Adventures in Gaming v2: Mystara

Showing posts with label Mystara. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

[Mystara] Karameikos -- Kelvin and Environs

This map is from when I ran a 5E campaign set in Mystara.

This goes with the earlier map. I love the simplicity of the "Grand Tactical" map, so I bumped the Known World map up to 25 miles from 24 miles per hex.

Thus, this map is 1 mile per small hex, 25 miles across the big hex.

Thursday, March 13, 2025

[Mystara] Mystaran Known World Map a.k.a. The Continent

Just need some place to hang this...

Sunday, October 16, 2022

General Blog Update

It has been quiet here recently.

After a series of fast releases – 13 products in four months, from April through July, followed by the release of Magical Beast Adventures in August, I decided to take some time off to collect my thoughts. Almost two months later I’m still trying; collecting thoughts is kind of like herding cats.

In that time, several things have happened that will impact my writing going forward.

First, Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games has announced that he is going to release Labyrinth Lord 2nd Edition. That will be sometime in early 2023, so I am likely going to wait until then to start writing new LL products. The differences will be minor, I am sure, but most folks prefer new products to be for the most recent edition. In this, discretion is the better part of valor.

Second, I got a full-time job. This will cut significantly into my writing time going forward.

Third, shortly after I got the job, I tore my left meniscus, and have been hobbling around on crutches ever since. Fortunately, my job is such that I can work from home, so that’s good. Unfortunately, for various reasons, I cannot get the surgery to fix it for a couple of months. So that sucks. But things could be worse, and we are taking it day by day.

So, no Labyrinth Lord products for maybe six months, and limited production going forward.

What’s on the schedule, then, such as I’ve ever had a schedule?

Well, I had some ideas for further materials, including a full campaign setting, for Magical Beast Adventures. But the sales on that have been underwhelming, so that’s been shelved.

Work on the Castles & Crusades project has also been shelved. The response to that made the sales of Magical Beast Adventures seem spectacular by comparison.

I was working on a new module when I got the job, but between the job, my leg, and the new upcoming edition of Labyrinth Lord, that too went on the back burner.

Isle of Eldisor: The Northlands is still on the list, somewhere. While sales for Eldisor were better than anything else in years, it just has not yet made enough sales to carry a full-sized expansion. But that is a possibility in the future.

I have some vague ideas for a city product. I LOVE city adventures. But for various reasons, it is difficult to get started on those now.

That’s about it.

I think for the next while I’ll be focusing on actual gaming, rather than writing for publishing.

I am currently in two online games, my Old School Buddies Monday Night Game and my Merlin’s Keep Crew Friday Night Game. So far between the two groups we’ve played Blades in the Dark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and Shadowdark. They are great groups.

I’ve had a lot more chances to actually play rather than run with these groups. I’m getting the hankering to run again.

I’m thinking of running the Monday Night Group through some Dungeons & Dragons, using the classic Cyclopedia Edition and setting the campaign in Mystara. We’re also talking about playing some Twilight 2000.

I’m still debating what to run for the Friday Night Group. I’m thinking I might try to fill my desire for city adventures and develop a city for them to play in using Shadowdark. If you haven’t checked out Shadowdark, you really should. That link takes you to the Arcane Library page where you can download a free Quick Start PDF set.

I’m sure I’ll be posting about their adventures here.

Oh, and the release of the Skull and Bones: Savage Storm comic book has been moved back to March 2023, to track with the release of the game. Keep an eye out for that, too.

That’s about it for now.

Good gaming!

Friday, September 2, 2022

A Tale of Three Worlds: Mystara, Mystoerth, and Mystaerth

Over the years I've used campaign material from the Known World and Mystara in various ways, adapting and adopting material here and there.

Twice I've made major adaptations, dropping the Known World and other elements of Mystara into other worlds wholesale, and vice-versa.

One of these efforts was Mystoerth, which combines Mystara and Greyhawk by dropping the Flanaess into the world of Mystara. Here is my Mystoerth map:

It is really great to see that others took and ran with the idea of Mystoerth, such as Tim Brannan on The Other Side Blog and his development of Mystoerth. Chatdemon's version of the map, which you can find at Tim's site, re-centered the map and added the parchment effect.

Another such effort was Mystaerth, which combined Mystara with the world of Aerth, the campaign setting from Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys: Mythus setting. Here is the map from that effort:

I really feel the need to return to Mystara soon. Just which Mystara, I'm not quite sure yet...

This post was inspired by Trey's posts on From the Sorcerer's Scroll about placing Karameikos and the other locations from Mystara in the Real World.

I should also note, inspired by Trey's post, I went and finally dug up a huge treasure trove of old Mystara files, some of them dating to 1994! Now to go through everything and see what passes the sniff test...

Monday, November 29, 2021

What if Mystara were a Dying Earth-style Campaign Setting?

Mystara is in many ways a “kitchen sink” campaign setting – it has something of everything in it, from many different genres and many different styles. But what if the overall style was one much more of the Dying Earth style, as per Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique, or Lin Carter’s Gondwane stories?

Basic Assumptions

1) Take the basic information as presented in the Gazetteers in the broad though not necessarily in the specific.

2) Countries are not “countries” so much as “cultural regions,” as nations, state, and empires are weak and ineffectual, for the most part, in the Dying Earth stories. “Ylaruam” is a region, and the “Sultan” of Ylaruam is a hollow title; so too the “Emperor” of Thyatis, and so forth. Everything is local.

3) The cultures of the “cultural regions” are the last, age-old remnants of ancient peoples, each of whom once had its great height of imperial power. These remnants are found scattered throughout the Known World. There are remnants of the “Alasiyani Empire” scattered from far western Darokin through to the Northern Reaches, and south to Ierendi.

4) Throw the timeline out the window. Blackmoor was an utterly ancient empire of an unknown age in the forgotten past. Even the order of the empires of the remaining cultures are unknown, save for the Thyatian, which was the last great expansive culture, the last hurrah so to speak of an offshoot of the Alphatian culture which was the height of Wizardry in the recent eons. More high-tech remnants like that of Blackmoor scattered here and there, as each culture delved deep into those technomantic mysteries and sought to rebuild the greatness that was Blackmoor – before the Arcane Inquisitors of Alphatia sought to purge them from the memory of the world.

