[WIP] Canthar: World Map

[DungeonMasterGaz]

Hi All

I've been playing around with different effects and styles for this map, so my progress has been a bit on the slow side. Anyway, here's what I've added.

I only want to add mountains and rivers at this scale, so I’ve been experimenting with using symbols to depict the mountains. However, the look didn’t keep with the magical "pop-up" style I’ve envisioned. The symbols just looked too flat, and that’s not the effect I wanted. Because of this, I decided to use the tool from CA 2009, Issue 24: Shaded Reliefs.

I put the reliefs on a new layer, called reliefs. I had to play around with the settings for a while until I got what I think is the right look.

At first the effect was too strong, and the mountains looked too large and out of place, so I reduced the size of the reliefs and crowded them closer together, even overlapping in places.

Next I added the rivers by drawing fractal lines, splitting them and increasing their thickness as they got closer to the coasts.

When I took a look at my progress with the sheet effects on, the mountains looked too transparent, and didn’t really stand out on the map. To remedy this I added a contour layer, placed it beneath the relief layer that my mountains were on, and added a blur and transparency effect. I think this makes the mountains stand out a bit more.

Now I’ve just got to add some settlements, features, etc., and label the map. Once that’s done I can start working on the plane view.

DMG

[DungeonMasterGaz]

Sorry it’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been working on the plane view and coming up with the naming conventions.

I didn’t use any more unusual techniques to complete the rest of the map. I hope I’ve created something that you wouldn’t expect to have been created with CC3, so here’s the final draft for your comments and critiques.

I’d be happy to answer any questions I can, whether they’re about how I created any aspect of the map, or whether they’re about the setting itself.

For anyone who is interested in why Canthar is a world of floating continents, here's a bit of my world’s history to explain.

DMG

During the Golden Age of Nerath, Nerathian scholars and arcanists, delving into research that was beyond their comprehension, inadvertently opened several portals to the Far Realm and unwittingly released an ancient primordial called Rham-Tothlak the Scourgebringer, who was imprisoned there.

Rham-Tothlak exploded from the insanity of the Far Realm and immediately set about destroying the natural world. His release took the gods completely by surprise and they were painfully slow to move against him. Canthar was ripped apart in the terrible battle that ensued, but not before the gods managed to save several continent-sized chunks of the planetary crust and cast them adrift in an elemental demiplane known as the Endless Sky. Millions of mortals died in the conflict, leaving only a handful of survivors.

The destruction brought about during The Sundering caused part of the Shadowfell to plunge through the planar boundaries and pierce the Endless Sky like a dagger. Now the tip of a great Shadowfell continent protrudes into the mortal world amidst a roiling storm of unleashed necrotic energy called the “Dread Expanse”.

Ultimately, the gods defeated and destroyed Rham-Tothlak, but the struggle against him was so great the gods were left exhausted and powerless to help the mortals who had survived. They severed all mortal connections to the divine power source in an effort to conserve their dwindling strength, hoping such an act would help them recover.