The Known World

[wormspeaker]

Maybe it's just me but that Azoth desert and the smaller one near it look really out of place. Feels like a desert wouldn't be in those areas naturally. Though this is a fantasy map, so who's to say it's natural.

[bengaijin]

Thanks for all the feedback!

I've tweaked the map slightly in response to your comments:

-Desert and Steppe colours tweaked to be in closer harmony with general land colour.
-Jungles darkened slightly to differentiate them from forests
-Drop shadows brought in tighter to the text
-Nation Names switched to Treasure Map Deadhand. hohum, that's the font name if you're interested (free online)

Eilathen: I've got a ton of info on the world, but as of now it is quite poorly organized. I'm in the process of putting together a gazetteer, but it's got a long way to go. A couple of major points:

The west has been dominated for nearly a millennium by the island nation of Vardos, an aristocratic republic. Nearly all of the nations within a thousand miles were under Vardosi sway at its peak. A number of far-flung lands - Varisia, Sasserine, Sargava - are colonies from it's heyday. 35 years ago, an aristocratic house overthrew the Vardosi Senate with diabolical assistance and declared themselves as the first imperial line. Almost immediately, Andoran, an old and wealthy vassal state, declared itself an independent democracy and won an improbable war against Vardos. In the aftermath, every other northern territory declared independence, and Vardos found itself greatly reduced. The west is now full of fledgling nations rife with internal conflict and renewed border enmities.

The East, while quite diverse, has its principal conflict in Azoth, formerly a much smaller desert within the empire of Ai Tun. 200 years ago, Ai Tun fell under the sway of a cabal of chromatic dragons bent on the destruction of Xiu Ha - the millenia-old human/metallic dragon empire. In an attempt to summon an unprecedented demon army, the metallic cabal achieved the unthinkable, ripping a full layer from the Abyss into the Material Plane. Ai Tun was instantly destroyed and Xiu Ha was forced to retreat behind a great wall. The Bright Cities were founded by survivors of Ai Tun's fall as a celestial theocracy and have waged an endless crusade against the demon-haunted waste ever since.

There's a lot more going on in the world obviously. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions beyond that...

Wormspeaker: I guess that in part answers your question about Azoth, but for the sake of argument, let's say it IS a natural desert. What seems off about it? My geographic knowledge is fairly limited...

_ben

[jfrazierjr]

Wormspeaker: I guess that in part answers your question about Azoth, but for the sake of argument, let's say it IS a natural desert. What seems off about it? My geographic knowledge is fairly limited...

_ben

In most cases, a desert forms when wind (bearing moisture) encounters high mountains that disrupt the wind patterns. Rain/snow generally falls on one side of the mountains and the other side gets far less rain resulting in a dessert.

[alexandream]

In most cases, a desert forms when wind (bearing moisture) encounters high mountains that disrupt the wind patterns. Rain/snow generally falls on one side of the mountains and the other side gets far less rain resulting in a dessert.

I believe that, if the tropic of Arvad has the same properties as our tropics, in terms of high cold air coming from the equator usually "lands" around it, Aznoth's and the smaller desert near it are perfectly explainable.

My biggest concern here is actually with the one along what seems to be the planet's "Equator". That is a zone where usually we have enough evaporation and the air flows up, chilling fast and raining. The wind coming from the sea in the west would most likely carry enough water to make that desert unlikely.

But then again, it IS a fantasy map, so if you want a desert, then let the desert be

Just for future reference, this site gives two examples of reasons for deserts forming. while there are others, these two are the most frequent.

http://weathersavvy.com/Q-Climate_DesertsFormed.html

jfrazierjr seems to be referring to the rain shadow effect, but I believe that wouldn't be much of a problem in the landscape you're building. Except that I'm not sure where the winds would be flowing: In a basic fashion, you'd have wind from world rotation going west, but being a coastal line, difference in temperatures during different times of day would make wind come and go from the land to the sea and the other way around.

