January 2018 Challenge: Pryme

[AzureWings]

Being rather novice and new here, I'd originally intended to start off with a Lite Challenge, but the format of the main Challenge this January was quite an intriguing and enjoyable-looking prospect for me, so I took a look at the labels for the challenge and then wandered off. By about 30 minutes later, the Great Silt Sea and a history thereof was brewing in my mind and I needed to put more details together about this new world, so I decided I needed to enter after all.

Having previously worked on a few hand-drawn-style fantasy maps as gifts for friends I wanted my next map to take a little bit more of an overhead/atlas-like style - both as a change of pace from drawing and shading hundreds of mountains and hills and as a new direction to try to learn creative skills - but this does mean I have (even) less experience I can directly draw from the mere handful of digital maps I'd put together prior to this. That said - I shall be bold and endeavor to complete an entry for this nonetheless!

I do want to clarify, though, since I'd be quite lost for this style of map without the help of RobA and wisemoon's tutorial work, that drawing heavily from tutorial techniques is acceptable? All of the resources I am actually using with the map - fonts, brushes, textures, etc - are either defaults available on my machine or made directly myself, but many of the stylistic techniques I am and will likely be using are drawn from their tutorial, and being new here in general and to these challenges in particular I do want to confirm that this was all right and consistent with the Challenge rules.

With the above explanations out of the way, I shall introduce my early WIP of the continent of Pryme:

### LATEST WIP ###prymeMapJan1018.jpg

For now I utilize JPEGs for space-saving, though should Pryme reach the finality I hope to by the deadline I'll upload a PNG, as I am a fan of lossless storage formats. As a formatting question, should there or should there not be a newline after the 'latest WIP' marker line before the image attachment (or does it matter)?

World-building being a great hobby of mine, and what enticed me into more concerted attempts at map-making in the first place, it would seem a shame were I to leave out the thoughts that would be difficult to all fit on a map alone (though I hope to draw from them to add some interesting features along the map borders in the future...) so with each WIP I plan to post a short exposition on some aspect, region, or people of Pryme. Here are some notes on Pryme as a whole, at its present date...

Notes: Pryme

Pryme is, on the whole, a land defined in many ways by its seas and its jewels. Much of the land is harsh or dangerous in one way or another, whether in the form of steep and rocky mountains, arid deserts, savage beasts, or yet more exotic climes such as the stone forests of Grimpati where the rain falls stained black with the grit of ancient rubble, or that nigh-bottomless hole in the world, the Vast South Rift, stretching so wide that its far edge lies beyond the horizon and yet with depths that fade into blackness even when the sun hangs high at midday. As a result, though civilizations have risen and fallen in many times and places upon the land of Pryme, most of these have relied to some degree on the bounty of Pryme’s seas. Though they have their own dangers, they are in most cases the safest and most efficient means of long-distance travel one can find in the realms of the continent - not to mention one of the most reliable sources of food. Seafood is a staple across the vast majority of Pryme, with most of the exceptions being lands that gaze out upon the occluded murk of the Great Silt Sea.
And the realms of Pryme make good of the sea, its civilizations at the present day flourishing in the dawning of an age of sailing ships - and in Pryme, for those with the means or fortune, that means ships enhanced by the myriad powers of gemstones. From the breaker-ships, hulls strengthened with the resonant power of diamonds to batter aside subsurface crags and rubble as they ply the Great Silt Sea; to mighty war galleons unleashing a broadside of ruby fires upon their foes; to quick sloops speeding through the waves on the backs of currents brought forth by their own sapphires; to the dreaded warships of the mysterious Black Fleet and the dark, iridescent Fleet-Stones that still wash up in the one place they were known for certain to have sailed; to tools such as the ubiquitous navigational aid of the topaz and opal dual-stone compass; the apex of the Pryme shipbuilders' and sailors' arts are the use of its miraculous - and not always well-understood - stones. Though the scholars and factotums of Turarak and the Emerald Islands vehemently insist otherwise, much of the citizenry across Pryme yet believe jewels are simply magical, put in place in the world by god or spirit. And the theories, on the whole, are hardly conclusive of yet anyways - but nonetheless, even if the question of “why” remains far from the grasp of Pryme thinkers, the question of “how” receives new answers every day. Not without risk, for like many great powers, workings born of Pryme’s gemstones can be a great danger to those who handle them incautiously (or sometimes even to those who do handle them cautiously). But the rewards, compared to that danger, when one looks at the heights to which the civilizations of Pryme are beginning to ascend, are like the vastness of the ocean compared to the tiniest islet, and so the sun begins to rise over a new age in the history of Pryme.