5) There are no proper large-scale religions; all worship of immortals is local, like everything else, at best regional. There are far more dead and forgotten immortals than there are living ones. There are few region-spanning religious organizations; such are the exception to the rule. Temples of the same immortal in neighboring cities might not even be aware of each other, and if they are, might ignore each other or even be enemies.

6) Life of the commons through to the royals is one of decadence and often debauchery, all to stave off the ennui of the pointlessness of existence – after all, the moon might fall tomorrow, or the sun might fade away, or the stars blow out. The adventurers and others of their ilk are the exceptions to the general rule, trying to do something that makes a difference, that makes a mark, that makes advancement when all is in extreme retrograde at the nadir of history.

7) Populations are drastically different. Cities have no more than half the population listed, living amidst ruins of cities twice the size listed. The same for towns. Villages are mostly the same. But importantly, what is on the maps is all there is, settlement-wise. There are perhaps a handful of hamlets here and there, and homesteads, especially close to the larger settlements, but no more settlements of village size or greater, nor strongholds. What you see is what there is. There are, however, tons of ruins scattered about. Most empty, some occupied by monsters or stragglers.

8) Monsters are even greater in numbers. Realms where they dominate, such as in the Broken Lands and Dwarfgate Mountains, are true holds of the Darkness. Most monsters are outgrowths of the growing darkness – a la William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land. The Darkness both terrorizes and yet also beckons – join us before it is too late! Become one with the Night before the Final Twilight!

9) Demi-humans are even more caricatured versions of themselves. Dwarves are near mythical – Rockhome is entirely underground, only ruins above, as the dwarves seek sanctuary from the death of the sun in the geothermal depths. Those on the surface are exiles, adventurers, or madmen. Elves live for debauchery – Alfheim is one vast party, for the elves now have nowhere to flee at the end of time itself, and they know their Final Doom is upon them. Halflings are macho barbarians holding their Shires against all comers – if the moon falls into the Shires, they will do their damndest to Shout it back into the sky!

10) Lands outside the Known World are mythical at best; only legends remain. Alphatia sank, or flew off into the sky, or is hidden behind a magical veil – no one knows. The Isle of Dawn is reachable, at great dangers, but the ancient colonies are all returned to savagery, save for the strange and mysterious Thothians. Norwold is a cold, glacier-haunted ruin where big hairy men fight and eat and are eaten by big hairy monsters and dragons. Sind is a name out of the West; only monsters and stranger things come out of the West. And the sea of Dread is truly to be dreaded, for south of Ierendi and Minrothad it has been claimed by the Darkness.

Cultural Regions – Some Initial Ideas

1) Karameikos: The Darkness-ridden land of Karameikos is of ancient and mysterious sort; the forests are home to vampires and werewolves and other creatures of the Falling Night. A hundred years ago, in their last spasm of Empire before falling into squabbling city-states, the Empire of Thyatis sought to push back the Darkness, and invaded Ancient Traladara – and were overwhelmed. Stefan and his co-religionists – followers of Vanya, She Who Would Conquer the Night – sought to re-invigorate the invasion 30 years ago. Their little points of light in the Darkness are laughable on the grand stage. The Traladarans continue on as they have since time immemorial, though a few have joined in the madness of these new Karameikans. Their religion is such that it is divided between those who would placate the Darkness, and those who would embrace it…

2) Ylaruam: The vast Alasiyan desert holds inky blots of Darkness at night to rival those of the Sea of Dread. In the howling wastes, one can find ruins ancient beyond memory, uncovered by the stinging sands driven by the Night Winds. There, creatures from the Outer Dark come to be worshipped by madmen and strange cultists. The cities in between are brightly lit to keep out the Night, even by day; and while the men in the bazaar must needs trade with the nomads, they know not who or what is hidden behind the nomad’s veils…

3) Glantri: Here have come the arcane scions of a dozen realms and even outer worlds. Here they find a strange arcane power they hope to keep the Darkness at bay. But each has brought with them the taint of their own fallen, decadent, debauched cultures, each has brought within themselves and their peoples the touch of Night from elsewhere. Lesser men despair, for in this land, to live within the light of a wizard’s tower is as dangerous to the soul as to live outside in the Darkness…

Monday, September 9, 2019

[Mystara] More on Tepeshy Religion

The Tepeshy immortals can be separated into two factions, that of Burza and that of Vadok. This division goes way back to the days of Taymor, when Nyx and Thanatos fought over the souls of that realm.

Following the destruction of Taymor, they decided that, in the matter of the surviving mountain Taymorans, they would hold a truce and work together to keep the Taymorans a going concern. Thus, while the Tepeshy view them as a married couple, they are viewed as a feuding married couple on a level that make Zeus and Hera seem positively like lovebirds. But as always, even with the feud between them, they and their “family” work together to defend the Tepeshy as a whole.

Even though most of the other Tepeshy immortals owe their immortality to Thanatos, as things go, they are no more or less loyal to the Grim Reaper than they are to any other Immortals, and so the Tepeshy immortals play each other off one another for immortal favor and for further power on the mortal plane.

In Tepeshy religion, all the immortals are viewed in human form; like the Tepeshy, with humanoid characteristics.

I should note here that most Tepeshy look almost perfectly human; most have only a slightly odd cast to their features. Others are less human in appearance, and more monstrous. The best way to understand the Tepeshy physical type is to consider the Addams Family extended family as seen during the party scene in the original movie. Most are slightly off-human norm, some more so, and others quite inhuman… and then imagine what the Addams Family extended family was like in medieval times. That’s the Tepeshy…

Unlike their Traladaran cousins, the Tepeshy do not revere their immortals in a single, overarching faith; each has their own temple hierarchy and they generally remain aloof from one another. Temples are not found in the settlements; they are at a distance, though each settlement has a couple of shrines and the major settlements have shrines to most of the immortals. Low-level clergy (3^rd level and under) tend to the shrines, while higher-level clergy pass through to perform more important rites at the settlement shrines during certain unholy days. Most Tepeshy need nothing more than the local village priest can provide; if they do need more, they must go on a quest to the nearest temple of the appropriate immortal or seek out the high temple of the immortal if they require truly miraculous assistance.

