The Cathedral Galaxy

[rdanhenry]

I kind of think local sources would be more appropriate for this map, since so much of what's mapped IS local light sources.

[Greason Wolfe]

That is a tough one to call. A single "universal" source of light would be the simplest approach and even if the contrast between light and shadow is high, wouldn't confuse the eyes very much. Using the strongest most local source for each structure/artifact might give each a little more individual character, but to much contrast between light and shadow might start confusing the eyes, kind of like having two different sources of light for a terrain map casting shadows in different directions. Like I said, tough one to call. Maybe best to try a test in both approaches and see which looks better.

[jshoer]

Thanks - here is today's go at it, using local light sources. I would do the border hulks as if lit by the galaxy itself.

CathedralGalaxy_201205.jpg

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In the Erhn region of the Imperium, an ancient structure partially surrounds an otherwise nondescript white dwarf, like a partial Dyson sphere. The construct remains intact and electrostatically charged, but its original function is unknown. To the Imperium, it is known as the Coliseum.

CathedralGalaxy_201205_Coliseum.jpg

Imperium praxists engineer creatures, including sentients, into biomechanical spacefaring exhibition warriors. Within the confines of the sphere, an orbit lasts a few days; gladiatorial matches often take weeks or months, as spectators come and go. Part of the combatants' biomechanical augmentation often involves altering their perception of time so that, to them, each fight is a fierce struggle for life or death. There is no better symbol of the Imperium: technologically advanced, aggressive, and without restraint.

I wrote about one such gladiatorial match here, about a battle between fighters known as The Kite and The Worm.

[jshoer]

So far, I've been working at the composition, the background galaxy image, and the landmarks scattered across the map. But I'm sure you've all been wondering what all these places are...obviously I've been dribbling out that lore, and if you look back at my first sketch, you'll see names penciled in. I've been playing with some layers in the Photoshop file that I've kept hidden...until now. Now, this is a map!

CathedralGalaxy_201207.jpg

I'm still thinking about how to do this well. I have a couple other ideas about how to do the political boundaries, and I'm not totally settled on the fonts. I also know I have work to do to make some of the labels more legible. I also have to make a few region-spanning labels for the Sector Republic (red), the Imperium of the Triumvirate (purple), and Amsiele (green). Any suggestions? Do the political color-shaded boundaries take away from the underlying art? What the heck do I do to make "The Traders' Rim" label (the one in blue to the upper left) legible?

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Usually, only a few generations after they discover the principles of faster-than-light spatial trajection, the species of the galaxy stumbled upon one of the great Anchors left by the archaics. Trajection is a key technology for a galactic civilization, but is not without its vagaries. Using a trajector, a ship vanishes from normal space and reappears in a new location - but only after an elapsed interval of seventeen days, three hours, and fifty-one minutes; the same length of time for any distance trajection, and always imperceptible to the ship's passengers. Unlike spatial trajection - which has a range of tens to hundreds of lightyears, depending on the trajector's capability - the Anchors provide access to instantaneous transit across a great network of wormholes spanning the entire galaxy. The network goes by many names - Channels, Vessels, Passages - and it defines the politics of the galaxy. Only arterial wormhole channels are shown on this map; they are not always in a star system and their names, therefore, refer not only to nearby worlds but also to ancient relics or galactic landmarks. Each arterial Anchor has some number of capillary channels feeding into it, but the network is by no means dense. It may take years of trajecting for a ship to cross unconnected space. The Far Reaches are so named because of the limited access to that region, and the strange kingdom of Babylon cuts off almost all typical commerce with the Free Worlds. (The Dead Ones are so named because they live in a nearly unconnected region...as well as certain unsavory legends.) The empty spans between spiral arms remain persistently long distances to cross, and sustained wars between galactic nations remain infeasible (though this has not prevented the Imperium from fighting consistent skirmishes, and the all-out war between Amsiele and Shobah decimated the region now known as the Well of Ghosts).

[jshoer]

Many more little things over the past couple days, but they add up to a lot!

