Vanilla World
In this wiki page, you'll learn about the vanilla word. We'll go over the different regions of the map and their "personality", and then the different cities and enemies that you'll find there. Note that this is the planned vanilla plot, and some part of the documentation here may not be implemented by now, or may be chance in the future. Here's the representative map of the world, which's used in the vanilla game:
The vanilla plot happens in the archipelago called "Kathallion". This archipelago is made out of 4 islands: the "Stall Island', where the player begins its adventure, the "Shire Island", the "Korath Island" and finally, the "Rhun Island". Each island has its different civilizations, types of landscape and size. The Kathallion Archipelago is the home of many different intelligent species: the men, the dwarfs, the elves, the orks and the goblins, the dragons and the Koreth (plural of Korath). The humans are the most spread intelligent species in the Kathallion Archipelago, and perhaps in the world.
“The elves are for sure the highest species, who're here in the world for milleniums, who're immortals. The dwarfs, who live in their great mines, in the highest mountains of the world, have the greatest blacksmiths and forges. The men are selfish, liars, men have been working with the evil forces in the past, but there's also good in them: they're team workers and they always care about each others. The orks and the goblins are evil creatures, who, in the past, were elves, who've been changed by the evil wizards.
And what about the Koreth? Well, they live in trees, that they cherish all their life. But what's the meaning of Korath? Well, it's the name they've given to themselves. They live far from other species and intend to avoid men contact. Oh! And also don't forget about the Ents! The Ents, these creatures are searching for the Entwives, because they've lost them. They now wander in today's forests, and sometimes turns corrupted. While the dragons, the greatest creatures of the evil forces, breed in the arid lands of the Rhun Island.”
extract of a game dialog
This is where the player starts. This island is split in 7 different regions: the Forlindon Woods, the Californ Woods, the Stall Fields, the Goro Mounts, the Gerud Desert, the Badlands and the Mangrove Wastes. Each one of these regions have its own landscapes, civilization and danger. The Stall Island is the island of the archipelago that's the most varied environments and landscapes. The Stall Island as a few outer small islands, that are considered to be a part of the Stall Island: the Paradise Island.
The Forlindon Woods is the smallest and the quietest region of this island, this small forest is the home of a small town: the Ayar Town. The Forlindon Woods is the region of the island that's the most at north and west at the same time. The Forlindon Woods are a pretty safe place, except that some wargs can give you some trouble if you go too far in the woods at night time.
The Californ Woods, is one of the greatest forest of the archipelago and probably in the world too. This forest occupies most of the west part of the island, being in contact with the Forlindon Woods, the Stall Fields, the Goro Mounts and the Mangrove Wastes. The New Hyru city is settled up in the west coasts of the Californ Woods, which're a place full of beautiful beaches. The great Seaside Harbor is located in these coasts, as well as the Seaside Hostels. The Californ Woods were once inhabited by wood elves, but they've left this place, three centuries ago, to flee the evil forces who've made pacts with the Stall Islands men: indeed, the Californ Woods are now an hazardous and risky place to go at night time: you'll find many Orks, wargs, Goblins, corrupted Ents and even giant spiders, even though the men have broken the pacts with the evil and the evil's fled a long time ago from the island.
The Stall Fields are a mostly agricultural region, with its humongous wheat fields. This region is for the most part empty in civilization, but you'll find a small village: the Cocorico Village, which still has a decent hostel and blacksmith. The Stall Fields, is, compared to the others regions, a pretty safe place to be, due to the fact that common enemies like Orks, Goblins and wargs aren't really present in this region, because of the lack of humans to raid.
