Well, I had a ginormous post just before the server troubles detailing this next map, but it was all wiped out. I'll try to recreate it here, and hopefully this time I can be more coherent than last time!

These maps are part of a much larger worldbuilding project I began several months ago as support material for a novel I'd like to write. In fact, it was in preparation for making maps of this fictional world that I found the cartographer's guild in the first place. After only a month of membership here, my cartography skills still leave a lot to be desired, but I have learned enough that I want to give my world, Thraena, a try.

Here is a first map of the entire world, done in a satellite style. This map is only meant to give a sense of general climates-you'll notice there are no mountains, rivers, or forests. This map is not 100% accurate, either, but it does give some idea of climate.

Click image for larger version.  Name: AllWorld..jpg  Views: 465  Size: 967.9 KB  ID: 24121

Ideally, I want to do several maps of this world-some geographical and some political. The first is an in-world style map, something the characters might have access to (or at least something like they would have access to) in the story. I did some research on old maps around the time period I was aiming for, and here's some of my favorite references:

Map 1

Map B

Map III

In actuality, this first map I'm working on is from a period ~5-800 years before the story is set to start. This, however, would still be one of the most extensive maps of the world made by the time of the story. Between the time when it was made and when the story occurs much knowledge was lost, mostly due to a series of wars and a catastrophe caused by the Gods. This catastrophe is also the reason why, in the satellite style map there are a bunch of islands where on this map there is solid land just north of where the equator and prime meridian meet. Other inconsistencies arise from the fact that the world is still being explored at the time this map was created, and some coastlines are uncertain.

Click image for larger version.  Name: GoldenAgeArista_2.jpg  Views: 600  Size: 2.68 MB  ID: 24122

The forests, rivers, and mountains are all pretty much done, barring some unforeseen revelation. You may notice that most of the southern, crescent shaped continent is left blank-this is not a mistake. This is for in-world political reasons, as the country on that part of the continent is not friendly at all with the country where this map was made, and does not allow explorers on the continent, nor even traders except for in a few port towns in the north.

A note about the compass: It's pretty simple, except for the device in the center. This is the device of the Royal House of the Kingdom of Arista, where this map was made-the Aristan pine, from which the kingdom takes its name-and the raven, the sigil of the royal house.