Avynthar: The Mappening

[PixelFish]

Well, I was feeling pretty excited after discovering the Cartographer's Guild forums this morning, so I skibbled off and scanned in my map of Avynthar. Then I tossed a few sepia tones onto it for a start, but I'd like to do a more extensive paintover, get some more geographic features in, and so on.

Avynthar is the main continent in the world my novel takes place in. There is a High King that rules over the Thirteen Kingdoms of Avynthar, although there are at least one autonomous kingdom and a few independent city states and some rogue states and whatnot which do not bow to the High King. The three kingdoms at the heart of the continent: Illivhar, Gallitor, and Tavaris are known as the Three Civilized Kingdoms, because they have the High King's Court, the Keep of the Yn Greneiri, and the University at Tallandrith respectively. People in Cadenza and Innstak tend to snicker about the Three Civilized Kingdoms though. (Cadenza is the capital of Maltaias and while technically has to submit to the High King, they're like the California/Renaissance Italy of Avynthar: a lot of races and cultures coming together, and they are much more chill and not so stuffy. Innstak is a city of merchants and burghers, and they run the trading guilds on the western half of the continent.)

There are three major mountain ranges (although a lot of little subranges spiking off of them): The Cold Peaks, The Vall, and The Avynians. Lake Avar bisects the breadbasket regions. The southeastern coasts has climates similar to the area around San Diego, fading into a sort of piedmont region inland. The left lower coast is rocky, fading to desert on the interior of the Zaelt peninsula. The northwestern coast alternates with fens and marshlands along the coast, and highland hills, with a few patches of fjord like areas up by Eid. Vallada tends to be a lot of highland hills, with late snows. Dallakh is jungly near the shore, and tends to be rocky and barren in the interior.

The map was handdrawn and handlettered, although I'll eventually replace the lettering I think. (I like to doodle map contours. I find it very relaxing.)

I'm thinking I'll want to do several versions. Probably an illustrative version along these lines with little icons showing the production of various regions: fish, horses, wine, grains, incense, etc. (I played Civilization one too many times.) And probably a more topographic/realist version, just because I would find it handy for the novel.

[Ryan K]

That is a gorgeous map - but I think you should leave the hand-lettering!

[Gandwarf]

Woohoo, another one writing a novel and mapping. It's getting crowded in here
Have some rep for posting your first map. It looks great. I like the bigger lettering, but you should probably replace the smaller lettering, like you already said.

I am interested to see how you would do a version to show the production of regions. I have always wanted to do a map like that myself for my world

[ironmetal250]

You're pretty good
The mountains and hand-drawn letters are pretty nice in particular. IMO you should definitely keep your letters.

[Steel General]

I have to agree with the others, keep the hand lettering, it looks nice and is easy enough to read. Looking forward to seeing some of these other versions of the map you mentioned.

Another Civ fan! - can't remember how many hours I've lost to that game.

[PixelFish]

I am interested to see how you would do a version to show the production of regions. I have always wanted to do a map like that myself for my world

Gandwarf: I would probably make little icons to represent things, rather like Civilization does, and scatter them close to the center of production.

....

Thanks to everybody who complimented me on my lettering. I would still probably redo it, because it was freehanded, and is also a few years old, so I can probably do it better now. But I can still strive to keep the organic look that comes with handlettering, and use a font for the smaller stuff as suggested.

[Ascension]

There are a few fonts that you could use that resemble the trendy tattoo lettering that looks similar to what you have. Have a look over at dafont or acidfonts and see what they have (these are the ones that I have...Goofball, Simon Script, Ditch the Logical, Kega, Tattoo Ink, Village Idiot, KnuckleTat, and a few more I can't remember right now). If you ever get around to drawing up some icons Civ-style I'll certainly be snaggin a copy for myself (been playing that game since 91 and addicted to the Fall from Heaven mod for 2 years). You've got a river split between Eid and Neskrith; might want to amputate one and have it come from elsewhere since rivers only split to go around hard rock or higher ground to form small river islands. Nice mtns and nice folds, good stuff.

[PixelFish]

Ascension: I've been pondering the distributary branching of the Northadder and the Nesk. Distributaries are certainly rarer than tributaries, and originally it was planned that the whole swath between Eid and Neskrith was going to be largely wetlands, so it generally still works with what I know about that area's geography. It would be very similar to the Atchafalaya River, which distributes off the Mississippi in Louisiana or the Roanoke River Delta distributaries in North Carolina, but bigger. (Also slightly chillier, being at a higher latitude, although not too chilly what with coastal air masses. I see the area being somewhere between the Scottish fens and the Carolina wetlands.) The fjordy and rocky bits should actually be on the north side of Eid, not the southern. Sorry for confusion in the description.

Thanks for the font tips. I will definitely look them up.

I will certainly post any icon groups I make, although being that I am making them for a fantasy, they will reflect that level of technology. (And some day I will finish my Civilization mod wherein I have a Canadian civ with the special unit, hockey team, and the leader, John A. Macdonald.)

[Ascension]

I could go for that as long as wicked slapshot was a promotion

[PixelFish]

I think my boyfriend is trying to figure out the slapshot. (He's modelling and animating, I'm skinning and illustrating.)