Excerpt from the Players’ Guide to the Wilderlands

The Wilderlands setting details an area slightly smaller than the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding lands. Unlike many current published settings where everything has been discovered and most of the world is known, the Wilderlands are largely unexplored and overland travel is dangerous. There are few “nations.” Instead, the lands are dominated by “city states,” principle among them being the City State of the Invincible Overlord and Viridistan, the City of Spices—also known as the City State of the World Emperor. The City State of the Invincible Overlord so dominates the Wilderlands, that many campaigns run in this setting are often called City State Campaigns.

Though the civilization of the Wilderlands centers mostly on the largest city states: Viridistan, the City State of the Invincible Overlord, Tarantis, Valon, Rallu and Tula, these locations are small in comparison to the vast forests, expansive plains, open seas, trackless deserts, imposing mountains and wild rivers. The light of civilization in the Wilderlands is a dim spark against the dark wilds.

The Wilderlands is a setting in decline. Long ago empires covered the region. But great wars, with the gods themselves fighting alongside men, has reduced the splendor of those past civilizations, leaving them in ruins. The most recent such war was the War of the Pious and Philosophers, pitting the followers of magic against the followers of science. That war was some 6000 years ago (though that date is disputed). Cities that do exist today are generally built on the sites of ancient cities, some among the ruins themselves. Broken roads, crumbled walls, sunken buildings and half-ruined towers dot the landscape, a constant reminder of the faded past.

Life in the Wilderlands can be summed up for the average commoner as follows: Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. The average life expectancy is twenty years unless one lives in a walled city or town such as the City State, Viridistan, Thunderhold, Modron, Warwik or other large cities, in which it is only a little higher. Almost all Human families produce at least ten children, of whom two or three may live long enough to have children of their own. In the wilderness villages, wandering monsters and the raids of nomads, brigands and various humanoid species which are inherently evil are the bane of many. Rampant, unchecked disease is common to both walled city and wilderness village; so is infant mortality. The dangers of wandering monsters are lessened in a walled city or town, but the concentration of people in a small area leads to a high crime rate and poor sanitation; therefore, instead of being slain by a marauding dragon, a city dweller may have his throat slit for the contents of his purse. Few men manage to live past the ripe old age of thirty-five, and the fact that a man is fifty or sixty years old indicates great wisdom on his part (or an incredible run of luck).

Welcome to the Wilderlands, where life is cheap, travel is dangerous and a strong sword arm is worth more than a purse full of gold!

This is Not Our World

The setting of the Wilderlands is very different from the world we know. In some ways it resembles our world around 500 AD. Travel is dangerous, trade is sparse, and might makes right. Few people receive a formal education, and fewer still can read. Mortality rates are high both for infants and adults. Food shortages, disease, and violence are depressingly common. High birthrates and high mortality rates combine to cheapen the value of life and produce a sense of powerlessness.

In other ways, the Wilderlands setting is powerfully unlike ours. Gods actively cultivate worship and punish transgressors. They also sometimes answer calls for help. Magic wipes away some of the troubles of the world, for the privileged few who wield or purchase such services. Wizards can teleport to familiar locations around the world, clerics can channel energy from their gods to heal the sick and conjure food for the hungry. For all the power at their disposal, though, their resources are limited.

Monsters lurk in the wilds and the ruins, and civilization is little more than a muddy scratch on the surface of a teeming and unbridled world. Many monsters are far more powerful than their civilized adversaries. Dreadful dragons, demons, the walking dead, and sanity-rending horrors lurk just outside of reach. Humans are not the only (or most) intelligent animal, either. Humans as a whole may be the dominant race (if they thought of themselves as a single people), but intelligent beings come in a dizzying variety of shapes – some of them humanoid.

Races

Humans ostensibly dominate the Wilderlands, but the tribal divisions between humans are just as strong as the divisions between civilized race. An Alryan sellsword would look on a Ralluvan bard or Antillian merchant with just as much fear and distrust as he would a dwarven engineer.

In most settlements, racial composition is a mixture of the local human stock with a smattering of elf, half-elf, dwarf, and halfling. Certain locales, especially the major city states, feature a much more diverse population. Places like Tula may see non-humanoids circulating freely as slaves, visitors, or even citizens.

Magic

On a basic level, magic is present in almost every community in the Wilderlands. A community’s viability often hinges upon someone to cast a few spells, especially create water, purify food and drink, and the various cure spells. This requires a cleric or similar spellcaster, or the attention of a doting god.

Clerics develop more powerful healing and restorative spells (and a few destructive ones, too) as they advance. They also attract more attention from their patron gods… and their enemies. As useful as they might be in a settlement, powerful clerics tend to settle into monasteries and grand temples. It proves practical on multiple fronts. Clerics often learn to brew potions, especially the healing potions that provide the financial basis for most temples.