The Tepeshy immortals (and more importantly, their clergy) work on a quid-pro-quo basis, requiring sacrifices and payments for their services. The village clergy require low-level sacrifices, such as foodstuffs, animals, and various useful goods (for themselves) and coin and other valuable treasures for their immortals (kept in the shrine or temple treasury, considered the treasure of the immortal, literally). Higher-level clergy require more personal sacrifice, of one’s own blood, a quest, or even the capture and sacrifice of an enemy or specific monster (usually of Lawful sort). These are often personalized to the nature of the immortal.

All the Tepeshy immortals are served by ranks of demons; these demons, regardless of type, all conform to some aspect of the immortal they serve. Thus, a Type IV demon serving Burza would be more wolf and human like than boar and ape-like, while a Type IV serving Strigz would have two faces and be armed and armored.

Each immortal has their own “divine reward” on this world or in another, for their followers. Those whose worship is simply “good enough” end up with their souls stuck for eternity in the Underworld overseen by Rumgoth. Those who displease or fail their patron immortal are cast into the Abyss to be eternally torn apart by demons.

Burza, Mother of Night, Queen of Wolves (Nyx) appears as a matronly woman of indeterminate age; she has pale skin, blood-red lips, long raven-dark hair, and deep, hypnotic eyes, and wears a plain black dress as dark as night. She is never depicted as a wolf herself; the wolves are her children, and she is their queen. She is often depicted with a wolf or pack of wolves. Her symbol is a stylized wolf’s head. Her colors are black and white; wolf pelts are often used for cloaks or other décor. Her greatest servants are rewarded with transformation into a werewolf; her more powerful servants also gain dire wolves as steeds. Her followers often keep wolves or wolf-hounds as pets and guardians. Her clerics can speak with wolves. Her following is strongest among those who live mostly by the hunt or live in the heavily-forested highlands of the mountains. Her faithful can count on being reincarnated as wolves. Note that it is not against her faith to kill wolves; after all, it is a “wolf-eat-wolf” world. However, it is blasphemy to hunt a wolf with magic or any other “unnatural” methods. Wolves who comport themselves well in their death may be reincarnated as wolves or even werewolves; those who die poorly are reincarnated as humans.

Burguul, Lord of Shadows and Lies, Messenger of Burza (Masauwu) appears as a faceless shadow of a horned man with the wings of a bat; it is said that bats are his messengers, and thus also the messengers of his patron, Burza. His symbol is a stylized bat. His colors are black and brown. His greatest servants are transformed into werebats; some of his more powerful servants also gain giant bats as steeds. His followers often keep bats and giant bats as pets and guardians. His clerics can speak with bats. Those who displease him, or his mistress, are sent nightgaunts as punishment. His faithful can count on being reincarnated as bats; those who displease him are cast into the Abyss to be eternally torn apart by demons.

Vadok, Father of Death, King of Vampires (Thanatos) appears as a pale-skinned man of monstrous countenance, with great fangs and glowing red eyes, always dressed in regal finery tainted by the grave. His symbol is a human skull, sometimes surmounted by a golden crown with blood-red rubies. His colors are black and red (in all the colors of blood). His followers seek to placate him, for his canon claims their only way to avoid being cast into the Abyss to be tormented by demons for eternity is to serve him eternally in death, as skeletons, zombies, wights, or some other form of corporeal undead (in this guise Thanatos has nothing to do with incorporeal undead, nor in general ghouls, ghasts, mummies, or liches). His most powerful and worthy servants are transformed into vampires. These are often served by rats, giant rats, and wererats. He is served by Death Demons and Lesser Reapers.

Zhurm, Patron of Sorcerers, Messenger of Vadok (Alphaks) appears much like his master, Vadok, but is much more human in appearance, taller, almost suave, with much nicer finery. However, when he angers, he gets even more hideous and monstrous than his master. He is usually accompanied by two or three beautiful women (succubi), who act as his chorus. He also appears as a red mist within which are seen red glowing orbs for eyes. His symbol is a blood red winged ouroboros. His colors are black and red. In addition to his role as the messenger of Vadok, he is also the patron of Tepeshy sorcerers; those who rise high enough in their power are taught how to summon demons by Zhurm himself. Like his master, he is served by Death Demons and Lesser Reapers, as well as succubi; unlike his master, he is also served by ghouls and ghasts, and at times, red dragons.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

[Mystara] Tepeshiya Map WIP Mk. I

Here's a preview of the map of Tepeshiya; it is a work in progress and subject to change.

I'm drawing on a lot of the resources available at the Vaults of Pandius, though still distinctly making this part of my Mystara, so not everything out there in the Fanon will make it in (and much of what does will be altered).

A complete list of what came from where will be included down the road.

As usual, click to embiggen...

Monday, September 2, 2019

[Mystara] Altan Tepes and the Tepeshy

The Altan Tepes mountain region on the border between Karameikos, Darokin, Ylaruam, and Thyatis is a huge area that is effectively independent. Karameikos is the only state that even attempts to maintain a garrison presence, and even this is recent, with Duke’s Road Keep and Castellan Keep being built certainly no earlier than 30 years ago, likely much less.

The area on the map within the blue border totals 9,625 square miles. For perspective, here are some real-world measurements:

Albania = 10,578 sq. mi.

Haiti = 10,640 sq. mi.

North Macedonia = 9,820 sq. mi.

Israel = 7,850 sq. mi.

So that is a HUGE territory into which just about anything can be placed.

Based on the known history of the Known World, this can include:

Ancient Azcan and Oltec ruins (perhaps with some long-lost Azcan/Oltec tribes);
Ancient Blackmoorian ruins (perhaps with robots and androids);
Ancient Taymoran ruins (perhaps with vampires and undead and lost tribes of Taymorans);
Ancient Nithian ruins ca. 1500 to 500 BC (perhaps with mummies and with lost tribes of Nithians);
Ancient Traldar and/or Hutaaka ruins, ca. 1400 to 500 BC (as in the Lost Valley of Hutaaka);
Ancient Gnoll ruins ca. 1000 BC and onward;
Ancient Dwarf ruins ca. 900 to 491 BC (as in Thunderdelve, and perhaps a surviving dwarven delve or three);
Lost Tribes of Thyatians, Kerendans, Hattians, etc., ca. 600 to 400 BC;
Early Traladaran ruins ca. 500 BC to 500 AC;
Plenty of Humanoid tribes and lairs from 491 BC (Battle of Sardal Pass) onward;
Displaced Alasiyan tribes from the Thyatian colonization ca. 150 to 250 AC;
Lairs of lycanthropes from 400 AC onward;
Primitive Traladaran hill and forest folk pushed out by the growing power of the city-states ca. 500 AC and onward;
Settlement of Darokin refugees from the internecine warfare in the fallen kingdom ca. 723 to 927 AC;
Settlements of Alasiyans either allied to Thyatians or not willing to convert to the Eternal Truth ca. 825 to 860 AC;
Settlements of angry Traladarans pushed here by Thyatians and later by Stefan ca. 900 and 970s;
Settlements of Darokin noble refugees from the Great Merger, fleeing the rule of the Merchant Kings ca. 927 to 949 AC;
Displaced hordes of Humanoids from Stefan’s crusade to push through the Duke’s Road ca. 970s and onward;

We also know that there are at least two major dragon lairs in the region (one centered in the region, the other nearer Duke’s Road Keep), based on Bruce’s article from Dragon #170, though their types, ages, and names are unknown.

