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  Wonderland Background
  By Kevin Anderson
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  Introduction
  This document details some of the setting details 
  for the Savage Tales set in the realms of Wonderland 
  as featured in the two books Alice's Adventures in 
  Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What 
  Alice Found There. It is recommended that the GM be 
  familiar with the two stories, which are available online 
  for no cost.
  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11
  Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found 
  There:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12
  After Alice Left
   Wonderland
  The books recording Alice's adventures do not tell 
  the whole tale, and who can blame them? They record 
  only the highlights of her journeys, glossing over the 
  minor events and seemingly inconsequential conversa-
  tions she had with the less interesting people of the 
  land. However these less 'important' encounters had a 
  marked effect on Wonderland. Alice's tales of her 
  world inspired the denizens of Wonderland and great 
  leaps were made in technology, social, and almost every 
  other aspect of life. Three cities sprung up, named 
  after the three Victorian virtues of Faith, Hope, and 
  Charity, ruled by the Red Queen, Queen of Hearts and 
  the White King, respectively. Some time long after 
  Alice left Wonderland, changes started occurring in 
  that magical realm, and not for the better.
  The King of Hearts withdrew from public life and 
  his partner, the Queen of Hearts, became even more 
  heartless and her realm became a darker place. Soldier 
  cards patrol the roads and visit towns to tax the people. 
  Beheadings are ordered and, unlike in more peaceful 
  times, carried out.
  Both the Red and White Kings were no longer seen. 
  Stories were spread that the White King had died, slain 
  by a traitorous attack by Rosewood. Other tales told 
  that the sleeping Red King, whose dreams were so 
  important, has been taken to a place of safety as 
  assassins of Whitefield were seeking him. The Red 
  Queen seizing her chance rallied the once defeated 
  forces of Rosewood and attacked Whitefield. Taken by 
  surprise the white forces had no time to react and with 
  the inept leadership of the White Queen soon fell to 
  the attack. Technically the two houses are now at peace 
  with the House of Rosewood in supremacy, however 
  there are still hostilities albeit little direct combat 
  with both side using terrorism and guerilla combat. 
  Geography of Wonderland
  Wonderland is split into two areas separated by the 
  vast, and rumored to be impassable, Mountains of Divi-
  sion. The mountain range runs north to south, dividing 
  the land into two roughly equal halves. The Western 
  area is the Monarchy of Hearts while the Eastern is the 
  Scarlet Monarchy.
  Essentially, Wonderland is a large island bounded on 
  three sides by forest and on the fourth (the northern 
  coast) by the Endless Sea. The Mountains of Division 
  extend quite some distance into the sea, and south 
  almost as far as the edge of the land. Hills surround the 
  mountains and give way to the flatter landscape. The 
  Hills of Gloom to the south of the Mountains are very 
  heavily wooded, and they are indeed very gloomy and 
  depressing. These hills mark the southern boundary of 
  Wonderland, and any who venture too far south find 
  themselves somehow turned about and journeying 
  north. Tall trees with overhanging boughs cover the 
  eastern and western edges of Wonderland. The direc-
  tion reversal effect noted earlier takes place if one 
  travels too far into these forests.
  The Monarchy of Hearts is predominantly wooded, 
  with settlements, farmland and other notable features 
  existing as islands within the sea of trees. In contrast, 
  the Scarlet Monarchy is a vast expanse of plains and 
  hills (divided into a chess board pattern by streams and 
  
  2
  brooks) with copses, farmland and other features scat-
  tered throughout.
  The only common route between the two Monar-
  chies is through the Hills of Gloom. The journey is 
  fraught with danger, as the hills are home to some of 
  the more ferocious and wild of Wonderland's creatures. 
  Both Monarchies have acted together to provide safe 
  passage through the hills.  A trail known as the Guarded 
  Way winds through the hills, guarded by regular guard 
  posts charged with aiding legitimate travelers. These 
  guard posts have burning beacons atop them and mark 
  out the safe path. It is possible that the journey could 
  be accomplished via the Endless Sea, but such a trip 
  involves a long detour around the Mountains of Division, 
  which protrude far into the sea.
  The Monarchy of Hearts 
  As its title implies, the Monarchy is ruled over by 
  the Queen of Hearts (a Card).  She has a husband (the 
  King of Hearts, unsurprisingly) but he has withdrawn 
  from royal life since Alice left. For all intents and 
  purposes, the realm is a dictatorship.
  The western realm has only one major city - Hope, 
  though many other small towns and villages lie scat-
  tered throughout the woods.  The most famous of which 
  is the Village of Animals where the White Rabbit lives. 
  The smaller villages have cleared the surrounding woods 
  and farm the land, producing crops and raising such 
  animals as cows, sheep and pigs. Excess foodstuffs are 
  taken to the larger villages and towns to be sold or 
  bartered.
