Yeah, I am 'Lazy', but not beyond most folks own "sloth". Look, most of my time at a computer or with paper and pen/pencils, I'm doing something, building some aspect of some world.
Case in point, my fantasy world. It took years, decades really, before I was ready to tell the tales set in it, and I'm still not ready to show the whole of the place, The reasearch i'm about to lay out, over the rest of October, well, this was the western part of the setting for the third Billenius Tale in the Journey cycle. Just the first half of the tale of Waking the Stone Gods was set here, after that, it moved over into lands laid out much better for and through the Hunts of Scorpio Kenrai, which makes sense, as both characters are in the tale.
So, let me start with the image that matters first. The map, and yeah, its not recent, these tales were percolating even as dice rolled in this very area...
Three places, the oldest, two known to those who rolled dice against my evil ways then, and one they never found... I lay out the notes on now.
Starting with Site # 13
Gorn - Island with ruins of city of ONE and the Keep still maintained by the renegade death knight, his compatriots and their retinue.
Ten Dread Riders or Death Knights as they are known of in other Realms, had broken away from the control of the Arch-Liches of Namzi-larku-Thandu in the year 89 CA. Since then, Seven of them have been slain in various raids by the Justicars and Guardians over the centuries. Though they are undying, the remaining Knights powers have waned slowly, and their servants have been destroyed or freed to flee. Gorn, the leader of the renegades, and his mage assistant Xajari, an Eye of Fear and Flame, have entered into a pact with their ancient allies, the Kelschites of the Eastern Fiendocracy. For the aid they received the knights have to capture and sacrifice unto a Kelschite Power a humanoid or agent of good in the world once a greater moon.
That is the oldest notes, the one taken from the single line note of: "Bunch undead knights and servants of the Liche-Lords rebelling here... gonna be fun."
And, while known to those playing the game, they never went there.. not sure if they were scared, preferred just having the threat out there of running into a patrol, or what. Note all the tales wrapped into that description. Things I know of, some even laid down.... not finished, but tidbits scattered here and there over the landscape, bits and pieces of larger tales. Someday, I was planning to show this place, have Billenius be held in the dungeons, perhaps, or sit in the great hall for a celebration, not sure which, that was still being worked out, as part of refining Waking the Stone Gods.
You want another place?
18 Tok-Amse-Hemern - castle and walled town center that acts as the seat of the recently formed Bleak Qwelling of the Sarn Confederacy. However the Quwellon mainly lives in the family estate/manor house and its farms near site #21. He comes here only for formal courts.
The Bleak Qwelling is new, in this, but Tok always was there, the first town I created in this world, after the seat of the United Evils... The guys remember circling Tok, avoiding it... the one time they rode up this way, and another group once used it as base, long before the main gaming days. But, Tok is a title, a place designator, and it was not alone....
21 Tok-hemern-Milvandi - Manor house & protected farms that are the home and lesser court of the Quwellon of the Bleak Qwelling, it is a hereidtary castle, which will stay with the family, even though the town to the northwest. the population here is mostly herdsmen of goats, sheep, cattle and some of the megafauna of the Fell Beasts remnants. The population is mainly Annadari stock, with some of the more civilized bands of Vamoi, and a few Noms and Karleekie. The humans are mostly of a naturalist bent, religiously, being Talri and Shalas worshipers, with some Urt worshippers due to the proximity of the Rat Wastes that are his bastion.
The herders have a fighter background due to the expansion into former UE holdings, some being rangers or bounty hunters, others being mercenaries from the companies of the Woodland Brigades who purchased grants of land in the area with their pay. There is a strong priestly/druidical presence here, and due to the proximity of so many draconic lairs, even Mahaabi has some priests and followers in the folk
The gang never found this little place.. walked the other side of the hill at night once, an missed it. What can I say... but things like this help a writer, to build the tale, add little bits of flavor to the tales they tell. Even if indirectly.
A few years back, I even updated the notes on Incorra Heights a bit more.. fleshed it out further, stepped down in scale to look at some landmarks only vaguely hinted in game notes, seeking a place to set a tale some day... Here's the map I worked out, still the same, just zoomed in, added details a bit...
And the notes to go with it... for those who think I was lazy, the only sloth I had was not sloth, just uncertainty at which tale to tell here, and who was telling it.