[Ilanthar]

Interesting land shape for sure. I'm a big fan of flooded-crater seas/bays.

[Chashio]

Ooh, cool land shapes!

[AzureWings]

Updating with a new WIP. I tweaked the sea gradient a little to have more nicely bright water near isolated islands and through islands chains, where working from a wide Gaussian base had overlooked them; made the Great Silt Sea siltier looking; added some mountains and sand (the latter both in the desert and on many shorelines); and also added a (relatively) small oceanic feature of some import in the southeast. I worried a bit I'd gone a bit overboard with the amount of snowcaps, as much of Pryme is intended to be of a tropical/semitropical temperature range, but on second thought I think it does have a nice look and that I might stick with it.

### LATEST WIP ###
prymeMapJan1018-wip3.jpg

And, of course, a text-dump update regarding the history of Pryme.

Notes: The Great Silt Sea and the Black Fleet

On the scale of Pryme as a whole, the Great Silt Sea is surprisingly recent for such a vast and significant feature. Roughly two hundred years ago, the Great Silt Sea had none of its titular rocky silt and densely occluded waters, and it was instead known as the Sea of Sethulin. At this time a great civilization was flourishing here, its name either drawn from the name of the sea, or the sea named for it: Sethuli. The diamond and aquamarine arts of the Sethuli - many of which were later lost and remain unknown to this day - enabled them to build great stone harbors and even cities atop the sea, anchored to the seabed and bolstered so mightily that they were unmoved by sea or storm. Sethuli was one of the greatest powers of its time, competing with Turarak, Mathark, and the Emerald Islands. Unlike many other once-mighty states of antiquity, however, Sethuli did not disappear slowly, nibbled away by many small conquests or internal corruption and decadence, but rather fell in one night.
On the night of a great tropical storm, blown up on winds from more southerly seas as they occasionally are, the Sethuli sea-cities made their usual preparations for such a storm: which, though hardly an everyday thing, were nonetheless familiar routine. The storm winds picked up as night fell, and the Sethuli hunkered down to ride it out as they had ridden out many storms before. However, the dark storm clouds largely concealed the approach of large, menacing black warships, which - though the storm-driven waves and night blocked most of the Sethuli from seeing it - are said to have appeared over the western horizon, inexorably advancing in vast formation and seemingly unaffected - even contemptful - of the raging storm. It is said that the westernmost of the Sethuli sea-cities did not know of the impending attack until the cannon fire struck home, so powerful as to blast the diamond-hardened stone constructions of the cities to rubble. By the time the storm broke - before dawn had even arrived - the Black Fleet, as it became known, had blasted and sunk every city the Sethuli had ever built upon the waves, including their capital city and greatest trading hubs. Whatever scattered, disorganized resistance the Sethuli were able to mount, most accounts suggest that not a single Black Ship was sunk in the night. They followed up the wholesale destruction of the Sethuli civilization by scouring the coasts, pillaging the land-bound ports after blasting any fortifications into the sea, all at unbelievable speed, only to disappear back over the western horizon come morning, the Sethuli civilization reduced to the tiniest fractured remnants. One survivor on the coastline, who claimed to have watched from the clifftops as the Fleet disappeared over the horizon, was noted as having said the ships were so many in number, that even though they were in a tight naval formation, that formation stretched over the horizon in every direction.
The Black Fleet’s weapons were so destructive that between the rubble of the sea-cities and the coastal fortifications and the churning of the seabed itself caused by their blasting fire, the Sea remains filled with gritty, coarse silt to this day, turning it a dark gray-brown so thickly occluded one would be lucky to make out anything more than a handspan deep within its waters. Since that night it has been known as the Great Silt Sea, and the rain that falls on the stone forests of Grimpati has been colored gray-black, leaving streaks of the sea’s silt wherever it lands.
As for the Fleet itself, it is said to have made no demands and ignored all attempts at negotiation, and has never conclusively been seen again - though many a sailor drinking in a dockside tavern after a harrowing voyage might tell a tale that says otherwise, of multiplying, growing black points on the horizon in moments it might be glimpsed through a furious storm. The Black Fleet remains the ultimate bogeyman of any place on Pryme from which one can see the western horizon. It came from nowhere, with no known provocation, to destroy a great civilization in a single night and then disappeared, leaving an entire sea murkily clouded gray-brown and eerie gemstones, a reflective black with iridescent sheen, that now wash up on its shores from time to time and are said to drive men and women mad.

