I’ve been working on and off on a setting for a year now. Figure I should share some of what that is.
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| Very rough map |
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This is a rough map of the continent of Strathos. It is located in the southern hemisphere of the world. The map is mainly to show a rough geographical positioning of nations and regions in relation to each other. Notice no actual geographical features like mountains, rivers, lakes, or swamps.
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| Geographic relations to other lands |
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I will describe in more detail each region on the map in later posts. For now I’ll give a brief summary. The names are all working names until I think of something better, so yeah, I know some of them are stupid.
- Pretonia: Pretons are the oldest of the human races on Strathos. They are descendents of slaves of the Serpent Men from long ago. They still worship the Serpent Men, who they believe have ascended to the stars. Essentially stone age cave men. Pretons are monsters, essentially, who live to destroy the works of humanity. As the Nords and Hobgoblins swept through Pictland, pushing the Picts South and East, Pretonia was split in two. Pretons are based on pre-Anglo-Saxon invasion Celts.
- Pictland: Picts are descendents of the Pretons, and are a bit more advanced culturally and technologically. They were poised to be the dominant people on the continent until two major invasions occurred. The Pict language is considered the Common tongue of the continent, and peoples and places are named in the Pict way. Pictland is a huge expanse of mostly unexplored wilderness filled with gigantic prehistoric beasts. It is much like Canada or Siberia: a vast, cold, forest with numerous rivers and lakes and mountains.
- Yonwood is a large, forested region of impossibly tall trees. The Yon Ape Men are the dominant society here. The place is crawling with giant-sized insects, carnivorous apes, and deadly plants. The weather conditions are similar to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
- Mushroom Forest is an area of the Yonwood were the trees are supplanted by colossal varieties of fungus. This is where the fungoids and Needlemen come from.
- Nordheim: Home of the Nords, a piratical people who conquered the area a few hundred years ago. The Picts living there became serfs and slaves of the invaders. Nords are based on Vikings, with magnified stereotypes.
- Hobland: I feel like hobgoblins have always gotten shafted in DnD; they’re described as being organized and technologically advanced, but they only appear in ragtag groups with other monsters that share nothing of their culture. Makes no sense. So this is the Great Hobgoblin Empire. Or, at least, part of it. Picts and goblins make up the lower castes of this advanced feudal society, although there is at least one human-ruled member-state of the Empire. Based on the Holy Roman Empire.
- Icefields: The Icefields are the permafrost areas. The few people who live here hunt seals and whales. Populated by Frostmen (Fiend Folio, yo) pushed down to the bottom of the world eons ago by the pretons. There isn’t much in the way of easily exploitable natural resources, so everyone else tends to stay away.
