Mad_Jack
Legend
Gotten off-track on the dungeon again to focus more on populating the world - been drawing maps for the homesteads/family compounds in the Great Black Swamp...
I've marked out numbers 2-7 on the larger map of the swamp as the homesteads of the swampfolk (larger islands or clusters of smaller ones, most of them around three to five miles from their neighbors) with three of the locations having mixed/multiple families, so nine extended families totaling about 120-150 swampfolk total...
The lizardfolk tribe will number about 100 or so.
I figure a hundred square miles of temperate swamp is enough to support 250 beings subsistence hunting/fishing and trapping for furs, right? Especially since I'm backgrounding it so that the ancient magical cataclysm in the adjacent Stonelands to the north has had long-term magical effects on the flora and fauna of the swamp as well as the area itself.
The swampfolk enclave occupies roughly the easternmost quarter of the swamp while the lizardfolk tribe occupies the western third, although the two cultures have peacefully coexisted* for so long (nearly four hundred years) that the distinction is solely geographical rather than territorial, especially as the lizardfolk are tangentially involved in the swampfolks' smuggling operation... At the far end of the swampfolk enclave is a place called Red Hand Island, which symbolically serves as neutral ground and a trading post between the two. All of the swampfolk wear small stonewood amulets carved into the shape of a hand and painted red to symbolize the peace between the swampfolk and the lizardfolk (who wear one as well when entering the human territory, especially in town), and the standard swamp greeting involves raising an open hand.
* There's a lizardfolk trader who permanently lives in End-Of-The-Line (and one or two of the lizardfolk wander into town on some sort of business at least every other week or so), so even the "civilized townsfolk" are used to them and don't treat them any differently than the elves or dwarves passing through. Quite a few of the lizardfolk are willing to toss a heavy barrel into a wagon in exchange for a handful of butcher's scraps or fish guts if asked respectfully.
I've marked out numbers 2-7 on the larger map of the swamp as the homesteads of the swampfolk (larger islands or clusters of smaller ones, most of them around three to five miles from their neighbors) with three of the locations having mixed/multiple families, so nine extended families totaling about 120-150 swampfolk total...
The lizardfolk tribe will number about 100 or so.
I figure a hundred square miles of temperate swamp is enough to support 250 beings subsistence hunting/fishing and trapping for furs, right? Especially since I'm backgrounding it so that the ancient magical cataclysm in the adjacent Stonelands to the north has had long-term magical effects on the flora and fauna of the swamp as well as the area itself.
The swampfolk enclave occupies roughly the easternmost quarter of the swamp while the lizardfolk tribe occupies the western third, although the two cultures have peacefully coexisted* for so long (nearly four hundred years) that the distinction is solely geographical rather than territorial, especially as the lizardfolk are tangentially involved in the swampfolks' smuggling operation... At the far end of the swampfolk enclave is a place called Red Hand Island, which symbolically serves as neutral ground and a trading post between the two. All of the swampfolk wear small stonewood amulets carved into the shape of a hand and painted red to symbolize the peace between the swampfolk and the lizardfolk (who wear one as well when entering the human territory, especially in town), and the standard swamp greeting involves raising an open hand.
* There's a lizardfolk trader who permanently lives in End-Of-The-Line (and one or two of the lizardfolk wander into town on some sort of business at least every other week or so), so even the "civilized townsfolk" are used to them and don't treat them any differently than the elves or dwarves passing through. Quite a few of the lizardfolk are willing to toss a heavy barrel into a wagon in exchange for a handful of butcher's scraps or fish guts if asked respectfully.
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