The City
A coalition of 3 towns that were built close to one another. Additional infrastructure and fortification started getting added later in response to the official unification of them.
The City has no official ruler or hierarchy. The Academy effectively controls 1 of the segment towns, the Knights effectively control another, and the third is slowly coming under the control of the new Merchant's Guild. Both Academy and Knights are rather hands-off, but they've both generated pseudo-nobles by repayment of favor for services rendered. The Merchant's Guild is more straightforward in money being the key to power and status, though their roots are more in line with what could have been a normal set of craftsman guilds.
The Academy is the center of magical research, learning, and archival. The Knights are largely invested in the accumulation of raw destructive power, but that part of them isn't as well known as their systems of support for adventurers, oversight of bounties, and willingness to grant opportunities of glory, training, and power to those that serve their interests. The Academy and Knights don't interact directly a lot, but they have a lot of functional agreements due to aligned goals; most frequently the Academy will offer magic in some form to the Knights in exchange for helping them gain materials and data.
The Merchant's Guild emerged through some clever bargaining and the shortsightedness of the leading craftsmen. You can think of them like the world's first central bank. Their first goal before they consider themselves officially established is to gain an economic alliance with every other town. Any such town accepts City currency. Any currency can be exchanged for City currency in the City at an exchange merchant. Currency from outside the formalized alliances is valued highly as it will allow a gradual economic domination of the non-compliant towns. Most towns don't care all that much - the economic exchange with the City does bring a refreshing availability of new items, and the Guild hasn't started closing their fist yet.
The Academy no longer handles their own bounties, they have an official arrangement with the Merchant's Guild to take care of them. The Knights have a different way of handling things, and have declined that same offer from the Merchant's Guild. The effect ends up being that bounties from the Knights don't pay as well, but they offer better opportunities for an adventurer. Bounties from the Knights are also clearer about estimated risks involved, and they are a necessity for anyone trying to curry favor with the Knights. (Yes, the Merchant's Guild has some plants in the Knights.)
The City has several temples, but one has risen above the others due to their training of healers. Healing magic can be learned and taught like any other, but the knowledge is a trade secret of this temple and so their relationship with the Academy has had some tense moments. A normal party can buy single spell castings from the temple, but the prices for hiring a healer into your team are very high and practically a symbol of nobility (luckily healing potions exist). It's possible for an outpost of this temple to be made in some towns allied with the Merchant's Guild (similar monetary motives), but I think it'd be more sensible to only have an occasional visiting healer, perhaps with a Merchant Guild caravan. Most adventurers simply learn to manage without the convenience. The Academy has managed to negotiate access to a handful of weak spells from the temple.
The City's Academy could be considered a kind of temple. It actually had a very similar start to one, though no one who remembers the details bothers to connect the dots. It was founded by a wizard, naturally, and like most wizard dogmas, it reinforced scientific and academic pursuits. You can barely even call it a dogma, really, it's just some nerds holing up to do nerd things. (No, the Knights were not a martial temple, it was a gradual change in value priorities over generations of different leaders.)
Poisoned Quarry
Started primarily as a quarry for resources. Secondary function as a trench to defend against giants from the south.
A battle with a dragon in the quarry caused the ignition in the depths. The quarry had to be abandoned, as efforts to extinguish the fire proved useless.
There were several volatile minerals being extracted from this quarry, and they are currently burning and producing a constant supply of toxic gas. This gas has a yellowish hue, can shut down the central nervous system, and acts as a mild corrosive. The gas only rises so high, but wind carries it through a perimeter around the quarry. The dragon's corpse is still in there, reduced to bones now, with a Carbuncle lodged in its skull. There are, of course, many other bones down there, but none are
animated.
The depths of this quarry are not terribly deep, but it's widespread and branching, making it a feat to explore even for the magically protected team. There are vaguely 3 levels of depth, most notable now by the fire-induced features. At depth 1, the walls and ceiling bleed with molten sulphur (which looks like blood). At depth 2,
there are blue fires in various places (sulphur again). At depth 3, paths are broken by streams of molten metal.
