Star Map
not a land map, but rather a sky map - the skies of my world, Elyden, as mapped by the Astromancers Almagest, c. 3000 RM. Most of the constellations are the remnants of classical constellations as charted by ancient stargazers, and as such many denote mythical or otherwise extraordinary creatures (many of which are now extinct), such as Maocarhl (sphinx), Aehari (demon), Balaur (feathered drake), Azaraota (ashterath - the dragon), Indrik (indricothere), Haagenti (the winged bull), Opinicus (griffin) etc. Others mark out features and objects, like Calu (the tower), Haidu Okhe (the Inner Sea), Sesal (the Pyramid) and Shibboleth (the World-river).
With Elyden I've created a star map with a catalogue of all the stars and constellations and other extraterrestrial objects (satellites, planets, comets etc.). Like much of the world, I'm still deep in creating these facets of Elyden's skies, though I have completed a star chart. the above map was created in the nation of Almagest in c. 3000 RM (the present day is 4008 RM). Though very far removed from the neolithic stargazing culture of its past (extinct now by around 4000 years), the great city Almagest remained a hub of astronomical knowledge, with astromancers remaining in power throughout its existence. The city was once one of the great gems of the Korachani empire (with over 8,000,000-bodies at the peak of its influence), though the so-called Artifex Wars left it an independent entity. sundered from the empire, it died a slow death of disease and starvation, and the city remains now as a ruined metropolis with the descendants of degenerates populating its haunted streets. These are the constellations as recognised by the Korachani empire. Much like western and eastern constellations bear little resemblance to one another, the constellations detailed here are those as recorded by the Korachani empire, based off of ancient knowledge from people it has subjugated over the years. Also, much like our own constellations,those of the southern hemisphere are more 'artificial' as they come from far later in history and were first recorded by sea explorers (indeed there are far fewer in the southern hemisphere as the exacting requirements of the Order of Astromancers in almagest has failed to recognise most of the newly-named constellations).
I had fun messing about with noise/blur/levels/hue&saturation to get the galaxy rim in the background. the original map is the one with the black background, then i grunged it up a bit by adding some paper layers, 2 subtle displacement layers (one with folded paper and another with crumples) and some stains,for the 'old' version
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