I'm working hard to reflavor a lot of stuff to make it a bit more realistic (for example, making Lhazaar just as cold and inhospitable as Karrnath instead of sub-tropical - the southern tip of it is at the same elevation as northern Maine), but I'm having trouble reskinning Q'Barra while keeping the essential feel of it. I really want my version of Khorvaire to capture the feel of Europe at the end of World War 1, making it much more heavily urbanized and densely populated, and there's no way that an entire section of the continent would remain unexplored.
I'm just having a problem with the idea that Khorvaire has been continuously occupied for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years and yet no one has ever gotten around to colonizing or even exploring a sizeable area of it up until now. I haven't studied the timeline closely, but it really stretches my suspension of disbelief. Can anyone explain to me how/why it remained so isolated?
I'm working hard to reflavor a lot of stuff to make it a bit more realistic (for example, making Lhazaar just as cold and inhospitable as Karrnath instead of sub-tropical - the southern tip of it is at the same elevation as northern Maine), but I'm having trouble reskinning Q'Barra while keeping the essential feel of it. I really want my version of Khorvaire to capture the feel of Europe at the end of World War 1, making it much more heavily urbanized and densely populated, and there's no way that an entire section of the continent would remain unexplored.
Bayou of Lousiana, or the Everglades those are actually what Q'Barra is like. In addition, it lies on the opposite end of inhospitable mountains and a large dry plains filled with dangerous creatures.
Second Lhazaar could lie on a warm ocean current which can effect weather just as much as placement, see New Zealand, as well as the North West coast. Also I never pictured it as Sub-Tropical, sure it has palm trees in one of the pictures but that doesn't mean anything.
As for Lhazaar, look at the climate of somewhere like Japan, which is quite close to Eastern Russia and Vladivostok (which is practically Siberian). Japan has cold-ish winters that MIGHT have a few days of snow, moderate springs and autumns and hot, humid summers with typhoons and storms. Latitude doesn't entirely define weather.
I totally agree with Lugnut- there's swamp/ mangrove areas in Australia that have barely been touched because they are dense, dangerous and don't offer much in the way of resources. I imagine Q'Barra is like that.
As for Lhazaar, look at the climate of somewhere like Japan, which is quite close to Eastern Russia and Vladivostok (which is practically Siberian). Japan has cold-ish winters that MIGHT have a few days of snow, moderate springs and autumns and hot, humid summers with typhoons and storms. Latitude doesn't entirely define weather.
Actually, Japan's winters are quite cold and involve a lot of snow, especially in the northern parts of Japan. Your best bet is to simply look at Great Brittain and Ireland and compare it to the climate at the same lattitude in the States. Warm ocean currents indeed have a huge impact on climate in RL and that is without even considering magic. I also seem to remember that the Lazaar Principalities are not described as sub-tropical persee. We are talking about a chain of islands stretching from the north to almost the southern parts of the continent. The climate of Dreadhold for example is detailed as cold and wretched and it is in the northern parts of the area.
As for Q'Bara, it should be noted that in RL it took 19th century technology and above all cultural changes* before people even started to explore the world especially in inhospitable regions like the jungles of Africa en South America. Before that time there were expeditions, but even journeys like those made by Marco Polo were hardly believed and few if any explored internal Africa, America, Asia and Northern Europe. The Romans for example knew little to nothing about Russia and northern Europe despite being a highly organized empire. Technology, incentives, opposition and simply not carring have a huge impact on the explorations of humans and that is on a world were mankind is the only sapient (if not sentient) species on a planet with no active god-like beings, magic and curses. Of course, many people compare current Ebberon to 19th century Europe which fits the exploration of the continent ;)
If Galifar had no active interest in exploring dangerous wilderness at the edges of their empire, and powerful organizations like the Lords of Dust and the Chamber actively manipulate events against such expeditions, not to mention highly organized natives not wracked by disease and civil war with little to no incentives than it is not all that odd that regions like Q'Barra, the Talenta Plains, the Lhazaar Principalities, the Demon Wastes and even Droaam are not explored. The airships and elemental vessels are actually recent inventions, which came into being at a time that there was a big war going on so exploration was not high on the list.
