# Gallery > Finished Maps > [CG Choice Map] Imperial Worldmap of Arden

## Schwarzkreuz

The Work on this map showed me alot about composition and Styles, how to combine traditional handwork with electronical Tools and How to create a streamlined Design for a fantasy Worldmap. From the Beginning I didnt want to start small and tried all my best into a Map that have been hounting my mind since a very long time. Of course the map have still some flaws like the Mismatching trees and other minor details, but it is another step forward into the crafts of mapmaking. I am very honored by the Featuremap Award of the Cartographer Guild, but in recieving this honor, I also want to say how greatful I am for all the Help that I got as a new member of this community and also to acknowledge all the hard work that the ones who stand before me in this spot, to make this community work.



Original Post
"Ok, my first map ever in this digital style. I have done some textures on handdrawn stuff before, but never something in this scale. Its more or less 2m^2 big. It was always a dream of mine to realy bring all the maps of Arden together to form this map. I started playing RPGs more than 20 Years ago and this world was there from the first day and walked along my side for the most part of my life. In the progress I have learned a lot about patient, ok I admit it, also about frustration. I have always be a person who cant wait to finish up things, but this map sure neede its time. I am very grateful to all those excellent Map tutorials and inspirations. Espacialy I have to thank Diamond, Tilt, Tear, Coyotemax and a lot more for the beoutiful works on display on Cartographersguild.

Ok I dont realy know what to say more. I am happy the map is finished and that  I can go on to start the next one."

If anyone should be interested in commision a map made by me, I can be contacted by email: aristagon13 @ Yahoo.de

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## Alex

*drools*

Might be its my extreme love of mountains and forests/trees, but dang do I really love how you made them! This is fantastic! 

Did I already rep you? xD

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## maxsdaddy

Wow, thanks for posting it! I'm an old diehard for hand drawn myself but this is really nice. The Melenekurion area of the map really caught my attention. Rep.... Dang have to go and spread some more rep.

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## Schwarzkreuz

Thanks for the kind words. I am thinking about posting the brushes of the mountains if people like them.

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## ScotlandTom

Did you hear that?  That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.  I kept checking in on your WIP thread and knew this would turn out well, but dang have you ever created an incredible piece of work here.  Congratulations!  This map is a beauty to behold and I'm sure will be an inspiration to many, including myself.

And yes, your mountain brushes are amazing - all your brushes are.  I don't think anyone here would complain if you decided to share them.

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## Coyotemax

wow dat's hawt!

[edit - dang, i seem to have given you rep recently, won't let me give you some for this..  yet...  :Smile: ]

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## eViLe_eAgLe

Awesome map my man! My world is named Aren, pretty close to yours huh? But, I slash at you with my 1-inch dagger of +4 Repping.

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## Freodin

Great to see you have finished this monster! And the result is absolutely stunning.

Hattu feinemacht!

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## Lukc

Awesome, awesome map. Very clear, very distinctive, very suggestive and atmospheric. Just awesome.

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## Schwarzkreuz

Thank you all! The only Issues that I want to do better next time are trees and Rivers. For the rest I am very happy with the outcome now.

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## Eilathen

Well, as i said in the WIP thread...this is really beautiful. A very unique style. Very well done, Schwarzkreuz! Have some rep. (if i can)!
And if you care to share ... i'd be interested in brushes from this map...not only the mountains. But i am greedy  :Wink: 
Btw, is this a world you have worked out in any detail? You mentioned rpg-ing. If you have things in written form, i'd be very much interested to learn more about this world (yeah, i am enthusiastic rpg-er myself and i looove to discover new worlds...especially ones with such gorgeous maps).

Oh und ich gratuliere zur Beendigung des ersten digitalen Projekts  :Smile:  (da all die Namen in der Karte auf Deutsch sind, nehme ich an du verstehst das hier  :Wink:  )

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## Schwarzkreuz

Thanks for your reply, and Yes ich versteh deutsch bin in Deutschland aufgewachsen. 
There is a 120 000 years history ob this World. 120 playable races and much more. It is also possible to Play in this World in 12 different historicak settings ranging from the past 24k Years. The basic idea is a Giant Continental generation spaceship Crashs in the Middle of somethink like Middle Earth, and than turn it into postapokalypse Environment. If you speak German try Tanelorn.Net I am leading an Creativechallenge for RPG settings there soon.

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## Eilathen

Thanks, Schwarzkreuz. I will look for this on Tanelorn. What's your nick-name over there? Also Schwarzkreuz?
Btw, is this map all you have mapped out of this world...so is this kind of "the world-map"? Or is there more? If yes, I'd like to see it  :Wink: 
And 120 000 years?! Holy crap!  :Very Happy:  Any plans to publish this somewhere on the internet? (or maybe even as a commercial product?)

