James Mishler wrote:
Another geography questions...
The forest of the Sylvan Downs, between the Saedre River and Dundraville, is unnamed and not described in the Gazetteer.
Considering the nature of the Sylvan Downs, I'm guessing it is home to a moderately civilized elven society, but that too is not named in the Elven Nations entry.
Is it something as simple as the "Sylvan Wood"?
First off, thank you for your attention to the details of the setting, James. That's an enormous compliment.
The forested area of the Sylvan Downs is composed of 5 different dales/downs each calling its own particular section of the wood by their own name, even though the forest is continuous. As a single entity, both the nation and the forest are known simply as the Sylvan Downs, with the distinction (forest vs. nation) being made in context.
James Mishler wrote:
There are also several other major forested sections in the North that are not named ...
Nods. When it dawned on us just how cartographically "dense" the Northlands were, we had to drop some of the names and even town placements. With the exception of some of the very remote swaths of forest, most have names; I'll try to supply these, time pending.
One important detail about the setting: a lot of it is relatively "new" to the experience of the modern human nations. Dragons, elves and fae have known the forests since the dawn of time, but this isn't the case for the humans. The dark ages have resulted in the great loss of a good deal of knowledge, that modern-era humans are only now beginning to regain, either by exploring the wildnerness, or recovering ancient tomes from past ages.
To wit, exploring PCs should have the chance to name the forests themselves. The dragons might have their own name for it, but you can discuss that with Smaug over tea.
This is somewhat akin to going hiking in the Rockies. You stand atop a mountain and see forests on all sides, but heck if you know their names, apart from "national wilderness area X." There is a ton of land out there, and for lack of a better phrase, a great deal of "geography."
My ideal Known World map would have all of this information (Dragon names, Fae names, Elven names), coded with degrees of who knows it and Bardic Knowledge/Sage check DCs for the same, but that's a little unwieldly from a mapping stand point.
//H