Mr. R

Pirates really did operate over vast spans of distance in the Golden Age of Piracy.
 
But let's not forget that they were operating on the lines of existing maritime commerce. It's less impressive to see a pirate voyaging from New England to the Indian Ocean when Boston merchantmen were doing the same. 
 
Now, a fascinating aspect to this, and one that might bear on the OP's vacant coasts, is just how long and how far these lines of maritime commerce stretched, and how long ago. We have an interminable and exhausting debate over whether or not the Basque were in the Newfoundland fisheries before Columbus that I think is pretty much played out, but is also the less interesting with the discovery that people were present on the Azores as early as the sub-Roman period, seven hundred years before they were "discovered" in the days of Henry the Navigator. 
 
If that's the case, we have to explain literally centuries of what was almost certainly low-intensity (because it is not frequent enough to be documented, and any permanent population on the islands was too scanty to leave obvious archaeological evidence) fishing-related (I mean, why else?) activity. Why didn't it escalate into "discovery"?
 
The answer, which I take from narratives of expeditions to the Canaries, is that the "fishers" weren't going for fish, but for seals. Marine mammals can be taken in rookeries on the beach, which is much safer than fishing for them offshore; they produce a high value staple (train oil) that is completely fungible and anonymised, and while the yield of an individual rookery can be quite high, it is also inherently limited. You can predict about how many animals you can take on a given beach. It's never going to increase, there's no room for capital investment, and the number of hunters has to be limited somehow for the voyage to be profitable.
 
When you look at the global distribution of pinnipeds, and particularly the so-called Mediterranean monk seal, it maps onto the routes of the early European voyages of discovery pretty well. There was a long pre-Age of Discovery era of faffing around with the North Atlantic islands and the islands of "Macaronesia," which all have seal fisheries; there was a southwards push towards the Guinea coast which is first documented in contemporary histories of the "deeds of Prince Henry" when the explorers arrived in the sealing grounds across from the Canaries and then southwards towards Mauretania's Bay of Arguin; Columbus sailed to the Caribbean, catching up with another large seal population, especially off the Mayan coast of Yucatan; the story of how the Portuguese got to the Cape of Good Hope is very obscure, but Namibia has a huge seal population; and, of course, there's lots of sealing to be done off Newfoundland. 
 
So is there a prehistory of low-intensity sealing voyages to the areas later "discovered"? Sometimes. Maybe. Point is, where the sealers go, you're likely to get pirates --subject, and I think this might be the crucial point, to there being fiscal room for them to operate. (There's not much point to going out and stealing hide bags of train oil instead of catching your own seals unless you can sell them for less than the fishers can. Throw in a Prince with a "soap monopoly" like Henry the Navigator in the ports form which the fishers come from, and a rising Meseta to use the soap, and you have a monopoly rent being charged on legitimate edible fats imports which allow the pirates their profit by evading the rent. 
 
Now, when I say that there is no possibility of capital investment increasing yields on sealing voyages, this  isn't quite true. The Canaries in the immediate pre-Contact era seem to have developed quite a trade in dyed goatskin. So-called "Moroccan kid" dominated (dominates) the industry, and the leatherworking port towns on the Moroccan coast are known to have sourced their hides as far away as northern Nigeria during the caravan days. There also seem to have been Moroccan buyers in the Canaries in the era when the  native Canarians were, by some accounts, cave men who couldn't even build boats --perhaps an unfair rap. 
 
The point is that you might see a region that, on a map, looks completely deserted, no towns or even cities, but which is actually fairly populous, and is linked into a global trade network by some kind of high-skill specialised export like dyed goatskin. 

Years ago I was crossing Canada by train and staying in Youth Hostels.  I met a young man from Scotland who was crossing from Halifax to Vancouver.  I met him in Edmonton and asked him what he thought of my country.
"Honestly mate.. its bloody huge!'
"Some of us were talking of going to Calgary for the day!  The way they were talking I thought it was a short jaunt.  Its FOUR bleedin hours!
"Back home that gets me off the island and on the Continent!"
 
Conversly here in Canada we can't seem to think OLD
I was in Stratford at a small shop that was a converted house.  I asked how old was the house?  Her answer..
"Well this is the new part of the house, its only 300 years old.  The back part is the old part, its over 400 years old!"
 
I come from a country where over 150 years old is ancient!

