Atlas Elyden

[vorropohaiah]

I like the look of these maps! The line and style is really cool, especially the water fill (which is too much zoomed in, but probably looks much better at 300dpi). A couple of things:
- Is there a reason for the strange projections? Are they supposed to match up with a smaller-scale map which has Shibboleth and Jurras on the west side and Tzallrach and Cuth to the east? Otherwise, it might be a better idea to choose a different projection so north/south is up/down.
- Again, if these are supposed to be excerpts it might be understandable, but on a standalone map, even one with a tilted graticule, I think the labels would look much better horizontally aligned instead of aligned parallel to the parallels.
- Is it supposed to be "Latitude East of ..."? Because normally latitude doesn't work that way.

not quite sure I get what you mean. Like most real-world cartographers I try to make the best use of space possible so some maps - like Cuth, which is more W - E oriented than N - S, makes more sense in landscape than portrait.

The 'latitude west/east of' is intended to give an idea of orientation - since I'm using an equidistant conic projection its impossible to apply a compass rose. Hopefully the form of the graticules should indicate where N is, though I might be making a mistaken assumption. also, for the sake of clarity Deochan (which appears in the 'latitude east of Deachan' is my world's equivalent of Greenwich

[gilgamec]

not quite sure I get what you mean. Like most real-world cartographers I try to make the best use of space possible so some maps - like Cuth, which is more W - E oriented than N - S, makes more sense in landscape than portrait.

I'm referring to the fact that none of your graticules are aligned with the page, either vertically or horizontally; maps I've seen generally have the projection centered inside the area being mapped, which causes the lines of longitude to be close to vertical. This means that your maps, where all of the lines of longitude (well, the vertical lines at least) are leaning the same way, look like they're all taken from one side or another of a larger map.

For example, a common projection used to map the USA is a conic:

It's centered on 100 degrees, so the longitude lines west of this tilt right, and the lines east of it tilt left. Your maps look like if I'd used this projection to do a map of New England:

i.e. all of the lines tilt left. But if I were actually doing a map of New England, I'd use a projection centered on New England, like this one, centered at 70 degrees:

I hope this explains my comment.

The 'latitude west/east of' is intended to give an idea of orientation - since I'm using an equidistant conic projection its impossible to apply a compass rose. Hopefully the form of the graticules should indicate where N is, though I might be making a mistaken assumption. also, for the sake of clarity Deochan (which appears in the 'latitude east of Deachan' is my world's equivalent of Greenwich

On Earth, at least, lines of latitude run east-west, while lines of longitude run north-south, so you see "90 degrees longitude east of Greenwich" and the like.