Vaniya

[Ramah]

This map shows the continent of Southern Vaniya. The WIP thread for this map is located here: Vaniya - WIP

Vaniya is the land in which the novel I am writing is based. It is a fantasy world in which, although magic exists, it has long since been broken, changed into many different forms that the original users could not comprehend. For decades now the land has been under a terrible blight and the human race is dying out, slowly but surely. The only non-human race in the land are the Mandrai which live in The Ruhks, the great forest to the north. The humans and Mandrai have been at war for many long years.

The map, although ostensibly for my own benefit as a writing aid, has been decorated a little as if it is a communication between Arcanists, the practitioners of Circle Magic situated on the isle of Maloglash. The idea is that it is used as they attempt to chart the increase in The Blight. To this effect, I have added bits of flavour text to the map (I have increased the visibility on most of these since I last posted, but some are still purposely faint), some of which are directly related to my story.

Vaniya16.jpg

As I said in the WIP thread, this is still a work in progress to be honest, but I have come to a point where I have to stop working on it to the exclusion of all else. So for now, it is complete. I will add and change bits to it as things occur to me but I won't update on here unless something major happens or I reach the point where I can say for definite that it is totally complete.

The map was created entirely in Photoshop CS. I started with a digital photograph of an outline I drew on paper but this soon changed a lot as work progressed.
Jeremy Elford's amazing tutorials were my way in to using Photoshop for mapping. I doubt I would have carried on with it, or even started to try, had it not been for those. So thanks for that.
They can be found http://www.jezelf.co.uk/tutorials.htm for anyone who is yet to see them.

Fonts used are "IlShakeFest" for the labelling, "Dali" for the flavour text and "Ancestry" for the Cartouche. I believe I got them all from DaFonts.com.

Thanks to everyone in the WIP thread who contributed opinions or encouragement - your comments and critique were much appreciated.

P.s. - I'm not sure what use anyone could get out of this other than me, but if you feel the need then knock yourself out. Just consider it under the usual CC copyright thingymajig that people bang on about around here.

[Ascension]

This is an excellent map, one of the finer ones on our site. It might not look like much to those unfamiliar with making maps but the details are what makes this (along with the color scheme). Those of us who are utterly familiar with such things can appreciate the passion that goes into making a great piece art. Fonts are also easily mishandled but your choices are superb, IlShakeFest is a great 17th-18th century font and Dali is a great choice for flavoring. Cartouches are also easily mishandled but yours looks very professional. All in all, this is a top notch, A+ map. Excellent job.

[Bohunk]

Great attention to detail, awsome color scheme, wonderful style. Easily one of the best looking maps I have seen. Very professional.

[Clercon]

WOW this is such a beautiful map. I've completely missed the wip....have to look into that one now. Gives me tons of inspiration this one.

[DevinNight]

Awesome work. I missed the WIP too, but I'm going to go look at it.
Nice job of not making it too much, or distracting by throwing in too much color or too much variety in trees or mountains. What you have done, which is quite a bit all works so nicely together.

[torstan]

Really stunning. I love the subtle country borders. I also think the faded descriptive text in the sea is a beautiful touch. This is great work. Well done.

[Turgenev]

I saw this map via the Cartographers Choice subforum. When I first saw the map, my jaw dropped. Wow! A stunning piece of art. I had to come here and give Ramah some truly well deserved rep.

[guyanonymous]

You'll be receiving my medical bill soon. Due to the beauty and attention to detail of your map, my jaw hit the table so hard, it shattered.

[Ramah]

Wow, thanks for the comments guys. Really appreciated.

[Immolate]

Ramah,

I am in awe of your mappiness and can't think of superlatives that are sufficient superlative to describe it. I would like to point out, however, that the "s" in the lettering of the Ea.s.tern Sea is still in the original ambiguous form. I didn't see any other instances of this, which argues that it was unintentional. Perhaps you are steering wide of perfection to avoid Allah's wrath...

As I was born colorblind, I could never equal such a work of art as this one, but I hope to someday create something worth creating.