Editing Wilderlands of High Fantasy

'''Wilderlands of High Fantasy''' is pretty much the first third-party [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings|Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting]] to ever come out, published in the late seventies by the venerable and back then extremely popular Judges Guild, the [[Old School Roleplaying|first]] of the [[Pathfinder|many]] [[Eberron|examples]] when someone else managed their shit better than they themselves did. It began as a single-city setting called ''City-State of the Invincible Overlord'', but quickly grew out of those humble origins and ultimately swelled into a still fairly small land roughly the size of the Mediterranean (a deliberate design choice: this was noted as the amount of land an average [[Adventurer]] was ever likely to see).

Judges Guild thrived for some half a decade, producing awesome and popular settings and campaign modules, before its old-school attitudes and unwillingness to move on with [[Summer|the times]] led it going the way of the dodo. In 2002 it was picked up by Necromancer Games, publishing most of its content anew with updated 3e rules.

==Setting==
This lands are dangerous and untamed, full of monsters and beasts and barbarians and evil humanoids, ruins of ancient kingdoms and empires and even evidence of interstellar visitations, with city-states ruled by cruel overlords scattered all around that clusterfuck and mostly keeping to themselves. Precisely one of those city-states, Viridistan, could claim itself to be anything even resembling a true nation, and even that's like the size of Belgium at most. A land in decline and facing a rebirth, it is a time of great change, when all creation stands in the crossroads - and it is here where the [[Player Character]]s are dropped, to leave their own mark in the history of the setting or even lead it towards the direction they would want. 

In short, it was the original [[Points of Light]], and still one of the best to ever have come bearing that description.

You think [[Greyhawk]] peasants had it bad? Well, in Wilderlands your average peasant's got a good twenty years of life expectancy, most likely ending your solitary and nasty life in a brutish way by the axe of a marauding beastman, or the dagger of a thief after your purse, or the plague. Just about everyone in charge is evil, law enforcement is too weak and incompetent to protect you (save for the secret police which everyone has and which is ''too'' competent), just about all roads are in shit conditions so you can't visit your cousin ten miles away without provoking bandits and monsters, and [[slavery is both legal and widespread so even your freedom wasn't a given. But if you were ''really'' smart or lucky, you could live to the ripe old age of thirty-five or so!

And yet if you've got the strength and the conviction for it, and a [[Adventurer|few friends to have your back]], you could march right up there and topple that asshole overlord and see if you could do better. Rebuild the whole damn ancient empires while you're there. It is the [[Noblebright|time of great change]], after all, and there are no [[Forgotten Realms|secret societies]] or other bullshit railroading you and telling you what to do. 

It is also gonzo as hell, having been born in the time when scifi and fantasy were not clearly distinct, and gleefully embracing both into a weirdass pulp land where both [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan]] and Flash Gordon would be right at home. The land is littered with crashed spaceships - as mentioned up above - thanks to a prehistoric space war between two different alien coalitions, and amongst the standard fantasy races you've got folks like cavemen (riding mammoths!), amazons (with captive women doing all the menial work and men kept for [[Rape|reproduction]]), [[Furry|lion, cat,]] [[Awesome|hawk,]] and even [[What|chicken]] people, and it's not at all uncommon to bump into a perfectly normal human except with his skin [[Mutant|blue, red, green,]] or even entirely transparent.

The whole setting is split into eighteen different areas, each of which was in turn cut into five-mile hexes. This smallest map unit was then where most of the detailed setting information could be found: one hex could contain a city, while another had a lair of trolls. Some of the towns and cities were then detailed further, sometimes to the point of [[Awesome|just about every single building of every single street]]. From here, it'll be the DM's (or "judge's", as he was known) job to dump his players somewhere in there and watch as they pick a direction at random and begin a path of destruction through it all.

The eighteen areas, in the original publishing order, were as follows:

===City State of the Invincible Overlord===
The centerpoint of the entire campaign - be it geographically, politically, historically, or spiritually - the titular '''City State of the Invincible Overlord''' was built by dwarves on top of an ancient ruined city... which itself was on top of [[Hive|another, even older ruin]]. Nowadays it is mostly ruled by humans, with the humble [[Emperor|Invincible Overlord]] himself in charge of everything, but the dwarves of the northern '''Thunderstone''' are still some of its most important allies. A bit further north there is the coastal city of '''Warwik''', founded a long time ago by some nobility that had the bright idea to [[Horus Heresy|try and usurp the City State rule]], and who were subsequently banished and are still plotting revenge.

'''Modron''' is another iconic city found here, on the shores of Roglaroon River and worshipping the river goddess of the same name. To the east there is the tiny village of '''Tegel''', entirely of no consequences if it weren't for the setting of one of the most well-loved Judges Guild adventures, ''Tegel Manor''. And in the southeastern corner you've got '''Ossary''', a fine example of what happens when you give a bunch of chaotic murderous vikings their own city: its ruling chiefs are basically in the state of total war, fighting in the streets.

===The Barbarian Altanis===

===Valley of the Ancients===

===Tarantis===
The pirate land, nominally governed by the city-state of '''Tarantis''', and the Tarantine Merchant's Association therein. They do a pretty lousy job with that. Just about all the city states and provinces around are ruled by sultans also in Tarantis's pocket. It's also said the ruined capital of the ancient kingdom '''Kelnore''' could be found somewhere here, and it's where you go if you want to set off to the far-away (as in, outside the maps entirely) kingdom of '''Karak'''. Much of the land is a hot and dry desert.

===Valon===
The area directly north of City State, '''Valon''' is named after the house of avalonian ice wizards, the second capital of magic in the setting, and masters of the weather and the sea. Most of the map is filled up by pirate-infested sea, or mountains full of lost dwarven cities, the greatest of them probably the fabled '''Krazandol'''. Overall, aside from Valon itself, the region is generally considered a [[Death World|pretty nasty place to live]].

===Viridistan===
Also known as the City State of the Immortal Emperor, along with many other equally-humble names, '''Viridistan''' is ruled by Green Emperor - and that ain't no empty title, because the guy and his wife are [[Star Trek|literally green]], said to be the last of the ancient and powerful race of True Viridians. The rest of the kingdom's inhabitants tend towards lighter shades. They are trying to create a true new kingdom to the area, but it hasn't gone on for very long yet so the land is still as untamed as anywhere else. The depths of the Trident Gulf also hold the mermaid kingdom of '''Sae Laamer'''.

===Desert Lands===

===Sea of Five Winds===

===Elphand Lands===

===Lenap===

===Ghinor===

===Isles of the Blest===

===Ebony Coast===

===Ament Tundra===

===Isles of the Dawn===

===Southern Reaches===

===Silver Skein Isles===

===Ghinor Highlands===



==History==

There were aliens.