When it comes to projects, I got three major hurtles: starting, doing, and finishing. Indecision, you see. Wracked with it.
Anyway, I made a map. Filled it full of random features, random place names. Really making it up as I went, grabbing words out of a thesaurus as I went, all in an attempt to get over the hemming and hawing I seem prone to...and it seems to have taken on a theme of decay and ruin. I neither know why, nor what that says about my headspace at the moment.
Is this anything? I don't know.
The Map
The Places
Northern Cordillera
A mountain range. To the North. Yeah, the names here are gonna be along those lines. On the surface it's a land of Mountain Giants, Rock Trolls, and Frost Thralls. Below it's a realm of World Sap, Dwarven Ghosts, and Neitherlings.
Fjallhiem
Capital of Mountain Giants and the remains of their kingdom. Full of twisting Halls and feral giants guarding corroded and tarnished treasures of a forgotten empire.
Last Grotto
Once the home of the Maggot King, now just a tomb full of dwarven ghosts and eldritch machinery reaching deep into the greasy earth.
Vestigial Forest
A thick, ancient forest of black wooded trees littered with spiderwebs and assassin vines, stretching from the coast, out past the Unnamed Lake, and coming to border the Trash Lands. Home to your typical woodland inhabitants (though each and everyone is a bastard), as well as various Trolls, Landwights, and Mistfelled. Dotting the landscape are ruins of an unknown civilization, neither dwaven, giant, or elven.
Skybound Temple
An open air temple complex, the "rooms" of which are separated by statues so tightly pack together they're effectively walls. While the statues appear vaguely human, closer inspection shows they are clearly not, howeer each and every one bears an expression of awe as they look to the sky. Little is known about the sight, as researchers tend to go missing. This is almost certainly due to the rune of teleportation carved in the exact center, aimed somewhere beyond the stars.
Arcanum
The first time magic was declared outlawed in Weberth, the more well-to-do magic users struck North along the coast, staying close to the City enough to continue trade, but far enough away to ignore most of the laws they disagreed with. Due to this, the premier University of Magic was established - it probably bares some haughty, hoity toity name - and still operates to this day. While Arcanum does train the majority of War Mages in the Werberth army, you can rest assure their loyalty lies with Arcanum before the Republic. With such a large population of magic users in one location, one would probably be worried of some eldritch, other worldly nonsense probably happening. Well, worry not, because it definitely is.
Werberth
The city built on the location where Man first arrived at these shores. Essentially the capital of Man's expanse, as contact with the Old World has been lost. The sky hangs heavy with greasy clouds raining soot from the factories burning troll oil. Slums are swollen, overfull of population numbers they were never fit for, easing occasionally as sickness burns through them. Meanwhile, the plutocracy grow fat in their mansions, playing at politics in their corporate republic.
Kings Ruin
Briefly, just after contact with the Old World was lost, there was a big fight about whether or not another monarchy should be established. The pro-monarchists won this drawn out, and bloody, argument, and built their victory city and new capitol of Kings Run on the shores of the Unnamed Lake. Soon, disease struck the city and as the city fell, so too did the new monarchy. Now, the city lies empty, lifeless, and hollow.
Plague Spring
When the disease struck, those that carried it were at first rounded up and driven from the city. These exiles eventually settled and founded a city referred to as Plague Spring. They also eventually got better, the sickness clearing just as mysteriously as it came. Unfortunately, the disease had taken a psychological toll on the carriers, which was passed down through the generations. People here tend to shun outsiders and are prone to paranoia.
Unnamed Lake
I just forgot to name it.
Fort Forlorn
If one referred to it as the farthest reach of the Republic, they would be wrong. Given the population and manpower, the fort is definitely an "over reach." Supply caravans are late and under supplied, if they show up at all. Cannibalism and mutiny have are often a problem. At this point it's a gang of madmen sanctioned by the government to terrorize the local wilderness. Why does the Republic continue to operate this obviously cursed place? It's probably just the nature of crumbling empires to spread their military as widely as possible, continuously throwing money at it, rather than acknowledging the actual, real problems facing the population.
Flooding Tidewater
A low lying coastal forest, with perpetually water logged ground, which tends to flood every nine and a half months. The effect of this is a permeating smell of mildew and general sense of discomfort in the summer months. Moldmen are said to lurk the woods, spreading their spores as they shamble.
Brightwood
The only real, organized settlement in the region. The streets are paved, crime is low, the sky is always sunny, and everyone wears a smile near constantly. Who knew dark rituals and mass drugging via the water supply could be so effective? The haute cuisine here is divine (in that it's served in a sacred ritual to the god of Rot and Consumption. Probably cannibalistic. Definitely not healthy.)
Rotfarm
Once the Moldmen burial grounds, the settlers here have cultivated the mold into an edible harvest. Not great, but edible. Surely there is no side effects from eating sentient mold. Mold covers everything here: the houses, the people, the odd livestock. Everything but new comers, and that doesn't last long.
The Barricades
A collection of barrier islands separating the mainland from the Haunted Mere. Okay, technically, they're just a sandbar; sand and sediment pilled up and not actually connected to anything. Which explains why a town or camp will go missing occasionally after a seasonal hurricane. Definitely not due to anything coming off the ocean in a mist of spirit light. Phares (lighthouses) and ship wrecks dot the shores. The later almost certainly due to scavengers tying lanterns to horse heads and pretending to be the former.
