The Dominion

[GreatWhiteNorth]

My entry for the April mapping challenge.

The original post:

Welcome to the Dominion of Tirene! I think I might actually be able to finish the challenge this month so here we go.



Tirene is a relatively young nation, occupying two small land masses separated by a shallow see cut Norhwest to Southeast by a swirl of craggy islands. The population centers on each of the landmasses share a distant ethnic background, but it was only 370 years ago that they came together to form a cooperative Dominion. Since the unification, a new group of savage sea raiders have taken the islands that shallow sea, cutting off trade and communication between the two halves of the Dominion. In the 220 years since the sea barbarian's incursion, trade and transportation have been resumed thanks to the Dominion's re-acquisition of some larger islands on the outskirts of the shallow sea and the establishment of military outposts and naval yards on a key stretch of islands that guards these new Strait Settlements. Now, in the year 370 AU, Tirine is finally marhalling a strong enough navy to retake the islands and establish safe movement between the peoples of the Dominion.

The whole landmass is approximately the same size as my own great state of Minnesota, so I'm using that as a bit of a reference. Considering how much of the land is "wild" though, it got me thinking of vast stretches of space where people just couldn't live. Of course, to the challenge this needs to be incorporated into the land forms as well, but I expanded that idea to include stretches of sea that were uncontrolled by the Dominion. That in conjunction with the name also got me thinking of Greek maritime trade and movement, and so I decided to sort of flavor the aesthetic of the map in that direction. This mornings work has been setting up to border, and I'll soon move on to outlining the landmasses.

Happy challenge everyone!

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I think this one came out really well. It really closely represents what I was hoping for when I started out.

[nopkin]

I totally agree that it came out really well. It looks awesome, from the color choice to the tiny details, clean labels, the way land extends beyond the border. A professional map! Great job!

[MistyBeee]

I already commented the initial thread, but can't miss to do it again : there is something very elegant and coherent, and the colors are perfect.
A good example of how tradition and modernity can works together on a map

[Ilanthar]

I really like the harmony and the style of this one. Great work, GWN !

[ThomasR]

That's a wonderful piece ! Congrats GWN !

[Voolf]

Outstanding work GWN.

[Sulla]

As others have mentioned, there is something so clean and clear about the design -- it's easy to read, see everything (even smaller details which jump out). This is fantastic.

[arsheesh]

Very simple and elegant. All of the elements work very well together in this piece. Nice job.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh