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The Demography of Ierendi and Minrothad

by Simone Neri from Threshold Magazine issue 3

This article is the second of the demography articles begun with The Demography of Karameikos featured in the first issue of ‘Threshold’. Like the first, this second article deals with the issue of demography – how the population is spread among the country, which races inhabit the land, which is the region’s population density, and so on; this time we will center on the island states which lay to the south of the Known World’s coast, that is Ierendi and Minrothad. As in the first article of the series, we will beforehand take a look at the way in which Ierendi and Minrothad are described in terms of population in official supplements, then we will again be giving our suggestion on some modifications to alter official population figures in order to make them appear more consistent with real-world demographic data in the Middle Ages, and with the changes suggested in the article found in the first issue about the population of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

We suggest reading the introductory paragraph in The Demography of Karameikos, in Threshold #1, titled “A Look at Medieval Demography”, to get an idea of what the population density was like in the place and time which inspired the Known World of Mystara, that is late Medieval Europe.

Just a last note before we go on. Both GAZ4 The Kingdom of Ierendi and GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds state that a huge number of small and tiny island, atolls, and reefs dot the sea around the two archipelagos’ main islands. These lesser islands, however, are not featured on both supplements’ 8-miles per hex poster maps. The following article will therefore take into account only the population of the major islands shown on canon maps, assuming that population in the lesser islands is negligible or so small as not to change the picture too much.

The Kingdom of Ierendi

Ierendian Population in Official Sources

GAZ4 The Kingdom of Ierendi, the tables featured in TM2 The Eastern Countries, and the three volumes of the Poor Wizard’s Almanac constitute the main official sources for the population and demographic figures on the Ierendi islands. All the sources are more or less consistent in giving the Kingdom an overall population of about 60,000 people (numbers range from the 62,500 of the TM2 and GAZ4 to the 57,850 of the PWAs), three-quarter of which live in the largest of the ten islands – Ierendi Island – and with Ierendi city as the only urban settlement with over 10,000 inhabitants. At best, with those figures the Kingdom’s population density results in 1.4 people per square mile – barely above the threshold of what is considered untouched wilderness.

In GAZ4, which is the most thorough source about Ierendi, the Kingdom is described as a lush subtropical paradise of beautiful scenery, white sandy beaches, and calm waters, populated by Hawaiian-style natives (the Makai), and visited by thousands of tourists from the continent each year (GAZ4 says about 20,000). Apart from Safari Island, which is mostly kept in wilderness state for tourism purposes, most of the islands are at best only averagely populated, while some (Aloysius, Roister, and Utter islands) are only inhabited by a handful of people on the coasts. In at least two occasions, GAZ4 speaks of “port towns” and “small towns” scattered among the islands’ semi-arid plains and coastal beaches, but apart from Gaamo and Vlaad (both with a population of 1,100), no other town is marked or described in GAZ4 or elsewhere. These official figures generate an urban population of about 20% – mostly made up by the capital town of Ierendi itself (12,000 people).

Nevertheless, Ierendi’s inhabitants don’t seem to be threatened by monsters, beasts, or other perils haunting the almost uninhabited islands; that means that the frontier and the fight against the wilderness is not a main theme of this setting. Volcanic activity and natural dangers (parasites, diseases) seem to be the only causes which may explain this very low population level – but according to GAZ4 they only usually plague some of the islands. Also, Ierendi’s history has not been plagued by population-threatening events in the last thousand years or so.

What contrasts with this level of (or lack of) settlement is the fact that Ierendi is described as one of the main sea powers of the Sea of Dread, with an increasing importance in international trade and a powerful fleet. Moreover, the Kingdom sees a huge number of visitors from the continent each year, and GAZ4 describes in more than one occasion the various tourist facilities present in almost each of the isles. The fact that the islands’ central activity is tourism leads us to think that the official population figures for Ierendi may have somewhat been heavily underestimated – you won’t have any excess population devoted to the tourism trade if the islands had the density of a wilderness land. Besides that, a country of 60,000 people could hardly pose a threat – in terms of resources and manpower – to, say, the Thyatian naval power. And not without difficulty official sources could explain how the neighboring, smaller, equally volcanic, partially less fertile Minrothad islands could have a population (as per GAZ9) five times that of the Ierendi islands.

An Alternate Take on Ierendi’s Demography

So, while canonic population figures for the Kingdom of Ierendi are not unreasonable per se, they appear to be somewhat inconsistent with some aspects of the country’s description and history. Therefore, what follows is an attempt to redesign Ierendi’s population figures according to numbers more in line with population densities in 15^th century Europe – the real world historical setting which inspired Mystara’s Known World. We have tried to stay as true as possible – if not to canonic population figures – at least to the individual islands’ settlement rank, as found in the description given of each island in GAZ4, ensuring the preservation of Ierendi Island’s vast superiority in terms of population and settlement.

As you can guess, this way we will end up having a much more populous Ierendi, but don’t be afraid! This won’t alter your tropical paradise setting. Population figures don’t make interesting settings, descriptions do: what we are doing here is taking the descriptions of the islands featured in GAZ4 and deriving from them some hopefully more consistent population figures which would reflect Ierendi’s status as a sea power and as the Known World’s main tourist travel destination. In doing this, we will not rework the urban population and we will keep it as listed in GAZ4, but take a look at the “Increasing the Urban Population of Ierendi” sidebar for suggestions about a different approach.

For simplicity’s and uniformity’s sake, we will make use of the same density ranks that we used in the article about Karameikos’ demography in the first issue of “Threshold”.

Sidebar 1 Increasing the Urban Population of Ierendi

As you may read in the “Ierendian Population in Official Sources” paragraph, GAZ4 mentions in two places a scattering of “small towns” and “port towns” which shall dot the islands’ plains and beaches.

Even if the Ierendi’s urban population is perfectly acceptable as it is (without any town besides the capital, Gaamo and Vlaad), with the increased population figures we will get in this article you could deem fitting to raise a handful of villages featured on GAZ4’s poster map to the status of small towns, and you could do it without having to worry about the urban:rural population ratio. A number of small towns would also seem more fitting for a “pirate islands” setting like Ierendi.

Both Gaamo’s and Vlaad’s population could be increased even three-fivefold, and the same could be done for the population of the main settlement of each other island – Nula, Jortan, Kurutiba; among other villages, particularly fitting to be raised to the status of town would be Kobos, on Safari Island, which is listed as having a port nearly the same size as the one of Tameronikas (pop. 4,000, in Ylaruam) and is also the main tourist stopover of Safari Island.

If you do this, increasing by some thousand people the capital’s population could be a good idea – but try not to overdo with this, because the islands should not end up having great cities; thus we suggest to avoid pushing Ierendi’s population beyond 16,000 people.

An Overall Look at the Ierendi Isles

The whole area of the ten main islands of the Ierendi archipelago totals 17,539 square miles, with a surface area comparable to that of real-world countries like the Dominican Republic or Estonia, or to the sum of the US states of Vermont and New Hampshire; Ierendi island alone is about double the size of real-world islands like Puerto Rico or Cyprus. Several tiny atolls and islets dot the sea around the ten major islands, but there are mostly unmapped and unsettled, and only serve at best as pirate hideout or are simply the emerging top of underwater volcanoes.

While the Kingdom of Ierendi claims all the ten major islands and several minor ones, it actually controls only a part of these lands. Of the ten islands, one – White Island – is the home of a mysterious sects of druids and declared off limits to shipping; while another – Honor Island – is a de facto independent state which is (more or less willingly) allied to the Kingdom. Both islands are usually considered part of the Kingdom, even if actually the Ierendi government doesn’t exercise any authority there.

Moreover, of the whole surface area of the ten major islands, only less than the half is settled to some degree. About 37% of the area is wilderness, while another 21% is made up by barely-settled borderlands. Most of the population (72%) actually lives in less than one-fifth (19%) of the islands’ surface area.

Total population of the Kingdom of Ierendi is about 381,000 people, including 330,600 humans – most of which (over 70%) belongs to the native Makai ethnic group, while the rest is made up by settlers from foreign countries who came here in the course of the last three centuries –, 34,900 demihumans, 8,000 humanoids, and 7,500 other creatures (taking into account only the races who are represented by not less than 100 members in the country). Average population density for the whole country is about 21.7 people per square mile.

Table 1 shows the distribution of the archipelago’s population among major racial groups. The table doesn’t take into account the tourists that swarm the islands yearly in the summer season; according to official data, their numbers is around 20,000 people.

Table 1: Ierendi’s Racial Groups

Racial Group	Total Racial Population	% on Total Population
Humans	330,600	86.8%
Demihumans	34,900	9.2%
Halflings	32,400	11.8%
Dwarves	2,000	0.5%
Elves	400	0.1%
Gnomes	100	Negligible
Humanoids	8,000	2.1%
Goblins	8,000	2.1%
Other Creatures	7,500	1.9%
Lizardmen	3,500	0.9%
Lupins	3,000	0.8%
Harpies	700	0.2%
Fire Elementals*	200	Negligible
Fire Giants	100	Negligible
TOTAL	381,000	100%
* Including true fire elementals and other intelligent creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire (like efreets, helions, fire plasms, and so on).

Land Control and Government

Ierendi is a young realm which has quickly developed since its independence from the Thyatian Empire, happened four centuries ago in AC 602. Though formally a kingdom, Ierendi is so in name only, because its monarchs don’t wield any real power apart from a ceremonial one, that is representing the unity of the islands in front of their diverse population and of the foreign nations. In fact, since AC 790 the Ierendian crown is elective and elections are held annually; from AC 867 the choice of an yearly royal couple – a King and a Queen – has been done not through popular election anymore, but through the Royal Tournament of Adventurers, an annual competition (opened also to foreigners since AC 935) whose male and female winner become Ierendi’s King and Queen for an year.

Real power is in the hands of a number of aristocratic families, some of ancient origin, some raised only in the recent times, whose wealth comes from the owning of vast expansions of land, or from financial or mercantile activities, or shipping enterprises; some of the most unscrupulous of them earned their wealth through the practice of criminal activities, like smuggling or piracy.

One member of each of the most powerful aristocratic family of the Kingdom sits in the Tribunal, an oligarchic council who represents the true power and government in Ierendi. These families’ position in the Tribunal is de facto hereditary. The Tribunal has judicial and executive powers, as well as legislative ones – even if the latter is shared with the Council of Citizens, which is formed by the heads of the richer and larger merchant and landowning non-noble families of the Kingdom; about 0.5% of the families of the whole Kingdom sit in the Council of Citizens, most of whom reside or are native of the capital itself.

The political stage sees almost constant struggle between major parties within the Tribunal. Corruption is rampant, as are abuse of power, blackmail, and other ruthless means of forcing or persuading other families to support one’s policy. Sometimes the political struggle transfers also to the Council, where friction between non-noble families and aristocratic ones often resurfaces. The result of this political mess is that the Kingdom’s laws are many, unclearly-written, full of contradictions, and pierced by subtle shortcuts which the most acknowledged people know how to exploit to their own advantage. Nevertheless, this internal conflictuality to the country’s ruling class is a weakness and limit to the Tribunal’s authority.

Both the Tribunal’s and the Council’s families are almost all of foreign heritage – that is, nearly none of them has Makai origin. This means that a minority (wealthy and aristocratic families) of a minority (the descendants of the foreign settlers) controls the Kingdom. This is certainly another weakness as well, more so if one considers the exclusion from the government not only of the Makai, but even of the larger part of the settlers’ population (middle and lower classes).

The control of the government extend to about 60% of the islands’ area. Wilderness regions most often include the mountainous territory, the volcanic areas and the lava fields around them, swamps or the depths of the rain forests. One exception if Safari Island, which is kept unsettled by royal decree in order to use it as a touristic attraction for adventurers and monster-hunters. Wilderness areas are most of all the domain of dangerous. creatures, like wild and giant animals, monsters, a few sparse lizardman tribes, and even of the occasional dragon. The islands’ wilderness doesn’t host a large population of savage humanoids (apart from a handful of goblin clans), thus raids from this sources are not considered a relevant danger or even a problem by the government. Settlement of wilderness areas is nevertheless seen as a primary issue by a part of the Tribunal and the Council, and special measures are often devised to make settlement there an attractive perspective for islanders and foreign immigrants alike.

Land Occupation and Social Classes

As said above, only a small area of the whole surface of the islands is truly settled; wilderness (37% of total land area) and borderlands (21%) still account for the greater part of the country. In fact, areas with a very high density level (over 130 people per square mile) are only found in the immediate suburban surroundings of Ierendi town, while high density areas (85-130 people per square mile) extend about 15-20 miles around that region, along the final course of the Ierendi River, and on the tract of plain and beachy seacoast north of the capital. The central area of Honor Island, where the settlement of Filtot and the Citadel are found, can be considered very high density areas, even if a particular type of that. The small area around Kobos, on Safari Island, where most of the wilderness preserve’s tourist trade is located, counts as a high density area.

Average density areas (41-84 people per square mile) host the bulk of Ierendi’s population: they encompass a vast area of Ierendi Island’s interior along the Makai and the Ierendi Rivers, and much of the island’s northern, eastern, and southern coasts. Average density areas also represent the upper level of settlement in other islands: the eastern shores of Elegy Island, the northern and southern coasts of Fletcher Island, some spost along the Angel Cove in Alcove Island, some areas along the coasts and the interior of Safari Island, the central and northern half of the Mau-Mau Bay on Aloysius Island, and the eastern coasts of Utter Island.

Low density areas (10-40 people per square mile) usually extend beyond the average density ones. On Ierendi Island, the best-settled parts of the western coast belong to this level of settlement, as the area around Ronowac village on Roister Island. In turn, around low density areas are the borderlands (1.3-9 people per square mile), which often represent the only type of settlement found in the islands’ inland areas, often in forest, hill, or mountainous regions. The wilderness (less than 1.3 people per square mile) encompasses the most savage and remote areas of the islands, usually the mountain peaks and chains, the uplands, and the deepest forests.

A sizeable part (about a third) of the lands over which the government claims control is inhabited by native Makai tribes who still practice their traditional lifestyle. These tribes, who live on what nature produces, practice a little agriculture, fruit-gathering, fishing, and hunting; they mostly live in Ierendi Island’s uplands and rain forests, or on smaller islands, and in general are found in borderlands or low settled areas. These traditional Makai tribes have uncommon contacts with the rest of the Kingdom: their lifestyle is self-sufficient and they are only interested in the little trade they need to get metal tools or other manufactured items. Otherwise they tend to themselves, and are often as left alone by the government as they ignore it themselves.