[Diamond]

Great work, and thanks for jumping right in on a challenge; the more the merrier!

(Also love your lore & world-building.)

[AzureWings]

Glad to hear the walls of loretext aren't too intimidating . Didn't end up making as much progress as I'd hoped today, but nonetheless made some interesting changes so figured I'd post another WIP update: the other major desert, a place of pale sands influenced by the mysterious powers of amethysts, an initial attempt at that mentioned Vast South Rift, the more lush and tropical regions of forest, and the update I'm most pleased with of more textured sea. I felt that a plain Gaussian gradient was still looking really flat and awful next to the more textured land and mountains so I spent some time playing around with filters and layers settings before arriving at something I liked by way of making a duplicate of the whole sea and adding grainy HSV noise before running an edge-filter and then setting the result to Dodge blending.

### LATEST WIP ###
prymeMapJan1018-wip4.jpg

The black border was added because the sections I'd gone over-border and left to be cut off once finished with the central map area were getting more and more jarring; it's the area I'm planning on making into a fancy border with legend etc.

Finally, of course, a lore post as well.

Notes: The Emerald Islands

The Emerald Islands is the name given to a chain of lush isles in southern Pryme, and is also often used interchangeably to refer to the city-states located therein. Ezaferi, Gorgarino, Gradipalo, Runipalo, Rustapini, and Ciabero are both the names of the largest islands in the chain and the states centered upon them. The lush terrain and easy access to the sea led to the rise of these states to form one of the most powerful and advanced civilizations of modern-day Pryme. Only the merchant houses of Turarak challenge the dominance of the Emerald Islands’ fleets upon the southern seas. Emeraldine scholars are the most learned, Emeraldine technologies the most advanced, Emeraldine cities the most urbane and cultured in comparison to any other land one cares to name across the entirety of the continent. Their far-flung trading networks and established colonies give them ready access to plentiful goods, luxuries, and gemstones of many varieties.
Content in the knowledge of their collective supremacy, then, the rulers of the Emeraldine states choose as rivals and feud primarily against one another. The city-states of the isles negotiate, intrigue, sponsor privateers against and at times engage in open war with one another, always in search of advantages in wealth and reach and knowledge against their fellow neighbors (though they are nonetheless quick to close ranks should any foreign threats prove to be more than a playing field for their schemes against each other).
The islands themselves are lush and tropical, and the surrounding seas in pleasant weather are blue and idyllic. The green of their leafy forests is the true source of the island chain’s name: although emeralds have been mined upon some of the isles, the Ravenclaw Mountains on the mainland are a far better source of the viridescent, life-boosting jewels. More locally to the Emerald Islands are pearls, the versatile empowered spheres nurtured over years by oysters in the seas all about them. The city-states, of course, have access to stones from further afield garnered by their vast influence and trade- and colony-networks: sapphires and peridot from the Vharamet, stalwart diamonds from the lands near the Great Silt Sea, burning rubies from the twin kingdoms of Kordorak and Mularak, enigmatic amethysts from Vossarik, all brought to the glorious citadels of the Emeraldine cities.
The people native to the Emerald Islands’ mighty city-states are tall, and dark of skin and hair, with vibrant green eyes that call the name of their homeland to mind. The Emeraldine upper classes — the aristocrats, the wealthy merchants, the scholars, the jewelers — adorn themselves in clothes ornamented with expensive dyes and swirling lines, the current fashion notable for structural asymmetries, such as a light mantle or cape draped over only the off-handed side, or an ornate collar raised higher, with loops and whorls, on one side than the other. Those of lesser means tend to imitate this sort of finery and style to the extent they can afford, though those inclined to manual labor in the Islands’ tropical clime adopt much lighter dress, as is practical. Theater is the opiate of the Emeraldine masses, at the present time the most popular entertainment from the higher to the lower classes. Their most staple food is — what else — fish, along with other seafoods and tropical fruits native to their isles. Red meats, being originally only obtainable by import, was once only available to the wealthy (which of course made it a status symbol to be able to display at one’s table come the evening meal); although more available now (the islands are plenty large enough for some amount of pasture) it is still more available to the middle and upper classes.

