The Old World (Warhammer)

[Impractical Cartographer]

Howdy!

Here is the "New & accurate map of the Old World, showing the glorious Empire, Kislev, Bretonia, as well as Tilea, Estalia, Albion, Norse, Northern Arabia, the Border Princes, as well as the mountain strongholds of Karaz Ankor and the Elven Kingdoms of Ulthuan according to the latest knowledge and based on maps & discoveries of famous travellers & sailors, regulated by astronomical observations of The Magisters of the Celestial Order , drawn by Dieter Mathias Steinau, Professor of Geography at the Imperial University of Altdorf, member of the Highly Respected Guild of Cartographers & Surveyors."

stary-swiat-guild.jpg

Specifications:

Projection: Equidistant conic projection
Technique: hand-drawn, acrylic inks, a touch of photoshop

Better quality scan on my Deviant Art - here.

An English version of this map will be released next week.

I am curious to know your opinion.

[Greason Wolfe]

My opinion.... Well, I hate you the same way I hate JEdwards, Mistybeee, and probably a dozen or so others here at the guild. Seriously though, another fine piece of work. Always in awe of the patience and steadiness of hand it must take to produce all of these wonderful maps.

[Impractical Cartographer]

Always in awe of the patience and steadiness of hand it must take to produce all of these wonderful maps.

Believe me - it's not the hand that causes problems when drawing. It is the back that causes problems. After drawing for a long time, I have to do yoga to keep from getting a hump.

[wminish]

Excellent, as always. Your work is a real testament to what can be achieved on physical media.

Believe me - it's not the hand that causes problems when drawing. It is the back that causes problems. After drawing for a long time, I have to do yoga to keep from getting a hump.

That is so true, I experience that also and as I'm very tall that just compounds the issue. I manage to mitigate it somewhat with a good desk setup and by working in short stretches (my kids don't allow me to work on any one thing for too long anyway) but I also generally work at a smaller size than you do which makes the issue easier to mitigate.

[Baron]

It's lovely. But if I ever get to run a game of WFRP, I'll need to know the answer to one question: Where there are edition-specific differences, which way did you go? Thanks.

[Impractical Cartographer]

It's lovely. But if I ever get to run a game of WFRP, I'll need to know the answer to one question: Where there are edition-specific differences, which way did you go? Thanks.

It depends on how you look at it.

It all started with me dreaming of a globe of the Warhammer world.
Unfortunately, WFRP has a pretty poorly described world outside the Empire. There is also no official map showing the entire world (believe, there really is no such map). Besides, all official Warhammer maps are more or less nice drawings, not really maps.

The main concepts for my project was:

• Mountains, vast forests, major rivers and major cities will be more or less in place (I reduced the Empire's forest cover a bit because it always seemed absurd to me.).
  
• From Altdorf to Talabheim is about 400 km - that's what the WFRP1e main rulebook, and on most official maps this distance is maintained.
  
• Wurtbad is located at about 55 degrees north latitude - this is my own invention.
  
• The circumference of the Warhammer planet's equator is 42,000 kilometers - this is also my guess, because nowhere in the lore is this value given, it is only mentioned that the WFRP world is "larger than ours". - so it's about 2000 km bigger.
• The zero meridian will pass through Altdorf, specifically trough the Celestial College astronomical observatory. This is a detail, because the zero meridian can be determined anywhere.

According to these concepts, I first sketched a contour map of the Warhammer world in equidistant cylindrical projection.

cilindrical.jpg

I mainly tried to keep - more or less - the distances in the Old World and draw a correct, globe-transformable map.

globe.jpg

Then I prepared a draft map of the Old World in equidistant conic projection.

conic.jpg

Why that projection?
Because it is the best projection for the region presented. Besides, it is quite old, as its mathematical foundations were described for the first time by Claudius Ptolemy in the early 2nd century AD. And you can use a linear scale on it.

Additionally, I made the decision not to mark Skaven cities on the map. These cities obviously exist, but no one knows their exact location.

So if you're asking what edition of WFRP this map is based on, it's partly all of them, but mostly mine.

Soon I will try to draw a map of the entire WFRP's world in the Ortelius oval projection.

[Kâ Lys]

Sweet mother of God, this is glorious! Well done! Looking forward for the english version.

[Adfor]

It's astonishing the way you hammer these out, Warhammer that is, ha!

Your penmanship is one of my favorites as a traditional artist, big congratulations to another magnificent piece.

IR

[Rubikia]

Absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful! An amazing map as always!

[Redrobes]

Well if this map is not in the leading contenders for the annual awards for best hand drawn map then I dont know what would be. Astonishing stuff... truely astonishing !