Atlas Elyden

[Axelton Crow]

Just wanting to leave a message here and say that I really enjoy seeing your work as well as your progress, not to mention your maps are beautiful! I've probably been keeping an eye on your progress here for more than a year now as I stumble through my own world building process. I too hope that someday I am able to start mapping regions in my world as you do, and I also plan on designing several in-world "books" such encyclopedias, religious texts, a bestiary, an atlas, etc. I think this is the only other project I've seen who is taking that route as well, so you're a big inspiration for me. I also enjoy seeing the patchwork mosaic map of your progress of the overall Inner Sea region as well. Good job and keep up the good work!

[vorropohaiah]

Just wanting to leave a message here and say that I really enjoy seeing your work as well as your progress, not to mention your maps are beautiful! I've probably been keeping an eye on your progress here for more than a year now as I stumble through my own world building process. I too hope that someday I am able to start mapping regions in my world as you do, and I also plan on designing several in-world "books" such encyclopedias, religious texts, a bestiary, an atlas, etc. I think this is the only other project I've seen who is taking that route as well, so you're a big inspiration for me. I also enjoy seeing the patchwork mosaic map of your progress of the overall Inner Sea region as well. Good job and keep up the good work!

thanks a lot, and good luck with your own world. I know it's not an easy process did you start top down or bottom up, or a mix of the two? are you concentrating on a particular area first or just doing random things as inspiration strikes (like me)?

in the meantime, here's a quick snip of what I;m working on at the moment. I;m starting toget a bit sick of topograohy.. :p
(and before anyone asks, there's no secret method to the topography. its done one layer at a time with the lasso and a layer mask...

[vorropohaiah]

I thought I’d share what I’m working on at the moment – two maps for the Inner Sea. I spent quite a while on the topography of the first – Hololach – and I’m very happy with it. I just started labeling the map and it shouldn’t be too long now.



The second map is Vaalk, the first map I’m working on in the south of the Inner Sea with a warmer climate. The topography is ready though as it’s quite a low region it looks quite boring here, especially sans labels. Hopefully it’ll look better once it’s done.

[J.Edward]

The coast on Hololach's south looks fantastic. All the lakes and inlets - really nice.
I always enjoy seeing progress on Elyden.

[vorropohaiah]

The coast on Hololach's south looks fantastic. All the lakes and inlets - really nice.
I always enjoy seeing progress on Elyden.

well, after what feels like months it's done. I dont want to look at topography or labels for a while now

more on the map on the finished map thread [url=https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=34529&p=305660#post305660]here[/urll], including some regional history



So the Inner Sea mosaic now looks something like the below (so still a long way to go!) Not sure what I'll work on next: probably Vaalk, to the south of Laaskha. the topography is done, and it shouldn't have as many labels as its a dryer region, so shouldn't take too long

[vorropohaiah]

So, quickly on the heels of the Hololach Map, I've finished the next map in the series. You can see the full thread here

In the meantime I'm taking the opportunity to talk about what I plan on doing

These maps I've been posting are part of an in-world atlas, known as the Atlas Elyden, which is the fifth volume in the so-called Encyclopaedia Elyden, which is a 5-volume book detailing, in meticulous effort, the world of Elyden, which I have been working on for about 10-years now.

• Vol 1 is the traditional encyclopaedia (think Encyclopaedia Britannica). Currently 400,00 words - this is the most comprehensive volume so far.
• Vol 2 is the natural encyclopaedia, detailing things like physical characteristics (astronomy, geology, continents, climate, flora and fauna, and various miscellania. Currently 80,000 words - certain parts are finished whilst others are little more than place-holders so far.
• Vol 3 is the travelogue, detailing both extant and extinct nations, city-states and major cities. I imagine this to be like the regional portion of an RPG campaign setting. Currently 200,000 words. Many regions are fully-fleshed out, though most are still just a title and little else.
• Vol 4 is the mystical book, detailing religions, mythologies, creation stories, and magic. currently 40,000 words - apart from the creation myths and generic magical info, this book needs the most fleshing out by far, though it would be the smallest book once completed, anyway.
• Vol 5 is the Atlas, containing all sorts of maps in the style of the atlas maps ive been doing so far, including different scale maps, so it will eventually feature cities, continents, world maps, featuring different things, like climate, trade, politics, etc. Iv'e barely scratched the surface of this book so far, and only really have these 10-maps finished, out of possibly hundreds...

The above map shows just one region (equivalent to the Mediterranean in our world) and all the maps I've done so far, which are centered around it. My short-term goal for the project is to flesh out the so-called Inner Sea region, with an eye towards a large map (one at A3 size for the atlas, which is the same size as the ones I've been producing so far; and another at A1 for a poster). The A1 map would not just be a scaled up version of the A3 one, but will be redone from scratch as the A3 map will (due to size constraints) have a lot less labels than the maps I've made so far, and it's not just a matter of stitching together the finished maps as they're all different scales an the map elements are all different sizes, as are the labels. So it will only feature major cities and features. The highlighted area in the map above shows the area that will be covered by the Inner Sea map (at both scales)

Also, my patreon is slowly gaining patrons and one of the goals I set for myself once I reach a certain threshold is to create a globe of the world. That will be a large effort that will take up precious time from the Atlas Elyden project, but it's something that I've wanted to do for a very long time now. I have my eye on some materials and techniques needed for it, though it's still something that's on the backburner. for mow

So that's that

[vorropohaiah]

So I've finished work on the next region - technically 2 regions - in the Atlas project. I'm working on the encyclopaedia entry for the region and will polish it up and post it here over the coming days (anyone who plays pen and paper RPGs and has read a campaign sourcebook will be familiar with the general format of the entry). I have a few commissions lined up so it will probably be a while until I get round to getting another map posted.



more details on the map (including some history) can be found on the finished map thread here

here's the mosaic of the region, which is slowly starting to look like a real map. I'm really looking forward to getting all these regions done so that I can start work on the Large Inner Sea map.

[hireshmontvellos]

1. These maps are awesome
2. You've done over 700,000 words of background? That's amazing.

[Weery]

Absolutely incredible. Really inspirational work and thanks so much for posting and giving insights into how you work at various stages.

Much appreciated,
Weery

[vorropohaiah]

1. These maps are awesome
2. You've done over 700,000 words of background? That's amazing.

yeah that's about it. every map adds about 5,000 in volume 1 (more in the case of relatively new regions), the other volumes are a lot slower to update and I only add entries sporadically as i come up with more things (new alcohols, drugs, poisons, fairytales etc.

Absolutely incredible. Really inspirational work and thanks so much for posting and giving insights into how you work at various stages.

Much appreciated,
Weery

thanks