Hi there! new (but not young) cartographer.

[Medio]

Greetings all.

My name is David, i´m 39, from Spain, and soon to be married, but still taking my (scarce) free time for RPGing with my (old) friends; i bought CC3 not too long ago, and fascinated for the chance of drawing my own maps, i also bought more and more stuff. I´ve been mapping now from some time, learning a bit, reading here and there ... i finally decided to try and i made some CC3 designs, you can see them in my post on the Finished maps, with the Erdan title.

Erdan is my fantasy RPG world, have been for the last ... humm ... dunno, ten years at least, if not more. Been RPGing - although with several long gaps between - since late 80s, fantasy mainly, and being DM also for close to 20 years now. I always create my own world and rules (well, lately i use something similar to Conan D20 rules, but with my own magic system, my own classes, different feats, many add ons in combat like rogues´ tricks, and also my own skill system ... so hardly can call a D20 game ... humm ok, i use mainly D20+ modifiers vs a difficulty so it´s a D20 game ) and always wanted to make my own maps. I even tested the CC2 but it was too primitive for my taste.

I´ve been checking PS mapping; i really like the raster maps but to be honest while i´m not an artist, i have a taste for the critique, and i didn´t like many of the finished maps i watched. Maybe i will use it for cities, dunno. CC3 it´s a bit cartoonish sometimes but you can get a very good look for maps, so i´m using it. I want to learn to use PS for mapping aswell but i guess it´s too hard for me to master. Who knows, i bought a nice camera and i´m slowly learning the ropes of the PS, maybe one day ... i have to check here about the tutorials of PS mapping, already added one threat to my favourites.

About Erdan, the world where i play and where i have to make lots of maps yet, i wrote in PF forums some vague description, but can be helpful. Here it is:

"Ahh that would be an interesting (and long) story. Actually, this is the second Erdan map; Erdan had a very different shape before Karre and his demon hordes would destroy it; it wasn´t even the first time Erdan´s shape was changed: the first two Gods who came to it, fleeing from a very big, dimensional war, fought for its conquest and such fight almost destroyed it, until they parlay and decided to conquer it with other means than direct power. Erdan was then an airless world, just unhabited by some strange saurius race known by the historians as the Wrexx, an empty world, which was waiting for the Creator to be ended as a true world, but Destruction, Creator´s son, killed his father before he could end Erdan´s.

Those two Gods decided to parlay, and take one thousand years of peace; in such time, they would make pawns and those pawns would decide who would rule Erdan. But their plans didn´t work as expected; one, member of the Chaos, just decided to create monsters, and test them fighting each other to know which one was the most powerful ones; the God got so much pleasure on doing it, that with the centuries he forgot its primal intention, and just unleashed all his power on creating more and more monsters. He actually became mad, and it´s said by the sages that he´s still alive, in some deep valley of Vaulnar, the Tainted continent.

The other God had no luck either; he was a Law being, and he made born seven son and daughters, who became lesser Gods, for controlling his empire, and also created dwarfs, humans and elves for habitating it. But he was a tyrant as a ruler, and his own sons, who loved the people he did create, finally ended assasinating him. No one of his sons actually knew about the treaty.

The humans, elves and dwarfs, free from his tyranic father, grow and spread all around Erdan, but the magical barrier that exisred between both Gods lands was eroded once one of the Gods died, and small contingents of the other God creatures creations entered Erdan aswell. They are commonly called monsters ( being orcs, goblings, ogres and such the most common ones; these were the ones that actually fled from Vaulnar and the horrible fights the Mad God forced to ).

But, a thousand years later, the Pact expired and the maggical barrier fell. And then, the dragons, the ultimate race the Mad God created, who had oblivioned all the other creatures, spread into Erdan, into what was called the Oceans of Fire. All the Erdan´s empires, one after other, were conquistated by the dragon armies. Then, a desesperated handful of human archmages, found what they thought an ally for fighting the dragons. They were fooled, as such allies wasn´t other than Karre, the Demon Prince, son of Destruction. He ended up quickly with those humans, and his horde also beat the dragon armies, and started destroying Erdan.

It was some kind of luck that the Ilithians came. The Air People, some elemental race created by the Creator itself at the beginning, was powerful, and banished the demons off a desolated Erdan. They actually found some few survivors, protected by the last God alive off those seven ones ( all others died fighting the demons). Then, the Ilithians gave powers to such people to reconstruct Erdan.

Now, it´s 980 years after Erdan´s Reconstruction. The Ilithians are time gone, and the human, elves and dwarfs, along some few of the Mad God creatures, rule the world, without knowing that there is a small Rift where the demons are slowly and sneakly entering back to Erdan again ..."

Thanks for all the good tips in here, and see you soon.

David

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[Gidde]

Welcome! Sounds like you have a great base for your worldbuilding

[tilt]

welcome... and remember, you don't have to wait for your map to be finished to post it... use the WIP threads for help and critique so you can get better

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!