Defintely need trolls- not big monsters, but small, ugly creatures who live for annoying others- stealing, attacking and burning the lands. Annoying pests.
So, the geography system is: You can go anywhere from anywhere. Only sentient creatures are constants.
Ok, but how about certain paths are inpossible- not matter how hard you try, you cannot go from A to C- you can go to B and D from anywhere, but the route between A and C is 'locked'. Also the opposite; from A you can only go to C, no matter where you go you end up at C.
The first should require moderator magic, either by the 'thread' owner or a moderator, and should be commonish. The second should be rare and expensive.
I made this hierarchy of areas:
The World. No shape or form visible except perhaps by the gods, but they're not telling.
The Islands. So called for the fact that they are limited, floating around in the world, connected, but clearly separate. Islands can only be created by the gods, but in most cases, the gods create, and then abandon. Like hermit crabs, sub-gods will then swoop in to control them. These sub-gods are in most respects as powerful as the gods themselves; only the gods could truly ban them from the world. Often multiple sub-gods will rule over a single island, sometimes on friendly terms, sometimes in an uneasy peace. However never will sub-gods fight whilst ruling a single island; the sub-gods fight by taking a controlled islands and 'ramming' the opponents island. The Lands of both islands mingle and fighting breaks out between the populations and the sub-gods. Such happenings are usually disastrous for both parties. Islands look to an outside observer like a sphere of swirling colours, of varying sizes.
(The Empires. Occasionaly multiple lands of a single Island will fall into a sort of sub-Island. These manifest as smaller spheres within the parent Island. Very rarely Empires themselves have Empires within, also called empires. Empires may have sub-gods ruling over them specifically, although the Island's sub gods have control over them too.)
The Lands. Within Islands, there float globes and discs and stranger shapes upon which people- ordinary people- live. Lands are created by Kings, and the Kings of a Land has near-sub-god powers over his created Lands. The people of a land are usually similar in some way; of the same race, belief, or trade. Lands have constant physics; the King of the Land determines how they are decided. On globular worlds the King is frequently a believer in reason and intellect, who has made the Land to have hidden, unchangeable rules. On disc worlds, the King has made perhaps a few underlying rules, but allows the force of belief to rule his Land. On other Lands the King has usually made a set of rules which are chaotic and senseless. Trolls run rampant in these Lands, and the people live in fear.
Cities, towns, and landscapes; within Lands lie those interlinked places made by Lords. Sometimes these places are vast areas of great detail, other times they are contentless landscapes of little value. Lords have minor power over created Areas; a powerful Magic studier may be stronger than a Lord with no magical knowledge. Areas lie across the Land in no observable order. Locking of pathes between Areas of a single Land is rare. Within an Area geography is constant.
Clarification of people:
Gods (Forum owners?): Hardly ever seen, have the power to do... anything. Usually do not affect the world at all. They are rumoured to look like more impressive sub-gods.
Sub-Gods (Moderators? (In bay12 they are the same; but it is not so in all forums)): Power to affect the world in many ways. Things gods can do and they can't: 'Ban' [Killing of Lord and higher lifeforms] Sub-Gods, create Islands, destroy Islands. Sub gods come in varying levels of power depending on how many Islands they control. Most are power hungry, warlike bastards, although man speaks of a time when the Gods were active and the Sub-Gods where good and pure, acting to keep their owned Islands safe and secure. They have complex diplomacies with other sub-gods not understandable by mortals. They look like whatever they like, although their size and aura (glow based on personality) are fixed.
Kings/Lords (Forumgoers): Both are of one kind; mighty masters of Lands and Areas, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Most have many Areas to their name and at least a few Lands. Things they can't do that Sub-Gods can: 'Ban' people, destroy lands that are not theirs, modify/destroy the areas of others not within their own Lands, create sub-gods, modify Islands, 'lock' paths between Islands. Examples of things they can: Create Areas, delete/modify certain Areas, create Lands, move Lands from one Island to another (at a high power cost), prevent areas from being added/deleted/modified within owned Lands, 'Lock' paths between Lands; all forms of magic at a high level with little effort. They usually have the appearance of a larger version of a sentient being of choice.
Mortal Mages (V.Powerful): Men, studied in the ways of magic for so long that they are as powerful as the Lords/Kings themselves. Sometimes they even manage to perform powerful rites that cause them to ascend to Lord/King-ship. It has been known for a mortal to kill a Lord, although mostly these are rumours, involving weapons or skills granted by sub-gods and such. They can depending on training perform all acts a King can, treating any Land as their own creation- but this requires much more effort than for a King.
Mortal Mages: Men trained in magic, powerful, but no match for the weakest Lord. They have a few lordly powers; Locking paths and other weak tricks.
Mortals: Migrating from Area to area, infesting them like a plague, not even the Sub-gods know how they work or from whence they come. Some say the Gods created them to bring down the corrupt sub gods. Some say they arose from random magic. However they arose, they come in many shapes and sizes- from plants (which only work in some worlds (in others plants are creatable by Lords)) to animals (in most worlds unique, however by dint of effort creatable in some worlds where the King has great power over the physics) sentients (not creatable by anyone, no matter the world).
NME: I don't like it. I prefer the working; magic works differently depending on where you are, ala on globe lands it might work like that, almost a science, whilst on disc lands it works like... magic.