The Western Kingdom (Wästland)
Called Wästland in the songs of the simple and rhymes of the poor. Once home to peace and wealth when Lake Onda gifted fish and the river-trade thrived. Now terror and despotism stalk.
In the secret citadel of the sad-but-gaudy city of Schleswig, King Fathmu IX schemes. Paranoid, fat, and increasingly mad, he is consumed with psychosis and invisible fears. Obsessed with the prophecies of Verhu, the King raids and invades houses and villages, barns, and temples. Nowhere and no one is safe, especially the poor. Taxed into starvation, the contents of their larders and storehouses are carted off by Fathmu's men.
The Fanged Deserter (origin 5) may have followed an army in eastern Wästland. The Pale One (origin 5) may have hatched from an egg laid by a bog-witch in a Wästland swamp. The Forlorn Philosopher (origin 3) may have been brought up by illiterate, pig-ignorant churls in a peaceful Wästland forest. The Sacrilegious Songbird (origin 3) may have struck their bargain in a Wästland noble's bedchamber.
Misery 4:3 reads: "Look to the West. Forth comes fire, and a horde, and the Kingdoms burn." The Merchant carries "Wästland" goods: Pouch of Valley Vapors, Jar of Troll Piss, Fine but Gaudy Clothing, Pilgrim's Compass, Peasant's Kuksa, Lucky Fishing Spear.
The Swamp Witch's Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch is reached by intercepting messengers wearing Fathmu IX's crest.
Regional Fauna (Eat-Prey-Kill, p.9)
The Wästland's slow-dying countryside breeds:
- Liar-bird — repeats lies (and the occasional truth, for fun).
- Three-thirds-pheasant — a third of something, the rest a different bird.
- Feather Fox — leaves no track; the bones make magical pipes.
- Bautaboar — "only thirteen left in Wästland." A mouthful is a feast.
- Schleswig Bog-feeder (d6) (and d4 farmers, if you let the pigs squeal).
- Gold-crested Filth-crow — gold collar, latrine-born.
Lake Onda's distinct bestiary lives in Lake Onda.
Schleswig, Fathmu IX, Lake Onda, Verhu, Swamp Witch, Calendar of Nechrubel (4:3), Sacrilegious Songbird, Pale One, Forlorn Philosopher, Fanged Deserter, Liar-bird, Three-thirds-pheasant, Feather Fox, Bautaboar, Schleswig Bog-feeder, Gold-crested Filth-crow
The full geography of Wästland — its swamps, forests, villages (only Nechdorf is named in source, and not as a Wästland village explicitly), and its army — is undescribed. The river-trade that once thrived from Lake Onda is gone; what happened to the river is implied but unwritten. Bog-witches living in the swamps are referenced only as a Pale One origin point.