Region Archetypes (Advanced)

regionArchetypes

These strings go to the AI when it needs to describe or expand a region. Write them as tone directions - what makes this type of terrain or territory feel distinct politically, physically, and atmospherically.

In the editor

"Region archetypes for Region Details generation"

Editor location
Other → Advanced → Region Archetypes
Editor type
JSON only (key → string map)
Size limits

No character-length caps for this section. See the validation reference for the complete table.

Last updated

Schema

json
{
  "regionArchetypes": {
    "<key>": "string"
  }
}

Example

json
{
  "Seat of Power": "Geography:\n- This is where decisions that affect other regions are made\n- Infrastructure serves authority first - roads, walls, and supply lines all converge here\n- Wealth and hierarchy are physically visible: monuments, garrison districts, administrative buildings\n\nDynamics:\n- Factions that want influence must be present here; absence is itself a political act\n- Information flows inward faster than it flows outward\n\nHistory:\n- Something was built here to last, and the decision of what to build reveals what the founders valued\n\nAtmosphere:\n- Power is never entirely comfortable; even those who hold it watch for who might take it",
  "Frontier": "Geography:\n- This region sits at the edge of settled territory - beyond it, mapping becomes unreliable\n- Resources exist but extraction is dangerous; those who work here accept that as the cost\n- Authority is thin and mostly self-imposed by whoever can enforce it locally\n\nDynamics:\n- Distance from the center means news, law, and aid all arrive late\n- The people here have already decided they can handle problems themselves\n\nHistory:\n- Something drove the first settlers here; it shaped their character and their relationship to the rest of the world\n\nAtmosphere:\n- Self-reliance is not a virtue here, it is a survival requirement"
}

Structure

Four-section entry format

A well-structured entry uses four sections: Geography (physical and infrastructure character), Dynamics (who holds power, how information and resources flow), History (what shaped this region and what founding decisions reveal), and Atmosphere (the emotional and social register of being here). Three to four bullets per section is sufficient.

Behaviour

Empty-section crash

Warning: Leaving this section empty causes a hard engine crash when generateRegionDetails fires (which happens for regions with detailType: "basic" when the party first enters them). Worlds where every region has pre-authored detailed content will not invoke this code path, but defining at least one entry is recommended as defence-in-depth.

Override and suppression

Note: To override or fully ignore the engine-selected archetype for a region (or null it out entirely for certain region types), see Behavior suppression and archetype override in the Advanced AI Techniques appendix.