This great region is split in 3 layers: the outer layer, which's called the Edge Of The Goro Mounts, the mid-layer, which's called the Goro Mounts, and the core layer, which's called the Goro Mounts Peaks. The outer layer, is a stony and desert region, where won't find any living there, if you don't take in count the stones giants. The mid-layer, is the home of many Dwarfs habitations, who're often built directly inside of the rock of the mountains. There's a famous and well-known dwarf stable there, it's called the Humil Dwarf Stable, which's named after the current dwarf king of the Goro Mounts. This stable is famous for selling and training bear mounts! The core layer, the peaks of the Goro Mounts is the location of the Humil Mines, the dwarfs mines of the king Humil.
A huge arid desert: the Gerud Desert. This region is the second biggest region of the Stall Island, who covers most of the western part of the island. The Gerud Desert is for sure a not welcoming place: when traveling there, you'll find many south pillagers on your way, as well as desert undeads, trolls and mumakils. While the Gerud Desert might be a really dangerous place, there's the greatest town of the island there: Los Gerudos. This city has everything you'll ever need: an horse, donkey and camel stable, an hostel, a church, a forge, a blacksmith, and a great harbor. This's the most developed city in the Stall Island.
This Paradise Island is a small jungle island, located near the south-eastern coasts of the Gerud Desert. The small island is 8 square miles wide, and has a single harbor, that connect it to the Los Gerudos harbor. This island is more touristic than anything else.
The Badlands is an extended part of the Gerud Desert, which's totally uninhabited by humans. This place is totally unwelcoming and you'll find nothing there, except enemies.
Similar to the Baldands, the Mangrove Wastes are desert lands, full of deep swamps, which're gnarly to travel with the huge amount of undeads there. Some elf legend says that once upon a time, a great battle between elves, men and orks occurred there; that long battle lasted for two months, two months of pain and deaths. Even if the elves happened to defeat the alliance of men and orks, many soldiers of every side were killed. That'd be why this ancient field of wheat, which was similar to the Stall Fields, became an huge swampy waste land, due to the many dead bodies, that infected this place, and now haunt it...
The Shire Island is the second largest island in the Kathallion Archipelago. This island is split in 3 regions: the Elf Lands, The Shire and the uninhabited Death Mountain. The Shire Island is inhabited for the most part by Elves, but also by men and some Orks. Even though of the presence of a green dragon in the Death Mountain, this island is probably the most peaceful of the archipelago.
These lands have been discovered by the elves centuries ago, and they still inhabit this region at this day. The Elf Lands region's characterized by its rare landscape: the "flatland" landscape. The "flatland" landscape is unique to this region and island, and it cannot be found anywhere else. The Elf Lands are wide lands, full with huge grass and great trees, with golden leaves, that seem to not stop, because of the flatness of these lands. It's considered by the elf has the most beautiful place of the world, similar to heavens. Plus, the sea that surrounds the island cannot be any more blue. In this region, you'll find the great elf castle of Almana, and its forge, which're famous around the foreign world, and the archipelago.
The Shire is a land of men, which've moved here a few decades ago, for the purpose of looking forward to working with the elves that were already present here for a long time. Any respectable blacksmith or forge man have already heard the stories about the great Almana Forge, in the Elf Lands, which's the greatest forge the elves have ever built, and the greatest forge the men have never built. Aside from that, The Shire is a small land of hills, which then leads to a peaceful beach. There's also a pretty nice village near the Shire Beaches. Some legend says that a beast known as the 'Shire Flying Beast', which'd be the last still living green dragon species, would be sleeping for decades under the Shire Hills, waiting for a brave hero to wake him up.
This lonely and pretty big mountain was an old fort of the evil forces, which're still present there, but not as many as in the past. The Death Mountain is known for its black rocks and its huge canyons that surround the mountain. Aside from that, it's a pretty desert region.
This island is named after the people who live here: the Koreth. This island is the only place in the archipelago where you'll be able to find any Korath being. The Koreth are not well-known and they don't have any contact with other civilizations. The Koreth live in tiny houses, built inside of trees, kinda like some birds. That's the only thing the other civilizations know about the Koreth. None has really ever seen a Korath, and even the greatest explorers and adventurers don't know much about them. Some legend says that the Koreth have taught the trees to talk and think, making them Ents.
