Wild Coast

The Wild Coast refers to a large coastal stretch of land on the western shore of Woolly Bay.

The Wild Coast was a loose alliance of six major city-states for most of its history, and has long held a reputation for being untamed.

Those city-states were (from north to south):

• The Territory of Narwell
• The Holdings of Safeton
• The Lands of Cantona
• The State of Fax
• The Lands of Badwall
• The Free City of Eldredd

Prior to the Greyhawk Wars, each city-state controlled its own affairs. However, things changed once Turrosh Mak gained control of the Pomarj establishing the Orcish Empire of the Pomarj in about about 584 CY. In 584 CY Mak's forces marched north, taking the towns of Elredd, Badwall, Fax and Cantona, thus conquering the entire southern Wild Coast. Mak's forces were only stopped at the Battle of Celene Pass. The remaining towns of Safeton and Narwell survived by swearing fealty to Greyhawk, resulting in the northern Wild Coast being absorbed into the Free City's Domain.

The North

The remaining unconquered free cities of the Wild Coast, Narwell and Safeton, formally concluded pacts of association with Greyhawk in Coldeven, 584 CY. Greyhawk stationed garrisons at both cities, and administered city law there, extracting tax and tribute from the cities in return. Faced with onslaught from the Pomarj, the rulers felt they had no choice. The population of both cities has had a sharp turnover during the wars; many refugees fled there from vanquished cities, but many ruffians fled Greyhawk’s rule, and while both cities had significant humanoids among their numbers before the wars, this changed in the infamous Night of Terror early in 584 CY. Every orc, half-orc, and hobgoblin in Narwell and Safeton was knifed, lynched, or burned alive by the humans, fearing they were Pomarj spies.

Safeton

Narwell

The South

The armies of Turrosh Mak, so-called Emperor of the Pomarj, burned through the cities of the Wild Coast like wildfire. Now Fax, Badwall and Elredd, lie crushed beneath the Mak’s heel, while Narwell struggles to rise from the ashes of its destruction

Fax and Badwall are completely destroyed. Ovetaken by humanoids that use the ruined cities to plan their next assault north of the Buffer Zone

Slavelords have built many secret outposts and strongholds along the Wild Coast, but few are more open about their affiliation with the Orchish Empire and their new Slavelords as the residents of the Port Elredd, just south of the Buffer Zone.

Orc pirate ships patrol the waters 30 miles to either side of the city, and land fortifications-train trebuchets, heavy catapults, and other war machines-are trained on the waves to ward against the Hardby Marines and the ships of the other free lands.

Cantona

Cantona was established as a fishing and trade colony by Onwall 200 years ago. In 295 CY a Mage named Valterra from Onwall assumed control of Cantona and began an eccentric reconstruction of the town's center, building oddly shaped and curved buildings and employing bright colors. During the Greyhawk Wars, Cantona was surrened to Pomarj and now serves as a smugglers den for goods bound for Onwall. Tribute paid to Pomarj is high and there is considerable tension between local inhabitants and their occupiers.

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Open war here at the present time has ceased; the Orc Empire is not showing signs of wishing to expand north, only of intermittent raiding. Thus, Greyhawk has not moved an army into the Wild Coast. Instead, it has major garrisons at the two cities and can support them swiftly with marines and militia from Hardby, via land and sea. However, virtually every able-bodied adult on the Wild Coast has a hand weapon, leather armor (or equivalent), and has received some training. Refugees who once had significant holdings in the south are eager to reclaim family fortunes.

Second, there is a corrosive fear in the Wild Coast among all but the most aggressive and evil men. Everyone is afraid of the huge mass of orcs to the south. No one believes that the Wild Coast lands will not eventually fall (except, perhaps for the Greyhawkers-but then, they will probably be able to get out if they do fall). This fear manifests in a variety of ways.

Some people have fled the Wild Coast, of course, to one of the three Free Cities to the north. Others grimly hang on, just hoping to see out their days before the end comes (this is typical of many older people). Some are determined to stay put and kill as many orcs as they can when the day of reckoning comes. Others become even wilder than the name of the land suggests; drunkenness, debauchery, and bullying have never exactly been alien to Wild Coast folk, but these problems are worse than ever now outside of the major settlements.

A few folk have become stirred to bravery, overcoming their fear, and now turn to militant faiths. Trithereon and other martial deities are respected and often revered; peaceable deities such as Pelor and Rao have virtually no following, and nature deities are likewise forgotten and neglected in most places.

The Wild Coast is a land of extremes and polarization. There is true valor among some of its people, even a few of the evilly-inclined, but there is also deceit, cowardice, and backstabbing aplenty. There is little respect for property, given the fear of being conquered by an alien orcish horde, and in most places possession is ten-tenths of the law and might is right. These are not lands for the faint-hearted.

The Wild Plains

The settlement pattern here is quite variable. Some lands of the plains are freeholdings-small groups of farmers who now band together for self-defense. Other lands are held by petty nobles, who often squabble with each other. Others still are bandit fiefs or fiercely independent guildrun villages and small towns. Rulership changes frequently, as one bandit is killed off by another, or a minor noble dies in a tragic hunting accident and his lands are taken over by an avaricious neighbor.