The two-thirds of the Kingdom’s territory which is under the control of the government is inhabited by Makai who have adopted a lifestyle more akin to that of the “civilized” countries, influenced by the large minority of “foreign” settlers who came to Ierendi in the past centuries. These Makai who live in rural and coastal villages found in the more settled areas make up the Kingdom’s working class in the agricultural field, as only a handful of them own their own land. Many are employed as workers in the plantations, where life is still hard even after the reform edicts of the last century, while others work in the Kingdom’s gold and platinum mines. Some of them live in the capital, where they usually perform low-class jobs, like labourers, longshoremen, roundsmen, servants, manufacturers or sellers of traditional products, and so on. A few more fortunate ones find occupation in the bustling and recently-developed tourism trade.

Descendants of foreign settlers live mostly in average- to heavily-populated areas, in the surroundings of the capital and in Ierendi town itself. Tourist trade and middle-class activities and professions are mostly in the hands of this minority, as is the greater part of the Kingdom’s private-owned land. The richest or fanciest of these people have villas, residences, and mansions in the most beautiful beaches and spots of the archipelago. A few of them are indeed former adventurers who decided to settle in Ierendi after the end of their career.

Table 2 shows the settlement levels of the Kingdom, indicating the number of hexes (on GAZ4’s poster 8-miles per hex map) belonging to each level and the number of people (all races) living in it. Note that the wilderness areas’ average density is a little higher than norm (which would be 0.3 inhabitants per square mile) due to the presence of some groups of creature who live exclusively there – such as some lizardman and goblin clans, harpies nests, and so on.

Table 2

Table 2: Settlement Levels in the Kingdom of Ierendi

Settlement level	Number of 8-mile hexes (avera-ged)	Square mileage (avera-ged)	% of total mileage (avera-ged)	Popula-tion density range	Average popula-tion density (people/ sq. mile)	Total popula-tion per settle-ment area (avera-ged)	% of total popula-tion (avera-ged)
Very High	3	196	1%	Over 130	155	30,500 (+12,000)*	11%
High	10	577	3%	85-130	104	59,800	16%
Average	47	2,621	15%	41-84	65	169,700 (+ 2,200)*	45%
Low	71	3,970	23%	10-40	21	82,300	22%
Borderlands	67	3,724	21%	1.3-9	5	19,300	5%
Wilderness	115	6,451	37%	Below 1.3	0.8	5,200	1%
TOTAL	313	17,539	100%	**	21.72	366,800 (+12,200)*	100%
* Numbers in brackets indicate urban population to be added to the listed figures.
** Population density in the country can range from zero (wilderness uninhabited by intelligent creatures) to some thousand (6-7,000 in the capital) people per square mile.

Urban Population

Talking of Ierendi’s urban population essentially means talking of the capital’s population only. Ierendi town in fact is the only urban settlement (that is the only settlement with more than 10,000 inhabitants) of the whole Kingdom. Trade, craft, tourism, government, and the military and navy are centered here; this makes the nation a sort of city-state whose power extends over the rest of Ierendi Island and the other lesser islands. Thus, the Kingdom’s urban population is only 3.2% of the total population.

No other towns exist in the Kingdom besides Gaamo (on Utter Island) and Vlaad (on Fletcher Island), both of which have a very small population (1,100 inhabitants); they don’t change at all the picture if one also adds settlements with 1,000 inhabitants or more to the count of the country’s urban population – which in this case would amount to 3.7% of total population.

Other settlements are mere fishing or agricultural villages of some hundred residents. Thus, Ierendi is still a mostly rural country, with city life only limited to the capital. Nevertheless, in the near future immigration and the increase of trade and tourism could improve the status of some villages, helping them to grow to the size of small towns.

Here follows a list of the Kingdom’s known settlements, along with their population, if known.

Cities and Large Towns: Ierendi Island: Ierendi (pop. 12,000).

Small Towns: Fletcher Island: Vlaad (pop. 1,100). Utter Island: Gaamo (pop. 1,100).

Villages: Alcove Island: Kurutiba (pop. 600). Aloysius Island: Jortan (pop. 800). Elegy Island: Nula (pop. 600). Honor Island: Filtot (pop. 750). Ierendi Island: Makalaui, Maona Kea, Matarakai, Punaauia, Taroa, Tooraka. Roister Island: Ronowac (pop. 700). Safari Island: Calatupos (pop. 350), Kobos (pop. 800), Pupami (pop. 200).

The Ten Islands

Now we will take a brief tour of the Ierendi archipelago, examining each of the ten islands which make it up, their main features, and their level of settlement. Please refer to Table 2, above, to detect the density range and average density of each settlement level.

ALCOVE ISLAND

Surface area: 1,241 square miles (7.1% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 15,050 (4% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 12.1 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage (averaged)	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	1	4%	3,650	24%
Low	7.5	34%	8,700	58%
Borderlands	8.4	38%	2,450	16%
Wilderness	5.3	24%	250	2%
TOTAL	22.2	100%	15,050	100%

Alcove is an oddly-shaped island which is one of the last remnants of the old Kikianu Caldera; its eastern mountains give sway to placid sandy beaches in the west. The island has been for centuries a haven for pirates fleeing or hiding from justice, and thus has never enjoyed a high level of settlement. In the last century, clearing operations undertaken by Ierendi’s Royal Navy have allowed for a modest immigration, which has directed itself mostly along the bay known as the Angel Cove; there, a fishing industry and many recreational activities devoted to tourism have grown. The remaining pirates have relocated in hidden caves and lagoons on the other side of the island.

ALOYSIUS ISLAND

Surface area: 1,302 square miles (7.4% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 16,750 (4.4% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 12.9 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage (averaged)	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	2.5	11%	9,050	54%
Low	4.8	20%	5,550	33%
Borderlands	5.5	24%	1,600	10%
Wilderness	10.5	45%	550	3%
TOTAL	23.3	100%	16,750	100%

Aloysius is one of the southernmost islands of the archipelago and one of the remnants of the old Kikianu Caldera; its southwestern coasts are mountainous and volcanic, while the rest of the island is hilly and forested, leaving room to plains along the northeastern Mau-Mau Bay. Aloysius’ woods are infested by a nasty specimen of disease-carrying mosquitos, which the Makai call “mau-mau”. The island has long been a penal colony for the Kingdom’s criminals, but recently the government has decided to increase its population through sales of land at cheap prices, and some immigration has begun also thanks to the discovery of gold and precious stones mines in the interior. Among these new settlers is a large minority of dwarves, mostly from Fortress Island in Minrothad (there are about a thousand of them).

ELEGY ISLAND

Surface area: 924 square miles (5.3% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 20,100 (5.3% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 21.8 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage (averaged)	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	3.4	21%	12,350	61%
Low	5.5	33%	6,400	32%
Borderlands	4.1	25%	1,200	6%
Wilderness	3.5	21%	150	1%
TOTAL	16.5	100%	20,100	100%

Elegy is the westernmost island of the archipelago; it is essentially a large plateau dipping from the western mountains to the eastern coasts, lightly wooded, rocky and poor in resources. Its predominantly Makai population lives on agriculture, fishing, and herding. For centuries the island has been used as burial ground by the Makai tribes living on the western coasts of Ierendi Island; the practice of cave-burials has been revived in recent years by well-off inhabitants of Makai descent.

FLETCHER ISLAND

Surface area: 802 square miles (4.6% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 20,600 (5.4% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 25.7 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	3.6	25%	14,150	69%
Low	4.3	30%	5,000	24%
Borderlands	4.8	34%	1,400	7%
Wilderness	1.6	11%	50	0%
TOTAL	14.3	100%	20,600	100%

This pleasant island is dotted with caves left from the past volcanic activity; many Makai natives have their homes built in these underground caves, while other inhabitants mostly live in Vlaad and other villages. Fletcher produces a variety of common and luxury goods: from the wines, olives, and citruses coming from its agricultural activity, to the feather artistry made possible by the thousands of birds which dwell on the island, to the mining of the famous “fire-starters” – crystals able to start fire through reflection of sunrays. The island is also notable for the presence of a relevant number of Traladaran immigrants.

HONOR ISLAND

Surface area: 310 square miles (1.8% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 8,800 (2.3% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 28.4 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Very high	1	18%	8,700	99%
Wilderness	4.5	82%	100	1%
TOTAL	5.5	100%	8,800	100%

Honor Island is the last remnant of the ancient Kikianu Caldera’s central volcanic cone – what is now called Mount Kala. The island is a small, bleak place of dark terrain made up by dried lava and devoid of most plant life. Honor is not part of the Kingdom of Ierendi, but is actually an independent realm inhabited by a sizeable community of Alphatian expatriates who settled there in AC 629 after an agreement with the King of Ierendi of that time. The Alphatians now make up about one-third of the island’s population; the rest of the inhabitants are goblin slaves who serve their human masters, and their families. Honor Island’s Alphatians are all trained as spellcasters as soon as they reach an adult age; there are a secretive, ruthless, and belligerent lot, who only preserve its alliance to the Kingdom of Ierendi out of trade needs (mostly agricultural products). Here the famous and formidable steam-powered, armored fireship are built and stationed. Honor Island is off-limits to anyone; those displaying a special pass of the Ierendi government are allowed into the village of Filtot, but that’s all they can see. The island’s mages have accumulated a lot of lore about the Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Fire, thanks to a gateway leading there, located on Mount Kala and closely shielded from discovery by outsiders. A number of creatures from the Planes of Fire (plasms, efreets, fire elementals, helions, etc.) dwell here to collaborate with the island’s mages, as well as a small community of earth gnomes, while small groups of fire elemental tourists make occasional visits here from their fiery home plane.

IERENDI ISLAND

Surface area: 7,438 square miles (42.4% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 241,500 (63.4% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 32.5 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Very high	2.5	2%	33,750	14%
High	10	8%	58,000	24%
Average	27.8	21%	100,800	42%
Low	32	24%	37,150	15%
Borderlands	36.5	27%	10,600	4%
Wilderness	24	18%	1,200	1%
TOTAL	132.8	100%	241,500	100%

Ierendi Island is the heart of the Kingdom and of its activities, the center of its government, and its largest and most populous island. Nearly two-thirds of the Kingdom’s population lives in this island, mostly on the eastern and southern coasts and beaches, with a large part of it (around 40%) clustered in the immediate area around the capital town. The island’s population swells by 15-20,000 people coming from the other countries of the Known World during the summer tourist season. Villages, farms, plantations, villas, and resorts of all types dot the eastern side of the island, while the western side is comparatively less settled and mostly inhabited by Makai natives. A mountainous ridge known as the Ierendi Uplands runs parallel to the island’s western coast; the mountains are mostly unsettled, and many volcanic peaks are found in this chain – like the famous Makalaui Crater. The capital of the Kingdom, the town of Ierendi, is located at the half of the eastern coast: there are found most of the Kingdom’s prides, like the famous coral royal castle, the Adventurers’ Club, and the Naval Academy.

ROISTER ISLAND

Surface area: 322 square miles (1.8% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 2,950 (0.8% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 9.2 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Low	0.8	14%	900	32%
Borderlands	1.7	29%	500	17%
Wilderness	3.3	57%	1,500*	51%*
TOTAL	5.8	100%	2,950	100%
* These figures include the local lizardman population, which lives in the island’s wilderness.

Roister is a small southern island of the Ierendi archipelago. Its landscape is dominated by the volcano called Mount Ronowac, whose northeastern slopes give way to a vast area of swamps which encompasses most of the island’s lowlands. The small local Makai population lives of fishing, and must strive daily against the deadly “mau-mau” mosquitos which infest the island, as well as with the numerous lizardman tribes who lives in the swamps of the interior (and who make up about 90% of Roister’s wilderness population.

SAFARI ISLAND

Surface area: 3,360 square miles (19.2% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 29,800 (7.8% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 8.9 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
High	0.3	1%	1,750	6%
Average	4.5	8%	16,300	55%
Low	9.5	16%	11,000	37%
Borderlands	0	0%	0	0%
Wilderness	45.7	76%	750	2%
TOTAL	60	100%	29,800	100%

Safari is the second largest island of the Ierendi archipelago; it’s an island of beautiful scenery, gifted with plains and lush forests in its eastern half, and with hills and mountains in its western one. The island has always been the home of a variety of creatures, both harmless and dangerous, which have never been exterminated in the course of the past centuries, thus allowing for only a small level of settlement. In the past decades, the government has decided to make the island a tourist attraction for monster-hunters and people who like to take wilderness tours and to see strange creatures in their habitat; thus it was decreed that most of the island’s interior (about 90%) should be kept as wilderness and off-limits to any type of settlement. All in all, about 75% of the island’s surface is uninhabited, while the remaining 25% - located mostly along the eastern and northern coasts, and along the course of the Wautili River – is quite settled in regard to other islands’ standard; in fact, Safari Island lacks settlement areas qualifying as borderlands, because the island’s population and immigration has directed itself in the few areas which were allowed for settlement. Nevertheless, the government imposes strict regulations over monster hunting, in order to avoid the island depletion. Safari Island is the home of the famous adventure parks of Ierendi – foremost among which is “Gastenoo’s World of Adventure” – that is places where fictional, live adventures are staged for the tourists’ benefit.

UTTER ISLAND

Surface area: 1,642 square miles (9.4% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 25,350 (6.7% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 15.4 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	4	14%	15,600	61%
Low	6.5	22%	7,500	30%
Borderlands	5.5	19%	1,600	6%
Wilderness	13.3	45%	650	3%
TOTAL	29.3	100%	25,350	100%

Utter is one of the remnants of the ancient Kikianu Caldera, and is one of the Kingdom’s easternmost islands. It’s a rugged land, featuring mountains of its southwestern side, and beautiful hills in the rest, half of which is carpeted with forests. The small town of Gaamo is the main settlement of the island. Little more than half (53%) of the island’s population is made up by an unusual race of humans, the Albinos, descendants of an ancient servitor race of the Taymoran civilization. The Albinos have their own distinct culture, which they preserve despite being ruled by the Ierendi government. Their most interesting custom is the emphasis they put on architecture as a mean to earn their Immortal patron’s favor after death; the island is indeed filled with their beautiful constructions – both monumental and simple, ranging from decorative sand castle to full-fledged mausoleums. The rest of the population is made up by Makai natives and by a minority of foreign settlers.

