Alright, so, having recently acquired the 2nd and 3rd Ravenloft Gazetteers, which I consider some of the more interesting "setting building" sourcebooks from D&D, I think I have a set-up to begin finally starting to map out this world of mine. For your perusal, I submit the first draft of the prologue for this "in-universe" atlas, in hopes of refining what does and doesn't work about it.
Mapping The Malebolge - An Explorer's Guide to the Known World
Prologue
Salutations and well met, good reader. In your hands now rests a copy of an Explorer's Guide to the Known World, 1st edition. That means that either you have earned the right to visit the Vault of Knowledge in Candleforge, you have earned the trust of one of the Mapmakers, you are tribe-kin and so have been allowed to purchase a copy, or you took this text from the body of a dead Mapmaker.
If it was one of the former; congratulations on your good fortune. Though we dearly wish it could be otherwise, membership in the Great Work is a small and oft-exclusive thing, and so there are few who can be so trusted with the knowledge you now hold.
If it was that last option, then be ready for some very hard and pointed questions should a rodushi or a Mapmaker see this tome in your hands. And if you murdered for it, expect to get exactly what's coming to you, vile dark-spawn.
With those preliminaries out of the way, allow me to introduce myself. I am Scrivener Djir of Clan Z'orr'tek, descendant of Palatine Skivven, founder of the Mapmakers. Though I lack my illustrious ancestor's skill with a blade, my talents allow me to serve the cause he founded through this medium.
In a brief history, the Mapmakers are a society of noble souls who seek to literally bring light to the dark world around us, charting out the strange, untamed lands created by the Black Dawn and furthering our understanding of this world we have inherited.
You see, amongst the many casualties of the old world was a literal understanding of the world around us. Only scattered, oft-incoherent fragments of ancient maps and atlases remain to identify the lands of the world-that-was. And comparing those to the world-that-is? That's almost impossible. So thorough is the sundering of civilization that, for the average individual, a journey more than 50 to 100 miles from the place of their birth is barely conceivable.
Thus, the Mapmakers, who slowly but steadily chart out the expanse of the Malebolge, expanding and heightening our knowledge of the known lands we have inherited from the Black Dawn and allowing us to more accurately chart a course for the reconstitution of civilization.
The Explorer's Guide is a travel-suitable summarization of all collective lore as currently stands related to the Known World. It is not an exhaustive map, and so does not detail every single individual settlement, tribe, clan, or cave out there - alas, such detail would make this text far too large to be practical. Instead, this tome provides more of a generalistic overview, although where possible settlements of note have been included.
The Guide is divided into two categories; Regions and Territories, which roughly correspond to the ancient terms of "continent" and "nation".
The Region segment provides a basic naturalist overview of the land as a whole. It will open with an "At A Glance" table, consisting of the following summarized aspects:
Climate - The prevailing temperature and weather systems native to that Region.
Terrain - The predominant forms of physical landscape in the Region.
Races - Sapient species known to inhabit the Region.
Monsters - Hostile non-sapient creatures known to inhabit the Region, designated by category (Aberration, Undead, etc).
These will then be explored in more substantial detail, providing an explorer with a clearer grasp of just what it is that they can look forward to seeing or having to deal with whilst trekking through the area.
Following that, each Region will be divided into a number of Territories, representing distinctive political groupings or geographic segments of the Region as a whole. A Territory report is broken into the following segments:
Landscape - A naturalist's view, focusing on noteworthy features of terrain, flora and fauna.
Populace - A census taker's view, examining physical characteristics, fashions, demeanor, customs, cuisine, and other societal matters relevant to the native sapients. If applicable.
Realm - Only applicable in Territories that have sapient populations, this segment covers local government, law enforcement, prevailing societal opinion towards the aforementioned, and economic details such as local currency, natural resources, and notable industries.
