Suland

The inland reaches of the Eastern Continent are dominated by wilderness, with much of the northern half of the continent split by a large river system. At the center of this is a settlement inhabited by a tribal people Dragon Quest III calls the Soo. They're clearly supposed to be based on Native Americans; when you consider that Japanese is a heavily phonetic language, "Soo" is a transliteration of how they would write "Sioux." Although the region these people inhabit isn't named, for The Saga of the Ortegids, I'm going to be calling it Suland, and its people Sulanders. "Sooland" just kind of looks goofy.

We see some elements of romanticized portrayals of Native American societies in the Soo people. They value honesty and seem self-sufficient, and have been fighting back against Edinan incursions for at least two generations. However, unlike the Great Plains tribes, they do not seem to be nomadic - they have a village of permanent timber structures, complete with farms, shops, and an inn. While this might just be for gameplay convenience, it is compelling from the perspective of a worldbuilder, as it suggests their society is not a mere copy and paste from the real world, and deserves a deeper look.

They don't have a temple, so it seems unlikely they would be followers of the Nine Gods, perhaps instead worshiping the Beast Gods. I'd wager that the Great River they live on likely plays an important role in their culture, given that it would provide easy access to most of the continent - I can certainly see multiple villages in the region trading and fishing along these waterways. Perhaps it may even be venerated as a deity, maybe as part of a greater animistic tradition.

They also have a talking horse. That doesn't really relate to anything, I just wanted to point it out. Why does the horse talk? Who knows! It's never explained. And I kind of like that sort of unashamed fairy tale logic. Sometimes, things in fantasy can just happen with no particular explanation. It makes the world seem fantastic and full of potential when you get the sense that truly anything can happen.

We can also garner some clues from how other people talk about the Soo. A noble in Edinbear describes the people as...something. You see, this is somewhere we need to look into the history of DQ3's various translations. The original NES translation outright calls them "Indians," and the same word is used in the fan translation of the SNES remake, so it seems to be what they're called in the original Japanese. For obvious reasons, and because it's a real-world reference divorced of its context (there's no "India," only Baharata), this won't do. The Game Boy version refers to "the New World of the Soo," but as previously stated, the Eastern Continent doesn't actually seem to be much of a New World - if they fought the Edinans two kings ago, it seems odd to still refer to the area as though it's a newly discovered frontier. The more recent releases, meanwhile, use the terms "barbarians" and "nomads," and this is where things get interesting.

Given how the rest of the Eastern Continent is ripe with pulp sword and sorcery tropes, a tribe of barbarians fits right in. I would argue it wouldn't be out of place to turn Suland into Robert E. Howard's Cimmeria. This is a gloomy land that seems to hold all winds and clouds and dreams that shun the sun, with dark woodlands and cloud-piled hills, inhabited by dark-haired, sullen-eyed folk hunting and warring with axe and flint-tipped spear. If the Aliahanians are the historical barbarians of the Dark Ages, with their round shields and chain hauberks, then the Sulanders are the pop cultural, axe-hefting, loincloth-wearing barbarians off the canvas of Frazetta and Vallejo. A basis in Cimmeria would be a closer match to the geography of Suland, which seems far more dominated by forests than the real-life Great Plains, and would explain the more sedentary culture we see hints of in the game. And, in writing this, I realize that there's a lot of overlap with stereotypical Native American imagery here anyway.

Alternatively, you could split the difference and base the Sulanders on Howard's Picts. Certainly the presence of settlers on their borderlands, and their conflict with foreign powers, is perfectly in keeping with some of his Pictish Wilderness stories. It's a big enough area that you could probably even draw inspiration from both with different tribes.

Art by William Stout

Other areas in Suland include:

• Aurhea's Spring: A body of water inhabited by a nature spirit who tests the honesty of travelers who drop their belongings into her pond. I've adapted this encounter here.
• Arp Tower: An abandoned tower to the southwest of the Great River. There don't seem to be many civilizations nearby that could have constructed it - it could be an ancient Aliahanian ruin, or perhaps a wizard's abode. It contains a magic flute which sends out echoes that pinpoint the locations of treasure when blown. To get it, one must climb to the top of the tower, where ropes are strung over a pit, and make a leap of faith from the right location to land on a platform below. This is one of my favorite puzzles in the game, and one I've borrowed for my own dungeons multiple times.