Saturday Worldbuilding is a weekly project wherein yours truly builds a world from scratch in a disorganized bid to express what I think makes a world useful and interesting.
So, now it’s time to pan the camera back out a bit. We have a kingdom and a city that we can set a campaign around, and we know who lives there. Know we need to sketch out the rest of the world a bit.
We know that our central tension is between democracy and autocracy. There’s a sort of Cold War happening between two alliances, each headed by a major power and exemplifying one side or the other of the tension. Now we need to sketch in enough details about the world around Deira to give it some texture.
The first thing I did was sketch out a map with a few named countries. The green circles are democratic countries. The orange circles are autocratic circles. The purple circles don’t belong to either group. Red lines are land routes, and blue lines are sea routes.
I decided to continue with Latin for the democratic country names, and I used a map of Greek city-states to name the autocratic countries. Aquatania is the primary democratic power and a majority orc country. The democratic countries are part of the Aquatanian Alliance. The autocratic countries are part of the Cydonian Empire, headed by the majority elf Cydonia.
This week I’m going to flesh out the alliance and the undeclared states. I’ll use much the same process I have over the past several weeks, but it’ll be abbreviated into a bulleted list.
Aquatania
- Free Aquatania is governed by a senate with senators from each of approximately 300 parishes.
- Aquatania is bordered on the east by mountains and on the west by desert.
- It’s the breadbasket of the west and also has ample forests and some mines in the mountains.
- There are expansionist and isolationist factions within its government.
- They have a festival in honor of the overthrow of a tyrannical king.
Rhaetia
- The halfling homeland is concealed in high mountain valleys.
- It’s governed by various village mayors.
- They’re known for the export of fine wines and for boisterous harvest festivals.
- Their conflict is quiet, driven by merchants who do business with both sides of the cold war.
New Calabrasia
- A sunny jungle peninsula, New Calabrasia is majority orc with a large goliath minority.
- It was the last foothold of the Calabrasian Empire on the western continent.
Old Calabrasia
- The former seat of the Calabrasian Empire, much of Calabrasia is mountainous.
- Old Calabrasia is considered behind the times.
- It is a poor nation, but it’s home to a hidden wizard’s school.
- Old Calabrasia hasn’t taken a side. It’s government, an impoverished monarchal regime, hopes to use the conflict to gain power.
Ynys Mel
- Ynys Mel is an island nation, home to goblinoids.
- It’s a highly civilized place, overseen by powerful merchant families.
- It serves as a midway point between the alliance and the empire.
There are just two more posts in this series. Next week, we wade into the empire, and then we’ll wrap this up. Until next time!
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