Locations (DARKLAND.LOC)

All named locations on the Darklands wilderness map: cities, villages, castles, monasteries, dungeons, caves, shrines, etc. This data is copied into each save file at game creation and updated there during play.

Extension: DARKLAND.LOC
Location: Game root
Byte order: Little-endian (16-bit)
Size: 24,334 B — 2-byte count (0x019E = 414) + 414 × 58-byte location records
Compression: None
Magic: None — num_locations word = 0x019E at 0x00
Status: Partial
Source: Wendigo — darkland.loc.xml; partially correlated against save file copies

Partial. Several fields in the 58-byte location record are unknown: +0x02 (non-zero for non-cities), +0x08 (1–10 range, possibly site strength), +0x0A (1–5; pagan altars = 0x63), +0x0E (usually 0x62; Raubritter castles use 0x92), +0x14 (ruins/destroyed markers), +0x1C (Nürnberg exception). Runtime fields (local_rep, inn_cache_idx) are zero in the static file and live in save copies.

Canonical source: darkland.loc.xml (Wendigo’s Darklands repo)

File Layout

Offset 0x00:  word          num_locations = 0x19e (414)
Offset 0x02:  location[414] locations

location struct (58 bytes)

Offset	Size	Field	Description
+0x00	2	`icon`	Map image type (see enum below)
+0x02	2	(unknown)	Zero for cities; other locations usually range from `0x08` to `0x0E`
+0x04	4	`coords`	Map coordinates (x word + y word)
+0x08	2	(unknown)	Ranges from 1–10; may relate to site state/strength
+0x0a	2	(unknown)	Usually 1–5; pagan altars use `0x63`
+0x0c	2	`menu`	Card/menu displayed on entering the location
+0x0e	2	(unknown)	Usually `0x62`; castles occupied by Raubritters use `0x92`
+0x10	1	(constant)	Always `0xFF`
+0x11	1	`city_size`	City size: 3=small to 8=Köln; non-cities always 1
+0x12	2	`local_rep`	Local reputation (0 in this file; non-zero in save copies)
+0x14	1	(unknown)	Zero for active sites; ruins/destroyed sites use other values such as `0x04`, `0x20`, or `0x24`
+0x15	3	(constant)	Always `19 19 19`
+0x18	2	`inn_cache_idx`	Inn item cache index (0xffff in this file; set in save)
+0x1a	2	(constant)	Usually `0x0000`
+0x1c	2	(unknown)	Zero for almost all sites; Nürnberg uses `0x00C0`
+0x1e	8	(constant)	Zero-filled block
+0x26	20	`name`	Location name string

location_icon enum

Value	Location type
0x00	City
0x01	Castle (lord or evil lord)
0x02	Castle (Raubritter)
0x03	Monastery
0x04	Possibly tomb or pagan altar
0x05	Cave (subtype unresolved)
0x06	Mines
0x08	Village
0x09	Ruins of a village
0x0a	Village (square variant; apparently unused)
0x0d	Tomb
0x0f	Dragon’s lair (invisible)
0x10	Spring
0x11	Lake
0x12	Shrine
0x13	Cave (subtype unresolved)
0x14	Pagan altar
0x15	Witch sabbat
0x16	Templar castle (black-topped variant)
0x17	Hochkönig / Baphomet castle
0x18	Alpine cave
0x19	Lady of the lake (magician/astrologer)
0x1a	Ruins of a Raubritter’s castle

Any unlisted icon values display as the standard castle-style image.

Validation Notes

Raw DARKLAND.LOC bytes confirm the shifted tail-half layout used by the current KB parser
0x15..0x17 is the constant byte sequence 19 19 19
0x18..0x19 is inn_cache_idx
0x1a..0x1b is a constant zero word
0x1c..0x1d is an unknown word
0x1e..0x25 is an 8-byte zero block
0x26..0x39 is the name string

Confidence

Medium-high. Confirmed by darkland.loc.xml; partially correlated against save file copies.