Where every clearing is a promise wrested from the trees.
NNeos
Overview
Neos is a continental heartland where deep forests alternate with farms, river towns, and clearings won over generations. Its variable climate makes travel and harvests unpredictable, while high magic turns familiar paths into occasional mysteries. Settlements cluster along waterways and maintained roads, leaving vast stretches of woodland between them. Travelers find practical hospitality, competing claims to land, and ancient places that resist the surveyor's ink.
Cultures
The Clearing communities honor the labor that made their fields and roads.
The Riverward towns blend customs carried by generations of boat traders.
The High Canopy clans preserve forest law and seasonal rites.
The Surveyor-descended communities favor mapped boundaries and public records.
Places
4 settlements
Large · Market townStumpfieldAgricultural marketA broad farm market built on a cleared stand of old trees, with busy grain yards.
Medium · River townDrainsteadWater management and farmingA lowland community maintains dikes and canals that keep surrounding fields usable.
Medium · Fortified townNinth FordRoad and river junctionA fortified crossing preserves an old survey marker and charges modest tolls.
Small · Forest villageAshclearFrontier resource campCharcoal burners, herbalists, and woodcutters share a settlement at a recently burned forest edge.
How they spread
PatternMost people live beside navigable waterways, maintained roads, and productive clearings. Remote forest settlements are scattered, self-reliant, and often absent from official maps.
Common kinds
River ports, Market towns, Forest-edge villages, Logging camps
Trade routes
The Long Run carries grain and timber between inland markets.
The East Fork road links forest-edge villages to the coast.
The Reedway connects marshland farms with the southern marches.
Dangers and hooks
4 threats
Most dangerous · HighThe Wandering GreenMagical phenomenonAppears unpredictably where magic has disturbed old forest growth.
Rootbound StalkersModerateMonstrous predators
Hunt near abandoned roads and isolated logging camps.
The Unmapped SurgeVariableWild magic
Sweeps through districts in irregular bursts, twisting spells and familiar landmarks.
Boundary RaidersModerateHumanoid bandits
Strike frontier caravans amid disputes over forest claims.
Hazards of the land
Wild magic can distort distance and direction without warning.
Floods inundate low roads during the spring thaw.
Predatory beasts stalk isolated logging camps.
Fast-growing thorn thickets can overrun abandoned paths.
Plot hooks
1
The Water That ClimbsInvestigationA riverside ward has begun redirecting floodwater toward a cluster of farms, though no one admits to changing it.Starts: A request for help arrives at the Merewater landing.Reward: A parcel of fertile land, local favor, and a warded tool.
2
The Missing RoadExplorationA section of the Ninth Survey Office map shows a road absent from every current chart.Starts: A clerk offers the party a copy in exchange for checking its boundary stones.Reward: Survey pay and access to restricted records.
3
The Grove's ClaimRescueA logging crew has disappeared near a grove where trees grow overnight and whisper in familiar voices.Starts: The crew's foreman waits at Stumpfield with a damaged field journal.Reward: Rare timber, an herbalist's favor, or a woodland safe-conduct.
4
Lines Beneath the BarkPoliticalSeveral local councils receive identical letters demanding that an old forest boundary be restored.Starts: The letters appear at a regional assembly hall before delegates arrive.Reward: A charter, political leverage, and a share of recovered goods.
The land
Climate and ground
ClimateVariable, ranging from cold northern winters to mild, wet southern seasons, with abrupt magical weather in the interior.
TerrainA continental forest heartland of ancient woods, broad river basins, rolling uplands, and human-made clearings.
Biomes
Temperate mixed forest, Northern taiga, River wetlands, Open agricultural clearings
Waters and borders
Waterways
The Long Run, Merewater, The East Fork, The Reedway
Borders
The Frostline uplands lie to the north.
The Saltward coast bounds the east.
The Redgrass marches spread to the south.
The western edge meets the broken highlands.
