Urt's Outer Skin

The next stage of my mapping process is to create 24 mile per hex versions, but using a "look through" to the underlying 8 mile per hex maps.  This is done by taking the water layers, scaling them down, and then taking the underlying terrain from the 8 mile per hex maps and approximating what would be the best fit for the terrain at a more zoomed out scale. 24 miles with hex overlay 24 miles without hex overlay

After several months work (and having to isolate of Christmas and New Year), the map of Alphatia is finally complete.  Admittedly, this is almost entirely based off Bruce's work (and Thorf's superb realization of that), but it has been intricate and challenging to complete. ( Link to full file ) The key intricacies of this work is to attempt to align the files with the underlying world map from the Masters set, especially when you compare that to the overall map at 72 miles from the Dawn of the Emperors set (the comparison maps are all locked at Specularum as their "point of origin"): As can be seen by the time you move across to Esterhold, the Dawn map is out by a couple of hexes, or approximately 150 miles. Not small beans. When it comes to creating the contiguous maps, there are a number of factors in play: For the continents, attempting to line up the available sources (largely the 72 mile maps from DotE and the PWAs to the Masters map).  This involves a bit of cu...

It's been a bit stop/start on this, but I'm fairly happy with how it is turning out.  The Imperial Realm of Glevum (pop. ) is the personal fief of the Emperor of Thonia.  Although not the largest by area, it is the most populous and the safest area in the Empire.  Most visitors to the Empire never leave this land. Even here though, much of the land has been reclaimed by the forests, humanoids, undead and the Irith, leaving ruined settlements and hidden secrets in their midst. (Link to Map) Glevum - the capitol of the Thonian Empire. Harewood -  a large town in the east of the Imperial Realm.  Situated on the Hare River, it is a prosperous trading post, but is over looked by the Burning Hills of Ximan to the north-east. Greyling Tye -  A small town to the south of the Greyling Barrows.  This was once a prosperous farming region, but several hundred years ago, a great evil awoke in the Greyling Barrows, and now the town is heavily fortified and undead ar...

So finally, I have completed my map of the Isle of Dawn.  This is scaled at 92.5% of the map from the Dawn of the Emperors.  This allows it to fit neatly in the space as indicated in the Master's map.  Also as part of this, there was a slight re-jigging of the positioning of the Alatians compared to DotE, but nothing major, scaling was kept consistent. The map itself was based largely off my previous Isle Dawn map (over ten years old now), along with Thorfinn Tait, Simone Neri, Ignacio Ramos, Thibault Sarlat. (Link to full image) Below is a overview of the general progress.

This wasn't originally going to be the next map I put out there, but as I'm (very) slowly reworking the Isle of Dawn, I thought I would finalize this. As I have mentioned before, the Isle of Dawn is re-scaled from the original. This allows it to fit correctly in the space on the map from the Master's book, without pushing the surrounding islands into other landmasses.  However, this also means that a decision needed to be made about scaling and positioning of Ochalea (and also the Alatian and Pearl Islands).  After a lot a of messing around, I decided to work with not re-scaling these but adjusting the positions of the island groups relative to each other. Ochalea itself is based on work by Thorfinn Tait, James Mishler, John Calvin, Giampaolo Agosta. The southern areas of the Isle of Dawn are based on work by Thoirfinn Tait, Simone Neri, Ignacio Ramos, Thibault Sarlat. ( Link to full size image ) Also, for those that are interested, I've added a scaled down version o...

I've been thinking recently about Thonia, and its place in modern Mystara. Firstly, I wanted to get a feel for it in the context of mapping it in the 8 miles per hex format, linked to the more general adjustments to rotation and scaling I have been working on.  This is intended to bring everything into line/scale with the map from the inside cover of the Master's set. Recently, Thorf kindly produced a version on this Master's set map which had an overlay hex grid of 24 miles per hex.  Also, importantly, this was rotated to align with the map of Brun from the companion set, and therefore the Gazetteer and Trail Maps. To create the basic coastlines, and general topography, I referenced this map, and overlaid with his earlier map of Skothar at 72 miles per hex.  As can be seen on the below outline, there is a slight "tear" to adjust a discontinuity between the two.   (Link) Secondly, I am viewing this as a "points of light" style campaign setting.  Thonia i...

This is something I've been knocking around for a while, and thought I would finally put it down Quite large scale, based off Thorf's 72 mile map of Skothar,  The Forest Jen In the Master's map, the Jen are to the north-east of Esterhold, and then to the south-east is the "Empire of the Great Khan".  When you look at the planetary map in the HW boxed set, the "Steppes of Jen" replace the "Empire of the Great Khan", and the area to the north-east of Esterhold is forested, and separated from the steppes by a mountain chain. This made me think, what if both are true?  And what if the refugees from the Alphatian invasion had migrated to the forest area.  And who was there before? Forest Jen When the Alphatians invaded Esterhold, some fled to the south-east steppes, but others fled to the heavily forested valley of the River Chisdiq.  These Jen adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle suitable for their new home, small clans moving their villages from one s...