[AzureWings]

Update with most of the core map segment (i.e. barring legend, compass rose, border ornamentation etc) in what I think is a mostly-finished state, including labels. I added a few words off the end of the some of the challenge labels, which I hope is fine (not to mention a whole bunch of new labels which from reading the challenge thread I know is fine).

### Latest WIP ###
prymeMapJan1018-wip5.jpg

I had the idea to make gem-like markers for city and town locations, so then proceeded to fiddle until I got something I felt was acceptable. I made the markers into brushes to be placed, and although they didn't quite turn out perfect I think I'm pleased enough with how they look. The colors for each marker were assigned to reflect cultural groupings, and the specific choices were made by what gemstone was most associated with that culture's primary region. The cultural groupings and which correspond to what colors will be elaborated on in the future legend that will occupy some of the currently-black space around the border, although the placement and my lore posts probably make it possible to guess how some line up in a few cases.

For the names of cities and other geographical features that weren't part of the original challenge labels, I tried to come up with names with a 'feel'/'sound' that meshed well with the existing labels near them. I like to think I'm good at making up names out of whole cloth - but please note that any similarities to real-world languages are unintentional (though there may be some unconscious sound-association going on in my head) and there aren't any intended meanings based on real language (and on that note if someone sees something that's accidentally profane in some language please please let me know - that is kind of one potential danger of this style of making names up, though of course I hope I didn't make any such fumbles).

Without further ado; lorepost!

Notes: Republic of Turarak

Turarak is a large merchant republic occupying the jungles south of the Vharamet Mountains (although in practice, it is more oligarchic than republic, so this does not make it so unique among Pryme political entities after all). Only Turarak comes close to the collective reach of the Emerald Islands in terms of wide-ranging influence and economic power; although the Emerald Islands as a whole are superior in most regards Turarak is larger, richer and more powerful than any single one (as well as most pairings of any given two) of the Emeraldine states. The powerful merchant houses of Turarak have even established colonies along the other coasts of the great peninsula of the Vharamet, much as the Emeraldines have, though the Turaraki colonies are fewer and smaller.
Despite the overall unfavorable-seeming comparison, Turarak remains a significant economic and military power in Pryme. Its land-bound military is particularly notable; much of Turarak’s original centralization was driven by a need for armaments and trained soldiery to use them in order to keep roads and trade routes open in the face of various dangerous beasts indigenous to the jungles of the Turaraki subcontinent. As a result, since its foundation the Republic of Turarak has had a very structured and ready-made basis to draw on in developing a professional military force, which has since been used for expansionism (the conquest of Kathenderi after Mathark splintered in civil war is a prime example), enforcement of trade interests, and squabbling with the Emerald Islands from time to time (although this is usually more the realm of the navy, which while sizable and having the benefit of ready access to a vast supply of sapphires, tends to stalemate at best against their Emeraldine counterparts). The centralized, organized form of Turarak’s political structure also shows itself in its infrastructure, such as the impressive roadworks: several wide and generally well-maintained main roadways cutting through the dense jungles to connect major ports and cities such as the ports of Sulakar and Burar Kenel and the inland capital, Turakkar, which rises out of the jungle itself.
Turarak enjoys excellent access to sapphires, being the primary source for them in all of Pryme. The Turaraki homeland also has some amount of access to pearls and aquamarines, and their trading networks also give them access to some amounts of many other varieties of gemstones. In terms of more mundane natural resources, they have plentiful freshwater, wood, and food of many varieties, as well as being able to extract plenty of iron and other metal ores from the Vharamet. Technologically Turarak takes pains to try to keep up with the Emerald Isles, and although it is usually playing catch-up in most areas it is still a frontrunner in this regard compared to Pryme as a whole.
The Turaraki subcontinent is a lush, tropical shelf of land tucked into the crook of the Vharamet Mountains. By land area, most of Turarak is thick jungle. The land rises approaching the mountains, becoming progressively cooler as the elevation grows. The city of Tharmet, perched in the Vharamet from where one can enjoy a vast southwards-facing view over the rest of Turarak, is high enough to receive winter snows, which are unheard-of in most of the republic. The southern coast of Turarak is craggy, with rocky cliffside bordering the ocean in many places including along several deep inlets that penetrate towards the subcontinent’s interior.
The people native to Turarak are middling in height, with skin a deep tan but not as dusky as that of Emeraldines, and tend to dark shades of hair and grey eyes. Formal Turaraki attire draws much from military uniform dress, although the higher in wealth and social standing one looks the more likely the clothing is to start from a similar base but be progressively more extravagant and impractical (such as, for example, recent fads for men of betasseled padded shoulders rising so high as to be level with one’s eyes, or for women of an ornate outer cape so long as to have a tailing train). Currently, the most widely-popular entertainment in the realm of the arts in Turarak is music; the theater popular just across the sea in the Emerald Islands is seen here as alternatively superfluously melodramatic or low-class (or both, depending on one’s tastes). The pianoforte is a recent Turaraki invention, and is currently on a rapid rise to prominence in Turaraki artistic circles. The staple foods of the Turaraki include various fish and other seafood as well as - in more recent decades - rice, originally native to the Ovurk Sea coasts and now being cultivated widely in the highland regions of the subcontinent where the jungles are less thick. Turaraki architecture has an unusual fascination with pyramids; originally constructed as burial monuments on the subcontinents in ancient times, the past few centuries has seen the general shape adopted widely for purposes both sacred and secular. Most buildings major enough to employ stone construction tend to feature at least some aspects of pyramidal structure in their overall design, particularly major buildings of state.