Wizards require formal instruction, and refining their craft takes great dedication and research. At low levels, wizards are quite fragile, but as they grow in power they also grow in adaptability. They are the best suited at developing new spells, or variants on existing spells. Common spells for any wizard include light, mending, prestidigitation and arcane mark. At higher levels, they can send messages anywhere in the world, fly, teleport, even alter the flow of time. Given enough time and equipment, a wizard of sufficient power could move mountains and theoretically rewrite history. Wizards also push the boundaries of magical items, crafting intelligent swords, flying boots, and other wonders.

Bards cast arcane magic, but where wizards and sorcerers master arcane diagrams and formulae, bards create works of art. Most sing and play musical instruments, but some channel their magic through comedy, chanting, and dance. Bards have less access to raw magical might than clerics or wizards, but they have access to a breadth of abilities (magical and otherwise) that neither of the other classes can match.

To a non-spellcaster, magic is capricious – incredibly useful, if somewhat fussy. An ally casting a spell at an enemy is something to cheer, but that same ally casting a spell on you is a different matter entirely. How much can you really trust them?

Gods

Gods are powerful beings that can shape the world in ways that even the most powerful mortal cannot. They may not be omnipotent, but even the weakest god is a force to be reckoned with. Gods grant spells to their faithful, and occasionally answer their prayers and pleas. They are immortal, though not entirely indestructible.

Communication

Magic provides near-instant communication under the right circumstances, and makes travel easier in multiple ways. For those without access to the right spells or someone to cast them, the world is a very closed place. Most trade is local, and river-based, and trade routes are closely-guarded secrets. For most people, merchants and minstrels are the primary source of news about the world. Literacy is scarce and good writing materials expensive, so most communication is oral.

Spells like sending allow casters to communicate across vast distances to known parties, and some will relay messages for coin. The strange cult of the Commune of the Resonant Word pass messages and provide information about far-flung locations, for the right price. Some merchants even strike bargains with the Communists to allow them to deposit money with cultists in one city and later withdraw it from cultists in another city.

Roads are preciously rare in the Wilderlands, making communication and travel more difficult.

Government

The Wilderlands is not so much governed as it is dominated. Warlords rise to power through force of weapons and military strategy (or magical might), though few manage to create a lasting dynasty. The skills needed to claim power are quite different from those needed to keep it, and few rulers bother to make the distinction.

There are no nation-states in the Wilderlands. There are a few city-states, but most people live in stateless societies, or in small settlements independent of any government. The highest power they answer to is the village elders, the most powerful nobleman, or the local warlord. Outside the village’s reach, there is no law beyond what you can enforce yourself.

Brigandry is depressingly common. Outside the reach of a town or village, armed bands accost travelers (merchants, pilgrims, and refugees alike). They take what they can, and often destroy what they cannot take. Settlements attract brigands like flies. As villages grow into towns and towns become cities, they attract more opportunists.

In some dreadful places, monsters rule over frightened or beguiled populations. Dragons may demand food and entertainment (perhaps offering protection in return), vampires may infiltrate and usurp the local nobility, or enterprising genies might “acquire” a town. Though the details vary, for most folk rule by monsters is not that different from the normal arrangement.

Slavery and personhood

Forced servitude is a reality in most of the Wilderlands. With the predominant take-what-you-can ethos, almost every society at least tolerates bondage. Dwarves have contracts of indentured servitude, giants habitually collect human slaves, and the great city-states all have thriving slave markets. Some cultures look down on enslaving their own kind, but most follow a simple maxim:

Those who can, rule. Those who cannot, serve.

The lands of elves and hobbits, rare as they are, do not condone slavery. The halflings’ gods and the eternal elf lords each have their reasons for these strange customs, but they largely keep their opinions to themselves.

Spellcasters can conjure or summon a variety of creatures to serve and fight on their behalf. Summoned creatures are returned unharmed once the spell runs its course, even if they were “killed,” so few people even consider it bondage.

In many societies, women have limited rights. Gishmesh lands do not allow women to leave their homes unless they are properly veiled and escorted. Married women in most of the Wilderlands are considered part of the husband’s household, forced to serve his whim just as surely as the children and (other) slaves. Among the Amazons, this is turned on its head – the Amazon women rule, and expect their chattel men to be fit, attractive, and pliant. Women from other cultures are usually welcome in Amazon bands, if they can prove themselves through hard work or battle prowess.

Dwarves presumably have females, but they are either very well secluded or generally indistinguishable from the men. Elves, gnomes, and hobbits are quite egalitarian, making little or no distinction between men and women (who can tell with elves and gnomes, anyway?).

Non-humanoids and monstrous humanoids are generally considered pests or property, depending on their usefulness.