WHITE ISLAND

Surface area: 196 square miles (1.1% of total Kingdom’s surface area).

Total population: 100 (less than 0.1% of total Kingdom’s population).

Population density: 0.5 people/square mile.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Wilderness	3.5	100%	100	100%
TOTAL	3.5	100%	100	100%

This small island derives its name from the white stone of its cliff. White Island is a strange, enchanted place, dotted by clear, cold, and very deep ponds, whose only inhabitants are the members of the monastic community of Whitenight Abbey; they are all males (adults and children) belong to an ethnicity not found anywhere else in the Known World, and speak an unknown tongue. Unknown to all, these are the last remnants of a groups of Nithians who didn’t cede to Entropic worship in the final days of the Nithian Empire, and who were saved by their patron Immortal Orisis (an alias of Ixion), but obliged to live here. White Island can’t be reached easily by boat because of its rugged coasts and reefs; the few who managed to land on it tell of horrible, madness-inducing dreams haunting their sleep. Besides the monks, the island is noted for the birch doves which flock here in endless number, and the large white apes who roam the interior.

Main Races

The following entries list in order of their number – from the most numerous to the least numerous – the main races who dwell within Ierendi’s borders. Each entry gives a brief description of that race’s composition (ethnic subgroups, and the like), its diffusion in the Kingdom, relationships with other races, and some additional information. Note that only races who number at least 100 members within Ierendian territory are described here. Other, less-represented races – alongside unintelligent creatures – are found in the following chapter, “Fauna and Minor Races”.

Humans (pop. 330,600)

Humans make up the most numerous race of the Ierendi islands. Within the whole human population of the archipelago, two main groupings can be distinguished, that is the “natives” – the Makai – and the “foreigners” or “settlers” – that is the descendants of foreign settlers who migrated to the islands in past or recent ages. Customs, lifestyles, spoken tongue, social rank, and social classes are mostly defined by the one of the two groupings to whom an individual belongs.

The Makai are a very old people, who – according to historical accounts - has always inhabited the islands. In truth, they are a mixed Neathar-Oltec blood people, born from the intermarriages between the Oltec-blooded Ti-teque (descendants of the more ancient Azcan culture) who lived in the southwestern Known World during the Taymoran age, and the Neathar-blooded Eokai who had lived for centuries in northern Davania and had then migrated in the islands of the Sea of Dread, up to the southern Known World.

The Makai tongue is unrelated to any other tongue spoken in the Known World; in fact, their language was heavily influenced by the close relations that their ancestors maintained with the rakasta in ages past, during their stay in northern Davania. Rakasta influences (and perhaps even dominion) – mostly by the Pardasta and Fast Runner breed – slowly changed the Makai ancestors’ tongue to what is today.

The Makai make up the vast majority of Ierendi’s human population (71%). They are a peaceful and welcoming people, and tend to favor their traditional rural lifestyle to the urban ways of later settlers. The islands of the archipelago are dotted by their villages, most of which rely on farming, fishing, and some other traditional trades. A relevant part of the Makai population has adapted to the lifestyle introduced by the continental settlers during the course of the centuries; some of them live in the capital, where they make up the city’s working class, while many more live in the countryside, performing agricultural labor for the plantation-owners, who possess a great deal of the Kingdom’s land. The Makai usually belong to Ierendi’s lower social classes, but there are some cases of Makai who managed to climb the social staircase and to reach a position of economic comfort or even of wealth.

About one-fifth of Ierendi’s Makai population, mostly located in borderlands area of rain forests and low settled uplands, still practices a tribal lifestyle, living off forest products through gathering and hunting, and keeping some of the most ancient and primitive customs. These tribes are usually the ones over which the Kingdom’s government exercises little control; they tend to be a little more warlike than their kin, and it’s not uncommon for tribal feuds to go out of control and become true wars between tribes in these areas – somewhat which put to risk the settled population living in the vicinity.

The other human grouping of Ierendi is that of the so-called “settlers” (25%), made up by the descendants of the many generations of settlers who came to the archipelago in the course of the last five centuries. The settlers are not at all a homogeneous group; however, most of them consider themselves “Ierendians”, and don’t stick to their foreign heritage. Their origins range from the first convicts and exiles sent there by the Thyatian Empire, to the subsequent great number of immigrants who came here from various nations of the Known World and beyond, to the last, tourism-generated immigration of the last century – which saw a number of people from the continent decide to come to live in Ierendi after they visited the islands as tourists. The settlers mostly live in the capital town, in the area of countryside surrounding it, and in the small towns and villages scattered around the islands. They keep control of the political power, of the government, and of most of the islands’ economy through their influence on mercantile activities, tourism trade, financial activities, and plantation farming. In fact, the aristocratic families are all of settler origins.

The vast majority of settlers has Thyatian origins (66%); they mostly came to the islands during the first decades of Thyatian dominion over the archipelago (AC 571-602), and among them are also found families of Hattian heritage, whose ancestors were victims of the oppressive politics of the Thyatian Emperor of that time, which harshly hit some of its political opponents (many of which were indeed Hattians).

The origins of the rest of the settlers are almost evenly split between the major countries surrounding the archipelago. Darokinians, coming both from Darokin itself and from the nearby Five Shires, form the largest group (8%); then come the Traladarans from the nowadays Grand Duchy of Karameikos (6%), many of which live in Fletcher Island; immigrants from the northern country of the Highlands (modern Glantri) come next (4%), their number being almost equal to that of immigrants from the neighboring Colony Islands, that is modern Minrothad (4%); another relevant group (6%) is made up by minorities coming from a whole bunch of disparate countries – immigrants from Ylaruam and the Northern Reaches realms, sparse people from Atruaghin’s coastal tribes, people from Sind and someone from Yavdlom, to immigrants coming from the eastern territories of the Thyatian Empire, like the Isle of Dawn and Ochalea. Lastly, a little part of the settlers is made up by the secretive group of Common Alphatians who live in Honor Island (3%), jealously guarding their crafts and secrets there.

There is a third very small grouping, that of the Albino people (4%), all of them living on Utter Island. They are descendants of an ancient Taymoran servitor race, who managed to survive the catastrophes which rocked the southern part of the Known World in the second millennium BC and preserved its own distinctive culture on this corner of the archipelago. The Albinos form a cohesive and united group; many live in the town of Gaamo, the others scattered among various villages and isolated houses in Utter Island’s hill country.

Halflings (pop. 32,400)

There are many halflings living in the Ierendi islands, most of whom are immigrants from the nearby Five Shires. The Hins from the north were the first to note the archipelago’s rich resources exploitable for shipbuilding activities, and the first immigrants from the Known World were indeed halflings from the Shires. Since the first settlements founded by them in the islands five hundred years ago, Hin immigration toward Ierendi never ceased, and today a sizeable part of the islands’ population and the near totality of the islands’ demihuman population belongs to the halfling race. Like the human settlers, the halflings occupy a variety of social positions in Ierendi’s society, but many halflings are indeed comfortable or rich people, and a number of the islands’ most influent families are Hins.

Goblins (pop. 8,000)

It could come as a surprise that a relatively high number of common goblins (Goblinus goblinus) dwells on the islands. The goblins were slaves brought here by the Nithians in the last century and a half of their dominion over the archipelago (BC 650-500), in the effort to break the lizardmen resistance at a cheap cost. After the fall of the Nithian Empire, the goblins – left without their masters - and the native Makai began a long series of wars that ravaged the main islands for another five centuries, leading to the almost total extermination of the goblins. The few surviving tribes retreated in barren and isolated places, like the uplands and the heated cave systems near volcanoes and underground lava fields. A large group of them was stranded on the desolate Honor Island. When the group of Alphatians mages arrived in AC 629 and claimed possession of Honor Island, they imposed their dominion over the local goblins, using them as slaves.

Today, only a few goblin clans are found in the wilderness of the islands (around 23% of the total goblin population); the Ierendians call some of them “black goblins” from the darkened color their skin developed during their life near volcanoes and lava fields. These goblins are usually aggressive toward strangers, but frightened by humans, and tend to perform raids only in the most dire times, when famine threatens them.

The rest of the goblin population (77%) are slaves in Honor Island, used both for menial labors, as servitors, and for guard purposes. The life of the goblins on the island is harsh, but after centuries of servitude they have become a docile bunch, posing few or no problems to the Alphatian mages who rule over them. Their number and breeding are closely controlled by the local Alphatians, in order to ensure that their population never exceeds a given limit.

Lizardmen (pop. 3,500)

Lizardmen were once one of the dominant races of this region, but their presence has been reduced to some thousand individuals after the Nithians unknowingly brought in the islands a disease-carrying parasite living on their cattle, which was deadly for the lizardmen. After BC 500, the lizardmen had almost disappeared from most of the islands, surviving only in the large and hot swamps which are found down Mount Ronowac, on Roister Island, where a dozen of lizardman tribes continue to live to this day (about 40% of total lizardman population), harassing the local Makai and settler population.

The rest of the lizardmen (60%) belong to an amphibious subrace which retreated in coastal shallow waters and deep submerged lagoons after the destruction of their kins in BC 500. They are mostly found on Ierendi, Safari, Aloysius, and Utter islands, but are wary of humans – due to the legends told by their shamans - and try to avoid contact with them.

Lupins (pop. 3,000)

A relevant number of these creatures lives in the archipelago, scattered among the human settlements; many of them have come from the Known World countries, but not few are immigrants directly from the Savage Coast – they reached the islands on board merchant and corsair ships which occasionally tour between the two regions. Mongrels are the largest lupin group (23%), followed by Great Beagles (16%) and Blue Bandits (14%), then by Grand Bloodhounds (11%), Shag-Heads (11%), and Neo-Papillons (10%). Minorities of Eusdrian Bulldogs (7%), Bouchon (4%), and Wolvenfolks (4%) are also represented.

Dwarves (pop. 2,000)

A small number of dwarves lives in the islands; most of them are immigrants from the nearby Fortress Island, in Minrothad, while a few others are continental dwarves coming from Rockhome, Darokin, and Thyatis. Dwarven immigrants have all come in the last century or so; the legends about the first convicts settlements in the archipelago relate the presence of a few dwarves among them - nevertheless, there have never been influential dwarven families in the islands, and all traces of older immigrants disappear from historical accounts about two centuries ago (some historians speculate that this may have something to do with the Year of Infamy in the Highlands).

About a half of the dwarven immigrants have settled in Aloysius Island, where it has entered the growing gold mining activity and jewelry trade; the rest is scattered among major islands and larger settlements.

Harpies (pop. 700)

Many nests of these nasty creatures are found among the wilderness and borderlands of the archipelago, mostly in the isolated and inaccessible rocky and steep reefs or rocky outputs which dot the coastlines of the islands. Harpies live in nests of about 30-40 individuals; they are not particularly friendly toward passersby, and represent a constant danger for individual travelers and small boats.

Elves (pop. 400)

Even if legends about the founders of Ierendi tell of some elven convicts present among the first settlers, none of the aristocratic families who trace their origins back to those times has true elven blood. A few have indeed some traces of elven ancestry, which become visible as physical traits in some generations of individuals, but that’s all.

The elves scattered here and there among the islands’ settlements are all recent immigrants, who work in the tourist trade, in mercantile and trade activities, or as corsairs and pirates. About two-thirds of them are water elves from Minrothad, some of which work in Ierendi town as the Guilds’ port agents; the rest are wood or fair elves immigrants from the continent (mostly from Alfheim, Darokin, Karemikos, and Thyatis) or from Alfeisle, in Minrothad.

Fire Elementals (pop. 200)

Under this entry fall not only the true fire elementals, but also other intelligent creatures from the Plane of Fire, like helions, efreets, fire plasms (both normal and giant), and so on. About a third of these creatures is made up of planar immigrants who live in Honor Island, collaborating and sharing knowledge with local Alphatian mages; some of them are actually geased to serve these mages. Nevertheless, the Alphatians keep most of these creatures under disguise, beyond the eye of a casual observer.

The rest are fire creatures found in some of the largest underground lava pools, volcanoes and heated caves, where they have found a natural habitat in the Prime Plane akin to that of their own home plane. The latter are often in league with other less intelligent fire creatures (like flame salamanders) or with fire giants.

Gnomes (pop. 100)

A small community of earth gnomes lives in Honor Island, where they are employed by the local mages to help as engineers and artificers. Their presence here is due to an old agreement that the Honor Island mages signed with the Supreme Symposium of Gnomish Syndicates in AC 691. The gnomes’ presence in the island is temporary and a given group of them usually stays in Honor Island for a season before being replaced by another group. These gnomes usually comes from the Kingdom of Highforge, in Karameikos, while a few come from Rockhome, Ylaruam, or other more distant places.

About half of Ierendi’s gnomes live in Honor Island; the few others live scattered in the other islands of the archipelago, working as craftsmen, engineers, and traders.

Sidebar 2 The Supreme Symposium of Gnomish Syndicates

The gnomes of the Known World are not an unified people; they have no homeland, like the elves’ Alfheim, the dwarves’ Rockhome, and the halflings’ Five Shires. The gnomes seem to be divided in various races (i.e. skygnomes, earthgnomes, forest gnomes, the northern gnomes, and the legendary gnomes of far-south Davania – and perhaps even others), but no one besides gnomes themselves (maybe) has ever properly classified them.

A Brief Sum of Gnomish History

Many centuries ago, the heart of the gnomish civilization was located in the Falun Caverns, a huge underground complex located under the Hardanger Mountains; other large gnomish communities existed in modern Darokin and Rockhome, also. The Falun Caverns were invaded by vicious kobolds in BC 490, and in the turn of a century and a half the gnomes who survived the onslaught had to abandon their home and find shelter elsewhere. Since then, a number of gnome settlements sprung in various places in the Known World and beyond; the larger and most famous of these was the city of Torkyn Falls, located in the Three Fires Volcanoes area of the Wendarian Range. The city was badly damaged and abandoned in the course of dragon attacks during the Time of the Second Dragonlord, at the beginning of the 6^th century AC; most of its inhabitants relocated in other countries of the north. Today, known gnomish communities of some size in the Known World and surroundings are found in Rockhome, the Five Shires, Darokin, Karameikos, Ylaruam, Thyatis, the Heldannic Territories, Wendar, Norwold, Stoutfellow (on the Alphatian mainland), the Black Mountains and Hule. And then there is also the marvelous flying city of Serraine.

