Editing Setting:Unified Setting/Lindwurm (section)

===Barthelmia===
In typical human fashion, this area was named after the explorer that first planted the flag of Solaris on its soil - Barthelmia, after Admiral Geralt Barthelme. 

Celebrations were dampened when the other races pointed out that Barthelmia was actually the Lindwurm continent, which they would have known if humans weren't primitive upstarts, the other races had no intention of letting Solaris claim an entire continent and, furthermore, the land turned out to be an unpleasant and unproductive one that was filled with hostile natives.

Accepting that their maps might have been a tad off, the western part of the continent is still called Barthelmia by the Federated Kingdoms of Solaris. Inhabitants call themselves the Free Cities. Everyone else prefers to call them what they are, Lawless Human Cities.

While they couldn't officially claim it (without facing a war) the Federated Kingdoms still found a use for the territory. It was an excellent place to ship people who didn't fit in anywhere else. Barthelmia became the home for the dreamers, the exiled, the condemned, the hopeless and the wildly optimistic. Whether jumping at the chance, or forced at swordpoint, the new inhabitants founded the Free Cities, humanity's newest and most exciting outpost in the world.

The largest city is New Solaris, followed by Esperia and Gloria. In spite of the overblown names, these cities are trashy, disease-ridden hellholes with minimal government. To prevent Solaris from pressing a claim to the region, nearly every nation established their own outpost. Officially the handful of buildings outside most cities are there to watch after their own citizens, unofficially to prevent any legal claim by Solaris and in practice as a place to send fuck-ups.

Despite the mild international tension, residents of Barthelmia go on about their day-to-day lives. This involves getting drunk, gambling, plotting intricate schemes for returning from exile and taking revenge on their persecutors, ranching, farming, buying and selling fraudulent maps to draconian ruins brimming with treasure, prospecting, murder, mugging, marking the days until they leave and boiling hides for export.

Lindwurm is no place to raise a family, but people do. Mostly the ranchers and farmers who emigrated to find a better life or escape their past. Faced with poor yields and menacing bandits they cling to a legend of a masked ranger (or group of masked rangers) who travel the land defending the weak and helping the helpless. While told and retold by the downtrodden, the stories are considered total bullshit by everyone else. Those who mock the idea sarcastically call them the Men With No Name. Some of the biggest scoffers have never been seen again, but Barthelmia is a dangerous place and no connection has been made.

Many humans have given up on civilization entirely, and now mimic the native gnolls. They wander the badlands visiting death and misery on anyone who crosses their path. Pleas for a Solaris garrison to deal with these bandits are met with half-hearted circumlocutions about the political situation or total indifference.