Adding cities, towns, and political boundaries
I've started detailing my maps, adding cities, towns and political boundaries. I'm hoping to borrow from the Fief Management system in Chaosium's Pendragon RPG to manage my nation's resources. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, otherwise I can see it could easily become "work" - and I don't want that.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pendragon, it is a role-playing game set in the Arthurian World, the world of Camelot, Sir Lancelot, and the Holy Grail. The game has two features I am planning on using because I think they could potentially be very useful.
The first feature is the fief management system. This allows the player knight to run his own manor in a multi-generational campaign. He inherits it from his father, or is granted it by some lord. The game progresses in years (with chivalrous adventures in between) and during each year the manor has its harvest and may suffer both set-backs - in the form of raids, famine or plague - or years of peace and prosperity. The knight is aided by his Steward who makes a skill roll that modifies the harvest result. The harvest is also modified by the previous years harvest, and also by any raids or blights that might have occurred during the year.
The second feature is the system used to define the characters in the game. Not so much the physical characteristics, as more nebulous traits known as Passions. These describe the character with a series of opposed traits that describe his/her personality. The Traits are:
Chaste / Lustful
Energetic / Lazy
Forgiving / Vengeful
Generous / Selfish
Honest / Deceitful
Just / Arbitrary
Merciful / Cruel
Modest / Proud
Pious / Worldly
Prudent / Reckless
Temperate / Indulgent
Trusting / Suspicious
Valorous / Cowardly
Each of the paired traits is assigned a number and the total of the two must always equal twenty. These numbers provide a way to determine how a character behaves by using a D20. In the Pendragon game, player knights act as their player wishes, but always using their traits as a guide; and occasionally the Gamemaster may force a player to roll against a trait to see if his knight acts against character. i.e. a roll against "Vengeful" when an enemy knight is trying to surrender, or a roll against "Lustful" when enthralled by a Temptress.
In my opinion these traits are in many ways similar to the sort of thing Tony Bath developed for Hyboria. I will borrow from both resources for my Lohwand campaign.
In Pendragon, the player knight typically manages a Manor. This is obviously far too low level for my purposes. I pondered what levels to use for a long time. Pendragon uses medieval divisions: Manors, Baronies, Counties, Duchies and Kingdoms. This I thought would work fine for the Shield Lands - dropping the lowest level (manors), of course. I eventually came up with three basic forms, depending on the nature of the Nation in question:
Feudal Kingdoms - i.e. The Shield Lands:
Kingdom (King) - Duchy (Duke) - and/or - County (Count or Earl) - Barony (Baron)
With the provision that there might be lesser or greater Kingdoms, i.e. a High King or the odd "Pennath" about.
Empires - i.e. The Tharkallan Empire, Dara Happa, Umbar:
Empire (Emperor) - Province (Provincial Governor) - Prefecture (Prefect) - Estate (Praetor)
Recognizing that the titles will vary with the nation concerned.
Tribal Kingdoms - i.e. The Atlan Amazons, and other Barbarians:
Kingdom (High King/Queen) - Tribe (King/Queen) - Clan (Chief)
Allowing that there may be sub-kingdoms within a larger kingdom.
Zoomed in @ 150%
Here is my mapping progress so far. I've started in Nemedia, a province on the eastern border of the Tharkallan Empire. Shown on the map are cities, towns, prefectures and estates. These latter use a notation P1.1, P1.2, etc. This notation indicates: first prefecture, first estate; first prefecture, second estate; and so on. The actual names will be in the record information; there is just not enough room on my map to include it.
To the East is the Atlan Confederacy, tribal nations. Another tribal kingdom is Dunland, to the North. Also shown are the Exiles, who are the remnants of Nemedia's pre-Tharkallan regime. Imther, which would be in the North-east, is not yet started. Khauran and Khoraja, the two small areas within the Atlanian lands have been started, but more work to do there yet. Milii, a small Umbarite enclave and city is also shown in the South-east.
I have decided on four levels of urban centers: Large Cities, Cities, Small Cities and Towns. I am not showing anything smaller than a town. nor have I yet defined what each means, in terms of population, fortifications, etc. It is assumed that those on the coast or rivers are also Ports. Note that some of the towns shown were former cities in the Great Kingdom of Keoland (as posted previously); these are: Hestol, Tharda, and Gerdon.
Map Symbols
The intent is that each city/town symbol will be shown in colours related to those used to define the borders of the estates/clan fiefs.
The map scale shown has 50 km divisions on the far right, and 5 km divisions on the left.
The estates and clan fiefs are intended to represent approximately one 10-hour day travel distance by ox-cart; in other words, the distance the slowest element of any army is likely to move in a day. Now the areas shown are not of equal size, but I think that is acceptable as it takes into account the variable terrain or road conditions that I am not showing, that level of information being far too granular for my purposes. There is also an element of "if it works, go with it"!
