Desiduoh, the First Island

When I first started working in Deciduoh, I wanted to start small and expand the world with the characters; in other words, have the world expand from the characters' points of view at the same time and rate the characters themselves were expanding, changing and growing as good characters should.

This seemed like a great idea, but I ended up running in to some road-blocks.  For starters, there was maintaining interest.  In most stories or games, the characters find themselves somewhat rooted; it helps at first to start at a home town in order to help develop the characters.  When this is the case (and the characters aren't immediately taking off on a great journey around the world), the environment they're placed in takes a huge roll.

It's tempting at first to try to add as many different types of environment into a small space as possible.  That, of course, brings its own issues, not the least of which is trying to make sure the rest of the world is as interesting as the starting area (TANGENT: an issue, I believe, is one of WoW's weaknesses: you don't find anywhere as interesting as most of the starting areas, especially the newer ones, until the end-of-game; then again, I haven't played the new expansion).  On the flip side, making an environment that's too simple can bore people too quickly.  I mean, seriously, how many times can you read about "the paths through the plains of tall grass" before you start hoping someone gets jumped and killed?  How many sci-fi/fantasy novels do you need to read about adventurers roaming through the forest before you just start yelling at the characters to "look up, there's obviously something in the trees!" at the get-go?

So I wracked my brain for a little bit, trying to come up with something simple but still changing, enough to keep the attention of those who were participating.  Eventually, I settled on something that seemed so simple until I did some investigating: Swamp-land, surrounded on three sides by mountains.  Although it was a bit predictable, it allowed me to have some sudden environmental changes (patches of dry earth gave way to harder-to-navigate sucking mud to a network of maze-like ponds and streams) while still sticking with a theme.

Desiduoh - Western Hemisphere

The area, the larger island in the north-east part of the map, was the first fully-developed part of the world, as I created the small woodsman town, the clear-cut area in the south for farming and dens of various creatures throughout the waters, caves, and ruins around the area.  To be honest, I was happy with the choice for the starting area; I found myself relying on marshland for many other adventure settings, although I do wonder sometimes if it's widely used, or if it's mostly a starting-crutch I invented for myself.

Photo Credit: Cesar Paes Barreto, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/29338
Drawing Credit: sadly, me.