The World of Prynh

[Brian Chapman]

This was my first "legitimate" mapping project. I was working on making a custom campaign setting for a D&D campaign I was going to run for a friend. I hopped in photoshop with the intention of putting something together quickly as a reference for myself. After a few reworks, the more than a decade of being a graphic designer just kept saying, "you can make this look better". So with a weekend of work and a lot of inspiration from this site, actually, I came up with this. By the end of it all, I found that I really enjoyed doing it, since then I've done a commission for someone else and I am looking forward to being a part of this community.

Welcome to the world of Prynh, once enslaved by Dragon overlords, a world of fledgling civilizations and adventures.

As far as the progress goes, it was all done in Photoshop CS6.

1. Custom "Dragonhand" setting logo designed by me. (Used in border design, top right and in background for ocean filler as part of the compass in the bottom left)
2. Mountains and other terrain features are hand-drawn by me, save the trees, which are a brush to save time. Brush credit goes to StarRaven.

Here are a list of the fonts used. You should be able to find all of these on Dafont.

1. Aparajita for Large City names and the "PRYNH" title.
2. BlackChancery for Small Towns/Settlements/Forts as well as terrain titling (e.g. Oceans, Forests, Mountains)

I learned a lot during the process, and I still find things every time I look at the finished product that I would change (and have in future projects), but I am happy with it. It was very satisfying to work so hard and finish something that I am proud of.

[Obbehobbe]

Really nice! Like the icons, the colors and the mountains. Dislike the forest being transparent against the coastline and the water!

Well done!

[Eilathen]

Hi and welcome, Brian. Good to have you on board.
I found this map some time ago on DA and loved it...it went to my map folder right away
Care to tell us a bit about the world itself? I'm a fellow roleplayer and am always interested in the worlds of other players.

Have a Like and some Rep.!

[Ilanthar]

I kinda agree with Obbehobbe : the cities are gorgeous and the forests are lacking contrast imo. Nice work anyway.

[Brian Chapman]

Really nice! Like the icons, the colors and the mountains. Dislike the forest being transparent against the coastline and the water!

Well done!

I kinda agree with Obbehobbe : the cities are gorgeous and the forests are lacking contrast imo. Nice work anyway.

Hey thanks guys, yeah the forests were one of my more conticious design decisions. I wanted to hand-draw them in the same style as the mountains, but the task just seemed so intense at the time. If I had to change one thing, I'd probably take the time to draw them myself and make them more in line with the rest of the more defined and prominent features, with dark lines and light shading.

Hi and welcome, Brian. Good to have you on board.
I found this map some time ago on DA and loved it...it went to my map folder right away
Care to tell us a bit about the world itself? I'm a fellow roleplayer and am always interested in the worlds of other players.

Have a Like and some Rep.!

Hey thanks! I'd be happy to, I actually have been slowly updating a Wikia page for the world: Prynh Wiki

---

But as a general synopsis, the gods created the Dragons first as their children, in the image of the god Drakell (who is, visually, a white dragon). The dragons were tyrants; gluttonous, greedy, often evil. The beauty of the world that the gods had created were lost on them. As it turns out the creation of the dragons, drakes and other dragon kin (such as the Dragonborn) were largely corrupted by an evil god, but that's a different story.

So the gods created the known races of Prynh and D&D. But the Dragons would have none of it, and they quickly enslaved these new beings as they made their way through evolution and out of their caves. The enslavement of the various races, human, elves, dwarves and the like, went on for a very long time. Eventually, the races continued to grow even while in chains, and revolution eventually came to a front. With the gods seeing their favored children finally rising up and fighting their masters, they gave their children strength and the children rewarded them with prayers and worship which gave they themselves strength. For a long while the fight was a stalemate, the Dragons were inherently powerful - and in this version of the world, the dragons were not just giant, but many were simply titanic, the size of towns and cities.

But finally, a great blow was brought on the dragon menace by a group of heroes now known famously as the Heroic Five with the help a legion of traitorous Dragonborn, defeated the most powerful dragon; Godbane. This began the domino effect that lead to the eventual overall defeat of the Dragons and the relative freedom of the various races of Prynh. The current campaign takes place about 600 years after this.

As for currently, this is a time of relative peace, though there have been various conflicts since the end of the Dragons rule (denoted years as DR for Dragon's Rule, while years since denoted as DE for Dragon's End). An undead invasion, an invasion force from the Underdark, have all happened since the past. As well as a war or two between a few of the factions and governments that would end up popping up. The war between Stormwall and Tierkin is fairly infamous and probably the conflict that always seems to be ongoing or on the verge of coming back up.

Stormwall the city of the titanic wall that was built to guard against the cataclysmic storm that crashed on their shores. Marsippi, the largest city in the world, built at the base of the rich mountains of the Tempest Peaks, Whenwhile Wealth the Gnome city state built around learning, invention and intelligence, Ebonveil the peaceful refuge of the Elves and Eladrin, even the Dwarves have, quite literally, carved their place in this world; the massive underground city of Ironbone Keep deep in the Ironbone Spine, the place where Godbane was slain.

In creating these cities and factions and so forth I started with a large area of influence, most of the world was covered in color-coded lines. Where does the area of control start and end for each of these major cities and thier governments? It looked like a modern map, with every inch someone's territory, border to border. But then I decided I wanted a more quaint feel to the world. All of the problems of the people of this world, even the massive metropolises of Prynh, would have more localized issues. It felt more like my favorite worlds of D&D such as Forgotten Realms, where cities like Neverwinter and Baldur's Gate don't necessarily own a huge section of the world and because of that decision, the cities themselves can be their own world.

Anyway, that's just a bit of it. Right now I'm running my friend a solo campaign, he's a Tiefling Bladesinger who learned to be a Bladesinger by watching his masters in Ebonveil, as he was a chef for a prominent house after being excommunicated from the nearby Torchpoint town at a young age. His daughter was murdered in their small servant's quarters on the outskirts of Ebonveil and he's been hunting down the killer, across the seas to Stormwall where the Magirium is, a arcane college, and now in the sewers of Crowley's Grave.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

There's a ton to like about this map. My favorite part is the individual flair on the large city icons - something I'd like to use myself in future maps! The coloring is great and the shape of the land itself is really interesting. Point of criticism though, I think the names for the large cities are a bit overpowering. Also, the mountains and other icons don't seem to match super well. They are highly stylized, while the forest, for example is clearly quite detailed. Overall, I really like it!

[Slylok]

This map is really excellent. I love the style.