So with that, here are some developments for the region:

There are the following minor remnant “Lost Tribes” in the region, usually a single small tribe and a handful of clans controlling a valley or highland region: Azcan, Oltec, Taymoran, Nithian, Traldar, Thyatian, and Alasiyan. Like the Traldar of the Lost Valley of Hutaaka, these Lost Tribes are rather inbred, highly xenophobic, and suffer from some cultural quirk based on their native culture.

There is also a single surviving dwarven delve, which also is home to a clan of gnomes; it is still producing large quantities of silver and gold, as well as high-quality gemstones. This, together with the vast wealth to be found in the Humanoid-haunted ruined delves, is the reason for the road (trail, really), that passes through the Keep on the Borderlands.

There are small settlements of Traladarans and Darokinians on the verge of the region, both descended from refugees from their respective invasion and revolution. Both group’s settlements are centered on a noble family that fled from the conquest/revolution, and thus they are insular and xenophobic.

All these groups are insignificant compared to two tribal groups, the Humanoids and the Tepeshy, which compete for dominance in the region. The Humanoids have greater numbers, but the Tepeshy are better organized (not much, but more than enough). The Humanoids live primarily in the old dwarven delves and other natural caves in the high mountains, while the Tepeshy live in the terraced valleys. The Tepeshy are semi-nomadic, moving every couple of years to other valleys to allow their terraced farms to lay fallow and allow local fauna and flora to recover from hunting and gathering.

The Tepeshy (singular Tepesh) are primarily descended from a mix of Taymorans and Traladarans native to the mountains, with long ages of intermixing with the Lost Tribes and the Humanoids of the region. The Tepeshy are for all intents and purposes a race of demi-orcs, and no few are full half-orcs (though their bloodlines actually include everything from kobolds to ogres and all in between), due to wife-stealing on both sides. They have the pale skin of their Taymoran and Traladaran ancestors (sometimes with a light tinge of other color from the Humanoid side), with various eye, ear, nose, mouth, and other physical elements from their Humanoid ancestors (to a greater or lesser extent).

Tepeshy are organized into tribes and clans, all of which engage in internecine feuds and vendettas, though they readily unite against Humanoids or other invaders. Like their Humanoid cousins, they prefer to live underground, in the dwarven delves dug lower in the valleys; if such dwellings are not available, they build dugout pit-houses using stone walls and sod roofs, for themselves and their animals. They keep small gardens and maintain larger terrace farms for grains (some of the terraces date back to the time of the Oltecs). They also herd mountain sheep, mountain goats, and small wooly long-horn highlands cattle; some clans have giant sheep or giant goats that they use as steeds. They supplement their diet by hunting (mostly boar, deer, and bear), gathering, fishing, and raiding. Some tribes and clans keep mastiff hounds as pets and guards; others keep and train brown bears or grey wolves. They also keep hawks for hunting and sport, and homing pigeons to send messages between major tribal settlements.

Tepeshy dress in colorful woolens, leathers, and furs, and their technology is such that they can make leather armor, fur armor, scale mail, and wooden or hide shields and bone helmets; they wield spears, long and short swords, battle and hand axes, slings, and short bows. If you use the barbarian class in your campaign, they can take the barbarian class (they are a mountain/hill people).

Culturally, otherwise, they are mostly similar to Traladarans, though even more superstitious. They have the avarice and wildness of their Humanoid heritage; the tendency to engage in internecine feuds of their Azcan and Oltec heritage; the will to conquest of their Traldar and Thyatian heritage; and a fear and reverence for the Immortals of their Taymoran, Nithian, and Alasiyani heritage. Their language is originally derived from Taymoran with many Humanoid and other borrowings and is not mutually intelligible with any other language. They have a unique writing system, maintained by their priests and sorcerers/witches, also descended in a long line from Taymoran.

The Tepeshy do not worship the same immortals as the Traladarans or the Humanoids; they worship a pantheon of generally dark and dreadful Immortals and Demons:

Burza, Mother of Night, Queen of Wolves (Nyx)&;
Vadok, Father of Death, King of Vampires (Thanatos)*
Burguul, Lord of Shadows and Lies, Messenger of Burza (Masauwu)&;
Opasha, Lady of Lust and Debauchery (Talitha)*
Rumgoth, Lord of the Underworld and Undeath (Orcus)*&;
Strigz, Lord of War (Demogorgon)*
Zahovara, Mother of Mountains and Jewels, Protector of Lairs (Pearl)&;
Zhurm, Patron of Sorcerers, Messenger of Vadok (Alphaks)*

Especial enemy immortals include:

Akul-Gurz, Lord of Icy Doom, Father of Giants (Thrym)
Gajarpan, the Dread Serpent (Atzanteotl)
Magath, the Hammer (Kagyar)
Timorsham, Lord of the Burning Sun (Ixion)
Zajar-Bal, Lord of Fire and Destruction (Rathanos)
All the Humanoid immortals (Hel, Bartziluth, Jammudaru, Karaash, Ranivorus, The Shining One, Wogar, and Yagrai)
The Traladaran immortals (Halav, Petra, Zirchev)

Vampires and lycanthropes (werewolves, wereboars, and werebats) have a special place in Tepeshy society. Vampirism and lycanthropy are considered rewards for long service to the tribe and faith; the gift is not given out willy-nilly, and especially not to mere strangers! Heroes of the people, as well as high-level clergy and magic-users of the faith, can be granted vampirism (*) or lycanthropy (&) (depending on their patron god or goddess). Followers of Burza and Burguul are granted lycanthropy (werewolf or werebat); followers of Vadok, Opasha, Strigz, and Zhurm are granted vampirism; followers of Zahovara are granted lycanthropy (were-drakes); and followers of Rumgoth are granted either lycanthropy (wereboar) or vampirism. These “Lords of the Tribes” are respected by all, and usually have their own temple, fortress, or manor apart from the settlements, to retire in some lonely high valley or in some important mountain pass to protect the tribes.