[Diamond]

This is looking great. Definitely one of my favorites.

[AzureWings]

Thanks! I'm flattered to hear it

Current update with the beginnings of the border, and a nice title plaque so the map finally has the actual title on the image.

### Latest WIP ###
prymeMapJan2018-wip6.jpg

I flubbed the emerald cut on the corner gemstones and made up something simplified from the pear/teardrop cut for the ruby because I was getting tired of doing the facets, but the diamond and sapphire are attempts at the actual brilliant and trilliant cuts respectively, facet-wise. The bevel effect seems to have been my friend for quickly adding a bit of depth to the settings for the stones without giving a result that's too regular, although the results did need some touching up.

And lore:

Notes: The Amethyst Highlands, Vossarik

Vossarik is a strange and enigmatic land; particularly notable given its proximity to the prominent Emerald Islands. Largely elevated on high cliffs and slopes climbing into the southern Ravenclaw Mountains, long ago it was known as a land of feuding clans but in recent history it seems to be united under one monarch - though both the nature of the ruler’s control over the various cities and smaller polities of Vossarik and the rules by which the king or queen that reigns over the land frequently changes seem irregular and inscrutable to outsiders. Rare is the day that a foreigner is even permitted so far into the highlands to even catch a glimpse of the capital of Asavikar.
Long holding a relatively isolationist foreign policy, Vossarik is nonetheless of relevance as it controls the vast majority of amethyst sources in Pryme. Amethysts that are almost as enigmatic as the land they come from: capable of a wide variety of seemingly-unrelated workings of small but significant usefulness, they can be used to preserve food, erase tiredness, or make small objects invisible for a time, among other applications. However, evidence hints at deeper depths to the powers of amethysts, yet unknown to Pryme at large despite many attempts and experiments; clearly the people of Vossarik know more, but have - with eerie consistency - remained closed-mouthed. Vossarik engages in some trade with the surrounding lands of southern Pryme, though few traders come from Vossarik; rather, foreign traders typically must come to Vesena or Edarik Kass to exchange their goods for Vossar exports or coin. Historically there have been times where, in hopes of obtaining less-restricted access to sources of amethyst, one Emeraldine prince, Turaraki magnate, or another considered a military subjugation of the (comparatively) low-population, technologically backward Vossar people, only to receive diplomatic missives from Vossarik before their preparations had even begun - indeed, it is said, before their plans had even left the confines of their own head. The physically-isolated location, willingness to engage in some, if not plentiful, trade, and this sort of chillingly proactive and abrupt contact have in combination meant that no such military attempt to conquer the highlands has ever actually been made in known history.
The Vossar tend towards lankiness, with ruddy skin, dark hair, and eyes often a bright, unsettling orange. They rarely seem to eat or sleep, likely due to some amethyst workings never revealed in full to outsiders, and tend to appear calm and reserved in all situations. The high elevation of most of Vossarik means that their manner of dress is heavier than most neighboring cultures; in terms of climate the impact of the elevation is such that it can be difficult to believe Vossarik is so geographically close to the Emerald Islands. The Vossar are selective about what technologies they adopt from foreign lands, quickly embracing some new developments while lagging decades - even centuries - behind in others. Guessing what new technologies and necessary goods will become prominent in Vossarik can make a trader with the right instincts a fortune, but it is always a dicey proposition. One craft for which Vossarik is known is clock-making; the quality and precision of the tiny metal components produced there are presently unmatched in Pryme. They are culturally rather sharply distinct from their surrounding neighbors, with an unrelated language, different arts, and different norms, and are in many ways a mystery despite not being a very long voyage away. This last unsettles many influential figures that move in the upper circles of Pryme’s societies - but Vossarik, is at least a familiar and typically quiescent unknown, a region clearly outlined but consistently vague on most maps for hundreds of years, and so there are usually more pressing matters to occupy their attention.

