Girdlegard

The World Map

The World Map shows “Girdlegard”, a conglomeration of kingdoms surrounded by mountains, where “The Dwarves” takes place.

GirdleGard is made up predominately of seven human kingdoms: Gauragar, Idoslane, Ran Ribastur, Sangpur, Tabain, Urgon and Weyurn.

The Elven kingdom of Alandur (last remnant of the elven lands) is located in Garaugar and borders Tabain.

The Alfar kingdom of Dson Balsur is also located within Garaugar and is not far to the east from Alandur, which results in multiple skirmishes between the two peoples.

The orcish Kingdom of Toboribor is located in the south of Idoslane.

In the mountains that make up the borders, and walls for a simpler term, of Girdlegard is the homelands of the five Dwarven kingdoms: The Firstlings in Weyrun, Secondlings in Sangpur, Thirdlings in Idoslane, Fourthlings in Urgon and the Fifthlings in Garaugar.

Girdlegard is also host to magical energy fields in which wizards can draw power to cast spells. The fields span stretch across all kingdoms with the exception of Sangpur. These fields, and the territory sustaining them, have since been requisitioned by the wizards of Girdlegard and thus been named Enchanted Realms, a fact often resented by the nobility.

There are many important locations and more than 200 waypoints on it, which you can travel to.

Waypoints are connected by lines. The journey from one point to another takes a day. During each journey injured party members regenerate one injury, so long as there are enough provisions (see “Battle”). Your own party, as well as enemy hordes, allied armies, merchants, etc. are represented by small figurines. If there is something interesting at the destination (e.g. an inn), a popup window appears, describing the environment and presenting the player with different options (e.g. „enter the inn“, „sneak up to a window and peer inside“, „observe the inn from the distance“, or „continue travelling“). In the inn you might obtain useful information, but you could also be drawn into a bar fight.

Even during the journey between two points you frequently have to make decisions. For example you could be informed that there‘s a toppled cart on the road ahead of you. Drag marks lead to a grove to your left. What do you do? These events can be small, self-contained stories, but they can also evolve into a whole adventure with far-reaching consequences.

Many of these events are placed randomly in each playthrough, so the game plays differently each time.

On the daily journeys our heroes will of course get into conversation with each other occasionally. You will learn more about them and their respective story. Once in a while companions quarrel with each other and as a leader of the group you have to settle the dispute or side with one of the squabblers. All of that needs to be carefully considered, because your companions will remember it!