“Altan Tepes” means “Golden Spires” in Traladaran and “Red Dawn Peaks” in Tepeshyan; Tepeshyan legends speak of their immortals impaling enemy immortals on these very peaks at the dawn of time. The Altan Tepes in Tepeshiya are very tall and steep, giving the appearance of narrow cones or spikes, though most peaks are atop long, winding ridges, like some sort of giant stone labyrinth. The Altan Tepes are a karst formation, meaning that they are riddled with natural caverns and tunnels. They combine elements of the Carpathian Alps and the Dolomite Alps, with the valleys heavily terraced as in the Andes (though not all terraces are actively farmed, some are lost and crumbling amidst forest and bracken).

The valleys are often filled with fog and mist, the result of much of the rain that would be taken to the Alasiyani Desert or the Darokin Plain falling in the mountains in addition to the natural level of rainfall. This makes the forested portion of the mountains effectively a temperate rainforest. In summer the mountains are cool, the valleys warm, both hidden and shadowed by mists. In the winter much snow falls due to the magical influence of the glacier, Akuliima (“Ice Throne”), and then the raids of the frost giants reach deep into the lowlands.

The southern and northwestern foothills are covered in oak, hornbeam, holly, rowan, ash, maple, hemlock, dogwood, and lime, among other deciduous trees; the northwestern foothills are barren wastelands. The mid-range mountains, ridges, and valleys are home to beech, fir, spruce, and sycamore; conifers such as the fir and spruce predominate the higher one goes. Above the timberline among the alpine meadows are found thickets of mountain pine, juniper, and alder shrubs. Many tall, nigh vertical ridges, peaks, and cones are barren save for tangles of shrubs and vines and the odd trees growing out of cracks. Oddly, motile and carnivorous plants and fungi are not found in the region, for reasons unknown to myth or legend (these kinds of lifeforms are found in the Underworld of the Humanoids, however, as are many animate molds, jellies, and slimes).

The mountains are home to the following normal animals, among others: bats (normal and giant), bears (black and grizzly), beavers (normal and giant), boars (normal and giant), bobcats, cattle (highland longhorns), chipmunks, deer (red, roe, and white-tailed), dogs (wild), dormice, eagles (normal and giant), ermine, ferrets (normal and giant), foxes, goats (normal and giant), grouse, hawks (normal and giant), jackals, lizards (normal and giant), martens, minks, moles, mountain lions, owls (normal and giant), porcupines, rabbits, raccoons, rats (normal and giant), ravens (normal and giant), salamanders (normal and giant), sheep (normal and giant), skunks (normal and giant), snakes (normal and giant), squirrels, trout, turkeys, weasels (normal and giant), wildcats, and wolves (normal and dire). There are many other species of birds (notably the death-warbler, which has a black and white skull pattern on its wings and back) and countless insects, though especially bees, beetles, butterflies, centipedes, flies, mantises, moths, spiders, stick-bugs, ticks, and wasps (normal and giant-sized).

The mountains are also home to at least the following monsters, among others [NE refers to the northeastern mountains and hills facing the Alasiyani Desert, GL refers to the glacial and alpine region of the frost giants]: apes (snow, GL), baboons (normal and higher, NE), bugbears, chimeras, devil swine, djinni (NE), dragons (white (GL), green, red), dragonnes (NE), dwarves (duergar), efreet (NE), elves (deep), ghasts (NE), ghosts, ghouls (NE), giants (hill, frost (GL)), gnolls, goblins, griffons, hell hounds (NE), hobgoblins, jackalweres, kobolds, lamias (NE), Lammasu (NE), lizardfolk, lycanthropes (werebats, werebears, wereboars, werewolves), manticores (NE), minotaurs (eastern reaches), morlocks (Blackmoorian ruins), mummies (Azcan, Oltec, and Nithian ruins), nymphs (eastern foothills), ogres, orcs, owlbears, pseudo-dragons (and their less intelligent cousins, the drakes) remorhaz (GL), rocs (small and large), salamanders (frost, GL), satyrs (eastern foothills), scorpions (giant, NE), shadows (Taymoran ruins), skeletons, spectres, sphinxes (NE), vampires, wights, winter wolves (GL), wraiths, wyverns, yeti (GL), and zombies. Notably absent are any sorts of surface-dwelling elves, fairy-folk, and many of the sylvan folk (though there are some in the eastern reaches); the Tepeshy are inimical to all such creatures to due ancient feuds (dating from the settling of Traladara by the Vyalia ages ago).

Note that though their realm is on a smaller scale, the variety of monstrous inhabitants of the phantasmagorical Underworld of the Humanoids is on par with that of the Broken Lands and the Shadow Elves.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

[Mystara] B2 and Altan Tepes Ideas

Just hanging this here for now...

According to the Five Shires gazetteer, dwarves were all over the Altan Tepes digging mines and strongholds in ancient days (ca. 900s BC).

So the dwarves who settled the region in the 900s (and the exiles from the Shires after the fall of Loktal's Realm) were exterminated by humanoids, the same hordes pushed back at Sardal Pass in 491 BC (check out the migrations map in Orcs of Thar).

The monster- and humanoid-haunted delves are still filled with the treasures of the old dwarves, their lands inaccessible due to intervening tribes until the arrival of Duke Stefan, whose army pushed through the Duke's Road 20 years ago (and sent the surviving forest and hill humanoids into the Altan Tepes to settle among their mountain cousins... with a burning hatred for humans and a desire to reclaim their lost lands).

Perhaps some remnant petty dwarven stronghold still exists in that region, south of the Frost Giants, and they are the reason for all the trade in gems and jewelry... them and the adventurers now looting the lairs of the humanoids in the old dwarven delves.

Not to mention, of course, frost-giant haunted mountains are a great reason to have a castle, humanoid tribes or no...

Monday, August 31, 2015

[Found Treasures] Mystara Miscellany

Found two interesting bits from my Mystara campaigns...