This small island (the smallest of the archipelago), is split in only 2 regions, which're practically the same. You have the western region, which's called the Koreth Lands and the northern region, which's called the Koreth Canyons.
This region of the Korath Island is constituted of wheat fields and a white beach near the coasts. However, only a few Koreth live in the wheat fields, and none live in the white beaches. The Koreth live in tiny villages, that're located in the woods that separate the white beaches and the wheat fields. Their villages are simply bridges made in between trees, that connect houses and other buildings.
The Koreth Canyons is a rough terrain, which contains many faults and canyons, making this place uninhabitable, due to the eventual earthquakes. Despite its rough terrain, there's still a small forest that's located near the northern coasts, where a small Korath village takes place.
This island, is the most dangerous and risky one of the archipelago. This's the location where dragons breed, before attacking some dwarf mines or elf castle. The Rhun Island is split in 3 regions: the Rhun Lands, the Beleriand Fields and the Eryn Mountain. The Rhun Island is characterized by arid and desert lands, which're often desolated and old. The dragons have made this island pretty much uninhabitable for any species, except themselves, goblins and their cousins like orks of trolls. You're pretty sure to get attacked by a few dragons if you decide to go there. Only the bravest elf heroes would dare going there.
A dwarf king had tried to conquer the northwestern part of the island, he decided to go himself, with a considerable amount of his army, to the island and settle a basic camp there, in order to develop mines and finally access to the huge amount of gold this island has, hidden under to ground.
This region has the perfect conditions for dragons to breed, that's why they often stay on this part of the island, even though there's many other dragons in every corner of the island. The region of the Rhun Island is therefore full of dragons, waiting for their maturity to fly to any mountain, that's inhabited by either men, elves, dwarfs, and even orks, to then dislodge its inhabitants and sleep for the rest of their life there, until a brave hero come defy and kill them.
The Beleriand Field is a large wasteland region, that's been inhabited in the past, but who's now uninhabited, since its inhabitants fled away from the dragons that were starting to gain territory on the island, and started attacking pretty much every city in the southwestern part of the island. Many men have tried to reconquer these lands, for the purpose of building and settling forts, in order to chase the dragons away; but they all died or escaped from the island. None really knows about what's present in this region; some men think they're now ork encampments, some elves think that it's just an arid land, where calm and hotness rules, and some dwarfs think there's many treasures hidden in dungeons in the Beleriand Lands.
Also known as the "Lonely Mountain", this mountain is famous for the fact that this mountain is a huge and single mountain, in the middle of the Beleriand Fields. For a long time, it's been inhabited by a dwarf king, renowned "Thorus", and it was a prosperous time. But then a day, a dragon, known as "Smauj", suddenly landed on the great mountain, making the pines of the near forest (that's now burned and non-existent), the Eryn Woods shake and convulse. Many brave soldiers tried to defeat the dragon, but they all died. The dragon is now probably sleeping in the mountain, on the great gold treasuries of the dwarf king.
The Kathallion Archipelago and its islands contain many different cities and towns, which have an interesting story of how they were built and how they got to develop. The following information can help you understand more about some of the game vanilla plot parts, but it's also a ton of extra interesting information to have.
Ayar Town is the place of birth and living of the player. Located in the center of the Forlindon Woods, this man town is living apart from the other great cities of the rest of its island and the Kathallion Archipelago. The economy of this town is based on both woodworking and carpentry, which makes this town one of the most beautiful of the archipelago. Every house of this village is an artwork of decades of woodworking and carpentry, and every single inch of it is as detailed as a fingerprint. Beside that, the only contact the Ayar Town has with the rest of the Kathallion Archipelago, is a contact with some dwarf colony, who haven't responded to them for six whole years.
