The Plane of Melekar

[gaaran]

Well, with the help of several different tutorials on this site, and some of my own tinkering, I have finally completed the world map for my game world of Melekar that I have been running games in for probably 5-6 years. Just wondering what everyone thinks of the final product, and I figured since I used help from all of you (in the form of tutorials) I'd show you what I came up with.

I made the map using PS CS4, and spent a good 20+ hours tinkering and playing around with it to get the look that you see below.

A few things that might stick out, there are very few bodies of fresh water, that is for two reasons. One, the scale is massive (over 3000 miles across) so I chose to only include the most major of lakes and rivers (lakes over 50 miles in one dimension, and rivers of at least 1000 miles, give or take) and two, I'm constantly adding to the world as players go to new areas and I need certain landscape features for the game, so this way, if they need to find a lake or river, I'll just add one. I suppose the other major thing is that it doesn't really have poles or extremes of temperature. This is a flat plane, rather than a planet, and was hand created by the gods, so it doesn't follow normal rules and weather patterns. Generally as you get towards the outer mountains of mist, the temperature gets more and more temperate, but there are deserts, and jungles on the outer rim, and temperate forest islands towards the center.

The final map ended up being 9600x9600, but I've pared it down for online viewing. That might make a few of the names hard to read, but that doesn't really matter for these purposes.

Edited the post to include a little more info.

[Legiazus]

I really like it. It reminds of some of the maps I've seen in D&D worldbooks, in a good way. Plus, the scale is huge, and it is obvious there went a lot of work into it. Nice one!

[mearrin69]

Very nice. Have some rep!
M

[Diamond]

Yeah, repped from me as well. That really looks like a labor of love. The colors are great, and I like your naming conventions.

[rwaluchow]

This is a great map. I love your colour palette and choice of symbols. It's both functional and beautiful. Have some rep.

[gaaran]

Thanks for the comments guys! Yeah, this map is something that I started probably 6 or more years ago on a bunch of taped together card stock. I scanned and colored it a long time ago, but I finally sat down and made myself do a proper job on this. I was really pleased with the way it turned out! You're right about it being a labor of love though, at least half of the world has been filled in as me and my friends were sitting around the gaming table, me as the DM, making up new locations as we went. If anyone happens to want a full res nameless version, I'd be happy to send one.

[Jaxilon]

Nice look. Great colors as mentioned. Repped.

[arsheesh]

Hey Gaaran, that is a beautiful map! I'm impressed with how much detail went into the myriad names and trade routes of your world. As others have pointed out, the colors are quite nice, and I also really like the font that you've chosen (may I ask which font it is?). Great job on this all around. Judging by the detail in your map, I can tell that you have put a tremendous amount of thought into your campaign; your players are fortunate to have such an enthusiastic DM. Oh, and have a bit of rep as well.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[gaaran]

Thanks Arsheesh! Yeah, I've fleshed out my world with over a dozen campaigns and adventures, each one taking place in a new area. The font is called Seven Swordsmen, and i found it using one of the links in the mapping elements section (the blammo one or something like that? they had a lot of comic book style ones too).

[Carnifex]

Nice map! I like the colours and the general feel. You say that gods created the world and I like that as well but how about the rivers? They run very strange in some places (splits, runs right through a continent etc).