One of the more interesting things about Ravenland is the combination of a generation(s)-spanning cataclysm that has kept everybody inside, and the resulting really low population levels that resulted.
This is (a) unusual and (b) not really driven home by the rules, so it’s easy to miss. The posts in this section try to point out the consequences of having a land about a third of the size of England with at best a tenth of its population level in Roman times.
What does happen in a land with low population density and centuries of isolation?
Nothing is settled; everything is up for grabs
There isn’t necessarily one obvious person in charge; everyone’s gone their way, not necessarily well, and all villages should be really, really weird. The world is so empty and wild that encountering a herd of bison could be a significant challenge, but the PC group might be basically the only one. If everyone else is busy, a focused PC group might be able to do serious damage.
What doesn’t happen in Ravenland given the low population density?
Specialists and parasites need towns and frequent, anonymous travel
Your neighbours have the same stuff as you, so ancient trade ports are now ghost towns. Probably only dwarves trade regularly; other kins’ trade is probably limited to small, valuable foodstuffs, or one-off deals for PCs building strongholds to impress people.
Of course there’s alcohol, but it’s for local people, not travellers. The smith doesn’t have a pile of ready-made swords. If you want horses you might need to find someone who’s got a gryphon problem.
Anonymous thievery or, worse, slavery, are out for lack of people; similarly, if you manage to conquer another settlement you can’t keep it. If you find anything like this going on, it’s out of desperation or because of individual preference.
You need to remember how few people there are in Ravenland
Your neighbours are probably bison, and they don’t carry coins
Either game balance, the map or the armies in the Alder wars let us estimate the population of Ravenland before the Blood Mist, and things probably got worse since then. There’s not many people left.
Zytera+Kartorda have coins, but that’s very much an exception. Most villages have more informal arrangements.
What new technologies do we get from the Blood Mist?
Is there an Elvenspring village full of water-wheels somewhere?
Salient points:
How and where are the Forbidden Lands?
Which hemisphere? Which climate?
Counter-intuitively, it’s probably in the Southern hemisphere.
Noteworthy issues: what do the mountains do to rain, and what does that mean for the climate?