Maps

Maps

I'm putting them here for reference.

My intention is that, while the PCs travel hither and yon, the town of Stagnant Lake is a sort of "home base" they might regularly return to. On those grounds, I actually mapped the place out.

I also have a map of the Waste Lands in general, as follows:

The dotted lines represent trading routes; major trade routes are thicker lines. Towns and routes are color-coded by what political entity controls them, as follows:

Black: Independent

Red: The Autarchy of Capra

Yellow: The Northern Trade Alliance

Green: New Vyoutommourt

Gray: The Iron Law

Blue: The Arctic Empire

Orange: Vassalage of Sut'Suaf

Purple: The Plutocracy of Vireion

Also, for convenience, here is the explanation from the setting document for what each of those places are. Now I can stop explaining it in the posts.

The Autarchy of Capra

Ruler: Autarch Adamantia I

Dominant Religion: Maghestros

Majority Species: Human

Majority Language: Southern Common

Capra is a cosmopolitan — though, to be honest, mostly human — nation with colonialist ambitions. For the past two centuries, give or take, the Autarch’s throne has been occupied by the half-dragon ruler Adamantia I. In keeping with her red-dragon heritage, Adamantia’s guiding principle is the acquisition of wealth and power: during her reign, Capra has nearly doubled in size as a result of swallowing up smaller neighboring nations, and established territories both in the Waste Lands and (more recently) overseas. It was Capra’s expansion into the previously-ignored Waste Lands that started the current territorial conflicts, and that nation continues to claim the most territory there.

The Northern Trade Alliance

Ruler: Lord Horst

Dominant Religion: Mephistopheles

Majority Species: Goblinoid

Majority Language: Giant

The Northern Trade Alliance is, essentially, a more formal way to describe a number of smaller settlements along the Eflis River that turn to the large and powerful town of Barlgilton for protection. It was formed as a reaction to Capra’s expansion into the Waste Lands, and is now their greatest rival. 

New Vyoutommourt

Ruler: Jivmarana

Dominant Religion: Jivmarana

Majority Species: Goblinoid

Majority Language: Goblin

Jivmarana, Lord of Life and Death, has claimed this location as the home of his avatar in the material world. For miles around his great palace, orchards of surpassing fecundity sprout from the otherwise dry and useless soil. He is served by those goblins who have been drawn in by his power, and by the kech that his previous incarnation brought from the far south of the continent. The secular governments of the region mostly try to pretend this place doesn’t exist, and to be as uninvolved with it as possible. This is easier than you might think, since outsiders are unwelcome in the outlying villages of Norvierm and Putrefir, and straight-up not permitted entry into the town that, before the arrival of Jivmarana, was known as Raum Keep.

The Iron Law

Ruler: The Iron Magos

Dominant Religion: Grandfather Kraken

Majority Species: Human

Majority Language: Northern Common

A figure known as the Iron Magos dwells in a tower by the coast, in the town of Aglaitiraup. He/she/it/they have no public life, interact with nobody, and in general live like a recluse. What is known, however, is that the Iron Magos offers protection to any tribe that performs a certain rite of allegiance and whose leader signs their name, in blood, on the surface of a great iron monolith that stands outside the Magos’s tower, and on which is engraved the legal code of the land. Those tribes and towns who have sworn themselves to the Iron Law find themselves defended from outside attack by arcane intervention, generally presumed to be the magic of the Iron Magos. The price, of course, is that the same power is turned against any who violate the law within those tribes. Within the Iron Law, the penalty for any crime is immediate capital punishment, and it is whispered that the Magos uses the life force of these criminals to power the magic of the land.

The Arctic Empire

Ruler: Emperor Konstantin XLIII

Dominant Religion: Vald

Majority Species: information not available

Majority Language: Northern Common

Since time out of mind, everything north of the Arctic Circle has been claimed by a grand empire. Rumor has it that the seat of the empire is a city on the far northern coast of the continent, warmed by long-forgotten magics, where some of the world’s greatest arcane secrets are guarded jealously. Most of the empire’s rule is pretty hands-off, however, so the vast majority of its inhabitants are barbarian tribes independent in all but name. However, two of the northernmost cities in the Waste Lands have chosen to align themselves with this power, and by all accounts, Emperor Konstantin XLIII has accepted their allegiance. There is even apparently the occasional visit of a diplomat or functionary from the far north.

Vassalage of Sut'Suaf

Ruler: ???

Dominant Religion: ???

Majority Species: ???

Majority Language: ???

The city of Sut’Suaf is known to exist on the other side of the D’had Forest. Two settlements within the Waste Lands have sworn their allegiance to it, and have some form of communication with its government. Nothing else is known about the entity to which these two towns pay their taxes. (Though it’s generally assumed that the town government is somewhat more informed about the matter than outsiders.)

The Plutocracy of Vireion

Ruler: The Merchants' Council

Dominant Religion: Maghestros

Majority Species: Human

Majority Language: Southern Common

Once one of the great powers of the world, Vireion was broken during the Trade Wars more than two centuries ago. Among other things, the peace treaty they signed absolutely forbade them from expanding outside their current territory, or from operating the network of trade caravans that had given them their former strength. At this point in time, nearly all of Vireion is contained within their original headquarters in the West Gash Formation, a canyon far to the southwest where rents in the fabric of reality make invasion from outside nigh-impossible. They do, however, have one foothold in the Waste Lands, and they make the most of it by supplying some of their strangest and rarest goods through a portal in the settlement’s center. Vireion’s access to literally otherworldly merchandise through the aforementioned tears in reality allows them to continue making a substantial profit off of this venture.