Anthropos Iohanan

[J.Edward]

This was my submission to the July/August 2014 challenge - Go Map Yourself.
It was my first challenge and was fun. Learned a lot doing this piece.
Here's the WIP thread - http://www.cartographersguild.com/cu...s-iohanan.html
And here's the map then the description from that thread.
Anthropos Iohanan - presentation 2a [edit].jpg
Anthropos Iohanan, greek for the human man John
I chose Greek and some other languages because of my love for antiquity, history, world culture (both ancient and current).
My love of myth and legend lead me to choose Greek as the basis for most names on this map.
Thus the progress from Chronos [time] through Logos, Ethos, Egos, Arthos on toward Psykhe.
And through the Psykhe to Oneiros [dream] which is a large part of my journey through life and existence.

Included in the lands of Dream, Oneiros, are names that have had an influence on me. Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft
who both knew and wrote to each other. Both created fantastic dreams and visions of other places that had similarities but were vastly different.
The writings of both have had a lasting impact as have the works of ancient Greece and Rome.

Lord Dunsany naturally follows as he was a great inspiration to Lovecraft and the whole Dreamlands concept. He is listed
as an influence for so many writers in the fantasy genre as well as other genres.

Astronomy has also been a big part of my life and so stellar names drop in as well. The significance of stars in this map
is noticeable from river and place names on up into the great Stella Maris beyond the land of Dreams.

Many of the river, land and city names are representative of important concepts to me. Trees, stars, language, history,
philosophy, literature, imagination, dreamlands. As such, in a small way this map represents me, so far as any map could.

Attached is a list of place names in the map along with their origin and rough meaning.
List for Anthropos Iohanan 01.jpg

[Domino44]

I loved your map which is why I voted for it. The map itself is beautiful, the fact that the challenge was to create something that represented yourself just makes it all the more lovely. I personally love astronomy, mythology, and the Greek language, so your whole map really intrigued me. I love that the meanings of the names also described parts of your personal character, I think that to often we forget the importance of names. Fantastic work, and if I could rep you again I would.

[J.Edward]

Thanks Domino.
I agree. A name says a lot.
It can really convey a depth and feeling to a place.

[I like your sig, by the way. Very sage.]

[Soixante]

This is an incredible map, very inspiring. The rivers, the colours, the textures, the mountains...beautiful.

Repped!

[TheRedEpic]

Wow, this is fantastic. Love all of the subtlety of the map and its cosmic nature! My only small comment would be to integrate the "Line" border you have going through the text fluff at the bottom and top of the borders a bit better. Right now it looks like the text just multiplies right over the line and its not giving the border the elegance the rest of your map shows. Just a small comment!

[Eilathen]

Beautiful work! I love the colors and the mountains a lot. I hope you do another fantasy-map (one a bit less abstract and more geographic in nature ) in this style.
Have some Rep.!

[J.Edward]

I am sorry for such a late response. I've had trouble with finding my own started threads.
Thanks so much Soixante. I really appreciate that.
Thanks as well Eilathen. I will endeavor to do that. I agree on the abstract part. I'm doing a lot more maps atm so I may just get to that.
Red Epic/Jared - Wow, thank you. I've admired your work for some time so I really appreciate that.
I do see what you mean. I will see about fixing that and updating the map if I can. Thanks for pointing that out.