  The people of the Monarchy of Hearts are predom-
  inantly anthropomorphic animals (Anthros), Cards and 
  Humans, with a smattering of Chess Pieces, Living Plants 
  and Tweedle. Villages tend to consist of just one of 
  these races, while the towns, and particularly Hope, are 
  more of a mixture.
  The Monarchy of Hearts is technologically and so-
  cially very similar to Great Britain in the 1890s 
  (Victorian period), having been influenced by Alice's 
  Real World experiences. 
  The Scarlet Monarchy
  The eastern realm is ruled over by the Red Queen 
  (a Chess Piece) who, like the Queen of Hearts in the 
  west, is a virtual dictator. The Red Queen's partner 
  (the Red King) has been asleep and dreaming as long as 
  any can remember so there is no one to curb her control.
  The Monarchy's main city is named Faith, and it is 
  here that the Red Queen resides. A second city, Hope, 
  lies in what is essentially an enclave of the defeated 
  House of Whitefield (the white chess pieces). Other 
  towns and villages are scattered through the forest.  
  These, like their counterparts in the west, live a prima-
  rily agrarian life.
  The people of the Scarlet Monarchy are predomi-
  nantly Chess Pieces, with those of the House of White-
  field mainly gathered about Hope.  There is quite a large 
  population of human, Tweedle, and a few Anthros and 
  Cards. Again, villages tend to be single-race and the 
  towns more of a mixture.
  The Scarlet Monarchy is technologically and socially 
  similar to that of medieval Great Britain -- not neces-
  sarily the reality of that period, but the idealized image 
  painted by the Victorian people.
  
  3
  The Races of Wonderland
  Anthropomorphic 
  Animals, or Anthros
   'Anthros', or 
  Anthropomorphic 
  Animals, are a varied 
  race of Animals in 
  vaguely human form. The 
  physical shape and size of 
  an Anthro may vary wildly, 
  although no Anthro is as 
  small as its Animal namesake. 
  For instance, a rabbit Anthro 
  may be almost completely 
  human save for a rabbit head 
  and fur over its body, or almost 
  completely rabbit-shaped but with human-like hands. 
  Either of these forms may be between three and six 
  foot tall.
  Cards
  Cards 
  are living play-
  ing 
  cards 
  averaging 
  some 4' tall and about 4" 
  wide. Their skin and muscle 
  structure is reminiscent of that 
  found in flat fish such as Manta 
  rays. All cards of an extended 
  'family' (or pack) have identical 
  markings upon their posterior sides. 
  The anterior sides bear markings 
  more familiar to those of the real 
  world as playing cards.
  Chess Pieces 
  Chess Pieces look like gi-
  ant anthropomorphic Chess 
  Pieces. They are a construct 
  race with vaguely human fea-
  tures in what is otherwise a 
  'traditional' 
  Chess 
  Piece 
  shape. All Chess Pieces are 
  either colored red or white, 
  and this division splits the race 
  as a whole.  Rare individuals can 
  rise above this. Chess Pieces have 
  a very logical way of thinking - most 
  are great tacticians but have trouble making intuitive 
  leaps or 'thinking outside the box.'
  Living Plants
  Living Plants appear quite 
  delicate and fragile, tottering 
  around on their thin rootlike 
  legs, their slender bodies 
  swaying from side to side 
  and their leaves curling in 
  all directions. However, 
  the truth is far from 
  their appearance.  The 
  fibrous nature of their plant 
  bodies is surprisingly tough 
  and plants have long since 
  evolved to stand up to quite 
  amazing forces (try and crush 
  a grass blade by standing upon it!). 
  That said, the Living Plants are slow and not physically 
  strong.  Exceptional members, as always, prove this 
  generalization wrong.
  Tweedle
  The Tweedle (both singular and 
  plural use the same word) look like 
  nothing less than man-sized chil-
  dren suffering from obesity. 
  Their bodies are massive with 
  both muscle and fat and their 
  heads seem overly large due 
  to the almost complete ab-
  sence of a neck. Their complex-
  ion is almost universally a sickly 
  pale, and their hair is almost always 
  thin.
  Tweedle are always born as 
  one of identical twins and grow 
  up as rambunctious and noisy children. When working 
  together the twin Tweedle excel at whatever they do. 
  However such occurrences are rare as more than any-
  thing else the twins argue and bicker, particularly when 
  there is loot involved!
  Humans
  Humans are a minority race within Wonderland, with 
  the Monarchy of Hearts being dominated by cards and 
  Anthros and the Scarlet Monarchy being dominated by 
  Chess Pieces. Rumors abound that all humans within 
  Wonderland hail from the Real World and none are 
  indigenous.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Triple Ace Games/Wonderland No More/Savage Worlds - Wonderland No More - Wonderland Background.pdf