Celebrating Ironlands for Blog Carnival
This is my contribution to this month's RPG Blog Carnival - Celebrating Your Favourite Setting by Codex Anathema https://codexanathema.com/2024/03/31/celebrando-tu-escenario-de-campana-favorito/
For me the choice wasn't obvious. I really don't like the classification of "favourite" anything as I like many things and choosing the one I like most is one of most counterproductive things I could do. So I made a choice of Ironlands, setting of Ironsworn https://www.ironswornrpg.com/, as I like the particular thing about it.
Contrary to traditional Western fantasy settings in Ironlands humans are definitely not apex predators. I understand that there are such things like dragons and demons and stuff that certainly make human life difficult in fantasy. But you do have safe havens, there is usually enough stability and commerce to produce full-plated knights on horses or other well trained and very well equipped warriors. Or mages who require very obscure ingredients in their research. In Ironlands there are no safe places. There are no overwhelming technologies or even people left enough to conquer the dangers. Sometimes humanity is a predator, but sometimes it is only prey.
Out of beasts that roam Ironlands there are five kinds. First one is the least special kind - the dire beasts. Wolves, boars, bears and so on but blessed with unnatural size and strength. They are just buffed animals, not so special in relation to the rest apex predators of that place. I guess their danger is the fact of being a lot of them.
Leviathans are huge creatures that lurks deep waters of fjords and coasts of Ironlands, large enough to swallow boats whole and ram ships with their dagger-shaped heads. They actively hunt Ironlanders who come too close and simply eat those who swim in the sea. They are also not that rare, so danger is constant. It may not seem so scary to you but if you are a person whose ship has been attacked you can be sure to get devoured once you touch the inky black of cold that surrounds you. There are no other ships around. And coasts are usually cliffs and steep rocks. It is the terror from below.
Harrow Spiders are giant arachnids that lurk in shadows of wilderness. They may not too intimidating - beside being huge spiders with their venom - but they are hunting you. Dropping from above, striking from hiding, taking your friends one by one in untouched wilds, herding you into sticky webs and grappling unaware. They have eight alien eyes and no mind you could ever persuade to let you live. They are the death you don't expect. Or expect too much.
Basilisks are land beasts, giant snakes hiding usually in murky waters of swamps and marshes. As Leviathans use natural depths of water and Harrow Spiders use density of natural environment Basilisks use shallow waters and mud to hide as well as mesmerising gaze in order to put their prey in place and crash before consuming. Lands in which they hunt are more settled than the sea or deep wilderness so the basilisk encounters - in my mind - would be more frequent. But it is still deadly, as not only giant hypnotising snake is against you but also unstable ground, hidden tree roots and disease carrying waters.
The final beast of Ironlands is the most prominent. Wyvern, not the dragon kind, the wolf-headed bat-winged predators of the sky. Even if they are not as strong as Leviathans, not as stealthy as Harrow Spiders and don't have Basilisks' mesmerisation abilities they can fly. They travel quickly, can dive from above and until caught on the ground are basically invulnerable to human weaponry. Wyvern hunting grounds force people to use all sorts of ways to hide and sneak in order to live, even when seen on horizon these beasts bring fear and anxiety in people's hearts. You know you are the prey now. There is nothing you can do to change it.
This is what I really like about Ironlands. Humans do not have calm and safety to build up their civilizations as they are usually one Basilisk or Wyvern away from being decimated. And hiding at sea or in wilderness won't help with Leviathans and Harrow Spiders on the loose. Be afraid, human.