Type-8 Hex

Type-8 hexes are 6-mile hexes that represent purely natural terrain, often referred to as "wilderness" hexes. Though they may exist within the borders of a political entity, they lack permanent residents apart from monsters or scattered barbarian clans and have no infrastructure. These hexes fall into three categories based on their proximity to the nearest Type-7 or developed hex: backcountry, wilderness or deep wilderness hexes.

Backcountry

A backcountry is not untouched, nor is it merely visited on occasion. It's a daily resource, a place where the people of the nearest infrastructure actively hunt, forage, gather wood and trap animals. It's well known to the local people, familiar and mapped in their minds. The trails are frequented, not faded, because the same people follow them year after year, generation after generation. It's a working landscape, even if it lacks roads, farms and permanent buildings. You could meet dozens of people moving through it on any given week, from families picking berries to young boys setting rabbit snares to a woodcutter hauling timber for repairs on his barn. The land is still wild in the sense that it's not shaped by infrastructure, but it's not mysterious to those who live near it. It's not remote, not ominous, not abandoned.

These hexes are located within three hexes of an infrastructured hex and have been extensively explored and prospected. They often serve as seasonal hunting grounds or resource-gathering sites for timber, fish or other natural goods. However, they remain unsettled due to factors such as poor soil, insufficient water, seasonal scarcity of resources or difficult terrain. Typically, at least two or three of these conditions apply.

While large, dangerous monsters have been cleared from the area, common predators and hostile vermin remain. The chance of a monster lair is minimal, at only 1% if adjacent to an infrastructured hex, increasing to 3% if two hexes away and 7% if three hexes away. These hexes do not contain randomly occurring dungeons.

Wilderness

A wilderness hex is different; it takes a planned trip to reach, an overnight stay to make the effort worthwhile and experienced guides to lead the way. While a young boy might know the backcountry like his backyard, he would not be familiar with the wilderness until he was old enough to join the longer hunting parties and seasonal foraging expeditions. For those who know it, however, it is reliable. Experienced trappers, hunters and woodsfolk return to the same places each year, following a long-held knowledge of where the best game, the richest honeycombs or the most valuable herbs can be found.

Situated between 4-12 hexes from an infrastructured hex, these areas have been visited but remain largely unexplored. Monsters are widespread, with the likelihood of a lair being 15% at four hexes from infrastructure, 31% at five hexes, 63% at six hexes and virtually certain beyond that distance. There is also a 2-5% chance that any given hex contains a fully developed dungeon. Isolated barbaric villages exist in this terrain, usually small groups at Dev-4, with only minimal contact with the outside world.

Some of these hexes may be viable for settlement, offering resources such as good hunting, fishing or arable land (each with a 10% chance). However, the landscape is generally rugged, with overgrown vegetation or, in some cases, barren ground. These wilderness hexes are rarely lush or inviting but could be tamed with effort and might yield unexpected resources. They should be treated as unprospected land.

Deep Wilderness

This is the kind of terrain that few, if any, ever enter. It is a place beyond custom, knowledge or human rhythm, where the land the its beasts hold sway. No one comes here for firewood or game, no trails exist that see regular passage and no local hunter can say, “Oh yes, I know that valley.” If anyone has ever been here, it was long ago and their knowledge is either lost or of no practical use. There are no well-worn paths leading to reliable hunting grounds, no seasonal gathering spots, no safe places where a person could say, “This is where my grandfather once camped.” The land belongs entirely to itself. Everything here is shaped by forces older than men, governed by a balance that does not account for human presence. The animals do not know to fear people because they have rarely, if ever, encountered them.

Monsters that exist here are not merely dangerous, but wholly independent of the cycles of civilisation. They do not wander in from other lands; they are born of this place, embedded in its nature. If a dungeon stands hidden in these parts, it is not a relic of some past empire but something other, something built by minds that never knew the warmth of a hearth or the meaning of trade.

These hexes are located at least 13 hexes from any infrastructured hex. Most have not been visited in at least 5-10 years and many may have never been seen by civilised people. Monster lairs are present in 10% of these hexes, except in extreme environments such as wastelands, ergs or snowfields, where the chance drops to 1%. Only creatures that do not require food — such as undead and other unnatural beings — are likely to inhabit these areas. The odds of encountering a developed dungeon are extraordinarily low (0.1%) and any such dungeon is likely to be of an alien and terrifying origin.

In dense forests or jungles, humanoid monsters may have adapted to their environment, developing a Dev-5 society spanning 5-20 inhabited hexes, including 1-2 settlements. If these regions support monstrous life, their populations are dense and hostile, making permanent settlement by outsiders impossible.

See Hex Group