For some time I’ve been contemplating a project to flesh out the very sparse regional description in the Arcanum Illyria wiki. This in turn was quite an eye opener: Because I don’t usually spend prestige to zoom out, and mostly leave “terrain” off the map display, I hadn’t realized how much of the map content is actually not random! Like the way herbs and minerals are concentrated to mountain regions and forests for instance…

This is my work so far on Ragallon:

Ragallon covers roughly 82,563 square miles. It is bordered to the north, west and south by great rivers, and to the east by the dense forests on the western slopes of the great Taomist mountain range.

In the center north of the province a highland region of small hills forms the base of a great mountain massif, all circled by a forest belt. Two rivers spring from these mountains, running to the west. In the south a smaller massif is similarly surrounded by hills and a forest belt.

The dominating terrain of the rest of the province, along the rivers forming its borders and in three large plains in the east, is a broken plain with some scattered mountains and forests, with some volcanic activity visible in the form of fiery mountains and geysers. In the northeast there are three small areas of what appears to be perennial mist.

The north and south mountain massifs are both rich in common minerals; grapes grow on the slopes surrounding them, while the forests encircling them have plenty of common herbs. The banks of the river to the north are rich in Queens Hair Leaves, while Ancient Oaks and Brascan Seeds grow in the great forests.

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I find a major problem is actually the lack of names on the map. Not even the great rivers and lakes have names, so discussion or even referring to them becomes very difficult.

Another question – do we know that herbs and animals spawn according to region? Both sides of the banks of the river (and lake) separating Ragallon from Windlost are rich in Queen’s Hair Leaves, while Ancient Oak is found further inland in the forests. Is it a given thing that a depleted QHL patch will re-spawn on the same side of the river, and therefore in the same region, or could their spawning be governed by growth zones such as “the river banks” not marked or named on the map? 

Incidentally I noticed that all coordinate combinations of even 100s are lochs, or other water, but that doesn’t seem very significant…

1. Shûl-nak's assumptions about a subconcious fear to enter the inner zone definitly might be true for the newer settlements, like those founded by the dwarven Overroad Traders. But not all hubs down there are post-Sundering...

2. Visiting the Mellorians, Commander Danorian describes Sanctuary as built upon pre-Sundering ruins, even finding frescos of Wizards, indicating an outpost of the Order of Silver Light.

Also the placement of Praekorn and Veem might be oriented on former outposts, maybe rebuilt by Voyldarn himself.

3. Orc settlements: Orcs had been severely enslaved during the reign of the Order, being forced to do the hard and dangerous labours. At every big construction site there would be a slum for the orc slaves to live in. I guess the very last big constructions where exactly those newly discovered "Pillars", and those slums might have been the seed for the present big orc hubs. Alas for the orc hubs nearer to the centre we could not find evidence of bigger ancient structures, thus those might be classified as Type 1.

4. Destroyed dwarven mines: Although the dwarves were also enslaved by the Order, to my dismay the little remainders left nearly no clue about any bigger structuring in the settlements. And Clan Dollogh refused to talk about details of this dark years, even to fellow dwarves! From their present affinity to high technology robotics, and the disturbing report of Danorian about the Lost Clans, I guess they were charged with the more delicate works (bionics?, golem tech?) nearer to the center.