WIP - Kalyssia, a world of Gods and Kings

[holyhalo]

Finally managed to get all parties happy, including myself, which is always the biggest hurdle to overcome.

Kal Big MK II.jpg

A thousand years ago, the world burned as the Divine Nine fought to stop the rise to power of one of their own. Alliances were built and broken as the Thrice (the races on Kalyssia) fought for their Gods. But evil never wins and was finally defeated after having lost each of its allies. The balance of power shifted tremendously after the war and humanity took over most of the continent, claiming it for himself under the rule of the new God-King Albren, the god of Humanity. The beastlings and the Jekauze lived amongst them or hide within the forests and mountains of the world, away from prying eyes. Peace settled over the land and humanity looked beyond its own property for expansion. Sea travel and exploration started booming and islands were discovered and settled, creating new trade routes and new resources to be bought and sold.

While peace remains in the world, there have been small shifts in the balance. The God of destruction and secrecy is plotting once more to plunge the world into chaos.

~From Kalyssia~

All thoughts, ideas, remarks, likes and dislikes are welcome. Let me know what you think, what you would do different and why. It's the third full remake of the map and it's the first time I've worked so long on one concept of a map before being happy enough to work it out. It's also the first time a map will be used for more than filling a thread here and some space on my computer. I really hope people like it and that they understand it. I've used so many different resources, tutorials and mapping elements from so many people I'm not quite sure where to start so I'd like to thank everyone who ever posted a mapping resource, tutorial or tip on here.

Thank you very much
~Holyhalo~

Things that still need to be done:
-Map border
-Kingdom names in the North
-Island names (if discovered/settled)
-Scale bar

Questions:
-How does copyright work? Is it enough that I write my name on it? Or do I need more than that?

[Jalyha]

Oh yay you fixed the roads!!

It looks great

I might make the city icons a little bigger? They seem really small, but that could just be me!

Copyright isn't a *single* thing.. it's a collection of rights to the use and display of your work... it depends on what you want/what the other parties want. You have to be specific.

[Zach]

Interesting story idea. There are a few good bordering tutorials I have found on this site, so have a look in the Tutorials section.

As to names, if you're strapped for ideas, there are always name generators online you can use. I'm trying to develop one but it isn't coming along very fast. The toponymy subforum here is also a good source of ideas for ways you can come up with names.

Writing your name on it is probably enough if a) you don't really care about people using the content for anything (personal or commercial purposes, including reselling it), or b) you can afford lawyers to defend your intellectual property rights on the Internet.
Other than that, you might look into creativecommons.org for licensing your work - there is no registration or cost for a license, you can select from different licenses based on how you want people to use the work, and they are internationally recognized. I don't know about copyright law itself.

Z

[holyhalo]

Jalyha: I think the icons are big enough. The village ones aren't too big but then again the villages aren't too big. I don't want the icons to take up too much space once we decide on names for the kingdoms, the cities that are open for RP and some of the landmarks or event locations. All of those will have names that are added to the final product.

Zach: So, I went to the CC.org website (Thanks for the link, btw) and after a bit of reading around I managed to get a license out of it.
This is the first time I've actually had to do any of this for a work of mine so I have no clue how to proceed on this. Do I put the license on the work or on the page where the work is displayed? And does the license work only for me or is it for all the parties related to Kalyssia? Just want to make sure disgruntled future ex-partners don't decide to take the map for themselves.

And what about watermarks and such? Or are they just lame ways of making it more difficult for people to use your work?

[Zach]

Fair warning, I have only ever licensed/published software before, where you can insert licenses into the source code or documentation. I have never licensed any maps or artwork.
I have never seen any trace of a license or watermark on any map on this site, or for that matter in any post containing a map. On CG you're probably okay.
It would probably be safe to put the unaltered map (maybe with your name/signature in the corner, a lot of finished maps here have that) on the host site with the license and its terms prominently displayed on the page. Note that that would NOT stop people from finding the map in Google Images, downloading it, Photoshopping out the signature, and using it for their own ends. (Well, for that matter, if you post it on CG people could still do that.)
I have no idea how the license extends to second parties. My guess is that you are the holder of the license, and so any "disgruntled future ex-partners" still have to follow its terms as if they had no personal connection to you. I disclaim, however, that this is guesswork. Don't treat it as fact; I am not a lawyer and cannot give you a firm answer.
I think that as long as you are the primary creator of the Kalyssia universe, and especially if Kalyssia has any sort of following, people will not be able to use the map because it can be recognized as yours.

Z

[Maraxus_]

The landmasses look somewhat strange but I can't say why.

Your demographics on the other hand, I can say what I dislike: You seam to have about as many cities over 10.000 subjects as you have towns over 1.000 And far less villages over 100. Even If I think that there might be less important villages over 100 missing, I would nevertheless expects that most of all towns over 1.000 are there, if you put important villages on the map. And then the ration of cities to towns is off.
Also: Dirt roads are really not such an important thing, that you could put them on a continental-sized map. They should be everywhere, connecting the minor villages not displayed on the map. The road network is okay for all paved roads (You could differentiate the quality there).