Well, Folks – so far, the world of “Forbidden Lands” is more or less heavily inspired by the European middle ages, just as the Fantasy RPGs of old it emulates so splendidly. But one thing, a lot of old F-RPGs did shortly after establishing the “European inspired basics”, was adding a part of the setting, that was inspired by “Arabian Nights”.
Now I am puzzling, how this could look like in “Forbidden Lands”. So, behold, my rather sketchy thoughts about this:
Silverland
Just south of Alderland, there is a vast expanse of sun scorched land. The areas at the coast of the eastern ocean are overgrown by lush jungles, while the interior is bone dry. Humans call this land “Silverland”, because of the vast silver deposits below the ground.
Once, this land was ruled by the king of Alderland, but this is the case no more.
Until three centuries ago, the humans of Silverland used to believe in Wyrm or Raven, just as the humans of Alderland. But then, a prophet arose, who preached, that there was neither Wyrm nor Raven. Instead, Wyrm and Raven where nothing but a veil worn by an unseen god.
And because the King of Alderland and the Church of the Wyrm where seen as oppressive by the people of Silverland, thousands began to follow the prophet and rebelled against Alderland.
Their rebellion was successful, and today Silverland is free of alderlandish rule. But despite all people of Silverland follow the creed of the “Veiled One” (how they call their one god), Silverland is not united.
When the prophet died, his four sons could not agree, who would be his rightful heir. So, Silverland is divided between four vast citystates – with a fifth, neutral citystate in the middle.
The four citystates are each ruled by a descendant of one of the prophet’s sons. The fifth city, the “City of Brass” was the place, where the prophet had his first visions of the “Veiled One” and where he also died. Because all Followers of the Veiled One agree upon, that the City of Brass and the Grave of the prophet, that is right next to it, are sacred, the City of Brass is considered to be neutral ground. Also, pilgrimage to the prophet’s grave is essential to the religion of the veiled one.
All the citystates are vast. The elites are filthy rich and live in opulent palaces, the vast number of normal people are quite poor and live in squalor.
Civilisation pretty much concentrates on the cities. The place between them is mostly a harsh, monster infested wilderness – not much different than the wilderness of Ravenland, only hotter and with much more desert. Of course, here and there are some desert villages, castles etc.pp. but all in all, it’s a lawless place.
The people of Silverland are mostly humans. The people of every citystate see themselves as their own ethnic group. Furthermore, there are some aslenian tribes in the desert, who follow the faith of the Veiled One.
The coastal areas are home to a few halflings and goblins and there are some “half-dwarves” and Ogres living in the cities. A strictly southern race are the Djinn – beings of smokeless fire, who outwardly resemble humans (alderlandian fairytales depict Djinn as almost omnipotent sorcerers. This is not true – while Djinn DO have a stronger affinity for magic as a whole, they are not more mighty than human sorcerers.)
At the moment, all four citystates are allied, because Alderland tries to reconquer silverland and lays siege at the City of Brass – but this alliance is a fickle one.
So much for now. Is this a concept, that could work?