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Thread: Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan

  1. #1
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Wip Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan

    Hi there people!

    In my previous thread I already showed you a picture of the Twin Kingdoms, though I didn't go any deeper into it at that moment. I believe the time has come for me to show you another iteration of that map.

    Perhaps I should start with a little history of the map. After all I've been working on it for several years now (rather uncontinuously, as the novel I'm writing, and the language I'm developing, are taking up much of my spare time already), and the world has undergone quite some change since I first put pen to paper. I won't go very deep into it, I'll just show you some pictures of how it was, ending with the one I posted in the thread referred to above. The images embedded are fairly small, but I've added a link in each title to the full resolution image, so you can zoom in until your head pops off.

    iteration 1:
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    iteration 2:
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    iteration 3:
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    iteration 4:
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    iteration 5:
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    Though I kinda liked the "topographic" colours of the 4th iteration, I wasn't at all pleased with the topography itself. Iteration 5 was the logical follow-up, this time using Arsheesh's amazing tutorial. Alas the effect still wasn't to my liking, mainly because the rugged coasts in the northwestern corner of the map and the one to the south weren't all that rugged the way I had drawn them.

    It was time for another update of the map. And because I didn't want to end up with those silly, oversized pseudofjords anymore, I decided to get my inspiration from the real world. Or to be more exact: from Google Maps. Every stretch of coastline you'll see below, was shamelessly stolen from real-life shores, ensuring the feel of reality. And while I was at it, I decided to draw the mountains again too. And oh, kick the cities around a bit. With new icons of course. And hey, why not throw in some forests too?

    So basically I started with the modest ambition of redrawing my shorelines... and ended up redoing the entire map. Oh well, it's not like I have anything better to do, right? Right?

    Not right, but I'm sure you're in the same situation when you're bitten by the mapping bug. Time or no time, you HAVE to make that map. And that's what I did. And here, after all this jibber jabber, it is:

    geomorphology:
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    cities and roads:
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    And here are two possible representations of the political borders: a simple dashed line and coloured outlines.
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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Which of the two do you like best? And more important even: do you like the look of this iteration at all?
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    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    The dotted line definitely looks much better, in my opinion. Just wish I could zoom in further to see more detail. Have some rep, nonetheless; it really does look fantastic.

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    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Diamond View Post
    The dotted line definitely looks much better, in my opinion. Just wish I could zoom in further to see more detail. Have some rep, nonetheless; it really does look fantastic.
    You can zoom in all the way to infinity if you want - just click on the line above each picture! And: thanks a bunch for the rep, Diamond, I love it when that happens! ;-)
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    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    So I decided to go with the dotted borders, as Diamond and some others suggested. I adopted this style for the (smaller) borders between the different counties in both kingdoms - you'll see those as small yellow dots. I also changed the colour of the roads from red to black, so as to clash less with the overall greeish-blueish feel of the map. Lastly I added the names of the duchies, and that'll probably be the most visible change. I hope it's not too much. What do you think?

    Click image for larger version. 

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    PS: I added a fullsize image immediately, instead of a link to the picasaweb page in the image title. That should make navigation a bit easier.
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  5. #5
    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
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    Very very nice! I like it a lot...all of it. I have a hard time deciding which version i like best. I really hope we will se more of this world (in the other thread, you showed us the world-map. I hope you'll make detail maps of every part). Have some rep.!
    Oh and if you feel like telling us about the world itself, go ahead, i am all ears
    I'm trapped in Darkness,
    Still I reach out for the Stars

  6. #6
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Yes! Very nice. For whatever reason I wasn't able to zoom in on the Picasa-hosted map, so thanks for posting the image here directly. I'd rep you again if I could...

  7. #7
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    Beautiful. I personally prefer the colored borders, they are more clear to see.
    This cavern is below all, and is the foe of all. It is hatred, without exception. This cavern knows no philosophers; its dagger has never cut a pen. Its blackness has no connection with the sublime blackness of the inkstand. Never have the fingers of night which contract beneath this stifling ceiling, turned the leaves of a book nor unfolded a newspaper.

  8. #8
    Guild Apprentice gbsilverio's Avatar
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    Very nice! My only addition is that I think it would look better if the oceans had some kind of texture. It still looks awesome without it, though!

  9. #9

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    This is lovely work! The colors turned out beautifully (especially the sea, much better than mine). Really great work on this Caenwyr.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  10. #10
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eilathen View Post
    Very very nice! I like it a lot...all of it. I have a hard time deciding which version i like best. I really hope we will se more of this world (in the other thread, you showed us the world-map. I hope you'll make detail maps of every part). Have some rep.!
    Oh and if you feel like telling us about the world itself, go ahead, i am all ears
    Getting me started on the world is not the problem. Getting me to shut up again might be. Just ask me what you want to know, and I'll be happy to answer. Let me share the first words of my prologue with you, translated to English for your comfort (since I'm sure your Dutch is somewhat rusty atm ). I'm sure there are numerous mistakes in the English translation, but I hope you'll get the general idea nevertheless. Here goes:

    It was the last moon of winter. In the forests of Sarand hung a dense fog, snow lay in thick packs draped over the pine trees, slope after slope. The whole world was reduced to shades of black, white and icy blue. On the crest of a hill, in a clearing among the trees, stood an icy signpost: 10 miles to Tormic. Beneath it was a faded track where the snow was slightly less deep, as if someone had passed before the last heavy snowfall. Except for the signpost and the track, however, there was no trace of human civilization. A large raven came flying from the forest with lazy wing beats, looked around and then installed itself on the pole. Proudly he looked over the silent landscape - the king of a fallen world.
    All rights reserved, of course. © Caenwyr, 2012

    Quote Originally Posted by Lalaithion View Post
    Beautiful. I personally prefer the colored borders, they are more clear to see.
    I agree that they're clearer to see, but I'm not sure about the aesthetics. I have come to think coloured borders would look better on a parchment kind of map, focused on politics, while this map is more about geomorphology.

    Quote Originally Posted by gbsilverio View Post
    Very nice! My only addition is that I think it would look better if the oceans had some kind of texture. It still looks awesome without it, though!
    I should add some texture, shouldn't I? Any idea where I could get a nice wavy texture that doesn't distract the viewer from the land mass?

    Quote Originally Posted by arsheesh View Post
    This is lovely work! The colors turned out beautifully (especially the sea, much better than mine). Really great work on this Caenwyr.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh
    Thanks Arsheesh, that means a lot! Especially since it was your tutorial that started all this!

    I guess the only thing left to do for now is the labelling of the rivers. Which will be a HUGE pain in the ass, I'm sure. According to this guide, I'm supposed to make my labels float along the riverbanks. I guess I'll have to break out Inkscape for that - there's no way I'm gonna do that kind of vector work in GIMP. *sigh* I guess the fun part is over, and the messy part begins
    Last edited by Caenwyr; 11-27-2012 at 03:44 AM.
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