Holovan
On The Concept and Magic.
I was reading a few things on some site three or four days ago when I ran across the "different types of magic". One referenced Magical Formulas, and my mind jumped into Fantasy Mode; this is a dormant part of my brain which I reject on a regular basis. I used to read and write only fantasy before I got sick of the cliché-filled legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien. Nevertheless, a world came to mind where two different kinds of magic live.
The first kind of magic is based on scientific formulas; it's the equivalent of alchemy (as in magic : science as alchemy : chemistry). It is clinical and written by scholars. It can only be performed by those with the right genetics, but it can be studied and developed with mathematical formulae by anyone who understands the rules of the science.
After these magics came to mind, this world came along behind it. A world where the largest continent is connected to both polar caps. This was Holovan.
On The Map and Naming.
I've attached three maps, displaying three different views. The map was made in GIMP in a good
The first image is the proper artistic map. I used elements of RobA's tutorial but began to move more into my own style using Black/White gradient-mapped plasma and my own simple terraining. I applied a bump map to the sea on this one; I feel it gives it a nice effect.
For the colours, I took my base noisy texture layer (same as that used on the ocean), and used GIMP's Colorize function while messing with the hue and a feathered fuzzy select. After that, I took a large fuzzy brush, set the blend mode of the brush to overlay and touched up different areas with a few different colours. A few areas have been smudged for certain effects, too (middle-bottom; green on the ice).
This map has no continent names because in each culture there are no continent names.
The second map is the climate map. This was actually what I started with, and it was how I selected the areas for the first map. I'll be relying on this heavily when I do more extensive mapping/writing/development. For example, on the rightmost continent, there's very light green at the tips of the peninsulas. To me, it looks like the colour of palm tree leaves. Given its position, I can tell that it's tropical rainforest.
The third and final map here is my region map. This tells me the locations of different tribes/civilisations.
The red one is the Empire of Holovia, which stretches to a few different places.
The blue is Minor Holovia; this is a place dominated by the tribes of that land that have been enslaved by the Holovians. They act as a separate country, however.
The light and dark greens are tribe lands of the Muthasa people.
The yellow and orange are Kiwatans; the orange are the puppet masters who prominently use soul magic. The yellow also use soul magic but are not puppet masters.
The cyan and the pink are Tundrans. I'm not sure what race they are, but they're probably not human.
The dark purple are the southern variety of Drurn, which are somewhat like lions crossed with trolls. The dark maroon are the northern variety.
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