* It should be noted that the conditions that created the changes into European culture and got them to explore the world had to do with geography and the lure of the gold of trade with China and India. In general people are rather lazy and risk averse unless facing problems that forces them to be otherwise. You could hold a convincing argument that all things considered, the exploration of Q'Barra is actually unlikely to take place at all without outside forces actually manipulating people into doing it... outside forces that might not have been present before or that saw there chance due to some signs in the Draconic Prophecy... ;)
Overland Barrier: Q'barra is effectively cut off from the rest of Khorvaire by the Endworld Mountains. How tough are the Endworld Mountains? The maps don't give an indication of altitude, but suggest that they're high enough to trap all the moisture coming off the Tempest Strait, making Q'Barra a rainforest and causing the Blade Desert on the other side. Which, incidentally...
Barrier to the Overland Barrier: To even get to the Endworld Mountains, a person would have to get across the Blade Desert, which is the far eastern end of the Talenta Plains. The Talenta Plains are inhabited by dino-riding halfling tribes who only nominally organized towards the end of the Last War. Alternately, a person could approach the Endworld Mountains from the southeast... but before the Last War that bit of land was an underdeveloped backwater of Cyre, and halfway throught Last War it became the stomping grounds of the Valenar warbands. Coming from the north? Assuming one avoids the Fist of Onatar and Korran's Maw (respectively a volcano and an I-don't-know-what-but-it-ain't-a-walk-in-the-park), the nearest Mror hold is Noldrunthrone, which has been mysteriously abandoned for centuries. No convenient way points for the expedition to cross the mountains to get to the jungle.
Water Barrier: Q'Barra is bordered on the east by Adder Bay and the Tempest Strait. The Tempest Strait suggests one obvious reason to why ships don't have easier access to Q'Barra. Adder Bay doesn't sound quite as bad, but somebody could have had serious ophidiphobia. A big potential geopolitical barrier is the proximity of the Lhazaar Principalities. As with the Talentan halflings, the pirate lords of the Lhazaar Principalities are only recently and nominally united. For most of the human-relevant history of Khorvaire, Lhazaar pirates have preyed on Galifaran ships. Any ship exploring the coast of Q'Barra would be far from home, vulnerable, and fair game.
Natives: Assuming Galifaran explorers overcame the deserts and the mountains, or the waters and the pirates, they still had to face a jungle teeming with thousands of actively hostile lizardfolk, some of them further organized by demons and half-mad dragons. Not exactly an appetizing prospect for investment. Speaking of which...
Resources?: The question comes up-- what would people want from Q'Barra? There are easier places from which to get hardwoods. If a person could clear the jungle for farming, it's again too remote for most commercial purposes. A lot of exploration in Eberron was driven by the need for dragonshards, which is why folks bothered with the even more distant and hostile Xen'drik in the first place. Does Q'Barra offer something similar? Yours might, in which case there very well could be more development than the sourcebook mentions. But otherwise, the lack of prospects is part of the reason folks were willing to let the Newthrone settlers claim Q'Barra-- it seemed worthless to anyone else.
I exaggerate a little bit for the sake of explaining the canonical default. If you want a more explored and developed Q'Barra, I say, go for it! If you're looking for some inspiration on a swamp/jungle setting, you might have a look around for the "Blood Bayou" section of the old d20/3.0 Scarred Lands setting. They offer an interesting take on a geographically similar region that's remote and mostly wild, but has "points of darkness" steeped in their own weird traditions.
Something Madfox said said intrigued me. People compare Eberron to 19th century Europe? I always thought the parallels to 20th century Europe were pretty blatant, especially around the 1930s. They both recently were ravaged by a war larger and more deadly than any that had ever come before - in Europe they called it the Great War and in Eberron it was the Last War, both names implying that no one could ever want to start another war after the horrors of this one. Airships in the form of zeppelins and biplanes were used for the first time in a military capacity during WW1, and railways were essential for the transportation of personnel and supplies. Eberron isn't really described as experiencing a depression, but that's also something I'm planning on changing
Wow Alas, thanks for your reply! After what you've said now I'm wondering why Q'Barra's been even as colonized as it has been XD How have the settlers been arriving there? Down from the bottom of Lhazaar?