The Birth and Development of the Symposium

Nevertheless, despite the fact their settlements are scattered among various distant lands, since the fall of the Falun Caverns, the most important gnomish clans have continued to keep contact between themselves thanks to periodical secret meetings of clan representatives; such meetings were useful to share informations, exchange favors, offer hospitality or migration opportunities to refugees, and so on. With time the meetings became regular (one was held once every three-five years), and in BC 207 an organization was created to coordinate the meetings and keep contacts with all gnomish settlements. Thus the Symposium of Gnome Clans was born.

Centuries passed and the organization became more complex, as instead of a periodical meeting of clan representatives, the Symposium became a semi-permanent body with its own officials which took care to organize the gatherings and spread among the scattered clans word of the Symposium’s meetings and decisions. The Symposium selected its officials among the most trusted members of the various clans; with time, it managed to have one of its officials among the prominent members of each major gnomish clan of Brun, and recruited the most acknowledged elders and vivid minds of each gnomish craft guild and community to take part in the Symposium’s activities. Such duties were still keeping contact between the gnomish clans, but also to gather informations both in lore and technology, try to experiment with new inventions and ideas, spy and steal technological innovations from other races, and so on.

In AC 463 this organization changed its name into Supreme Symposium of Gnomish Syndicates. Its leadership was in the hands of a council formed by old and learned gnomish clanheads, master craftsmen, inventors, and priests. This leadership periodically met in secret, each time in a different place, to discuss things of interest to the gnome race as a whole. The members of the leading council became more and more distant from the actual life of the gnomish communities, most of whose members were not even aware of the Symposium’s existance; most activities of the Symposium started to be run in secret. Obviously, with the passing of centuries, the Symposium began to pursue its own aims, which were not always in line with those of the gnomish clans it theoretically represented, with its own treasury, its own goals, its own secret relationships with other races’ governments and realms.

The Symposium Today

Today, the Symposium still exists, despite the fact that this existance is not common knowledge. It is led by the Inner Council of the Most Enlightened Potentates, made up by about ten of the most old, learned, and unscrupulous gnomes. In their “actual” life, these people are respected or influent clanmasters, leaders, kings, intellectuals, scientists, inventors, engineers, master craftsmen, priests, and rich traders with main roles in their communities of origin. To better defend the gnomes’ (or their own) interests, the member of the Council enforce a certain (but not absolute) degree of secrecy over the Symposium’s existance.

All the members of the Inner Council know who each other member is; if one of the members dies, the others chose a substitute among the most prominent gnome personalities abroad, and they can also periodically increase their number with the addition of another member. Often, the new member is contacted by their agents without even knowing what the Symposium is. The Inner Council has its own treasury to finance its activities and enterprises, an archive regarding current and recent activities (trade agreements, accounting, pacts and treaties, etc.), and an historical archive which preserves the gnomish race’s lore through the centuries.

These three branches of the Symposium’s possessions are split among various places to avoid the risk (which already happened two times during history) that the destruction of a gnomish settlement put in danger the existance of this material also. Such management of resources and knowledge is somewhat unpractical and slow, but the Inner Council’s members consider the Symposium to be an undying organization with themselves only as its own occasional instruments, so time is not an issue. Knowledge of the treasury and archives locations, also, is not shared among all Inner Council members: each one of them does not know at least one of the secret locations among which the treasury and archives are split. Such locations may be secret places in actual gnomish settlements, buildings within other races’ cities and towns, or in rare cases they may even be found within another race’s building – for example, a secret or rarely-examined section of a human library, a secret underground room under the mansion of a merchant who trades with gnomes, and so on. These places, however, are invariably set in places which may be easily reached through common communication means – towns, cities, and so on; you won’t find such a place in a cavern in the untamed wilderness, or in an isolated tower on the top of a mountain.

Under the Inner Council is the Outer Council of the Industrious Stakeholders, made up by part-time agents and operatives which carry out the Inner Council’s decisions. Such agents do not usually know more than one to three Inner Council members, and are often recruited among gnomes with some martial or arcane skills. They carry out the decisions of the Inner Council, such as trading and diplomatic agreements, contacts with gnomish settlements and other races’ communities, recruitment of new members, espionage, theft of money or knowledge, elimination of rivals or competitors, information gathering, recovering parts of the Symposium’s treasury or archives from abandoned or destroyed places, and so on.

While most gnomes and members of the other races alike are not aware of the Symposium’s existance, the governments of some of the realms of the Known World have gathered enough informations to suspect indeed that there is something like a supreme coordination of major gnomish interest. Anyway, even if they may manage to identify a number of gnomes linked with such alleged organization, they lack sufficient informations to get the whole picture.

Fire Giants (pop. 100)

A number of fire giant clans live in the islands’ wilderness, near volcanoes and lava deposits. These warlike giants rarely cause trouble to the islands’ government, but small settlements near their lairs may suffer from their raids and attacks. Fire giants are often in league with other fire creatures.

Fauna and Minor Races

The following paragraphs describe which creatures can be found in the islands of Ierendi, including intelligent races whose number don’t exceed a hundred individuals in the region. Creatures are grouped according to their monster type (for a definition of monster types, see the Rules Cyclopedia or DMR2 Creature Catalogue).

Note that in addition to the following creatures, a variety of monster species have been imported and bred on Safari Island to populate the local tourist attractions (like adventure parks) and to make the whole place even more alluring for monster hunters. Even some rich owners of private villas and parks sometimes import strange and foreign species to “appease” their hosts. Given the quite random nature of such imported species, only those native of the archipelago or found on most islands are indicated below.

Animals, Giant

The archipelago is home to a huge variety of giant animals, mostly reptiles and amphibians; these species have been hunted down in most settled areas, but are still found in quantity in scarcely settled ones. Giant lizards are found almost everywhere, from rocky terrain (where the giant gecko and the giant tuatara dwell) to the forests (where the giant horned chameleon and the giant draco are found). Some dangerous giant crocodiles have survived in isolated swamps, and there are some in Safari Island’s wilderness preserve. Among giant amphibians, giant toads and the dangerous giant poisonous frog are found in the wilderness.

Giant sea life includes the giant crabs found in many shallow and coastal areas, and the rare giant octopus which lives in the shallow waters around some of the islands.

Giant mammals are represented only by the very numerous giant rats, which live almost everywhere; other varieties of giant mammals are not featured in the islands, besides the very rare giant vampire bat, found only in some underground caves.

Animals, Normal

Domesticated and wild animals of many types abound in the archipelago’s islands; mammals tend to be a minority, mostly represented by herd animals like horses, pigs, sheeps, and cattle brought from the continent in the past centuries. Both domesticated and wild normal dogs and normal boars, while present, are not native of the islands and likewise were imported from the mainland. Among mammal wildlife, normal rats and normal bats are ubiquitous, and the islands also sport two unique species of primates: the white-faced gibbons of Elegy Island, and the large white apes of White Island (which, contrary to the continental variety, don’t live in underground caves). Sea mammals include a variety of whales (killer whales, narwhals and giant whales among them), sometimes domesticated by local merrows, and the friendly dolphins which make up the mounts for the allied merrows’ sea cavalry.

Many species of birds dwell in the islands; there are varieties of seabirds (like sea gulls), and a great number of species of colorful tropical birds – parrots, parakeets, cameo flamingoes, and the strange birch doves of White Island.

Amphibians and reptiles, however, are the true dominant species of the archipelago, numerous variant of whom dwell in the islands; one of the most rare is the small and beautiful leopard salamander (so called due to its black-yellow coloration), found in Safari Island. Crocodiles of all sizes (both normal and large) are found in various shallow water areas of the islands, as well as along rivers and in some swamps. Snakes abound here, from the poisonous pit viper, to the powerful rock python found in the forests, to the sea snake dwelling in the seas around the islands, to the greater cave snake (a variety of the continental giant racer), unique of Safari Island.

The clear, shallow waters of the archipelago are the home of an infinite variety of fishes. Among the most notable of them are the normal manta ray, and some species of sharks (bull, mako, and the feared great white shark), which are sometimes domesticated by the merrows.

Constructs

Ierendi is not a land of great wizards, but eccentric magic-users of foreign (especially Glantrian) origin can surely be found with a variety of constructs – mostly gargoyles or golems of any type – at their service. Such constructs are indeed common among the Honor Island mages – especially the ones – like iron gargoyles or bronze golems – which are powered through fire elemental energies.

Dragons

Many dragon varieties dwell in the Ierendi islands, mostly belonging to the green, red, jade, and ruby species; they live in the deepest rain forests, or on the most impervious mountain terrain and volcanic peaks. Most of them are found in the wilderness of Safari Island. The seas are known to host a number of sea dragons, the most famous of which is Thundar, a female sea dragon whose draconic realm of Thundiara lays to the south of Aloysius Reefs; from her submerged lair, guarded by sea serpents, Thundar plans her dominion over the tritons of Sunlit Sea. Among dragon-kin creatures, wyverns are quite commonly encountered in the wilderness of Safari Island.

Humanoids

Besides those listed in the main races section, the only humanoids worth talking about in the Ierendi region are those who live in the Sunlit Sea. Under the waves, beyond proper Ierendian control, lay the land of the nomadic mermen (or merrow), allies of the Ierendian government, who often have come to the Kingdom’s aid in its battles against Thyatian imperial power and who still represent one of the reasons of the supremacy of the Ierendian navy in its waters. The sea around the eastern islands of the archipelago is controlled by the tritons and their Kingdom of Undersea, which is friendly toward the Ierendians and its allies, the mermen. Less numerous than these two underwater races are the knas, a race of fish-like humanoids devoted to trade, and the shark-kins, who roam part of the Sunlit Sea. Even more rarely encountered are instead the delicate and seductive nixies.

It is worth noting that some rumors hint to the presence of local fairies and members of the Good Folk in isolated places like deep forests, hidden lagoons, and high mountaintops. Whether these are only individual creatures or parts of the Ierendi Islands may be the seat of a local fairy kingdom is still matter of speculation. Fact is that various types of fairies or fairy-like creatures feature prominently in Makai legends, folklore, and mythological tales – for example, the Makai call menehune a race of small forest humanoids, very talented in craftsmanship (which some Known World scholar has identified with local leprechauns).

Humanoids, Giant

Besides the fire giants mentioned in the main races section, deep caves connected with underground lava deposits are known to host a number of rock trolls; these don’t belong to the same Beastmen-descended race of common trolls, but seems to be older creatures, with a strong elemental earth connection, likely of the same stock of some trolls found in the Northern Reaches countries. Whatever their origins, they often make alliances with fire giants and other creatures who live underground. The Sunlit Sea hosts many families of sea giants.

Lowlife

Most of the settled areas of the islands are thankfully free of dangerous varieties of insects, arachnids, and the like; normal scorpions, however, can be encountered everywhere. The southern islands of the archipelago (Roister, Aloysius, and Utter) are also plagued by the presence of the dread “mau-mau” mosquitoes, which carry a deadly disease and against which a disinfestation must be periodically – where possible – carried out. Sometimes these mosquitoes form large clouds similar to insect swarms.

Utter Island is also known to host a large number of giant insects, like giant ants, giant bees, giant centipedes, robber flies, and some varieties of giant beetles (fire, oil, and tiger). In the island also dwell giant arachnids (giant crab spiders and giant black widow spiders in particular), the web of which is sometimes used by the native Albino humans to fashions curtains for their buildings. Also, rhagodessae have been known to attack travelers in forested wilderness and borderlands.

A couple of nasty insects species is also found in the archipelago: they are the giant locusts, which dwell in the rocky, barren areas of most islands; and the dangerous steam weevils, which are found near the great underground lava deposits.

Also, waters are neither free from the presence of dangerous insect types, for both freshwater rivers and ponds, swamps, and the seas are the home of all the three varieties of water termites (swamp, fresh water, and salt water).

Wormlike creatures are uncommon in the archipelago, but present nevertheless. Giant leeches infest some of the freshwater bodies and the swamps of the islands’ interior; caeciliae are found in underground areas of softer terrain and in bogs (hence their Ierendian name, “bog caeciliae”); the gigantic mashers dwell in the bottom of the seas; while some dread purple worms (called “red worm” by the Ierendians) stay dormant underground, only resurfacing when something disturb their slumber.

Coming to amorphous lowlife, some parts of the Ierendi islands, Safari in particular, host creatures like the green slime, the gray ooze, and the ochre jelly; the fearsome lava ooze can instead be found underground near the lava flows and the volcanic cones.

Monsters

In the past ages, the islands were the home of a great variety of giant reptiles, the so-called dinosaurs, which had gone extinct in other parts of the world; even if they have been hunted down to extinction in most islands, some specimens survive in the wilderness and in Safari Island’s preserve. While the largest and deadliest species of dinosaurs (like those which can be found in the southern Thanegioth Archipelago) are gone, in the islands can be found small land carnivore, and small and medium land herbivore dinosaurs.

Safari Island is also famous for the many nests of flying hydras found in its wilderness. Rumors spinned by tourist guides also tell of a huge “father of all hydras” which should live somewhere in Safari Island’s wilderness interior, but that rumor is still unconfirmed.

Volcanic areas, underground heated caves, lava deposits, and similar terrain are the home of creatures like the vicious hell hounds – often found in league with fire giants and other fire creature, and the dangerous lava lizard.

Among avian monsters, the most fearsome of all is the majestic roc, which has been sighted in isolated mountain peaks or in lonely atolls in the seas around the Ierendi islands in all its three varieties (small, large, and giant). Flocks of nasty stirges can instead be found, again, in Safari Island’s interior.

Then there are the monsters of the sea: the sea horse is a common encounter underwater, especially in company of the tritons, while the lesser sea serpent is a rarer sight. Other larger creatures – like the greater sea serpent and the giant turtle (a variety of armored aquatic dinosaur) – are encountered only very rarely, and most often come to life only in the tales of seamen who venture in the southern seas beyond Ierendian borders. Another dangerous but rare monster of the sea is the siren (see the “Siren” sidebar, further on), who lures seamen to their doom with her charming song.

Lastly, even if not especially common in the archipelago, lycanthropes of neutral behavior (wereboars, weretigers, and werebears mostly) are tolerated and even employed as professionals in adventure parks and in the entertainment trade – shapechanging shows in public attracts many tourists! This activity however is very strictly regulated by the government, and any lycanthrope shapechanging in public outside tourist shows is sure to pass some trouble. On the other hand, wild weresharks are known to roam the Sunlit Sea.

