Nowhere Land is not just a collection of dungeons and monsters—it's a living world. Domains have ecosystems that sustain (or devour) their inhabitants. Settlements rise where people find safety, trade, and community. Understanding these systems helps Tricksters create believable worlds and gives players meaningful ways to interact with them.
Ecology Overview
Unlike the waking world, domain ecology doesn't always follow natural laws. A domain's ecosystem reflects its Partisan's nature, its philosophical core, and the strange logic that governs it. Yet patterns emerge—energy flows, creatures compete, and balance (however strange) is maintained.
Why Ecology Matters
Understanding domain ecology helps answer key questions:
- What do creatures eat? And what eats them?
- Where do resources come from? And who controls them?
- Why do settlements exist here? What sustains them?
- What happens if balance is disrupted? Consequences of player actions.
Domain Ecology
Each domain has an ecological signature—a pattern of life, energy, and consumption that defines how creatures and resources interact within it.
Ecological Types
Generative Ecology
The domain produces more than it consumes. Resources regenerate, creatures multiply, plants grow abundantly. Often found in domains of creation, growth, or abundance. Examples: The Verdant Tangle, domains of fertility deities.
Balanced Ecology
Input roughly equals output. Sustainable but static. Change is slow, and disruption has lasting consequences. Examples: The Clockwork Citadel, domains with established order.
Consumptive Ecology
The domain consumes more than it produces. Resources deplete, creatures compete fiercely, everything is scarce. Often dying or parasitic.Examples: The Bone Gardens, domains of entropy.
Paradox Ecology
Normal ecological rules don't apply. Creatures may not need food, resources may be concepts, energy may flow backwards.Examples: The Mirror Labyrinth, domains of abstraction.
Ecological Health
Track a domain's ecological health from 1-10:
- 1-2 (Dying): Barren, hostile, resources nearly gone. Survival checks +4 TN.
- 3-4 (Stressed): Scarce resources, aggressive creatures. Survival +2 TN.
- 5-6 (Stable): Normal conditions. Standard Survival TNs.
- 7-8 (Thriving): Abundant resources, diverse life. Survival -2 TN.
- 9-10 (Overgrown): Explosive growth, may be overwhelming. Unique hazards.
Food Chains & Predation
Even in magical domains, something has to eat. Understanding food chains helps predict creature behavior and create realistic encounters.
Domain Food Chain Layers
Producers (Base Layer)
What generates energy? Plants, crystals, ambient magic, domain emanations, or the Partisan's will itself. Without producers, the domain starves.
Primary Consumers
What feeds on producers? Herbivores, scavengers, energy-feeders, creatures that harvest the domain's baseline resources.
Secondary Consumers
Predators that hunt primary consumers. Often the "common enemy" tier—dangerous but manageable with preparation.
Apex Predators
Top of the chain. May be unique creatures, domain champions, or the Partisan's direct servants. Few in number but extremely dangerous.
Decomposers
What recycles death? Fungi, spirits, void entities, or scavenger creatures. Essential for domain renewal.
Example: Bone Gardens Ecology
| Producers | Bone-coral that absorbs ambient death energy; memory-moss that feeds on echoes of the dead |
| Primary Consumers | Grave beetles, marrow worms, echo-moths that consume memory-moss |
| Secondary Consumers | Bone hounds, corpse birds, lesser revenants |
| Apex Predators | Ossuary Golems, the Grave Gardener's Champions |
| Decomposers | Void slugs that dissolve remains back into energy; silence-fungus |
Natural Resources
Domains produce resources that settlements need to survive. Controlling resources means controlling power.
Resource Categories
Sustenance
Food, water, and breathable atmosphere. Without these, settlements die. Most domains provide these naturally; hostile domains may not.
Materials
Wood, stone, metal, cloth. Building and crafting materials. Availability determines what can be constructed.
Energy
Fuel, magic, domain essence. Powers industry, Potentials, and supernatural effects. May be ambient or require harvesting.
Exotics
Domain-specific materials, rare ingredients, unique substances. Trade goods, crafting components, quest objectives.
Resource Availability by Terrain
| Terrain | Food | Water | Materials | Exotics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | High | Medium | High (wood) | Medium |
| Plains | Medium | Low | Low | Low |
| Mountains | Low | Medium | High (stone/ore) | High |
| Coast | High | Low (fresh) | Medium | Medium |
| Desert | Very Low | Very Low | Low | High |
| Ruins | Low | Variable | High (salvage) | High |
Settlements
Where resources exist, people gather. Settlements in Nowhere Land range from desperate camps to thriving cities, each shaped by its domain and its people.
Settlement Scale
Camp (5-20 people)
Temporary gathering. No permanent structures. May be refugees, travelers, or nomads. Minimal services.
Outpost (20-100 people)
Small permanent settlement. Basic shelter, one specialty (trading post, guard station, shrine). Limited services.
Village (100-500 people)
Established community. Multiple professions, local leadership, basic infrastructure. Most common settlement type.
