The Kingdom of Lazarus

[Kuragiman]

Tools: Photoshop CS5 and my trusty Wacom 9 x 12 Intuos Tablet
Time to Complete: Two Weeks

Background: The Rebel Kingdom of Lazarus was once part of the kingdom of Morthul but when the dread Emperor Baraum the 3rd went to war with the barbarian tribes in the lands of Valentor the people rose up and declared themselves free. With the armies of Morthul bogged down in campaign in the far west the rebel army that sprung up in the provinces that comprised the soon to be Lazarus easily destroyed the loyal garrisons. After Lazarus declared it's freedom more provinces in the south followed suit and more after that until at last the emperor was forced to sue for peace with the barbarians and deal with the rebellious territories. The brutality that followed is legendary and the free people of Lazarus fled east to the kingdom of Ralenstara, seeking refuge there. The plight of the people came to the prince-king Xertis who tried to gather support to go to war against Morthul and help secure the two new kingdoms the emperor was crushing. His pleas fell on deaf ears in the senate and so he took matters into his own hands, defying the law of the senate, and marched into Angust toward Lazarus. There are tales during this time that can fill volumes but all that will be said here is that in the end Morthul was forced to concede Lazarus and Angust and retreat behind their black walls and there they stay to this day but Lazarus has been host to many great calamities since then as has much of the world.

The current state of the kingdom is uneasy under the watchful eyes of their new elvish masters. After the Gate of Ruhadlaum opened and brought the horrors of dragons and devils into the world, the elves, who appeared along with all the other many races that now claimed the world their home, helped to defeat these great threats, restore the destroyed magic weave and bring peace once again to the troubled lands of Lazarus. But the human ancestors who's blood was spilled to create Lazarus have not taken kindly to their elvish masters who have forbidden humans from using magic ever again and have regulated them to a second class citizen among the other races. The council of races that rule from the capital of Phalendora have refused the humans a seat on the council. It is a tense time when talk of rebellion is beginning to rise again unless the strict watchful eyes of the elves are lifted and the humans are allowed a voice in the kingdom that they created.

Map Information: @_@ My God this took forever. This is my first map I have ever completed and it is in thanks largely to all the amazing tutorials that can be found in the tutorial forums. My hats off to all of you cartographer mappers for your hard work in teaching people like me how it is done. I am extremely proud of the end results and there is a huge satisfaction in finally getting a small part of my world into a visual medium. I plan to do all of the kingdoms by the end of 2012 as well as finish my first novel that is set in the kingdom you see below.

(c) 2011 Brian D. Navy

Elvanrill-Lazarus-Final.jpg

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Lazarus by Brian D. Navy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

[mearrin69]

Very nice work. Have some rep!
M

[Freodin]

Well, this is a map to be proud of. I can identify some of the amazing tutorials you used, and I'd say you made an amazing map from it.

It's always difficult for me to identify special features that I like, so I hope you will forgive me if I keep my praise general and the critique on points.

The main thing I would like to see changed: you use two different styles for "major cities" and all the other points of interest. Both look good, but I think you should keep it consistent. In this case, that would mean use Iso-Icons for the cities as well.

Next I had initial problems to correctly identify your marshes. Perhaps you could add a little of the blue colour you used for the rivers to hint at the water courses here.

Last, a point of personal preference. You used different fonts for each type of geological feature. All the them are well done, fit well into the map and are excellenty readable. I just would prefer a little less variety.

*returns to drool over the map*

[Alex]

That is a really wonderfully, lovely map! I shall rep you for it!

Really love your trees (may I be so bold as to ask how you made the trees? ) and lakes! :thumbsup:

[Lukc]

It's a lovely map, but I agree with Freodin - the isometric vs. flat icons things got to me too.

[gwiley]

Very interesting. The story as well. I think you handled forests and mountains nicely. And I am mesmerized by the name: Kurston's Sorrow. That is a GREAT name.

Mixing relative sizes is always tricky but yours works. Meaning, for example, houses versus large regions - the proportional mix is effective and neither pushes the other.

Regards,
Gary

[Kuragiman]

Thanks everyone for your feed back. This is all new stuff to me on this level of detail so input is appreciated. I am already hard at work on the next kingdom that is just south of this one and connects to the major kingdoms of Morthul and Ralenstara together, sort of the buffer zone between the warring empires. I learned a lot on this journey of making this map come to life and I am going to try a few things differently on this pass. I really like the suggestion on the swamp to make it pop more. I think a nice vein spread of light blue river fingers mixed in with the swamp textures will help it get that pop desired.

Hopefully this next map won't take two weeks since I have a lot of the major parts of setting up the map worked out now from the last one. Here we go! I'll put some WIPs out there this time as I work on it. Don't want the world to think I am just snatching and grabbing from the web.

The trees are part of the amazing tutorial by pasis. Here is the link to the thread. Go the last page and you will find the latest version of the tutorial in PDF format for download: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...s-in-Photoshop

[Kuragiman]

Okay. I am getting close to finishing up my second map BUT I wanted to revist the first map I posted here with some corrections and additions. Thanks to everyone for your input previously. I think my map looks far more professional now with the elmination of the iso-icons and the use of more traditional map icons. I also added some of the major battle sites this kingdom has suffered over the last several hundred years of time. It is not many as this kingdom is far north of the major action points on the planet but still these were some walloping knock down drag out fights.

Elvanrill-Lazarus-Final2.jpg
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[Steel General]

Nicely done...

[Aetherius]

Quite impressive, I really like the colors and the coasts. Keep up the good work!