[country] The Moonwheel Islands & The Salt Web

[Southern Crane]

Map-45
The Moonwheel Islands & The Salt Web


Let's get this project started. I have a lot of ideas for this map that will tie into what I started but left unfinished for Guild City a year ago. This will be a long term project as I am trying to learn how to draw Asian style mountains like @Azelor used for his Kingdom of the Clouds as well as trying to use VUE Landscapes for the insets that I am imagining. Updates will probably be sporadic and as I figure out how to implement the ideas I am thinking about.

Theme:
Late Qing dynasty Wuxia style with an wuxia/Asian inspired East India Company dominant.

Cultures:

1. Desert culture based on salt deserts
2. Rivers and Valleys culture - wuxia inspired
3. Coastal culture - the contemporary headquarters of the Moonwheel Company
4. Island caldera culture based on Polynesian islands

Overview:
The geography implies a massive ancient volcano caldera that create the huge island ring. The land is seeded with minerals from the volcano and also contains a large abundance of salt in the deserts, mountains and culture of the coast that created ancient salt fields. The mountains also contain some deposits of metals like copper and iron that were used mainly as weapons in the wuxia culture until the Moonwheel Salt Trading Company arose recently.

The economy evolved from trade between the four main cultural regions. The polynesian influenced islanders were master navigators and explored extensively bringing back exotic ideas for trade (this would eventually inspired the Moonwheel Company). The rivers and valleys were master crafters as well wuxia martial artists. The harsh desert has own unique mystique and mythologies.

The region contains an Ancient Wonder of the World as well as a Modern Wonder. The Ancient Wonder is an massive stone outdoor installation similar to Easter Island. Mysterious because the stone type does not match the stone on the mainland.
The Modern Wonder is the Salt Mountain Caves that look like:
https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/m...jpg?1420510192
https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/m...jpg?1420510191



###Latest WIP###MoonWheel-Islands-Trial-Country.jpg

[Diamond]

Now this ought to be very cool. I already love the layout and presentation, and ideas you have going there.

[Mouse]

Using Vue?

Definitely in interesting idea

[Southern Crane]

Thanks Diamond. Your maps are always a great inspiration. Also, can you tell me what the main export commodity of your coastal city of Kyugoya might be? I'd like to work some of the other lands into my trade history

Mouse, yes VUE was my original plan for the insets of this project. Salt mountains, salt domes, multi-colored salt fields, Salt Caves, Easter Island type crazy caldera stuff I am imagining. Hopefully it can be realized.

Finally bought Advanced Graph yesterday but its admittedly coming along a bit slower than I expected. Tricky app to learn, but I am having fun playing with the terrain editor at least and still watching tutorials. Terragen definitely was easier to learn to render textures so I'll be letting you know soon when I want to see those Advanced Graphs you have hahah

[Southern Crane]

A brief update after a week of trying to figure out how to draw classic Asian looking mountains. These are nowhere near as consistent or artistic as I wanted but I think this might be where I stop on Asian mountains for now. A future map will hopefully advance my skills here.

This isn't the final for how I put all the mountain ranges together. I am not happy with how the ranges look so on a future version I will be re-working how I put the individuals together but I haven't figured out how to make it look good yet so that will have to wait until after I add the rivers and lakes.

Finished: Asian Mountain brush style version1
Next: adding the Rivers and Lakes


MoonWheel-Islands-Trial-Country.jpg

I have also been spending some time developing the lore as I read some fascinating books recently. I highly recommend The Stars are Legion by Hurley for any sci-fi fans as a side note.

Here are some Moonwheel Salt and Mineral Trading Company historical legends. This is the type of display that would be in the museum in the Moonwheel Zoo in Guild World. As a note any references to being "the first" are specific to the region.
While Pomo Kine was the first navigator from my lands to circumnavigate the globe of Guildworld he wouldn't have been the first in the world's history as I am imagining this newer continent to be "younger" than the Old World of lands 1-40

Moonwheel-Historical-Legends.jpg

[Southern Crane]

A small update for the viewers but a great leap in my mountain experiments. I did develop two styles I liked better than these but I just want to go with this for the first version of this map to be able to finally move onto rivers and forest experiments.

Finished: Mountain ranges (hopefully)
Next Up: Forests and Trees

### Latest WIP ###MoonWheel-Islands-Trial-Country.jpg