Atlas of Asdel | The Free Cities of Dei

[morne]

the_free_cities_of_dei.png

Sourcegate | The Word of Iron

This map is a part of a larger world that started off as a homebrew DnD campaign, and has since evolved into a series of novels.

In this world, magic, known as Entra, has become increasingly rare and weak. The once-great magi that could move mountains with their will either died off or were forgotten about, resigned to live in solitude.

That is, until the Antuzan Empire, ruled over by an Emperor said to be the mouthpiece of a god known as Odeth, waged war on the world. The empire claims that when the sun rises and sets on the empire, Entra will be restored to the world.

The Free Cities of Dei

The region of Dei is located on the eastern coast of the Kadoran continent, surrounded by the Sinidar mountains to the south and west. Although often referred to as "the free cities" by it's people as well as outsiders, Dei is more closely described as a coregency. Since the beginning of the Soveriegn Age (circa 150 S.E.), the region of Dei has been governed by thirteen rulers, known as Atre, each residing in one of the thirteen ruling cities across Dei: Agazi, Akaron, Anstre Quel, Dei, Egemon, Elos, Eyver, Jozui, Nonrin, Riendre, Tuelon, Vodustran, and Vrata. Each of these rulers is a part of an independent dynasty that traces their roots of power back to the late Dark Age (circa 400 D.E.).

Dei is known for exporting exotic spices and fine silks, and have established strong trade relationships with nations all along the Plys sea.

Mapmaking

The process for making this map involved using GMTED2010 SRTM heightmaps to create the base terrain in photoshop, GDAL for projecting high resolution heightmaps to various projections, World Machine and Wilbur for some minor terrain manipulation and locating rivers and lakes, G.Projector for figuring out projections and creating graticules, and affinity designer for the final touches.

I have started a thread documenting my process that you can find here.

BONUS:

Just for fun, I threw my maps into a hardback book to create a concept atlas:

atlas_asdel.jpg

I've got quite a long while before I could even make that a reality, but it's fun to dream

[Michi il Disperso]

Woooow that's wonderful!
Pretty cool the book also

i think it suit it well

Longing for the tut

[CTA]

Beautiful topography! You said you used World Machine and Wilbur for locating rivers and lakes--how does that work? (a bit of a novice here in case it wasn't obvious)

[Arimel]

Really amazing map! Keep persevering for the full atlas! Those projects are really impressive. I know one of the cartographer's guild users (vorropohaiah) is doing a project along these lines that is just awe inspiring and provides plenty of inspiration (not certain if you had seen this yet!).

[QED42]

Can't rep you again so soon but great map!

[J.Edward]

I'm looking forward to that atlas.

[morne]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Beautiful topography! You said you used World Machine and Wilbur for locating rivers and lakes--how does that work? (a bit of a novice here in case it wasn't obvious)

I pretty much only use Wilbur's fill basins tool to make sure I don't have any errant depressions ( I know endorheic basins exist, but I tend to shy away from them in general ). In World Machine, I use Create Water to locate water flows, which gives me some rivers and lakes. I'll also use Flow Restructure + Create water to get really clean river output. I'll output those as masks and use them as rough guidelines to draw rivers and lakes in the final maps, accounting for average yearly rainfall based on the particular climate of a region. I hope to cover this in a future tutorial post, but hopefully that gives you a rough idea.

Really amazing map! Keep persevering for the full atlas! Those projects are really impressive. I know one of the cartographer's guild users (vorropohaiah) is doing a project along these lines that is just awe inspiring and provides plenty of inspiration (not certain if you had seen this yet!).

I am well aware of vorropohaiah's glorious project, he's my primary inspiration If not for him, I'd still be making maps that looked like this:
valmere.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Impressive atlas style that reminds me of the excellent Vorro's elyden.
And I love the book view!