The Caeldun Isles
Partly liveA huge archipelago of rain-washed islands, sea lochs and mountains, shaped from real survey data.
The map
The world of Settlers III is the Caeldun Isles, a cold, rain-washed archipelago of long outer islands, mountainous inner isles, small islands on the edge of the abyss, low fertile farming isles and wooded peninsulas. The land is shaped from real survey height data, so its hills, glens, sea lochs and coastlines look and feel like real ones. (Where the look comes from.)
| Size | 32,768 × 45,056 blocks |
|---|---|
| Scale | 1 block ≈ 4 real metres across, and about the same vertically |
| Regions | 15, grouped into 5 lands (see Lands & regions) |
| Highest ground | Mountain tops approach Y 300; the highest peak, in Morvethan, reaches about Y 306 |
The whole map has been generated and is being prepared. For now settlers play in the individual regional worlds, starting on Tirwenn. The rules on this wiki apply in both.
Travel is slow on purpose
Crossing the map on foot takes a very long time, and that's the design. Distance is what gives regions their own character and makes trade worth doing. Expect to rely on:
- Roads. Paths wear into the ground where people walk. See The living world.
- Horses. Wild horses and donkeys roam the Outer Isles.
- Ships. The only way across the open sea, and the only way to move serious cargo. See Ships & sailing.
The weight system (see Weight) means you can't carry a quarry's worth of stone in your pockets either.
What the land looks like
Biomes are fewer and more realistic than vanilla. You'll find:
- Temperate rainforest: oak woodland dripping with ivy, ferns and moss, with bluebells, ramsons and foxgloves on the floor.
- Old pinewood: big pines over heather and blaeberry, with juniper thickets.
- Machair and white sand: the turquoise-water beaches of the western isles.
- Heather moor and bare gneiss: open, windswept, nearly treeless outer islands.
- Mountain glens: burns cascading down incised gorges, peat-dark lochs, crags and boulder fields.
- Sea cliffs: sheer east-facing cliffs on the outer islands, with gravel and shingle beaches below.
Water inland is dark and peaty. The sea turns turquoise over the shallows near land and drops to deep blue over the abyss offshore.
Snow
Snow only lies on the very highest summits. The snowline gets lower the further north you go: about 3 blocks lower for every kilometre north. In the pinewoods of Ardveil it comes down to around Y 205.
Caves
Caves are rarer than in vanilla and they never break open on a hillside by accident. Entrances are few, mossy and easy to miss. Inside are tubes, caverns and occasional great halls with dripstone, streams in the floor, and flooding at depth. Only the Northlands have lava in their caves, along with amethyst, sulfur and cinnabar veins.