Irenar v3

[eViLe_eAgLe]

A continuation of one of my worlds that I like to call the 'Splitting Paths' it was a previous campaign world of mine, and I just can't seem to stop coming back to it. This will most likely include a political map, a map of the deep underground, and the main one featured. My goal for this map is to have virtually no linework, except to use as a reference. I want it to be almost all shading, texture, or detail.

You can see generation one of the map here. The map of the land, fifty years after the first group of settlers landed at Uthar. The second group of settlers landed at Eroneth, both by different ethnic groups within the same empire, they began as great friends in the beginning. To the east, another smaller, colonization project was launched by the Japanese inspired kingdom of (Have not made the name yet.) The town they landed in was called (Westerners call Ryokko Rimthar, meaning rim colony.) Ryokko, named almost literally as the "Distant -Child" Of the mother empire. The Japanese inspired empire quickly abandoned that colonization effort, and turned more towards the the north-east, looking for a more suitable land that is less contested. They're responsible for most of the exploration on that part.
The end of this age of colonization was marked with the discovery of another sentient race - the Trobbes, they live in great mountainous caverns, and in the great cavern world deep within the earth. The ones who discovered this, was a newly created colony furthest towards the north - in what is now known as the valley of legend - due to the strange occurrences that often happen there.

You can see Generation two of the map here. Three years have passed, and many smaller colonies have sprung up to expand the borders of human colonization, and other have grown such as the example of Rothgar, which has gone from around only twenty souls to around two hundred.
Soon after, the realm erupts into conflict over a small border conflict between the two separate sides of Fotthor, as the city is split in half, one side with the Lord of Uthar and his respective fiefs and vassals, and the Lord of Eroneth and his respective holdings. This escalated, and it wasn't long before the citizens of Eroneth and Uthar were in arms against each-other in this city. The war lasted for four years, during this time the city became a battlefield, what's left of the old architecture is built into the new city. Thanks to the wars, the city has evolved into a military powerhouse, and fortification central - with many castles, watch towers, and forts in the city and around it. This has led to a fairly unique and important city.
The war ended with the charge of the Rothgar Reapers - or so they were called on the battlefield, they were led by the Lord of Uthars very own son, Verin, who was also the leader of the colony up north. The charge was on the last real base of the Eroneth Duchy. With almost all of their military forces defeated, they retreated from Fotthor. Uthar put forth a treaty, requesting the lands up-to Teluk, this gave them control of quite a bit of the lumber industry in this part of the world.

The map now, set an unspecified time from the second one - alot of the coastline has been discovered. (Had to put the quality down, other the size would be too big.)

A continuation of my unfinished October Challenge, I finally got around to working on it again.

Irenar, second exploration 2.jpg

Reworked the mountains, the sea is just a placeholder.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

An update, been working off and on on it.
I'm stuck on what kind of forest style to use.


No forest.
Irenar, second exploration 2 no forest.jpg

With forest
Irenar, second exploration 2-Recovered.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Well, that's looking nice to me.
I would just make the forest a little bit more obvious compared to the grasslands.

[Lingon]

I love this style. Very painterly, yet not trying to look like any traditional medium. Really nice work so far I like those forests, especially the color, but they do seem a little too sharp and detailed compared to the hazy mountains.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

Thanks guys, I was going for a more painterly style, so i'm glad that it stands out
As for the forests, one of the styles i'm thinking of is of something more akin to individual tree's, that group up into a forest, if that makes sense. I'll get around to the actual implementation of that once I get over this sickness!

[eViLe_eAgLe]

Irenar, second exploration 2.jpg

Finally got around to working on it some more, the border is makeshift for now, i'm still trying out different ones.
And yes, I know some things are goofy like some of the rivers not connecting all the way, going to go back and change that when I go back to refine details.

Edit: Jeeze, just tested with my other monitor and this can look pretty dark and red for some people.

[Jalyha]

It's gorgeous, though.


I'm getting more of a "rust" color than a red. ... kinda makes it look like it's in a metal picture frame that rusted and stained the map o.o

[- Max -]

Very nice stuff, I like the color scheme of it though I think that the border and the faded effect around is maybe a bit too much and could distract from the map istself, but it's hard to say at this stage.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

So instead of making a new thread, I'll just put it here.

Irenar, second exploration 3.jpg

Here's what I left off with of the map, I skimped out of actual labels and stuff like that, and I generally lost interest in this one.
It has been about a month or so since I finished this, and my inspiration came back in a flash.


Here's the map i'm working on to illustrate Irenar now, it focuses mainly on trade relationships between the colonies and borders, while my previous one on this thread focused on landforms and landscape, the top left (On the trade map) are the foreign colonies, and the bottom left is the "Homeland" The foreign colonies aren't pictured on the original map in this thread, they'd be right under the large island to the top left of the map.

Irenar Trade Map.jpg

I've yet to see where i'll be going with the mountains and how they'll work out, i'll probably go through a few tests before I decide.
As you can see, the color scheme is a lot brighter than most of my maps, which is a nice change of pace.

[Diamond]

I like where you're taking this.