Spellbound MUX takes place in the Scottish Highlands around a settlement called Dornie where three sea lochs meet on the edge of the country's west coast, and encompasses a diverse section of terrain, including the coastal plains and dune pastures of the Atlantic ocean, heather-rich moorland and deep river valleys sheltered by an ancient Caledonian forest that grows thick and hardy in the shadow of high, steep-sided mountains.
Dornie
Dornie itself is a community of twenty-four hundred men, women and children working cooperatively to eke out an existence, and although its roots are that of a humble fishing village, it has grown in the past century and a half to become one of the largest centers of human activity in the United Kingdom. The primary reasons for Dornie's success are the Rowntree and Ross clans — two families who arrived in Dornie shortly after the cities were abandoned and people began immigrating away from civilization. Clan Rowntree's munitions factory provides the settlement with protection and a powerful currency to trade in, while Clan Ross' innovative hydroelectric power plant gives its inhabitants a unique advantage over other, less-developed settlements in the area.
The combined power and material wealth that the two families accumulated have since transformed them into self-styled nobility, community leaders who make decisions for the whole of Dornie, and although everyone might not agree, there are few people willing to speak out against them in the open — for the Rowntrees rule the land as warlords would and the Rosses do not seem inclined to do much about it, but are known instead for their ruthless politicking with neighboring settlements. Together, they have worked to earn Dornie a reputation as an impenetrable northern stronghold run by some of the most effective and influential individuals in the region, which is a good thing for the people the clans lord over; in a land of dragons and marauding bandits, there is no place safer than within Dornie's borders.
Dornie, apart from its munitions factory and hydroelectric power plant, is home to several inns and pubs, a brothel, horse stables, many small farmsteads with herds of goats, sheep and Highland cattle, as well as various businesses that deal locally using either trade or barter with an emphasis on exchange of goods and services rather than an actual currency. Horses, cattle, firearms and ammunition are all highly-valued in the region — the rarer something is, and the more pivotal to survival, the more it is likely to be worth. Merchants based out of Dornie who have employees that travel extensively supply the settlement with items that can only be imported from other parts of the United Kingdom (and in some cases, other parts of the world), including sugar, wine and produce that cannot be grown locally.
For more information, see: About Dornie
Climate
Scotland's western highlands have an annual rainfall of one hundred and eighty inches, making it one of the wettest places in Europe as warm air rises on contact with the mountainous coast, where it then cools and condenses, forming dark, heavy clouds. Because it occupies the northern section of Great Britain, temperatures are generally colder than in other areas regardless of the season. During the short days of winter when there is snow up in the mountains but little in Dornie proper, it averages between 0°C and 5°C. In summer, with its intermittent bursts of sunshine, it rarely gets warmer than 17°C during the day. No matter the time of year, it rains more than it doesn't.
