Tropan: The Northern Reaches

[Diamond]

Hey all! This is another redesign of my homebrew world, Tropan. This is a planet deep in the grip of an ice age, populated by the decadent remnants of once world-spanning empires, and smaller alliances of independent city-states. There are two main continents, each centered on one of the poles; the one shown here is part of Noctiland, the northern continent. Tropan rotates far more slowly than Earth; each day and night lasts about 72 hours each. This may not have always been the case, as only some of the flora and fauna are adapted to this extended day/night cycle.

Magic and science co-exist uneasily here: the blood necromancers of Githlia use bits and pieces of the Old Science to power the lights in their cities; the nomadic Gannakazzer tribes ride the descendants of genetically-engineered war-rats; the spider-mages of Lorkan use remnants of an ancient DNA codex to create their unholy fusions of spider and man. Tropan's native race, the insect-like Qol, dwell deep within the earth; they are the stewards of much of what remains of the Old Science.

There are legends and prophecies that a hero will come to deliver the world from the grip of Father Ice, but who that hero may be and where they come from remains a mystery...

_______________

This is a labor of love for me; I must have redesigned, tweaked, and altered this setting a dozen times in the last 20 years. Someday I hope to have it nailed down to a shape I can live with. In the meantime, it's fun to add to my Grand Codex, an encyclopedia of all things Tropan which is currently running at more than 500 individual entries.

Credits:

Background Parchment: Torstan
Font: Hammerhead Regular
Compass: rpgmapmaker

[Mouse]

Love it, D

The delicate colours of the land are just gorgeous - and the shields are a treat

[QED42]

Very cool, I especially like the shields at the bottom but in general an all round, really well done map.

[Voolf]

This is stunning map Diamond, beautiful winter colours. I love it.

[Barek333]

Great work Diamond

[Eilathen]

I love the mountains in this one. Very good looking. And, curiously, the weirdly shaped triangle trees really work for me as well

As Mouse said, the colors are gorgeous. I love the overall feel of this map.

[- JO -]

The context of the map seems to me extremely worked and finished, very rich in ideas and possibilities ... If I understand correctly, it is your creation? Congratulations, in this case! Your imagination is limitless (500 entries in your encyclopedia is enormous!) As for the map, it is successful in every way, but I particularly like the way you brought the ice to the north: a sort of gradient very well done, playing on textures and shades! And, of course, a very special bravo for the coat of arms ... I like the coats of arms in general, and these are particularly successful, either in the choice of elements, or in the rendering of volumes and textures ! It's very, very nice work, all that!

[Diamond]

Thanks for the compliments, fellow Guildies!

@Eilathen: wha... huh? Could this... possibly be a map you have no complaints with???

@JO: yep, my creation/setting/huge mutant baby.

A note on the coats of arms: I created them all, just not for this specific map. They were re-purposed from other works of mine. I think a couple of them I used on my 'Lands of the Line' challenge map last year.

[Matthew VE]

Looks absolutely fantastic, Diamond! I especially love the mountains and the coloring. The font looks great too!

[Ilanthar]

Great, another D. map! I'm just gonna echo the others here : the colors are great, the shields very cool, and the bits of story makes me eager to know more.
One nitpick : the transition between the frozen lands and the south looks a bit weird, imho.