Kingdom of Fesselmark (WIP, Warlock RPG)

[Impractical Cartographer]

Howdy!

Polish publisher of the Warlock role-playing game asked me to prepare a solid map for the Polish release. I was given full creative freedom to draw a series of Kingdom maps.
The official artwork showing this world was quite minimal, but gave plenty of room for my own ideas.

I decided to show you the process of making these maps. Perhaps this will inspire someone. Also, maybe some of you can give me a hint.

So let's start with the original "map".


kingdom1.jpg

Based on it, I made a quick sketch of what I thought a powerful kingdom should look like.
First, I redrew the coastline.
Then, since this is a game map, and I use such maps primarily for virtual travel, I focused on roads, rivers and more important settlements. I always start with this, subordinating the whole topography to this particular feature. It may be strange, but this is my style of working. Also I have marked the mountain ranges in gray.

kingdom-wip1.jpg

Then it was time for more details. First of all, I placed this Kingdom on a planet (I determined its equatorial circumference to be about 38,000 km). This allowed me to choose the right scale and cartographic projection (simple conical).
I also marked the topography - quite primitive, but enough for this stage of the work.

kingdom-wip2.jpg

Because it was supposed to be a reference map on the basis of which various other maps (smaller regions, individual provinces, political etc.) will be created I decided to try to draw a fairly accurate physical map according to the rules of modern cartography. So I drew a rather sketchy hypsometric map.

kingdom-wip3.jpg

I figured it was a good idea, so I started tweaking my sketch, adding more and more detail and making sure to keep the scale. There were a lot of corrections, and I often erased and redrew large parts of the map.
Finally, after countless revisions, the map began to look like a map. I still have some work left, but since I have rarely contributed to this forum lately, I decided to share the drawing process with you.
Maybe it will inspire someone, just as such threads inspired me once upon a time.

At the moment, the status of the work looks like this. I still need to refine the eastern mountain range, and then improve the details and check that everything is correct.

kingdom-wip4.jpg

When I finish this map, I'll draw another map based on it, styled as a Renaissance map, which should be more suitable for a dark fantasy roleplaying game.

Well, but about that another time. I'm curious what you think of my work.

P.S. Info for those who speak German. The names of the towns & cities are silly. I know that. It's intentional.

[Impractical Cartographer]

### Latest WIP ###

kingdom-gis-small.jpg

Work is slowly moving forward. I am improving the terrain, adding details and labels.
I also changed the color scheme of the roads slightly, highlighting the royal tracts, roads and less important ways. I also standardize river signatures.

[Impractical Cartographer]

I'm nearly done.

### Latest WIP ###
krolestwo-gis-maly.jpg
I have corrected the off-frame content. I added the map legend

There are still a few minor corrections to be made to the contour lines and in some areas the terrain still needs to be corrected or made more varied. Also some river names are missing.

[Voolf]

It looks really splendid. Everything here looks neat and tidy.
I got this atlas style map on the list to make, but it's getting pushed down the line.

[QED42]

Looks fantastic, great job.

[The Colonel]

1. Software?

2. The whole mountain area seems too "square" to me, shouldn't be more rounded (maybe in the N-E corner)?

3. Since you want to accentuate the travel elements, you should tone down the land colors; maybe using a cold color temperature, or desaturate everything but the water and roads.

4. I don't speak polish, so i use a translator: wzgórza = hills. According to the scale, the height is beyond 1200 m. On a fantasy map the difference between hills and mountains should be more clear, because... fantasy (probably that's why I prefer more "traditional" maps). Or is something that I don't understand correctly?

Sorry if I misunderstood the map. I don't want to sound too critical, I really like your work.

[Impractical Cartographer]

Software?

Inkscape

The whole mountain area seems too "square" to me, shouldn't be more rounded (maybe in the N-E corner)?

It's a matter of perception.

Since you want to accentuate the travel elements, you should tone down the land colors; maybe using a cold color temperature, or desaturate everything but the water and roads.

Landform is also important. Hypsometric colors are based on directives from the Polish Central Office of Geodesy and Cartography. Of course, the road map should be devoid of topography for better readability. However, this is a general geographic map. I'll just point out again that this is the map I'll use as a template for drawing further maps (road maps, political maps, fantasy style, etc.).

I don't speak polish, so i use a translator: wzgórza = hills. According to the scale, the height is beyond 1200 m. On a fantasy map the difference between hills and mountains should be more clear, because... fantasy (probably that's why I prefer more "traditional" maps). Or is something that I don't understand correctly?

Geographic nomenclature does not always go hand in hand with place names. If you take a good look at our earth maps, you will find hills called "mountains", mountains called "hills", rivers called "streams", canions called "gully", ect.

[The Colonel]

Impractical Cartographer, thank you for the explanation!
About perception: yes, that's a funny thing, I don't think that a mountain has the same meaning in Nepal and Netherlands.

[Greason Wolfe]

Definitely different than what I am used to seeing from you, and that's cool. I am curious about your process of deciding which projection to use though. In this instance why conical rather than, say, orthographic?

In any event, keep up the great work. Always a pleasure to see what you ere producing.

[Impractical Cartographer]

In this instance why conical rather than, say, orthographic?.

Usually with these types of maps, a conical projection of some sort is used. I decided to use equidistant conic projection for two reasons:
1. It's a relatively simple projection.
2. It is also quite old. It was invented by Claudius Ptolemy in 2nd century CE, so it can be applied to maps for renaissance-style fantasy. And yes, I know it sounds odd for a modern-looking map, but, I remind you, it will serve as a template for me to draw.