On the road
Roads are reliable between settled districts but often vanish beneath regrowth beyond them.
River travel is swift downstream, though enchanted fog can obscure bends and shoals.
Seasonal storms and sudden blooms of wild magic can close trails for days.
Landmarks
A vast canopy hides ruins from several forgotten settlements.
Some clearings remain unnaturally warm through winter.
Ancient standing stones hum when storms approach.
A network of root-choked roads predates the current survey maps.
Landforms
Long forested ridges divide the river basins.
Broad floodplains support farms and river towns.
Low peat bogs fill the northern hollows.
Scattered limestone rises shelter caves and springs.
Resources
Hardwood and resin
Fertile floodplain soil
Iron and limestone
Rare magical herbs
Power
Rule
GovernmentA network of chartered towns, rural councils, and forest compacts sends delegates to a rotating regional assembly.
SeatThe regional council convenes at rotating district halls, with records kept by the Ninth Survey Office.
StabilityGenerally stable, though disputes over forest rights, magical regulation, and frontier boundaries recur.
Laws
Unlicensed felling of marked old-growth trees is a serious offense.
River tolls must be posted at every recognized landing.
Public roads and boundary stones are protected by local charter.
Spellcasting that alters a settlement's water supply requires consent.
Factions
The Clearing CompactRural league
Influence: Strong across farm belts and road communities.The Clearing Compact
The Ninth Survey OfficeCivic authority
Influence: Respected in mapped districts and contested at the forest frontier.The Ninth Survey Office
The Rootward CircleDruidic covenant
Influence: Quietly influential among woodland settlements and herbalists.The Rootward Circle
Faiths
The Hearthroot Way
Influence: Common among farmers and village councils.Seasonal renewal, safe harvests, and the spirits of cultivated land.
The Returning Current
Influence: Strong in trade towns and among boat crews.River passage, memory, and the keeping of promises.
The Green Vigil
Influence: Prominent in forest communities and among healers.Balance between settlement and untamed growth.
People and trade
Who lives here
How manyModerate overall, with dense settlement along navigable rivers and broad clearings and sparse communities in deep forest.
Main peoples
Human farming and trading communities
Woodland elf enclaves
Dwarven craft and mining communities
Other peoples
Halfling river families, Orcish forest-road caravans
Languages
Neosan Common, River Cant, Canopy Speech
Trade
WealthUneven but broadly prosperous; river towns and magical workshops are wealthy, while remote hamlets rely on barter.
Work
Timber and resin harvesting, Grain and orchard farming, Enchanted craftwork
Exports
Lumber and resin
Grain, fruit, and cider
Warded timber and spell-etched goods
Imports
Fine iron tools, Salt and preserved fish
Markets
Stumpfield, Drainstead, Ninth Ford
History and secrets
Neos grew from scattered clearings into a broad heartland whose towns follow rivers, roads, and carefully won farmland. Old forest boundaries remain politically and spiritually important, even where timber has been harvested for generations. Survey records brought order to some districts, but magical disturbances have made maps unreliable and revived disputes over who owns the land beneath the trees.
Key events
Old Settlement Era
The First ClearingsEarly settlers burned and drained stretches of forest to create the first durable farms.
Mapped Era
The Ninth RollSurveyors marked a ninth division of roads and boundaries after earlier maps proved unreliable.
Recent Era
The Green DisturbanceA surge of wild magic turned several old roads into shifting paths and reshaped local laws.
Secret 1 · GM only
The oldest roads form a deliberate pattern around a buried magical engine beneath the central forest.Found by: Compare old boundary stones with the newest Ninth Survey maps.If found: A hidden network of roads could connect distant settlements, but its use may awaken the magic that concealed it.
Secret 2 · GM only
The standing stones are parts of a dormant ward built to contain a vast source of wild magic.Found by: Listen at the standing stones during a storm and follow the direction of their answering hum.If found: The stones can suppress a regional magical surge, but activating them would permanently alter several river courses.
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