The Incora Hills, once called the Southern Highlands, is an area of hills that is part of the same dome growth that created the Pocket Hills and Mountains. It is not as eroded, and thus the basement rocks are not as exposed, except in a few areas. As a part of the Pocket Formation, it consists of a moderate dome, extruded beneath the surface, covered with a thick layer of limestone, some 150 to 300 feet thick, and then capped by a red sandstone seam of 30 feet or so. This latter stratum is mixed in with the gray sands that blew in from the Grey desert as well. This gives the stones of this formation a softer red, more pinkish, color. The granites of the basement formation of the intruding dome are exposed in several mountain like peaks, and the rocks of that are a rich black to green, with some marble areas exposed as well. Several of the stony waste areas of this formation, though the rough areas are of eroded sandstone and limestone. Due to its height, only a few pockets in the underworld have been eroded into the limestone, and many of these were filled in with magmas and basaltic flows during the intrusion of the dome. This has created a wealth of ores and precious stones, but they are dangerous to mine, as the limestone formation is severely cracked and weakened from the encroachment of the dome.
The area is of steep and eroded hills, covered with some forests of oak, maple and aspens, ranging from 4500 feet to nearly 7000 feet in altitude. Due to the seasonal monsoon flow it is well watered, but is subject to droughts. Most of the area is covered in a less flammable version of cheat grass and buffalo grass, which turn golden yellow in droughts, but soft green or hazel for the cheat grass in wet times. The scrub that grows here is pinyon oak, juniper, and fire firs. During the summer, fires are common here, and most of the species of plants are adapted to this cycle.
It abounds with the Fell Beasts, and its main predators are the deadly and stealthy smilodons of that origin. Mastadons are present here, as are the alticameli, proghorns antelopes, greater ibex, and al’miraji. The goblinoids and orcs who inhabit the area, as well as a few bands of nomadic Vamoi, herd the mighty aurochs in the grasslands and forests. Herbs grow wild here, as do large areas of feral crops from the days of the Old North Empire, when this was the Incorana Qwelling, which included the bowl of the eastern Central Plains.
A: The Canyon of the Sandy River is really more a broad valley, once heavily orcharded, and home to numerous vinyards. While the vinyards remain, though often despoiled by the coblynnau who farm here now, or the raiding orcs. It has steep walls, and ample spring fed streams feeding into the Sandy River, which runs its length. The canyon has carved down thru the sandstone, limestone and into the basaltic and granite intrusions of the dome here, to create a strange land of rock formations, flats and steep to sheer walls. The angled northern slopes of the canyon are marked by hoodoos, while south side of the canyon is more sheer. The lower portions of the canyon only cut through the sandstone caprock and the limestone basement. A few seams of coal and shales, including a rich band of flint, are exposed in the latter, and give the whole a more banded look than other canyons, even the ones nearby. There is an oil seep near the mouth of the canyon, which provides the tars and naptha used by the coblynnau in their weapons of war, and has allowed them to create an asphalt like road base of late, much like that of the Old North Empire’s earliest roads had.
B: The Low Canyon is a region of draws and canyons filled with ample water from springs along the main canyon walls. The main flow of the stream is rapid and the canyon as a whole is prone to floods. The upper face is a waterfall from a small lake above, that drops over 600 feet in a series of falls, all in separate ropes of water, called the Sheared Rope Falls in the days of the Old North Empire, and now called the shattered falls. The canyon is home to a number of packs of wolves, who hide here from the dragons, orcs, goblins and other enemies they face here.
C: The Canyon and Caverns of Incorana lie over an 22 mile expanse of the central branch of the Incorana River. The area is one of heavily caved karst that has collapsed into a canyon over the main flow of the Middle Incorana. This river is choked with rapids of slowly deteriorating limestone slabs, boulders and gravel bars, as well as numerous section of slate, flint and even some exposed granite of the underlying dome. There are many small communities of the goblinoids in the caves, and the area is used heavily for fishing, as the salmon runs in the river here are still an occurance, as well as other fast water fish being present.
