Finished Map of Segridia

[Konraw]

Hi,

Following on from my 'Forlorn Coast' map posted yesterday, this is my 'continental scale' map of which the Forlorn Coast was a small part. This is 1cm = 100 miles and is 53 x 69cm. This was made for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign around 1990. It is hand drawn in pen and colored pencil and took about 400 hours over several months.

I needed a number of different biomes and cultural zones to create a diverse number of locales for adventures and get people out of their medieval European fantasy comfort zones. There are the following cultural zones, Imuit, European middle ages, Norse, medieval Russia, Byzantium, Middle eastern, Celtic and steppe warriors. some outlying areas like in the North west, I've never 'known' what they are like. I would have liked to invent some new cultures but juggling work, university and DnD didn't allow for it

There are also traces of the past, for instance on the lands bordering the western side of the Segridean Sea, you can see little illustrations named 'Pillar of Zul'. Some of them standing, some of them toppled. These were huge pillars erected a thousand years earlier by the empire of Shaga Zul which used to rule the coastlands but actually based (and still is) on the other side of the sea. The pillars recorded both the rule of Shaga Zul over the surrounding area as well as the major laws to be followed. Shaga Zul lost these territories hundreds of years ago and nearly collapsed. Now it is much recovered and seeking to expand. One of my players, ruling Vorchesca on the Forlorn Coast map made a secret agreement to pay allegiance to the empire. So the map helped to give the players a context to what they were doing when they became very powerful.

As a backdrop I had a Genghis Khan figure gradually creating an empire. in the area that the party favored, now and then they would hear from travelers who had heard from other travelers further west who had met people affected by the invasions further west. A year or two later, the travelers they met would tell the party that they had met people affected by the invasions. A few years later, in the party's area, refugees started appearing, telling tales of the great conquerer whose empire was getting closer and closer. Unfortunately, the campaign ended before the party got directly involved... so all for nothing lol! but it did work to give the party something to gossip about.

This map was also great for across the world chases tracking down kidnapped party members.

Segridia is not a land mass, it is a region familiar to those who live near the Segridean sea

here's the link, thank you

http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...chmentid=75256