The Godling's Task: Creating an original fantasy world for OSR DnD [part 4]

 

The World, Vast and Dangerous

Art by Paul Bonnel for Trudvand Chronicles

Greetings! Welcome back to our series. Progress was made. 

I finished the geographical map of the peninsula for Hard Iron Skies. I present to you: Jarland.

And with hexes:

Remember, each hex is roughly 20 miles from center to center.

Before delving into the different areas and biomes of the Peninsula of Jarland, I will explain the process I used to determine the geographical features.

There are three main factors at play.

Factor 1: Distance from the Equator and Temperature. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, Jarland is roughly at the same latitude as the Pacific Northwest. This would place it in the temperate zone, bordering on the polar zone to the north. I took this into consideration, but I also factored in the world at large. The Northern Hemisphere on this fictional planet has a little more landmass than our own on Earth. This means that the temperature is slightly more extreme in this world's north than in ours. With this in mind, I decided on an average temperature in Jarland similar to that of Oslo, Norway. Here is a graph of maximum and minimum average temperatures throughout the year:

Being a pretty mountainous region, Jarland will tend on the colder side, reaching pretty extreme temperatures in high altitude, but as a general rule of thumb this curve should work nicely. 

Factor 2: General Wind Direction and Mountains.

In the previous post we determined wind directions in our world based on latitude. Jarland, because of its position on the globe, receives (for the most part) winds coming from the north, and heading south with a slightly westward inclination. These winds are cold, first of all. They do not come in from the ocean, but from a large mainland. 

But the most important thing is the way these winds interact with the land itself, specifically with mountains. Jarland has three main mountain ranges (still unnamed), one to the north, on in the center and near the western coast, and one to the south. What happens with these mountains is that they create what are known as rain shadows. To put it briefly, large mountains form barriers for the wind (which is carrying water molecules), so on one side they have wet zones, while on the other the land tends to be more dry. This same principle is the reason why people say moss grows on the north side of trees. As a generalization, this may be correct, but in truth trees are small and water has other ways of spreading on such a scale, so moss can grow pretty much anywhere. At the scale of global winds and mountain ranges, however, this law is more reliable. 

The consequence is that in Jarland the territories in the southern and wester sides of mountain ranges will be more dry, while the ones to the north will be wetter. That is why a lot of the water and rivers accumulate in that east-central area. The brownish black/green and the dark green areas represent marshlands and forests and the blue, of course, represents bodies of water. 

It is also important to note, however, that even in rain shadows, the land ca receive water. As a peninsula, Jarland has a lot of coastal land, therefore even the drier areas of the territory are relatively wet (for example, the southern tip of the peninsula).

Factor 3: Magic and Supernatural Influences.

Titania by Arthur Rackman

After some deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that there are no large scale magical effects influencing the climate of Jarland in any significant ways. I considered a few options, such as winter curses or benevolent sea gods, but ended up deciding against any large scale effects of this nature.

On a smaller, more local scale however, magic will play quite an important role on the land. This is not something I am going to delve into in this particular post, but winter curses blighting villages, benevolent sea gods beckoning warm trade winds, the squabbles of faerie rulers upsetting the natural order and much much more will come into play on a hex-to-hex basis. More on that in future updates.

For now, that's all I have. I have begun working on the placement of humanoid settlements, and on the different cultures of Jarland. That is going to be a big post (I may have to split it into two), but hopefully a fun one! So keep your eyes open for that update.

Thanks for reading! Happy travels.