This originally started when I was watching Human Weapon, and be fascinated in seeing these guys going to various countries to study various martial arts. It got me thinking about my Mystara campaign, and where a lot of these martial art styles would be in a geographic sense. So I started looking at my Dawn of the Emperors books and found that Ochalea and the Pearl Islands is too small in area for the various Asian peoples... off the top of my head I came up with these.
Chinese: mainly populate the Ochalean "mainland"
Japanese: mainly populate the Pearl Islands
Polynesian: mainly populate the coastal areas of Ochalea and the majority of the Pearl Islands.
That leaves the Korean, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Laosian, Cambodian, Filipino, and a bunch of other peoples and cultures out in the cold, so to speak. After giving the matter a lot of thought, I came with only one resolution: Make the region larger.
I need to read a little more into it, using Kara-Tur as a baseline of sorts.. There are going to have be more islands, large and small, in order to incorporate these cultures.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions in this vein, I would love to hear about them.
Of course, your campaign may vary.
Given how areas on Mystara (notably the Known World) incorporate such a diverse array of cultures into a relatively small geographic area, I personally am of the mindset that there is absolutely no reason that Ochalea couldn't do something similar. It isn't quite as large as the combined Known World, but it is certainly large enough that you could fit many different Asian cultures and/or cultural time periods (such as the Texeiras/Vilaverde - Portugal of different eras concept) into Ochalea.
My problem is that Ochalea simply is too small to pull it off. I will have to edit the area to the east of it to make it work. A few large islands and multiple small ones would do it. I just wish I had the map-making skill of Thorfinn Tait.
Rhialto, I edited the Pearl Islands to have a balance between Japanese and Polynesian cultures.
The nomadic goblinoids of the plains north of the Savage Coast seemed to have had an asiatic nomad (Mongolian/Central Asian) feel.
My problem is that Ochalea simply is too small to pull it off. I will have to edit the area to the east of it to make it work.
How too small? I mean, the Known World manages to fit in tons of cultures in a relatively small geographic area (Glantri alone!), so why not Ochalea?
Hope I don't sound negative, I'm just genuinely curious as to what you mean when you say it is too small for what you have in mind.
That leaves the Korean, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Laosian, Cambodian, Filipino, and a bunch of other peoples and cultures out in the cold, so to speak.
A couple of these seem to be covered by some of the Materan cultures already:
Cambodia -> Kompor-Thap
Japan -> Myoshima
Singapore -> Selimpore
Malaysia -> Malacayog
Indonesia -> Surabayang (though not nearly the size of Indonesia, obviously)
How too small? I mean, the Known World manages to fit in tons of cultures in a relatively small geographic area (Glantri alone!), so why not Ochalea?
Hope I don't sound negative, I'm just genuinely curious as to what you mean when you say it is too small for what you have in mind.
Ochalea is definitely too small if one wants to fit all SE Asia in there, that's for sure. It is adequate for China alone, assuming one doesn't need to go into great detail.
A couple of these seem to be covered by some of the Materan cultures already:
Cambodia -> Kompor-Thap
Japan -> Myoshima
Singapore -> Selimpore
Malaysia -> Malacayog
Indonesia -> Surabayang (though not nearly the size of Indonesia, obviously)
Indeed, Patera/Myoshima is the best location for M-Asian nations. The six known nations cover well most SE Asia, as well as India (Rajahstan).
Moreover, we have more M-Indonesians in Tangor (Sherkasta tribes), as well as M-Tibetans (Tagh Sherkasta).
Ethengar and the Yellow Orcs cover Mongolia and possibly Manchuria.
Polynesians include both the Pearl Islands and the Makai natives of Ierendi, as well as the Kara-Kara orcs.
That's for the "canon" cultures.
In my work on Ochalea (http://www.pandius.com/Ochalea-rev.pdf), I've used three different cultures (and languages) -- in addition to Han/Mandarin for the Ochaleans, Cantonese has been used for the Ogre Magi and Korean for the Pardasta.
Patera, the invisible moon, as a lot of free space for Asian cultures -- the six major nations, Rajahstan, Myoshima, Selimpore, Surabayang, Malacayog and Kompor-Thap, already make up an excellent SE Asia group, and it is known that there are several smaller nations.
There is one major drawback (well, not necessarily a drawback, but not everyone likes "furry fantasy"): Rakasta are the dominant species on Patera -- all six nation hereabove are inhabited by Rakasta of various breeds, plus some Pachydermions and other, less numerous, zoomorphic races.
I just wish I had the map-making skill of Thorfinn Tait.
Rendclaw, while reaching Thorf's level is indeed difficult, crafting passable hex maps is quite easy, even if you lack, as I do, any artistic talent.
This thread gives some hints on the appropriate tools to use:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=904949
That leaves the Korean, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Laosian, Cambodian, Filipino, and a bunch of other peoples and cultures out in the cold, so to speak. After giving the matter a lot of thought, I came with only one resolution: Make the region larger.
I wouldnt mind seeing more Asian inspired cultures on Mystara itself as well. IMO Skothar would be the best place for that. The old Mystara Orient project (MOrient) came up with this map:
Not sure I'd agree to all of the features of this map, but it is a nice starting point (which is what IIRC it was meant to be).
Havard
I wonder how that would be placed on the worldmap, though. Its has to be close enough to Thyatis.. maybe several hundred miles further east of where Ochalea and the Pearl Islands are.. and Ierendi is such a mess in some ways, I haven't even touched it in my campaign, even though I use all of the Gazeteers as a common point of reference should the PCs get a hankering to go in the direction.
Thats a good start, but its a touch too busy. I would enlarge a few regions and remove a few others.
I wonder how that would be placed on the worldmap, though. Its has to be close enough to Thyatis.. maybe several hundred miles further east of where Ochalea and the Pearl Islands are.. and Ierendi is such a mess in some ways, I haven't even touched it in my campaign, even though I use all of the Gazeteers as a common point of reference should the PCs get a hankering to go in the direction.
The map is actually the eastern continent of Skothar as shown in this map:
http://pandius.com/master-outer-world.png
I agree that some changes need to be made though. Specifically I would suggest the following changes from the MOrient map:
MChina and MManchuria: Ochalea already covers these cultures.
MJapan: Myoshima even though its on the moon should provide enough Samurai, Ninjas and the like.
MTibet: The region on the map is huge! Besides, we already have Tibetan style folks in Glantri so I think it should be removed, although mountainous monks are fun anywhere.
MIndochina: Indochina refers to modern day Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. It seems like a good candidate for making that region a little bigger, perhaps expanding into the region marked as MChina.
Another thing to consider about Skothar is that this is the home of the dark skinned humans of Mystara (Tanagoro). The area marked off as Empire of Tangor in the Master Set map and as MManchuria on the MOrient Project should be reserved for African-inspired cultures (MEthiopia is already marked off).
Tangor people should also have made it across to North-western Davania. Probably the whole western part of Davania (Izonda, Pelatan etc) is inhabited by dark skinned humans.
Havard