D: The Narrows of the Indoma Gorge (Upper Indoma Canyon) is an area of incredible beauty formed in a bygone age as the Talg Il Enthdo drained from the great damming that had created it as an inland sea during both the Fell Cold and the Long Winter, back to its more current size, or then current. The canyon cuts through, down to the bedrock of the dome, and the nearby traverse folded range of the bottom of the Blue Mountains. Huge quartz veins shot with silver and gold wire line the faces, as do numerous other ancient formations that bear mineral wealth. But the wealth has made the canyon treacherous, it is narrow, with only the steepest of side canyons, most of these are hanging caynons, and the river is filled with numerous and severe rapids and small cataracts. And all the creatures of the area that are aware of the wealth fight within its confines, sending sorties and counter sorties, patrols, even war parties. The bench is narrow, less than 50 feet in many areas, in some it is missing altogether, but at some broader bends in the river here, bench steps of up to five do occur, extending several hundred, up to nearly a half mile on one such area.
E: The Marshy Draws is a series of narrow valleys do not qualify as canyons as there are easily navigable slopes on their sides, even in the rocky barrens area midway up to its source. The area is of a broad stream, often dammed by beavers into a series of lakes and marshes, with numerous branches, separated by low lying ridges of land that are forested lightly to heavily in spots. Wildlife abounds here, and the beaver are the main resources, expecially as they are giants of their kind.
F: Lake of Sedges is a lake that is shallow, and has numerous islets and rises in it that mark it as being the work of some force that made it into a lake. Some surmise that another Roshen operated this lake, but in the long time since the fall of the Old North Empire, the lake has silted up, and that it never had as good of system of weirs, sluices and canals as did the Talg il Roshen to the west. The lake is choked with sedge and payrus that grow not just in the edges of the lake, but in faint shallows that litter it. The lake drains not into a river or stream but a larger marsh of sedge grass and papyrus at its northern end, which eventually forms a stream.
G: The Hoodoos is a the remains of a large amphitheater that is now open and filled with collapsed sandstone formations of spectacular shapes, mostly pillars, but many others as well that cover nearly 5 square miles within this area. The res of the area is forested uplands, abounding with game of the type common to the hills. The Hoodoos are sacred to the local Vamoi, who feel that the area is both spiritually uplifting and inhabited. In fact, the bodies of their kindred are often left on the edges of the amphitheater, or inside it, though many are also left on the bare sandstone folds to the south and east of this area. Bodies are left in stilted platforms, with weapons, some food, and those momentos of their lives as their family, friends, or even enemies deem to leave them with for the next life. Stealing from here before the rack of a body has fallen is dangerous, and considered to be evil by the Vamoi.
H: Grand Spires of the Dome lie at the meeting of the headwaters of the Incorana and Low Canyon. This is a great formation of black and grey marbles and granites, with some green seams within it. The spires are the remnants of a great folding caused by the use of a mage’s earthquake spell in some distant time. The records do not record when this occurred, but there are indications that is was before the time of the Old North Empire, as they are mentioned in many of the explorers of that nation’s documents in the earliest of days. There are a total of 16 spires, each nearly a quarter mile wide at their base, all have their folds aimed up and to the north, and the ground to the north is a tumble of rocks and boulders, in a field of gravels and sands. Some scrub oak, a few maples, and scattered groves of aspen that ring the spires do occur. The spires all rise from 300 to 500 feet above the surrounding talus from their erosion, and the talus add another 200 to 250 feet to their height.
I: Stones of Shalas is a region of eroded and forested stone formations in the sandstone and limestone layers, with three mighty spires of exposed Green Marble. Most of these formations are shaped like trees, and thus blend in. The hoodoos are well separated, and the tower above the trees. Though some are slim, and unstable, most are wide and broad, stable for millennia more to come. They are an area sacred to the two tribes of goblins, and the band of Vamoi converted to the worship of Shalas, and protected by a group called the Druith, a band of mixed race shamans, who speak to the nature spirits, even though they worship Shalas as the lord of Nature, and his spouse Talri as the protector of nature. The trees here are exclusively white birch, aspen and maples, with many bushes and smaller fruit trees clustered near the three great towers, the olivine and green marble tower to the northwest is the tallest is the Temple of Shalas, the southern tower, which leans towards the Temple is Talri‘s Spire which is made of grey granite, and to the east is the black basalt pyramid structure of rock known as Lini‘s Tor.
