Map 62 - Khovania [Jaxilon]

[Jaxilon]

So, I'm only a few years late but I'm finally back to making a map. Sorry for the failing to get with the program and forcing you guys to reassign my previous landmass. I do feel bad for taking so much time to get to this. I honestly had every intention to do so but life had other plans. Better late than never though...

My goal here is to attempt painting this by hand in Artrage and then porting to Photoshop (my typical digital environment) for final adjustments and so on. Let's see how this goes.

I have to say, coming up with a name was the hardest part so far.

Map 62 is the Southernmost series of islands. I hadn't planned to get into an Arctic zone and based on some of the conversations I guess it's going to be pretty cold. However, I looked at the world map and noticed that others in the same zone were not overwhelmed with ice and therefore I will do my best to accommodate everyone involved.



Meet Khovania, a large island Nation of hearty folk who can handle the cold and don't give a rat's patoot. If you wish to sail around the world using the southern hemisphere you will sail past Khovania. If you lack the stones to face the ultimate sailors test you will no doubt enjoy the Northern coast and it's cool yet, hospitable locations.

However, if you wish to prove yourself a true nautical hero, or are for some reason driven to avoid the northern passage for reasons we will not mention here, you may face the Southern coast and the Icewall where freezing saltwater and rogue waves clash to create a nightmare of epic proportions. Many a ship have been lost along this stretch of icy terror and only the truly desperate or marginally mad attempt it.

My thought is that the southern edge as well as the eastern coast will be for the most part constantly hit with an ice cold wind. Along those sides of the main island there would be next to nil locations to port a ship. It's basically very inhospitable. That said, once you work your way into the interior it becomes more livable. True, you still need to be hardy and capable but it is doable. Along the northern coast you will find the more typical cities and so on. With this in mind I thought to map a rocky and cold coast that gradually transformed to a more typical forest and so forth. In my imagination a sailor would see what looks like a giant wall of ice or what looks like a glacier as they travel along the S and SE coast.

Well, that's all I have for now as my maps tend to create my stories and so I'll get to sharing.

We will begin with the main island of Khovania. I'll include all the rubbish so you can see how this goes for me. Sorry about the massive white space. I'll try to do something about that going forward. I have already made a bunch more progress on this but it's time to spend time with my wife so I'm out. I'll try to upload more of my steps later tonight but I wanted to get this started before I chickened out.
To be honest, I'm not in love with this first post but that's always how I feel about my stuff when I begin.

I'm also not sure how this all clicks into the guild world map so I'm basically working INSIDE the black outlines of the image provided. Someone let me know if that's wrong so I can adjust before it's a real pain. LOL

### Latest WIP ###
Country 62.jpg

[Azélor]

There are no real guidelines regarding climates mostly because people were interested in mapping more than figuring out if the climates on their map made sense.
Also, we have no idea how much Earth-like this world is or if it is even a planetoid. Just go with what make sense to you.

But if you want my opinion, yes it's going to be cold and humid.
No extreme cold because it should have a maritime climate for the most part.

Starting with the northernmost part of the country, the warmest:
I think the climate would be similar to the climate found in Northern Scandinavia, tundra. It's closer to the pole but Europe receive the warm waters of the Gulf stream. The influence of the Gulf goes as far as the Barens sea. Therefore, Europe is warmer than most other places at the same latitude.
Unlucky for you, to my understanding, most of the warm water from the equator would be diverted south when the current reach the coast of country 57 (based on the zoomable world map).
Therefore, you don't have that warming effect that Europe enjoys.

So a more appropriate example might be the climate of Southern Patagonia, also a tundra. They do have quite a bit trees around Ushuaia. So it could be ok for a civilization to develop there. Thought a modest one since the vikings developed under somewhat warmer climates. Actually, you have the advantage of having warmer winters in comparison, I think.
That would be my realistic yet realistic estimation but one part of me tells me that it's probably colder than that.
At 62°S, we have King George island. While still a tundra, is much less hospitable. So it is probably somewhere between the two.

The south is close to 70° maybe more. And that is definitely an Arctic climate. Too cold to live there.

[Jaxilon]

Thanks Azelor - At least I'm not totally out there. I was thinking like parts of Alaska or South Chili myself but with some artistic liberties so it sounds like I should be fine.

At any rate, here are the other updates I said I was going to get and I've trimmed the white space from these as well as put them all in one post since I had to wait to get these uploaded. I know some like to see the progression or I would just skip to the last one.

So here goes in order if I can remember how to do this.

Country 62 a.jpg

Country 62 b.jpg

Country 62 c.jpg

### Latest WIP ###
Country 62 d.jpg

I noticed some holes and stuff while doing these uploads but I'll fix these later. I'm mostly wanting to see what I get from using ArtRage and then final edits will take place in PS.

[Redrobes]

Hey these are great. I will have to update these onto the big map at some point.

[ladiestorm]

looking really good so far!

[Ilanthar]

Very nice! I like the color palette and the forests, especially. The rivers are a tad too saturated for me, maybe.

[Jaxilon]

Thanks everyone, like most of us I feed on feedback. thanks for the point on the rivers. I haven't really given them any great attention yet, I know I'd like them to work with the global map but I'm not totally sure how all that will come together yet. I'm a tad confused (probably because I haven't read anything on it) on how the landmass snaps into the big map. I saw some folks labels getting clipped and I would like to avoid that if I can manage. I'm staying inside my lines so I hope I don't get into trouble and end up with some weird glowing looking thing

Unfortunately, I'm kind of using this weekend to come down off an 88 hour work week which was just freaking insanity. Much more of that and I can do without the job.
Anyway, I'll probably be getting back to this tomorrow night or possibly not until Wednesday although the monthly challenge also has some interest for me. In any event, I will get this done!

I also noticed after I posted that these are massive in their size so I'll probably bring them down when I get towards the final product. Unless there is a reason to leave them huge. I'm a bit worried about the file size. I haven't even gotten to the photoshop stages yet.

[Jaxilon]

I had some steps between this and my previous upload but they where way over upload limit size. I have finished working in Artrage and am now using Photoshop.

Here is the first post PS image. I had a number of random smudges i had to go around and clean up which took too much time but here we go.

I also cut out the rivers but they are not totally ready for whatever I'm going to do with them. Still debating about that.


### Latest WIP ###
Country 62 f1.jpg

Thats weird, one of my rivers got cut but the other one looks different. I'll fix that next time I'm in PS.

[J.Edward]

This is coming along nicely Jax
I quite like the direction of this.

[Jaxilon]

Got some more done. I probably shouldn't bother with the ocean but i'm doing it a little anyway. Not sure about the coloration but for now i need to just let it breathe overnight.


### Latest WIP ###
Country 62 f2.jpg