Map 04 - Cayad, Realm of the Carnelian God-Empress

[Tonnichiwa]

I really like the old parchment look you have used. Very nicely done.

[Abu Lafia]

Thanks Chashio, thanks Tonnichiwa, glad you like it!
I worked further on the northern region, the Satrapy of Zarg, incoorporated only recently (well it's a couple of centuries ago...) into the realm. It's the most fertile region with lots of jungles and plenty of water. The mountain ranges are rich with metals and gems, adding to the wealth of the coastal cities, accumulated by selling spices and other exotic goods from the rainforests. The Satrapy's capital is Zargura, the ancient palace city in the mountains, far away from the busy harbour cities and their sometimes dangerous merchants... The Satrapy is the most wealthiest in the whole realm (at least regarding profane wealth) and so the God-Empress' eyes are always focussed on this small strip of land in the north.
### LATEST WIP ###
CAYAD_WIP3.jpg

Before continuing with the mountains in the southern heartlands of Cayad, i wanted to tackle my nemesis, the forests, in the north (luckily the only forests in the realm ), what do you think of them?

I colored the mountains and forests (without shading for now).

Also started to test streets, city-icons and labels.

Cheers,
AL

[Barek333]

I think the forests are good and the cities fit very well with the background color, not, completely sold on the names/font/color.

This will end up really good

[J.Edward]

Oh, that looks really nice.
I'm diggin the color scheme sir.
It looks great on the antique colored background.

[Chashio]

That is a very pretty style.

[Tonnichiwa]

I like it!, the forests look great and I love the way the background makes your rivers look. The cities go well with it as well. Nice job!

[Ilanthar]

Excellent! The color palette is very appealing.

[Southern Crane]

Thanks Chashio, thanks Tonnichiwa, glad you like it!
I worked further on the northern region, the Satrapy of Zarg, incoorporated only recently (well it's a couple of centuries ago...) into the realm. It's the most fertile region with lots of jungles and plenty of water. The mountain ranges are rich with metals and gems, adding to the wealth of the coastal cities, accumulated by selling spices and other exotic goods from the rainforests. The Satrapy's capital is Zargura, the ancient palace city in the mountains, far away from the busy harbour cities and their sometimes dangerous merchants... The Satrapy is the most wealthiest in the whole realm (at least regarding profane wealth) and so the God-Empress' eyes are always focussed on this small strip of land in the north.
### LATEST WIP ###
CAYAD_WIP3.jpg

Before continuing with the mountains in the southern heartlands of Cayad, i wanted to tackle my nemesis, the forests, in the north (luckily the only forests in the realm ), what do you think of them?

I colored the mountains and forests (without shading for now).

Also started to test streets, city-icons and labels.

Cheers,
AL

I love this color palette. It adds a lot of flavor.

[Lingon]

Very nice stuff, the mountains are really epic! And the colors are lovely

[Abu Lafia]

Thank you so much for all the wonderful feedback! I greatly appreciate it.
@ Barek: I put a slight dark outer glow around the labels. I like them a lot more now, what's your opinion?

Notorious weakness in grasping a proper step-by-step workflow and the conceptual premiss to create a landscape loosely related to the laws of nature drove me way down south. To the plains of Duun: There it started all...
### LATEST WIP ###
CAYAD_WIP4.jpg
Would love to hear your honest opinion if this is not way too ... well you know... it starts with "c" and ends with "heesy"?

The Ktlaq Homelands are termite-mound-like mountains where the carnelian God-Empress resides in her gigantic palace ... like Mordor ... with insects ^^. The plateau with the bloodstone in the centre is indeed a bit "in your face", but hey, i'm going for high fantasy in a deserty setting .

The Kamaad Plateau and the plains of Duun are home to various human tribes. First they saw the coming of Yshtar as a sign of doom and turned against her. When she came back with legions of zealous Ktlaq warriors, they gave it a second thought...
Nowadays Carn is the spiritual center of Cayad and a place of pilgrimage for all beings in the realm

Not entirely sure about the idea to place some story elements on the map, but there is just so much space with this scale.

Apropos scale, cayadian cartographers tend to represent the important sites on their maps bigger than they actually are. The masters in Azuredawn are usually not very pleased by this habit, but it is common knowledge among endless generations of cayadian map-makers, that it's much better to make your colleagues laugh about you, than to incur the wrath of the God-Empress...

Cheers,
AL