Planar monsters

The islands have their share of planar monsters mostly thanks to their link with the Plane of Fire through Honor Island, and to the presence of so many powerful spots of fire elemental energy, like volcanoes and lava deposits. Besides beings already mentioned in the main races section – efreets, fire elementals, hellions, and normal and giant fire plasms – the flame salamanders can be encountered both in Honor Island and in volcanic areas above and underground.

Additionally, White Island is the home of an unique race of planar beings native of the Ethereal Plane, the ether weirds, who live inside the mysterious icy ponds found on the island, put there by the Immortal patron who saved the local monks during the last days of the Nithian Empire.

Undead

Undead don’t abound in the Ierendi islands, but some unconventional Makai shaman has been known to practice necromantic magic to raise skeletons and zombies. The ritual to create the shrunken zombies known as topi is of Makai origin, and these undead may still be found somewhere in the archipelago. Other undead, like wights and wraiths, while rare, sometimes raise spontaneously to perform revenge or haunt the place where they died tragically. Lastly, there are rumors about a lich living under disguise in Elegy Island.

Sidebar 3 The Denizens of the Sunlit Sea

The northern reaches of the Sea of Dread, where Ierendi and Minrothad archipelagos are found, are inhabited by various races of sea creatures, first and foremost by merrows (or mermen as land-dwellers sometimes call them) and tritons. These creatures call this part of the sea the Sunlit Sea, due to its shallowness which allow for the sunrays from above to light it up.

Merrows are found in large number in the waters around Ierendi islands; they migrated here from the southern seas after the seismic cataclysms of the 18^th century BC. The merrows are a nomadic people, friend of the dolphins, who moves in groups of 50-100 members, following the fish schools and gathering the resources of the sea floor. They are friendly toward the Makai and the Ierendians in general, and trade with them; in exchange for protection of their waters and their sacred burial grounds by invaders and desecrators from the surface, the merrows agreed in AC 748 to help the Royal Navy of Ierendi in the defense of the islands, and to train its members in sea and underwater combat. In past battles against the Thyatian Empire (the wars of AC 643-44 and AC 713-14), the merrows represented a formidable allied force for the Ierendian fleet, and today they are one of the main reasons for the supremacy of the Ierendian navy in its territorial waters.

On the other hand, the tritons are a reclusive people, who only occasionally maintains relations with the land-dwelling races. They mostly live in the region between the Ierendian isles of Utter and Safari, and the Minrothaddan Trader’s, Fortress, and Blackrock Islands, where they have built their own organized underwater realm, the Kingdom of Undersea. Undersea sees the tritons as dominant races, but is a cosmopolitan realm, where many other minorities belonging to other sea races live peacefully. Centuries ago (around BC 200), during the time of their migration in the Sunlit Sea, the tritons made war against the local merrow to carve a territory for themselves; the struggle went on for centuries and, after the tritons’ victory, grudge between the two races continued for decades. After many years of peace, however, the tensions cooled down and friendly relations slowly developed between the two peoples. While not formally allied with the Kingdom of Ierendi, Undersea keeps friendly relations with it, being instead more wary of the Minrothaddans.

This is due to an historical fact. During the rule of Missan Meditor as Ruling Guildmaster of Minrothad (AC 862-887), the race of sea traders known as the knas refused to accept the Guilds’ regulations over trade, which had the aim to establish their monopoly over merchant activity in their archipelago. The knas began a series of raids against Guilds’ shipping, and in AC 880 the Guilds retaliated with an assault to the underwater communities of the knas; many families of these creatures were ruthlessly butchered and slaughtered, and the knas ultimately had to abandon trade in the Guilds’ waters – but a deep hatred still runs in the knas’ heart toward the Minrothaddans, and other underwater races still remember the ruthlessness which the Guilds demonstrated in that occasion.

The Guilds of Minrothad

Minrothaddan Population in Official Sources

GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds represents the main sources about the Guilds’ population and demography. Further population figures for the archipelago are found in TM2 The Eastern Countries, and in the three volumes of the Poor Wizard’s Almanac series. Unfortunately, the population figures provided by these sources are not consistent at all one another. Now we will take a look at each of them.

First of all, GAZ9 is quite clear in establishing Minrothad’s population at 280,000 people, with an urban population (towns and cities with 10,000 people or more) reaching a very high rate of 29%. GAZ9 also set the islands’ surface area at 6,552 square miles, thus resulting in a population density of 42.7 people per square mile. Unfortunately, a rough measurement of surface area made on GAZ9’s poster 8-miles per hex map shows that the surface area given in gazetteer was miscalculated.

TM2 instead lists the Guilds’ population and surface area, setting the former at 131,300 people, and the latter at 8,120 square miles. While this surface area seems more consistent with the re-measurement of the islands’ surface done on GAZ9’s poster hex map, the listed population is definitely way too low to support an urban population of 80,000 – 97,000 if you include in the count towns with less than 10,000 people – which would result in a high industrial age urban : rural population ratio (i.e. 61% : 39%). Thus the listed population seems quite unacceptable if one wants to keep firm the population figures given in GAZ9 for the archipelago’s cities and towns.

Then, there are the figures found in the PWAs, which list Minrothad’s surface area as being 8,120 square miles (thus making it consistent with TM2’s figure), and its population as being 135,000 people – apart from the population figure found in PWA3, which gives – giving only as explanation an influx of refugees from Thyatis in the last year, whose number frankly seems excessive – a figure of 208,000. Now, the first two PWAs’ figure generates the same problems as the TM2’s one, while the one of the third issue seems very much a mistake for GAZ9’s figure of 280,000 and not something having a reasoning behind it.

While correct surface area appears to be 8,120 square miles, that is the one provided by TM2 and the PWAs, among the inconsistent population figures, it seems that the more acceptable one be that given in GAZ9, that is 280,000 people. This, coupled with correct surface area, would mean an archipelago with a 35.5 population density, which is quite acceptable for a nation like Minrothad – quite settled, farmed, and (apart from Alfeisle, and at least according to GAZ9’s descriptions) deforested, undisturbed by wars, dramatic events, or population losses for the last five centuries, and the very heart of this region of Mystara’s sea trade.

Adjusting a Little Minrothad’s Population

So, all in all, selected canonic sources about Minrothad end up giving reasonable population figures. Nevertheless, to be properly satisfied by Minrothad’s population figures, we will have first to adjust them a little in order to make them consistent with the alternative demography described in the previous paragraph for the Kingdom of Ierendi, as well as with the one found in Threshold #1 and regarding the population of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. This will mean raising a little Minrothad’s population to reflect the Guilds’ status as an island nation half the size, but double the population density of the Kingdom of Ierendi, whose different history and later settlement would explain this gap.

As in the previous paragraph, we will make these adjustments with an eye to the real-world population densities of 15^th century Europe – the real world historical setting which inspired Mystara’s Known World. Again, for simplicity’s and uniformity’s sake, we will make use of the same density ranks that we used in the previous paragraph and in the article about Karameikos’ demography in the first issue of “Threshold”.

An Overall Look at the Minrothad Isles

The whole area of the seven main islands of the Minrothad archipelago totals 8,120 square miles, with a surface area comparable to that of real-world countries like El Salvador, Slovenia, or Israel, or to the US state of New Jersey; Trader’s Isle alone is about the same size of the island of Crete, Greece. A great number of tiny islets, atolls, and small islands – most of which are of volcanic origin, while a few others are made of coral growth atop volcanic rock foundations. Some of these atolls are uninhabited, but some others are the refuge of lonely fishermen, pirates, or simply small havens for a tired crew who has been too long at sea.

The Minrothad Guilds are one of the most widely settled areas of the Known World. The 36% of the land has an average or better level of settlement, and – adding in the low-settlement areas – we see that most of the archipelago (67%) shares some level of settlement. Borderlands only make up for the 24% of the whole surface, while wilderness are only 10% of the total – mostly represented by volcanic terrain on Fire, Fortress, and Blackrock islands, and by the unsettled Gregus’ Ridge mountain chain on Alfeisle. Nevertheless, 85% of Minrothad’s population lives in 36% of the land – that is the areas with average or better level of settlement; only 15% of the population lives in lower settled areas.

About half the whole population of the Guilds dwells on Trader’s Isle, the largest and most populous island of the archipelago, while another quarter lives on Alfeisle; the two major islands of the archipelago thus end up hosting the three-quarters of its population.

Total population of the Minrothad Guilds is about 405,400 people, with the 160,800 humans being only a minority (39.7%); most of the population (59.2%) belongs to the demihuman races, among which elves are the most numerous (166,900 people – albeit divided between water and wood elves), followed by halflings (43,100 people), and dwarves (29,900 people). From the point of view of humans and demihumans, Minrothad is thus one of the most multiethnic countries of the Known World. No other major racial group dwells in the archipelago, and other races account for only 7,500 people – almost wholly made up by the lupin population. These numbers take into account only the races who are represented by not less than 100 members in the country. Average population density for the whole country is about 49.9 people per square mile, thus making Minrothad one of the more densely settled realms of the Known World.

Table 3 shows the distribution of the archipelago’s population among major racial groups.

Table 3: Minrothad’s Racial Groups

Racial Group	Total Racial Population	% on Total Population
Humans	160,800	39.7%
Demihumans	239,900	59.2%
Elves	166,900	41.2%
Water Elves	113,800	28.1%
Wood Elves	53,100	13.1%
Halflings	43,100	10.6%
Dwarves	29,900	7.4%
Other Creatures	4,700	1.1%
Lupins	4,400	1.1%
Harpies	300	Neglibigle
TOTAL	405,400	100%

Land Control and Government

The Minrothad Guilds are a sort of federation of different racial guilds, each of which exerts political control over one area of the archipelago and oversees a number of specialized trades and crafts. The federation is held together by a central government whose seat is in the city of Minrothad. The origin of the Guilds’ confederated government can be traced back to AC 691 and to the “Second Unifier”, the wood elf Gregus Verdier; the confederation turned into a federation, with the establishment of the executive role of Ruling Guildmaster, only after the end of the Council of Minrothad’s reforms, in AC 862.

Most power – both economical and political – lies in the hands of the Guildmasters of the five major family guilds; each of these five guilds has national monopoly over a series of trades and crafts, which in turn are managed by lesser associate guilds. Each family guild is dominated by one of the main races who dwell in the archipelago. Guild Corser is predominantly human, and oversees a number of selected luxury trades and crafts like spices, wine, trained animals, and alchemical substances; Guild Hammer, controlled by dwarves, deals in trades and crafts regarding minerals and stone (mines and quarries, masonry, smithing, and so on); Guild Elsan, the water elf family guild, deals with sea-related crafts like shipbuilding, fishing, shellworking, and also oversees teaching of sailing and navigation crafts; Guild Quickhand, dominated by halflings, deals with leatherworking, basic crafts (glass, baskets, pottery, items made of horn), and fuels (candles, oils, and charcoal); and Guild Verdier, the wood elf family guild, controls trades and crafts regarding cloth and wood, like woodcutting, woodworking, carpentry, bowmaking, spinning, weaving, and so on. Through its own associate guilds, each of the five major guilds’ control over its trades and crafts extends to the whole archipelago.

The five heads of the family guilds form the Council of Guild Leaders, which holds legislative and executive powers. This actually makes Minrothad a guild-ruled plutocracy; each Family Guild Leader has one vote at the Council, and its office – both at the Council and as head of its guild – is hereditary. The Council decides the Guilds’ foreign policy, declares wars and signs treaties, appoints diplomats and ambassadors to other nations, passes laws regarding trade practices (including duties and tariffs), general guild regulations, and government affairs. The Council is actually a sort of executive committee of the larger General Council of the Guilds and States (see below).

The Council is presided by the Ruling Guildmaster, the Guilds’ head of state, who is traditionally a member of the Meditor water elf ruling clan; the Ruling Guildmaster does not has a vote at the Council, but has one when voting at the Council results in a draw (due to the absteinment of one or more members from the vote). The Ruling Guildmaster has always had a largely ceremonial role, but in the last decade – since the young Oran Meditor was nominated to this office – it has acquired a greater influence in the country’s government, de facto beginning to exercise an active presidential role, more and more taking away executive powers from the hands of the Council in order to exert them itself. The authoritarian, but reform-oriented, rule of Oran Meditor has spurred fierce opposition and intrigue among the family guilds, some of which are plotting to have the current Ruling Guildmaster removed.

To serve as its executive arm, the Ruling Guildmaster also appoints a cabinet of advisors, who act like other countries’ ministers. The most important of them are the First Advisor (a sort of deputy and right arm of the Ruling Guildmaster, and minister of the interior), the First Consort (a role introduced by Oran Meditor and held by his wife, overseeing ceremonial and social functions of the government), the Master Treasurer (a minister of treasury and finances), and the Master of the Ruling Guildmaster’s Agents (the head of the secret service and of the Ruling Guildmaster’s own security force).

Then there are the political guilds, that is guild-structured organizations which oversee services and activities of political and national interest. The most important of these are the Merchant Sailors Guild, devoted to import-export trade; the Mercenary Guild, a standing force devoted to the defense of the archipelago and of its ships; and the Tutorial Guild, which oversees training and education in all fields all over the islands, keeps monopoly on magic-use in Minrothad, and functions as high justice court and appeal court for lesser justice managed by local government guilds. Each of these guilds has its own associate guilds which take care of particular areas of their duty. The political guilds are independent from the family guilds and, while they may surely be influenced by them, since Oran Meditor came to power they have represented a strong support for the Ruling Guildmaster’s struggle against the family guilds.

Local government is handled by the so-called “local government guilds”, which are nothing more than political bodies which oversee local government of an island or part of it, including bureaucracy, law enforcement, and low justice; following the country’s custom, each local government is considered a guild in itself. Actual form of local government, however, depends on the region; history and customs of each area have resulted in a different local way to handle political affairs, the only things in common being the fact that each local government answers to the Council of Guild Leaders. For example, local government among Alfeisle’s elves is based on clan structure, with council of hereditary clanheads being the main ruling body presided by the oldest, most prestigious or powerful clanhead. On Open Island, nearby villages are united in shires, each of which democratically elects its own sheriff and a couple of delegates to take part in the isle’s ruling assembly in Malfton, presided by a Seneschal elected for life. On Trader’s Isle the territory is divided into small baronies and lordships (some actually ruled by a Baron or Lord, other such only in name and ruled by an elected Seneschal), each of which is governed by its own assembly made up by representatives of the rural noble landowners and of the city-dwelling guildmasters. Local governments are usually heavily influenced by the Family Guild which has control over trades and crafts most important for their region. While this may appear confusing, the system developed by Gregus Verdier in AC 691 functioned because the persons appointed as heads of the Family Guilds were all already powerful and influent individual in their own local government, thus establishing an easy link between local government and the Guilds’ national government. This does not mean that things go on smoothly: the political struggle among different guilds and branches of the government is fierce, and intrigue is hidden behind each political maneuver.

