Thinking Medieval with a Twist: Scarterra is more wild than Earth

This is part of my "Thinking Medieval" series

Overview of historical Earth attitudes towards the wild

  A lot of medieval and ancient Europeans viewed nature as a foe to be a conquered or at least as something dangerous and useful that needs to be kept in check.   Environmnetalism is a fairly modern concept. Which isn't to say that ancient and medieval people never thought about conservation because they certainly did, it was more in a cost-benefit lens rather than an ethical lens.   While many ancient people were shortsighted, it was not a foreign concept that "If we use this resource up, future generations won't have it".   Medieval Europe has a lot of woodlands but they didn't have a lot of primordial forests or even a second growth forest that can be truly called "wild".   Medieval Earth humans could have leveled every woodland so they can plant more crops, but they didn't clear every forest. This is nobles wanted lands to hunt in. Peasants usually are not allowed hunt in woodlands without their lord's permission but they can still gather herbs and edible plants and mushrooms in woodlands. Peasants and princes a like wanted firewood to heat their homes and fuel their forges. While one can make homes out of stone, mud bricks, clay bricks, or sod, wood is a useful building material. It's really hard to make a boat or a sailing ship out of a material other than wood.   All these things apply to Scarterra as well but Scarterra has even more wild places for several reasons.  

I am the Korus, I speak for the trees

 
Korus is the god of agriculture, and he is tasked by the rest of the Nine to maintain the balance of nature because he alone of the Nine is believed to be trustworthy enough not to abuse this position of authority and responsibilty.   Korus, and by extension his core followers, are famous for being apolitical often to the point of seeming apathy. Korus usually minds his own busy and strives to stay above the constant bickering of the rest of the Nine and their proxies. But Korus has goals and Korus has emotions. Korus rarely gets angry, but when Korus is angry, it is utterly terrifying.
Korus, named by Zeta Gardner
 
Korus is the god of agriculture as well as the god of the wilds. If a group of people (or just their foolhardy leaders), opts to disrepect nature on a grand scale, Korus can simply blight crops and cause massive famines or he can go full on "RELEASE THE KRACKEN" on mortals who displease him. All of the Nine have some spirits that act as "muscle" on the material plane. Korus' more violent spirit minions are few in number, but extremely powerful and ruthless such as the dreaded Tarasconus.
  Korus doesn't have to smite the wicked very often because most Scarterran mortals know better than to cross him. His mortal priests and priestesses are very good at warning peasants and princes alike not to take too much from nature. Korus even has some extremist mortal followers that resemble modern violent ecosterrorists in their methods and goals but even in this case they will say "It's better we strike you than let Korus strike you.   Modern Western Earth humans spend a lot of resources and effort trying to keep wild species from going extinct or at least they have the good graces to look sad when species go extinct. Humans are pretty good at accidentally causng extinctions, but our ancient and medieval ancestors often deliberately drove species into extinction, especially predators.   In historical Earth, If a single wolf attacks a human or even a just attacks a sheep, scores of men might scour the countryside slaying every wolf they can find. Scarterra has a lot of things in the wilds scarier than mere wolves, and Scarterrans are not going to going to simply take the death of a mortal at the hands of a beast lying down. Still, they know better than to drive a species to local extinction without a nod approval from the local Stewards lest they risk Korus' wrath.   And that's just Korus. Korus is the main god of the natural balance, but technically all nine of the the Nine are nature gods or goddesses who can get offended by the actions of mortals sinning against nature. Behind the scenes, Korus quietly restrains the worst impulses of the rest of the Nine in chieck and Korus can do a lot of damage by simply stepping aside and letting one of his brothers or sisters do as they well.  

