My default setting, as it were, for The Saga of the Ortegids would ground the action many generations after the events of Dragon Quest II - enough time for the setting to be a blank slate for the DM to run as they pleased, without needing to worry about canon characters or events impacting their plans, and for it to make sense that the Worldtree would have grown to the point where travel between Erdland and Torland would be possible in order to make full use of the material and its potentia...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
By this point, our investigation into the setting of The Saga of the Ortegids has covered every region present in the original NES Dragon Q...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Following on the same format from my Erdland maps, now that we've completed our look at Torland, we can now present a complete map of my interpretation of the inner world for The Saga of the Ortegids.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
The setting for the climactic confrontation of Dragon Quest II is Rhone, a highland region in the center of Torland's Southern Continent under the control of Hargon, high priest of a cult that worships Malroth, the god of chaos and destruction. There's a few things that make this area unique and interesting, and they deserve a closer look - in no small part because they raise questions that might elucidate further worldbuilding in The Saga of the Ortegids.Rhone appears to be cotermino...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
The southwestern corner of Dragon Quest II's overworld features a large island off the coast of Tuhn, on which is the city of Beran. There's no major quests or dungeons here, but it is an evocative area that deserves a closer look for The Saga of the Ortegids.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
South of Moonbrooke and the Lianport region, the Southern Continent of Dragon Quest II 's overworld is highly mountainous. The central reg...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Wellgarth is one of the more unique towns in Dragon Quest II. Located in the southern peninsula of the Southern Continent, just across the sea from the Southern Archipelago, the majority of the town is located underground. Why this is is never really explained. It's far away from any other settlement, and none of the townspeople comment on the unusual circumstances of the town. A lot of sources I've found online suggest that the people moved underground to defend against attacks, ...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
So this is probably the single nerdiest thing I've ever done.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
At the tip of the southern continent in the overworld of | Tales of the Lunar Lands
The middle act of Dragon Quest II follows a structure much the same as its successor. After obtaining a ship, you have free reign of the map and must seek out a series of artifacts - five crests, in this case - in order to access the next area. Probably the simplest of these to obtain is the Moon Crest, which is located in the Kingdom of Dirkandor.Dirkandor is a large island to the south of Lorasia. The only site of interest we see in-game is the capital city, which I am calling Osterfai...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
Much like how Portoga is where you get a ship in Dragon Quest III, significantly opening your venues for exploring the world, the city of Lianport plays a similar role in Dragon Quest II. This port town is located on the eastern coast of the southern continent of Torland, facing Alefgard, and with the northern continent not far from there. It's no surprise that a port would be established there - it's at a crossroads of Torland's three major land masses, with ready access to all three. For th...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
At the end of Dragon Quest I, the hero (who, for the purposes of The Saga of the Ortegids, I've given the name Aleph Wyrmbeorn - if you know, you know) defeats the Dragonlord and marries Princess Gwaelin of Alefgard. The king gives him the option to stay and succeed him, but he instead chooses to sail across the sea and settle a new kingdom.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
In Dragon Quest I , the castle of Charlock is the final dungeon in the game, and the site of the final battle with the Dragonlord. It repri...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The Kingdom of Alefgard is the only location to make an appearance in all three games of the original Dragon Quest trilogy. Thus, it's a natural place to begin our exploration of Torland for The Saga of the Ortegids. The entirety of Dragon Quest I and the latter third of Dragon Quest III take place within its borders - using the same map, in fact. This was apparently a big reveal when the games first came out, one that was completely lost on me because I played III first as a ...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
Art by Lindsey Crummet| Tales of the Lunar Lands
We've come to the end of our journey of analyzing every major location in the overworld of Dragon Quest III for tabletop purposes. Things aren't over yet for The Saga of the Ortegids - we still have two more games to go through - but we now have a picture of Erdland, a historical mashup world grounded equally in history, fantasy, and sword-and-sorcery pulp. To cap this investigation off, I've made a map overlaying the areas in the game with the borders of the different cultural ...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
By this point, we've covered every notable location from the overworld of Dragon Quest III. This does not mean we've covered every location in the game - if cramming an expansive open world into an NES carttridge wasn't impressive enough, they crammed two in there. Apparently, the original Japanese release used every single megabyte of storage space on the cartridge, and it shows. But we'll get to that later.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
Once you get a ship in Portoga , most locations in the overworld of Dragon Quest III are open to exploration, either by sea or via portals....| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Im Paper “Linguistische Erklärungen zu Zaubersprüchen” stellt Yuki Asano die Frage, ob es eine Universalität von Klängen in Zaubersprüchen gibt.| Language at Play
In the world map of Dragon Quest III, the vast area corresponding to sub-Saharan Africa, south of Isis, makes up a rugged, mountainous region I've dubbed the Southlands. The Southlands can further be divided into two major regions.First of these is actually named in-game as Gondo, and appears to comprise much of the eastern half of the continent. Gondo seems to be a rather inhospitable region, and NPCs warn you of its dangers. They're probably referring to the high-level enemies there, ...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
The middle third of Dragon Quest III is centered around collecting a series of six orbs found throughout the world, some of which require m...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The Kingdom of Manoza is the largest polity on the Eastern Continent , taking up much of that landmass's southern half. Much as I did with E...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The inland reaches of the Eastern Continent are dominated by wilderness, with much of the northern half of the continent split by a large r...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Dragon Quest III had to get creative when it came to adapting the Americas to a medieval fantasy world. There's still plenty of historical ...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
If we're going to discuss tropes of fantasy maps, the first one that comes to mind is surely a continent with a defined western coast and an...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
After purchasing a ship in Portoga , the overworld of Dragon Quest III opens dramatically. From this point on there are no real road blocks...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The Nine Gods comprise the main pantheon of The Saga of the Ortegids . These are the gods you can expect to be worshiped in any temple in r...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The northern portion of Dragon Quest III 's pseudo-Eurasian continent is dominated by forest. There aren't many dungeons or settlements to b...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Here's the other half of the main pantheon of The Saga of the Ortegids . See here for part 1. Gaius , the Forgemaster, is the god of the su...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Following up from last post , it's high time we began to lay out the pantheon we're working with for The Saga of the Ortegids . For the prim...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Art by chuckcg Religion does not play a very big part in the Erdrick Trilogy. Remember, these games belong to an era where the difference be...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
As any polyglots out there could probably guess, Baharata corresponds to the Indian Subcontinent in the overworld of Dragon Quest III . It'...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
In my opinion, the Kingdom of Portoga is where the History's Greatest Hits nature of Dragon Quest III really shows through. After clearin...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The settings of the Dragon Quest games tend to be quite humanocentric. Almost all playable characters throughout the series have been human...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Ever since the first Octopath Traveler, I have truly believed in the wonders of Square Enix’s HD-2D aesthetic. The brilliant melding of Square’s expertise with pixel art and 3D models has enamored me and continues to do so. That’s why, after getting a chance to try the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake at PAX West, a game I love in a series I love even more, I’m so bummed that this remake is also the first game in this style that feels like a bit of a step back for the HD-2D trea...| Irrational Passions