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One could make one of the major threats to the PoLs highly cyclical: every hundred years a swarm of <demons><undead><locusts :) > sweep across the land and wipe out most of the PoLs. Between cycles the monster levels are more "normal" but the world is still only dotted with PoLs because they...

PoLs could be effectively invulnerable in ways that aren't movable: Physical: villages built on top of Mesas or underground in caves where they can seal themselves off when needed. Magical: There are "rift points" scattered through the land that lead to extra-dimensional spaces where all the...

Islands of light? This would only work for certain campaign tones, but what if the world is mostly islands and archipelagos rather than big continents. Lots of nasty sea monsters keep islands from trading too much, but they won't attack villages that are too inland. Additionally, each island...

Vestiges of magical wards in the ruins of an ancient empire hold off the "great evils" (i.e. high level monsters) in some areas, but weaker monsters can still slip through. When the PCs get high enough level, you can have the wards start failing, letting in the big bad monsters as new challenges.