The first is the map of the area around Arbanville, center of a campaign set in the Westerlands of Darokin, in the Malpheggi Swamp. A no-prize to whoever first recognizes the real-world region and era upon which this is based...

And someday I need to revisit that Westerlands region map with Hexographer...

The second piece is the rate sheet for the Evil Minions Guild. This was used during a HackMaster Hackwurld of Mystaros campaign set in the Black Eagle Barony (the BEB). The misadventures of that crew were remarkable...

I have also found a chunk of old Ochalea material, but as I know I have a LOT more of that somewhere else in the boxes, that will wait for another time when I can put together scans of all the material. The big problem will be scanning the massive 8-mile-per-hex hand-drawn map I drew of the whole island and surrounds... its on one of those huge Armory hex maps sheets, so I'll probably just have to take a picture of it and call that good. Maybe Kinkos has an affordable large-scale scanner; I'll have to check...

[Found Treasures] Gangs of Specularum

I'd always loved the premise behind module B6: The Veiled Society, though thought it showed only a fraction of the mob/gang activity that would be present in such a large city. When GAZ1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos was released in 1987, I combined the material from Veiled Society with inspiration from the gangs of Porta as described in the Powers & Perils: Perilous Lands supplement, Tower of the Dead, to create a full set of gangs for the city of Specularum.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what else survives. I had full write-ups of each gang, but have not found those yet. Probably disappeared with my computer from that day, or they might still be found on a disk somewhere, if the disk hasn't failed...

This first image is a map of the areas controlled by each gang as of 1000 AC.

This second image shows the relationships between each gang.

This third image is a map of the stronghold of the Minstrels.

As usual, click to embiggen any image...

[Found Treasures] Hand-Drawn Map of Taymor

So I've finally gotten a chance to go through some of those boxes of long-stored gaming materials. I've found a trove of old maps and campaign notes, stuff I wrote ages ago that, if they exist in digital form anywhere, it is likely they are rotting on an old 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disks in a box somewhere in the back of storage... so I'll eventually sort out what is cool and not, scan it, OCR it, and maybe do something with it... we'll see.

But for now, the maps. I used to hand draw TONS of maps back in the day, all sorts of maps from dungeons and wilderness to cities and villages. Now I pretty much doodle on Hexographer for hex maps and use existing maps from elsewhere for dungeon and city maps.

This map was my first go at a version of Taymor, the lands of the Known World of Mystara back before the disaster that created the Broken Lands and destroyed the Kingdom of Taymor. I wrote up a TON of backstory on Taymor when I was running Mystara on a regular basis. Most of that can be found on the Vaults of Pandius; at least, that which I posted to various Mystara fan sites. There's a ton of stuff still remaining that I might get to eventually...

This map is of course at the 24-mile-per-hex scale that was used in the Known World series.

As usual, click to embiggen

Monday, March 23, 2015

[Mystara] Final Round of Q's Answered by Lawrence Schick

Lawrence Schick has been kind enough to answer one last round of questions on the Original Known World -- this time about his and Tom Moldvay's original campaign style as Dungeon Masters of the first campaigns set in the Original Known World. Though this is the last we will hear from him on this for the time being, I am sure he will be back with more fascinating information and insights when his schedule allows...

For more background, check out the earlier rounds of questions:

[Mystara] The Original Known World

[Mystara] Lawrence Schick Answers Q's on the Original KnownWorld

[Mystara] Another Round of Q's Answered by Lawrence Schick

How lethal were your campaigns? Were you more into the narrative of the story, or into random adventure? What was your style like as a DM?

These things evolved over time; I think they followed an arc similar to that of many mid-1970s campaigns. At first we allowed players to play multiple characters at a time, as well as henchmen and hirelings, so a group going into a dungeon could be very large, maybe two dozen characters. So we WERE lethal: life was cheap, and rarely was a dead low-level character deemed worthwhile of the expense of a “Raise Dead.” But at first, the characters weren't much more than collections of stats, so it seemed appropriate.

Over time, as characters acquired history, personality, and nuance, and the game world gradually fleshed out, storytelling became more important. Combat and problem-solving were still supreme, but we began to take more care in setting the scene, in role-playing NPCs, in setting up situations where player characters, played well, could shine and make memories. We were beginning to try to use the tools of the game rules to evoke the kind of fantasy stories we loved.

Did you use prepared adventures, or were your adventures more along the lines of off the cuff sandbox runs?

Neither: both Tom and I carefully mapped out and prepared our adventures in advance. Not that we weren't willing to ad lib and extemporize, but it was always in the context of a prepared situation. I remember the first time someone brought G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief to one of our sessions. We looked at it in wonder. Really? Buy somebody else’s adventure? And at $5.00 for eight pages and a map folder? Madness. Clearly, that sort of thing would never be popular.

What kind of preparations did you make for each session?

Speaking for myself, I spent many hours planning things out. (Remember, I was a college student, and had the hours to spare.) I drew maps, statted out monsters and items, and created NPCs. As time went on, and the role-playing moved to the fore, the latter task grew in importance.

How many players were there per group? Did you allow multiple characters per player?

The number of players varied from one to eight. As I said, at first we allowed players to run two, three, or even four PCs at the same time. As certain PCs grew to prominence, the others sloughed away, until eventually we were down to one player, one character.

Did you use henchmen and hirelings, and if so, how were they treated by the player characters?

At first they were just unthinking meat-shields; eventually, they started growing personalities, and we made the players spend more time and effort managing them. Once the players were betrayed by their own hirelings a time or two, they became much more careful about who they picked to join them.

Did you focus on dungeons, wilderness, or cities, or a mix?

Dungeons at first, then wilderness on the way to a dungeon, then wilderness for its own sake, then we added in towns and cities—but the dungeons never went away. They were too much fun.

Were you more historically minded or did you allow for anachronisms?

As you’re well aware, the early days of D&D were pretty wide open. We didn't allow for anachronisms so much as wild crossovers of various fantasy genres. We delighted in confounding the players by throwing in creatures or characters that were completely unprecedented from previous adventures. Once they’d learned how to slay dragons, why keep sending them after dragons?

Were you serious or wahoo?

We were seriously wahoo.

What kind of mix of monsters, traps, and “specials” did you use in your adventures?

That varied a great deal: our dungeons tended to be themed, so it depended what kind of dungeon we’d lured the players into.