Years ago I was crossing Canada by train and staying in Youth Hostels.  I met a young man from Scotland who was crossing from Halifax to Vancouver.  I met him in Edmonton and asked him what he thought of my country.
"Honestly mate.. its bloody huge!'
"Some of us were talking of going to Calgary for the day!  The way they were talking I thought it was a short jaunt.  Its FOUR bleedin hours!
"Back home that gets me off the island and on the Continent!"
 
Conversly here in Canada we can't seem to think OLD
I was in Stratford at a small shop that was a converted house.  I asked how old was the house?  Her answer..
"Well this is the new part of the house, its only 300 years old.  The back part is the old part, its over 400 years old!"
 
I come from a country where over 150 years old is ancient!

The Canadian North, or the Prairies, don't translate well to standards of scale in many parts of the world, let alone to pre-industrial societies. Modern transportation has radically changed how most of us view distance and travel time.
 
I remember an old episode of Dr. Who which included a medieval knight in modern times. The knight was picked up on the road and given a lift by a rich socialite in her limousine. She remarked about having come to that location from Point X, and the knight observed, "A full day's ride." The socialite replied, "Well, it did take us forty-five minutes by car."

Before I post my next area, I want to comment on how a supplement certainly needs an overview editor to make sure that certain ideas that SOUND good, really DON'T work.
 
Case in point the west coast of the continent.  As I have mentioned, it is south of the equator, so south is colder, north is jungle.  Also unlike NA which has a lush west coast, it is more like SA with a dry coastal plains.  Please remember this.
 
No 1
We'll create an island off the west coast.  It will be the home of merchants/privateers, who sail up and down the coast maybe into the Three Bays area.  OK.  Are there any cities along the way?  Nope!  So they are merchants, right!  Who do they trade with?  Well the cities of the Gefting Sea, you know that Basin area with all the cities.  Which also happens to be 1500 km inland from where they are!  Oh, add the fact that there is no major city on the west coast to load and unload goods.  Oh and even if they bought good to the west coast, where would they sell them?
 
No 2
There is a city state on the west coast, BUT it is not a port.  You people are going to love this.  It was founded by a mercenary commander to be his base far away from the Basin Area.  The focus exclusively on selling their services as Mercenaries.  They do have a side gig as glass makers, but otherwise everyone dedicates themselves to training and practice.  Sounds cool, sort of like the Swiss Mercenaries that dominated warfare in Europe.  Hold on, what's this?  There are NO non soldier professions at all!  No farmers.  No Herders.  No fishermen.  Only professions that help equip a soldier.  They get all their food imported, from that Basin area, over 1500 km away.  As one poster stated above even 300 km was a serious overland journey.  You're telling me they are going to ship perishable food items overland, across those plains controlled by the nomads, across one of the few passes of THE tallest mountains (think Andes here) then down the other side.  And this will serve to feed a city state of close to 50000 people?  I know this is fantasy, but really!
 
So basically my next two areas are going to be almost total reworks.
 
For this area I am taking some inspiration from Al-Qadim with the Cities of the North and the Corsair Isles.  

Point of pedantry 👨‍🏫 : the term "Meso-American" refers to the pre-Columbian cultural region in Mexico and Central America. Caral is a progenitor of the other major historical area of urban civilization in the Americas, the "Andean" cultural region among and around the Andes Mountain chain of South America. Aside from both predating European intrusion, they're as distinct from each other as Egypt and China, with no known contact before the Spanish conquest.
 
(My mother was from Peru, whose people are very conscious and celebratory of that heritage; so I learned the difference fairly early.) 😉

If you're going for a Fremen vibe, the desert folk might be working, slowly, to restore the land. Create pockets of soil that can support drought-resistant vegetation, gradually expand them. A bowl or basket of soil is an important ceremonial gift to establish one's goodwill. Especially if an important ingredient for turning sand and dust into soil is the bodies of the dead. "Know that I come in peace, for I offer you the bones of my ancestors." Which also means that soil theft is the most deadly insult imaginable, grounds (so to speak) for a vendetta that lasts generations.
 
The ruined cities are the cities of the ancestors. "When the land is restored, we shall live here again." Perhaps they have ancient tablets or scrolls copied and re-copied that describe and depict the cities as guides for the rebuilding. Or perhaps the elders keep the details in lore-songs and memory-cathedrals. If you visit a city with an elder guide, he or she can tell you the name of each street, who dwelled in the palace of which only sand-drifted stumps of walls remain, describe the long-vanished golden statue in what was once the main temple...
 
