Let's build a realm with Cairn 2e!

This week I'm going to create a Realm for my future Silksong-inspired Duet campaign, which was the subject of last week's post.
To do so, I'm going to use Cairn 2e's Warden's Guide procedure, which seems very promising. Let's dive right in!


First off, we are going to roll for the PEOPLE who live in this region, for which we have 2 tables, Culture and Resources; we roll 2d20 for each:
- Culture: Character: 3, Curious; Ambition: 10, Knowledge;
- Resources: Abundance: 18, Water; Scarcity: 2, Fuel.
So the inhabitants of this region are interested in gathering knowledge, and the fuel could be wood...but I want forests in there; maybe it's a crime to recklessly cut trees, and gathering wood is strictly regulated, because the forests are sacred, or something.

Next we go to the MAPMAKING phase: first we roll 1d6 to decide the number of landmarks present in the region: 3. I might add more later, but for now let's see what they are.
Rolling 3d6 on the sheet of paper they land on a 1, a 2 and a 6, which means we have 2 easy landmarks and a perilous one. Next we roll 2d20 for each of them:
- 1: Terrain: 1, Bluffs; Landmark: 4, Cloud Stairway;
- 2: Terrain: 5, Foothills; Landmark:18, Silver Face;
- 6: Terrain: 4, Caverns; Landmark: 8, Inactive Automaton.
Oh wow, those are some interesting results. The cloud stairway...I'll have to think about that, but the Silver Face and the Inactive Automaton are quite close, so maybe they could be related, part of the same hook.

I like what we have so far, but it's not enough to fill the region, so I'll add 4 more landmarks: we get two 1s and two 6s (wow, really?), so we'll call them 1b, 1c, 6b and 6c:
- 1b: Terrain: 17, Prairies; Landmark: 9, Giant's Throne;
- 1c: Terrain: 5, Foothills; Landmark: 13, Great Waterwheel;
- 6b: Terrain: 10, Gorges; Landmark: Sky-Root;
- 6c: Terrain: 15, Mountains; Landmark: 15, Reverse Waterfall.
Ok, now we have a lot to work with!

Next we need to add the WATERS of the Region: A lake where the Great Waterwheel is just makes sense, add a couple of big rivers...and I'll see whether to add more on the map, considering that the whole region has an abundance of water anyway.

We now have a few d6s to roll for the WEATHER of the region, one for each Season:
- Spring: 4, Mild and Cloudy;
- Summer: 1, Hot and Sunny;
- Fall: Chilly and Stormy;
- Winter: 2, Cool and Windy.

Now we have a big section to add the POINTS OF INTEREST (POI) to our map.
First of all, we place the Heart (H), the primary settlement, and the Great Waterwheel seems the best place to put it. Then we roll a few more d6s on the map for other POIs: the book says 3 to 8, I'll do five, obtaining a 2, a 5 and three 6s! This means a Curiosity (C) and four Dungeons (D1-D4). Just like we did with the Landmarks, we now roll 2d20 for each of them:
- H: Settlement: 1, Academy, Feature: 17, Protected by a great warrior.
- C: Curiosity: 18, Purple Geysers, Feature: 19, SIte of an Ancient Battle;
- D1: Type: 14, Prison, Feature: 18, Sealed;
- D2: Type: 13, Palace, Feature: 6 Crumbling;
- D3: Type: 4, Crypt, Feature: 9, Flooded;
- D4: Type: 18, Tomb, Feature: 15, Overgrown.

I still want to add the Monastery of the Weavers the PC will come from, which will be an important part of the story, but I'll put it where I want instead of rolling for it: I'll place it in the mountains, not too far from the Heart (which will also need a name) and I'll just roll for a Feature: 7, Famous for its artisans. Ok, nice, in line with the Weaver theme.

Now I only need to add the paths between the points of interest, but I think I'll leave most of them for after I refine the map a bit more in the future; for now I'll make one between the Monastery and the Heart.

Last, but not least, we need a NAME for this Realm: the procedure for this can be found at p.121 of the Warden's Guide or here.
First of all, let's roll 1d6 for the Formula: 4, [Adjective][Rulers] of (the) [Noun]. There's a table for each of these categories:
- Adjective (d100): 61, Hideous;
- Rulers (d20): 14, Principality;
- Noun (d100): 98, War.
...I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of this result. I'll keep Principality, but I'll go with Celestial Principality of the Dawn. A very religious (and definitely not corrupt) place.

And we're done! At least for this part; the map still needs a lot of refining, but that will come with the worldbuilding I'm still doing on it. It is a good start to inspire me, though.
Have you ever used this procedure to create a Realm for your games? If so, I'd like to hear about it!

This is all for this week, see you next Sunday for my next post!

May your dice never betray you,
Kirhon

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