Lesser Angara and Isles - A Bathy-orographical map

[mbartelsm]

Names are one of those things I don't do well, never have and I doubt ever will. I've had 8 cats throughout my life and I'm pretty sure I've named them all "Cat" and if I ever have a kid, my wife will have to choose the name because I'll probably default to "First". It gets so bad that whenever I get the labeling stage on a map I just drop the project. I'll make an excuse, saying to myself that I need some time to think or that I better pick back up that conlang that I never finished so that I can give things a proper name. But it's all a lie, deep down I know I'll never pick the project back up.

But this time, this time I was expecting it. Instead of trying to come up with names for myself, I used a random namer that picks names out of a database from the USGS. And instead of creating a conlang myself I used a generator to make one so that I wouldn't have an easy excuse to abandon the project. Now, I only have to label a few more hills and rivers and translate the literal names into the conlang. After that, it's just cleaning up, adding some effects and it'll finally be done.

Because I feared I would just drop the project or simply half-ass it and post an unlabelled map as finished, I decided not to post any WIP until I had something substantial. I have been working on this particular region on-and-off for the past year after ditching the old version of the world. I started with pen and paper and then imported it into my PC to clean it up and add elevation, but I wasn't entirely happy with the result, it felt artificial somehow. So I loaded a world DEM into QGIS, set it up the way I wanted it and began making a collage of real-world geography that I blended together in Photoshop. The result was a much more believable geography. Using that map as a base I made the vector version below. The style is heavily based on this map here that I absolutely love.

Anyway, here is the actual map:

Angaran peninsula & isles@3x.png

As I mentioned, I still need to name a few hills and rivers and then it goes to postprocessing where I'll add some details (such as clean areas around the labels, which is not easy to do in Illustrator). The map is A2 in size and I'm planning on printing a copy to hang on my wall. After all, maps are tools and I need one for my worldbuilding

[damonjynx]

Wow. That is really, really, good. Great work.

[Diamond]

Agreed. That is a LOT of work, with spectacular results.

[nwisth]

Wow, that looks really, really nice! I love the style - It's the kind of map that I'd love to make myself one day. It would be very cool to see some exaples of the height maps you've used and your techniques for blending them.

And very clever technique combining the conlang and random place name generator. Looking forward to seeing the result!

Did you use some sort of software for your conlang? I made several back in the late nineties, using a nifty little piece of software I can't remember what was called, where I put in various base syllables and patterns for combination, and it spat out word lists for me. I just can't find it again, though. :/

-Niels

-Niels

[mbartelsm]

Thank you all!

Niels, I used the Vulgar language generator. It does not work like a normal word generator in that it's not meant to make just words, but an entire language -- grammar, phonology and vocabulary -- and can do so without any input. While I do enjoy making languages by myself, it is also a timesink when it comes to actually producing results, so I opted for the generator as a more practical alternative. Regarding the height-maps, I no longer longer have the files,but the process was to assign a color ramp with discrete steps to the entire world map then take screenshots at a defined scale of regions that I liked, import the images into an image editing software, and then fix the seams so that they would transition nicely.

[Neyasha]

That's a stunning map. I love this atlas style and your color scheme is very nice. It's an interesting idea to combine the two name generators. I'm looking forward to seeing the results, although I somehow love the literal english names.

[MistyBeee]

Amazing job ! So consistent and well done. Congrats for it !

[Azélor]

It's well done!

[Adfor]

AHHHH! This is such good atlas work! I love the gritty line style you used, awesome!

[mbartelsm]

And labels are done!

Angaran peninsula & isles - Composite.jpg

If anyone's ever heard of the "Atlas of True Names", this is something like that. Next step is to translate all names into the conlangs and con-script. I have a rough outline of the languages in the region and the approximate date they showed up, that way a place down south will not have a name in the language of the people from the far north. Everything will be written in the same script, though. Here's a quick preview of the base from which I'll make it:

Script base@2x.png

I'm looking for a feel similar to that chinese seal script, so I'll be turning these into much more fluid and curvy ink strokes