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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
 Posted - 16 Jun 2010 : 10:58:06
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Yeah, when it gets flattened like that everything gets warped, so it's hard to picture. I will try one of those amalgam maps like what was done earlier, matching the latitudes more precisely so we can get an idea of what kind of weather we are talking about in the different climes.
In the real world, Iceland falls out below the arctic circle, and its still pretty damn cold. So does most of Alaska.
You can also assume slightly less axial tilt (although someone in Ed's thread figured it had greater axial tilt, which makes no sense to me, but I'm no scientist). The less tilt, the less variation to the angle of the sun's rays - it makes the equator hotter and the cold zones colder. A planet with no tilt would have unbearable extremes at the poles and the Equator. Air currents, water currents, and orbit all play into climate as well.
You think making maps is all drawing pretty pictures, eh?  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 16 Jun 2010 11:06:03 |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jun 2010 : 18:25:03
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Newest WIP
Blue lines indicate the Arctic & Antarctic circles (And yes, I realize they should be called something else).
I shifted Mystara into a spot where all the canon climate works. In fact, the Equator and arctic circles are nearly in the exact spots. If the continent were a little bigger it would have lined up perfectly... which makes sense, because Mystara is the size of Earth, and Toril is a little bigger.
Not as pretty as other layouts I might have done, but the Known World (main campaign area) falls out at the same latitude as Cormyr, which is perfect. I had a grid on this thing and it was surprising to see how nicely everything falls out.
I did lower the Equator just a tad from canon Toril, but now it works out perfectly for both Mystara and Xendrik, and still makes plenty of sense Faerūn-wise.
I really need something to finish off that big landmass under Mystara - I was even thinking about flipping Eberron on its head. I will be adding Taladas to the NE of Ansalon, as I've seen on other maps, and probably put Argonnessen (Eberron's dragon-continent) below Kara-Tur.
Still, I'm starting to have a problem finding another southern hemisphere continent for this thing. Anyone know of a good one? Why are so many damn fantasy campaigns set on northern continents? I think this project has made me reconsider my own homebrew - I may just invert the whole thing just to be unique (aside from Ansalon).
I could always use a novel setting instead, but I like that it has been all RPG thus far and that all the maps still work canonically. I think Alphatia is placed well to be the Orgoth for the IK setting there. I may get rid of more of those other islands around there though; I only kept Oceania because the way it wraps around onto the other side gives us a point of reference.
First, it looks very interesting so far. 
Second, if you ended up stretching the world to put in Mystara anyway, then that kind of eliminates the motive behind chopping off the western two-thirds of Oerik, doesn't it? Or is the goal here to integrate as many cool published settings as realistically possible?
Third, regardless of the intent as speculated above, this is one heck of a Spellplague event. Similar to, but far larger-scale than, what I had envisioned doing with my Spellplague in this scroll. I may end up just using your map in the end... but the Spellplague as a cataclysm of this magnitude in my Realms is a long way off. Besides, there's too much cool stuff going on with the formerly undeveloped areas of Toril here for me to want to blow it all up right now... 
Edit: Added links. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 16 Jun 2010 18:36:55 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jun 2010 : 21:44:32
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I did NOT stretch the world - that is an ACCURATE, TO SCALE rendering of the entire planet (as per it's official size). We had 10,000 + miles of 'unseen world' to the east of Kara-Tur that is not evident on that map in the 3e FRCS, nor the 'world view' in the old Interactive Atlas. All I did was fill-in all that empty terrain.
And the purpose is to fill in the world with as many settings as possible, that all worked together, with a minimal amount of redundancy - not only wasn't anything to the east of the Flaeness ever detailed, but what little information we have on it shows things like Egyptians, Chinese, Steppe Nomads, Japanese, etc... we have those in Faerun. The only way that would have worked (and I will probably do this on another thread) is to use kara-Tur (mirrored) to the West of Oerik, and use Rokugan in eastern faerun... although i think that won't please anyone but myself. perhaps do it the other way around - less fiddling that way.
Anyhow, do that, and make the planet smaller (or the continents MUCH longer) and have the two across from each other in the east (the way Greyhawk and Faerun are in the current version), so we would only have the two continents in the northern hemisphere (which is fine for an RPG - no-one is ever going to use all that terrain).
