Hand drawn on some old sketch pad that I still have.
I was digging through an old thumb drive when I found a scan of one of my D&D maps. It was from a campaign that I ran maybe fifteen years ago, my first real go at being the Dungeon Master. I had scanned it because some friends and I were going to try an online session last year, and most of them hadn't played in this world before. I even wrote notes on the world for distribution—kinda dry, but I wanted to have something for reference. And hey, it had been a while for me, and writing it out was a good way to refresh my memory.
I have several maps from different campaigns...world maps, city maps, building maps and so on. I thought they would make an interesting occasional blog. So, here you go: one map plus the first section of the notes (Nations).
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Nations
Races
Deities
Known organizations
Notable phenomenon (The Fold, the rift, Starlight Harbor, The free road, Taurs to the south, etc.)
[01] Nations
There are five nations on the continent, each with a few distinguishing features:
Yith Kara
The largest nation on the continent, and the highest populated. Yith Kara is the most militaristic of the countries, maintaining a large army that is constantly put to the test on its various borders. While there has been a tenuous peace with its neighbors to the north-east (Cyr-Myth and Yith Kara have maintained a standing truce for generations, while Silver Land barbarians trade good-natured raids back and forth almost as a matter of sport), Yith Kara has taken responsibility for defense against the southern Taur continent since the invasion sixty years ago, and constant warfare has forced a technological arms race that has recently spurred many non-magical advances in the country. Some soldiers also speak of wars overseas in lands that most have never heard of, against creatures that seem mythical even in a world of fantasy. Technically the government is a military dictatorship, but the further one travels from the capitol the more lenient the rules become. Still, military service is a requirement, and nearly every citizen has at least some training. The capitol (also called Yith Kara) is a harbor fortress-city that serves as a base of operations for the main branch of the military. It also hosts the largest naval fleet known to the continent.
The Silver Lands
Once a fertile jungle, an ancient unknown disaster eliminated all life in the entire northwest corner of the continent. Now the Silver Lands is a desert populated by outcasts, refugees, criminals on the run and warring clans seeking to test themselves against the harsh environment. There is only one city in the Silver Lands: Oasis, built around the single reliable source of water left underground. The Silver Lands can barely be considered a coherent nation; it is governed by a loose coalition of clans and organizations that only get along because they hate outside nations more than they dislike each other. When council is called, smugglers vote alongside of honorable desert clans, political refugees sit next to criminals wanted in every other nation, and priests of warring saints refuse to meet each others' eyes. There is law by consensus in Oasis, but outside of the city walls it's every man for himself; many areas have been claimed and held by force, but vast stretches of desert remain unpopulated.
Since resources are scarce and the government is not stable enough to negotiate treaties with neighboring countries, inhabitants of the Silver Lands constantly raid Yith Kara and East Spire for food, gold, building materials and anything else they can carry. The only reason this has not escalated into an all-out war is because Yith Kara has more important things to worry about, and East Spire is unwilling to take the fight to the desert, which is nearly unsurvivable for any large number of soldiers. The Silver Lands has been careful not to antagonize its neighbors to the point where a large scale retaliation is necessary; any raiders that get out of control are dealt with internally. Therefore inhabitants of the Silver Lands can travel freely to other countries, but are almost always regarded with suspicion.
Our heroes face that deadliest of all Captains.
East Spire/Cyr-Myth
East Spire and Cyr Myth are practically a single country; they have been strongly allied for as long as anybody can remember. Their society is structured around honor and discipline, and both nations have formed their own strictures of knighthood. The only real difference is a matter of governance; Cyr-Myth is a matriarchal monarchy, and East Spire's rulership is largely determined by a series of tests and trials, ultimately to be voted on by a council of knights-supreme. Cyr-Myth's order of knighthood is a holy one, following the tenants of the gods, where East Spire's is secular. What little friction exists between the two orders mainly comes down to those beliefs.
Where Markadia is a center of magical knowledge, Cyr-Myth is a center of supernatural lore. Their knights and priests are trained specifically to deal with monsters and magic; while the term 'witch-hunter' has gone out of vogue, it is still a respected profession in this nation. East Spire is generally better trained in martial matters; a knight's training is far more extensive than a soldiers, being a way of life as opposed to a career. When combined, a force from Cyr-Myth and East Spire can handle nearly any situation. Defensively, any area with a heavy population is designed as a fortress-city; while none match Yith Kara's capitol, any city in East Spire or Cyr-Myth garrisoned, heavily defended, and can provide mobile support to any other city due to a well-maintained network of roads.
Markadia
The smallest nation on the continent, but one of the most powerful. Markadia is a swampy, inhospitable land, but its capitol, the Ebony Gardens, is the center for magical research for the known world. In recent history the capitol was known as the Ivory Gardens—a city built with ivory marble where the nature of the soil caused plantlife to grow with a pearly white gleam. The city was ruled by the living saint, an ascending deity who protected the nation with her very presence. Recently, however, the living saint disappeared, and the city was claimed by Zen, an arch-lich who had been living in the swamps since time immemorial. Since then the marble has blackened, and the nature of the earth has turned; plant life is now a dull black, now closely matching the surrounding swamp.
Zen is a dictator, pure and simple. The Ebony Gardens is still open to the outside world, but outsiders are closely watched, and not all of them leave the city alive. It is the most arcanely advanced city on the map—the magical revolution, now in its earliest stages, is the furthest advanced here. Zen personally developed the technique that allows magical crafting without using the wizard's life force, and made it freely available to the other nations. Even wizards who disagree with Zen's rule come to the Ebony Gardens to study; there is simply nowhere else with the knowledge and resources of the libraries and towers there.
Nobody is interested in invading Markadia. Any army would have to slog through miles of swamps only to face magical defenses for which no military force is prepared. So far Zen has not given anybody a reason to, but Yith Kara and Cyr-Myth have made no secret of the fact they they are ready to invade anyway, if necessary. No nation trusts Zen, but nobody wants to make the first move. It's generally felt that this unspoken truce will not last for much longer.
Midus
While not a nation, the city of Midus has a status of its own. It is the point where four nations touch: Yith Kara, The Silver Lands, East Spire and Cyr-Myth. It is also on the Free Road; due to these conditions, it has been declared a neutral area by all of the nations involved, and given sovereignty to represent the interests of all. It is broken into four districts, each influenced by its respective nation, and its defenses are maintained as a joint effort of each. War does not touch Midus; while the city itself is an exercise in rough-and-tumble politics, national conflict is not allowed to interfere. It is the most cosmopolitan city on the map, with a mix of every race and nation, and its laws have been made flexible enough to handle the chaos. The city itself is sprawling, larger even than Yith Kara (the capitol), and it grows every year.
Sorry guys, you can't win them all.
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Ah, memories. There's more, but I'll save it for another blog. I think I'll write a few blogs on some of my favorite D&D memories, too—not stories, exactly, unless they turn out to be more interesting than I think. Good times!