Venera I

[Methusalem]

Sdraste,

or something like that means "Hello" in Russia. This ist my first map. I will use it for a story I am writing. I learned it a hard way to use maps in stories. Once I wrote a bigger story but somehow everone who read it lost the point of the story and didn't know where the whole story take place.

This was the motivation for my new story to start with a map.

I read a lot of tutorials (and yes, I read the tutorial about creating rivers in a righ way - I just messed up with it). The difficulties for me were the mountains, the details (like caves and and wrecks) and labeling. The "Wind Rose" in the upper left corner is from Google (I just couldn't find the tutorial where someone shows how to make an own one).

The colours and the design in whole refers to one of the maps of "Schwarzkreuz". Before this version my map was in bright colours etc.. But it didn't fit in the dark style of the story. I wanted something with more mystery and sadness like in the game "Castlevania" (the very first stage on the XBOX 360 version). The paintings there made me think: Awesome shiet man!

MAKING THE ISLANDS:

I filled whole map with water and then added a second layer (the island) and filled it with a brighter colour. An effect (contour or something and glow) is used to make the coast looking brighter in steps.

The rivers and coastlines were all cut out with the lasso. This made most fun for me.

The rest was easy going but took a lot of time.

Finally I think I finished the map within two weeks ... but was not that focused on that work. Also wrote the plot and the charachters for the story.

By the way: this map is just a part of a larger world which will be made in future. But first I have to finish the plot for this area.
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The story is about lot of species. (I won't tell too much because I am paranoid ^_^)

TO THE MAP:

So I tried to make different places in style. Sinara is a desert with rocks etc. except the "Kristallsandland" / Crystalsandland. There the sand is so fine that its like fine crystaldust. Storms in there kill everyone. The goddess of fire called "Kira" and her oblation temple is there but unreachable for people.

Toro is country without a capital city ... but ruled indirectly by an 14yo vampire girl. She is bound to the castle because of the rituals in the "Kloster" in Toro. She seems nice and kindish but also can get really cruel. Noone really knows if she is a 14yo vampire or just pretend to be 14yo. Toro is a little racist. They don't like nonhumans. The forest has also magical powers which are the reason why Toro is still independent while having no government.

The "Tote Insel" / Dead Island (oh shiet ... I think there is a game called this ... is it a copyright problem? I guess not because I'm hot ^_^ ... no I'm not ). There is a witch of a species called Ild (kind of birds) and owns a slave (human). She makes chaos etc. so the island should look scary (tried to put a myst there and a swamp but failed so hard).

Venera is a wet, cold and forest(ed?) island where a species (kind of snakes) live. They are wise and strong. But they are not really religious ... more scientific.

Warlom is a cold and dark country full of humans like vikings.

Nagamali is something between Warlom and Toro. A typical human country.
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Map in the attechment.