How did your literary influences work with your actual game play and campaign development?

That was where the aforementioned themed dungeons came into play: we would try to craft adventures that evoked the work of specific authors or sub-genres of fantasy. I still remember Tom’s first Lovecraftian dungeon. Horrific! At one point we just turned tail and ran for it.

What were your NPCs like? Did you work out a background for each, a full sheet of description, perhaps an index card, or were they just a name and line or two of text?

It depended on the importance of the NPC. We were wary of creating characters that would steal the PCs’ thunder, so I don’t think we ever went as far as a full sheet of description—at least, not until “Giants in the Earth.”

Coda

One thing Tom and I discussed more and more as our campaigns evolved was the collaborative nature emerging from RPGs. The more we got into storytelling, the more we noted that the game story wasn't complete without the contributions of the players. We spent more time thinking about how to draw them in, get them invested, make them actors rather than reactors. These were lessons I carried with me to TSR, and on after that into video and computer game design.

Replica map of the Known World from module X1. Cartography by Thorfinn Tait.

Monday, March 2, 2015

[Mystara] Another Round of Q's Answered by Lawrence Schick

Lawrence Schick has been gracious enough to answer even more questions about the Original Known World that eventually became the world of Mystara.

1) Did you use Gods, Demigods & Heroes for the gods of the Original Known World or did you work out your own gods and pantheons. If you created your own, do you remember any details?

Tom and I adopted and adapted it, essentially rewriting the entire supplement to suit the OKW. It filled 17 typescript pages, all of which survive. We made a list of 100 deities (so one could roll randomly at need), mostly drawn from GDH, but we added a few we thought were unfairly overlooked. As you’ll see from the second page I attached, our standard rules for gods varied in some significant ways from the GDH standard.

Lawrence has been kind enough to send on the first two sheets from the list he and Tom Moldvay developed. As usual, click to embiggen:

2) You mentioned an “ancient, pre-human civilization.” Do you recall any details about this? Related, do you recall if Tom Moldvay’s creation, the Carnifex of M3: Twilight Calling, were based on the Dragon Kings from Lin Carter’s Thongor series?

The pre-human civilizations were misty, with contradictory legends about them. Tom’s Carnifex were not based on Carter’s Dragon Kings, IIRC. (Neither of us thought very highly of the Thongor novels, though we admired Carter’s work as an editor.)

3) Where were the Mahars located? Related, based on module X1: Isle of Dread, I kind of assume that that was the “Lost Land” region. Were there other such regions?

One of the mountainous areas featured a “Valley of the Thunder Lizards” inspired by Burroughs’ Pellucidar that was ruled by the Mahars. To the best of my recollection this was in the mountains to the east of Darokin, at the headwaters of the Qeda River.

4) Here are my guesses for the cultures, based on the list from the “Languages” sheet and the list you included in the article on Black Gate: Thyatic: Greco-Roman Iasuli: Persia (and Arabs?) Gwynish: Welsh Heldann: Norse (and Balts?) Plirok: Aztec Xoph: Pharaonic Egypt Ethengar: Mongols Ethesti: Ottomans Here are the cultures I can’t quite figure out… Cezavy: Sounds like it should be Russo-Slavic, though such was not listed? Mnokkian: Turks or maybe Scyths, I would think… Glaini: The Dutch, descended from far-wandering Heldanns? Celok: Or are these the Balts? Not sure where the Han Chinese, the French, and the Mughals quite fit… maybe the Darokins are a mix of Heldann and Thyatic forming the Carolingian French?

Okay, let’s see if we can sort this out. The culture list in the Black Gate article was from memory, and doesn't give a one-to-one correspondence with the cultures that ended up in OKW. Here’s my best shot:

Norse = Heldann

Ancient Mediterranean (Greece/Rome) = Thyatis

Ottoman Empire = Ethesti

Mongolian = Ethengar Khanates

Aztec Mexico = Plirok (with Lovecraftian and Tekumel overtones)

Han China got relegated to another continent and forgotten

Celtic Wales = Gwynish

Pharaonic Egypt = Xoph

Hanseatic League Balts crossed with Armenians = Minrothad Guilds

Carolingian France = Glantri, but filtered through C.A. Smith’s Averoigne and Leiber’s Nehwon

Ancient Persia = Ylaruam

Moorish Arabs = Iasuli

Dutch Republic = Darokin

Mughal India = Akoros

Kievan Rus = Cezavy and Sclavak

Byzantine = Corunglain

Mnokki = Scythian / Eastern Turks

Barbary Pirates = Ierendi

5) A few bits and bobs on the map:

A) I have added a large area of plains between Sclavak and the forests of the Hagath. Does that seem right?

High steppes, really. Seems fine.

B) I have placed several different likely locations for the various Orc groups on the map. Are these appropriate? Were they that wide-spread?

They weren't as widespread as you show. Keep the Atruaghin Clans to the east and the Vanog Orcs to the east-central mountains.

C) Were the Malpheggi half-orcs? Similarly, were the Quastog half-elves or half-orcs or a mix of the three races?

The Malpheggi are piscine/human hybrids with the “Innsmouth Look” – there are subsurface colonies of Deep Ones (later brought into D&D as Kuo-Toa) in the Sea of Dread offshore from the Malpheggi Fens.

A note about the races in OKW: they’re much less hard-edged and distinct than in Middle-earth or World of Greyhawk. It’s better to think of them as tribes or ethnicities. All the breeds of humanoid mortals in OKW are inter-fertile, so wherever they’re adjacent there’s a fair amount of intermixing. If you self-identify as an elf, you’re an elf.

The Quastogs of Canolbarth Forest are a tribe suffering under a divine curse; I forget which deity they infuriated, but they were cursed such that most of their infants are stillborn. As a result the Quastog undertake grueling long-distance raids outside Canolbarth in order to abduct children—of any race. So the Quastog, originally Orcish, now look like anything and anybody.

(As an aside, the Quastog share the forest with the Canolbarth elves, but rarely interact with them; that tribe of elves specializes in misdirection magic, so a Quastog hunting party can walk right through an elven camp and not even notice it.)

D) Was there a White Plume Mountain near the city-state of Keraptis?

No, White Plume Mountain didn't exist until I decided to write a sample scenario to persuade TSR to hire me.

E) Were any other continents developed during the course of play?

No, this was plenty. Too much, even.