Los Gerudos is one of the most developed city of the Kathallion Archipelago and its actually well known in the outer archipelago. This city also has a particular and unique story behind it, with many legends, myths and tales that talk about it. Despite that, we don't known much that we're sure about this city; in the late 985's ages of the world, farmers from the Stall Fields had to find new lands, because of the evil forces growing up dangerously, so they first went to the dwarf castle mines in the Goro Mounts Peaks, but as the dwarf king had much to deal with, he wouldn't let the farmers enter. Therefore, they decided to travel to the Gerudo Desert, until they found a place where they could settle down, away from the evil forces, until they got defeated. The farmers trip is said to have lasted about 8 months, walking 125 miles by foot; but, no book or historian have precise data. It's said that the farmers found an habitable region near the western seaside of the Stall Island: the Gerud Valleys.
The farmers then settled down there, near the early 988's ages and started building ranches; but it was only until 991 that Los Gerudos was born, as a village: indeed, so much these lands were attractive and ranches were built, it compacted up and became a village. A cowboy would then have decided to organize administrative papers, and write laws, in order to make this community of ranches, a town of richness and commerce. Many people then moved there to start their own businesses, like for example Dale W. Marshall, who've created the Los Gerudos Grand Hostel, which then led to the building of the Los Gerudos grand avenue, which was the route the Los Geruods town was built around. Many other people like Quark S. Owens, who built the famous Gerud Forges and its harbor, have contributed to the development of this great city with their foresight businesses.
This hostel was founded near the 998's ages, by a cowboy of the Los Gerudos region: Dale W. Marshall. This is the only place where you can buy the 'Gerudos Beer', who's famous for being one of the most high-priced alcohols, as its brewing uses various techniques and various rare ingredients. The 'Gerudos Beer' has its own distillery located in the Badlands, where the brewing conditions are perfect. The wheat grains used for beer-making are high-quality wheat grains coming from the Stall Fields, that have to travel the Goro Mounts to get to the distillery. During the brewing process, the brewers add a special spice to the yeast, which's the product of fermented Baldands cactuses, that they call 'Badlands cumin'. It's this spice who gives its amazing taste to the beer.
The basements of the prison are actually way more older than Los Gerudos itself, and its oldest ranch. When the farmers settled down on the Gerud western beaches, they actually settled down in an old ork warg stable which was abandoned; which helped the farmers to protect themselves against desert undeads at night time and south pillagers raid. This ork camp had a construction full of prison cells, that actually were used by farmers as storage rooms. Through the time, it was the Crooks family who took care of this construction, and they became rich. But when the village – which was only at this time – was officialized, the old cells were made a Los Gerudos property, and no longer a Crooks property.
The mayor at this time then decided to turn this old disused wheat storage construction into a prison for criminals, as they were beginning to appear in the village. The prison counted 17 cells, and now 723 nowadays, which're all under the control of the family of sheriffs: the Hansons. From its start to nowadays, the prison have a particular system, which allows the citizens of Los Gerudos to work with the sheriff on different missions, to help him with criminals, and get some money back. Beside that, criminals are also able to take part in certain sheriff missions, to contribute to the law enforcement, and be granted freedom after several ones.
As the businesses of Los Gerudos were growing exponentially, the mayor and its counselors had to find a way to store many items and goods of the starting businesses and the citizens. Their solution was to build a great warehouse, where everyone could rent a storage cell, where they could then store everything they want in it. Like that, businesses and people could store their stuff and a low price, and the city could get money from the taxes of the storage cells. The warehouse at the beginning of the project measured 25 acres, but during its building, it got up-scaled to 37 square feet, as the mayor realized the potential of the project. Many businesses like the Los Gerudos Grand Hostel, the Gerud Forges and the Gerud Harbr uses the warehouse for storage, and even the Los Gerudos Law Enforcement uses the warehouse to store its armament.