It's doubtful the cities would still have any artifacts worth looting and trading, even if they were not sacred homelands to be reclaimed in some future age. But deserts do have commodities of value, such as the frankincense trees of Yemen.
 
Dean Shomshak

If the war involved widespread magical fire that devastated the grassland, that could be sufficient explanation. Grassland topsoil is thin, requiring the grass roots (literally) to anchor it and allow it to retain rain water. If the grass is stripped away, any extended dry period will turn the soil to dust and it will literally blow away. (E.g. the infamous "Dust Bowl" phenomenon during the 1930s in the United States and Canada.) If the tactics of the war included magically-provoked drought, the groundwork would be well-laid. Topsoil can take millennia to regenerate, without deliberate extensive soil management programs.

Good Point.  Ok, so it is the clearing house for any trade coming down river, which it then ships by boat to Aerelios.  This actually makes sense as you can just go with the river's flow to the Gefting Sea, hug the coast, head up the Kulana River a bit and you're in Aerelios.  
 
I keep forgetting that overland travel is very much a modern (ie 1850's +) idea.  Also as a North American (Canadian) we tend to see long distances as common place.  I am reminded of a conversation with a Scotsman visiting Canada.  I asked him what he thought. "Its so bloody HUGE.  You talk about going to Calgary from Edmonton as like a small day trip.  Its four bleedin hours mate!  Back home that gets me onto the Continent!  For us anything more that 100 kms is overnighting!"

"
Koy is a smaller city located 160 km north and east of Aerelios on the banks of the Lost River.  Its actual location is actually about 300 km inland up river.  The reason for this placement is that it is right next to one of the passes that lead into Kerq through the Shattered Hills.  Both the river and the hills start north in the Wyrmian Mountains.  As such it makes an ideal spot to get items from the mountains and the hills as well as trade goods from Kerq.  
 
Most of its items are shipped overland (200 km) to Aerelios for refinement and distribution. "
 
This is far too great a distance for an economical point-to-point trade with medieval technology. It is perfectly practical, but implies the transhumant herding of livestock, usually sheep. This further implies a textile industry, a seasonality of pasture, and an order of political organisation to make these transhumant movements safe and stable. (That is, no-one squats your pastures while you're on the other end of your range. It isn't much consolation that you can kick them out when you return if the grass is already gone.) I'm having difficulty visualising the geography, but transhumant movements often link uplands with lowlands subject to seasonal flooding. The mountain pastures are green in the summer, while the flooding has to recede in the winter. 

Making my Clerics all Alchemist actually makes for an interesting pairing.  Everyone loves potions and here we get a ready made source for them.  Of course two potions from the same deity will have different SFX.  Like Heal from Themis (Law/Prot/Veng) may feel like an emergency medic quickly stitching things together, while Readaer (Know/Magic/Heal) will feel like a comfy blanket wrapping around the wound.
 
As a fast short hand to the Limitations
1 Charge that may be continuous up to 5 minutes (depending on potion)'
OAF fragile
Extra Time (you do have to drink it)
Restrain able
 
To make the potion you need the skill Potions and Talismans (Talismans will come in a future post).  It takes one hour/ 10 AP to brew and you need to make a roll at -1/10 AP.  If you double the time then the rolls become -1/20 AP.  Thus even the simplest heal potion (20 AP) will take 2 hour and -2 to the roll OR 4 hour and -1 to the roll.
 
 
And so I present a potion list.  If you can think of any that can be added on please let me know!
 
 
 

A conflict-resolution mechanism could be applied to PCs coming into the grasslands and inadvertently offending the Nomads. But perceived wealth disparity between groups is a classic source of resentment, which your PCs could find themselves in the middle of.
 
A common attitude/prevailing wisdom about the Nomads among those outside the grasslands could be useful to establish, either to prepare your PCs for dealing with them, or to show them it isn't accurate. The reverse might be fun to play with, too, if they run into prejudiced Nomads.
 
BTW I doubt the Nomads call themselves "Nomads." They probably have their own name or definition for themselves. Ignorance of that could be a point of friction in itself.