The capital city of Minrothad is a sort of neutral territory whose government answers directly to the Ruling Guildmaster, who appoints its Seneschal; this ensures that, at least within the city walls, the plotting families and guilds may find a safe ground for agreements and pacts.

Last in real power but first in institutional importance is the General Council of the Guilds and States, a larger assembly which theoretically represents the whole population of the archipelago. The General Council is made up by 40 delegates sent by the local governments of the various provinces in which the islands are subdivided (as could be expected, Alfeisle and Trader’s Isle are the two most represented islands). Delegates at the General Council are often guildmasters themselves, or officials of the local government, or members of aristocratic families – or a combination of all three. Until the Council of Minrothad (AC 850-862), the General Council exerted a quite high deal of influence in the government, as it was the true government body of the Guilds, with responsibility over approval of national laws, foreign policy, tax collection and assessment, administration of the army and the navy, and so on. Since then, the Council of Guild Leaders functioned essentially an executive committee of the General Council. However, in the last century or so, true decisional power has slowly slipped in the hands of the Council of Guild Leaders, with the General Council relegated to a largely advisory role. Customarily, the General Council is gathered once per year to approve the next year’s budget, to appoint the General-Captain of the Guilds’ army and the General-Admiral of the navy in times of war, and in extraordinary session to decide over important treaties or declarations of war. The Council of Guild Leaders usually gives “instructions” to the General Council, that is suggestions (little less than orders) about what the Family Guildmasters expect the result of the vote to be.

Sidebar 4 The Government of the Guilds

Official products did never give too much details about how the Guilds administered their own territory. GAZ9 gives us an account of the Guilds’ national government – the Ruling Guildmaster, the Council of Guild Leaders, the capital’s Seneschal, and the Tutorial Guild’s function as high justice court – but says nothing about local government. In a handful of places, GAZ9 mentions “local government guilds”, “the constabulary, a division of the local government security guild”, “the local retail tax collector”, and “a first guild advisor who interacts with local government”, but gives no account of what this local government is.

Module X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield says instead that “the isle of Minrothad is divided into many small baronies. The baronies form trading guilds, each with its own plot of land. The government is run by the heads of the various trading guilds. […] The PCs can arrange a meeting with the Guild’s Council to discuss a potential alliance. The Council is made up of 40 of the most powerful guild leaders and barons.” It’s obvious that GAZ9 was written without this passage in mind, but it could be of some use to further detail the government of Minrothad; presence of a nobility of sort is not unreasonable either, as GAZ9 also says, regarding Harbortown, that in “Old Town […] are old and aristocratic residences”, and that Trader’s Isle has had a past history of employment of slave labor (especially halfling labor) and likely, given the Nithian origins of its population, plantation farming. GAZ4 The Kingdom of Ierendi in fact informs us that plantation farming was introduced in Ierendi by the Nithians; the same happened preasumably also in Minrothad, which was conquered a century before. Lastly, module X7 War Rafts of Kron mentions that, among other things, the Guildmasters of Minrothad will offer the PCs a small (6 square miles) island next to Minrothad as reward – which may suggest a sort of landowner-managed local government.

Putting together all these elements, and drawing inspiration from the Renaissance age government of the real-world Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, I have tried to clarify some of the details of the Guilds’ government, both local and national, in the paragraph “Land Control and Government”.

Land Occupation and Social Classes

As said above, the archipelago is one of the most settled areas of the Known World; nevertheless, not every corner of it share the same population density. Very high density areas are found in the farmlands around main cities of Trader’s Isle, that is the city of Minrothad and Harbortown, from the city walls themselves up to 5-10 miles away. The area around Cove Harbor, on Fire Island, also counts as a very high density area. A great number of farms and villages is found in these regions.

Then there are high density areas, which include almost all the western, northern, and eastern coastline of Trader’s Isle and part of the inland area, and the surroundings of the other islands’ main cities – Stronghold on Fortress Island, Gapton on North Island, Malfton on Open Island, and Seahome on Alfeisle. More than a third of the Guilds’ population lives there. These regions, like the high density ones, have seen a great deal of deforestation during centuries, and now they are filled with cultivated lands, orchards, and pasturelands for herd animals – as well as with the properties of rich landowners.

Another third or so of the Guilds’ population live in average density areas, which include most of the southern coasts and some of the interior of Trader’s Isle, most coastal areas of Alfeisle, the eastern coast and the valley of the Quickhand River on Open Isle, the areas between Gapton and the eastern and southern coasts on North Isle, the larger area around Stronghold on Fortress Island, and the small eastern coastal strip on Blackrock Island. A number of activities, both pertaining to agriculture or herding and to guild trades or crafts, are practiced in these regions, making most of these areas economically important for the Guilds.

The rest of the country’s land is somewhat considered a backward area by the government, both in infrastructures and population. Low density areas include the inland area around the Diamond Spurs on Trader’s Isle, most of North Island’s territory (except for the mountains), the rest of Open Isle’s surface area, a small strip of land around the fishing-devoted villages of the coastline on Blackrock Island, and a large strip of land circling the coastlines of Alfeisle inland (and including some of the southern and western coasts as well).

Borderlands extend beyond the limits of a decent level of settlement; few people live there, not because of dangerous monsters of inhabitants, but because the lands are uninteresting from an economic point of view, or because these lands have not seen a decisive effort of settlement by the government. Nevertheless, some important activities, such as mining, often take place in some borderland spots. Borderlands include the Diamond Spur chain and the deepest forests on Trader’s Isle, the area farthest from Stronghold (save for Mount Redtongue and vicinities) on Fortress Island, the mountains of North Island, the inland area around Gregus’ Ridge and a stretch of the southern forests on Alfeisle, and the inland area before the volcanic landscape around Old Nenthead on Blackrock Island.

Wilderness areas are few in the Minrothad archipelago, and limited to the most dangerous volcanic areas or to the most impervious mountains – that is the Gregus Ridge chain on Alfeisle, and the areas around Mount Redtop and Old Nenthead on Fortress and Blackrock islands, respectively. Fire Island, which has been declared off-limits to settlement and to ships by the government, can be considered – apart its hidden port of Cove Harbor and vicinities – wilderness terrain.

Social classes in Minrothad are quite more blurred than in other countries. This is mostly due to the decline of traditional, landowning-oriented aristocracy in the past century and the consolidated primacy of a class of city patricians whose wealth depends on trading and manufacturing activities. Nevertheless, Minrothad has an aristocracy of sorts, mostly human and descended from the old Minrothian and Alphatian leading families of Trader’s Isle, where they account for about 2% of the island’s population. Some of them still bear old hereditary titles of “Barons” or “Lords”, albeit deprived of any powers besides social status and that which may derive them from their influence in guild or local government affairs. Minrothaddan aristocracy does not conduct a lifestyle much different from that of the high-ranking guilders; they own lands and often a still important part of their wealth comes from land rents and farming activities, but many have entered the guild system as well in order to improve their riches and increase their political power. On Alfeisle, aristocracy consists of the clanmasters and their families and relatives, who usually devote themselves to guild activities and do not own great deals of land (also due to the customs of elves regarding land property, which is mostly left to common usage). The halflings and the dwarves don’t have proper aristocracy, nor do the other lesser islands who have been settled only more recently.

Of the rest of the archipelago’s population, only about a 60% works in farming activities – one of the lowest percentages of the Known World. Farming activities may be directly guild-related – such as grapes cultivation, whose products are then sold to the winemakers of Guild Corser, or cattle-rising, whose production of leather and horn is then passed to Guild Quickhand – or not; the latter is the case of general agricultural products, such as grain, cereals, olive oil, milk, cheese, flour, vegetables, fruits, meat, and so on. Some of these good are produced for local consumption, while some other are exported – including some plants grown for the luxury trade, such as coffee and tea. Even the selling of goods which are not directly linked to gild manufacturing is managed through proper trading guilds. Contrary to the rural population of the continent, Minrothad’s farmers are not subject to feudal obligations and have a decent lifestyle thanks to the richness of the Guilds’ farming activities; families who possess their own plot of lands are nevertheless few, especially on Trader’s Isle, as landownership is mostly in the hands of old aristocratic families and of guilder families, who acquired lands in the course of the years thanks to the wealth accumulated through trade. Most rural population thus works on fields rented from landowners, or receives a wage to work on the owners’ lands.

About 40% of the population of the archipelago belongs to a guild or another; this means the almost whole urban adult population of the islands, and a little more than half of their adult rural population. There is a guild for almost everything – most control a trade, craft, or service going from the most simple and menial to the most specialized and luxurious. Guild membership ranges from the high-ranking guild officers and masters, to craftsmen, workers, and apprentices who make up the bulk of most guilds. Not all guilds share the same social configuration; guilds which deal with fishing or woodcutting, for example, include a number of lower middle-class members higher than those dealing with, say, spice trade. Also, not all trade guilds are associated to one of the five family guilds; some trades and activities, like innkeeping, butchering, grocery, parchment-making, bookbinding and selling, baking, pharmacy, notary’s activity, moneylending, and some others, are managed by local guilds which don’t operate on the national level – meaning that one could find more than one Bakers’ Guild in the archipelago (typically one or more per island). Family guilds discourage further organization of these lesser guilds on the national level, as they would fall out of their direct control, preferring instead to keep them in check through their political and economical influence; on the other hand each of these lesser local guilds is way too small and weak to initiate a struggle against the family guilds through a process of unification with other similar guilds.

Social class in the Minrothad Guilds is determined by one’s rank within one of the trading and crafting guilds. In fact, the Guilds are a society characterized by a formal hierarchy which assigns a person to one of six castes depending on his or her station within the guild. This system developed in the course of the last centuries, as traditional class distinctions lost their importance with the rise of the guilders, and one’s station within his or her guild was the only thing that mattered; slowly, this system extended to the whole society, not only to the guilds. The six castes range from the first, which includes guild laborers, workers, and apprentices, to the sixth, which includes the guild leaders; common guild members belong to the second caste. A caste identifies one person’s social status, influence (and skill) within its guild, and, often, wealth – but there are exception, as the higher castes are only attainable through a high level of experience and skill in the guild’s trade or craft, thus it’s not uncommon to see a very wealthy guildmember who however never went past the third caste. Castes are not completely rigid, either; hard work and talent can push a person higher in the caste system, even if it’s quite unlikely that a skilled person without ties with important families, political offices, or a certain degree of wealth, could rise beyond the third caste. Minrothaddans not belonging to a guild – farmers, herders, unskilled workers and laborers (including servants and maids) – are considered to belong to the first caste for what regards social matters, even if they are not proper members of any guild. Aristocratic landowners not belonging to a guild (very few, indeed) are considered part of the fourth caste, while commoner landowners are usually considered part of the second caste. Of the whole Minrothaddan population, about 55% belongs to the first caste (including people not belonging to a guild), 35% to the second, 8% to the third, less than 2% to the fourth, and less than 1% to the fifth and sixth.

Table 4 shows the settlement levels of the Guilds, indicating the number of hexes (on GAZ9’s poster 8-miles per hex map) belonging to each level and the number of people (all races) living in it.

Table 4: Settlement Levels in the Guilds of Minrothad

Settlement level	Number of 8-mile hexes (avera-ged)	Square mileage (avera-ged)	% of total mileage (avera-ged)	Popula-tion density range	Average popula-tion density (people/ sq. mile)	Total popula-tion per settle-ment area (avera-ged)	% of total popula-tion (avera-ged)
Very High	4	224	3%	Over 130	155	33,100 (+44,000)*	19%
High	17	952	11%	85-130	104	97,500 (+40,000)*	34%
Average	32	1,792	22%	41-84	65	117,200 (+13,000)*	32%
Low	44	2,464	30%	10-40	21	50,300	12%
Borderlands	34	1,904	24%	1.3-9	5	10,000	3%
Wilderness	14	784	10%	Below 1.3	0.3	200	0%
TOTAL	145	8,120	100%	**	21.72	308,400 (+97,000)*	100%
* Numbers in brackets indicate urban population to be added to the listed figures.
** Population density in the country can range from zero (wilderness uninhabited by intelligent creatures) to some thousand (10-11,000 in major cities) people per square mile.

Sidebar 5 Serendib and Lady Darkrook

A couple of official sources mention the Minrothaddan city of Serendib. The adventure The Djinni’s Ring by V. Garcia, featured in Dungeon Magazine #9, mentions “the port of Serendib, one of the cities of the Minrothad Guilds”. The adventure The Isle of the Storm Giant featured in AC10 Bestiary of Dragons and Giants, gives some additional details: “The port of Serendib has long been a prosperous trading center where exotic goods from around the world are offered for sale and barter. Much of the credit for the city’s bustling commerce lies with the effective guidance of its powerful merchants’ guild, which possesses trading agreements with sovereign and business people from many foreign lands”, also mentioning “the fortress-estate of Lady Darkrook, the powerful guildmistress” who is “the beautiful if somewhat ruthless head of the merchants’ consortium”. But where is Serendib? There are two possible ways to handle the answer.

The first is the simple one. ‘Serendib’ is the Arabic and Persian word with which the merchants coming from the Middle East called the island of Sri Lanka; thus in Minrothad, ‘Serendib’ could simply be the name that the Alphatians gave to Harbortown, or even the name which in Minrothad Patois means Harbortown, that is the name of the town itself as heard by foreign ears. In this case, Lady Darkrook may be a powerful member of Harbortown’s local government, surely a high-ranking member of Guild Corser, and the head of some guild trading luxury goods and associated with Guild Corser (a guild which should be in addition to those indicated in GAZ9).