[bengaijin]

My biggest concern here is actually with the one along what seems to be the planet's "Equator". That is a zone where usually we have enough evaporation and the air flows up, chilling fast and raining. The wind coming from the sea in the west would most likely carry enough water to make that desert unlikely.

jfrazierjr seems to be referring to the rain shadow effect, but I believe that wouldn't be much of a problem in the landscape you're building. Except that I'm not sure where the winds would be flowing: In a basic fashion, you'd have wind from world rotation going west, but being a coastal line, difference in temperatures during different times of day would make wind come and go from the land to the sea and the other way around.

Interesting... I didn't think about world rotation as a determinant of prevailing wind direction (though I think in some vague way I did know it was a factor). I was aware of rain shadow effect and did factor that in - my concept was that the wind prevailed from the southeast, making the windward sides of the continents along the Shining Sea predominantly jungle, and the leeward sides desert. Azoth (the eastern waste) would have been much smaller naturally, but since it was grafted with a full plane of the Abyss, it has been expanding into its semi-arid neighbours.

Actually, I suppose I could argue that the Bahranni Desert also used to be smaller, as in my mythos it is at least in part a result of the battle between Aroden, God of Destiny and Father of Humanity, and Rovagug, the God of Hunger, the Destroyer. This is centered on the Pit of Gormuz, where the two gods slew each other.

But it might just be a result of wind currents. Could go either way

_ben

ps. Those who know the Pathfinder setting probably recognize the names Aroden, Rovagug, and the Pit of Gormuz, but know that my narrative diverges from the original significantly. History is getting the same mash-up treatment as geography here. I love the source material, but really feel confined by a strict canon.

[Eilathen]

Eilathen: I've got a ton of info on the world, but as of now it is quite poorly organized. I'm in the process of putting together a gazetteer, but it's got a long way to go. A couple of major points:

*snip*

_ben

Cool, thanks a lot. I'd like to get my hands on the gazetter, if you're ever finished (read: satisfied enough to put it up here or something like that)

Are you planing on doing detail-maps of some (or all) of the regions?

[Redrobes]

Like the map a lot. I'm with ravs that the drop shadow is quite far offset. The text is hard to read in many places cos its black on shapes with a dark brown edge. The bottom islands look like the "Isles of E" to me. Perhaps moving the text into the sea or having a fade around the black or using a different color would help with this. Its probably a lot of work to fix any of this on this map but bear that in mind for next time.

[bengaijin]

I'm with ravs that the drop shadow is quite far offset. The text is hard to read in many places cos its black on shapes with a dark brown edge.

Is the drop shadow still too far off in the second iteration? I tried to pull it in tighter. Maybe it wasn't enough...

What if I did the drop shadow in a white instead? Would that just look bizarre?

Maybe I'll replace it with a glow. Or do a glow and a drop shadow. I'll play with it.

As of now, this map is still a live vector file with everything split into layers, so the types of modifications you're talking about should be relatively easy.

Also, what do people think about the font switch? I think it looks good from afar, but I'm worried about legibility.

[bengaijin]

Cool, thanks a lot. I'd like to get my hands on the gazetter, if you're ever finished (read: satisfied enough to put it up here or something like that)

Are you planing on doing detail-maps of some (or all) of the regions?

I would be happy to share the gazetteer whenever it is at least somewhat done. I'll include references to which published adventures fit where, if that would be helpful. As long as that doesn't set me up for a lawsuit with all of the material I've ripped from other places...

I figure I will do detail maps as my players adventure in specific regions. Right now, I'm very happy to stay at this zoomed out scale as it gives me plenty of leeway to insert campaign-appropriate stuff as the plot shapes up.

[bengaijin]

I've spent a fair bit of time working on the map's aesthetics - still in Illustrator. I've tried to replace the vector-heavy quality of the original with something a bit richer and more naturalistic. To do that I've done a lot of work with inner and outer glows of various sorts, feathered edges, colour adjustment, and line quality. I've also added another layer of overlaid texture to the image and punched up the text by turning it white and pulling the shadow in tightly to frame it. A little bit of the depth of the image seems to have been lost in reducing the file down to a practical size, but I suppose that's standard.

I'm pretty pleased with it. What do you all think? What more should I do?