Creation a map for me to tinker with

[rentauri]

So this is a map of Exalted's (3rd Edition) Creation. I really loved the style of the map that they presented however I couldn't mimic it so it was clunky adding/modify my own features to it. The blue color currently only exists to show watery locations at a glance so there are likely locations that I missed coloring them but its not permanent as I haven't decided on the color scheme for water and it made an easy contrast between the white of the 'land.'

In the southeast I turned the Numenera Map on its side (-90 degrees) tried to scale it properly (I suck at figuring scale) on the north shore of sea in the corner. Currently I am working on getting in the Forests in the map and once completed I will start addng Mekton's Algol setting cities to the Northeast sea. Then I shall start to work on the 3rd edition cities then cherry pick the 1/2nd edition cities then finally add some home brew stuff and/or other entries I want in the setting.

Creation WIP.jpeg

[rentauri]

So I was able to work on the map more, primarily I added the Barsaive (Earthdawn) map (minus Death Sea as that sorta was in the middle of no where on this map) next to the Numenera Map on the northshore of the south eastern sea. Still haven't added all the forests simply because of the sheer amount in the East I saving that fun time for last. I also went and did a primary layout of the cities in 3rd Exalted's map (added a few on the middle landmass/Blessed Isle) while adding the major Steadfast/Outlands cities and Barsaive cities (and some not so major). The result was a sheer blasting of cities that I will need to purge as I do a final overview of the map.

Barsaive always had ton of rivers so this probably looks like it violates many river policies so before the police come rolling in understand I was using the source plus I connected a couple of rivers from Numenera to Earthdawn that simply moved off the maps for both.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg

[Chick]

Hi rentauri, it's actually a nice map. The big river problem I see is right in the center where the big rivers connect to two different seacoasts. If you can divide them so each river runs only to one seashore, you'll pretty much have it nailed.

I see one enclosed area at about 40% up from the bottom and 30% left of the east coast that looks like a lake that didn't get colored blue.

The mountains look great, the ranges are very reasonable, and the overall design is very attractive!

Nice job

[rentauri]

Thanks chick.

Originally the rivers your talking about were part of the base Exalted map and my first reaction was to keep them as is (since it was part of the base map) however after thinking about it I decided that it didn't need to stay that way. Instead I spaced out the area of the river to turn it into a legitimate separate landmass with an additional one. Further I filled in the rivers, not using the think heavy lines for some rivers and not others started to bother me. Lastly I moved the Earthdawn and Numenera maps. Now the Numenera map is on the south shore and angled while the Earthdawn map is mirrored and on the north shore. I really like the placement of this set up over the previous two maps as it spaces the areas out.

Again the blue is only to show water and visually separate the land from sea.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg

[Chick]

Much better

Now you need to scale your trees back so they are smaller than a whole island or a small mountain

[rentauri]

So I wasn't happy with the distance between my three land masses that was once a river so I widened the gap. This had the, imo positive, effect of pushing the rivers and land more east and using what was once going to be a lot of empty space. Further I erased the Forests, Mountains and Hills so that they could be re-drawn. Mainly for scaling purposes (note I have some huge trees still that are there for story) but now the trees come close to the Mountains but they do not exceed them (.5 scale is the largest Tree and .6 scale is the smallest Mountain). I know I missed some shading when I removed the old stuff, that cleanup will come later.

The sea on the eastern side is colored red because it is suppose to be fire and magma/lava. In Earthdawn it is the Death Sea and I'm keeping it like that for my map... magic is fun like that.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg

[rentauri]

So I covered a lot of the Eastern Region, in Exalted the land is almost entirely a forest so I'm not to thrilled with that however I do want a lot of wooded areas which I have covered. I then moved South and placed the Western Mountains again with hills which were moved slightly more east then before. The area between the mountains is shaded to represent a desert which will be touched upon more later. Rivers were also added but this area is mainly empty space as the base Exalted map is mainly empty here and I don't have anything to place here yet. I then moved to the Western Islands and forested them.

Question: In GIMP, how to you change to Opacity of an entire layer? My Mountains and Hills are shaded to dark for my taste and instead of re-shading them I want to change the Opacity to help lighten it up but unsure how.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg

[kimni]

Layer opacity in GIMP is at the top of the layer window, just below the layer modes (at least in 2.8, but I think it was the same in the older versions).

[rentauri]

I added the Mekton map into the sea in the Northeast which sorta destroyed the Mela's Fangs but since I had nothing planned up there it works out. I added my Mountains, Forests and Hills to a section of the north however I still need to go back and add my rivers to it. I tested lightening up the shading, thanks kimni for telling where that was (right in front of me) but I haven't actually done it yet on this picture. With the north having lots of mountains and the east getting plenty of forests I want to wait until they are planted before I do that.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg

[rentauri]

Lots of views, few comments hoping that's a good thing.

So I decided to play around with the North and the land formation moving things around, creating more islands, that sort of thing. I like the result as it shifted the landmass more west and allowed more of that sea to show. I then placed my Mountains, Hills and Forests on the northern most land mass while adding more Forests, Hills and Mountains to the eastern area. At this point I think I'm going to stick with the rest of the based 3rd edition map on feature placement. I really wanted to do more instead of the giant forest that the East is however I'm not sure what map I want to import. At this point I think I'll finish the features to move onto the fun, fun times of labeling everything.

Creation -Earthdawn-Mekton-Numenera.jpeg