Hi, I'm a writer of a fantasy medieval-like story

[Eurypon]

Hi,

I go by Eurypon, but you can call me Eury (everybody does).

I am writing a long, long story in a fantasy Medieval-like setting. You can find it here:



(A warning maybe: although the main story is one of political intrigue and impending war, there are a lot of gay characters and some graphic scenes. So, please, be legal where you live before you venture into Ximerion and neighboring countries.)

Originally it was supposed to be some twenty chapters long, but I am now at chapter 39 (300 000+. words) and only two thirds into... Book I. There are literally over a hundred characters and dozens of countries, cities, towns, counties, duchies, rivers, passes, mountain ranges, forests and so on.

If you care to take a look, you will see I tried to provide my readers with some maps. They were made with my meager Inkscape-skills and some free map-symbols I found here and there. My graphical skills are not very high, as you will notice.

Just like my main character, I love maps -- I thought it was just another way in which I was weird. So, I'm really excited to have stumbled upon this community and I hope to find tips (and textures, and symbols and so on) to spruce up my maps.

[Antheon]

Welcome to the Guild, Eury!

As a fellow writer I'll gladly take a look at your story as soon as I'm not running out of time. You'll find here everything you need, may it be symbols, textures or help. Take a look at the Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping and start a work-in-progress thread so we can provide you with feedback and such. I'm looking forward to see some maps. : )


Antheon
continuing work on his own story

[Eurypon]

Thanks for the advice, Antheon.

I've been looking around for about twenty minutes... and now I'm thoroughly depressed. So many beautiful maps... I don't even know where to start...

Note: I'm on a Linux system, so for me it's the GIMP and Inkscape.

[tilt]

Hi Eury, welcome to the guild - don't be depressed - we all have to start somewhere - and what better place to start than here

[ravells]

Welcome to the Guild! Do be sure to check out the tutorials section! We have a lot of tutorials for Gimp and many for photoshop which can be done equally well in Gimp. Only a very few inkscape tutorials though.

[arsheesh]

Welcome Eurypon! I was totally awed and intimidated by the beautiful artwork of the Guild when I first arrived here as well. I had absolutely no prior working knowledge of GIMP, Photoshop, Inkscape, or any other mapping software. Yet after checking out some of the tutorials, and through the help of many here, I learned how to create a decent digital map. So let this be an encouragement to you. If I can do it, then so can you. My advice, download GIMP and Inkscape, pick a tutorial you like and start going through it step by step. Then throw up a WIP so that you can receive advice and corrective feedback. Look forward to seeing more of you here at the Guild.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Eurypon]

Hi, tilt, ravells and arsheesh, thanks for the kind words.
However, I'm on Linux Ubuntu and I've worked with the GIMP and Inkscape for a few years now. Just haven't had the time to thoroughly learn the progs beyond what I needed at the moment.
Further, I'm mainly a writer, though I think the presentation, layout, typography and of course the maps are very important too. The poor excuses for maps I have now on my website (e.g. the one in this chapter link) were thrown together with Inkscape and some free svg's.
As soon as my next chapter is finished I'm going to start uploading the rough map I have now and start trying out some tutorials...
In the mean time I'll be drooling once in a while over the other maps here...

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[Eurypon]

Thanks, NeonKnight & Steel General. Glad to be on board.

So, I uploaded some maps (if you can call them that) in an album called Ximerion on my profile.

First of all: don't tell me they're crap. I know they are.

As I already said, I'm mainly a writer, but I felt I needed some maps to help the reader visualize where he was.

At the time I chose Inkscape because it let me scale things to my heart's desire and every element is a separate object that can be manipulated and placed where I want it.

I chose to make a map of the "whole world" and zoomed in as necessary.

My question is obvious: where do I go from here? Should I start over from scratch? What are my basic options?