The Holy Republic of Han Tol

[senalee]

I took in feedback from previous maps I'd done and looked at some others had drawn that I especially liked, and came up with this in the past few days. Hand drawn with a dip pen, then cleaned up a little in Paint Shop Pro. I don't know if I'll use my other map in the novel it was meant for, but this one is definitely going in. I kept in mind this time that it needs to still look fine and be legible after shrunken onto a 5.06" by 7.81" page, something I had not considered previously.

Some background on the region: The Holy Republic of Han Tol is a nation of "high elves", as they call themselves. An especially zealous people, they were once ruled by a line of queens (elves in my story are a uniquely matriarchal society), but a few centuries ago abandoned monarchy for theocracy, forming the Inquisition, led by a Grand Inquisitor. The nation is split in two by the Spine, a giant cliff that runs from pole to pole, the scar of a cataclysm thousands of years ago. The western, lower side is much more populated than the higher east, but the capital, Soi Fen, is on the eastern half, right along the Spine itself. The neighboring Empire of Thaar and Grand Duchy of Laga are their allies (on paper at least), while Terland proclaims neutrality in the affairs of elves. Binésa, a nation of dark elves which is often considered merely a very large city-state, has had a treaty of peace with Han Tol for a quarter-century, but an unprovoked, unexplained attack from them destroying the town of Yai Wen sets in motion the events of the story. Well, one of them at least. The novel is more like a story within a story, but that's another (lol) story.