Elyden: the Hinterlands of the East W.I.P

[vorropohaiah]

Hi all.

Been sick in bed for the past week and, though I should have been writing (finishing off the first draft of my novel...) I've found myself looking at my Conworld (Elyden) and wondering what i can do with the regions of the world I'm no that familiar with. Long story short, ?I've spent the last 8-years-or-so creating the world of Elyden (histories, languages, mythologies, climates, etc.). This has resulted in dozens of short stories (most unpublishd), some novelas and plenty of unfinished novels as well as a 500,000+ word encyclopedia for my perusal, all detailing different aspects of the world.

So far the majority of my attentions have been absorbed by the so-called Empire of Korachan (later sundered into two: the High-empire of Korachan in the north and the Reaffirmed Empire of Sarastro in the south), though I've decided now to spend some time in the so-called hinterlands of the east. To anyone interested in my 'complete' map of Korachan and the Inner Sea can check out these threads: here and here; as well as an older W.I.P here.

This is a W.I.P tracking the progress of my attempts at fleshing out the lands east of the Korachani empire. The below map is a very low-res version (anyone who's seen the Korachani map will know I like working at high res ) mock-up of what i imagine the final product will look like. This may take a while to get off the ground as I only have a reasonable idea of what encompasses the western-most of the two continents detailed here (a dry-temperate and arid land populated by a diapsora of people from more southern lands. I'm thinking a major nation [Tethysia, to anyone interested], an advanced nation of dark-skinned people, sort of a cross between renaissance europe and ancient egypt, with some archaic steampunk elements) - the eastern-most one is a big blank canvas: very exciting as i love coming up with names and histories (though myth does describe it as the birthplace of earth-magic. At least I have the graticules and climate bands to guide me now...

The projection is equidistant conic, with quite a bit of distortion, particularly around the north pole and lands south of the equator, though I wanted to keep it in a similar format to the other map, not just style. The scale is smaller than the previous map (ie: there is much more land covered in an identically-sized map).

C&C welcome as well as suggestions

[Diamond]

Very much looking forward to seeing this develop!

By the way, shouldn't you have a Featured Map Scroll thingy below your name for your High Empire map?

[vorropohaiah]

By the way, shouldn't you have a Featured Map Scroll thingy below your name for your High Empire map?

hmm.... true. i want my scroll now!

You should write a book like Fonstad about Middle Earth. You seem to have far enough material for this.
I would love to have my material in bookform, but most of it is in handwritten German Language.

once i get enough smaller regional maps done, that is something i'd love to do. or an old-school-type atlas.

[Schwarzkreuz]

You should write a book like Fonstad about Middle Earth. You seem to have far enough material for this.
I would love to have my material in bookform, but most of it is in handwritten German Language.

[Schwarzkreuz]

Same wish here

Oh man, I like your projection lines, I wish I would understand how to do such....

[vorropohaiah]

Same wish here

Oh man, I like your projection lines, I wish I would understand how to do such....

I really used to struggle with graticules and projections too, though (through the help of the wonderful members of Cartographer's guild ) I've found a wonderful NASA generator calledG. Projector. basically you can draw a world map in equirectangular projection, upload it to that programme and then scroll through over 100 different projections. you can fiddle around with settings and graticules and export the result as a jpg. I then use that jpg as a base for a new map. It can be a bit time-consuming changing between projections (and regenerating clean coastlines - the exported file isn't very high res), though I think it's worth it.

[Schwarzkreuz]

I enjoy your comeback to mapping. Is your world source material/ enzyclopedia somewhere to read?

[vorropohaiah]

I enjoy your comeback to mapping. Is your world source material/ enzyclopedia somewhere to read?

Thanks regarding the encyclopedia, it's currently not in a format that's 'fitting' for other people to read (typos, lots of seemingly pointless notes and bullet points with some regions detailed over dozens of pages and others existing as little more than a name). Though I've taken 2 relatively well-developed pages and polished them up to a standard similar to what I'd like the finished thing to be like:



that JPG is a two-A4-page spread, to give an idea of what i have at the moment. The full encyclopaedia (as it stands now) is 466-pages long (in that format), and is divided in two: with the first 237-pages in an alphabetical format similar to that above, and the rest divided into sections (like mythologies, regional histories, flora/fauna, languages, timelines, etc.). There are no pictures or maps included in it so far though eventually I want to add detailed regional maps as well as some small sketches similar to those in books like the Encyclopedia Britannica etc. I expect the full thing to grow to over 1,000-pages when (if) I ever finish it. Id love to print it out one day with an accompanying atlas (possibly in 3 volumes: the encyclopaedia, the appendices, and the atlas).

I originally wanted to develop a wiki (mostly for my own use) though got discouraged by the mount of hyperlinking involved (as it's a living document, I'm constantly revising and editing and removing parts so if I ever go down the wiki-route it'll have to be after i finish it.

I do also have a blog of sorts HERE where I sometimes post stories and snippets as well as things to do with cartography, though there isnt really that much at the moment.

[arsheesh]

I originally wanted to develop a wiki (mostly for my own use) though got discouraged by the mount of hyperlinking involved (as it's a living document, I'm constantly revising and editing and removing parts so if I ever go down the wiki-route it'll have to be after i finish it.

Yeah there is a lot of hyperlinking involved, but I've got to say, I'm a big fan of the wiki system, it's really helped me keep track of my campaign setting related info, as well as to give my players a basic reference to my world. Have you looked at the Obsidian Portal? While I haven't done anything with my site in the last year or so, here's a link to my own OP wiki to give you an idea of what you can do at the portal.

[vorropohaiah]

Yeah there is a lot of hyperlinking involved, but I've got to say, I'm a big fan of the wiki system, it's really helped me keep track of my campaign setting related info, as well as to give my players a basic reference to my world. Have you looked at the Obsidian Portal? While I haven't done anything with my site in the last year or so, here's a link to my own OP wiki to give you an idea of what you can do at the portal.

that's very nicely put together. I'd love something like that for my own world, though don't really have the money/time to show someone what I want (as i cant really do that stuff myself. though call me old-school, but i do prefer the look and feel of a book over a website (though in your case if its a campaign setting, it is certainly the best way of getting the info to players)