I really like the trophy mechanic and the unique monsters in the wildlands. The only problem is that you don't get to deal with any of that goodness until late game. What if you added in unique named creatures (or barbarian champions?) that spawned at certain points in the game and wandered destroying cities and killing champions(like that one barbarian dude that spawned in FFH early and gave you that cool axe if you beat it). Or ones that occupied a certain spot on the map like regular creatures but gave a trophy/unique item/spell/resource something not on the level of the wildlands but more interesting than your average random loot drop. I think the unique names and backstory that you could put with that would really add some richness to the game and give the questfocused kingdom alot of intermediate goals. Another advantage is that Altars bonus to trophies would actually mean something before the endgame!