Reply With QuoteHere's an update. map.jpg Good night everyone.
.... Ignore the sideways map.
The Semaphore line and the Heliograph are both interesting ideas. Since my story has a bit of a steam-punk theme I may make them look a bit more mechanical.
Here's an update. map.jpg Good night everyone.
.... Ignore the sideways map.
Last edited by Robin Ryuu; 08-01-2013 at 11:20 PM.
Here's another update. map.jpg If anything wrong stands out please tell me, I've been staring at it so long I can't tell anymore. And here's a rough sketch of a larger map. large map.jpg As you can see it needs a lot of work.
real nice hand work there
I guess the first place to start is to look at why people would have come to this land, and what they were seeking, as this will very much dictate the pattern of settlement. Being a location at high latitude, and apparently in the foothills of some mountains at that, it's unlikely it was agriculture, as the grounds not likely to be fertile for cereal crops. Grazing could be an option, but in cold climates grass grows slowly, so this isn't likely to have been the major draw.
The most common draw to higher latitudes, historically, was timber, minerals, and furs. What you'd likely see first is small towns established on the coast as trader settlements, from which trappers, miners, and lumberjacks set out to isolated distant settlements that might be as small as individual houses. Much of their food will have to be shipped up river to them.
With the wars and the coming of notable monsters, had the resources on offer been as mundane as wolf pelts and timber, they'd probably have simply abandoned the region, but they haven't, so we have to assume there's some pretty valuable resources hidden away; gold, iron, tin, perhaps some rare forest-dwelling animal whose fur is particularly prized by the wealthy. The people that stay behind are going to be the tough sort, staying secure in heavily fortified coastal towns and venturing out well-armed to equally well-protected distant outposts to do their work. The most dangerous part of their job is likely the trips out from their outposts back to the towns, on wagons heavily laden with minerals or pelts.
An obvious place for expansion with the arrival of the industrial revolution is coal. That's going to see things go into overdrive, with the outposts expanding into significant mining towns of their own, perhaps with roads cut through the woods to make it easier to bring the coal out, or else if a river is handy, shipped down the water to the ever growing trading centres, now perhaps small cities in their own right. Their food, mostly, is still going to be brought up the coast or overland from warmer climes, but perhaps some eager souls have established orchards and pasture lands in the south, around the lake. The river that links the lake the coast could act as a natural barrier between the farming settlements and the nasties in the woods and mountains to the north.
I've worked on the map a bit more. map.jpg
I have two questions I could use someone's opinion on.
1. Which of the two circled cities would be the capital? The red one, the oldest fortress, or the orange one, a large trade city?
2. What would the red body of water be called?
1. I would say orange, personallyOriginally Posted by Robin Ryuu
2. The red body of water, if navigable, might be called a strait, although I'd be inclined not to name it at all.
1- I would say orange too because it's located along important rivers ... Oh I mean it's the most important city but capitals are usually important cities but not always.
2- You don't have a lot of space so I would not bother to name it.
I understand that "that" body of water wouldn't have an official name on a map or anything, however it is a known area to avoid because of the pirate base/town.
then indicate the pirate base or call it the pirate's strait
