the Republic of Almagest

Atlas Elyden: the Republic of Almagest

Here's the fifth map in the Atlas Elyden. Work slowed down due to illness, some commission work and writing. I Was hoping for 2 maps a month, though I don't think I'll be able to regularly keep up that pace. This one covers a much larger expanse of land than the other maps I've worked on so far and took a while longer to finish, largely due to the topography, and it has quite a few labels, though even looking at it now I can see there's room for more :)

(Note: the pale square in the top right corner will be where another inset map, this one depicting the capital city of Almagest in greater detail, once it's done (as it's taking a bit longer than I thought it would :) mostly because I'm designing it as a full-size map and will then be shrinking it to fit the space. The finished full-size map will be included in the Atlas as one of a handful of city maps describing important or strategic cities)

The Republic of Almagest has a long history: as an independent land of astronomers and scholars based around the coast of what is now known as the Strait of Almagest; as a territory of the Korachani Empire (under the control of which it spent most of its history, prospering as an industrial centre); and as an independent region freed of its imperial shackles since 3014 RM, after a long period of civil strife with the Motherland. Almagest remains a powerhouse of industry, though waning lands have left its many large cities without food. The capital, Almagest, was once the largest urban area in Elyden, with no less than 6-million bodies calling it home. What remains of that is now a greatly diminished city where starvation and disease run rife. Press-gangers recruit desperate people with promises of glory in the army. The reality is quite different, and most who join up trade one form of hunger and uncertainty for another

Please let me know what you think in the comments, as I'm always open to input.

remember you can follow me on my blog at www.vorropohaiah.blogspot.com and become a patron at www.patreon.com/elyden for high res files as well as textless versions or .psd's

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.

***

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)

the flooding of almagest

a challenge entry over at cartographersguild.com, with a submerged theme. Voting's underway now, so any of you that can vote: http://www.cartographersguild.com/current-mapping-challenge/22491-%2A%2A%2A-february-2013-challenge-voting-submerged-%2A%2A%2A.html#post209341

:D

of stars and constellations

One thing I notice a lot of people that create worlds (both professionally and amateur. of course, I'm the latter...) is that they tend to leave out certain things, like varieties of flora and fauna, climate and geography (other than the broadest implementations) and the skies.

With Elyden I've created a star map with a catalogue of all the stars and constellations and other extraterrestrial objects (satellites, planets, comets etc.). Like much of the world, I'm still deep in creating these facets of Elyden's skies, though I have completed a star chart. the above map was created in the nation of Almagest in c. 3000 RM (the present day is 4008 RM). Though very far removed from the neolithic stargazing culture of its past (extinct now by around 4000 years), the great city Almagest remained a hub of astronomical knowledge, with astromancers remaining in power throughout its existence. The city was once one of the great gems of the Korachani empire (with over 8,000,000-bodies at the peak of its influence), though the so-called Artifex Wars left it an independent entity. sundered from the empire, it died a slow death of disease and starvation, and the city remains now as a ruined metropolis with the descendants of degenerates populating its haunted streets. These are the constellations as recognised by the Korachani empire. Much like western and eastern constellations bear little resemblance to one another, the constellations detailed here are those as recorded by the Korachani empire, based off of ancient knowledge from people it has subjugated over the years. Also, much like our own constellations,those of the southern hemisphere are more 'artificial' as they come from far later in history and were first recorded by sea explorers (indeed there are far fewer in the southern hemisphere as the exacting requirements of the Order of Astromancers in almagest has failed to recognise most of the newly-named constellations).

on a more practical standpoint, I really enjoyed using noise/levels/hue&saturation in creating the stars in the background. though the constellations haven't been described in any detail yet, most of them are based off fauna that I created for the world (or pinched from extinct genera, in the case of the Indrik - indricothere), or mythological objects/events, that i deemed worthy-enough of making it into the skies in the form of constellations, most of which are carried over from ancient cultures (much like ours).

in addition to the standard map (as i imagine it would have looked hot off the printing presses), i also created an older-style version of the map:

antique Almagesti map

 Took me longer than I wanted, though I'm rather pleased with the end-result.