Known Lands of Aedra

[morikahn]

Software: Photoshop
Font: Kelmscott

All art original except the compass at the bottom right.

This is a map for my D&D campaign. Its meant to only show major geographical features such as coastlines and large mountain ranges and regional names. Most of the land is uncivilized with a plethora of small nations hugging oceans and rivers. Magic does not function in Zoa to the West and dominates the East. Magic fluctuates in the midland regions, with empires rising up in times of strong magic, then collapsing quickly when that magic fails (a.k.a. why there are so many ruins for the players to investigate). The idea is based of the sci-fi novel A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

Its not a very imposing map, but I was happy with natural feeling of the coastline; I wanted to avoid an earth like look with several large continents.

The coast lines were penciled on paper, scanned, then inked in photoshop. Different paper textures were used for the water and land, and a slight color burn added for edge enhancement.

The coastal ring effect was not done through multiple layers and stoke blending effects, but with a modified outer glow effect and custom contour. This made it very easy to create and adjust on the fly. If anyone is interested in how I did it, I can post a tutorial.

If a mod could be so kind to change the thread name to Known Lands of Aedra (instead of Arda), I'd appreciate it before the LOTR fans murder me.