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Notes on Ralios

Posted on December 18, 2023

Depending on how you measure it, Ralios is between four and six times the size of Dragon Pass. You can think of it as consisting of four distinct regions.

The first is Safelster, which consists of Lake Felster and its surrounding plains. Lake Felster is about as long as Esrolia is wide, but much narrower in breadth. This area is densely populated – some 3 million people live around the lake. There are some 15 or 16 city-states here, all jostling for position, independence, conquest, etc. That’s frankly as screwed up as the city states of late Medieval Italy.

Safelster is well-watered, with most of the rainfall coming in Sea and Fire Season, but with flooding in Sea Season from snow melt. The natural environment is grasslands, and horse herds were common here in the Dawn Ages.

The second area is Vesmonstran, which is the Upper Tanier River valley to the Nidan Mountains, and includes the vast woods of Ballid and the hills of Guhan. This region is much bigger than Dragon Pass or Safelster and has about 1.5 million human inhabitants. So less densely populated than Safelster, but still largely agricultural. The people here are mainly Orlanthi, and the Rex cult is powerful here, especially in Lankst.

Vesmonstran is well watered, but gets much of its water from the snow melt in the Nidan and Rockwood Mountains. It gets thunder storms in Fire Season. This area was once largely covered by the Ballid Forest, but the wars of the Second Age reduced that forest to a fraction of its former expanse.

The third area is the East Wilds, which are around the size of Dragon Pass. Less than a million humans live here – again mainly Orlanthi, culturally related to those of South Peloria, having settled here in the First and Second Ages. This area was part of the EWF was closely linked to the ruling councils of Dragon Pass. The Rex cult is also important here.

Like Vesmonstran, the East Wilds get much of their water from the spring runoff of snow in the Rockwood and Mislari Mountains. The eastern reaches of the East Wilds segue into Halikiv, an ancient troll queendom, with one of the Castles of Lead where Kyger Litor dwells. The border between these lands is Corolaland, inhabited by ravenous trollkin bands and brave Orlanthi settlers.

The fourth area is in between the other three – Vustria (includinging Ormsland) . This desolate and rugged land is semi-arid to arid. There are maybe 25k humans here (mostly Hsunchen), but some 60k dragonewts and 5k Tusk Riders. The eastern reaches, Karia, has many chaos monsters from Dorastor.

Vustria is a parched land, poorly suited for agriculture. The north of Ormsland is forested and watered by the Upper Tanier River, but it is too rugged for farming. The rest of Vustria is dry, rocky, and poor.

Of the 15 or 16 city states around Lake Felster, the most powerful are Naskorian, Estali, Sentanos, and Tinaros. Each has a greater population than Tarsh! The next tier of states – Tiskos, Azilos, Kustria, and Dangim have populations comparable to all of Sartar. There are another seven small principalities that fill out the dance card.

Meanwhile, the great kingdom of Seshnela is to the west and is easily invited into Safelster. Of course as Machiavelli observed, disunited lands like Safelster are easy to invade, but very hard to hold onto.

Jeff Richard

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East Wilds, Map, Ormsland, Ralios, Safelster, Vesmonstran, Vustria

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