Guthult: God's Forest

[Diamond]

Since the mountains in my Challenge map turned out so well, I wanted to use that style in something else. This is part of a northern Europe-esque continent, roughly analogous to our 7th and 8th centuries; much of the land is or was forested, home to various tribes of Goth-like peoples, who are now forming into loose kingdoms and confederations. In the south are the decaying remnants of a Rome-like empire. Many of the place-names in the north are going to be pseudo-Gothic transliterations, thanks to this nifty English-Gothic dictionary I found: http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/egdhome.html

Like most of my settings and maps, this is going to be human-centric. One thing that always irks me about most 'traditional fantasy' is the idea that more than one sentient race can prosper. To me, that just doesn't seem workable - one race is always going to have some built-in advantage, like faster breeding, better technology, etc, that will allow them to dominate. That's why I like stuff like George Martin's series; it seems more realistic. Having said that, this world does have some non-human races. There will be trolls, primitive and xenophobic, that live in the mountains, and are sort of like our world's Neaderthals. Then there are the Hweilafulk, a catch-all term for nature-oriented fey folk. These creatures are secretive, long-lived, and nature-oriented, and include sub-races like goblins, dryads, swamp hags, fairies, etc.