The Carbuncle is actively cursing the fire in the quarry to get stronger and never extinguish, so attempting to take some fire out could cause a disaster in a town. If the Carbuncle is killed, the fire will begin to die. There is some fire to the south of the quarry as well that has spread some over the years and helped to dissuade intrusion, so the death of this Carbuncle will lead to the giants returning (this is not known). Somehow scooping up and dumping cursed fire into the Carbuncle will effectively dispose of that fire hazard, but it's a big waste of time.
The primary resources to collect are algaes, mushrooms, and crystals.
Illusory Forest
Was a normal forest in the past, but now the forest acts as a trap that monsters cannot escape from. People attempting to explore this forest find that they suffer hallucinations, which makes the prospect of navigating all the trapped monsters ludicrous. This is all that's really known about the forest.
A Chittering Mirage is the cause. It creates visual and audio hallucinations, generally revolving around signs of specific monsters. It also produces psionic noise that hinders the cognitive function of anyone in its field. The major effect is a hard barrier that denies passage away from the other effects (only works if the target is afflicted to begin with).
The Chittering Mirage's real body is a sort of scaled blob on a tree somewhere in the forest. It's decently camouflaged under mundane circumstances. Finding it would be very difficult since proximity is not clued by effect strength. If it ever dies, there will be a big swarm of monsters flowing out from the forest.
The trees themselves are what the effects are bound to, acting as a sort of extension for the body of the Chittering Mirage. The wood, specifically - the leaves, pollen, seeds, etc. don't have a real link. Any expansion of the forest expands the perimeter of effects. Any wood removed from the forest carries a milder form of the effects.
Magic monsters do not innately repel each other, but they are uncomfortable or agitated around others, so there are few that wander in to the forest.
Deadlands
[labeled "necro" on the map]
This is where the necrobuilders all went to to resolve their internal conflict. They didn't come back. It's pretty tough getting out here, so no one's explored it yet. The land was heavily terraformed by the manual labor of thousands of undead over years. It's an artificial valley in the middle of a mountain range. It's filled with negative energy, making anyone entering become quite ill, keeping plantlife from growing, staving off most monsters, and keeping the undead all functioning at peak performance.
Despite the landscape being quite dead, it'll be plain to see that there were some large battles here in the past. There are also a number of citadels remaining, filled with unknown treasures. Also the culturally important secret of what really happened to them all. The secrets to their style of necromancy can be reverse engineered with the information here.
None of the necrobuilders are alive, but I'm not prepared to say that they aren't still there.
Desert Empire
[out west, not pictured in map]
Worth mentioning even though it won't be visited in-game, since people from there will be around. Does not follow the same rules as the mainland; they openly cohabit with monsters as it suits them. This is an organic result of environmental pressures - they prayed for help and monsters answered. From there, the only cultural note to mention is an inclination toward efficiency. A large percentage of the population are reptilian, and it's safe to say all lizards hail from there.
They do not fully grasp the cultural divide between them and the mainland. They have mostly figured out that mainlanders react poorly to monsters. A centralized government puts pressure on the summoners to never travel east due to (one-sided) diplomatic tensions. A war is probably inevitable, but they would wish to put it off until they can understand the mainland's might better. This war will end up happening sooner than desired (and have surprising/disastrous results for both sides), due to information reaching the summoners that the mainland has different monsters, resulting in many summoners travelling east for the sake of progress. There is no formal diplomatic training for mercenaries, but the ones that utilize magic pacts with monsters all basically get lucky and manage to not create a diplomatic disaster.
There are more assassin-specialist mercs from the desert than the mainland, but the nature of mission typically being disease outbreak cleanup prevents deep questioning into why.
There's a lack of historical records, naturally, but it's easy to imagine that dragons are based on early encounters with desert lizards. This is backed up by them having no concept of what a dragon is.
The capital of the empire is very tyrannical. Monster pacts are selectively enforced in exchange for rights, yet magical benefits are restricted by having lined nearly all buildings with anti-magic crystals. Due to the abstract prices extracted from monster pacts, this ends up with a deeply enslaved populace. I use the word "populace" loosely. It's really just an elaborate farm to feed the favorite monsters of the elite, with the added benefit of having a practically compliant stock of labor. They are left with enough internal capacity to generate the thoughts and emotions that monsters enjoy. The state of the capital is a sort of open secret within the empire, which ironically puts the citizens who would comprise the bottom class close to the nobility.