Sound Side
One of the only permanent settlements in region, largely due to it being built on the sound, rather than storm ridden waters of the mere. Serves as a smuggling route between Werberth and Arcanum.
Channel Phares
Twin colossal lighthouses marking the deepest path out into the Haunted Mere. Built before contact was lost with the Old World to guide vessels in, they now serve as cold reminders of what was lost, signaling only to fishing vessels desperate enough to harvest out in the open sea.
Trash Lands
It's shit. Absolute garbage. The area lacks topsoil and the land is mostly baked clay mixed with salt. What flora does grow there regrets it, what fauna there is no longer fears hell. Rain hardly bothers to fall, and what does is damn near undrinkable, unless collected before reaching the ground. Yet, still, some damn fools attempt to live out here.
Sallow Tower
The first time magic was outlawed in Werberth, those magic users of lesser status and financial influence couldn't flaunt their presence the way the Well-Too-Dos could. Funny how laws apply to you if you're not an oligarch. Without financial based protection, the lower class magic users had to use distance for protection. Eventually, they came to the Trash Lands and called it "good enough." Soon, a Tower was established, though lacking the refinery of the Arcanum college.
K
I wonder what the hell this is.
Missing Mountain
It looks like there should be a mountain here. And there should be. Just there's not. There's a rim, a crater, and huge boulders of bedrock - about a mountain's worth - but no artifacts of an impact or implosion. How do you lose a mountain?
The Forgotten Colliery
Way out in the middle of the windswept, featureless hell impossibly ancient buildings, preserved by the salt and dryness, encircle a shaft reaching miles into the earth to a coal vein. Is the coal vein actually a desiccated black pudding leviathan? Most likely. Is the coal mine full of ancient machines and forgotten corpses? Definitely. Are the corpses infected by something down there and altered into Coalwights? No. They were already like that.
Caustic Sea
An inland sea filled with alkaline waters that burns the skin and eyes of any creature not adapted for the environment. I could prattle on about sodium carbonate, but I don't know what that is. Should you choose to sail on it, be aware of the Colossal Salt Crabs and big, fuck-all Squids.
The Forbidden Charterhouse
IT IS FORBIDDEN. A monetary full of evil clerics fully prepared to teach their evil ways to anyone willing to brave the Caustic Sea. What evil plans are afoot? What forbidden knowledge is to be gained? Is there a difference between clerics and warlocks, other than PR? FORBIDDEN.
Spoiled Champaign
Someone take this damn thesaurus away from me. An open countryside spanning from the Flooding Tidewater to the Caustic Sea, marred by ancient trenches and pockmarked by artillery craters. Forgotten embattlements from a war with no human participants are being reclaimed by murderous vegetation.
The Golden Arcology
It's actually made of brass. A mysterious spherical structure of impossibly large size with few outer features, save for shallow window like structures and multiple communication antennae (not that the humans know what these are). Unbeknown to the outside world, the inside is VASTLY larger than the outside, time moves differently within, and the structure is a pleasure dome the elves retreated into to escape the horrors they had created outside.
Shadow Chateau
At some point some foolish entrepreneur set out into the "empty" wilderness to claim land for growing the last of the grape wine seeds smuggled over from the Old World. Trouble is, the land they claimed was, and still is, haunted. On moonless nights, wights of creatures not exactly human roam the vineyard rows, reliving their final horrific moments. Strangely, this seems to have improved the taste. That or the land soaked in elf blood and chemical weapons that the grapes are grown in. Either way, the family still tends the land, and produce a rather successful wine, widely sought after for it's side effect of bestowing Other Sight for a short while.
The Gatorlands
Hell, yeah, brother, you're in the Gatorlands now! Swamps as far as you care to roam and not a damn lawman in sight. Some big damn gators though, and cat fish nearly larger than the fan boats you need to get through the place. It certainly don't help that an alchemist once tried brewing what we'd call methamphetamine, only to end up spilling a large portion of it into the swamps. Now them big damn gators gots big damn attitudes and no dang old fear.
Flooded Temple
An ancient step pyramid rises from the murky waters of the mangrove forest, crumbling steps leading up to a temple adorned with murals depicting a night sky with twin moons. There's only ever been the one, though. In the center of the room, a circular stair case descends back down into the pyramid, soon leading to vast flooded sections and an ominous stirring in the water.
Bogtown
ARRR! What ye be having there, lad? Be it meth? ....can it be? A town built entirely on stilts breaks up the constant fog and Spanish moss laden trees. A town untouched by the law of Werberth, but soaked with strange alchemical agents, as alchemists of ill repute come to apply their trade. Drugs, gambling, whoring, light to mild piracy - all can be found in and around the waters of Bogtown.
Crypt of the Gatorlords
Is "Gatorlords" one word, or two? I can't read my own handwriting. Either way, a gigantic red rock inselberg pierces the surrounding swamp, surprising any oblivious traveler. On the eastern side of this iron rich monolith a door has been carved by crafty hands, long ago. Large statues of seated figures with alligator heads adorn either side of the open doorway, guarding entry deeper into the temple complex. What secrets lie within, forgotten by time itself? Oh, uh, Gatorlord mysteries. Specifically their crypt.
Closing
Is this anything? Again, I don't know. I might come back to it when writer's block hits, as it's want to do. I do know I spent much more time on it than expected.
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