(Note: this post is part of my Example of World Creation series. For a full index to the series, head here. )
(If you want to see where we are, the full world map is here. )
Today we’re exploring a vast stretch of hill country. It’s a big area, but it won’t take too long to determine what’s going on there, since it breaks down into just three Regions.
Let’s take a look:
Here’s a bigger, zoomable version of this map.
As you can see, the hill country is divided into three main Regions: two Wilderness Regions to the North, and one Monstrous Region to the south. Who lives there? Let’s start with the Wilderness Regions.
The Two Wilderness Regions in the North of the hill country
Who lives here? Let’s do both at once.
(Rolling for Population Type…)
Humans in the Western Region, Minotaurs in the Eastern Region.
Fair enough. Actually, that works well, since the Westernmost of the two Regions is so close to Valiroth, which bends around it, following the River Rulerun, that humans are quite likely to be found here sometimes. Though bear in mind that these are Wilderness regions, so there’s not likely to be very many people of any sort around.
What about Themes for these two regions?
(Rolling for Themes…)
Poor (West) and Militaristic (East).
That makes sense- but it makes more sense if I swap them around, so I do that. Now the Western, Human Region is “Militaristic” (presumably because the few humans who are occasionally found here are patrols sent out from Valiroth) and the Eastern, Minotaur region is “Poor” (presumably because anyone trying to eke a living out of the Wilderness gets eaten by minotaurs…). Great!
Before naming these two wilderness Regions, let’s see who rules that third – Monstrous – Region down south..
The Monstrous Hills
Who rules this monstrous realm?
(Rolling for Population Type….)
Minotaurs
Again! The odds were strongly against that. Well, that’s a huge coincidence, but it certainly makes a lot of sense – the minotaurs that are sometimes found in the Wilderness region to the north must be from here. Theme?
(Rolling for Theme…)
Poor.
Just like the other Minotaur Region! It seems as if my dice are really on rewind-and-repeat mode today – but let’s accept those results, since they make a lot of sense. What we now have is an impoverished land, stretching over two Regions, ruled over by a brutal caste of Minotaur overlords. Probably there are other species here, including humans, but all toil under the yoke (see what I did there? Role reversal!) of their monstrous minotaur masters, and they suffer great poverty and deprivation as a result. Great.
It occurs to me that these minotaurs might end up being our campaign’s Orcs – meaning the default monstrous opponent that you don’t mind killing, because, hey, minotaur.
Get to the names! Roll up cool names for everything!
Your wish is my command.
Now for names. Let’s name the minotaur realm first. It needs a “Proper Name,” but sadly I don’t have a “Minotaur Name elements” table. Silly of me! Let’s try some Orcish instead.
(Rolling for a name…)
Ugmor.
Yup, that certainly sounds like something a Minotaur might say. Great.
(Rolling for some more names…)
The first wilderness Region, in the North-West of the hill country (the one with Militaristic Humans): The Redfells, presumably because Valirothian patrols regularly see action here, and that gets bloody..
The second wilderness Region, in hte North-East of the hill country (this is the Poor, one that sometimes houes Minotaurs): The Gauntfells – presumably because it’s very poor, rocky soil, where nothing good can grow; and the minotaurs of Ugmor have free rein to despoil it.
The truly monstrous region in the south of the hill country: The Broodfells – presumably because this is where the Minotaur “breed,” raise their “broods”, and “brood” over wrongs done to them, dreaming of “blood” and violence…
And that’s it for the Hill Country – which we’ll now call The Hornfells, since it used to belong entirely to the Minotaurs, until the Valirothians managed to drive them out of the Redfells (more or less). Let’s take a look:
Here is a bigger, zoomable version of this map.
In the next post, we’ll head East to find out what lurks in the massive, monstrous swamp that you can just see peeping over the right-hand edge here. It’s vast and monstrous – so be prepared for horrors!
(And as always, here’s the big world map again, in case you want to see where we’re headed.)
Here is a bigger, zoomable version of the map.
The Collaborative Gamer 