J: Talg il roshen (Company Lake) was created by a roshen, or company during the days of the Old North Empire, and made by damming the stream of the valley to a shallow height. It was created to power a series of mills, textile spinners and to give irrigation to the valley it lay in a more stable and lasting ability. The roshen held this area in grant from the Quwellon of its founding, and it was renewed by each of her successors as the roshen was very well run, and honest in its dealings with the farmers and others in the area. The dam was only 12 feet high when built, and now stands at 40 feet high, it is made of stones and earth, with several weir, or sluice, gates, which allow the water to fall over the waterwheels of the mills. While the mills as of 1279 are abandoned, and the waterwheels now rotted or washed away, the mill houses still stand as roofless and gutted ruins, as they were made of stone, brought from the Sandstone quarries to the east. There are a total of 8 races, each powering several mills in their fall to the valley floor, and each built up on an earthen dike that extend downstream. There is also a flood race to the west end of the dam, built at a height of 35 feet. The sluice races have metal roll gates that still stand, though long since rusted closed, at a height of 33 feet on the dam. These latter gates also rise to a height of 39 feet. The roshen was the Roshen il Rontait Ilge on Tal or Company for the Protection of the Waters of the Pond.
K: Northern Spire is the northern most exposed section of the pluton of granite that formed the dome of the Incora Hills. It is very jagged, and the area around it is an eroded bowl , drained by a draw to the south -south west and the Western Incorana. It is a haunt of many birds that use it to nest on, as its inaccessible crags give better protection to their young. Many other birds also nest on the benches and cliffs of the surrounding hills. It was once a watch point for the Old North Empire, but the stairs that were carved into the tor have long since eroded away.
L: Tower of the Sandy Gate marks the western edge of the massive dome, and is the only one that is used still as a watch point, having at some time had a tower carved into the very stones of its peak. At present it serves as an outpost of the goblinoids of the Central Plains, but they rarely keep much force here, as it is their southern most point of control.
M: The Rampart of Indoma marks the eastern edge of the pluton beneath the dome of the Incora Hills, and is a strange solid mass of gray and green granites, olivines, and marbles. It has been polished nearly smooth on its east face, the shear cliff that drops to the valley of the Indoma, and its other faces are crumbling, rotten with cracks and faults. The eastern base of the Rampart is littered with the markers, made from the talus at the foot of the Rampart, of the Legions who during the building of the Empire, and its conquest of the southern coast, died. As the legions came back this way, they stopped here, to commemorate their dead in eternal stone, as a tribute to the fidelity of death.
N: Gravel Bars of the Incorana lie at the point where the Incorana no longer can bear the gravels and coarser sands in its flow, as it slows to the pace of the gentle prairies beyond to the Talg Il Enthdo. Here the river spreads out, and weaves a devious course through the area, dropping its loads of sediments, into great bars of sand and gravel that constantly force the river to change its coarse through the area.
O: Midrivers Tower is a formation of granite mixed with viens of olivine and some poor grade jade, that thrusts out and forces the separation of the Incorana into its first two branches as one heads upstream into the Incora Hills. Once this formation was used to house troops on its top, who used it as a lookout point for the plains to the north.
P: Amethyst Peak which marks the upper end of the Indoma Canyon or gorge, is a peak of gentle quartz, laced with amethyst and an ocassional diamond of blue or purple color. The peak is the remains of an old pipe from some ancient vulcanism in the area, and the soil around it, while rich and fertile, is still “kimberlite”, and leaves gem hunters who know of it excited, giddy, and disappointed, as the pipe while rich in amethyst, lacks the other precious stones.
Q: The Marble and Jade Quarries
R: Zweitterhorn (Twin Peaked Rock)
S: The Zungelnhorn (Snakes Tongue)
T: Incorana Valley
U: Spires of the River
V: Talg il Incorana (Lake Incora)
W: The Softstone Quarries
X: The Artesian Springs
Y: Grey Shiprock
Z: Incora Dunes (sand lake)
Yeah, it was never finished, but that is not the point. The spots I wanted were done, the others I could add or leave as just distant mentions in the tale... And this is what I'm telling other writers.. do your layouts of terrain well, and you have a great play ground to tell many tales in...
In a few days, I'll share something else, how to build a civilization... or at least, how I did. Up to you how you create yours.
In a few days, I'll share something else, how to build a civilization... or at least, how I did. Up to you how you create yours.
Oh, and Tip of the Hat to the boys and gals who used to be known as.... NAGA... Yeah, you walked the lands first, but not all was there and seen...
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