Vaniya by Ramah

[Gandwarf]

I am curious about the Child Fair...

[Ramah]

The Child fair does exactly what it says on the tin.

It wasn't supposed to be a town on its own like that, it was supposed to be IN a town or city but at the time I couldn't think up a decent name so I just placed it on the map as is.

Due to The Blight that the land is suffering, children have become worth their weight in gold. The states sell off any orphans to fund their war efforts, kidnapping and roaming armed bands hunting for children are commonplace - it's not a great time to be young.
The Child Fair is the biggest such place, where people bring their wares (including destitute fathers selling their own children) from far and wide to get the best prices. There are various smaller fairs and auctions throughout the lands, but the one in Rydony is the biggest.

[Gandwarf]

That is certainly a cool background story... now, why didn't I think of that

[RjBeals]

Congrats - I'm loving this map. Can you give me some insight on how you did the mountains / hills? They all look so unique, did you draw by hand then scan in? Or is it a custom brush or something you made? A+ !!

[Ascension]

And here I thought the child fair was a medieval disneyworld. Man, that sounds like a very bleak place to live.

[PixelFish]

Wonderful work, Ramah. I liked this so much I linked it on my art blog, hope you don't mind.

I thought it was funny that you have a city named Cadenze, as I have a city called Cadenza in my world. Great minds must think alike. I don't know how you picked your name but I chose the name because I wanted something evocative of Florence, or Firenza, and so I smashed it together with the word "cadence" to get Cadenza.

[Gandwarf]

Ramah probably saw your map and liked the name

[Ramah]

I thought it was funny that you have a city named Cadenze, as I have a city called Cadenza in my world. Great minds must think alike. I don't know how you picked your name but I chose the name because I wanted something evocative of Florence, or Firenza, and so I smashed it together with the word "cadence" to get Cadenza.

I wish I could say that I thought things through that much. About 50% of the names on the map were the first thing that came into my head that didn't sound too sucky to me. That particular name I recall because I liked how it was close to "cadence", but that is as much thought as went into it. I can't recall whereabouts on the map I placed it though. Hehe.

I cannot completely rule out unconciously having noted it from your map but I believe not. I have/had a place in Aronbor on mine called "Havnor" which I thought was quite a cool name. I was gutted when I picked up an Earthsea book quite recently and found out it was a place name there. I read the first three Earthsea books many, many years ago so maybe that name stuck in my mind. I don't know. I like to think not but... <shrug>


EDIT: Just seen you've only just posted your map today so I guess I didn't unconsciously copy.
And I don't mind about the link of course, it's cool.

[Ramah]

Congrats - I'm loving this map. Can you give me some insight on how you did the mountains / hills? They all look so unique, did you draw by hand then scan in? Or is it a custom brush or something you made? A+ !!

The mountains and hills were all done with custom brushes I drew. For the mountains I probably had about 20 brushes in the end but only used about a dozen (the rest of them were bad I guess, they never looked right when I placed them). The hills were the same although there were probably less brushes made and used - probably about 10 regular ones used. If you knew the order I did the hills in you could probably see how they become slightly more varied as I added more brushes.

I found making the brushes extremely tedious as I did them with the mouse and it gets a bit soul-destroying having to try and draw another curve that looks ok and then try and shade another large swathe of brush with my non-writing hand. :s So because of that I'd add one or two new ones every few days, hence the hills done at the end having more brushes used.

Personally I think the hills look more varied than the mountains anyway because the only way I could get them to look half decent in my mind was to do the shading between the brushes which make them look more hand drawn.

If/when I do a zoomed in map or maybe another continent in which another story (I once started and never finished ) takes place, then I'd LOVE to get myself a tablet and make a better job of the mountains.

[PixelFish]

I wish I could say that I thought things through that much. About 50% of the names on the map were the first thing that came into my head that didn't sound too sucky to me. That particular name I recall because I liked how it was close to "cadence", but that is as much thought as went into it. I can't recall whereabouts on the map I placed it though. Hehe.

I cannot completely rule out unconciously having noted it from your map but I believe not. I have/had a place in Aronbor on mine called "Havnor" which I thought was quite a cool name. I was gutted when I picked up an Earthsea book quite recently and found out it was a place name there. I read the first three Earthsea books many, many years ago so maybe that name stuck in my mind. I don't know. I like to think not but... <shrug>


EDIT: Just seen you've only just posted your map today so I guess I didn't unconsciously copy.
And I don't mind about the link of course, it's cool.

Yeah, there's no way you could have seen my map before. I just thought it was amusing. I believe the technical term is "parallel development."

I'm going to also note that you have an Andor on your map, which is the name of a country in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. But the thing is, there are only so many phonemes (well, quite a few, I'm sure Stephen Pinker or Noam Chomsky could tell us how many) but the point is, as English speakers, we like mixing our phonemes up in certain ways and replications are bound to happen. I swear I made up the name Kylara once for a character, only to discover that both Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon have characters with that name. So don't worry too strongly about the uniqueness of your names....if they are unique places, the name won't matter so much.


....

Forgot to add: Ah, drawing with a mouse. I remember those days. I commend your patience.