A Rough, Stark World
…The country [of tenth century Castile] is high and bare, though it may have been more thickly wooded in the early Middle Ages than it is today….
…Large tracts of land were still untamed, roamed by wild pigs and cattle, wolves and probably bears…. They were roamed also by voluntary or involuntary drop-outs from human society such as hermits or outlaws….
It was a rough, stark world where status mattered, justice was uncomplicated, and war never far away.
— Richard Fletcher, The Quest for El Cid, chapter 5
This sounds like a great setting for a fantasy roleplaying game.
