Large map of the Principality of Ulek

[the-golem]

Yeah, I know that this little gem isn't as large, or as well done as Anna's. However, it's my first ever map attempt.

First, I took a pretty large map of the Flanaess, and zoomed in on roughly the area of Ulek. Then I cropped it and did a canvas resize to make it roughly 8.5x11. After that, I made a bunch of layers, two each for the mountains: One for background, and one for the mountain-y sketches. I also planted in some key cities, and borrowed the idea of the divisions from Anna's map.

I'm sorta happy with this -- mainly because I actually completed the bugger.
Only sorta. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to work on a better map. I was considering hand-drawing one, but I think all my architectural pens either dried up or ran out of ink.

What do you all think?

[Rythal]

I think that I speak for the majority here when I say that we all love seeing hand drawn maps, regardless of how pretty it is.

As for your map here, first off, looks pretty good! the trees seem a bit big (or the hills and mountains a bit small). also, maybe you could change the colour of the rivers to that of the ocean.

Personnally, I really like the ocean and the green land, and while the trees are a bit uniform, if you could add a bit of variety in there, I think it would look great.

BTW, what software are you using?

[Steel General]

I think the colors are a bit 'saturated' (but that might just be me). I agree with Rythal on the size of the tree symbols.

Looking forward to seeing this develop.

[Syt]

First of all, I like your map style - symbols, towns and labelling are very clear and give a nice "fantasy novel" feeling. The trees could be a bit smalle, agreed.

I'm not sure I like the colors. Just for comparison (I hope you don't mind) I went and turned it black/white, and I must say I like the result a lot better (the trees would need to make more room for the river, though, and the letters could maybe be red, and the rivers not quite so black, or thinner).

Then again, this is your map, and you will know best what you prefer.

[the-golem]

As for your map here, first off, looks pretty good! the trees seem a bit big (or the hills and mountains a bit small). also, maybe you could change the colour of the rivers to that of the ocean.

Yeah, the trees are pretty large. I although, they were in scale with everything else that got blown up. However, you're right. I don't really like the overly largeness of them. I drew them by hand - rather, mouse - in the program itself, then copy-pasted it like 80000 times. There was a slight amount of pixilation, so I did a 1px blur on them after I got them all into place.

Personnally, I really like the ocean and the green land, and while the trees are a bit uniform, if you could add a bit of variety in there, I think it would look great.

I really like how the ocean turned out, the technique i used for the shoreline - which i found by accident - was pretty cool. I think the trees need less detail

BTW, what software are you using?

For this, I used Paint.NET

First of all, I like your map style - symbols, towns and labelling are very clear and give a nice "fantasy novel" feeling. The trees could be a bit smalle, agreed.

I'm not sure I like the colors. Just for comparison (I hope you don't mind) I went and turned it black/white, and I must say I like the result a lot better (the trees would need to make more room for the river, though, and the letters could maybe be red, and the rivers not quite so black, or thinner).

Then again, this is your map, and you will know best what you prefer.

Funny you should mention this. In my welcome here thread, I actually specified that I want my maps to be black and white. I'm going to try a few things, and see if I can tone down the sharpness of the trees, and turn down the color of the river. We'll see.

[the-golem]

Okay, so I tweaked a few things.

First, the rivers: I selected the rivers, then went to the land layer and deleted the space they took up. Then I used the same technique I used for the coastline on the rivers, I think it really softened them up and made them now quite so overbearing.

Second, I fiddled with the selection sensitivity until i could just get the forest canopy without the trunks. I created a new layer, and filled with a dark green. Then I used the cloud tool, and made it pretty condensed, and after that I did a gausian blur on the whole thing. Then I went back to my forest layer, deleted the old forest, and hand/mouse drew in all the little trunks. I feel this makes them less and oversized, but I'm still not sure of the effect. I think its kinda too dark.

Edit: You know, the decompression that Paint.NET does when it saves as a 8-bit PNG actually made the forest look better. I rather like it now, in its attached state.

[the-golem]

Here is another approach I'm taking. So far, all I really have is the Ocean, Rivers, and the Landmass. Also done in Paint.NET

I also started a handdrawn map, but my stupid Micron ran out of ink.

[the-golem]

This time I'm taking another approach.
Right now, I'm focusing on the area around Gryrax of Ulek, basing my model off the Darlene Greyhawk Map. For comparison, I've included a section of the Darlene Map with my map semi-transparent over the approximate area.

It corresponds roughly to an area 10 leagues square. (10 by 10)

Ive also included my current progress on the zoomed area. I plan on also developing a city map for Gryrax, but ... am unsure how to approach, or how large to make the city.

[paladin_of_light]

What time period (or perhaps more accurately technology level) are you trying to emulate for your city? Is Gryrax the largest city in Ulek? What type of a population do you want? What do you want the city to feel like?

There's a lot of resources out there about how to build cities (check specifically in the city mapping section and I think you'll find some great inspiration... I did.) But I think you at least need to know the approximate time-period, and what you want from the city, before you can really begin.

Good luck!

[the-golem]

Gryrax had a population of 17k before the war, and 10-15 years after, swelled up to almost 30k. I started a thread about city planning over in the Town/City Mapping forum. My campaign takes place right during the war .. sorta half-way through really, so I'm planning for a population between those two.

Gryrax itself is centuries old, and has been the seat of power for roughly 300 years, ever since the current Prince took the throne. The Principality is dwarven ruled, but this city itself has more humans than demi-humans, considering it's concentration on trade. Humans are more adept at sea-faring than dwarves, hence this saturation. Also, many of the villages closer to the right border (the river) have been transplanted as a result of war, and have migrated to the outskirts of the town, seeking refuge.

My vision consists of a semi-popular port town that grew organically around a protected cove. When the Prince moved the seat of power to his hometown, Gryrax, He built the castle, and worked with his best engineers and architects to develop the city. So, the innermost portion of the city is concentrated on the ports, with the middle-portion being more planned and structured, and less organic. There would be designated centers of commonality, such as an area of industry next to the warehouses next to the smiths. The market and merchant quarter would be centered in the city, and would serve as a crossroads for the major axes (as in plural of axis, not axe). There would probably be a pre-planned religios district rather close to the market area, but I would expect to find religious centers intersperses all throughout the town. The outskirts of the town will most likely be temporary structures, somewhat shanty like and quite organic; this would most likely be where the refugees live. There would also be an obvious area where the affluent/nobility live. If you look at the thread I linked earlier, you can see an *idea* of how the city might look. It's rather rough, and I'm not really sold on the layout.

As far as the technology level, *shrug*. Since it's basically a Dwarven city, I would expect the stonework and structures to be master-level quality, but it would still be high-medieval society. I sorta treat my dwarves as slightly more advanced than the human counterparts. Well-paved roads. Working aqueducts. Almost Roman Empire in terms of quality of work, I would guess.