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## TheRedEpic

Excellent map! One of the best on this site yet in my opinion :Smile:  How did you get the country continent lines to be so natural? Did you hand draw the geography lines of the lands masses or did rough them in and vary them with the computer? The mountains are gorgeous, though i think a little bit of variety and breakage in the tress to the north would do something for it as well. Bravo!

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## Schwarzkreuz

I think i would do the trees otherwise Next Time. The coastel line was Build like in tears Tutorial. 

Sometimes i was thinking about publishing my material about the World but i don't Know if it is interesting enough to Be of any Comercial success.

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## Schwarzkreuz

And about the Size of the World. My Map is about As Large As scandinavia to Middle Afrika. But its only the smaller Third of a higher continent, One of fife. Its a Big World and i am still keeping some blank spaces.

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## barsoomcore

Let's see...

Dark obelisks? Check.
Mysterious ruined towers? Check.
Endless forests? Check.
Towering cliffs? Check.
GIGANTIC MOUNTAINS CUT IN HALF? Check check check!

Amazing. Loved looking through it and finding all the little details you added.

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## Schwarzkreuz

My brushes are online here 
Please read my terms of use. I f you like it please leave a comment there.

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## Ramah

Wonderful map man, great stuff. The only thing I don't love about it is the evergreen forests, which have some diagonal banding but as you've mentioned that you yourself would do them differently next time then I guess you see them as the weak point of the map.

I very much look forward to seeing your next map.  :Smile:

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## Jaxilon

Gorgeous work! It looks just wonderful. 

Rep incoming.

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## Manbatapus

Holy smokes! This is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. I actually made this account so I could comment on this  :Razz:  

I'm just getting into map-making myself, and I was wondering; did you produce this entirely digitally, or upload it into a program once you sketched it out by hand? If so, what program did you use?

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## Diamond

This turned out FANTASTIC.

Probably one of the most awesome things I've seen in years.

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## Schwarzkreuz

@ Manbatabus: you can find the WIP in th regional/world section. I have Done this with ink and than digitalize the Parts in Photoshop cs 3, than collaged it. You can also find my Bruches to do such a Map for free on this Board. Have Fun with it.

@ Mr. Diamond
Hey man you are the reason i am here. Such a compliment from you is overwhwelming. Do you like to do a collab with me ?

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## Diamond

> @ Mr. Diamond
> Hey man you are the reason i am here. Such a compliment from you is overwhwelming. Do you like to do a collab with me ?


That might be cool.  What did you have in mind?

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## Clercon

How could I have missed this fantastic map.. So many details and so fine brushes I am overwhelmed. This one goes into m inspiration folder!

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## Klaus van der Kroft

Impressive. A truly inspiring map.

I particularly enjoy the way the mountains are drawn and how you can really get a sense of the size and volume of some of them.

Splendid job, indeed!

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## Thesslian

Wow.  That is just amazing.

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## macarser

That is an amazing map.

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## Needamedic

*sniff* *sniff* I Love This Map, Man !   The detail is outstanding. Rep to you !

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## Carnivale

Just looking at the various places on the map makes it come alive! Great work. ^^

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## Schwarzkreuz

Many thanks to you all. I am overwhelmed by the positiv feedback here. I hope to be able to work on a new map soon, with an all new Brush-Set.

@Diamond:
I think I could create Brushes and Map-Elements and I could give you the informations of the Setting and the form of the Landmass, the actual rendering of the map and putting the informations into form would be your side. 1 Map my Setting, one Map your setting? How do you like the idea?

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## Enigmae

I like the clear presentation and the relative size of the mountains, excellent work!

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## Cyruss

Love the map. Very great work. 

Critique: The shadows of most of the trees seem to fall to the west while the actual shading on the mountains and trees themselves seem to be on the eastern half. The darkened shaded area should corresponding to the directions of the shadows. 

It seems the entire northern forest has physical shadows facing west implying the sun would be in the east. This would essentially 'flip' the shading of the hills, mountains and lowland trees.

I hope my critique is clear and not offensive.

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## Coyotemax

wow good eye.  and i thought i had gone over it in detail  :Wink: 

I would thinking flipping the shadow on the trees would be easier, considering the way the shading is done on the mountains.  The ground shadows are the only parts i notice being off in that regard.simple matter to shove that layer (assuming the shadows are on a layer by themselves) a few pixels to the right.

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## Klaus van der Kroft

I found a small settlement (or what I think is a small settlement) that seems to be missing a name. It is located in the small island in south-western Oceanus Desperare, east of Eledare and north-west of Astan.

Otherwise, I'm still fully enjoying the tremendous amount of the detail in this map. You can certainly tell there is a lot going on in this world.

One question: The Imperial Province of Urdatha seems to have a slight urban texture to it. Does it represent a massive, region-spanning city development?

