September Entry: The Celesian Empire

[Sapiento]

This map shows the continent of Drovia and the Celesian Empire on the planet Terrneva, 2870 years after the colonial transport MIMAS crashed down on the planet (after being pulled into an unknown region of space by a unknown hyperspace effect).
The freight of the MIMAS consisted of: 300.000 colonists including material and animals bound for planet Roma Nova (Roman Revivalists/low level tech), 40.000 colonists bound for planet Triibaaldii (Inventive Creativists) and 15.000 frozen specimen of recreated sauroids including 40 persons of scientific staff bound four planet Crichton's Vision.
After loosing modern technology (which the Roman Revivalists didn't have too much anyway) civilization rose again and the Celesians (descendants of a group of the Roman Revivalists) built the largest empire on the planet. The actual level of technology is comparable to mid 16th century Terran Standard Calendar. Language is a bastardized form of Latin.

I hope I met the theme of the September challenge good enough.

The pictures of the ships and dinosaurs I took from Wikipedia, everything else is my creation. Mountains and trees are brushes I found here in the resources thread.

EDIT: After the useful comments of Gandwarf and Redrobes I changed the map and added dates to the provinces and some islands which shown the year of colonization, incorporation or conquest.

Additionally, I decided to 'translate' the legend here:

Magnificient Map
of the continent of Drovia
and nearby islands
showing the Celesian Empire
in the Imperial Year 1618
in the year 2780 after landing from the stars
in the 20th year of reign of great
Emperor Falko VII
capital town
major town major fortress
holy city of landing
imperial streets
Celesia - province
Angrevia - military province
Celesia - town

(238 ) Year of colony foundation
(303) Year of incorporation [this is by diplomatic means]
(1412) Year of conquest


### Latest WIP ###

[Ascension]

I edited your post to conform to the entry requirements. I saved it as a quality 10 jpg and added the wip tag for the thumbnailer. A very nice map so far.

[Steel General]

Looking good so far, nice to see some additional entries.

[Sapiento]

I edited your post to conform to the entry requirements. I saved it as a quality 10 jpg and added the wip tag for the thumbnailer. A very nice map so far.

Thanks a lot.

[Gandwarf]

Great map Sapiento, this is certainly one of your better maps.
How are you going to show the passage of time though?

[Sapiento]

Great map Sapiento, this is certainly one of your better maps.
How are you going to show the passage of time though?

The passage of time is showed by the dates and the technological development shown on the map - crash of high tech people, downfall and redevelopment to the actual state. I know, it is not very strong, but I think I qualifies for passage of time - here the effect time had on the settlers.

[Gandwarf]

Agreed, it does qualify. The map is beautiful and the vote will reflect what the others think of it.

As you can see by my reaction though: it wasn't immediately clear how you worked the passage of time theme into this map. I guess I was looking for two maps.

[Sapiento]

Agreed, it does qualify. The map is beautiful and the vote will reflect what the others think of it.

As you can see by my reaction though: it wasn't immediately clear how you worked the passage of time theme into this map. I guess I was looking for two maps.

I had thought about this. I think the problem is that the labeling is in Celesian = degenerated Latin (on the one hand giving the map some originality, but OTOH makes it more difficult to read), so it becomes not clear on the first look.
First I had thought about adding the growing borders of the Empire over the time but this would have been too much. It is already heavily labeled. I tried to make a slight homage to some renaissance maps i had seen once which show equally strong labeling.

[Redrobes]

Its a great map but I agree with points above. I didn't see it as an entry until I read down and saw Ascensions mods. So I am not sure how well it will fare in voting but you should be assured that its well made tho. I think that your specialist knowledge adds to the map that we all don't quite see it the same, not having your knowledge background. Actually, its often the case that the pretty map wins over the one that follows the criteria more faithfully.

I like the compass rose and also the gray undertone of the icons underneath the map showing items of interest but that does not get in the way of the map elements.

I would suggest that for name labels that are within about +/- 10 degrees of horizontal that you should just make them horizontal and find a way to place them that makes sense. When a line is very near horizontal or vertical but not quite, it tends to look like an error. That's particularly true with text where were all used to seeing it horizontal in books and magazines.

[Sapiento]

Its a great map but I agree with points above. I didn't see it as an entry until I read down and saw Ascensions mods. So I am not sure how well it will fare in voting but you should be assured that its well made tho. I think that your specialist knowledge adds to the map that we all don't quite see it the same, not having your knowledge background. Actually, its often the case that the pretty map wins over the one that follows the criteria more faithfully.

I like the compass rose and also the gray undertone of the icons underneath the map showing items of interest but that does not get in the way of the map elements.

I would suggest that for name labels that are within about +/- 10 degrees of horizontal that you should just make them horizontal and find a way to place them that makes sense. When a line is very near horizontal or vertical but not quite, it tends to look like an error. That's particularly true with text where were all used to seeing it horizontal in books and magazines.

Thanks for the comment. I placed dates of conquest on the map and put the distorted labels (all I found, at least) in the horizontal lines.