After which, you just handwave that "we all talked and we understand each other (because I have no hair left to tear out) or demand they buy a common language on loaned experience points against their next EP earnings.
 
Remember That this common tongue dowsnt have to be the universal common tongue understood by a few people in every major city, either.  If you prefer it, it can be just some simple regional  language that they all happen to have in common, meaning they can still get value for any language that they spent points on.
 
As for language charts?
 
       
 
I mean, umm...  No; I don't bother working that out.  I am not the oldest guy here, and I started gaming with Traveller in '77.  To this day, no player has ever actually cared how many points of similarity his language has compared to another.  It boils down to "well, I can speak X, Y, and some Z.  Is his langaue similar enough to one od those that maybe we can kind of get some simple quesrions and were?"
 
at which point I can make a quick dexision based on the needs of the moment, make a note, and move on.
 
I dont even use the one 4e gave us, doe just the same reason: no player has ever fone out of his way to put 3 pts into Click or,any other language without knowing what might have some overlap anyway, even then, he has precious little clue how much, so I end up having to make that quick decision anyway.
 
So, briefly:  standing rule: all PCs have a common tongue, and that is the default against which they call other languages 'additional.'
 
A language chart has never once proven to be of any value (other than slowing the game down repeatedly) in any game I have ever played.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What they said.
 
The novelty of PCs having to communicate one at a time or through interpreters wears off about eight or nine minutes into the game. 😈

The old language doesn't have to be the "common" language.

You could easily use one of its more common descendants ("French") or a less closely related one ("Greek") as a common language between the PCs.

A trade oriented Lingua Franca would be less useful if the PCs are based in a specific area where most people don't use it.

Likewise. Unless there is some specific reason to impose linguistic difficulties on the PCs, give them a common language. 600 years is plenty of time for "Old Imperial" to split into a clade of local languages, but there are also forces that could preserve it intact. For instance, it might still be indispensable as the language or religious ritual and scholarship (as Latin was, for more than 1000 years after the Roman Empire fell). If literacy is fairly common (and you are not obliged to follow the Quasi-Medieval Europe trope of books being incredibly ratre and most people being illiterate. In Classical times, papyrus was so cheap and easy to write upon that Rome had bookstores.)
 
Or there could be more fantastical reasons. In the setting for Exalted, the world's chief languages are magical constructs that great mages of antiquity hard-wired into Creation, with gods appointed to protect them and oversee their use. And one language, Old /Realm, is the actual language of gods themselves, imposed on them by *their* creators. For something like this, modern folk still use the same language as the Old Empire, and whoever came before the Old Empire, because that's just what the language *is.* If it has ever changed, it's because someone very powerful forced the change.
 
Dean Shomshak

Unless you have a group of players who are interested in the possibilities of being mutually unintelligible, establishing a common language is probably advisable.  Even with a common tongue in place, though, a language chart can still be devised - not everyone in the world will necessarily speak the "common" language (or perhaps at least not to a high degree of fluency), and characters who invest in other languages can be given opportunities to use them in the form of NPCs who aren't proficient in "common", or who use a different language to try and maintain some privacy of communication within their group ("<hrz'ark fo karr>" "My colleague admires your devotion to the cause..." "Psst... actually, he said he thinks you are a weak-willed fool!"), etc.

Re: The Deconstructing of Wynnie Wonder
 
Something like that once happened to my character in a game long ago. We fought a robotic villainess. My character Myrmidon, a robotics expert, ended up reprogramming her so she had free will -- she could decide for herself whether she would work for the bad guys or not. Last we saw her, she went off on a walkabout to try to figure out what she really wanted to do with her life.

Honestly, I can think of a handful of justifications right off the top of the head for skeletons that take STUN and can be stunned just as I can for why they could not be stunned.
 
Equally honestly. I think the last couple of editions already have enough "have to" and "must" to keep me disinterested.  No real reason I can think of to add another have to on the pile.
 
 

For those superheroes who check their Horoscopes:
 
Aries-As a crimefighting Aries you take the initiative. You have a pioneering spirit and are willing to take action while others debate.
 
That said, the 'bad guy' you are about to perform a move through on as you have a life and death battle on a tall roof is just a very realistic looking image power.
 
Taurus- A Tauran superhero such as yourself should not neglect his deep need for artistry even in the battle for justice.
 
Sadly, the mayor,while probably asking for it, will not appreciate it when you turn his limo to modern sculpture.
 
