Sunday, July 29, 2012

High Fantasy Setting


On page 119 of High Fantasy, included in the background section of the solo-adventure Escape from Queztec'l, we are treated to a map of a continent.  No credit is given for the map but, as a whole, the solo-adventure is attributed to Craig Fisher.

As we can see, the name of the continent is Lysdexia.  This is doubtless an attempt at humor by switching two letters in dyslexia.  Such humor would not fly in our politically correct day and age, but in the era of the Old School, making fun of the less fortunate was commonplace.

There's not much detail, but it is more than enough for purposes of the solo-adventure.  The aptly named adventure takes place in the city of Queztec'l on the northern coast.  According to page 118:
Once Queztec'l was a regional capital of the Anarlinian Empire but that empire is long, long gone and even the subsequent Queztec'lan Empire is in a state of decay.
Once Queztec'l controlled nearly the complete northern half of the continent.  At the time of this story, however, the area governed by the city is only one-fifth of the size of the former domain.
You are Xenon, from a medium sized barony out on the Long Arm.  Although your lands have not formally been part of Queztec'l for centuries, you are still tied by a common language, religion, and customs.
Should someone want to employ the map for a campaign setting, there is a great deal of space with which to play.  (Just what is the scale anyway?)  Yet there are a variety of landmarks depicted to inspire the imagination.  (By the way, Queztec'l sits at the mouth of the Mezofari River.)

In the southwest quadrant of Lysdexia, there are “the ruins of Anarlion,” apparently the former seat of the great Anarlinian Empire.  The empire ceased to hold sway ages ago, but why would the city be abandoned?  Why would it remain abandoned after so long?  The ruins would seem to occupy a prime piece of real estate at the mouth of a major river and it wouldn't have been built in the first place if the position wasn't advantageous.

Also, why is the Insane City called thus?


4 comments:

  1. Yeah, "The Insane City" doesn't sound like it rose out of actual play. Given the name of the continent, they could have named this city "Sanein" or "Terard." But that map is kinda nice.

    Did you play through the solitaire adventure, or will that be a future post?

    Timothy

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    1. I did play through the adventure once, but didn't think to take notes for the blog. I will most likely conduct another excursion and blog about that.

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  2. Insane City is so because of runoff from Clarhyan. Their urine is fortified with the potent drugs they smoke all day long.

    They abandoned Anarlion because of an infestation of lions. They city was originally called "Another Lion" because there were so many of them in the wilderness and they would saunter into town anytime and eat people. Eventually, despite efforts at eradicating the lions, the town of "Ano'r Lion" was deserted. Eventually transcriptions of a map showing the city made a mistake, writing "Anarlion" as the name. Nobody lives there still because of all the damn lions.

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