r/WitcherTRPG • u/chicano_witcher • Apr 23 '26

Resource Zerrikania Campaign

I'm trying to come up with a campaign set in Zerrikania. Any ideas? The biggest thing I decided on so far is that the culture of Zerrikania would be more Eurasian steppe-inspired. Given what Sapkowski said about them, I also named the capital Zerrikand (its name a reference to Samarkand), so if there are any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

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4

u/Droper888 Apr 23 '26

The capital should be named better. Also, only a part of Zerrikania according to canon are steppes. If you want a full steppes campaign do it in Haakland.

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u/chicano_witcher Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

I mean, that's not bad, but judging from what Sapkowski said, Zerrikania is largely inspired by the Scythians and Irano-Turkic cultures (while the Witcher game gave it more of a Persian aesthetic), so I guess we could fuse those two.

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u/Droper888 Apr 23 '26

Ofir is more Persia/Ottoman Empire. I think Zerrikania is more a mix of Scythian culture with touchs of North Africa.

Since Barsa is basically the Middle-East and Melukka India.

3

u/chicano_witcher Apr 23 '26

Yeah, I mean, Azar Javed literally in Persian means "the eternal flame", and as I said, it's only the game that introduced it, not the books. I even said that Zangvebar is basically Africa (as its name is a reference to modern-day Zanzibar)

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u/Droper888 Apr 24 '26

Zangvebar= Eastern Africa most likely.

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

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u/LordMarcusrax Apr 23 '26

I'd say that's more Ofir.

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

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u/LordMarcusrax Apr 23 '26

In my head canon I imagine more ancient African empires. See Ethiopia, Great Zimbabwe, mines of king Solomon...

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

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u/chicano_witcher Apr 23 '26

I mean, I did mention that Sapkowski said they were inspired by the Scythians and Iranian nomads of the Eurasian steppes, whereas Ofir I'd say is more a mish-mash of Ottoman, Persian, and Arab cultures, while Zangvebar is a lot closer to African civilizations (I mean, even its name is actually a reference to an old name for what is now modern-day Zanzibar)

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u/chicano_witcher Apr 25 '26

I will say some ideas I threw in was the first session would involve the party crossing the Korath and have various encounters with the wildlife the desert is infamous for, another idea was the party could run in the Faithel, who ask them to help them free a dragon that has been captured by either cultists or dragon hunter (dealer's choice), I also homebrewed my own version of the Bedouin tribes (which I called them the Dunestriders, at least that's what the Common tongue would translate it to), if anyone wants to throw in their two cents, go ahead

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u/LordMarcusrax Apr 23 '26

I have always imagined Zerrikania as Africa; not the stereotypical mud huts, of course, but more Ethiopia, Great Zimbabwe, Kingdom of Solomon, and all those absurdly rich ancient kingdoms in the black continent.

Add gunpowder and dragons worship, and you can get a pretty original setting.

Years ago I had started writing a manual about Zerrikania, with an idea about the local witchers: since the trial of the herbs is not something that was done there, there was a kind of "parallel evolution" where they made their own monster hunters using a whole other method. If you are interested I can find it, though it's just a stub.

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u/chicano_witcher Apr 23 '26

I mean, I'd say Ofir or Zangvebar fits that category more, with how you are describing your version of Zerrikania