There are some more functional cities around, not much to remark on with them.
Because there is a central leadership, projects are pursued much more efficiently with focused resources and dedicated personnel. They keep a standing military not for monsters, but for quelling rebellions - the fighting can get intense since they're all beefed up with monster power, but the military has the benefit of cutting edge magitech (think more cybernetics than laserguns). The only real fighting done is against people, and this is why they have a lot of assassination skills being taught to mercs. The talented ones are, of course, employed directly by government organizations, but even the regular ones have proven quite effective in helping do dirty purges out east in the mainland (reptiles are immune to rabies, but the truth is that they're all getting magically bolstered constitution from monster pacts).
Since the Empire has a strong academic division dedicated to monsters, there is much more knowledge about monsters there. This includes knowledge of their true weaknesses, but since monsters are largely products of personal problems, there are many in the mainland that are unknown to the Empire. [in about 80 years, they will start to figure out that brainwashing small towns can make new monsters and will create some huge disasters]
You shouldn't even have to ask where they get food and water in the desert. They get everything they want from monsters, in exchange for everything they think they don't need.
Culturally, they have no fear of water. But the monsters of the deep aren't willing to negotiate, so they're having a hard time setting up anything like a harbor.
Map
1. A passage through the mountains (there used to be a mountain here). There are multiple routes through, but only one is secured and maintained. A toll is charged for passage through that route and there's at least an outpost connected to it. Likely managed by lizardfolk, but they work with furs. The rabies outpost event occurs in this area, on a secondary route that's intended to be used as an alternate (for those ez toll tendies).
2. Mountain mine built by necrobuilders. Very deep. Catbox ore at the bottom. Still has skeletons mining throughout it, though some are gradually being abducted, unbeknownst to people.
3. Magically constructed shoal, an attempt to cross the sea - unusable due to monsters. Has pushed the wetlands to the north into becoming a salt marsh.
4. A new town in the desert. Started as a lizard outpost for traveling east through the mountains, but the nearby salt resource attracted merchants enough to fund an expansion. The lizards get a cut just for helping with security.
5. Wind carries poison gas through this region, withering plantlife and sporadically killing wandering animals. This creates a ridge that is technically traversable between the Poisoned Quarry and the Illusory Forest, but the forest contains ranged attackers and the poison requires air security.
6. Town having monster problems due to taking wood from Illusory Forest.
Allied with 15 and 16. Also allied with the City.
7. Town cooperating with monsters. Very little exchange with other towns, so this is not publicly known. They are helping monsters keep the Illusory Forest from overtaking the marsh as part of a treatice.
8. Approximate location of progenitor territory. This progenitor's inclination is anatomy, yet no new creatures have been sighted... No chimeras unleashed as of yet, considered a priority assignment to eliminate the target before it reaches that stage, but intelligence demands a carefully selected team to draw it out. Perimeter in progress of being established, not easy because of 9b.
9. Bird settlements, two of them.
9a is one ruled by a griffin, so those guys are trapped.
9b is more normal, there will be hoofmen somewhere around the area for the birds to enslave.
10. Town that holds official control over the mountain mine. The Knights give them iron ore as payment for taking other resources from the mine. The mine is too large and dangerous to send in normal workers to, so this town has little bargaining power. [deleted]'s home town, he got some easy exposure to the Knights for getting worked here as a cub.
Allied with 12. Also allied with the City.
11. Three towns built by the wizards.
11a is the only one still functioning as a town.
11b is a ruin built on top of the river. They made a poor assumption about water monsters.
11c was a successful town, but has been taken over by monsters after a raid.
12. The rare forest town. [deleted]'s home town, her agility and acrobatics were honed by the local environment.
Allied with #10. Also allied with the City.
