Kell's Dream Insanity

[Kellerica]

My dearest guildmates! Long time no map post! About time to remedy that.

A little backstory for this one, in case somebody is interested (I apologize in advance, this is likely to get a bit tangenty but bear with me):

I've always been fascinated by my dreams. My subconscious probably reflects my goofy brain all too well, as my dreams are usually a flurry of shapes, sounds, colors, characters and places, a restless stream that never settles and is always shifting and evolving into something new. They are, shortly put, a massive mess. Yet, sometimes some interesting fragments of concepts and even storylines emerge, and when they do, they tend to be highly inspiring. Given how messy the dreams themselves are, I still have to dig through heaps and heaps of sheer madness to get to the actually noteworthy bits, but once I do, they can be insanely cool.

This is based on a dream I had a few nights ago. After I struggled myself awake in order to jot down every detail I could remember, I soon noticed that from the fragments I could put together the bare bones of a surprisingly solid storyline. The setting is what stuck with me the most, though, and I immediately knew I wanted to map it.

I tried to be as faithful as I could to the dream, and it has been strange experience doing this. Even though I couldn't remember more than a handful of details (and my subconscious is blissfully above the restraints of physics or space, so figuring out where something is in relation to something else is almost impossible), I constantly had this feeling that I was more discovering this map than coming up with it. When placing things, some just... felt more right than others, and there were a few instances where I wanted to put something in because it would look better, but then realized that it simply was not supposed to be there.

I'm so sorry, I know I'm rambling even more than usual, but this has been a weird/awesome couple of days and I wanted to share my experience. This is the by far the most inspired I have been in months, I've had so much fun brainstorming this further, and I think I may have a new long-term story project at my hands now. And all because my brain went berserk while I slept. These are the somewhat rare times when I'm pretty glad to be me.


This is obviously a part of a much larger realm and also map, which is why I decided to go for a torn look, as if someone has just ripped the part of the map that was relevant to them and stuffed it in their pocket. I couldn't resist the urge to add in a little story content once I got going, so here you have two versions: the one with the story tidbits, and one with just the map (because let's face it, that is why we are here).

Story_version_2.jpg Bare_map_2.jpg

Once again, so sorry about the ramble. It's good to be mapping again, and it was fun trying out this kind of style.

Edit: Added updated versions, as there was a weird blotch of black on one of the hills that was driving me insane.