16 February 2014

the Atlas Elyden

I've been working away at more leafs for the Atlas Elyden, trying to get the neatlines and graticules done on as many maps as possible. Its a very tedious process, and possibly the most time-consuming part of each map, other than the labelling, (which, given the fact that only a fraction of the intended areas, settlements and features currently exist may take a while once I get round to them).

the Republic of Almagest

I Got nine done in all so far, including those previously posted. I've tinkered a bit with the degrees outside the neatlines, making every tenth number bigger than the others, to make it stand out more. And I also tried my hand a little characterful thing I often see in atlases - making certain areas protrude from the neatline as way of better using page space. I think they look quite nice, though wondered if anyone has any opinions?

the Haréshk

I've also started coming across areas of maps whose peripheries copy maps that I've already made, though in different orientations and scales. It's been fun challenging myself to make sure I'm not changing any areas and that everything aligns up properly - for instance the bottom right of the new Venthir map includes the bottom left of the Tzallrach (Char Mathi) map; or the entire right-hand side of the Korachan map is repeated in the Pelasgos map. To make sure I don't map the same coastlines twice with different results I'm using the same land layer masks on different maps when they share land area - the best way to make sure coastlines remain correctly proportioned to one-another and properly aligned, which is something I'm very concious of! I'll be coming across this more and more as I go along though look forward to the challenge.

the Heartland of the Korachani High-Empire
Something else I'm also thinking of doing is dividing larger nations or those with lots of different territories, like Almagest and Korachan, respectively, into many smaller maps with more detailed information - like perhaps heraldry or other pertinent details.

the Pelasgosi Free-isles

Included in the new maps is a map of the City Kingdoms of the Haréshk, which some of you might remember is a region of my world I've already mapped. That was a map created by someone from the region. This will be a foreigners' map of the same region so it will be interesting to see the differences. This map also contains a small inset map of an island that's part of the Haréshki kingdoms though which did not fit on the page - I'm pleased with it but I'm not sure it's entirely clear. Any feedback on this? I've also uploaded a resized and re-oriented version of the Korachan map that's been changed to be more in-line with the new pages.

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On another note I do love it when people leave coments as it shows that people do read my ramblings and often have ideas and questions about certain things. This is very encouraging to me as it also makes me think and question certain things I might have missed otherwise.

Such an exchange of comments led to someone mentioning one of my favourite characters: Queen Hetepheres the Strangler, a sphinx (one of the last, if not the last of her kind). It got me thinking of a short story I hope to post here in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed (but lets not hold our breath)


3 comments:

  1. Oh my... That map of Korachan is stunning! Is there a higher-res version? I would love to read the cartouche.

    On the point of the Hareshk, that is a very good and often forgotten point. after all, european maps of the world before 100 or so years ago were rather sketchy on the edges.

    I am curious as to whose perspective this atlas is from. Is it the High-Empire, or reaffirmed. On the point of the reaffirmed one, are the Reaffirmation wars a war between reaffirmed empire and someone else?

    Sorry to continue with the bombardment, but is Nova Malicharan effectively Malichar abandoning the (apparently) sinking ship that is Korachan?

    On my somewhat futile attempt at cartography, I drew in some of those lines on the coastline, and I think they look decent, if I say so myself :D, however, I cannot get islands to look nearly as realistic as yours. Do you have technique that could work on paper as well as computer?

    Thanks for reading,
    Mia

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    1. Whoops, forgot to add what year is this map set in?

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  2. I replied to the main questions in a new blog post, though your questions about the maps I' like to address here.

    a shaky hand is key when drawing coastlines. Try look as satellite photos of coastlines from various altitudes as well as atlases, drawn to different scales to get a sense of realistic coastlines, though remember that different place have wildly differing coastlines - take the super smooth Bay of Biscay for instance and compare it with northern Scotland. Very different!

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