Organizing Your World
Your world has a layered structure that gives NPCs context about where they are. Each layer shapes conversations — an NPC in a struggling mining settlement inside a contested border region talks differently than one in a thriving capital.
World → Region → Settlement → District → Building / Landmark
World Profile
Start by defining your world at the top level. Open the Atlas World tab to edit the world profile — fields for era, geography, powers, conflicts, economy, and more. Every NPC draws on this for their understanding of the broader setting.
Drawing Areas
All boundaries — regions, settlements, and districts — are drawn with the Settlement tool in build mode.
- Select the Settlement tool from the toolbar.
- Click 3 or more points on the map to draw a polygon. Close the boundary by clicking near the starting point or pressing Enter.
- A Create Area dialog appears. What you can create depends on where you drew:
| Where you drew | What you can create |
|---|---|
| Open map (not inside anything) | Region or Settlement |
| Inside a region | Settlement (automatically associated with that region) |
| Inside a settlement | District (automatically associated with that settlement) |
Name the area and choose a subtype:
- Region subtypes: Kingdom, Country, Province, Territory
- Settlement subtypes: Village, Town, City
- District subtypes: Quarter, Ward, District, Zone
Fill in the profile using Quick Start (AI-generated from a short description, no credit cost) or write it manually.
Districts can overlap — a harbor district and a merchant quarter might share a few blocks.
Regions
Regions are your broadest organizational layer. A kingdom, a coastal province, a mountain territory.
Each region has a profile with fields for geography, culture, politics, economy, tensions, and history. NPCs in the region reference these details — a merchant in a trade-heavy region might mention tariffs, a soldier in a contested border region might talk about recent skirmishes.
Settlements drawn inside a region boundary are automatically associated.
Settlements
Settlements are named areas with buildings, roads, and NPCs. See World & Locations for full details on settlement profiles and buildings.
Districts
Districts divide settlements into distinct zones — each with its own character. An NPC working in a market district knows it as the commercial hub; an NPC in a noble quarter speaks differently about the neighborhood.
District profiles layer on top of settlement and region context. Buildings inside a district boundary are automatically detected and associated.
Managing Areas
All regions, settlements, and districts are managed from the Atlas World tab. The tab shows a drillable tree: Regions → Settlements → Districts. Click into any level to edit its profile.
Boundaries can be edited after creation from the World tab.
Map Labels
Regions and districts display labels on the map. Label colors match your world's map theme.
Lorebook Scopes
Regions and districts work as lorebook scopes. You can scope a lorebook entry to a specific region, settlement, district, building, or NPC — or combine scopes. An entry scoped to both a region and a building only activates at that building within that region.
See Lorebooks for more on scoping.