The Inland Sea

If we're going to discuss tropes of fantasy maps, the first one that comes to mind is surely a continent with a defined western coast and an indiscriminate landmass to the east. But inland seas are up there too. In addition to looking otherworldly, they serve a practical purpose - as Anders H. of Mythlands points out in his Fantasy Map Review series, a sufficiently large inland sea means that pretty much every part of the map is accessible from every other part of the map. I, personally, prefer long multi-stage journeys through multiple lands, but that's just me. It seems that inland seas are particularly associated with the sword and sorcery subgenre, likely because of Howard's Vilayet and Gygax's Nyr Dyv - I also suspect that this is because it provides for more area for pirate adventures to take place.

It's convenient, then, for the purposes of my project to reimagine the world of the original Dragon Quest trilogy as a sword and sorcery setting, that Dragon Quest III boasts a rather large inland sea. The distorted geography of DQ3's overworld combines the Black and Caspian Seas into a single body of water, almost as big as the pseudo-Mediterranean to the southwest. I've stated before that DQ3's overworld doesn't seem to be as big as the actual Earth, but the comparative sizes of the two seas does still give us reason to believe that it's quite a big one, and consequently, probably well-settled, with copious ports and trade routes to be found.

According to my theories on Erdland's geography, the Sea forms the eastern border of the Romalian Empire, with the Worldforest to the east, Ashalam and Baharata to the south, and the Kingdom of Dragons to the north. It's connected to the surrounding ocean by what are either rivers or (in my opinion, more likely) straits. Though we don't see any large settlements here in-game, it's reasonable to assume that such a large body of water so closely connected to the sea where Romaly and Portoga are located would be an important center for trade. This is supported by the fact that the terrain on the western and southern shores consists mostly of easily-settled plains - considering these shores would be controlled by Romaly and the Baharatan kingdoms, there are surely a number of important ports there.

Beyond that, I'd place a number of city-states, or even thalassocratic leagues thereof, around the coasts of the Inland Sea. Kings and merchants would surely be keen to take advantage of its strategic location and carve out dominions for themselves, ranging from stately maritime republics a la Venice to lawless dens of piracy. Considering the northern continent is ruled by dragons, the cities around its shore of the Sea would likely be heavily fortified and with formidable navies to defend themselves against their monstrous neighbors.

One might expect a similar quality from the cities bordering the Worldforest in the east - these ports would have plentiful access to wood, likely making them centers of shipbuilding and great exporters of timber, but the lack of infrastructure in the feral Worldforest would require them to rely on their own might. They are likely dependent on foreign imports for goods as well, trading wood for crops and luxuries they have limited access to themselves. If the Worldtree allows for travel (and, consequently, trade) with Torland, these ports may be some of the most important arteries supplying Torlandic goods into Erdland, but with the tree far afield inland, getting them to the port is another story - and perhaps a good opportunity for adventurers.

Locations in or around the Inland Sea include:

• Olivia Cape: A narrow point in the middle of the Sea. An inn is present on the southern shore, and a local legend tells that the cape's namesake, a woman named Olivia, drowned herself here after her husband, Eric, was lost at sea; her ghost now forbids ships to pass. Even without the ghost, it's likely a treacherous route due to its narrow nature and the presence of large shoals.
• The Shrine of Shackles: An island in the western half of the Sea that prisoners are exiled to. Given the geographic placement, it was likely established as a penal colony by the Romalians; however, the one named canonical resident, Simon (more on him in a moment - he's the most frustrating historical reference the translators missed), was exiled there by the king of Samanao. This is almost certainly me overanalyzing a decades-old video game (but then, what part of this project isn't?), but this could point to a historical treaty between Samanao and Romaly, comparable to how Russia and Germany were able to exile Napoleon to Elba.

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.