Lands of Aegus: Commisioned Piece

[Ghostwaryr]

This map covers the area of the world included in the authors upcoming novel and his rpg campaign area. I created the base map using CC2 (yes CC3 is better but I like CC2, have all the addons, and haven't felt like paying for CC3...lol.) After getting all the major components placed in CC2 I exported each layer to a single Illustrator file where I added text, and artsified it. I did all the work at an image size of 18x24 so that the map could be scaled down rather than blowing up. After completing in Illustrator I rasterized & shrunk the map in Photoshop.

[SSJPabs]

Huh. I wonder when sticking mountains to the north to block stuff off became common. Thinking back it seems a quite old convention. Anyhow, I am not into the canvas backing but otherwise it definitely is something I could see in a fantasy novel at the store.

How'd you place the mountains?

[Mark Oliva]

Watch out for the river police (and, if they exist, even more for the mountain police!). Still, if Prof. Tolkien could get away with it, maybe you can too.

[SSJPabs]

He made it from an author's stuff right? I assumed he has no control over geography. If the author says "town and river goes X" it's got to go there, right?

[tilt]

but sometimes its our job to "correct" the author - to protect him from... us *lol*

[Ghostwaryr]

This low rez version doesn't show it, and I'll definitely have to fix that, but the rivers are linked by canals. The original authors maps had interconnected rivers and I tried to keep as true to that as possible as most of the regions travel is through riverboats. As to the mountains, using my knowledge of geography (degree in geography with an emphasis in cartography and GIS) I found a way to justify his weird geography with only minor adjustments. So trust me that while unusual the tectonics are plausible ( I took his information and basic map, then found a way to actually justify the placement of his features with weather patterns, water currents, and tectonics). It was a pain, and in the end I figured the world to be about 2/3 the size of earth with a higher average mass, and slightly lower gravity.

[tilt]

sounds like you've done a lot of thinking - I usually just shoot from the hip *lol* ... but I do like my geography and rivers to be realistic - or give that semblance