The Kingdoms and Tribal Lands of Elimarea

[jrforesm]

Elimarea is developing slowly as the setting for the fantasy story I've been trying to shape for years. I've been studying early English history and want to use a few key time periods as a base for my story, particularly the fall of the Roman Empire. So far, the Openst, Ghalentirk, Norndey, and Surnday have unified under their respective kings. Overlek, Endfall, Trems, Runsar, Vilguard, and Leatominok's borders are constantly in flux as they vie for land and resources. The Pershlands, Undarvi, and the Brenlaw Frontier are areas that have yet to be tamed by the peoples of Elimarea. Some years ago, all of Elimarea was united under one empire. But at some point, the empire fell, and its armies and infrastructure ceased to function. The Elimarean Council, the Nobility, and army slowly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The lower class and landless population remained, and eventually unified into scattered tribes. Some of these tribes unified into larger kingdoms and began rebuilding where the Elimarian Empire left off. Their attempts at going anywhere beyond the central rivers have proven unsuccessful, as most of the exploration teams and army regiments sent north do not return. Those that do are incoherent, near death, and ranting about a strange group of natives in the deep forests o the Brenlaw Frontier.

...or something like that. Give me a break, I'm really just obsessed with the mapmaking aspect of this whole thing. I haven't even really written an official outline of the story yet.

I'm a huge PC gamer. Strategy games and city builders are some of my favorites, not to mention fantasy RPG's. Cartography gives me an opportunity to make my own world and my own rules.

This is my first post on cartographersguild.com. I've done three other versions of this particular landmass, rearranging the geography and studying different ways of representing land forms. I've enjoyed every passing hour of it, and plan on making maps for each kingdom/tribal area. I did the first few drafts in Adobe Photoshop, but then I remembered I have Artrage, which is a natural painting program. I highly recommend it. Its very affordable, it utilizes layers and other photoshop-ish things, and its a blast to work with!

I would love to hear comments, criticisms, what-have-yous. I love the stuff on cartographers guild...some of it was inspiration for this particular map.