I don't want to make the same mistake they did with the published realms with all the Middle-Eastern flavored cultures all over the damn place. I want to keep the Oriental cultures clustered together in order to make some sense.
quote:
Originally posted by Cleric Generic
Here's Gaia from Anima (just saw the edit). I've no clue about the setting, really, I just know it's main artist's work, and thereby the setting, from DeviantArt.
http://phildeb.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/world-of-gaia.jpg
I think I may have to touch myself - very cool outline - wish there was some terrain filled-in though.
Cartographer's name/Deviant handle? |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 17 Jun 2010 20:00:03 |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jun 2010 : 22:24:33
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hahaha! 'tis a dead sexy map...
No idea who the cartographer is. The DeviantArtist I was referring to did a bunch of non-map related art ( http://wen-m.deviantart.com/gallery/ ). The RPG website is http://www.animarpg.com/ but I couldn't see any cartographer's credits there... There's a copy of Anima RPG in my local geek shop, I think; if I remember I'll take a look and see who did the map.
As for the climate, all the art I've seen seems to imply a generic temperate climate, and vague though the map is, I don't see anything to indicate deserts or ice sheets, so I can't imagine it's much bigger than Laerakond. Again, I'll check the scale when I take a cheeky peek at the geek shop.
Finally, no epic mega setting of great justice would be complete without THIS!!! http://www.bkworld.hk/images/bk-bears-island.jpg |
Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
ALL HAIL LORD KARSUS!!!
Vast Realmslore Archive: Get in here and download everything! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl
2e Realms book PDFs; grab em! - http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-around-purge.html |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 17 Jun 2010 : 06:25:39
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
I did NOT stretch the world - thatis an ACCURATE, TO SCALE rendering of the entire planet (as per it's official size). We had 10,000 + miles of 'unseen world' to the east of kara-Tur that is not evident on that map in the 3e FRCS, nor the 'world view' in the old Interactive Atlas. All I did was fill-in all that empty terrain.
 My apologies; from what you'd said earlier in this scroll, I thought that space considerations were what had prevented you from inserting all of Oerik originally... and then it looked as if the extension of the map was sufficient to allow room for all of Oerik. Could you do an outline-superimposition for us to show how all of Oerik would look on Toril, as you did for the size comparison of Faerun and Osse?
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
And the purpose is to fill in the world with as many settings as possible, that all worked together, with a minimal amount of redundancy - not only wasn't anything to the east of the Flaeness ever detailed, but what little information we have on it shows things like Egyptians, Chinese, Steppe Nomads, Japanese, etc... we have those in Faerun. The only way that would have worked (and I will probably do this on another thread) is to use kara-Tur (mirrored) to the west of Oerik, and use Rokugan in eastern faerun... although i think that won't please anyone but myself. perhaps do it the other way around - less fiddling that way.
I do agree with you on the "derivative Earth cultures" note... I just like the physical geography of western Oerik (see my correction in your quote above... given that to the east of Oerik is ocean, then Faerun). <edit>But I also understand your desire to use more than just the physical geography of the sources being used. My argument for using western Oerik's physical geography is simply that it fits nicely with the Flanaess (that's how it was originally drawn, after all) and, since all we have are obviously horribly derivative names for lands to the west, I see no problem with tossing out the names as the rantings of deluded explorers and filling the geography with whatever cultures you deem appropriate from other sources.</edit>
However, I also like the idea of using Rokugan (mirrored) for western Oerik... I agree, less fiddling, and it works better storyline-wise, too... you don't have to explain why the two halves of the Faerun-Kara-Tur supercontinent have more or less exchanged places. 
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Anyhow, do that, and make the planet smaller (or the continents MUCH longer) and have the two across from each other in the east (the way Greyhawk and Faerun are in the current version), so we would only have the two continents in the northern hemisphere (which is fine for an RPG - no-one is ever going to use all that terrain).
I don't want to make the same mistake they did with the published realms with all the Middle-Eastern flavored cultures all over the damn place. I want to keep the Oriental cultures clustered together in order to make some sense.
