Conceptually this is a Brancalonia re-skin (using E6) with lots of animal-lings mixed in, using the southern hemisphere of my home-campaigns world.
In execution this is going to be something like a West Marches campaign in that I want a pool of drop-in, drop-out players with it being relatively resilient to missing players. It will be online as one of the big hooks was to cater to a distant DM-less group of players who reached out to me.
I've skimmed over the implications of geography for this world before and now we go deep into the western edge of the primary trading ocean. Historically this was all once the domain of sea-faring elves, who came, conquered, and raised up the animals to become animal-lings long ago. The elves have since left and our play space is the decaying remains of that empire and the cities within it.
The sketched in workflow I have is:
Work out the cities of the south and ports in communication - cities with the port tag in any of the neighbouring kingdoms plus any large river ports I can spot
See who the likely active factions are in a similar way, then decide their attitudes and major players
Salt in some rumoured dungeons and treasures (likely to be abandoned elf-holds or ruined towns)
Try the 'Downtime in Zyan' generator to layer in some individual-level detail.
Come up with a rumour or two per city based on what it is known for
So - since all the cities are going to be important, what cities are there? I am using a map generated with Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator; it has lots of great layers that just toss out entertaining hooks paging through them. I mashed 'random' when I created this so I have ended up with some decidedly odd names - our play space is the "Principality of Hlaughei" - the green nation in the centre of our top left map.
As a start, the nation-state borders do not align with the cultures, nor really with the religions. Lots to work with here - and one can also dump out a file with all the generated cities on the world map
Starting off, we want to know what the cities in the realm are like, in broad strokes, so we know what they might be famed (or infamous) for. Pulling the list and checking where they lie on the map we get the following first ideas, based purely on where they are.
Cities of the Principality of Hlaughei, in order of size.
Lewerinenalu – teeming riverport; in the middle of wetlands
Hluthodore - hinterland; highlands, must be something valuable there.
Lamnerinlumy – queen of the interior, on the only road south
Sinenyame – great river citadel, capital - interesting that it is not top 3 largest
Dotheas – swamp port on great river
Tlaumasalian - forestry - a satellite of Lewerinenalu
Meetheas – northfacing satellite - only road is a connection over the border to Crumedh in the rich duchy of Krarland
Yehlune – crossroads, adventurers - in the centre of the nation, by the road west to the dread Land of the Dead
Seritheas – mines, in one of the highest points of the realmmountains, on the road connecting Hluthodore to Lamnerinlumy; both far bigger and important
Afhorele’eri - backwater, satellite of Lamnerinlumy
Szoraserin – north facing puppet; road runs north to the Duchy of Krar
Lylranhamyse – old religionists - the only place of differing religion is also the offshore half-island domain of this realm.
Some interesting starts there - let us tag back to my Quick City Generation Resources where as mentioned "My go-to fast town building is Stupidly Quick City-Building from r/DNDBehindTheScreen coupled with steps 3 & 4 from creating fantasy villages, towns and cities to get the layout."
Chucking some dice we expand on the top 7 big cities:
Lewerinenalu – teeming riverport; in the middle of wetlands - is also famed for wines, ruled by merchants, experienced a fire, fearful of flooding, defended by thick stone walls + monumental gates, laws enforced by mercenaries, power held by a charismatic cult leader.
Hluthodore - hinterland; highlands - grew up around natural springs; ideal for fruit trees, known for traditional dress, ruled by a religious order, experienced occupation, fears barbarian invasion, defended by holy knights, laws are more like guidelines, powerful crime boss here. Key landmark is stockyards
Lamnerinlumy – queen of the interior - landmark temple, grew up by river (shifted), great for fruit, known for festivals, governed by nobles, experienced mass conversions, fears bandits & outlaws, defended by great walls, laws enforced by secret society of priests, power held by criminal gangs
Sinenyame – great river citadel, mage bastion - rich in iron ore, known for architectural style, ruled by a cabal of wizards, experienced an earthquake, fearful of dragons, defended by standing army of devoted soldiers, laws enforced by mercenaries, power held by outspoken scholar, landmark reflecting pool
Dotheas – swamp port on great river - rich in iron ore, known for jousting games, ruled by an elected mayor, experienced mass conversions, threatened by food shortages, defended by a company of knaves adn sellswords, law enforced by a rigid soldier turned sheriff. Power held by a dangerous crime boss. Has a landmark theater
Tlaumasalian - forest, near Lewerinenalu - produces sheep, known for music + dance, ruled by a mayor, experienced vermin infestation, threatened by a great beast (to south), defended by holy knights, laws enforced haphazardly (opaque to visitors), power held by ruthelss assassins guild, landmark library
Meetheas – northfacing satellite - produces nuts + olives, known for religious feasts, ruled by an elected council, experienced territorial wars, threatened by wrath of vengeful god, defended by a standing force of soldiers, laws for the poor only, power held by a bold war hero, landmark commons
Yehlune – crossroads, adventurers - in the centre of the nation, by the road west to the dread Land of the Dead - has landmark parade grounds, produces cattle, known for gladitorial games, ruled by head of a noble family experienced a series of riots, threatened by smugglers + bands of thieves, defended by company of sellswords and knaves, laws enforced by a secret society of assassins, power held by champion knight
Seritheas – mines, in the mountains - has a landmark theater, produces iron ore, known for romance, ruled by a wicked tyrant, experienced foreign occupation, threatened by a legendary beast, defended by little; the city’s been sacked many times, laws enforced by a corrupt, roguish city watch, power held by merchant guilds
Afhorele’eri - backwater - has a landmark stockyard, produces nuts and olives, known for street festivals, ruled by a warlord, experienced vermin infestation, threatened by a legendary beast, defended by order of holy knights, laws are extensive and complicated, nonsensical, power held by an outspoken philosopher (related to warlord? old sensei?)
