Edge Ov The Twilight Queen's Domain: Worldbuilding Log #2
Wow, I have to work 7 days this week guys ;3;
This week's passive brainstorming has led me to a few conclusions as to the current political state of this OD&D World, and presented a new challenge I shall touch upon later on.
So, The Twilight Queen's Empire. A technological superpower, led by the last elf living. They're currently scoping out the area around Sdixxii in hopes of finding resources/trade goods, and so far have only settled a cluster of islands a handful of miles north from one of the City-States. Assuming players continue mucking about, they will eventually either learn of the various dungeons/treasure there is to be found inland or they'll be present when The Sunken city rises from the Ocean during the Summer months.
This'll be the justification to go into full Colonize and Conquer mode on the local populace for them. Though they will also be modernizing the area with running water systems, unified language and writing, a (semi) official global currency at the expense of what is usually lost during Colonization: The Original Way of Life, Traditions and Culture of the people living there already.
On the other side (Literally lol) we have Gortsy, who have always had their eyes on the Bay Area past the Death Mountain Range. The grass is greener, the soil is full of nutrients, the weather is less harsh, and the ocean opens up many possibilities! Many exiles, desperate proletaire and hardened adventurers have already made the trek over the mountains (Or through the Dwemer Mountain Highway) usually to seek out the treasure in the various dungeons. The existence of this font of wealth in the Bay Area is kept secret from the Governing Authorities, but with players mucking around it may no longer be a secret for long...
Queen Sacha's Son runs a Gortsy Fortress, and he's keeping his eyes and ears open for any hint that the tales of ancient priceless relics and gold coins are true...
So that problem I reffered to earlier...
What do I work on first? :33
Sdiixxi, The Sunken City? Or, The Death Mountain Range. :33
Both are quite large, and would involve traversing long distances to reach the different adventure locales. One would be a hexcrawl, the other maybe some form of large scale geomorphs to simulate the many tunnels traversing the Earth.
Sdiixxi would probably be closer to the process i'm already using for the overland map, though a bit more focused in kind of like those Greg Gillespie Megadungeons. Though, i'm not sure if I will have a Huge Ass Flat Megadungeon... The whole city would be the "Megaungeon" so to speak, and each adventuring locale would in turn probably be the "Rooms" despite being whole dungeons on their own. This sound like quite a lot to work on, and it may be useful to simply work on the outer edges at first and some major locations able to be seen from outside the city itself. Things that Players would most likely hit first... Oh Em Gee, the brainworms that tell me I must be 100% done with the thing before I put it to play do not like that idea ;-;
The Dwemer Mountain Highways do tickle my interest more right now, since i'd have an excuse to just draw map after map of massive Mountain Tunnels. Plus, all those maps of generic Dungeon to fill space! I'd have to work on the upper portion as well, the actual Mountain Range Hexcrawl since there will have to be various entry points to these tunnels.
Many will definitely be scattered throughout above ground ruins and dungeons, so in the end I guess i'm setting myself up for some real busytime :33