June 2018 Challenge: The Cliff of Medölinn

[MistyBeee]

Hi Guild !

Let's start something new

I have something in my own world that would fit perfectly the theme of the month : "Map a Frontier", and it's a good occasion to come back there and draw something for a country I especially love. I think every world builder has his/her favorite place in his/her world, and I must confess my heart belongs to Thard, even if it's a sad and bleak country.
So !
To give you a first idea, here is a part of a (very old) map of my world, where you can see Thard and Musä : the Cliff follows the boundary between them :


Little edit, because the WIP tag don't like two pictures in a single post, so a second post will follow !

[MistyBeee]

Now, a little about the background :
The complete story is really long and I won't bother you with this (I have... thousand of pages about the 10.000 years of the Empire of Thard History, culture, society, economy...), so let's try to make the shortest version I ever wrote !
The Cliff of Medölinn is an artificial cliff which was raised by magic 9000 years ago by King Dar at the end of the War of the Keepers to protect the small territory of Musä from a curse which was casted on the Empire of Thard. Covered with thousands (million ?) of magic pictograms of all size (some are several meters high, some are so tiny you can't read them with the naked eye, the cliff is an impassable frontier for anyone with bad intention towards Musä.
Although Musä belonged to the Empire of Thard, it now has its own culture : it's the country of the bards and a sanctuary for all, a green country of carelessness.
Sadly, the Empire of Thard, still cursed, was unable to find the peace : the fertile land turned into a desert of black dust and rock, and several heirs of Dar have succeeded one another, unable to depose the immortal usurper sat on the throne for 6000 years, unable to defeat the curse, and keeping the country in a perpetual civil war.

So... Here is a Map of the Most Important Magic Pictograms on the Cliff of Medölinn. As I want to focus on the cliff only, and not on the countries around, I decided to create a ribbon map, a challenge I always wanted to try

### Latest WIP ###


I'm not sure if I'll add color at the end or not... Maybe it will just be a black line work this time ?

[Adfor]

Oh that story is so rich, wonderful! I really like the curse idea used in such a broad stroke, very cool!

[kacey]

This looks really interesting so far, can't wait to see the end result and I'd love to see some maps of you're world as well.

[MistyBeee]

Oh that story is so rich, wonderful! I really like the curse idea used in such a broad stroke, very cool!

Thank you Adfor ! As told, there is many more about this story. What happened in the War of the Keepers forged the history of the whole world : Empires were blasted, new ones emerged. The fun fact is the curse of Thard, while terrible, also protect the country which is the only one which survived the three big wars (War of the Keepers, War of Andyr, War of Year 0) : some territories were lost, but the real Thardian spirit remains ! ^^.

This looks really interesting so far, can't wait to see the end result and I'd love to see some maps of you're world as well.

"Shoemakers children are the worst shod" is a popular saying in France and I'm afraid it's what happened here... I started map making while building my world, but it was a long time ago and my skills are hopefully better now ! ^^
A few years ago, we decided to rework the whole geography (damn rectangle...), meaning some countries have a different shape now, and most of the maps are not accurate anymore, but here is the prototype I presented to our small community for the opening of the "geographic overhaul" debate and featuring the main changes. The continent was raised by nature, magic and gods willing, so it's a little tortured. Also, the scale is wrong on this view (we changed it in a second hand).
So... this is the last map I drew for my own world, sadly. Those last years we focused on writing the story of Thard and Boeren, and to build our current big projects : arcanic system and whole cosmology. But it's a lifetime project, so there is no rush, isn't it ?

[Naima]

Nice Start ... For some reason I read Medellin at first !

[Eilathen]

Now all i want is to see the map of your world.
I mean, you have an own world, you are on the CG and you did not show it to us yet?! Why? You know you want to

On a more serious note: i'd love to see your world and if you tell us about it, lore and stuff, i'd love to read about it as well.

On topic: it'll be interesting to see how this one will turn out. Good luck with it!

[MistyBeee]

Nice Start ... For some reason I read Medellin at first !

Thanks Naima ! We're far from Columbia there, but Medellin is a lovely name, totally in the style of my world, so why not !

Now all i want is to see the map of your world.
I mean, you have an own world, you are on the CG and you did not show it to us yet?! Why? You know you want to
On a more serious note: i'd love to see your world and if you tell us about it, lore and stuff, i'd love to read about it as well.
On topic: it'll be interesting to see how this one will turn out. Good luck with it!

Hehe... there is a discreet link to a world map in the answer I wrote for Kacey 3 posts above this one. It's honestly the best map I have for now (and the only one after the big geographic big-bang !), because I have absolutely no time to draw for myself those last... hmm... 3 years ? But hopefully, if I can find some time (or an appropriate challenge ! ), it's really time to draw something better for my good old Oneira...

[MistyBeee]

Hi there !

Had some time yesterday evening to add some new additions on my map of Medölinn.
I changed the parchment tone for something less saturated and drew the mineral elements : details on the cliff, some hills and rocks, edits here and there... Also spent some time to make a first shade on the ribbon background : 'love this "no-brain" task ^^'
I suspect this map will not turn as I planned... Probably because of the high magic irradiance of the cliff, it seems the map has its own strong character and won't let me do what I want, but maybe it's for the best : I'll just let it decide for me, and we'll see where it goes ! After all, it's an experiment here for something different : the scale doesn't matters, as it's not a map that would be used for a journey (or I would have done the Lite Challenge ! ), more a symbolic representation to show the main pictograms engraved on the rock

### Latest WIP ###

[Ilanthar]

You can add me to the list of the guilders who want to know more about your world.
And of course, this is already great !