Szoraserin – north facing as road runs north to the Duchy of Krar - has a landmark guild hall, produces tobacco, known for religious fervour, ruled by head of a noble family, experienced deadly plague, threatened by dragon, defended by series of watchtowers and forts spread throughout the region, laws not enforced among the wealthy elite
Lylranhamyse – old religionists - has landmark ancient ruin, produces barley & oats, known for suggestive dancing, ruled by an elected mayor, experienced disastrous flood, threatened by barbarian invasions, defended by standing army of devoted soldiers, laws enforced by a secret society of priests, power held by a populist demagogue
This is great; we have some distinct characters here - the mercantile Lewerinenalu, chaotically holy Hluthodore, Lamerinlumy where some strange religious shifts happened, and arcane Sinenyame. To fit what has been learned of this region in a different campaign, I needed Sinenyame to be a strong-point and also for there to be some sort of stronghold of mages - the dice were kind indeed!
I do not need to know the layouts of any of these places just yet, but I think I do want to give them a random selection of districts and figure out whether there are any famous districts in any of those cities. I will probably dice up the rest of the list, see if anything else interesting arises and then try and pull together a rumour table from there.
So who are our likely factions going to be based on all of this? Well it looks like we have a martial contingent along the northern border, some strong crime undercurrents, a faction of mages, a strong religious contingent in the south east but also a distinct sense that much of the population was converted recently and so the old gods and their servants may well still be about. Good.
Going back to the maps above - most of Hlaughei shares the same religious ways as the nation to the north which is a standard D&D pantheon and well established from the previous campaign. Interestingly we see another religion originated just outside Hluthodore and given that we had a couple of 'mass conversion' past events it suggests it was once more widespread; the secret law enforcing assassins elsewhere might be of this old religion. Culturally, this land shares with its neighbours to the south, all the western continents, and much of the south of its northern neighbour - all the places accessible by sea until you are very far north. The borderlands of all the neighbours to the west are also culturally similar. The only exception is the culture of the northern neighbour which intrudes over the border to the two cities with strong links north - Szoraserin and Meetheas.
Climate-wise, we have coastal tropical rainforests fading into temperate forest in the north and the southern heights, wetlands along the south east and tropical seasonal forests in the interior. Temperature wise, apart from Dotheas, more or less on the equator, which is hotter, we have a relatively uniform temperatures across the country until we hit the southern heights.
Pulling this all together we can see some thematic groups
- the northern three which are armed against Krar to the north, fearing dragon attacks but maintain strong trade and cultural links.
- the east coast with its two great river ports, the trading heart of the land
- in the west we have chaotic Yehlune with a strong 'might is right' ethos,
- along the south we have the inward facing cities, holders to old ways, old religions or simple coin
- lastly the bastion of the old religionist on the island offshore
Looking at the map, where the rivers go, which places connect to where, gives a good sense of what parts of the land are connected, where the wild hinterlands are. This is a place that but for the strong holds of the north and the heights of the south may well have been long conquered; it is not unified and I would imagine the western border exists only on maps.
For dungeons and treasures, I am going to try and incorporate a bunch of the wilderness OSR zines I have about - Slumbering Ursine Dunes, Where the Wheat Grows Tall, What Ho, Frog Demons, Dolmenwood, NOD hexcrawls and so on. On top of the known historical locations - elf ruins, dwarf holds - it looks like we ought to have a bunch of monster hoards around since so many cities are twitchy about dragon or beast attack, likely we should also have criminal dens and buried hoards given the multiple mentions of crime and smuggling.
From all of this the hooks spring forth, practically writing themselves. I will generate the rumour table anon and see what else might be needed after that.
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