I've jiggled around the labels, tweaked the coloring to make that illegible Traders' Rim tag visible, and added color variation on the artifacts' metal plating. Probably most prominently, I did a first cut at coloring and shading the ancient hulk on the lower left. It's lit as if from the galaxy itself. How do you think it works?

CathedralGalaxy_201209.jpg

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Xenophobic and militant, the Free Worlds are a confederation of isolated systems that fiercely resist any outside influence. Residents of the inner galaxy caricature them as nations of pirates and bandits, but the truth is that the confederation has a rigid code of laws that the Free Worlds scrupulously obey – as, under their governing treaties, any member world has the right to enforce that code. When threatened by Babylon or the Dead Ones, the Free Worlds immediately contribute individual militias. However, internally, the individual worlds are almost as isolated from each other as from the other galactic polities.

[jshoer]

Today's update - I'm trying a few things:

CathedralGalaxy_201211.jpg

Three questions...

1. What do you think of my font choices? There are two, one for landmarks and gates, and the other for regions and titles. I like the landmark/gate font, but I worry about how distinct some of the letters are. The region/title font also seems to work here, but might be a tad heavy. Any thoughts?

2. I made an attempt above to label the nations with multiple regions. (Red - the Republic, purple - the Imperium, and green - Amseile.) Does it work well enough? I also added a key off at the bottom right, both because it adds to the worldbuilding and because that gives another way to identify those polities. Is the key out of place? Would it be better to leave the national labels off the main map?

3. I'm playing with styles for the foreground structures. Here's the pyramidal construct with line art, without line art, and with some fuzzing effects to try and imitate artwork like John Harris'. What do you think?

CathedralGalaxy_HulkLines.jpgCathedralGalaxy_HulkNoLines.jpgCathedralGalaxy_HulkHarris.jpg

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The Mariner Worlds are a loose affiliation of wanderers, not all native to this sparse region of the galaxy. They have periodically launched expeditions outside the Cathedral Galaxy towards the smaller orbiting clusters in its local group - purely for the sake of the journey. Prominent landmarks in the Mariner Worlds include Harbor, a partial Dyson ring that should be gravitationally unstable yet has maintained itself for eons, and the Lighthouse, an array of quiescent Archaean transmitters and instruments facing outward from the galactic spiral arm.

[rdanhenry]

I prefer the "with lineart" option, though the lack of crispness without might be better if you want to suggest that the object is worn down with age. The fuzzy version looks like it's slipping out of phase with the universe.

I think that the fonts are okay, but there are probably better ones out there... somewhere... possibly for a price. It is probably worth a bit of experimentation with alternatives, but not too much. What you have is good enough that sinking a lot of time into maybe finding a marginally better pair of fonts doesn't seem worth it.

[jshoer]

Thanks! I'm playing with the opacity on the line art layer a bit to try and get a happy medium. I'll see how it looks when I have some more coloring done.

[jshoer]

I think I'm getting close to the end. It's a funny feeling with this particular map - I don't want this particular bout of creativity to stop!

CathedralGalaxy_201213.jpg

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Shobah is a nation of rigid structures and protocols. It is home to a sect of Librarians who believe that the Ancients discovered all knowledge it is possible to find, and therefore focus all research on the great ruins scattered throughout the galaxy. In the past, Shobah and Amseile have been locked in destructive conflicts; the devastated Well of Ghosts is a monument to these interstellar wars.

[jshoer]

I feel like I keep posting updates faster than anyone can see and respond, but I just can't resist! Added some more energy fields to the foreground constructs, and glows around a selection of stars.

CathedralGalaxy_201214.jpg

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Though once a vast space empire, by 26k800 the Seat of the Imperium had become a bombastic though ineffectual office. True power within the empire passed to the Triumvirate of governing bodies of Aoreu, Golaj, and Erhn. The Imperium is still, officially, a unified polity, though the Triumvirate governments sometimes have trouble preventing local skirmishes among the three member regions (or neighboring nations). Those of Aoreu and Golaj despise the Mariner Worlds and Traders’ Rim, regarding them as nationless vagabonds.