WIP-Thraena

[plamadude30k]

Well, I had a ginormous post just before the server troubles detailing this next map, but it was all wiped out. I'll try to recreate it here, and hopefully this time I can be more coherent than last time!

These maps are part of a much larger worldbuilding project I began several months ago as support material for a novel I'd like to write. In fact, it was in preparation for making maps of this fictional world that I found the cartographer's guild in the first place. After only a month of membership here, my cartography skills still leave a lot to be desired, but I have learned enough that I want to give my world, Thraena, a try.

Here is a first map of the entire world, done in a satellite style. This map is only meant to give a sense of general climates-you'll notice there are no mountains, rivers, or forests. This map is not 100% accurate, either, but it does give some idea of climate.

AllWorld..jpg

Ideally, I want to do several maps of this world-some geographical and some political. The first is an in-world style map, something the characters might have access to (or at least something like they would have access to) in the story. I did some research on old maps around the time period I was aiming for, and here's some of my favorite references:

Map 1

Map B

Map III

In actuality, this first map I'm working on is from a period ~5-800 years before the story is set to start. This, however, would still be one of the most extensive maps of the world made by the time of the story. Between the time when it was made and when the story occurs much knowledge was lost, mostly due to a series of wars and a catastrophe caused by the Gods. This catastrophe is also the reason why, in the satellite style map there are a bunch of islands where on this map there is solid land just north of where the equator and prime meridian meet. Other inconsistencies arise from the fact that the world is still being explored at the time this map was created, and some coastlines are uncertain.

GoldenAgeArista_2.jpg

The forests, rivers, and mountains are all pretty much done, barring some unforeseen revelation. You may notice that most of the southern, crescent shaped continent is left blank-this is not a mistake. This is for in-world political reasons, as the country on that part of the continent is not friendly at all with the country where this map was made, and does not allow explorers on the continent, nor even traders except for in a few port towns in the north.

A note about the compass: It's pretty simple, except for the device in the center. This is the device of the Royal House of the Kingdom of Arista, where this map was made-the Aristan pine, from which the kingdom takes its name-and the raven, the sigil of the royal house.

[plamadude30k]

I finished off the major geographical features and as per a suggestion in my current finished map thread, I sought out an image of old parchment to overlay on top of the map to make it look a bit better.

GoldenAgeArista.jpg

I think the look is really coming together, but there's one more element I'm considering which I'd really like opinions on, namely country borders. In several of the real world maps I referenced in the above post, there are vague colored outlines along political borders, and I'm debating if I want to try to recreate this effect. I've already tried several times, but to no avail-each effort just looks unnatural and stands out like a sore thumb. Any suggestions on how to do this? I would also appreciate any and all suggestions, comments, and criticisms.

[Jaxilon]

OMG that's not parchment that's Human SKIN!!!

Just kidding but when I zoomed in it did kind of look like skin of some sort.

I think you are making good progress. Keep up the good work. I was confused a bit by the mountains in the sea but then realized they were just the beginnings of land that had only been seen from a distance? You might add a slight change of tone for the land just to make those a bit easier to understand. I can also see why you might not want to change the style of the map by doing so and whatever you decide is fine by me.

Not having done any political border type stuff I will leave that to some of the experts around here. Carry on fellow desert dweller.

[plamadude30k]

OMG that's not parchment that's Human SKIN!!!

Just kidding but when I zoomed in it did kind of look like skin of some sort.

Ha! You're right, it is a bit skin-like. How creepy. Easily fixed, though:

GoldenAgeArista_3.jpg

It's nice to see a fellow Arizonan here. You're the only other one I've encountered so far.

[plamadude30k]

It's been pretty hectic recently, but I've managed some progress on the map. I've added labels for major bodies of water, and a nice description of the map. Please tell me what you think of the font-I tried to choose a simple, legible font that can be seen even at very small sizes. I'd like to know what people think before I move on to the huge task of putting in geographical and political labels.

GoldenAgeArista_3.jpg

You may also notice that I changed the overlaying paper texture. I just thought this one looked better.

[alizarine]

This is looking pretty good - that parchment texture does look nice. I'm not sure if this last map is supposed to be of several continents - without a scale to determine size it's a bit hard to tell if those mountains and forests are a bit small but they do feel that way (small, I mean). Other than that, the map is looking really good. The font was fully legible when zoomed in to full-size, and that boxed text down in the lower-right is a great touch. The land and bird inside the compass in the lower-left corner is a great little detail too. Looking forward to seeing more ^.^

- Alizarine

[Coyotemax]

actually it shouldn't be odd to zoom in on parchment and think it looks like skin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment

map is coming along very nicely!

[plamadude30k]

This is looking pretty good - that parchment texture does look nice. I'm not sure if this last map is supposed to be of several continents - without a scale to determine size it's a bit hard to tell if those mountains and forests are a bit small but they do feel that way (small, I mean). Other than that, the map is looking really good. The font was fully legible when zoomed in to full-size, and that boxed text down in the lower-right is a great touch. The land and bird inside the compass in the lower-left corner is a great little detail too. Looking forward to seeing more ^.^

- Alizarine

It's actually supposed to be a map of the entire world. I'll work in a scale and label the latitude and longitude lines next, probably.

Oh, and it's supposed to be a tree and bird in the compass, but I can see how that could be very easily mistaken.

[Locution]

Its coming along nicely

[Natai]

Looks good so far, and the font seems to fit the style of the map nicely. I agree that the boxed text is a great touch; that alone gives you a feel of the world.