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Thread: world map assistance

  1. #1
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    Question world map assistance

    This request is old; originally posted in March of 2009. Rather than start a new request, I decided to resurrect this one and update the information as needed.

    time constraints: none. The project is something I want to get done, but not something with a set timeline for completion.

    style: I would prefer more earth-toned styles. I also really love Ascension's Atlas and ravell's newest style.

    description of map: This will be the primary campaign setting map for a homebrew game. I have specific details only for a region of one continent approximately the size of the USA east of the Mississippi River, though I would like at least the remainder of the continent mapped out. Additional landmasses are optional but should be either uninhabited or on par with my campaign area. The map should be editable as cities, national borders and other man-made features are in constant fluid flux from one game to the next. Alternately, it should be unlabeled entirely.

    quality and size: Obviously the nicer the better, but professional quality is not absolutely essential at this stage. As I said above, the size can vary from one continent to the full planet map.

    copyright: I would like to retain the copyright of the map. The style is free to be used again and I would be thrilled if the map was displayed in you portfolio, so long as the right to make money from it remains mine. I don't expect to sell the material, but you never know. Some day down the line there might be enough to publish. One can dream.
    Last edited by dolenore; 12-24-2011 at 08:26 PM. Reason: revised details of the request

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Just as a suggestion since, you might look thru the finished maps & monthly challenge archive forums and see if a style there particularly catches your eye and contact that person (though you do need at least 5 posts before you can send a PM).
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



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    Thanks for the heads up (both about the PM and the post count requirement). I appreciate it.

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    I thought I would share my latest attempt with everyone, especially since a few people offered advice.

    This map was made in CC3 using a combination of the April 2009 Cartographer's Annual settings, photshop tweaking and a few pieces of various tutorials I found fascinating (especially the atlas style tutorial by Ascension).

    It is close to what I had hoped for, so I present it for the community to offer specific advice (such as rivers that don't make sense, or other wisdom I overlooked).
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    So far so good I'd say. The only thing you might think about changing are some of the names...very David Eddings with Boktaria, Thraga and Goska. Which reminds me, I've got some memories to catch up on.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Guild Adept Naeddyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascension View Post
    So far so good I'd say. The only thing you might think about changing are some of the names...very David Eddings with Boktaria, Thraga and Goska. Which reminds me, I've got some memories to catch up on.
    I think the names are fine, though they are a bit less exotic than they could be. (Linguist here, I should some day write a tutorial on how to make a really exotic naming language...) !ăpq?aB, anyone? Except for ? that stands for a similar looking sign, this is valid IPA. A naming lang would presumably only require a phonology and a few bits of morphology, not much else. But then again, those are pretty big things to learn. Ah, and of course transcription. There's an art to this kind of stuff.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    I think that would be a great idea Nae...a lot of us struggle with trying to come up with names that don't sound derivative of Tolkein or others.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Quote Originally Posted by Naeddyr View Post
    (Linguist here, I should some day write a tutorial on how to make a really exotic naming language...)

    ...There's an art to this kind of stuff.
    I agree. I would love to see some new naming conventions to get ideas from.
    In my world, the island are controlled by goblins who are not as weak or uncouth as your average monster manual variety... "yeahk" simply means "gathering", but in this case it refers to a city (or the largest gathering in their culture)... the individual names such as the aforementioned "Goska" and "Thraga" were attempts to further define the tone of their speech patterns... hard consonants ending in softer vowels. In the case of Yeahk Thraga, it was specifically named after a war hero (who was a player in a previous campaign), named Thrag (who was coincidentally a gnome, not a goblin, but their history books have left that bit out... the 'a' was added to follow their speech pattern).

    Now that Ascension mentions it, I believe there was a "Rak Goska" in the Belgariad... any similarity is either purely coincidence or subconscious. The ruins in my world are only notable because that was the first city lost in the war mentioned above. No secret assassins live there, and its not a desert.

    I may want to change that one... he's right. Oh well.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by dolenore View Post
    ... hard consonants ending in softer vowels.
    I'm going to start my tutorial by telling the reader to THROW these terms out the window, they do not mean anything! Yes, I see I have much to show you. I will have you talking about voicedness and aspiration in no-time! We won't go into the boring bits like glottalisation and other things I've never figured out myself (because they are boring). Rule number one! Trying to quantify the euphonius quality of a language is unscientific! Your goblins are as likely to go "Hello~ oui are~ the Ro~mans~" as anything >:o And the reverse holds true, there ain't nothing in the book that says Elves can't speak with a lot of voiced back consonants! "Bu-bu-but Tolkien" schmolkien! Rule number two, Live By The Tolkien, Die By The Tolkien! No, I will not explain that one!


    &tc &tc

    it'll be all pretty much like that

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