Midgard and Call of Cthulhu Maps and Illustrations for Kobold Press

[Ashenvale]

Here’s my archipelago map for “Journeys into the West”. The Savage Isles are populated by cannibalistic pygmies, cyclopes, and other nasties. Yes, some of the islands fly, which is why a handful cast shadows.

The Accursed Isle of Meshong-Lir spent centuries, perhaps millennia, on the ocean floor, imprisoning a Great Old One I named Noth-Nyarthogu who almost destroyed reality before being bound by the Gods. The island itself is comprised entirely of the twisted ruins of a Titan city, warped into nightmare forms during the gods’ battle and thereafter by the Great Old One’s influence. Now, in its sunken tomb, the Great Old One stirs, and its servitors scattered descendants sense its call. Shoggoths crawl into Meshong-Lir’s submerged remains to claw at sealed doors. Aquatic chaos beasts and gibbering mouthers follow. Noth-Nyarthogu’s agents travel the Western Islands, teaching others sacrificial rites to raise Meshong-Lir and spells that unravel wards, spells and rites the gods’ ancient magic prohibits Noth-Nyarthogu’s minions from performing themselves.

On moonless nights, when silhouettes dance abhorrent rituals, Meshong-Lir rises. Water cascades from its mountainous ruins. While the island usually submerges before dawn, rituals have recently kept it surface-bound for a full day. Within, labyrinthine crawl spaces spiral into mind-bending gulfs of blackness, the cyclopean ruins warping into ever-deepening nightmare. Beyond the harrowing guardians and insane titan ghosts, symbols of blasphemous power pulse like living things across treasures unimagined. And throughout, unspeakable abominations haunt the echoes.

Yet they come, people seeking abandoned wealth and secrets to alter destiny or bind the gods. The eager, the foolish, and the damned. One by one, they open forbidden doors. And somewhere far below, the Great Old One waits.

You get the idea.

One fun aspect of this map is that the Midgard Atlas, a new App for tablets that presents all of the lands of Midgard, includes this archipelago right out in the middle of the Western Ocean. That's my first archipelago to appear in an App!

By the way, if you love Midgard or D&D or Pathfinder and you don't have Midgard Atlas, you must get it! If you just love fantasy maps, you must get it! It totally rocks!