March 2016 Map Challenge: Hall of Heroes Mount Fir Northern Lands.

[jpstod]

(Inspired by watching "The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug") The Names of the innocents have been changed to the protect innocents. No dragons were harmed in the making of this Map.

Nestled in the Great Northern Mountains of Erda, a once great Empire, Mount Fir an active Volcano sits. Some 500 Years ago Mount Fir Erupted causing the mountain's peak to blow and created a crater. The Dwarves of the Northern Clans lived 200 miles away. At first the eruption caused no problems. The Volcano was home to a Clan of Fire Giants, but the strong Dwarven Clans were more than Capable of keeping the Giants contained to the Mountain. But shortly after the Eruption the newly formed crater came to the attention of a Young Red Dragon. Soon the Dragon settled in and began collecting a horde. The first to suffer were the out laying Human cities. Once those were ravaged the Young Dragon turned it's attention to the Dwarven Strongholds. Under the Control of the influence of the dragon the Fire Giants started to grow more menacing. Raids and Ambushes became more frequent on the Dwarven Strongholds. The four dwarven clans each sent their best warriors to defeat the dragon and end it reigns.

Once defeated the Dwarven clans built a memorial hall in the crater where the Warriors defeated the dragon.

The walls of the hall appear reptilian with scales. Some say that the walls were made from the Dragon's hide, to protect the Stone from the Lava bed in the Crater. The walls appear to shimmer, move in the right light,
A Dragon Mosaic guards the entrance. Inside A white marble statue stands atop a Block of granite from each of the Dwarven clans' Stronghold surrounding a larger dragon Mosaic as if still engaged in combat. Before a Alter a stone cistern contains the "Blood of the Dragon". Tradition holds that Young Male Dwarfs will make a pilgrimage to the Hall on the eve of their coming of age and drink the dragon's blood. Upon which time the Young Warrior will be granted the Knowledge of the Heroes and been shown passage to their final resting chamber
Dwarves commonly make pilgrimages here, leaving small donations to Hall. The Donation is said to keep the dragon's spirit bound to the shrine providing elemental protection to those with.

### Latest WIP ###

[Bogie]

Nice work! Great design.

[jpstod]

Thanks Bogie.

[Lingon]

Cool, nice colors! If there's any way to tweak the shadows that fall on the floor, I'd suggest making them less soft, and also remove them from the lava as that whole surface emits light.

[jpstod]

There are ways to change settings within Campaign Cartographer but I have not really tried messing with the settings yet. Until recently I was just a Hobbyist Cartographer.
The difficulty of getting "Light Correct" shadows is First and foremost the Light source. The Program has a Universal Sun setting which changes all the direction of all the shadows based on the Sun's Location. Many of the Better Cartographers don't do shadows or even light sources in the program. They save and export to png and then Manipulate the shadows and lights in a Graphics program...Which by the way I am also learning do in Gimp. But I have not mastered Gimp enough to get results that look good yet. The Shadows are just there to help give the Map a more define visual depth and help define structure. I could simply turn off the "effects" and have no shadows at all.