February 2018 Challenge: The Fall of the Kingdom of Cauldrons

[Abu Lafia]

News came to the lands of Lurk, there is another donjon-random-generator challenge at the Guildworld this month!
I just couldn't resist grabbing pen and paper to throw myself into the ring.

The kingdom of Aedelen was built upon mighty artefacts, brought up from the underworld by its first ruler Aesyon. Three enormous cauldrons, legends say they've been forged at the beginning of time, able to revive the fallen soldiers and prolong the life of the rulers.
A thousand years ago, after Aesyon conquered the lands around his chiefdom with the help of the cauldrons' might, he established the new Kingdom and built its capital Daerar at the "river of courage" the place of the final battle.
On the peak of the week-long festivities after his victory, a mysterious child entered the throne room, prophetic words on her lips, proclaiming the realm's doom:

"The Kingdom of Cauldrons shall fall when the Temple of Prisms is laid to ruin and the River of Courage runs red with blood"

I wanted the linework of the map finished before posting anything here. Myriads of half-finished challenge ideas are flooding my hard drive, so i wanted to make sure, this one won't add to them...



I'll colour and label the map in gimp. With the next update comes more about the story leading to Aedelen's eventual downfall.

Cheers,
AL

[Diamond]

Oh wow. That's a super strong contender already.

Nice to see you again, Abu!

[Kellerica]

Yay, an Abu map!!!

Where have you been? ... have you been somewhere? I feel like I haven't seen your work in ages!

[ThomasR]

Yay, an Abu map!!!

Where have you been? ... have you been somewhere? I feel like I haven't seen your work in ages!

I'll keep quoting Kelleri today. I'm so glad to see you back Martin ! Hope the little ones don't take too much energy outta you. The map makes me think of your "Withered lands of Markand" that I love so much I printed it to gaze at it from time to time.

The lineart(no linework with you) is so crisp ! There's almost no bleeding. I love it in black and white but I'm sure you'll make it even better with you're signature palette

Welcome back mein Freund !

[ChickPea]

Welcome back, Abu! Gorgeous work so far, and looking forward to the colouring stage.

[Abu Lafia]

Oh wow. That's a super strong contender already.

Nice to see you again, Abu!

Haha, we will see! Thanks Diamond, glad you found another randomized gem in donjon's cellars to make a challenge around it.

Yay, an Abu map!!!

Where have you been? ... have you been somewhere? I feel like I haven't seen your work in ages!

Hey Kelleri, well i was never really away... only had a long period of lurking instead of drawing and posting

I'll keep quoting Kelleri today. I'm so glad to see you back Martin ! Hope the little ones don't take too much energy outta you. The map makes me think of your "Withered lands of Markand" that I love so much I printed it to gaze at it from time to time.

The lineart(no linework with you) is so crisp ! There's almost no bleeding. I love it in black and white but I'm sure you'll make it even better with you're signature palette

Welcome back mein Freund !

Hey Thomas, thanks for the warm welcome! Hope this year will be a bit more productive mapping-wise for me. Well, i might never get to your numbers of absolutely breathtaking maps you made the last months, but i'll try my best...
Yes your right, like "Markand" it is handdrawn on A4 (worked more on A5 or A6 lately) and i forced myself to pretty much use the whole page. Glad to hear you even printed it!

Welcome back, Abu! Gorgeous work so far, and looking forward to the colouring stage.

Thanks a lot ChickPea! Your wonderful work with managing the CG's twitter, was pretty much the only way to keep at least a bit up with all the daily awesomeness shared here for the last months.


So, I wanted to try a slightly different approach with colouring this time. Normally i pretty much block in the base colours over (under) the linework and then shade and highlight with black and white on overlay or multiply layers.
Here i wanted break up the oftentimes rather harsh edges i use between the base colours for the different sorts of terrain, to blend them a bit more and making the whole landscape more interesting colourwise. Also i'll skip the usual parchment background i think.
I'm quite happy with the result so far. Let me know what you think about it!

### Latest WIP ###


No time for adding more of the promised lore, gotta go to bed now.
Next, i'll add some highlights to the whole thing.
Cheers,
AL

[Azélor]

Very nice! It's nice to have you back.

[J.Edward]

Nice to see you back Abu
And just bangin right into this challenge. Looks great so far.

[Ilanthar]

Wow, that already great ! I love the view.

You have such a great style of mountains, Abu.

[aeshnidae]

Beautiful! The mountains are especially wonderful. Thanks for elaborating on your usual technique versus what you did this time, it's very helpful for those of us who are still learning the basics.