Thoughts on a new game...

It's amazing the inspirations that come when performing some otherwise mindless activity, like walking on a treadmill or taking a shower afterward. I had some thoughts on a game... a sort of rough fusion of concepts between Paranoia, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, Exalted, and Angband.
The player characters would be monsters from the dungeons -- goblins, imps, dark elves, etc. -- that somehow had the same spark of potential that adventurers have, able to gain levels and such without limit. They would be sent on missions by the ruler (or rulers?) of the vast dungeon-world they live in. Stuff like gathering resources, recovering ancient relics, rescuing lost mining expeditions, repelling treasure-hunters from the surface, raiding settlements of rebel monsters that don't submit to the overlord, etc.
I haven't figured the system yet, at all. These are just thoughts on the setting.

The Heart of the Hero

In the Realms of Men, some individuals are blessed with inspiration, potential, and raw determination that far exceeds that of their brethren. These few become adventurers, heroes, champions and kings... well, those that survive. At first they're no more skilled, intelligent, or powerful than any other, but over time they learn and grow, never reaching a plateau where their improvements must cease.

The Dark Gifts

Even in the Shadowed Depths, among the many inhuman kinds, this spark occasionally emerges. It still provides the same potential for boundless improvement... but it grants a little more than that. By ancient pacts and terrible sorceries, the three great powers of the underworld -- the Viles, the Lords Cthonic, and the Goblin King -- have worked a change upon how that spark manifests in their minion races. Each of these powers grants one Gift to the blessed one, one special power or feature that lets them stand apart from others of their kind.

The Viles

In modern times, the beings that rule the Heavens beyond the Realms of Men are known as the Celestials, angelic beings of peace and light and nobility. They were not always so. At the dawn of time, the Celestials were united only in their beauty, power, and immortality, but all had their own interests and agendas. And their own religions. When the many worshipers of Beauty and Light and Truth organized into a single religion, they cast out their 'lesser', 'inferior', and 'sinful' cousins, banishing them deep beneath the earth where the inhabitants of Heaven would not have to look upon them.
These banished creatures are known as the Viles. The name was originally an insulting title given to them by the ones who banished them, but later claimed by the fallen Celestials as a title of honor: a Vile is one who is true to himself and loyal to himself, with none of the pathetic arrogant nobility of serving some intangible 'higher power'. Some are horrific monsters, embodiments of a love of fierceness and strength. Others are dark but beautiful, shadowed beings that still recall their former lives as the angels of heaven. Many take both forms.
The minions of the Viles are imps and evil spirits, monsters crafted and formed from the tortured dead souls of mankind's most detestable examples.

The Lords Cthonic

The world was created long ago, by the collective effort of the Celestials (even those who later fell to become Vile) and perhaps the aid of some greater, more distant being or beings. Everything that exists comes from them.
Or, so the priests would have you think. The truth is, little by little, perhaps once every century, an otherworldly thing creeps in through one of the dark corners of the world where nobody's watching. The Celestials patrol the Heavens, and the Realms of Men have their own inhabitants, but in the darkest realms such as the depths of the oceans or the deepest tunnels of the world, these creatures can enter the world unmolested.
Some are harmless. Little many-legged crawling things, impossibly-colored funguous growths, or lumbering, mindless beasts. But not all of them. The range of power is incredible, and many of these things dwarf even the grandest Celestials in their power, though their intelligences and priorities tend to be quite alien and incomprehensible. These nightmare-creatures are known as the Lords Cthonic. The Father of Dragons. The Ocean of Slime. The Skittering Horde. The Great Eye.

The Goblin King

Nobody's sure what the Goblin King is. He is clearly something supernatural, able to work great sorceries and often appearing in different forms. He rules over the monster-men and armies of the Shadowed Depths; the highest authority among the cities and the roving tribes of that dark realm, to whom all the chieftains and mayors and lords report to.
Some think he is merely one of the Viles who didn't quite fall as far -- hence his sometimes fae appearance and his greater willingness to rule in a organized and almost benevolent fashion. Others think he was once a human hero, who achieved near-divinity in his adventures into the dungeons, until he eventually carved out a kingdom with himself as god-king over its monstrous inhabitants. Still others think he might be one of the Lords Cthonic, a monster from beyond the world, just more human-seeming than the others.