Territory
"Every hex belongs to someone - or to no one, which on the open road amounts to the same danger."
Beyond its terrain, the world map is politically carved. Every hex falls under the control of a power, or lies in the wilderness between them. Turn on the Factions layer of the map and the borders bloom into view: the two great camps, the homelands of their member races, and the lone neutral city in the middle of it all.
The two camps
At the broadest scale the inhabited world is split between the two philosophies that divide Wildoria:
- The Savages (shown in red) - power through instinct.
- The Fasters (shown in blue) - speed, technology, adaptability.
On the Factions layer each camp is drawn as a single wrapped region that gathers all of its member races' lands together, bridging the gaps between them, so you can read the balance of the map at a glance.
Member races
Each camp is a coalition of races, and each race holds its own homeland within the camp's borders:
| Camp | Member races |
|---|---|
| Savages | Bengal Tiger, Penguin |
| Fasters | Panda, Lemur, Rhino |
See The Factions for the lore of each camp and the characters who lead them.
The neutral Free City
Not everything belongs to a camp. The Wildoria Free City (shown in orange) is an independent city-state sitting in the heart of the map - a small, neutral enclave that answers to neither the Savages nor the Fasters. On the Factions layer it is drawn as its own wrapped region with its own colour, distinct even where a camp's territory surrounds it: a Vatican within Rome.
The wilderness
Between and beyond the powers lies unclaimed wilderness - hexes no faction holds. The wild is where the rules thin out: no power's watch guards it, but no power's protection covers it either. Much of the danger, and much of the discovery, waits out here.
Why territory matters
Whose land you stand in is not cosmetic:
- A power's watch reads the warrants of every traveller crossing its territory - cross the wrong land with a price on your head and you may be stopped. See The Roads and the Watch.
- Your standing with each faction colours how its territory treats you. See Reputation.