The second answer is that Serendib is another city to be added to the map of the Minrothad Guilds. As a prosperous trade city, it should have at least 10,000 ihabitants. As Lady Darkrook is not mentioned to belong to another race, likely AC10 assumes that she be human; this would likely make Serendib a human city, and thus the best place to put it would be Trader’s Isle, again, maybe in the coast opposite of Harbortown, between Duns-on-Fell and Newport Keep. Another option would be placing it on Alfeisle’s western coast, where the sea route coming from Minrothad and the one coming from Malfton meet in correspondence of one of the island’s spurs; in the latter case, however, you will need to devise a good reason explaining the presence of a human-led city on Alfeisle (or, alternatively, you could simply consider Lady Darkrook a water elf). If you make Serendib an additional city, you will have more freedom in determining who Lady Darkrook actually is; anyway, it’s likely that she is a member of Guild Corser, given that the city prosper on the trade of luxury goods, or alternatively she could be a high-ranking official of the Import or Export Guilds, associates of the Merchant Sailors Guild.

The addition of a large town or even a city does not represent a problem for the urban:ratio population if you use the figures indicated in this article. Even making Serendib a city of 15,000 people, for example, would simply raise the urban population of the archipelago to 27%, which is still very much acceptable, considering the type of country Minrothad is.

Urban Population

The islands ruled by the Minrothad Guilds have a sizeable portion of urban population (that living in towns and cities with 10,000 people or more), reaching 19.7%. While there are not very big cities in the archipelago, the many large towns and the couple of cities which dot the isles makes the Guilds one of the countries with the highest urban:rural population ratio in the Known World. In fact, if we add to the count of urban population the people who live in small towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants, the archipelago’s urban population rises to 23.9%. Urban population also represent the bulk of the nation’s guild members.

Besides towns and cities, there is a vast number of farming and fishing villages scattered through the countryside, especially on Trader’s, Open, and North islands. Coastal and woodland villages also abound on Alfeisle.

Due to the recent rescission of the Isolation Act by the current Ruling Guildmaster, and to the start of immigration-favoring policies, urban population is quite likely going to raise in Minrothad, enlarging some of its town and cities or upgrading some of its villages to small towns.

Here follows a list of the Guilds’ known settlements, along with their population, if known.

Cities and Large Towns: Alfeisle: Seahome (pop. 20,000), Verdon (pop. 13,000). Fortress Island: Stronghold (pop. 10,000). Trader’s Isle: Harbortown (pop. 12,000), Minrothad (pop. 25,000).

Small Towns: Fire Island: Cove Harbor (pop. 7,000). North Island: Gapton (pop. 5,000). Open Isle: Malfton (pop. 5,000).

Villages: Blackrock Island: Hermian. North Island: Eyemouth. Trader’s Isle: Ainwick, Dunbar Hamlet, Duns-on-Fell, Haycroft.

The Seven Islands

Now we will take a brief tour of the Minrothad archipelago, examining each of the seven islands which make it up, their main features, and their level of settlement. Please refer to Table 4, above, to detect the density range and average density of each settlement level.

ALFEISLE

Surface area: 2,761 square miles (34% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 111,600 (27.5% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 40.4 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 57% water elves, 39% wood elves, 3% humans, 0.8% halflings, 0.1% dwarves, 0.1% lupins.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
High	2	4%	31,600	28%
Average	12.7	26%	59,100	53%
Low	14.6	30%	16,900	15%
Borderlands	13.4	27%	3,900	4%
Wilderness	6.6	13%	100	0%
TOTAL	49.3	100%	111,600	100%

Alfeisle is the ancient homeland of the Verdier wood elf clan, and of the Meditor water elf clan. From this large island, which was kept hidden from the outer world for centuries by elven magics, the elves went to become the leading race of the archipelago. Alfeisle is run through by the Gregus Ridge mountain chain; these mountains and their slopes are heavily forested, and in part even unexplored. The coastline is mostly flat, but in some areas it features beautiful cliffs and reefs. The wood elves are more numerous in the woodlands and farmlands in the south part of the island, where their port of Verdon is found; while the water elves favor the coasts, the ones in the northern half of the island especially, where they built their trading city of Seahome, one of the richest and most beautiful of the whole archipelago.

BLACKROCK ISLAND

Surface area: 218 square miles (2.7% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 1,900 (0.4% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 8.7 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 95% humans, 2% halflings, 2% harpies, 1% water elves.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Average	0.3	8%	1,100	59%
Low	0.5	13%	600	31%
Borderlands	0.5	13%	150	8%
Wilderness	2.6	66%	50	2%
TOTAL	3.9	100%	1,900	100%

Blackrock is a small and poor island in the southern part of the archipelago, inhabited only by some hundred fishermen who live in small village along the eastern coast. The scarcity of resources, and the presence of an active and angry volcano, Halfpeak (or Old Nenthead, as it is known to the elves), discourage further settlement. Blackrock is also notable for the presence of a small community of mystics, Larril Hermitage, founded by a former Minrothaddan port agent in Alphatia who took interest in that culture’s mystical traditions.

FIRE ISLAND

Surface area: 207 square miles (2.6% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 12,300 (3% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 59.4 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 64% humans, 24.5% water elves, 5% halflings, 4% dwarves, 1% lupins, 1% wood elves, 0.5% harpies.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Very high	0.6	16%	12,250	100%
Wilderness	3.1	84%	50	0%
TOTAL	3.7	100%	12,300	100%

Fire Island is a dangerous place because of the presence of the volcano of Mount Thymas (the elves call it the Great Fire Mouth), and nicknamed “Redtop” by sailors, both Minrothaddan and foreign, who have learned its vicious habit to periodically spew forth ashes and dust up to miles in the sea surrounding the island. It’s no surprise, thus, that Fire Island is avoided by anyone and declared off-limits to settlement by the Guilds’ government. What is not known to the general public is that the island is inhabited, indeed: it’s the secret seat of the Privateers Guild, which has its own base in the hidden town of Cove Harbor, some miles inland up the Reedy River.

FORTRESS ISLAND

Surface area: 515 square miles (6.3% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 24,000 (5.9% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 47.6 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 90% dwarves, 6.6% humans, 3% water elves, 0.2% harpies, 0.2% lupins.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
High	1	11%	15,800	66%
Average	1.9	20%	6,900	29%
Borderlands	4.3	47%	1,250	5%
Wilderness	2	22%	50	0%
TOTAL	9.2	100%	24,000	100%

This barren island is dominated by Mount Redtongue, an active volcano from which a constant flood of lava flows down into the sea, generating clouds of smoke and dense fog around the place. The island is almost devoid of vegetation, and was nearly unsettled until about two centuries ago, when dwarven immigrants were offered to settle there by the Guilds’ government, and accepted. Apart some small fishing villages scattered on the coasts, the heart of Fortress Island is Stronghold, the town of the Minrothad dwarves, located at the end of a narrow fjord and clinging to the mountain slopes.

NORTH ISLAND

Surface area: 532 square miles (6.6% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 20,000 (5% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 37.6 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 64% humans, 15% water elves, 10% halflings, 5% wood elves, 4.8% dwarves,1% lupins, 0.2% harpies.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
High	0.6	6%	8,500	43%
Average	1.4	15%	5,100	25%
Low	4.9	52%	5,700	28%
Borderlands	2.6	27%	700	4%
TOTAL	9.5	100%	20,000	100%

North Island is a small but pleasant place which lacks the typical volcano featured in almost all the island of the Ierendi and Minrothad archipelagos. The shallow waters surrounding it made it scarcely interesting for establishing trade stations and ports. Nevertheless, some settlement by people interested in agriculture, mining, and fishing did take place. In the last century, the Guilds’ government decided to use North Island as a refuge should volcanic activity or other calamity threaten the Minrothad islands as it happened in the past. Thus, the nice but heavily fortified and supplied town of Gapton was built in a dale in the middle of the island’s mountain chain. Today, Gapton is inhabited by a large community of scholars and clerics, while the island is used mostly as a resupplying stop for ships traveling between the continent and Minrothad.

OPEN ISLE

Surface area: 661 square miles (8.1% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 33,100 (8.2% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 60.1 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 89% halflings, 4.8% humans, 3% water elves, 2% dwarves, 1% wood elves, 0.1% harpies, 0.1% lupins.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
High	1.4	12%	13,100	40%
Average	3.2	27%	11,600	35%
Low	7.2	61%	8,400	25%
TOTAL	11.8	100%	33,100	100%

Since more than five centuries, Open Isle is the home of the archipelago’s halflings. The island had been previously settled by humans, but the halfling freedom hero Malf Quickhand led the rebellious halfling slaves here in AC 450, and the humans of that time, hardly hit by the lycanthropy plague, had to recognize the halfling possession of Open Isle. Since then, the halfling population of the island has grown, and the few humans who continued to dwell here became a small minority. Open Isle is so called because few trees grow here; the island’s soil is thin and rocky, and requires a great deal of work to farm. Nevertheless, the halflings managed to transform the island in a land of flat green fields, pasturelands, and orchards. The main port of the island is the town of Malfton.

TRADER’S ISLE

Surface area: 3,226 square miles (39.7% of total nation’s surface area).

Total population: 202,500 (50% of total nation’s population).

Population density: 69.8 people/square mile.

Population breakdown: 65.1% humans, 21% water elves, 5% halflings, 4% wood elves, 3% dwarves, 1.9% lupins.

Settlement Level	# of 8-miles hexes	% of island mileage	Total island population (averaged)	% of island population (averaged)
Very high	3.2	6%	64,800	32%
High	11.8	20%	68,500	34%
Average	12.8	22%	46,400	23%
Low	16.2	28%	18,800	9%
Borderlands	13.6	24%	4,000	2%
TOTAL	57.6	100%	202,500	100%

Trader’s Isle is the largest and most populous island of the Minrothad chain, and the heart of the country’s government, politics, economy, and history. It was here where Minroth led his people thousands of years ago, it was here where Alphatians and Minrothians clashed over slave trade, it was here where the lycanthropic plague took its toll, it was here where Hadric Corser decided to found the city of Minrothad over the ruins of New Alphatia – the city which became the capital of the Guilds. The island’s population is predominantly human, through all other races of the archipelago are represented as well. The other town of the island is Harbortown, a very old settlement which today is still the center of Guild Corser’s activities. Trader’s Isle is cut in half by the Diamond Spurs, a mountain chain which also includes two inactive volcanoes; the island’s interior is forested, but as one moves toward the coasts the woods disappear – cut through the course of centuries to fuel the island’s shipbuilding and construction activities – leaving room for farming fields, pasturelands, and hundreds of small rural villages.

Main Races

The following entries list in order of their number – from the most numerous to the least numerous – the main races who dwell within Minrothad’s borders. Each entry gives a brief description of that race’s composition (ethnic subgroups, and the like), its diffusion in the archipelago, relationships with other races, and some additional information. Note that only races who number at least 100 members within Minrothaddan territory are described here. Other, less-represented races – alongside unintelligent creatures – are found in the following chapter, “Fauna and Minor Races”.

Elves (pop. 166,900)

The elves are the most numerous race of the Minrothad archipelago, whose elven community – alongside the Kingdom of Alfheim – represents one of the largest concentrations of elf population in the Known World. The elves of Minrothad, however, are not a closely united group, but are divided into two major cultural groupings which descend from the original elven clans who settled Alfeisle thousands of years ago.

The largest grouping is that of the water elves (representing 68% of the archipelago’s total elven population), descendants of the ancient Meditor clan, whose scions are still one of the most powerful families in the Guilds. An unique subrace of elves – a little taller than wood elves but fair-haired and pale-complexioned – the water elves are a jolly and curious lot, devoted to exploration and trade enterprises. Their name comes from their affinity for the sea and for all activities connected with it, including seamanship, navigation, shipbuilding, fishing, and crafting of sea products and resources. Water elves possess an uncanny sense of direction which makes them some of the most skilled seamen in the world. Contrary to most other elven cultures, the water elves live in coastal settlements (cities and villages), not in the woods. Today, water elves occupy important positions in the government of the Guilds, both through the Elsan family guids and the Ruling Guildmaster office; many of them belong to the Merchant Princes associated guild, and thus to the fifth caste of Minrothaddan society. They represent the true propulsive force behind many of the Guilds’ successes – including technical, scientific, and magical discoveries. Most of the water elf population (57%) lives in Alfeisle, where the beautiful and ancient city of Seahome is located, but many others (37%) live in Trader’s Isle, mostly in the capital city and in other coastal towns and settlements; the remaining few (7%) are scattered among the other islands.

The second, less numerous grouping is that of the wood elves (representing 32% of Minrothad’s total elven population). They descend from the old Verdier clan which, millennia ago, chose to abandon the newly-formed coasts of the continent to reach the water elves on Alfeisle. The Minrothad wood elves belong to the same stock of the mainland’s wood elf clans, like the Callarii or most of the clans of Alfheim. Even if their culture has adapted to life on an island, to Minrothaddan ethic of work as one’s duty in life, and to the trade- and manufacture-oriented society of the Guilds, they still love the woodlands and their affinity and skill for woodworking is legendary. The wood elves control the Guilds’ wood industries through their Verdier family guild. Most of the wood elves (82%) live in Alfeisle’s woodlands, where their trading center of Verdon is found, but a minority (15%) is found on Trader’s Isle, both in the capital and in that island’s forested lands; only a very few (3%) are found on other islands.

Humans (pop. 160,800)

Humans are the second most numerous race of the archipelago. After the Taymoran age, they were the first to settle the Colony Islands, and they did continue to be the most influential race of the archipelago until quarrels among them and the spread of lycanthropy in the 3^rd-5^th centuries AC toppled their power, allowing for the rise of elven power in the archipelago.

Today, the archipelago’s native humans consider themselves Minrothaddan, and make up for the vast majority of the human population (92%); however, this people and its culture originated from the union between two very different people. The first group if that of the dusk-skinned Nithian colonists who settled the Colony Islands around BC 1100, absorbing and conquering the scattered surviving descendants of the Taymora and the handful of Traldar colonies; after the demise of the Nithian Empire in BC 500, the Nithian colonists started to call themselves Minrothians, from the name of the legendary leader (Minroth) of the first colonization expedition. Around AC 250, a second group came to the Colony Islands; they were copper-skinned Common Alphatians, who founded the city of New Alphatia on Trader’s Isle. The relationship between the two ethnicities alternated between times of alliance and war, until the spread of lycanthropy in the 5^th century AC and the subsequent Silver Purge unleashed by the elves did lead to a decisive population loss for both human groups. After that, Minrothians and Alphatians – who had been the most hardly hit by the Purge, having suffered the destruction of their main settlement of New Alphatia – started to intermarry, leading to the formation of the Minrothaddan culture, whose name comes from the city of Minrothad, founded by Hadric Corser in AC 488. The original, bronze or dark complexion of the Minrothaddans was diluted during the course of the following centuries, due to intermarriage of the Minrothaddan merchants with partners from the continent, or even with families of water elves – which, if it didn’t produce half-elves, concurred to lighten the skin tone of the natives. Steady immigration of fair-skinned humans from the continent – mostly from the Thyatisn Empire and Darokin - until the Isolation Act was passed in AC 890, was also a factor. Indeed, the current main tongue spoken in the archipelago, the Minrothad Patois, developed from the base of the original Minrothian tongue, with heavy influences from Alphatian and elvish tongues, and many words imported from other human languages of the continent.

