made mortals simply to be their pets and toys. only one of them was good, the mother of the royals, who stole the gemstones used by the old gods for their magic, giving them to the royals to then bestow upon the mortals. the mother is dead, but the old gods still live, worshiped only by the wicked and the mad.

artificers don't really use machines and stuff, still kinda figure it out, but i'm thinking that they basically are all blessed children of the grey royal (the last royal to still speak to the mortals), who blesses them to create their own single-use gemstones in the blink of an eye, which performs the task needed, before burning away. this exceptionally fast craftsmanship also makes them amazing craftsmen in other fields

bards use old teachings to warp themselves, to let them speak as the royals did, because just hearing the voice of a god can bring forth their power. some use the voices of the old gods, but those are their own sect (a subclass!!!)
OLD GODS ---------------------------
each old god made one mortals at first, which are sort of like the sins, which they passed down genetically - since all mortals are descended from these seven mortals.
the old gods are all also animals, but they aren't exactly right: they have things that the animals did not. the serpent has hands, the fish can breathe air, that stuff. when the mother has the royals and they kill her, the royals then cast the old gods away, and curse their children they actually care about (the animals) with losing the favorite gifts of the old gods, which also removes their sin and evil.
the names shouldn't actually be these gem titles, go with actual names. get a good theme for em

The Jade Serpent: a dragon that had seven hundred and one legs, the last one being a giant claw that his tail ended at. he has teeth that are made of solid gold with bits of silver, and he is why mortals have greed.
a fish with a hook in his mouth, which he uses to hunt or something.
a cat that is the brother of a demon, something something about pride or lust?
THE GUILDS ------------------------
Red/Black: based off of Persona 5, they're something like the "thieves of life", which steal from monsters and criminals, to give to the people. sort of a communist regime, but they're not the worst. the guild leaders are the Three Thieves, which go by the names One/Two/Three, First/Second/Third, or Dirro/Ridd/Iri, depending on how well you know them (the "actual names" are pretty much exclusive to when they talk to one another). the guild is full of master artisans and pyromancers as well, melting down the weaker metals used by tribes of monsters and other savages and turning them into equipment, or doing things like looting the corpses of battlefields to turn the armaments into new equipment. their mages know very well how to refine broken and shitty metal into better kinds. Dirro/Ridd/Iri look kinda like outfits with a bandana or hat or some other thief-like cover (i'm thinking bandana for one, bowler cap for another, and then a phantom thief mask for the last), and then their "bodies" under their clothing are just like colored fire
Red/Yellow:
Yellow/White:
White/Grey:
White/Blue:
Blue/Green:
Green/Black:
Black/Grey:

a chimera guild based on beastmen??? nekos and stuff
THE CONTINENTS --------------------
four of them; three main continents (two ruled by 3 guilds, one ruled only by black/grey and white/grey) and then a desert continent in the center
THE GEMSTONES ---------------------
green symbolizes shit like perfection, beauty, luck, life, pride, but also stuff about war, arrogance, dictatorships
grey/colorless symbolizes shit like logic, destiny, honor, progress, and other stuff such as being cold, distance, exile
red symbolizes shit like passion, energy, confidence, loyalty, but also stuff like anger, murder, destruction