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Here's something I threw together from some unusual Location rolls in the World Builder's Guidebook. My working title for the land is Hydrophobia, but no doubt, if you use it, you can think of something more serious.


(Hydrophobia) is a land dissected by several broad rivers, draining from chilly upland lake country south to the coast of the great Ocean, Hydra.

Tribes of the Tricksters (Human)

The Iron Age humans of the northern lands follow spirits such as the Small Bear, Crow, Fox, Black Snake and Squirrelhawk, whom they regard as their ancestors. Lesser orders of shamans are guided by prominent ancestors of the tribe, and spirits of the rivers and mountains.

Each tribe has a number of powerful leader figures - the headman who settles disputes and directs planting and harvest, the war-leader who oversees training of all in battle and keeps a network of scouts and spies, the champion who can out-fight anyone else in the tribe (they are not known for their brains). The shamans of the Founder often support the headman, shamans of the Ancestors support the war-leader, and shamans of the Land stand aside from politics, but this is by no means universal. Many adventures could centre on political infighting within the heroes' native tribe.

Thunder-Walkers (Cloud Giants)

The bays of the south coast and Hydra herself are ruled by a race of giants, whose wondrous cities and palaces of ice are borne high above the waves through ancient pacts with the elementals of air and water. The sciences and arts which flourish in their cities astonish any backward humans who somehow find their way in.

The Thunder-Walkers are served by a large and ferocious race of soldiers, the Water Dogs (gnolls), who rove the seas and raid the coasts in light, fast galleys. Their cleverly built ships, rapid-firing crossbows and fearsome falchions have brought disaster to most human assaults.

The giants are known to keep magnificent shrines to the famous heroes and sages of their race.

Dark Ones (Ixitxachitl)

Some of the most feared sorcerors of the Thunder-Giants traffick with an evil-natured unhuman race that roams in schools through the waters of Great Hydra.

Piscids (Sahuagin)

These tyrannical fish-men bring great danger to the major rivers and lakes, with their petty kingdoms and blood-thirsty cultic raids.

Halflings

The boat-folk are well-known to all of the powers of the land, but at home nowhere. They cross freely between the giantish cities and the wild human lands. Most pay homage to the spirits of whatever land they inhabit, but their own, seldom seen order of Guardians protects the halflings' rights.

Heart of the Ocean (Tritons)

This fabulous place is rumoured to lie far to the south. In a maze of reefs filled with fish of every colour, which magically overflows with clean cool water, a colony of mysterious and magical outsiders enrich the ocean and oppose the evils of the Dark Ones and Water Dogs.


Just for fun, you could set the first adventure on an island in a coastal delta, where the heroes have the choice of every bad guy in the campaign to ambush them. (The ancient temple would, in fact, be guarded by various constructs and traps. Then a band of halfling looters could catch the heroes on the way out, to take all the treasure without facing any of the dangers.)