Volume III of the Cylopedia Talislanta (1989) and the following three volumes (I’ll get to them another time) follow the same structure as Volume II. This one takes a look at the Wilderlands of Zaran, which are mostly desert wastelands. There is a distinctly Dark Sun vibe to some of this stuff, which is interesting, since Dark Sun is still a couple years off. Lots of barbarian types riding big lizards.

Again, just packed with stuff. I love Talislanta for all its wild details. I can’t really imagine playing in it, but I enjoy reading it and skimming off ideas for my own games. These books should be on every worldbuilder’s shelf, honestly. And they can be, at least digitally, for free — Sechi licensed the world out to a few companies after he gave up the tiller, but he always retained the rights, so just about everything is available in PDF on Talislanta.com. The only things that seem to be missing are some of the cyclopedias, but I might just not be seeing them, because that would be an odd oversight. Still, if they aren’t there, they’re usually inexpensive on the second hand market. Just be careful when you buy them — I had a devil of a time keeping the Roman numerals straight for some reason and bought multiples of a couple volumes instead of the one I was missing. I’ve talked to other Talislanta fans who have had the exact same problem, so beware! Maybe it’s a curse!