F) How many moons did the Original Known World have?

One: the Moon. It ruled the twisted lives of all lycanthropes.

G) Was it simply always known as "The Known World" even then, or did you have a different name for the setting?

We called it “The Known World.”

6) You mention that the Original Known World was used by several groups for many adventures between 1976 and 1979. Do you recall any stories or anecdotes from those adventures? Who were the other DMs, other than yourself and Tom Moldvay?

At this point, no, I can’t remember any names – only misty faces.

7) Trips to Mars and other weird realms were all the rage back in the day. Were such experienced by adventurers in the Original Known World?

It was more our practice to bring the aliens to the OKW, e.g., the Tharks.

8) Did you have any special house rules, such as different magic, different classes, multi-classing, critical hits, etc., that applied to the Original Known World?

We did: Tom and I tinkered with the OD&D rules quite a bit, and a few pages of that stuff has survived. I’ll just mention a few of our homebrew rules:

* We dumped all stat-modifications based on gender, e.g., female characters get -1 to strength (because smaller) and +1 to charisma (because cute). I mean, come on.

* We allowed multi-classing, and any race could play any class.

* We dumped racial level limits.

* We added a whole bunch of spells and monsters.

9) The influences from Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith are fairly obvious. But what, if any influence of Moorcock can be found in the Original Known World? Were the alignments of the OKW strongly in the Moorcock tradition?

We weren't all that big on alignment, actually—it seemed to us, even then, to be an oversimplification that was more restrictive than it was useful. Moorcock’s real influence on us was the example of his anti-heroes, which freed us up to put moral choices in the hands of the players, rather than hard-wiring the world into good vs. evil.

10) Where were your personal campaigns based in the Original Known World?

Both Tom and I ran campaigns based in the Republic of Darokin—that enabled players to advance characters in both campaigns simultaneously. Adventures tended to take the characters west into the lands around Lake Amsorak and the Shallow Sea.

11) The "Giants in the Earth" started out as an off-shoot of the Original Known World. Can you recall where some of these characters were based? Were they regarded as home-grown heroes or were they dimensional travelers even in the Original Known World?

When those characters showed up in our campaigns, they were always travelers who had come to the OKW from their world at the behest of some deity or mighty wizard. When their story in the OKW was finished, they usually returned to where they came from.

12) That said, were the cultures of the Original Known World their own, or were the original founders of these realms travelers from our world? In other words, was the Original Known World a parallel dimension/world or was it derived and descended, literally, from travelers from Earth? I’m sure more questions will arise from the answers from this round…

The OKW was its own place. For the sake of player familiarity it was designed to evoke cultures from our own history, but it stood on its own.

And here is the most recent iteration of the full-color Original Known World map. I am considering doing another version that adds the Real World cultural names of each nation... though that would make it a bit crowded... let me know if that might be valuable.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

[Mystara] Lawrence Schick Answers Q's on the Original Known World

Lawrence Schick has finally gotten a chance to answer a few of the questions I put to him regarding the Original Known World as developed by him and Tom Moldvay. Here are the answers to those questions, plus a newly updated version of the Original Known World map.

1) Where are the homelands for the Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes? Why no Halflings?

The Known World was predominantly populated by humans; the most common nonhuman race was the orcs. The races D&D later called “demihumans” were vestiges of an ancient pre-human world.
Elves build no cities and found no nations. They live in small settlements in wooded areas, away from humanity; some tribes are nomadic, migrating according to rules humans don’t understand. The largest concentration of elves is in the Canolbarth Forest.
Dwarves were once more numerous in the mountains, but now the Seven Strongholds have dwindled to one: Rockhome, high in the Altan Tepe mountains.
Gnomes may live almost anywhere, but they are elusive and keep to themselves. They are numerous only in the city-state of Gugonix, but even there they are outnumbered by humans.
Halflings are common in the Republic of Darokin the valley of the Qeda, and their realm of Axhonief constitutes one of the Principalities of Glantri.

2) Were Kzinti and Tharks considered playable races, and where were their homelands? One blogger suggests that Tom Moldvay developed the Rakasta from the Kzinti; do you recall if this is true?

In the Known World campaign, Kzinti were playable as PCs, but Tharks were not, as they were too weird.
Both were nomadic tribes, the Tharks on the Ethengar Steppes, the Kzinti on the Plains of Mnokki. Kzinti organized into mercenary companies that hired out across the western Known World, but the Tharks were barbarians who were enemies of anyone they met.
The Rakasta (introduced in Isle of Dread) were absolutely Tom Moldvay’s D&D version of the Kzinti. BTW, the Tabaxi from the Fiend Folio were my version of the Kzinti, to Tom and I got them into both D&D and AD&D

3) How close were the TSR Known World’s cultures and governments to the Original Known World’s? For example, was the Original Known World’s Glantri ruled by wizards?

They were mostly pretty close, since our Original Known World cultures largely had obvious Earth history equivalents. In Gorllewin the city-state of Glantri was ruled by wizards, but there were other Principalities that were not, such as the halfling state of Axhonief.

4) Do you recall the cultural equivalents of your human cultures? Some are fairly obvious, others a bit mysterious. Was the list derived from the army/culture list in Chainmail?

Definitely not derived from the army/culture list in Chainmail, as we didn’t see those rules until after we’d come up with our own list. Tell me which cultures you find mysterious and I’ll try to clear them up for you.

5) Are there more maps and/or information sheets you can reveal at this time?

This is everything I've got right now, but my friends in Akron might turn up some more, and seeing these have certainly triggered my recollections. Stay tuned…

So as you can see, the reply opens up even further questions... Did the ancient pre-human world include the predecessors of the Carnifex (my theory: the Carnifex were inspired by the Dragon Kings from Lin Carter's Thongar series). Are the Quastog of the Canolbarth half-elves or half-orcs or even further mixed? And I need to put together a list of my guesses for the cultures and their inspirations... And what about the history of the world? The heroes and villains, the events in the several campaigns that took place before Lawrence and Tom went to TSR? Was White Plume Mountain originally set in the Original Known World? So many questions...

This new version of the map takes into account the information on the other races and places them appropriately. I'm still not certain as to the wide-spread nature of the Orcs; that's another question I have for Lawrence. I've also re-calibrated the hex counts; note that the original map has a counting error in it, jumping from column 55 to 60, so rather than 100 columns of hexes there are actually only 96.