Etrakien revisited

[Clercon]

So I’ve decided to call the Etrakien revisited map done. All graphics are made by me except the compass and the paper I used for background. I found them both here on the guild but can’t remember who made them. If someone else remembers please leave a comment about it and I will edit this first post giving them credit.

Edit1: The forest is actually from Tears tutorial, I've adapted them a bit to make them fit into the style. But he should have some cred for it. Forgot this when I wrote the post.

Edit2: The background texture (the folded paper) is made by Coyotemax. So if you like it he is the one to credit.

So why did I decide to remake the Etrakien map? I was very satisfied with the look of the first version but when the story of the world started to evolve the map didn’t really fit anymore. I also wanted a map that was a bit darker then the first map to more reflect the mood of the world. The first map is more colourful and “happy” looking then this second version. Thirdly I needed the world to be a bit bigger.

The scale on the map is not given in km or miles but in the time a bigger sailboat on open sea or individual person travels. The upper side of the scale is for sailing and the lower numbers is for walking (the size of the map is about 2500 km from left to right, if you have to know :-) ).

The map is completely made in photoshop CS5.

And now over to a bit of the story of the world.
The main civilizations of the world are situated around the Etrakien Sea (Etrakiska sjön). In this area a couple of city-states where established maybe a thousand years after the war of the gods that brought the great humanoid civilisation to an end (the exact timeframe isn’t important here, the important thing is that a lot of time has passed). These states where the beginning of a new era in the story of the human race, because after the war ended the humans turned out to be the big winners when it came to adapting to the new circumstances. In all the seven worlds the humans came out on top to become the dominant species.

In the south one particular city-state turned out to be very aggressive and militarised, the Etrakien city-state. This state started to conquer the other states and slowly the Etrakien empire was established (you can see this a bit like the Romans in our own world). On the eastern side of the Etrakien Sea you have a country named Arnor, they also started to expand but where centred on trade instead of war, in the end they established the Arnorian Empire. In the end the two empires clashed and the war went on for a long time, the main area of fighting came to be around the countries Illyrien, Truscia and Karpanien. But the whole area hade to experience the downsides of a long war in one way or another. In the end both of the empires where weakened from the long fighting and barbarians from the north, which both sides had used as soldiers in the war, turned on their masters and made them fall. The northern parts of the world was divided into smaller countries, the Arnorians (Another humanoid race that where the lords in the Arnorian Empire) where pushed back to their island (Arnor) and if it hadn’t been for the walls of the city Ankh-Bathor that stopped the barbarian hordes, the Etrakien Empire probably would have ceased to exist. Now they survived but got heavily weakened and still haven’t risen after that blow.

The countries in the west are originally established by refugees from the two empires that decided to move away from the long war. The one exception is the island-country Perlago that was established long before the great war by humans believing in the one and only true god (which by the other countries seems quite heretic).

The time of writing is about 100-150 years after the big war ended.