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## Zane89

Fascinating and huge

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## dangerdog15

> Awesome, awesome map. Very clear, very distinctive, very suggestive and atmospheric. Just awesome.


So right Luka. And the scale gives it an amount of mass that is astonishing.

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## Schwarzkreuz

> I found a small settlement (or what I think is a small settlement) that seems to be missing a name. It is located in the small island in south-western Oceanus Desperare, east of Eledare and north-west of Astan.
> 
> Otherwise, I'm still fully enjoying the tremendous amount of the detail in this map. You can certainly tell there is a lot going on in this world.
> 
> One question: The Imperial Province of Urdatha seems to have a slight urban texture to it. Does it represent a massive, region-spanning city development?



Yes there are still some little bugs in it. I dont realy like the forests anymore, I will try another aproach for the next map!
The Texture on Urdatha are Farming Fields, this is the corn-chamber of the Empire. 

Are such informations interesting at all? I mean why I choose to render a certain area in the way it is? All elements of the maps are trying to tell a bit about the empires point of view about the world. Some races of the worlds are Reptilian Traders (Central South and The Traders City of Fahl Sierra). The Vrelaken Terretories of primitiv cultures of ogres, Lords of forgery and Worrior Voivodats. The many Celafati Realms, similar to medieval Islamic culture, one of the first hight cultures of my world, spread by the Scith, Goblins and master alchemists..... and so on and so on. 

Here are so many Maps with lots of stories and Ideas inside it, I would love to read more of them! I would realy love a place where I could read about all the vast amount of fictional worlds here on the guild!

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## Coyotemax

Farming, I was right!!  I thought it looked like fields and canals..

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## occam99

I think my heart skipped a beat when I opened up the thumbnail. I keep a small portfolio of links to maps on this site, to wow my RPG group with, and this jumped straight to the top.

I'm not sure if me giving out rep is worth anything, but have some anyway.

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## Schwarzkreuz

Hey occam99 we all enjoy maps here, everyone counts and makes this art-form what it is, a work of passion. So, thank you for the rep! Everone counts

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## Diamond

> @Diamond:
> I think I could create Brushes and Map-Elements and I could give you the informations of the Setting and the form of the Landmass, the actual rendering of the map and putting the informations into form would be your side. 1 Map my Setting, one Map your setting? How do you like the idea?


Sure, sounds good!  PM me and let me know when/how you want to start.

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## alanrex

i really enjoy this map. Great Work! Repped up for ya

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## Doctor Thantos

The texture is amazing, nice job!

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## Time_Sync

I specifically joined this site just to ask if I could use your map for my game.  It's absolutely stunning and I think the players would be really happy to live inside that world.  I would be eternally grateful if I could.

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## Ravenbow

I check these forums a lot and can only dream of doing this for myself, but I had to post if for no other reason than to try to pass along rep.

And the fact you gave the brushes for others to try and attempt this greatness deserves its own special rep scale.

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## Schwarzkreuz

Thank you all for the praise. I hope my next map will be a similar succest. At the moment I try some variations in technics and styles to devellop my skills. See more in th WIP area of World building.

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## Motara

Phenomenal detail.

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## arsheesh

Wow, this is just fabulous!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## silverhead

I think I already commented on this, but now that I see it again ... wow. What can I say. "Awesome" is an understatement :-)

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## Lenox274

Nice combination of hand drawn on here.  Very nice map- kudos

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## bloodangel9

Amazing, very nice work, inspiring

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## Tesara Tria

This is an absolutely stunning map!  I want one.  :Wink:

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## mgmcph

Really amazing use of mountains.  Fantastic work.

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## Raktus

Love it, this map is perfect!

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## Eranthius

Breathtaking!

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## Eberict

> Many thanks to you all. I am overwhelmed by the positiv feedback here. I hope to be able to work on a new map soon, with an all new Brush-Set.


Yes please! I am sad to note that your current brush-set doesn't include the mountain cut in half. I love that mega-mountain the most!

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## Lyandra

This is such a beautiful, breathtaking map! Your skill in depicting different types of mountains and terrain is impressive. I truly love your style. The mastery of using self-made brushes is something I'm envious of (not the only thing btw^^). I'm looking forward to your maps to be!  :Very Happy:

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## Schwarzkreuz

> This is such a beautiful, breathtaking map! Your skill in depicting different types of mountains and terrain is impressive. I truly love your style. The mastery of using self-made brushes is something I'm envious of (not the only thing btw^^). I'm looking forward to your maps to be!


I constantly try on improving my skills. Somehow after my passion for maps got ignited thrugh the Arden map I cant stop anymore. There is my dream to realy do this world justice which I worked on since my 8. lifeyear.

