Eastern Athearn & The Mirrorwood

[PorkStewJoe]

Here's a map! With some notes for those interested

Athearn-map.jpg

For my Dungeons and Dragons game I mapped part of the lands of Athearn, visualizing the forests, mountains, rivers and towns of this nook of the world. I wanted it to look like a thing that actually existed in the world - made by an actual inhabitant of Athearn, not drawn by some omniscient illustrator. This would mean that some parts of the map might be embellished, or just straight up incorrect. Hopefully this way the players felt like the world was *mysteriouus*.


treyford and area.jpg blenksell.jpg gul karakh.jpg five fires.jpg

Dots on the Map
I wanted to differentiate the settlements of my fantasyland: giving them all their own bit of character so that they were more than just dots on the map. ⁠⁠So I drew miniatures of each town, featuring landmarks a traveler might actually recognize. The size of the settlements indicates importance, with the two rival capitals of Treyford and Blenskell even being accompanied by standard-bearers flying the reigning clans' colours.


dragon and firebird.jpg hill monster.jpg

Dragons, Frogs and Firebirds
As they would surely be the star of many an adventure, I wanted the critters of this world to also make an appearance. ⁠⁠Inspiration came from the old Hereford Mappa Mundi, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. The map was framed by many naked frogmen and other crazy creatures. I toned down the quantity of nude amphibians a bit, but liked the idea of having these little portraits surrounding the map. ⁠I further alluded to the lands outside of the scope of this map by putting some cryptic text in the frame, thereby making the world expand beyond the edge of the paper.

Hope you liked my little write-up. And if you have any thoughts or feedback, please let me know! This map is pretty much done, but in the interest of my continued carthographic career I'd like to improve

[Arimel]

Really enjoyable map and great details! The frogmen look great! You mentioned that in some areas the map was just plain wrong. Does this mean you have another version of the map that has the accurate depictions?

[Gadiouka]

Wow, I really like the overall ancient feeling of this map! The color choices work very well, especially that deep blue for the rivers. I also find very interesting to make the biases and misconceptions of the people who live in the region as a basis for the mapping.

[PorkStewJoe]

Thank you!

In a sense, yes. But that is only a rough sketch for my personal use as a DM. I didn't go so far as to making it look as nice. So this is the only map the players know, but they are welcome to make corrections to it themselves. So the more remote and mysterious locations live mostly in their experience and memory.

[TimetoDraw]

I think you achieved exactly the inhabitant drawn style map that you were aiming for. Like distances won't quite be right and scale is off and the outline is a guestimate just like maps of old. Plus that perspective of the mountains curving off into the horizon looks great!

Well done, your players are spoiled

[Eowyn Cwper]

It's awesome to be able to achieve the style of someone incompetent when you're an able mapmaker! The horizon is what I love most, it makes the valley look so far away, almost unreachable, and I do get these *mysteryyy* vibes. Beautiful!

[Marc Moureau]

I really love this one ! It looks like a map from the early middle ages.

There's also something that reminds me of Tolkien's drawings. Something in the mountains and the stars... and maybe the green dragon.

[rdanhenry]

This is wonderful. I cannot pick out anything in particular to call out for praise because it is just all-around excellent. Really has that archaic map feel, too.

[fol2dol]

I like it, especially the dwarven city!

[PorkStewJoe]

I think you achieved exactly the inhabitant drawn style map that you were aiming for. Like distances won't quite be right and scale is off and the outline is a guestimate just like maps of old. Plus that perspective of the mountains curving off into the horizon looks great!

Indeed, I very much like the awkwardness of truly old maps: rivers twisting in werd angles, mountain ranges like straight lines, and whole landmasses being squeezed to fit the canvas. I wanted this map to be not just a document telling you where everything is, but also conveying something about what this world is like. So it's not a neatly organized map, it's messy and chaotic - much like the world itself.

It's awesome to be able to achieve the style of someone incompetent when you're an able mapmaker!

Haha, thanks! It was actually great fun to purposefully make things look a bit off here and there.

There's also something that reminds me of Tolkien's drawings. Something in the mountains and the stars... and maybe the green dragon.

I won't deny being inspired by the endless amount of Middle Earth maps. Who isn't, they are usually extremely beautiful and well done!
There was one of the lonely mountain that had these little scribbles on it, paragraphs of text here and there, that told little stories about the people living there or some historic happening. Definitely an inspiration.

I like it, especially the dwarven city!

That was actually a nice surprise for the Dwarf player to see his hometown on the map. They haven't been all that interested in it since then though, haha