The New Empire

[Coyotemax]

This map was commissioned as a gift for Brian Libby, the author of Storm Approaching : Part One of MERCENARIES.

Storm Approaching is the first volume in the Mercenaries series: rulers, diplomats, knights, soldiers of fortune, and an adventuresome young woman in a medieval world.


Andiriel, befriended by a knight of the illustrious Sovereign Order, enters the Order's auxiliary services and finds herself on a strange mission leading to a challenging future in a job she hardly expects.

For those interested in a good Fantasy read, i will also bring across the following info:

My books are available at www.authorhouse.com, at Amazon, and at Barnes&Noble.
Storm Approaching: Part One of Mercenaries
Author: Brian Libby
Paperback
4/29/2009
AuthorSolutions
ISBN: 143894778X
ISBN: 9781438947785

(Note if you do get it directly from authorhouse, that helps him out a bit more than the other 2, but hey, getting the book at all is better than not getting it).

And to quote the author:

Anyone interested in finding out more about Storm Approaching can go to http://andiriel.blogspot.com, where various humorous articles and satire can be found as well as an excerpt from the novel.

I started off with reading the book itself, as the client was kind enough to send me a copy for research purposes. I loved the story, and that helped drive the inspiration. Finally I scanned in the sketched maps at the back of the book to use as a basis for the land shapes. The WIP thread is located here and I would like to thank the forum as a whole (with special thanks to Waldronate who slowed me down and got me to take a second look at the style I was using).

I have to say I loved working on this map - not only was I inspired by the story itself, but the method is something I had a lot of fun developing. The style is a mix of techniques from a textstyle tutorial and S. John Ross Technique plus a showing by Fluesopp and Ramah thanks to the automatic forest generator (of which all of my assistance in testing was performed through this map, heh)


Anyhow, I also had to shrink the map a fair amount for displaying on the forum, the original is 4800x6600 at 300dpi (16x22) (viewable at full size on DeviantArt). I am including a cropped version of the original so you can see the detail at full size as well. [Edit - The client has also sent me a photo of the final framed version as well!

Enjoy!

[Katto]

I love that style! Well done Coyote!

[Gidde]

Looks awesome, CM!

[Vorhees]

Sweet map mate well done ( repped) PS- it seems i have to spread the Rep luv so i owe ya mate

[cereth]

That's pretty darn cool. Once again, I am envious of your skills.

[DEDDESO]

This is the kind of maps you get involved in the game with. If you play rpgs this map makes you imagine everything without creating misunderstandings . Awesome

[mearrin69]

Guess it has been awhile since I repped you. Beautiful map.

Did you draw the palace or is it from another source? Nice work either way. If you did it yourself it's simply amazing...if you integrated it you did a nice job making it look like it belongs.
M

[Coyotemax]

The palace was originally a photo, I wish I could draw like that!
I ran it through a few filters, the main one I think being ... argh! Poster Edges. If I recall, that lines sharp edges (of which there were a lot) and posterizes the rest, which made it easy to select and delete the extra colours. Once that was done, it was just a matter of doing the effect to match the rest. I did the same thing for the pelicans too.

[Steel General]

You da' man!

[Will]

Have a little more reputation for another splendid map!