Th'mecan - fantasy map

[- Max -]

Hi everyone,

Here's a small personal work I've done lately. I planned to make a map of a fantasy troglodyte settlement in an arid canyon. A small blurb about the idea that drove me to the map :

An animist tribe settled a very small village in a canyon. The inhabitants has a strong belief that everything in the nature is a living thing. Trees, wind, sun, earth, rocks and such are living beings and each of those living beings belong to some poweful natural spirits that once created the world and all its components. They heavily respect the Great Spirits and their creation. When they take something from it, they pay something in return, this is their law. When they settled in the canyon, the tribe had to dig the canyon rock and so they took something from the Great Spirit of Rock to make their life easier and safer. In return, they built some a temple to honor the Spirit, give him offerings and organize sacred rituals when comes the Month of Stone, dedicated to him.
The tribe members are rather pacific. The Shamans are obviously some leading people though the tribe is built in a system of equality where each one is an essential contributor of the collective life. The tribe also have some specific people like the Sacred Painters - who do some mystical paintings on rocks to summon the benevolence of the Spirits, the Windtalkers - who talk to the souls of the dead elders that are said to blow in the winds, or the Dreamwalkers - who focus on making divination by understanding their dreams, which they believe are nothing but some messages from the Great Spirits to help them in their life.

Hope you guys will like it. WIP thread can be found here. Thanks for the comments and support there !



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As usual, feel free to rate, rep or run away

[Abu Lafia]

It's a lovely map! Very inspiring. I really like the gecko totem

[- Max -]

Thanks Abu Lafia !

[Ilanthar]

Awesome! I love everything : drawing, colors, details... and I can't help myself but to like the gecko

[arsheesh]

I really like this one Max, it's a different sort of map that you don't see every day. the shading on the cliffs is excellent. Wish I could rep you.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[J.Edward]

Nice work Max. Really like the canyon. Whole map is nice.
I'm working on similar style canyon/stone overview stuff. I like how it came out.

Plus the whole sparse, subdued color palette. Nice too.

[ChickPea]

This is a beautiful piece of art!

I have a minor question about the border. When I look at the top of the map, the border looks inset, because of the dark highlight at the top, and lighter highlight at the bottom. However, when I go down to the bottom of the map, it's opposite so it looks outset. Is that deliberate?

[- Max -]

Thanks all you guys !

I really like this one Max, it's a different sort of map that you don't see every day.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Nice work Max. Really like the canyon. Whole map is nice.
I'm working on similar style canyon/stone overview stuff. I like how it came out.)

Yes I was planning to make a next larger map in this style with a city instead a small settlement but you know, a lot of projects, ideas...

This is a beautiful piece of art!

I have a minor question about the border. When I look at the top of the map, the border looks inset, because of the dark highlight at the top, and lighter highlight at the bottom. However, when I go down to the bottom of the map, it's opposite so it looks outset. Is that deliberate?

Actually I just notice it now you're talking about it. I idn't want to make some inset/outset effect but I realize that ith the light border and the dark norder, this brings this kind of effect to the eyes.