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

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 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

   

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.      

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.     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.     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.