The Hollow World setting became part of Known World / Mentzer-BXCMI canon in 1990. It is now a definitive feature of what became the Mystara setting. It was designed as a zoo and/or prison, for select nations of Mystara's past (excepting Blackmoor).
The Hollow World is - arguably - a natural outgrowth of the Known World ethos. The nations in Isle of Dread were artifically juxtaposed amongst one another, sharing only that they be generally mediaeval-themed. If this world was going to house nonmediaeval cultures, it would have to do so on some other continent. And if those cultures weren't to get overrun - or to overrun others - they were going to need to be suppressed by Divine fiat. By the Immortals, in the BXMCI rules.
Personally, I was never sold on the Known World's cheek-by-jowl approach to cultural diversity. The Hollow World at least recognises that problem and does something to solve it. But here we have the problem that nothing the party does, matters.
BACKDATE 6/20
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