Baharata

As any polyglots out there could probably guess, Baharata corresponds to the Indian Subcontinent in the overworld of Dragon Quest III. It's a large region, with considerable swathes of wilderness, but isolated from the rest of the world, with large mountain ranges separating it from Ashalam and the region I've dubbed the Worldforest. Baharata is a key point in the spice trade, and its wares fetch a high price in the outside world, likely in part due to the difficulty in getting there. There is one pass in the mountains near Ashalam guarded by a hobbit who answers to the King of Portoga and will only let those who have his permission pass - this, to me, suggests the mountains are a mythic wilderness home to many creatures and fey spirits, one that humans likely have little contact with or authority over. If one wanted to expand on the setting, this would be a great place to drop monster lairs, dwarven holds, lost treasures, or even a megadungeon or two. Navigating the route between Ashalam and Baharata could be fraught with many dangers and adventures - enough to drive plenty of action at the table.

I've always held the belief that the history, culture, and mythology of India is criminally underused in fantasy gaming. Anyone who's read the Ramayana or the Mahabharata can tell you the average Hindu myth has more gods, demons, monsters, and magic than a lot of D&D sessions. Even if we narrow our scope to sword and sorcery, we need look no further than The People of the Black Circle to see how much room there is for pulp fantasy adventure in an Indian-inspired setting. I would liberally fill Baharata with warring kingdoms, hill tribes, lost rock-cut temples, roving demons, impenetrable jungles, and ancient curses. Luckily, such a large region gives me plenty of room to do so.

Art by Devashish Pradhan

There's only one town in Baharata we visit in DQ3, and it's solidly Hindu in character, with mention of a sacred river being used for purification rituals (interestingly, the river appears on the town map, but not on the world map), which gives me shades of Varanasi. I would interpret Baharata as being largely based on the Vedic era - not only because it's one I find personally interesting, and because it's roughly the era of the aforementioned epics, but also because this era predates the unification of India under a series of empires.

I think a points-of-light approach, with many small states, tribes, and kingdoms, would work well for Baharata. The town in DQ3 does not seem to house any regional authorities, so it does not seem to be a capital of any sort, and the region is too far from any other capitals to make sense as part of the same empire. There are two possibilities that I can see - either the capital of Baharata is one we never visit because there isn't anything interesting there, or Baharata is split up into a multitude of different states, with no one being particularly larger or more powerful than any other. The latter option would offer more opportunities for gameplay - think about negotiating rivalries between kings, or sparking a war between them, to say nothing about the potential for domain-level play - so I'm inclined to go with that. The chapter on the Hundred Kingdoms from Yoon-Suin might be helpful here, although it's based on a later era than what I'm going for. I'd also like to make some of those kingdoms and tribes made up of beastmen, probably in the wilder northern regions. Admittedly, part of that is me ripping off what Warhammer Fantasy did with its fantasy-India, but it's also entirely in keeping with the precedent of Hindu mythology, so it fits.