As soon as Los Gerudos was officialized, the citizens hurried up to build a holy church, that would possibly be the greatest of the island. Indeed, the Los Gerudos Church – also known as "Kazad Dum", its dwarf name – is one of the great human civilization builds of all times, and the church is known in the whole Kathallion Archipelago and its near continents and archipelagos. Historians don't know exactly when the first brick was settled, but we know that it was finished the 15th of September, year 1001, and that its lasted about 3 whole years. The project was to build the church outer bricks in pink marble, and its inner bricks in white quartz, but the final decision was to build the outer bricks in yellow marble, mixed with cyan quarts stone, and its inner bricks in white quartz, mixed with porcelain; as the actual dwarf king Thorin the 2nd of the Goro Mounts decided to help the Los Gerudos city, and also ask for help of other dwarf kings from other islands. The Los Gerudos Church brick stones therefore come from various place of the world; and you can find in the north-western corner-part of the church a humongous wall where you can find the given name of every single brick, who participated to it, what are its materials, where every material comes from, and its date of build and delivery.
The Gerud Forges is a series of three dwarf blast furnace, which are probably the most powerful furnaces in the world. They were originally built for the construction of the Los Gerudos Church, as the stones needed for the bricks were rare stones, that needed high-quality furnaces. The three forges were supposed to be dismantled after finishing the church project, but the dwarf offered the forges to the man in charge of the project: Harry J. Kane, the 17th of September, year 1001, 2 days after the project was finished and officialized. The first blast furnace, designed for generic stones has a heat of 2,300° at its maximum, the second one for noble stones has a heat of 1,700° at its maximum, and the third one for rough stones like obsidian has a heat of 3,600° at its maximum. As the blast furnaces require high-pressurized water for cooling reasons, it has been built right next to the sea, on the Los Gerudos beaches.
The Gerud Armorer is a pretty recent building, has it's been built in the year 1705. The building is a private property of the Dwarf King Humil, has a financed this project and his dwarfs built the actual building. Nevertheless, it's Donald L. Johnson who runs the armory and is in charge of everything in it. There are currently 4 employees at the Gerud Armorer: Kate M. Owens, who's in charge of the bank-related businesses, Howard R. Smith, who's in charge of advertizing and finding possible rich clients like kings, Richard F. Anderson the weaponsmith, and Feyman J. Miller, the blacksmith. The Gerud Armory's armor and weapons choices are very wide, as they sell men weapons, dwarf weapons and some old elf weapons.
The Gerud Harbor and the Paradise Harbor are twinned harbors, that were built the same year, on year 1,235, in order to connect the Los Geruods city and its island: the Paradise Island. The Paradise Harbor – unlike many projects in Los Gerudos – wasn't financed by the dwarf king of the Goro Mounts, but by the city itself. Both harbors were built extremely fast, as they were done in 2 months; which is a great accomplishment for that time of the world. The Paradise Harbor is closed to the open world, has its only connection is the Gerud Harbor, making most of the island desert, fill of jungle and sometimes a lonely house. But the Paradise Island is very famous among sightseers. But the Gerud Harbor has strong links with the whole Kathallion Archipelago (it's connected with every harbor in the archipelago), and some other far islands. The Gerud Harbor is a place of wealth; and since the Los Gerudos Defense Vessels Department has bought the harbor, it keeps growing through the eastern Gerud coast, it is the main source of expansion of the Los Gerudos county, and many businesses start every day in the harbor district, as many immigrants come there to find work, wealth and sun.
One of the greatest and most famous Los Gerudos ranch, who's run by the Kathals family. Located in the northern Los Gerudos, this ranch offers great quality horses as well as horse equipment, a wide open space suitable for horse training and great quality products. This stable is being ran by the same family for decades, pretty much since the birth of Los Gerudos. The Kathal Horses stable plays a major role in the Los Gerudos law enforcement, as the sheriff team uses this stable to train and practice for future missions. Recently, the stable has decided to now sell Camels and Donkeys, more for entertainment, because of the growing number of sightseers in the city, making it an amazing attraction.