Gemini-Gemini superheroes are fun loving, talkative, and quick thinking eager to offer advice to their team mates.
 
Naturally, given that you've been over doing this of late, your allies will choose to leave the gag on as they rescue you from the VIPER nest.
 
Cancer-Superheroes born under this sign are especially kindhearted, sympathetic, and romantic.
 
Yes, you HAVE been lied to and fallen for another sob story by that sexy cat burglar, AGAIN, why do you even bother to ask?
 
Leo- Naturally confident in a field (superheroing) that requires such, you are both a natural leader, and yet when the time comes to stand alone, sure in your ability to come through.
 
You're wrong by the way, that villain you told your team that "You'd handle" before sending them away to other missions got an update in CU: News of the World and is going to steam roll right over you.
 
Virgo-Modest, meticulous, practical and efficient; like many Virgo heroes you also share a critic's eye that is quick to ferret out problems.
 
Thus, You'll probably be the first in your group to realize how that was the wrong button to push in Dr. Destroyer's lab.
 
Libra- Fair handed and openminded, the scales are a fitting sign for any superhero. You are able to see both sides of the issue, and try to listen to all parties involved.
 
Which means you'll be going last this phase while your team members scream at you to 'snap out of it' no matter what your Dex is.
 
Scorpio- Scorpios are noted for passion, power, and secrecy. Superhumans born under this sign are no exception.
 
This is probably why the other heroes mutter you're 'most likely to turn to the dark side' and don't trust you.
 
Sagittarius- You are outspoken, honest, independent, and have the adventurous spirit that all Super Sagitariuses share. You are a go getter and a can doer...
 
At least until you lose your foci, which will happen in about 3 seconds. Say good bye to your usefulness.
 
Capricorn- The caped or cowled Capricorn is a hero who is practical, businesslike, and no nonsense in his or her approach to crime fighting.
 
It is these very qualities that will draw Foxbat to you like a fly is drawn to feces. Enjoy.
 
Aquarius- As an Aquarian superhero, you are quirky, creative, and while friendly, insist on doing things your own way. Your plans can be spontaneous and brilliant.
 
And sadly will leave you stranded in Naziworld when, in your eagerness to close the portal and stop the invasion, you forget which side you are on.
 
Pisces- Fish signed supers are sensitive, caring, sharing, and see romance as a spiritual opportunity that they eagerly will embark on with others.
 
Which explains why your romantic interest DNPCs are too terrified of you to return your calls.

Mortem or Vita?  Which?
 
HMMM!  I am getting a Al Qadim Shair type feel for this school (They are genie summoners who could use their lowest type genie to hunt for spells for them.  So they had a HUGE spell selection BUT it took time to cast each spell, like minutes or hours time)
 
 
OK you are going for some classics used in a lot of games.  Is there a limit to how many schools you can learn?  Are there certain counter schools, like if you know Vita you can't learn Mortis?
It has promise and I'd like to see more!

Another to read
 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52039930-awakening
 
It is the first in a series about Evolved Ones, people who one day develop some sort of super power.  Most are low key, but some are more obvious and so the people become the target of .... less than scrupulous entities.   In the case of the MC she's being hunted by a scientist who wants to use her for experiments to find out how EOs come about, if he can duplicate the process to create it artificially, and finally what can be spun off from the abilities (Ex. one lady can secret a substance that can render a person unconscious with NO side effects).  
 
So there is the approach that IF people can develop super powers, CAN we do it artificially, control the process, and even choose what abilities they will get.
 
A comic called Strike Force: Mortuary ended its run with a similar.  The process to get super powers would kill you after 1-2 years, but later the process was improved and that onerous SE eliminated.  Now we have a world where it is possible to buy super powers.

I have used a corner of the battle mat and a Pente stone as a move able marker.  Just list the participants in order of dex. And put their phases after their names. Move the stone from top to bottom. Calling out who moves. You can use a non cubic die, or a different colored stone to indicate a held action, or an abort. 

Here's a quick reference you can use as springboard to further research whichever interests you: Women Lead Here: 8 Matriarchal Societies Around The World.

Stick with the Iroquois confederacy, as it was a mostly stable society, and you already know it. Most historical Matriarchies were more Matrilineal than matrifocal.  Land inheritance in The Himalayas was through the women, who would then take on husbands to work the land.