The Kingdom of Althar (My D&D Homebrew Setting!)

[Arcane Atlas]

I'm really excited to share this one! Althar is my pride and joy. I ran my first D&D campaign as a DM in this bleak little country, and drawing the original map for this setting on paper while I was planning the campaign is what got me into actively pursuing cartography. Over the two years I ran that campaign I watched my players become incredibly attached to the setting, and we played our final session last summer. We're now starting a new campaign set 60 years before our first took place, during a period of war and turmoil, and I can't wait to return to the world.

There are so many little details of this map that I'm proud of, like the little settlement icons, which are loosely based on the icons used on the Gough Map, one of the earliest known maps of Britain. I drew this in Procreate on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, with finishing details done in Photoshop. I couldn't decide on a style, so I created two versions, one full-colour with typed labels, and another parchment style, "in game" version with hand lettering. I still can't decide which is my favourite!

I hope you like them!

Map of Althar - 2021 (Colour Version).jpg Map of Althar - 2021 (Parchment Version).jpg

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[Mimine]

Both versions are marvelous! I love them! Great job!

[Andarr]

Man this is such a great work...

I like the parchment one better and hope you dont mind that it goes right into my inspiration folder... Good job...

[smiler127]

Great maps! The background texture is great, did you make it yourself or use a template as a model?

[Arcane Atlas]

Great maps! The background texture is great, did you make it yourself or use a template as a model?

I used some of MapEffects (@MapEffects on Instagram) excellent free paper texture resources for the textures!

[Kellerica]

Looks great! I for one prefer the parchement style one. The only thing I'm not that keen on is the "noise" effect on the inside of the coastlines and the mountain shading, but other than that the style is really solid. Beautiful work with the hand lettering!

[Arcane Atlas]

Looks great! I for one prefer the parchement style one. The only thing I'm not that keen on is the "noise" effect on the inside of the coastlines and the mountain shading, but other than that the style is really solid. Beautiful work with the hand lettering!

That’s a fair critique! I tried a bit of stippling, but in hindsight I’m not sure how much I like it either. Thanks so much!

[Josiah VE]

Really beautiful work! Clean, professional, an all round robust map.
I agree with Kellerica about the stippling, it looks just a little out of place, although when viewed at 50% it just looks like a good texture.
Great job, keep it up.

[Arimel]

Really great map! I must agree with the others with liking the parchment map more but both are great. I love the city icons, particularly the ones with the ship peaking out from the background.

[XCali]

I don't know if I agree with Kellerica on the coastline. I think it works fine. But, in the end do what looks good to you.

I really enjoy this map. The mountains, the icons, the texture(by the way what texture did you use? It works remarkably well.)
Also, the way you did your font for all the different locations is quite effective. It definitely inspires me.
All in all, a good map.