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## vorropohaiah

Gorgeous stuff and clearly the work of someone who cares about this world. Ive spent ages looking at this, pouring over the various areas...
 n Nimtal, just south of  elis, there are a few oddly-shaped lakes. Not sure if those are intentional or brush mistakes?

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## jexinator

Waw, this map is very impressive. Congratulation !!!

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## Schwarzkreuz

> Waw, this map is very impressive. Congratulation !!!


I am doing a New Version , you can find it in the World/Reginal Section.

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## gothicus

it's looking great. It will be owesome if we can see a tutorial of making this map.

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## gen

Wow Schwarzkreuz, that is impressive.  I wish that my first map will be as beautiful as yours.

You have all my congratulations and praises for this work  :Smile:

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## Mensk

A very impressive map, I wish I had the skill that it took to make these kinds of maps.

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## Master TMO

Awesome map!  Nice details, and an impressive scale.  I do have to ask though - were you visited by the River Police in your WIP?

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## Schwarzkreuz

More than once  :Very Happy:

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## Abdmasoud

I was having a look at your work very beautiful

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## Murtauh

Lovely map! One detail I did note to be off however is the direction of the rivers. The tributaries seem to from up and coalesce near the oceans, then flow inland. In reality, this would be the opposite.

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## arminko47

Fantastic work!

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## Schwarzkreuz

> Lovely map! One detail I did note to be off however is the direction of the rivers. The tributaries seem to from up and coalesce near the oceans, then flow inland. In reality, this would be the opposite.


Look at my otehr maps  :Razz: 
I learned to do better by now.

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## Ubeka

Great map! I love the style, the mountains and terrains look very well-drawn and the layout is great too. I really got a lot of inspiration from this, too, so you deserve all of my internets, good sir!  :Very Happy:

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## arore

> Look at my otehr maps 
> I learned to do better by now.


Is this even possible? This is phenominal in its own respect.  :Very Happy:

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## GrimFinger

Ah, a truly gorgeous map, a cartographic lady in waiting, lying in wait to ambush the unsuspecting passerby!

It's not a perfect map - but, damn, the end result is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Magnificent. Beautiful. Grand to behold!

Where to start? The mountains, of course. Majestic, the towering behemoths rise above the cartographic landscape. At last, a cartographer that appreciates that mountains are rather mountainous creatures. The really gigantic ones - those are the ones that make men swoon, and subjugate us into a perennial state of unyielding admiration.

All those hills, draped like ornaments across the vastness that this map implies. Lots of variety, lots of different sizes. It makes the mouth water.

And those trees - those quad-zillions of trees. Oh, yes! oh, my! They make the forests look grand, indeed. Great expanses of heavily forested areas, such that even the Picts of Robert E. Howard fame would envy the likes of these!

The water, namely those lakes and inland seas, they are creatures of subtle beauty, for sure. I am certain of that much, if I am certain of anything. They are the pearls that grace this fair lady of a map.

And all of those horizontal instances of font work. They aren't my ideal favorite method of laying text atop a map, but you have worked your cartographic witchcraft with a most poisonous addiction. The underlined place names bring this land to life, securing their place in the annals of worthiness for all time. Let none question the wisdom of your decision in the matter of text labels to mark the cartographic locations.

Lots and lots of delicious islands dangling in the west, like candies of geographic sweetness tempting my eye as it scours across the map. Oceanus Desperae - many are thy children, these islands that thrust up from the depths of thy seas!

The barren lands that lay between Nimtal and Tremorlor - oh, how vaunted thy claims to contrast should be! It's mostly empty space, but how beautiful such a barren expanse can be, when juxtaposed against the geographic diversity that manifests itself elsewhere on this map of grandiose accomplishment.

Oh, and the lovely escarpment, what runs below Wendigroth and Aria!

And look at the jungles of Marndurak-Djungel! And the mountain range to the east of that foreboding forest of tropical flavor - The eye rests well upon that fearsome range.

Sinalath. Melenkurion. What mysteries unknown lie between thy lofty peaks?

It's just lovely, a map such as this. Just lovely, indeed.

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## Nathalem

Wow thats great  :Smile: 
I love the montains you created...

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## aquarits

Man it is a nice work, is exactly the style that i like!
I need u teaching me  :Very Happy:

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## Ruvenor

Wow! What a map! Great Job!

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## Thrum

Amazing map! Seriously fantastic work! You are an inspiration to me! Thanks for posting!

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## Schwarzkreuz

> Man it is a nice work, is exactly the style that i like!
> I need u teaching me


Just ask me.

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## rjames112

How did you get the texture and colouration? I would love a tutorial.

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## Schwarzkreuz

Look into my WIP thread there is everything documented

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## Katsus

I have been trying to figure out how to do something like this for a book I am working on. The scale and detail of this is incredible. very very nice

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## Schwarzkreuz

Any success doing a Map?

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