Tiriana - The Walk of the Dormants Map

[Bruno Müller]

So, for my first finished map, I'll be posting the last one I've made. I don't know if everyone is familiar with Inktober - the month long challenge of posting an ink drawing everyday on instagram, during october - but this map is a consequence of my personal goal this year.

In the last year or so I've been developing Tiriana, a fantasy setting based on Brazilian indigenous mythologies. One of the major geographic features of the main continent is the presence of the Dormants - enormous spirit-creatures that awakened ~900 years ago due to a deicide. In Tiriana, the only way spirits can interact with the material world is through some sort of possession - they can't actually cross the border between realms. However, if one finds a Gate, they can abandon they ephemeral domain, with a chance of disappearing since they don't have actual bodies.

When Sitara, a goddess, was killed in a war, the spirit domain responded opening a World Gate (as these portals are called) at the top of the highest peak at the center of the continent, the Mount of Martyrdom. Hundreds and hundreds of spirits crossed and hunted the responsibles for the deicide, and then vanished. However, 27 of these then-called incarnated behave abnormally: they did not hunt. They were massive and just walked on straight lines, moving slowly as a slug during years, growing and growing non-stop. Named the Great Incarnates, the twenty-seven altered the landscape, brought vengeful spirits and shaped cultures and legends wherever they passed.

Well, my Inktober challenge was to draw every single one of them, and I am super happy I made it. As I posted my drawings, I crafted small stories about their passing and how they went into slumber -- now, almost a thousand years since the last one slept, they're know as the Dormants.

Mid-october, I decided to draw a map in the style of late 18th ~ 19th century books, marking the passage of the Dormants around Tiriana. Almost all of the labels of the map are just names I made up for the Great Incarnates themselves or the countries they visited - the rest is in Portuguese, my mother language.



Tiriana uses East as the main direction, and the compass shows L (East) and O (West). The text on the upper-right corner says:

Dates and places of sleep of the Great Incarnates, updated to current geography and toponymy, 1578 years After the Martyrdom.

The table shows, on the left, the Year of Slumber and the name of the Dormant. On the right, the country where the Incarnate rests today.

All the labels, ornaments, text and straight lines were done on Illustrator. The map was drawn by hand, using Uni Pin 0.1 and 0.05 pens.

I hope you guys enjoy it. Unfortunately I do not have the Dormant texts in English, but if you want you can see the illustrations on my Instagram, @brnmuller, going back from October 31st.

[J.Edward]

This looks very well made. Nice work.

[Kellerica]

The linework is beautiful! I'd love to see some color applied to this, this is unfortunately one of those b/w maps that messes with my eyes for some reason. I really like the fonts you used here, often when you see digital text added to a hand-drawn map they don't quite go together, but these work very harmoniously with your artwork. Are those the IM Fell types or do my eyes deceive me?

[MistyBeee]

Really well done, both detailed and mysterious

[Ilanthar]

Very fine map! I really dig those forests .

[Bruno Müller]

This looks very well made. Nice work.

Thanks!

The linework is beautiful! I'd love to see some color applied to this, this is unfortunately one of those b/w maps that messes with my eyes for some reason. I really like the fonts you used here, often when you see digital text added to a hand-drawn map they don't quite go together, but these work very harmoniously with your artwork. Are those the IM Fell types or do my eyes deceive me?

So, the black and white confusion is somehow intentional, actually. It's supposed to look like some sort of messy etching, and the really important part isn't the geography, but the lines departing from the Mount of Martyrdom. But I do agree with you that some color would help; maybe someday I'll test it out! Thanks!

Aaand yes, those are IM Fell types. They are almost always my first choice when I want to mingle text and B/W handdrawn maps. I love them!

Really well done, both detailed and mysterious

Mysterious is always good! Thanks!

Very fine map! I really dig those forests .

Cheers! They nearly gave me cramps, sometimes, haha!

[Robulous]

Very good! I'm very fond of pen and ink maps, they don't get the love they deserve.