Something Madfox said said intrigued me. People compare Eberron to 19th century Europe? I always thought the parallels to 20th century Europe were pretty blatant, especially around the 1930s. They both recently were ravaged by a war larger and more deadly than any that had ever come before - in Europe they called it the Great War and in Eberron it was the Last War, both names implying that no one could ever want to start another war after the horrors of this one. Airships in the form of zeppelins and biplanes were used for the first time in a military capacity during WW1, and railways were essential for the transportation of personnel and supplies. Eberron isn't really described as experiencing a depression, but that's also something I'm planning on changing
Actually the only reason I think we see people there now is because they were trying to escape the Last War (New Galifer) or religous zealots (I can't remember the town name) who are trying to break away. Oh yeah and it is one of the sources of Syberis Dragon Shards I believe, but those prospectors aren't colony builders, more like the Dutch in the Congo, take valuables and leave.
Eberron's post-War situation could mirror any traumatic period in Earth's history, depending on what elements you focus on. You could take the whole Mourning episode and ratchet that up into a 50's style Cold War theme as the nations race to prevent or cause a repeat. You could do a Civil War reconstruction theme with economies and communities in shambles, and displaced persons trying to figure out who they are now. Personally, I've always wanted to run an Eberron campaign where the politics are a hybrid of the Sengoku and Tokugawa eras of Japan-- lots of people who used to be united under a throne, disrupted by war and technological advances, with the Sarlonans appearing from across the sea just to complicate things.
I totally agree with Lugnut- there's swamp/ mangrove areas in Australia that have barely been touched because they are dense, dangerous and don't offer much in the way of resources. I imagine Q'Barra is like that.
As for Lhazaar, look at the climate of somewhere like Japan, which is quite close to Eastern Russia and Vladivostok (which is practically Siberian). Japan has cold-ish winters that MIGHT have a few days of snow, moderate springs and autumns and hot, humid summers with typhoons and storms. Latitude doesn't entirely define weather.
Also see, Iceland.
With this in mind, I will highlight one of Alas' points, and that's dangers. It's vital to remember that THIS IS NOT OUR WORLD. This is a world with dragons, demons, gateways to Khyber, manifest zones to Dolurrh, hungry trolls, and worse. Why are you going to find large area X that no one's colonized? Well, perhaps it's because it's in a manifest zone to Fernia and once every month it rains fire. This isn't the answer to Q'barra, but it is important to remember that there are factors at play that we don't have in our world. Central Khorvaire is, essentially, the safest and most stable area (until the Mourning). Surely there will come a day that resources are stretched and space runs out and people HAVE to colonize the Demon Wastes, Droaam, and so on. But it's not supposed to be close to that now - so why not leave Droaam to the monsters? That's always been the case with Q'barra - there are monsters, lizardfolk, haunted ruins and worse, and no one has NEEDED the space badly enough to go there. The people who founded it did so because the alternative was fighting the Last War; and once they did found it, that drew attention to the resources and raised the shard rush potential.
Now, a side issue here is the lifespan of Galifar. I do understand the "It's been a stable united kingdom for a thousand years and they've never bothered to check out those ruins over there?" disconnect. If we'd had more room for history in the original sourcebook and more time, I'd have rather made it a shorter but denser history, and really focused on more of the major transformative events - the impact of elemental binding and the lightning rail, the rise of the Silver Flame, or other major magical innovations. But obviously there's many, many things we didn't have space to develop in detail - so while it may be a little odd to have a thousand-year old empire with chunks of dead space, that is the idea of it: dense population clusters set against wilds that have still largely been ignored.
er...wait, no sorry...ahem.
And that's why Keith is awesome! :D