Town (500-2,000 people)
Regional center. Walls or defenses, market, multiple services, organized governance. May control surrounding territory.
City (2,000+ people)
Major power center. Complex infrastructure, multiple districts, significant military/economic/political power. Domain capitals.
Creating Settlements
Use these guidelines to quickly generate settlements for your domain.
Settlement Generation Steps
- Determine Scale: How big is the settlement?
- Identify Foundation: Why does this settlement exist here? (resources, defense, trade, religion, domain feature)
- Define Character: What makes this place distinctive? (culture, architecture, specialty, problem)
- Establish Leadership: Who's in charge? (individual, council, factions, external power)
- Create Tension: What conflict simmers beneath the surface?
- Add Details: Notable locations, NPCs, current events.
Settlement Foundation (d12)
| 1 | Resource Extraction: Mining, logging, harvesting domain materials |
| 2 | Trade Crossroads: Junction of routes, neutral ground, market |
| 3 | Defensive Position: Natural fortress, chokepoint, refuge |
| 4 | Religious Site: Shrine, pilgrimage destination, sacred ground |
| 5 | Portal Proximity: Near a portal, gateway to other domains |
| 6 | Partisan Favor: Protected by or serving a Partisan |
| 7 | Refugee Gathering: Survivors of collapse, exiles, outcasts |
| 8 | Agricultural Bounty: Fertile land, reliable water, farming |
| 9 | Craft Specialty: Unique product, master artisans, monopoly |
| 10 | Knowledge Repository: Library, archive, academy |
| 11 | Ancient Ruins: Built on/in older structures, salvage economy |
| 12 | Domain Anomaly: Unique phenomenon attracts settlers |
Infrastructure & Services
What a settlement offers depends on its size and prosperity.
Services by Settlement Size
| Service | Camp | Outpost | Village | Town | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lodging | — | Basic | Inn | Multiple | Many |
| Supplies | Trade | Basic | General | Specialty | Extensive |
| Healing | — | Herbalist | Healer | Hospital | Advanced |
| Crafting | — | Repair | Smithy | Multiple | Guilds |
| Information | Gossip | Rumors | Local | Regional | Archives |
| Training | — | — | Basic | Good | Masters |
| Banking | — | — | — | Money Changers | Banks |
Notable Locations
Most settlements have these, scaled to size:
- Gathering Place: Tavern, square, well—where news spreads
- Authority Center: Chief's hall, mayor's office, garrison
- Trade Area: Market, trading post, merchant quarter
- Spiritual Site: Shrine, church, sacred grove
- Dangerous District: Slums, thieves' quarter, abandoned section
Settlement Politics
Every settlement has power dynamics. Understanding them helps players navigate social situations and find allies (or make enemies).
Power Structures
Autocracy
Single ruler (chief, lord, partisan-appointed). Fast decisions, clear authority, but depends on ruler's wisdom.
Council
Group leadership (elders, guild masters, faction heads). Slower decisions, broader representation, compromise-driven.
Theocracy
Religious authority (priests, oracles, partisan servants). Decisions based on doctrine or revelation.
Anarchy/Consensus
No formal government (common in camps, some outposts). Decisions made by group agreement or not at all.
External Rule
Governed from outside (garrison, colonial outpost, tributary). Local needs often secondary to external demands.
Settlement Tensions (d10)
| 1 | Resource scarcity—competition for limited supplies |
| 2 | Leadership dispute—multiple claimants to power |
| 3 | External threat—monsters, rivals, domain instability |
| 4 | Cultural clash—newcomers vs. established, old vs. young |
| 5 | Hidden corruption—secret faction, infiltrators, parasites |
| 6 | Economic strain—debt, trade collapse, exploitation |
| 7 | Religious conflict—rival faiths, heresy, lost faith |
| 8 | Past trauma—massacre survivors, plague recovery, betrayal |
| 9 | Partisan attention—domain ruler making demands or threats |
| 10 | Mysterious phenomenon—strange events, unexplained changes |
Domain Impact
Settlements don't exist in isolation—they're part of a domain's ecosystem. The domain affects them, and they affect the domain.
Settlement-Domain Relationship
Consider how the settlement and domain interact:
Harmony: Settlement aligns with domain nature. Partisan approves or ignores them. Stability, but limited independence.
Exploitation: Settlement extracts domain resources. May anger the domain/Partisan. Risk of retaliation or resource depletion.
Resistance: Settlement actively opposes domain nature. Constant struggle, but maintains distinct identity.
Symbiosis: Settlement and domain benefit each other. Rare, valuable, and worth protecting.
Settlement Fate Clock
For settlements under threat, use a 6-segment clock to track their fate:
- 0-1 Segments: Normal operations, minor concerns
- 2-3 Segments: Visible stress, people leaving, services declining
- 4-5 Segments: Crisis mode, desperate measures, major disruption
- 6 Segments: Collapse, evacuation, transformation, or destruction
Player actions can add or remove segments. Ignoring problems adds segments over time.