Wilderlands Region
by James MishlerHere are some brief details on the Wilderlands regions:
Ament Tundra: A land unnaturally cold, home to woolly versions of tropical creatures and savage barbarians.
Burning Sands: A region infested with efreet, salamanders, red dragons, and other fire-loving creatures, and replete with gates to the Elemental Plane of Fire and various fire and chaotic/evil-oriented outer planes.
CSIO: The Roglaras, the region dominated by the Invincible Overlord.
Demi Giant Kingdoms: Ruled by peoples descended from mixed human and half-giant ancestry. They have a city-state culture like ancient Greeks.
Demi-Giant Colonies: Free steadings of demi-giants exiled from the Demi Giant Kingdoms.
Demon Empire: Ruled by alien demon-like beings, not by creatures from the Outer Planes. Every Great King rules a city-state, and vies with the other Demon Kings for the title of Demon Emperor. Humans and other races are all slaves.
Demonkin Amazons: A barbaric matriarchal peoples descended from Amazons and the alien demons to the east.
Ebon Coast: A wild but mostly peaceful land of small holdings, once dominated by the elves of Revelshire. Their peace may soon be threatened by the barbarian Karzulun or by grasping Karakhan princes.
Elphand: These wild lands are dominated by the vast Irminsul Forest, a region of giant trees and creatures, mixed in with elves and faeries. Cavemen are found in the mountains and hills, and civilised villages are few and far between.
Five Winds: A mysterious sea, the legendary Isle of Tirnanog is said to lie somewhere within its waters.
Ghinor: A savage land of Tanagoro tribes and strange lion and tiger men.
Glow Worm Steppes: These verdant green lands are the scene of battles between nomadic Karakhans and Cavemen, while the eastern environs are vast desert wastes of sand and rock.
Great Horned Empire: A organised yet still evil empire of the alien demon-kin. Martial and mercantile, these demonic city-states are administered by a bureaucracy, while the magist demon-lords vie for power in a civilised fashion, through assassination and set-piece battles with slave armies.
Isles of the Blest: Once the heartland of the Orichalan Dragon Empire, today the Isle of the Blest is home to the City State of the Sea Kings, Rallu, and the heart of their mercantile empire. However, most of the isle is not ruled by Rallu, and is divided between warring factions, each claiming descent, and primacy, from the long-lost empire.
Kingdom of Karak: The most ancient empire the world has ever known, the empire has existed in one form or another for nearly 20,000 years. The Karakhan peoples are divided into many different ethnic and cultural groups, in three broad types. The ruling nobility are all sorcerous, and magical power equals temporal power. The common folk are all highly religious, and revere the ancient Hindu gods and their nobility as living gods. The nomads are savage barbarians, like Mongols, and either wander the continent wherever their herds take them or serve the noble lords as stormtroopers.
Land of Beasts: This is a lost world land, with megafauna and dinosaurs, peopled by savage humans and cavemen.
Lenap: The City State of the Golden Caliph is a centre for strange religions, pirates, and slavers. Once a centre of a great lawful and good Mycretian civilisation, today it is a home of evil and debauchery.
Lesser Horned Empire: Millennia ago the Lesser Horned Empire broke away from the Greater Horned Empire in a civil war. Other than having a distinct and separate bureaucracy, and a slightly different pantheon, it is identical to its larger and older sibling.
Rarzu (Actually, it is Karzul; it was just hard to read on the map with my poor drawing system, I imagine): This is the homeland of the Karzulun, a savage and barbaric tribe related to the Karakhans and Gishmesh.
Silver Skein Isles: Peopled by savage Skandiks and other seafaring peoples.
Southern Reaches: The Southern Reaches was once home to the Ghinorian Empire (yet another analogue of Egypt). It is still the heartland of the Ghinorian people and culture, though all the petty Pharaohs and kingdoms along the River Quicksake are merely a generation or two from being barbarian kings.
Tarantis: City of the Taran King, Tarantis is the most vibrant kingdom along the Wine Dark Sea. Its merchants vie with Rallu for primacy, and its pirates do battle with those of Lenap and the Silver Skein Isles for the honour of ruling the waves.
Tarsh: Once an outpost of the ancient Empire of Great Torsh, which commanded many gates to other worlds, today Tarsh is a land of barbaric splendour and many ruins, patrolled by the Tennifell Rangers and their druidic allies.
The Great Glacier: An unnatural formation, this is the home of the Winter King and his frost giant and white dragon court. The Cold Folk of this land and their Priestess-Queens revere the Winter King as a god, and they seem to be right.
The Isles of Dawn: One ruled by Titans and visited by the gods, today the peoples of the Isles of the Dawn long for the return of their days of glory and greatness.
Valon: The Avalonians of Valon rule their city of splendour on the sea, revel in magic and its many applications, and send out paladins on missions of honour and glory in the name of law and good.
Viridistan: The centre of the Falling Empire, the City State of the World Emperor is the oldest and most corrupt empire extant in the Wilderlands proper. Today the World Emperor and his satraps fester in hatred at their greatly reduced circumstances, scheming endlessly of rebuilding their empire using the mighty demon-calling magics of their forefathers.