WIP - The Prelacy of Trinobel

[mixerbach]

About Me and This Thread
Hi there! Thanks for checking out my thread! My name is Chris (or you can call me 'mixerbach' if you prefer.) I'm pretty new here and have enjoyed lurking about since joining. But that can't last forever - can it? I mean, not if I want to get better at this whole map making thing. So I thought it might be time to hold my breath, close my eyes, and show the world (or at least the Cartographer's Guild) one of my maps. So, here goes nothing...

This map began as my entry into the May/June Lite Mapping Challenge. I started extraordinarily late (like 3 days before the deadline) and didn't have much hope of finishing. Regardless, I thought it would be a great exercise - and BOY was it! I think I learned more through the creation of this map than any other single map I've ever created. I think it may be the only map I've finished in recent history, although it was at least three or so weeks after the deadline.

I created the Union of Trinobel as the country to house the Wizard's Tower required by the May/June Lite Challenge. If you're unfamiliar with the challenge, it essentially laid out a list of map requirements requested by an imaginary author for an imaginary novel, The Old Wizard Finds A New Love. This list of requirements, while perhaps restrictive to some, was exactly what I needed to focus myself on a project. If you've never given the challenge a try, I highly recommend it. Chances are, you'll even get yours done on time!

About this Map
The Union of Trinobel is a nation of lush forests, verdant plains, mirror clear lakes and one 50-mile wide crater. The crater is also home to particularly nasty curmudgeon of a man named Praxiteles the Practiced, a 400-year old wizard.

While carrying out their lives, the residents of Trinobel are certain to give the crater, wherein Praxiteles' tower sits, a wide berth, fearing to evoke the cranky wizard's wrath. Living alone in his tower, Praxiteles demands the good people of Trinobel deliver monthly tributes of supplies and foodstuffs via rafts that float down the river running through his crater. Although tiresome for the people, the arrangement kept the nasty, old conjurer sated and the people safe. That was until last Tuesday.

The second Tuesday of each month is Tribute Day for Praxiteles - a day when the man is perhaps one notch less nasty than he is the rest of the month. But after activating the spell which effortlessly lifts the loaded rafts from the river and places them into the courtyard of Beyenayre Tower, he is shocked to find them completely empty, save a single piece of paper. Causing the paper to fly to his outstretched hand he examines it to find a message,

My Dear Praxiteles,

I just moved in at the steamy hideaway around the corner. It was too sweet of you to have the common folk gather such a wonderful welcoming present for me. And here I was afraid that we wouldn't get along! Do stop by so I can thank you properly for your thoughtfulness.

XOXO,
Felicia of the Flames
Archwitch of The Burned Caverns
Under Shatterplume Volcano

Upset would be to Praxiteles feelings at that moment what 'moist' would be to a sponge in the ocean. Outraged, incensed, flabbergasted and furious all come far closer, but still fail to capture the spirit of the moment. Needless to say, Praxiteles had no intention of sharing any of his tribute with anyone. And besides that, he had no knowledge of a witch, wizard, sorcerer, illusionist, magician, or even fortune teller throughout the entirety of Trinobel, and that was precisely the way he liked it! Whoever this woman, this 'Felicia of the Flames' was, she would pay with her blood!

How is it then that the mis-taking of a cranky wizard's tribute, would lead to a truly magical romance? Pick up your copy of the Old Wizard Finds a New Love today!

About You
Well, maybe not really 'about you' so much as 'about what I'd like you to do'! Please have a look at the map I've attached and let me know what you think. Any feedback would be appreciated, as I've never done this (posted a map) on here before. Criticism is certainly welcome and appreciated, as I'm sure that's probably the only way I'll improve in any significant way.

In case you're interested, I used GIMP to make everything on this map. It's my software of choice. Initially, because it was the right price (free!), but I've really come to like it!

Alright, that's enough from me! Hope to hear from you soon!