[AzureWings]

A smaller update this time, but I wanted to get something there in that big awkward expanse of open 'canvas' . I'm finding I like the effect of doing color overlays over a canvas-applied base.

### Latest WIP ###
prymeMapJan2018-wip7.jpg

Followed by a lore post, as usual. This one might explain a bit about the compass you see pictured above:

The Dual-Stone Compass

A key discovery that has revolutionized navigation across Pryme was of the self-positioning behavior of thin pieces of topaz and opal when suspended so as to move freely. These two gemstones have been found to consistently orient themselves to be aligned towards two specific and respective northwards locations. While careful calculations based on the works of several historical natural philosophers clearly note that neither topaz nor opal orient to the direction considered to be true north, their consistent orientation has nonetheless proven a great boon.
Since this discovery a prime navigational tool has become what is known as the Dual-Stone Compass, a compass containing separate needles of topaz and opal. Comparing the observed separation between the two and referencing the well-publicized calculated locations of the topaz and opal poles can narrow down one’s current position and heading significantly. In combination with locating Kasta, the North Star, at night, a dual-stone compass allows one’s position to be triangulated precisely; in this manner the tool is indispensable for more precise navigation. Taken along with a known direction for true north, the orientation of the opal and topaz arms of the dual-stone compass provides a specific, singular location. Many major buildings of state in Pryme’s maritime societies have taken to immortalizing the dual-stone positioning corresponding to their location on a plaque, tucked into a mural or painting, or engraved on their cornerstone.
The Dual-Stone Compass’ invention not only revolutionized navigation but also had broader political ramifications, catapulting into prominence Khusep and the lands of the Krontian Stone Kings, Pryme’s primary sources of quality opal and topaz respectively. Until this time demand for those gemstones was generally lower than the demand for others such as diamond, ruby, and sapphire, and the distance by which both of these regions were isolated from the advanced, prominent polities of the southern seas made them of lesser relevance on an overall scale. When the dual-stone compass intensified demand for topaz and opal stones the powerful southern lands were suddenly much more interested in the distant, arid deserts of Khusep and the comparatively primitive Krontian dominions, and the tremors of that diplomatic shift still haven’t quite worked themselves out, whether those be those of Emeraldine diplomats trying to adjust to the unfamiliar ways of Krontian courts as they seek to secure lasting arrangements for topaz or Khusep adjusting from a foreign policy centered on trade with distant partners across the ocean unknown to the rest of Pryme to one with concerns closer to home. Changes aren’t even limited to the two sources of the necessary stones - Mularak, previously playing second fiddle to Kordorak in trade with the powerful southern nations, has also seen its fortunes rise as the gateway to the Panjatmun, including the deserts of Khusep. This has only escalated the tensions between Mubarak and Kordorak in their ongoing, generations-old mutual succession disagreement, even as it has lengthened the long reach of Turaraki and Emeraldine trading networks into the newly-opened east.