Introduction
The Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is based on Russian mythology and folklore – the Russia not of history, but of legend and fairy tale. The thrice-tenth kingdom itself exists “beyond the thrice-nine lands, beyond the mountains of bone, beyond the sea of glass” – and can be used either by itself, as the principle locale for a campaign, or placed in any appropriately cold and remote location in the DM’s campaign world.
The thrice-tenth kingdom has no name; it is referred to only as “here,” or “the land,” or even (by some who do not know better) as “the world.” It is uniformly cold and dry, except for small patches in the south that enjoy temperate summers; the land is covered in forest, which has been scraped aside to make way for villages, but the only urban development is in Moskva, the one city, in the center of the forest.
The forest envelops the nation, and strange things are found in it. The further one travels from one’s village, the more likely one is to encounter rusalki, or strange talking beasts, or any other manner of mystical creature.
Technology in the thrice-tenth kingdom is fairly primitive; there are no firearms here, certainly, nor are there siege weapons (all of the standard equipment listed in the D&D books is available; however, the DM should consider charging extra for high-end items like magnifying glasses and paper – or make them very difficult to come across). As far as the commoner is concerned, war with other nations is something which happened only in the past – more frequent are the raids by nomads.
There is a great gap between the social classes. Nearly everyone is – and most, if not all, of the PCs should be – a peasant, working land owned by one of the dozens of nobles who in turn pay tribute to the Emperor. By villagers’ standards, merchants are unbelievably wealthy, and every peasant father hopes to marry his daughter off to one of the traveling merchant lords. In the city of Meskva, there are artisans and craftsmen who, while not yet enjoying guild status, do manage to make a better living than their village counterparts.
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