Reply With QuoteDamn, that is HUGE.
Jeeeezus, that is a large map... o_O'
I'm curious how this looks in the end, keep up the good work =)
Visit me on ArtStation.
Damn, that is HUGE.
After about a month and a half and over 400 hours, I've researched and labeled just about all the locations. I say just about because I'm sure I'll find more as I dig into less mainstream material and start to label the land. Fortunately, the long and tedious part is over. Until I did this I never realized just how subjective these maps are. There really are only a few main cartographers for the realms and a lot of the maps out there are influenced by choices of the cartographers. Some choices are made with designers -most of the good 4E maps by Mike Schley are very accurate and made to go with publications-, however, some maps are made without the article designer having any input leading to the map that literally goes with an article to have locations in the wrong positions. On top of that, one of the most active Forgotten Realms cartographers likes to alter maps to make more sense which includes adding pseudo-canon lore and homebrew. While most of the things he adds are heavily discussed through Candlekeep with opinions and comments from some of the most prominent FR sages and designers, it does simply fall to "what he thinks it should be". That makes looking up 'what actually is' really hard and annoying sometimes. On top of that, some lore is only detailed in 2E and in 2E some of the geographies are different so placing some of those things on a 3E map requires you to figure it out, other times you have to revert the geography to an earlier edition because whoever did the 3E map was obviously not paying attention.
That said, Candlekeep has been a great forum to chat with some of the authors and designers and read about what they say about the geography that hasn't been printed properly. Many maps are made from other maps and we all know how the copy of a copy thing works. That's why this has taken so long. Digging through pdf's to look up lore, seeing if game designers or Ed have unfiltered comments on places, determining what spelling is right, and THEN making sure it fits the into a 3E timeline. With that though, I think I'd argue what I'm putting together is one of the most correct, lore-accurate, and detailed 3E maps ever made. I've not included prominent Underdark locations, but I'd like to include the most prominent ones if there is space. I have included prominent Serōs (water of the Sea of Fallen Stars) locations already and will try to track down things in the Trackless Sea and Great Sea eventually, too.
The next part is labeling the geography. Fortunely, that's -far- more straightforward!
Here it is so far at 75%. Its a link though since its too big to host here.
Faerūn+ Continent Map
This is 50%.
### Latest WIP ###
Faerun-Continent-LF-02-Large-Symbols-50p-2.jpg
Wow this is impressive, I tried to do the same and gave up after 3 months, as I could not so clearly distinct between correct and messed up maps floatimg around. But well I have spend a year on reconstructing RuneQuest / Glorantha maps for Chaosium with access to Greg's original maps from the 70' and its insane to cope all the iterations since it was initial created. So I can relate to your work here
That does sound a lot like what I've been going through. The only fortunate part is that the change from 3E to 4E was really dramatic and there's a lot less 4E material. Plus, some of the new 4E locations can be added because they would have existed during the 3E timeline and I'm including those. Having a full original does help a lot, but I've found that some changes to the original have become so mainstream that I feel reverting back would be too confusing and even considered 'wrong'. If all the lore I can find points to something different, I usually go with the change. I never realized how much subjectiveness there'd be.Originally Posted by Schwarzkreuz
Wow this is impressive, I tried to do the same and gave up after 3 months, as I could not so clearly distinct between correct and messed up maps floatimg around. But well I have spend a year on reconstructing RuneQuest / Glorantha maps for Chaosium with access to Greg's original maps from the 70' and its insane to cope all the iterations since it was initial created. So I can relate to your work here
Request
Would you allow me, when you are done, to use your map as an information base for my own interpretation of Faerūn? Honestly, I trust your work here more than those of Wizard of the Coast
I am an Art Historian, so working from so many contradicting official material was a bit both frustrating but also familiar with working for Museums to recreate old maps.
I understand. There's actually a lot of wrong information and misspellings on official products. Enough so, that when there are misspellings and it seems evident in a couple places, I'll use the one I think is most correct and then put -sp: (othername)- in small type underneath so people know that they might find information under both spellings. Because there have been a few times I search and search for a place and can't find anything then realize its all under another spelling. Very annoying, especially when its in the official published products.Would you allow me, when you are done, to use your map as an information base for my own interpretation of Faerūn? Honestly, I trust your work here more than those of Wizard of the Coast
I am an Art Historian, so working from so many contradicting official material was a bit both frustrating but also familiar with working for Museums to recreate old maps.
Anyways! To your questions: Yes, I'd be happy if the map was able to help you in any way. Another good resource that I use is the Candlekeep.com site. There are authors and designers and very knowledgeable sages that are very helpful in locating information or even providing information from their notes that's never been published.
Sounds awesome. Thanks!
I was thinking about making a map of the Dark Sun World, when I have more time.
After a break, I've finished labeling geography. Rivers, Roads, and Mountain Peaks will be next and the fourth file. There are some corrections to make (and some already made but not updated to the full map), but due to each part being its own file, fixing things each time I see them is annoying; I'll do it at the end. The file that has all the location names uses enough memory I can't open it at the same time as the others anyhow.
Let me know what you think and enjoy. It's at about 80% zoom here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_TI...ew?usp=sharing
Well, it's been a while, but I've managed to put some more time in. The research required for this thing takes sooo long, but when I get in the groove and have all the other maps and websites open it's pretty easy to focus. For this update, I labeled rivers and roads, added some bridges, and made some other fixes and additions. I also added a key and distances. I need to do more bridges, label waterfalls, and mountain peaks. I'd like to add major Underdark locations eventually as well.
On a technological note, getting a 500gb M.2 to use solely as a scratch disk for Photoshop has been amazing for editing these. Plus I linked them (the four separate maps that go together to make this) together so when I update one, it updates the merged layer for it in the other maps which has made switching between them to fix things much easier.
Below is a preview of it. But the entire thing (10k wide) can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IJ4...ew?usp=sharing
X_Full Map_02_jpg thumbnail.jpg
Updated 8/26/20
Last edited by fusblr; 08-26-2020 at 07:17 PM.
