The campaign world

I don't really enjoy creating maps. I usually try to use real-world geography and maps that I can acquire from the web or library.

I haven't worked out all the details, but here's the idea. Imagine a large body of water in the center of the map (think Atlantic ocean - from the equator to the north pole.), a large land mass on the right-hand side of the map (think Western Europe), and a large landmass on the left-hand side of the map (North America, Central America. and the Carribean)

In ancient times, this entire map was civilized by kingdoms of humans, dwarves, halflings, eladrin, and elves. (more on the races in another post).

Then a massive plague struck. It wiped out all civilization on the last mass on the left side of the map ("new world"). It did serious damage on the other side of the map ("old world") as well. But those civilizations eventually recovered.

For centuries the old world kingdoms forbid travel to the new world, fearing a return of the plague.

But in recent years, 5 nobles have been granted charters to colonize the new world, and explore ruins left from ancient times, and the dense wilderness that has grown up around them.

One of these nobles is an Eladrin Wizard called Aralan. His colony is known as Fort Aralan, and it will be the starting point for the adventure.