Xamel_Region_Methd2_Finished.jpg

This is my very first finished map using graphic design software (Gimp). The Xamel map is based on a hand-drawn map of Demetia I drew when I was a teenager (about 30 years ago now). At various times I have looked at this hand-drawn map, wondering what to do with it. A couple of years ago, my gaming group wanted to try out D&D 4th edition, and I thought my long-abandoned Demetia was the perfect setting. So I dusted off the map and decided to try making something a bit more polished.

As it stands now, the nation of Xamel was founded by dragonborn (a draconic D&D race), who escaped from slavery when an ancient dragon empire was disintegrating. Secretive and isolationist, the Xameli guard their mountain border jealously and aside from a few trade agreements, not many non-dragonborn are accepted across the border.

I used RobA's great tutorial, "Using Gimp to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map" to create this map. I also used Arsheesh's "Photorealistic Trees in Gimp" tutorial for the forests. I used a Draconic translator to come up with place names for the map. For the compass rose, I traced the four-point star from a clip-art compass rose I found on the Internet, and then used the "Beaten Gold Effect in Photoshop" tutorial on this site (it didn't have an author's name in the PDF, I don't recall who created the tutorial). I took the gold star, added an "N" to it in Gimp, then copy-pasted it into my map file. For the borders, I used Arsheesh's "Map Borders in Gimp" tutorial.

I started the WIP thread for this map in 2010, then decided to go back to school part-time (career change), so the map got put aside for a couple of years. I guess that's why I didn't get too much feedback. I got laid off a few months ago, so I had more time, and decided to finish this up and polish it.

Here is the link to the WIP thread. http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ia-(continent)