Besides the Minrothaddan majority, a minority (8%) of the human population is made up by immigrants from the Known World, who came in the archipelago after the rescission of the Isolation Act passed by Oran Meditor in AC 991, which again allowed foreign immigrants to settle in the Guilds’ territory. This brought a number of people coming from Thyatis (60%), Ierendi (10%), Karameikos (10%), and elsewhere (20% – mostly from Ylaruam, Darokin, Glantri, Northern Reaches, Isle of Dawn, Ochalea, the Pearl Islands, and the Alatian Islands) to establish their home in the archipelago.

Halflings (pop. 43,100)

The halflings are a sizeable minority on the archipelago, whose presence there can be traced back to the 3^rd century AC, when the Minrothians started to bring on Trader’s Isle halfling slaves captured in the Five Shires. It took the halflings a bloody rebellion against the Minrothians weakened by the lycanthropic plague to conquer freedom in AC 450. Under the rebel leader Malf Quickhand, the halfling managed to obtain possession of Open Isle from the humans, and since then that island has been their main hold in the archipelago. Only after the reforms of Gregus Verdier at the end of the 7^th century AC the halflings were included as full partners of the newly-born Minrothad Guilds in AC 691. From that time, despite being less numerous, they have struggled to avoid being dominated by the elves’ and humans’ influence, managing to keep control over a vast series of largely-needed basic crafts, and also over agricultural and farming production. Today, most of the halflings (69%) live on Open Isle, but many have settled also in Trader’s Isle (23%), while only a minority of them (8%) is found in the other islands.

Dwarves (pop. 29,900)

Dwarves form a quite large community in the archipelago, even if the presence of such an earth- and underground-loving people may appear very unusual to the outside eye. The dwarven immigration in the Guilds took place after the tragic events of AC 828 which led to the expulsion of the dwarf immigrants (who had come from Rockhome) from the Highlands (nowadays Glantri), in the far north. Seeing the opportunity to put the dwarves’ talents to the nation’s advantage, the Guilds’ government offered to the dwarves a place to settle in the archipelago, that is the rocky and barren Fortress Island, which had been until then almost devoid of any settlement. Many clans of dwarves accepted and established the town of Stronghold on the island, making it a center for metal- and stone-crafting activities. Today, the dwarves control metalworking, stoneworking, engineering, and mining trades, and form a tight group which tends to keep to itself and to avoid too much meddling into the affair of other races. The majority of the dwarves (72%) indeed lives on Fortress Island, with a sizeable minority (20%) found on Trader’s Isle, mostly in the capital; only a few other dwarves (8%) are found on other islands.

Lupins (pop. 4,400)

A number of lupins lives in the archipelago; they are mostly found in the cities of Trader’s Isle (88%), where they are employed in the most varied works, but only a few of them live in other islands (12%). Lupins are especially appreciated in Minrothad for their great animosity toward lycanthropes and their skill in scenting their presence; many lupins are indeed employed as law enforcers, guards, and investigators devoted to root out lycanthropes and prevent the danger of other spread of that plague. Most represented lupin breeds in the archipelago are: the Mongrels (23%); the Bouchons (15%), many of whom work with Guild Corser’s winemaking associate guild; the King Mastiffs (14%) found serving the government or individual guilds; the Great Bloodhounds (11%) who are members of the Blue Eels; and the roving and enterprising Blue Bandits (10%). Less represented are the breeds of the Shag-Heads (7%), Eusdrian Bulldogs (6%), Neo-Papillons (5%), Great Beagles (5%), and Wolvenfolks (4%).

Harpies (pop. 300)

Lonely nests of these aggressive creatures are scattered in the most remote places of the archipelago – isolated crags, uninhabited cliffs, barren rocky islets, volcanic formations, and the like. They represent a serious danger for small ships and sea travelers passing near them.

Sidebar 6 The Aquarendi

There is a third subrace of elves who lives in the region dominated by the Minrothad Guilds – in the underwater region, indeed. They are the Aquarendi, or aquatic elves as they are often called by other races. These elves belong to an ancient breed who adapted to life underwater in the age of the ancient civilization of Evergrun. Later, they migrated north after the Great Rain of Fire, living near the emerged regions of the Known World inhabited by their land cousins. After the volcanic upheavals of 18^th century BC they ultimately found a suitable shelter in the sea around the various islands of the northern Sea of Dread. They helped the Verdier wood elves to migrate from the mainland to Alfeisle, to join the Meditor water elves stranded there. After these events, they have dwelled in the Sunlit Sea alongside other underwater races. The main concentration of Aquarendi is found around Alfeisle, between the numerous reefs and hidden lagoons which dot the island’s surroundings. Alfeisle’s elves have friendly relationships with the aquatic elves, and vice versa - but the latter prefer to be left in peace by the land-dwelling races, so their presence in the waters around Alfeisle is a well-guarded secret of the Minrothad elves and almost unknown to the humans, dwarves, and halflings of the archipelago.

Fauna and Minor Races

The following paragraphs describe which creatures can be found in the islands of Minrothad, including intelligent races whose number don’t exceed a hundred individuals in the region. Creatures are grouped according to their monster type (for a definition of monster types, see the Rules Cyclopedia or DMR2 Creature Catalogue).

Animals, Giant

Giant animals dangerous for civilized folks have been all hunted down to extinction in most of the islands’ settled areas. Nevertheless, wilder regions, especially in wooded and forested terrain, still hosts various species of giant lizards, among which are the giant gecko, the giant draco, and the giant horned chameleon; the giant tuatara, instead, prefers barren territory like the one found on Blackrock, Fire, and Fortress islands. Regarding giant sealife, on shores and shallow sea regions giant crabs are also sometimes found, as are giant octopi in submerged coral formations, reefs, and sea areas rich with prey.

Animals, Normal

The archipelago is the home of a variety of domesticated animals, from animal herds of cattle and oxen, to cows, domestic sheeps, pigs, donkeys, and normal dogs. Horses are also raised for various purposes, as are ponies in Open Isle, but both are usually imported from the mainland. Mammal wildlife includes small animals like normal bats, normal rats, monkeys in the forested hills, as well as wild goats and a species of diminutive wild pigs known locally as peccary.

Birds abound in all islands except Fortress Island, devoid of treelife; coastal areas are flocked by sandpipers, gulls, and terns, while warblers, toucans, herons, and egrets are found in the interior, mostly in the forests and near freshwater bodies. A local type of grouse, the ulit, is a popular food bird. The only predatory birds found in the archipelago are normal hawks.

Snakes are quite rare in the islands, but the archipelago still hosts some dangerous type of these reptiles, that is the giant racer, the poisonous pit viper, and the sea snake which is found in the Sea of Dread.

Also, the waters around the islands are the home of dolphins, normal manta rays, and sharks (mostly the bull and mako types, with the great white rarely sighted).

Humanoids

Besides the ones listed in the Main Races section, the archipelago does not see many other humanoid races, being thankfully free of orcs, goblins, and their lot. Traveling earth gnomes, mostly coming from the Kingdom of Highforge, in Karameikos, sometimes visit the Guilds. Also, Alfeisle occasionally sees the presence of some members of the Good Folk, mostly sidhe, sprites and pixies, even if they don’t like too much the lifestyle that the local wood elves have adopted.

On the other hand, the Sunlit Sea is the home of a vast array of underwater humanoid races, like the aquatic elves who live around Alfeisle, the nomadic mermen (or merrows, as they call themselves), the tritons with their Kingdom of Undersea, the shark-kins, and the alluring nixies. Knas, because of their past quarrel with the Guilds, almost never show up in this part of the Sea of Dread.

Humanoids, Giant

The only giant humanoids found in the Minrothad region are the sea giants of the Sunlit Sea.

Lowlife

Insects, especially spiders, abound in the islands; normal scorpions may be found everywhere, while insect swarm sometimes may represent a danger for rural farming villages. Dangerous or giant varieties are thankfully almost unknown. There are some exceptions, however, like the giant crab spider and the huge wood spider, both of which are found in the densest woodlands. Also particularly dangerous, if rare, is the salt-water variant of the water termite. Underwater, the giant sea worm known as the masher is quite common. In volcanic areas, mostly underground, steam weevils are instead known to dwell.

Monsters

Few monsters haunt the Minrothad islands. The last vicious species of dinosaurs (small land carnivore variety) may still be found in wilderness or borderlands areas, but these have become very rare and doomed to extinction. Lava lizards may sometimes be found in volcanic or heated underground caves, while the dangerous sea serpent (both the lesser and the greater types) occasionally are reported to attack ships and people at sea. Underwater, especially in the triton kingdom, the beautiful sea horse is a common sight. Small uninhabited islets and lonely crags or mountain peaks are from time to time chosen as nests by the majestic roc – the small and large varieties are uncommon, while the giant one is very rare.

Isolated sea reefs, especially in shallow sea waters, are known to host the vicious creatures called sirens by seamen; they attract seamen and their ships on hidden reefs and shallow waters, causing shipwrecks and devouring the victims. (See the “Siren” sidebar to learn more about these creatures.)

Siren

Armor Class: 4

Hit Dice: 6***

Move: 60’ (20’)

Swimming: 360’ (120’)

Attacks: 2 claws + 1 bite or constriction

Damage: 1d4 / 1d4 + 1d6 or 2d4

No. Appearing: 0 (1d6)

Save As: MU12

Morale: 7

Treasure Type: (V) C

Intelligence: 14

Alignment: Chaotic

XP Value: 950

Monster Type: Monster (Rare).

Sirens are dangerous and treacherous creatures of the sea, who use their song and appearance to lure seamen and ships to their death and devour them. Sirens have the appearance of dire mermaids, with the lower body of a giant fish (which may be shark-like, scaly, or eel-like) and the upper body of a beautiful female of human-like race, albeit with razor claws and oversized sharp teeth. Their fish-like lower half can be of any color combination, while the skin of their human-like upper half is usually a light and sickly shadow of white, yellow, azure or green. However, sirens can polymorph once per day to appear as very beautiful females of human, elven (even aquatic elven), merrow, or triton race, with voluptuous figures and wearing scanty clothing at best. They can also become invisible once per day. Both spell-like powers have an unlimited duration, but end as soon as the siren attacks or wishes so; using the siren’s charming song does not end these effects.

A siren may breath both air and underwater. In her true form she can move on land – slithering and aiding herself with her arms – but there her movements are impaired (consider her to have AC 7), unless she has taken humanoid form. In the waters, a siren in her true form can be deadly swift.

Sirens attract unwary seamen and travelers using their alluring voices and song, which can be heard up to 300 feet of distance. Any humanoid (male or female) hearing them must make a saving throw vs. spells at -2 penalty or be charmed; usually a siren lures her charmed victims into reach her as soon as possible, despite obvious dangers and perils. When the victim is near, the siren shows her true appearance and attacks, using her sharp claws. If both claws hit the same victim, the siren may choose to bite her or constrict her with her long fishlike tail. Besides doing damage, the siren’s bite is also poisonous; a bitten victim must make a saving throw vs. poison or be paralyzed and unable to move for 2d6 turns – which usually makes her drown if she is in a watery environment. Otherwise, the siren can constrict her victim, doing 2d4 points of damage per round, starting from the round following the double claw hit; a constricted victim has 50% each of having her two arms pinned. The sirine can automatically hit a victim with both arms pinned with both claws or with the bite. The siren’s song (and other spell-like effects) can be dispelled as if cast by a 12^th-level magic-user.

Sirens are carnivore, and even if they can eat fishes and mollusks, their favorite food is the fresh meat of humanoids. Their favourite tactic is to lure ships into areas of dangerous hidden reefs and shallow waters with their song, causing them to shipwreck or run aground; then, attack lonely seamen while they are still in the water.

Sirens usually live alone or in small packs of 2-8 individuals. They make their lair in hidden underwater or semi-submerged caves on isolated atolls, reefs, or rugged coastlines. Their caves are laden with the bones of their victims, and with the treasure they had with them when they died. They reproduce only by mating with males of any land or sea humanoid race; thus they sometimes take charmed victims into their lairs and mate with them for a time, before eating the victim.

Sirens have a lifespan of up to 300 years. The oldest of them have accumulated quite a lot of knowledge about the sea region they inhabit, and can be a valuable source of information if one can persuade them to talk. Sirines usually can speak two or three human and humanoid languages of the area they live in. They can become wokani or shamans of up to 8^th level; they usually master spells which deal with water, illusion, charm, and weather, or serve air or water elemental powers, or wild and ruthless ocean Immortals.

Terrain: Ocean.

Lastly, despite its past history and the government being always on the look for cases of infection, lycanthropes are known to dwell in the islands – mostly on Trader’s Isle. The last dangerous plague of lycanthropy happened in AC 980; despite many of these creatures had been hunted down in the intervening years, many suspect that more of them could have escaped in the wilderness or be hidden in the midst of the busy trade cities. Types of lycanthropes most likely to be encountered in the islands are wererats, werewolves, werebats, weresharks, and devil swines.

Planar Monsters

The only planar monsters found in the archipelago are those fire creatures which sometimes are attracted to the islands’ volcanoes from their elemental plane. In such environs, fire elementals, efreets, and flame salamanders may be encountered.

Undead

Undead creatures are very rare in the islands, as the Tutorial Guild does not usually allow the casting of spells to animate even mindless undead like skeletons and zombies. Nevertheless, very rarely undead like wights and wraiths raise spontaneously as the result of unavenged wrongs or dramatic and untimely deaths. Still more rare and dangerous are vampires and their aquatic cousins, the velyas.

References

This section to be used by layout

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