The Island of Grong

  The Island of Grong came from a pretty simple idea: maybe my fantasy world shouldn’t just be exclusively humans. When I first designed the world I planned to have two main continents inhabited by humans with two main civilizations while there were some smaller unexplored mini continents/islands between. I very quickly realized that this would probably be pretty boring setting wise. Playing out human vs human conflicts is definitely not something unique to fantasy settings. It can be important, but not the only thing. 

So where does that bring us with the Island of Grong? I imagine the island to be a similar size to Australia. Not the largest landmass, especially when compared to Phillarn or Igrax, but large enough to represent a substantial space for people to inhabit. The entirety of the island is covered by a large lush forest, not necessarily a jungle like the wild region, but more like a more temperate/taiga-like forest. There is snowfall during the winter seasons, but a mystical aura protects some key points on the island from ever looking different from a nice summer/springtime. On the west side of the island lies a very impressive mountain range. They stand above the trees and to even see what’s beyond the west coast you need to traverse through or around them. Unbeknownst to the majority of outsiders, the mountains contain a wealth of ores and metals worth mining and thus have been the main supply for the island’s inhabitants for their entire history. Because of this, they have kept it as one of their greatest secrets lest they become the target of humanity’s greed. 

Who are the inhabitants though? There are two main groups who share the island with each other. The elves who rule over the forests and an alliance of Dwarfs and Ogres reside within the mountains. In ancient times, the two groups were at war with each other over who could control the mountains. The elves, noticing that they were at a disadvantage when fighting out of the forest, proposed a deal. While the Ogres and Dwarves would be allowed to maintain control of the mountains, the elves would rule the forests and prevent outsiders from using them to reach the mountains. In exchange, the Ogres and Dwarves would provide them with resources mined from the mountain while also trying to preserve the nearby forests. What has come from it has been a steady alliance that has endured the years until today.

What does this mean for outsiders though? Like I said earlier, a lot of outsiders have no idea what lies beyond the coasts of the island. Any who claim to have gone deep come back with stories of untold riches and exciting adventure, but are normally ridiculed due to how crazy it all sounds. Despite that, some do buy into the tales and find themselves in dire straits as they are ill equipped to deal with the elves. The elves have spent hundreds of years preventing anyone from even reaching their outer settlements. The most they’ve done in terms of political outreach has been establishing a coastal city that allows people traveling by to restock/rest for a while. This city is very closely guarded though and any attempts to wander deeper into the forest is met with imprisonment and sometimes even death. While most places tend to respect their privacy, the kingdom of Phillarn has always kinda had their eyes on the island. They haven’t tried anything yet because they know doing so would probably result in an international incident on the scale of which they would not be ready to handle. So the Island of Grong remains unexplored except by the locals who inhabit it.

That’s currently the general idea of what I have going for this place. It’s a nice way to add some races synonymous with the genre and I get to do the whole “cool and wacky mysterious place that isn’t welcome to outsiders” story beat. I do want to flesh it out more because I find that I’m not really the best at trying to delve into non-human things so perhaps I will be dedicating more than a few posts to these people as well as the other major non-human group in the world. Just like the last post, I’m open to feedback/suggestions/comments/whatever else you want to say about this so far. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!