Insight A Map of the Region Q&A

[The Narrator]

If you have questions about the map of the Outer Sanctum or other related matters, please post them in this thread.​

 

[ZAlcyoneus]

Does staff think players will ever go across the sea? Where is the…cult like bad area, Sha'Yogeth in the wilds? Or is that a secret from everyone barring the cult people? Just to know where one shouldn't venture.

 

[The Narrator]

Does staff think players will ever go across the sea? Where is the…cult like bad area, Sha'Yogeth in the wilds? Or is that a secret from everyone barring the cult people? Just to know where one shouldn't venture.

One can never say for certain what will happen in the future. We may travel there some day, but currently there is nothing worth traveling to (at least from the player's perspective), and who knows... One's boat could simply sink...

Sha'Yogeth is further to the east than the map shows, but is roughly parallel with Tethis.

 

[ZAlcyoneus]

Okay.

 

[humon]

From Spindleweave's letter, about there being gaps in his knowledge, I take it to mean that there will be many locations added to this map in the future as we encounter them. Is that a correct assumption? Certainly Khare must have a lot of trading partners along the river and up and down the coast.

My question is, what will be the process for these locations getting added? Should players start by marking on the map where their characters came from, and we flesh out the world that way? Or should it be fully under Narrator control?

If player suggestions are allowed, I've marked in spoiler where I think my character would have come from.

Spoiler

The land is called Khwo'am. It's a rugged wilderness populated by nomadic clans of orcs and humans and goblinoids which are constantly fighting each other for control of the best hunting and fishing grounds. They occasionally raid the farming settlements to the east of the hills, but just as often use those settlements as trading posts to trade with outside merchants. The most common exchange is slaves captured from enemy tribes, traded for high-grade steel weapons from city forges.

 

[Praxis]

To follow what @humon has asked, I'd also like to know how players could go about supposing (if not directly having added) locations such as inns, semi-permanent encampments and the like. We know travel between the two cities exists, so there's probably common roads, and stop-alongs on the way.

I've attached a version of the map with locations that could have conceivably cropped up as caravans, and travellers went (marked by the smaller, red circles). Following the rivers, and treeline, as people tend to do. Obviously this is just for illustrative purposes, but could players decide to establish, say, a small camp north of that cluster of buildings near the fork (marked with the larger, red circle) as both where their story starts, and a location to be visited by other players in the future?

Spoiler: sample

 

[The Narrator]

From Spindleweave's letter, about there being gaps in his knowledge, I take it to mean that there will be many locations added to this map in the future as we encounter them. Is that a correct assumption? Certainly Khare must have a lot of trading partners along the river and up and down the coast.

There are a few important things to note. Spindleweave's knowledge of the area is incomplete, and she is providing what she knows. As such, it is a safe bet that there are things on the map that have "yet to be discovered".

Should players start by marking on the map where their characters came from, and we flesh out the world that way?

This is something that we will keep in mind, but do not generally recommend that players do this in a "serious way". Because the map is not marked, that doesn't mean that there isn't anything there. The location that players select for their headcanon might already have something there. Does that mean that places cannot become canon in the future? No. Only that right now they aren't in a meaningful 'put-it-on-a-map' kind of way.

Obviously this is just for illustrative purposes, but could players decide to establish, say, a small camp north of that cluster of buildings near the fork (marked with the larger, red circle) as both where their story starts, and a location to be visited by other players in the future?

This is conceivable though unlikely. Unless that character is remaining at that site, then any number of things could happen to it. The people living there might be forced away, the camp could be razed, etc.

Purely on a logistical level, this degree of map updating and territory claiming is prohibitive. Territories will change over time and there will be new locations discovered and added, but these will be added canonically through the story and as everyone's story progresses. Keeping track of every location that everyone is from and has travelled to is not something that we will be doing, and broadly doesn't matter all that much at a "meaningful out of character world building" level.

The map should serve as a broad outline of where the characters are, but it is not the end-all and be-all of what does and doesn't exist.

Hope this helps!