The semi-canonical maps of Middle Earth

[J.Edward]

So almost a week ago a few of us were chatting about doing a friendly challenge of Middle Earth maps.
I jumped right into it and started. It occurred to me quickly that I needed to reacquaint myself with Middle Earth as I had not read any Tolkien for a few years. That got me thinking I might as well do the whole ME lands, which turns out to be a bigger task than I originally thought.
I have a lot of it done already but I keep coming up with new things to do, which then means I ave to add those or correct them for all the other areas I've already done. That is a pain in the ass! BUT... I think it will be worth it in the end. The whole map will look a lot better once it's done.

Anyhow, it sort of changed at a point and now I am doing 4 regional maps and 1 large map.
The regions will start with Mordor and also include Eriador, Rhovanion and Gondor. The large map will include some of the north[Forodwaith and Northern Wastes] as well as the south [Haradwaith and Far Harad]. So it's going to take some time.

I just finished the Mordor region map which will give you an indication of how I am doing all these maps.
I should add that I take some liberties with the landscape in some areas. I researched a lot from various sources to get a good idea of how it would be laid out. But some things Tolkien did just don't sit well with me and so I made some changes. Heretical - I know.
An example being, most of his mountain ranges are just too narrow for me.
You may not like how I did them but just know that it was a choice, not a mistake or misunderstanding.
Beyond that, feel free to jab and pick and pull it apart if you feel it necessary. I may bite though.

So here's the first of several ME maps. Cheers.

[Meriba]

Great work J.! I found strange these location icons. It's a top view map and the icons not.

Nice detail with the "Eye" and flavor text ^_^

[J.Edward]

Thanks Meriba. Valid point on the icons.
I was using some I had made previously but if they aren't working I may do some new ones.
Not sure at this scale if top down tower icons would read as towers though.
Maybe I should just use dots or something to indicate the towers. Any thoughts?

[arsheesh]

Beautiful work! The eye is very cool. The lighter muted color scheme is very attractive as well. Looking forward to seeing the other maps.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[J.Edward]

Thanks Arsheesh. Any opinion on the tower icons?

So I made a quick stab at trying some top down icons.
They work ok in 1 or 2 places but I'm not sold on them yet.
I may just need to make more and use different ones for different areas.
Thaurband, Minas Morgul and Barad-dur seem okay but the others look a bit wrong to me.
Maybe I'll add some roads too. I'll keep working on it as time permits.

[J.Edward]

Well, I went ahead and redid those top down icons. And added some roads through Mordor.
Had to do some research to figure where the roads should be.
I think it looks better with the top down icons, so thanks for that Meriba.

[- Max -]

I like the style , very neat. And I agree, the top down icons works way better. Good job !

[Abu Lafia]

A very fine map J.Edward! While catching the Tolkienian spirit with the "nearly" b/w style with only some subtle coloured parts, your linework, especially the nice simple mountains, the labeling/font and indeed the new icons are bringing in your very own. Just great. Can't wait to see it next to the other maps...

[J.Edward]

Thanks Max and Abu.
I just started on the Rhovanion region tonight.
I'll have to make some new icons for towns there too.

[Meriba]

These icons looks great, but I don't understand their meaning, except for Barad-dur (tower?), Bar Lythryn (village?), Thaurband (stronghold?). Maybe a little legend would help (Minas Morgul is also a tower complex). It's Just a personal opinion, of course.

Also, the R. Culduin label doesn't follows its course like other rivers labels.

Finally, I really like the clarity and few colors of this map!