13. [deleted]'s home town. Has more retired adventurers than usual, since it's somewhat isolated by lack of alliance and a nice geographic location. The local militia would therefore be better trained than usual. A decent amount of the retirees got their wealth from other towns, so they couldn't make much use of their money here. Most of it was converted to tradeable goods and consumer goods before moving in, but they'd all keep a stash of other currency just in case (this is how [deleted]'s enrollment gets paid for by his parents). Any retirees feeling up for some action would probably head to 11a for it, but that should be rare, as such persons would have just moved there to begin with.
No formal alliances.
14. Twice-ruined town. First lost during fights with giants before the quarry was built. Rebuilt to aid in logistical support when quarry work began, but destroyed by poison after dragon event.
15. Past rearguard fort from the giant war. Functions as a town now. [deleted]'s home town. There should be a watchtower here.
Allied with 6 and 16. Also allied with the City.
16. Just a normal town near a forest. Reported details of 8.
Allied with 15 and 6. Also allied with the City.
17. Town with the buried spire and labyrinth. The town where [deleted] gets worked by "time magic". You could call it a tourist trap that draws in adventurers from the City. Eventually someone will realize the labyrinth attraction is utilizing a monster tamer, and the Knights will have to order a purge. The buried spire is a little different from normal spires; this one is a prison - the prisoner is forgotten and there's no longer a method to open it. It was done in secrecy, so the necrobuilders thought it was a normal spire and built a labyrinth around it just to fuck with the wizards. It all got buried later by an enterprising wizard who wanted to utilize the site to found a settlement, so it's like a wide hill that's hollow with a couple entrances - the town proper is on top in the open. The architecture is shoddy elementalist crap.
Allied with the City.
18. Only town where anybody bothers to learn how to maintain the bridges. Research on water and fluid engineering. You'd think they would have some support from the Knights or the Academy since they're breaking new ground, but the research is seen as total folly.
Formerly allied with 7, but 7 cut off all contact. Being pressured to ally with the City due to recent isolation.
19. The section of mountains where the party will cross to the Deadlands.
20. Dream Forge, a factory of supernatural armaments created during the war with the giants. Still in production. Important facility for the Knights, practically a second headquarters where all dangerous items are stored and heavily guarded.
Holds a supply line with the City, establishing one of the few somewhat safe roads.
??. Weather Void, a soul steel citystate with walls that stretch beyond the clouds. the guy who made it was troubled by bad weather, so he stuck with the first design that blocked it out. Status publicly unknown, they've had their doors sealed for years. The citizens have all become enslaved by a magic monster, as they bargained for salvation from a distemper outbreak and were all rendered into a state of unlife. Full purge will be required.
Somewhere northeast, perhaps in the salt marsh (built prior to it becoming a salt marsh). Visible from far off, an eyesore.
??. Trash Pit, a large sinkhole that was quite ominous and avoided in the past (no civilized man knows what it was called before). This is where all the horrible buildings left behind in central and western mainland by the wizards were hauled off to and dumped by the necrobuilders. So now it's called Trash Pit. It is not ominous anymore, but it is a lot more dangerous because a lot of monsters are thriving in those supernatural structures. Getting in and out would be feats in the first place, but traversing the strange Dr. Seuss-like architecture infused with unknown attributes is another factor, as well as trying to traverse between the structures that were dumped atop one another. Finally, it's linked to the underground cave system that leads to the dreaded underground river.
While this technically made everything worse...at least now no one has to look at that godawful architecture. Over the years, many things have been thrown into the pit that people wished to forget.
??. unnamed location, north of the City. Used to be a lake, but dried up after a mountain was destroyed, which re-aligned the water flow. It was destroyed by a test soul steel weapon, commissioned by one of the past Knights leaders, but the power was considered too great and they threw it into the lake, not realizing that mountain was the primary water lead for it. So the lake started drying and plans had to be made to eventually retrieve it, lest some intelligent monster find it. But it ended up underneath a hard domain that had been growing at the bottom of the lake. The "water temple" domain got cleared secretly since they really wanted to keep this weapon quiet, and it was quite unpleasant because of cultural fear along with water temples always being annoying. The weapon is now stored in the vaults at Dream Forge with the other things that could destroy the planet.
