The Union of Holy Kingdoms

[Diamond]

This is a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire - the UHK is more centralized, but still essentially a collection of independent kingdoms and assorted other states. To the north you've got the Ferrenland Republic, which is a Dutch analog, and north of that is Knurland, a barbarous forest wilderness inhabited by pseudo-Norse lycanthrope tribes. South of the UHK are the Nine Kingdoms, a coalition of 'Swiss' Dwarven nations, and south of them is the Etrenian Peninsula, filled with Italian-esque nations.

My New Year's Resolution was to actually finish a story idea I start, and this is the setting for the one I've settled on, so as I get to writing on it, I'll most likely do further maps for the setting, regional maps, city maps, etc.

I developed my own simple technique for creating coats-of-arms; I did a tutorial for it, which can be found here. The WIP thread for the map itself is here. Fonts used on the map are ariapenci for the nation names, and good old Times New Roman for the city and river names.

I also included a picture I did of Anka Halfblood, one of the main characters featuring in my story/book-in-progress, created using Jeff Hebert's awesome HeroMachine.

[SkinnyKazoo]

Thanks a lot...looks like we had similar thoughts on finishing projects haha...

Your help with those shields is much appreciated!

[Diamond]

No problem; glad to help.

[Galendae]

Looks great! Really like the shields. I love geo political maps.

[arsheesh]

Very nice layout Diamond. I like your custom heraldic shields allot as well. If and when I ever get around to doing another map I'll definitely check into your tutorial. Also, nice job on that Anka piece! Looking forward to reading the book for your world. I'd rep you for another job well done but it looks like I've got to spread around the love a bit first.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Sapiento]

Wonderful map, Diamond! A pity I can't rep you yet.

[pamoa]

very nice work indeed
and thank for the Swiss dwarves !!!
we aren't so stubborn and small sized, lol

[Eilathen]

and thank for the Swiss dwarves !!!

Yeah, I felt offended....

Nice map, as always (I hope you do the physical map with the "real" mountains some day). It seems i can't rep you, have to spread it around a bit...

[ravells]

Beautiful work, Diamond! My only (very small) crit is that the mountains don't seem to fit well with the style, but that's just me. Have some rep! (if it will let me).

[Diamond]

I can't believe nobody likes my fuzzy caterpillar mountains...

Well, I'm working on an southern extension to this map now, so I'll try out some different mountain styles.