There is slightly less need to clear the wilderness for new farmland

 
Korus has a benevolent side too. It is largely thanks to his many affiliated Plant theurgists that Scarterra has average crop yields centuries ahead of medieval Europe. This means Scarterra can feed their population with less tilled land. Because infant mortality is moderately reduced compared to historical Earth, there are also fewer Malthusian population pressures pushing mortals to snatch up every available piece of arable land.   It also Korus' mortal servants one more tool to pressure people to not press against nature too hard. If they are displeased, they can stop magically boosting their crops. This will cause a modest inconvenience without causing a devesating famine, but it is useful as a light warning.
by me with Midjourney
 

Reagents are highly conveted and they tend to be found in wild places

  Korus' wrath is the proverbial stick encouraging Scarterrans to leave the wilderness intact, reagents are the proverbial carrot.   Reagents is a catch-all term for rarified materials that can be turned into potions, wands, or even permanent magical items. "Common reagents" are used for making disposable magical items liked charged items or potions and "durable reagents" are used for making permanent magical items.   Apart from food and water, reagents are the most hotly contested natural resource in Scarterra, driving whole economies and serving as the fuel and casus belli for many wars much like petrolium does in the 20th and 21st century of Earth.  
by Neshik's Player with Hero Forge
Common reagents are not that all that common and commonly sell for a silver piece a dram. In many cases, adventurers or mercenaries would rather be paid with a pile of reagents than a pile of coins, particularly if the adventurers in question are spell-casters   With great effort, it is possible to farm common reagents in some circumstances and durable reagents can be manufactured in an alchemist's lab but the most reliable way to gather reagents is to carefully harvest it from nature, especially forests.
 
In medieval Earth, noblemen often put peasants to death for the crime of killing a deer or even a rabbit without permission, but on Scarterra, nobles are far more concerned with protecting their reagent rights than they are defending their hunting rights. Whether a stretch of forest is claimed by a nobleman, a priesthood, or a monster such as a dragon, the owner of said forest is going to be very angry at anyone poaching reagents on their territory. This certainly gives powerful mortals an economic incentive to leave stretches of wilderness untouched.
by Me with Midjourney
 

Downstream Consequences of More Wilderness means more Adventure!

  Scarterra having more wilderness is going to slightly alter attempts to copy and paste aspects of real medieval history.   Scarterra is a fantasy world. That in addition to forests potentially hiding bandits and mundane threats that real Earth forests sometimes held, Scarterra's wilderness hides spirits, and monsters, mysterious Fair Folk and extremist cults full of dangerous theurgists.  
This is part of why reagents are so expensive. A reagent forager can go on a two-week long gathering excursion into the wild, he will probably not be attacked by anything scary but if a reagent forager goes on on ten or twenty such expeditions, the chance of being attacked at least once begins to approach 100%.   Reagent foragers with half a brain either quickly learn to fight, or they will hire strong warriors to watch their back on foraging expeditions. This means there are plenty of opportunities for freelance adventurers to dip their fingers into the lucrative pie that is the reagents trade even if they don't have the training to look for reagents themselves.
by Neshik's Player with Hero Forge
  The various bad guys and boogeymen that dwell in Scarterra's remote wilds don't just attack reagent foragers, they will use the wilderness as a sort of base camp with which to stage raids against villages and towns near the wilderness' edge which again keeps adventurers busy.   Long distance travel in the ancient and medieval Earth was not safe or easy. Because of the increased relative wildness of Scarterra's topography, overland travel in Scarterra is even more dangerous and that's before one factors in potential supernatural threats. Adventurers can find lots of employment acting as escorts to various traveling caravans.  
by me with Midjourney
In every era of Earth history, there have been entrepeneurs who have opted to follow mining camps and set up businesses where they "mined the miners" by selling them basic necessities and desireable luxury goods, often at jacked up prices. During the California Gold Rush, a lot cooks, inn keepers, and general store managers ended up far richer the prospectors ever did.   Scarterra certainly has people who mine the miners, but it has even more people who mine the reagent foragers.
  Any settlement near the edge of the wilderness is going to have several merchants and craftsmen selling supplies and various wares to the various adventurers that want to hunt for reagents, legally or otherwise. This has spurned various innovations, so Scarterran camping and survivalist gear is centuries ahead of the equivalents of such gear in Earth's middle ages.


Cover image: by me with Midjourney

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