So I took a little break from this project ( original thread : http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...l-s-Playground ) to participate in the Feb/March Lite Challenge and, as it turns out, found a bit of inspiration for this map. Well, inspiration as it applies to naming the map and the slowly developing back story/current story related to it.

That's right! I've finally got a name for this project, and that name is . . .

Himinreica

I developed the name from elements of the Old Norse language; Himinn, meaning "heaven" and Rétta, meaning "reach." After a bit of thought and play with the phonetics of the combined terms, I ended up altering things slightly to come up with the final spelling of Himinreica [pronounced : him-in-RAY-cha], which maintains its original meaning of "Heaven's Reach."

Technically speaking, Himinreica is the mountain cluster in the northwestern portion of the map, consisting of the three highest peaks in the immediate area. Despite the fact that when I started this map, I was more focused on the valleys, I always knew, deep down, that the mountain cluster would end up being the ultimate source of antagonism for any stories/encounters in the region, thus it seemed logical to let that be the case, as well, for the naming of the map. Oh, but I didn't stop there.

You see, in a fit of godliness, I just couldn't help myself. I cursed that mountain cluster. Oh, yes, indeed, I did. I wagged my finger at it and said "A curse on thee, yon mountain cluster, doth I place." Okay, maybe I wasn't all that theatrical about it, but you get the idea, and, as it happens, that led me to develop a second, older and nearly forgotten name for the mountain cluster.

Again I dew upon elements of the Old Norse language (are we beginning to detect a theme here?); Munr, meaning "mind" and Bresta, meaning "break." To maintain a hint of uniqueness (and mostly so I wouldn't completely abuse the Old Norse language), I fiddled with the phonetics once more and ended up with Munbreistr [pronounced : moon-BRAY-ster], which translates roughly to "Mind Breaker." Hopefully the connotations of that name are fairly clear.

In terms of the story, nothing is set in stone yet, but my initial thoughts are that somewhere deep beneath the mountain, there exists a tribe of, well, morloch/reaver/mongrel men type of folk who still worship an Elder Elemental God much like the one described in that old 2nd Edition "Monster Mythology" Handbook for AD&D. These folk are, in essence, a combination of anything and everything they could get their hands on. As a "granted power," the high priests were capable of magically breeding with any species, and, as a result, combine traits of human, elfen, and dwarfen origins along with a host of other sundry creatures. Over time, this ability has filtered down to the more common caste of their society. In a nutshell, they are downright nasty looking and somewhat cannibalistic in nature. And, of course, after a millenia of extremely rare sightings (mostly to capture more breeding stock and/or food), they, along with their god, have decided that it's time for another run at regional and/or world domination.

So anyways, that's where this project is at now. No major updates as far as the map goes, but progress none the less. I'm hoping to get some work done on the map over the next few days and expect to be able to post an update on either Monday or Tuesday, depending on how things go over the weekend. For anyone interested in the current map status, just follow the aforementioned link.

GW