Mordor/Sandbox



Mordor is a black and bleak type of Shadowland. The sun is always hidden behind endless dark storm clouds. What little vegetation there is (if any) will be withered and rotting or mutated into an "evil" variety that's covered in sharp thorns and/or liable to eat people. Poisonous marshes and swampland are also quite common. Expect frequent volcanoes and/or ice storms. May contain the ruins that show that once people had lived here. It may even be an Eldritch Location, defying the laws of nature (and most Eldritch Locations are Mordor).

In a Fantasy Setting, Mordor is often this way because the evil of the Big Bad who rules the place radiates throughout the land, or because his Black Magic acts as a Curse on it. Often, this land was once a beautiful place before the Big Bad got hold of it, and it's presented as a stark example of what could happen to the hero's world should he or she fail in stopping the Big Bad. Should the Big Bad be defeated and the good king restored, often the skies will clear up and the birds and bees and flowers will return at warp speed.

It's not clear how anything can actually survive in Mordor for any extended period in time. Perhaps everyone lives Beneath the Earth and eats mushrooms (or people who wander into their land), or else all their resources come from conquering others. Expect its inhabitants and vegetation to be part-monster as a result of adapting to survive the conditions there, or being twisted by whatever evil resulted in Mordor's creation.

Series that take place After the End will often be set in a version of Mordor (though usually not quite as harsh). Sometimes Mordor is Where It All Began.

See Polluted Wasteland for Mordor's realistic and Sci-Fi counterpart.

Compare Forbidden Zone, I Don't Like the Sound of That Place.