CG_MayJune2016_Lite (Final).png

[mixerbach]

How's this for lame? I'm posting a comment to myself!
I just noticed that I mixed up the name of the "Union of Trinobel" with the "Prelacy of Leonicia" when I named this thread! Hence, why it is now named "The Prelacy of Trinobel".
Having been unsuccessful in locating any "rename the thread" button, looks like I'll just have to roll with it. LOL

[Savage Orc]

Nice looking map. I like the look of your forests and hills, but I'm not sure of the mountains. The individual mountains look too round like a cone. The range doesn't look like it has much height, a little flat. Maybe fiddle with your technique to show more individual peaks along the range.

Be careful of the text, emberbrook runs into the mountain range name so it probably should be shifted left.

Overall, it looks very nice. The colors look good and I really like the crater.

Thanks for sharing your map.

I notice a couple rivers that seem to split. The Mar river and the one at the southern tip of the mountain range northwest of the "C" of Old Cairnmark. Most here will tell you rivers come together but never split, with very rare exception.

[Weery]

Hi Chris,

Very nice looking map. I really like the location names you've created here. But I think the font could be made more readable (do you have an outer glow on it?). It's hard for my eyes to focus it 100% and I noticed that some of the larger names lose their definition.

The forests, plains and trees are all very nice but I would echo Savage Orc regarding the mountains.

The icons are good but again they seem to lose definition from the legend to the map itself and perhaps the colours used aren't helping. They look great on the legend.

Good job

[mixerbach]

Wow! Two fantastic comments! Thanks Savage Orc and Weery for taking the time to give me some much needed feedback on my map. Showing it to family and friends is great for the ego (i.e. "Wow, that's amazing! You made that?!" ), but is not the place to find constructive comments like the ones you both left me. I sincerely appreciate it.

One of the mistakes I made when beginning this map was not starting with a high enough resolution for the scope of land/information I intended to include. When adding the text labels for the various points of interest, I was stuck between things looking too crowded (see the top-center to top-right area of the map) and not having enough DPI to make my font both small and clear (see river names, labels in the legend, etc.). At that point, I should have nixed the font I was using. Sadly, I did not do this at the time. After receiving your critiques, however, I think I may just go back and do that.

My mountains. My dear, dear, pitiful, pitiable mountains. I have found decent techniques for creating most all geographic types I've had need to create on a map thus far with the exception of mountains. There are probably some tutorials on this, so I'll need to make time to check one or more of them out. If either of you have any ideas where to start my quest, I can guarantee you at least a dozen virtual high-fives in exchange.

That thing about rivers almost never splitting was truly news to me, Savage. It just seemed like something a river would do every so often, provided it was given the right motivation (a large rock or hill, for instance). I'll need to watch out for that in the future, as I think I'm a frequent offender in that arena, and I don't want to be arrested by the River Police.

My idea with the settlement icons was to identify the nationality of each point by combining the national symbol with the shape of the "dot". The dot's shape would in turn indicate the size of the settlement. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men... Again, I ran into the resolution issue often when trying to get these guys to work and, instead of dropping back and trying something different, I soldiered on hoping ... I dunno ... that the cartography gods would bless my map with a +5000 pixel DPI bonus? I guess sometimes I'm just stubborn. lol! Regardless, I would like to try something different with those in my next version.

Speaking of next versions, as soon as I get around to knocking those changes out, I hope to post another WIP. If you gentleman would be so kind as to re-critique at that time, I would be very grateful. Regardless, I truly appreciate the feedback you've already given. You guys rock!

[Savage Orc]

Look forward to seeing another WIP. Keep at it.

For rivers, try thinking of them as a tree. Starting at the top of the tree (your rivers start) and moving toward the trunk very small branches meet into larger branches, which meet into larger branches until they hit the trunk. The trunk ends at the ground (river ends at ocean or lake). It would be odd indeed if you had one tree trunk suddenly fork into two trunks as it heads into the ground.

[mixerbach]

Ahhhh... I gotcha, Savage. Your tree example is perfect! While I thought about what you said about the branches I think I actually heard an audible *click* when it sank in.