Theia Project: The Duchy of Vistenia

[nwisth]

Hi, all!

So, I am happy to say I finished my map of the Duchy of Vistenia. The process of zooming in from my continent map is detailed in the WIP thread.

Vistenia-satmap-8bit-compressed-and-shrunk.jpg

If you want to see the full-size version, you can download it here (76 MB, from Dropbox).

Vistenia is the northernmost duchy of Theia's Eastern region. This is a vast temperate eucalypt rainforest, its wet, fertile soil threaded by mighty rivers, framed by tall mountain ranges on three sides.

The Eastern culture is a caste-based meritocracy, originating with Heather, the Goddess of Life and Fertility. They live under the New Covenant, a pact between the Daughters of Anna, the Daughters of Cassandra (two of Theia's six human lineages/tribes), Heather herself and Father Upon High (the silent Creator, God of Gods).

In it, the followers of Heather promise to be fruitful and multiply, to fill Theia with their children's children, and to each strive for the perfection one attains through performing one's own work, not that of another. This is overseen by the priests of Heather, the so-called Hospitallers, who oversee the institutionalized child-care operations (shown on the map as Creches, Children's Homes and Youth Homes) and make sure everyone is assigned to the proper Caste after going through the Great Standardized Aptitude Test at 16.

Gender does not affect caste or roles in society - the only thing that matters is the result of the Test. The vast majority becomes part of the Farmer Caste, and spend their lives tending crops or raising livestock in collective, Kibbutz-like farms. The smartest become Traders, Artisans or Priests, while the strong become Laborers, extracting resources from the land, or Warriors, whose monopoly on violence have left them in charge.

On receiving their caste brand, Warriors go seek service with a Barony, based around a single castle. Here, anyone with great wits and martial skills can rise to the top, besting their peers to gain the rank of Baron. Barons are in constant competition with each other. If a Baron manages to force the neighboring Barony to swear fealty, he becomes a Count, with the combined baronies considered a Countship. And if a Count manages to gain the fealty of another Count, he becomes a Duke - or Duchess. Two times in Theia's 700-year history, a Duchy has managed to rise to the top, uniting several Duchies into a Kingdom, but this has only lasted until the death of the King or Queen in question.

This constant turbulence is the reason for the beacon watchtowers on the map. Every Barony has built a system where news of enemy invasion can spread quickly, and raiding parties (or casteless marauders) can be beaten back by rapid response cavalry or harried by patrolling scouts and rangers until the heavy foot units can join the fray.


As usual, comments and cartographic criticism is very welcome. :)

-Niels

[ChickPea]

Congrats on finishing this. It looks like a labour of love. The land mass looks fantastic and I like how you've managed to incorporate so much background info with the shields and political info. Only niggle I would have is with a few of the labels, where you have icons underneath them (for example, Velon or Tuson). Having a white label on a white icon isn't ideal. The icons are very small, but maybe that's not an issue in the larger version.

[nwisth]

Thanks a lot, ChickPea!

You're right about the labels - at this scale, the tiny drop shadow doesn't really separate the white from white. I guess I could either color code the icons to make them easier to tell apart (at 10 px I admit they might be a bit small, even when the map is full-sized) or change the color of the labels. I've tried to keep as few labels as possible on the map, prioritizing the placement of the various settlements, but I feel I need to mark the towns and castles by name. I just fell for the nice, crisp esthetic of the white-on-green. I'll do a little experimentation with alternative colors when I update it - I just did some calculations on the economics of the various Baronies, and found I could add some more mines as well.

I guess that's the issue with "finishing" a map while worldbuilding - it's never really finished until the book's published, is it?

-Niels