Map 22 - The Dry Lands

[waldronate]

### Latest WIP ###
wip0.jpg
I decided to start with relative scale on something with which I am broadly familiar. My scale is a little bit off, but 10% one way or another isn't going to be a problem here, I think.

So... We have a Pangaea situation here. I got one of three landlocked areas and one with virtually no mountains (plays to my strengths, this does). From the presumably high mountains around and distance from the seas, this place will look like the Taklimakan, but much drier. Little to no annual rainfall, but snow/glacier-fed rivers to make things work. The river lengths would let the Nile fit as a tributary on that big river. Probably a river-dependent civilization like the Egyptians. I'll think a bit on this.

[J.Edward]

Within your country bounds, you can make some changes to it - mountains if you want/need them, changes to rivers, add in some lakes or even a big sea.
When I set it up I was working off Robbie's map, so the waters and elevation were to some degree already set.
But I was concerned with someone getting the landlocked areas. If you, or you and Chashio wanted to work out a large inland sea, that would be cool, especially as we don't seem to have any of them.

[Chashio]

I was thinking of maybe putting some kind of water in the northern part of my country but I haven't gotten there yet. If you'd like to do something with that I'd be cool with it.

[Barek333]

That is one huge river (starts in my and gamerprinters maps). It is probably a huge trade route with all the southern lands.

OOT : Chashio there must be some good reason I dont cut that little umbilical cord that connects you to the sea

[waldronate]

A little more layout work

### Latest WIP ###
wip1.jpg

So the stunties have their own homeland in the mountains, the northern neighbors are taken care of, there's a rich area, the place that's being systematically dismantled by a mad (or merely angry) god, and some room for expansion. I'm looking to put a "city" every hundred miles or so around the perimeter of the central round zone (roughly 28 of them). These cities are like fixed bases for army ant colonies. Every hundred years or so, one or more cities will forage afield into the neighboring areas, stripping the lands. Much of the foraged material is fed back to the central area, where the god consumes it. During these times, the river boils and the land burns.

Big plans, little artistic ability...

[Tonnichiwa]

Well, you've certainly got more artistic talent than I've got. It'll be great to see what you do here. Your idea is a little frightening but awesome!

[Falconius]

I for one am glad that Chashio's Fey Kingsom stands between my land and the dark nighmare your madmen have built. Clearly the heat has boiled delicate nodules in biological brains and driven them all insane.

Really though, this looks awesome. Some great ideas.

[waldronate]

I figure that the raiding wouldn't go more than 100 miles or so out from any given city (except for that recent multi-city excursion to the north that wiped out a good chunk of the south parts of the northern neighbor). That's mostly within the main area bounds, so the neighbors are largely safe except from the unpleasant river effects. We also offer carry-away service for dead bodies to replenish the husk armies, so don't go burning those plague victims just yet!

That wide reddish border on the circle area is just about 20 miles wide for scale.

[Barek333]

Can I get some info on the Dorfome, and also what does happen in the God area with the river coming from my lands

[waldronate]

Dorfome (Dwarf-Home in their disgusting and corrupt language) is just some generic mountains on the edge of the desert building back up into regular mountains behind towards your area. Mostly mining and trading, nothing too significant and otherwise sparsely populated.

The rivers through the areas are going to encounter a few cataracts (as with the Nile) that will require portages. The natural disaster that is the god and its parings won't affect the river much except to make the area unlivable by normal humanoids. Passable, but fairly risky to do so (think massive bandit encampments at the portages to make it a high-risk travel). It would probably be lower risk (shorter and less dangerous) to run caravans through the mountains toward the sea or to the Lesser Trade River (or whatever you folks call it) than to try to sail directly down the river.

Think of the god area as a massive barrier to trade through the interior desert. The desert would be bad, but when an area is active, it will become effectively deadly. However, an area might not see a recurrence of destruction for a thousand years or so. Whole kingdoms can rise and fall during those times. Intrusions into the exclusion zone during inactive phases might not be noticed, but they might also trigger an area-wide disaster as happened to the northern empire after a long hiatus. Consider also the Tradelands, a set of smallish kingdoms that have become prosperous since the god's last harvest in their area and are now beginning to get close to the red zone.