Hiraan region of Illistera

[miinstrel]

Alright so new here. This is my first project posting. Please don't be gentle. I want this to ultimately be an awesome map and I think it's on its way so critique your hearts out! (although I won't decline any praise haha)

The world is called Illistera and it's approximately Earth sized. 13 months, 4 weeks each, 7 days per week. My D&D campaign is focused on the continent to the left. I think the continent looks like a fetal dragon, so I'm going to point you toward what I deem the "snout." This is the region of the ex-empire of Hiraan (war, rebellion, etc... now several "states").So first the world map:
Hiraan World Map - Base 11x17 smaller.jpg

And now the regional map as I have it so far.
04 rivers.jpg

Am still working on it tonight, but wanted to get something up to hopefully get some input on how it's going so far. I'm roughly following Tear's tutorial, but making several changes along the way. Because who wants to just copy someone else's style and not try new things? You don't get better that way.

Anyway so... yeah. Would love some C&C as this develops. I have several cities that will need maps after this is done. We'll see if I get to those

EDIT: Ignore the attachment below. The image above is better. Doesn't have the old light blue rivers that shouldn't be there.

[miinstrel]

I would like some input from the river police specifically. The ones coming out of the southern mountain are more jagged and, I think, more realistic. Are the ones to the north too fluid / gently curving? Would like to know now before I start adding cities and such in.

[Klaus van der Kroft]

Well met!

I really like both maps; lots of potential for working on the former, and a very spiffy look on the latter. Very clean and reasonable geographical masses, which is always a great step towards a convincing map.

The only detail that struck my attention were the rivers. While they are not bad by any measure, they seem a bit too soft, sort of like eyelashes to put it somehow.

Also, there seems to be a lot of lakes without drainage to the sea. Is it a very dry/rocky region where the water evaporates/permeates fast enough for the rivers to never overflow?

[miinstrel]

Heh, I actually posted that I didn't like the rivers and wanted some advice, but that post is still pending approval. You, sir, are psychic!

Here's the map as of tonight. I fixed the rivers and added outlets for the lakes per your suggestion. As you can see from all the green this is most definitely not an arid, desert-like place of evaporation and misery (although the brown section to the north of the mountains is, but my players probably won't be going there this campaign).

I'm pretty happy with how the forests turned out. Didn't even have to do much tweaking because the clouds filter put them exactly where I wanted them! Small victories
Right now I can't think of anything else related to the geography that should be considered or added before I start putting cities on. If I've overlooked anything let me know.

05 forests.jpg

[Schwarzkreuz]

Rivers looks perfectly fine for me. I am realy interested how you plan on rendering the cities.

[miinstrel]

Have been busy the last couple days and haven't been able to get into this too much. Added two swamps, removed a small chunk of the mountan to the north allowing a pass into the desert that I will need eventually. You may also notice the blinding red political borders. The players started on the eastern side of the NE country and are moving west to the upper central country right now. There is a huge trade city along the river since it's right at the three-way crossroads between the west side of the map, the northern desert and beyond, and the eastern peninsula.

I've been playing with the region's economics and having a freakin blast figuring out the populations and influence of each country. The SW country shown used to be the seat of the empire that spanned basically the entire map. There was a big war about 400 years ago sparked by increased taxes and very obvious oppression on the part of the current monarchy. What few have discovered was that this was all influenced by a devil posing as his most trusted advisor. The king commissioned an army of warforged and commanded them with a scepter his "advisor" made for him. The army swept across the region annihilating much of the resistance before the king was finally assassinated and his control of the creatures ended. There's more to the scepter, and that devil is still playing games with the mortals, but I don't want to give too much away JUST IN CASE one of my players reads this

More to come later, namely cities and prettifying things more.

tweaks and political borders.jpg

[Klaus van der Kroft]

I really like the new rivers and how the map is turning out. Quite detailed and realistic.