<snip>
On this, I whole-heartedly and unreservedly agree with you. In my Realms, Calimshan is conquered by Tethyr (after a number of unfortunate twists involving the wars against the tlincalli of Maztica and the forces of Sothillis, among other little things like another plague nearly wiping Calimport off the map as a notable city), who now also rules Amn as a nominally independent protectorate; it was only with Tethyr's (and the PCs') aid that Amn was able to defeat Sothillis and his forces, and Calimshan was almost accidental in all of this.
As for Anauroch, the Bedine have been retconned by me into something more resembling the Fremen of Dune (and of course renamed; I'll save this for when/if I ever get around to cleaning up the full write-up for posting)... true, it's no less derivative, but at least it's derivative from a fictional source, and a high-quality one at that.
Again, if you would be using a modified Spellplague to introduce these changes to Toril, I'm loving it. But I would definitely miss Katashaka now, with the plans I have in store for it in my Realms... any chance of saving it? |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 17 Jun 2010 06:35:28 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 17 Jun 2010 : 20:09:28
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Stay tuned for the 'Return of katashaka'
Was fiddling with my last (naked) version of the FR map. That was SOME project - I was correcting all the terrain one last time, to bring it back in-line with the older 1e/2e terrain (something I was doing little-by-little all along). The trick to that was to use the actual 3e map bits for all the older terrain, so it still looked like the official FR map, but with everything placed more accurately (in regards to the original maps). basically, the idea is to create the map the 3e cartographer would have created, had he an infinite amount of time to do research and nudge stuff around.
Unfortunately, my comp crashed as I was saving all the changes I made yesterday, and I'm afraid to open up PS today to see if it saved, or corrupted. 
Thats the map that I was going to use for the layered PDF eventually. I will open it up in a bit and work on a few things - hopefully I will have something to share later.
Thanks for the directional correction in that quote - I do that all the time. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jun 2010 : 04:01:13
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Okay, started out adding Argonessan, and wound-up playing with Sarlona instead - too tired to do more outlining tonight.
Planet Mark
Obviously I haven't placed Argonnesen or Katashaka yet, just playing with possible layouts. Katashaka is actually way too far south, but Argonessan ended up placed perfectly with the equator.
I doubled Ansalon in size. It's still small, but it no longer looks ridiculous; I've decided to wave accuracy in favor of aesthetics... I'm running out of options. At least the lore works with Argonessen nearby - I wanted to keep areas with similar themes in close proximity.
Oh yeah, and I turned Sarlona on it's head. The setting is still usable as-is, you just got to turn your maps upside down. I made sure the climates worked - campaign usability is still a key concern for me. Also redundancy - Sarlona is very different then the typical medieval RPG setting (which is why I didn't use one of the many other choices and invert it).
Katashaka is so friggin' ugly it makes Osse look good - why is it FR has the ugliest continents?
Except for Anchorome... too bad I lost that...
I'm tempted to just yank Osse right outta there and replace it with Khorvaire (it would fit), or possibly Harn. If I do that, then I might as well lose katashaka in place of the real Nyambe map (and I have two different 'official' versions to choose from). Obviously I just wanna get this done at this point and move onto funner stuff.
Edit: One last thing - Osse got bumped North, if you hadn't noticed. I didn't want to do it, but it just looks RIGHT there - kinda encircled by those other continents. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 18 Jun 2010 04:05:20 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jun 2010 : 04:50:29
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Cool... I'm very intrigued by the possibilities... you say you haven't determined final placement for Argonessen, but you also talk about it being perfectly placed relative to the equator and logically close to Ansalon (I agree on both counts).
Re: Osse and Katashaka: I would keep the Katashaka outline, with Nyambe geography as done by our friend HandsomeRob... I'm just not a big fan of the shape of Nyambe. Keeping in mind the pre-Sundering maps from GHotR, there's a reason for Katashaka's shape; it used to be attached to Chult and Tashalar. This is what my whole post-Spellplague evil plan involving the Sarrukh rests on...  As far as Osse is concerned, it would be a shame to lose it post-Spellplague now that we're fleshing it out so nicely, but Khorvaire would be a good fit... and it's *your* ideal FR, after all...
However, after looking at the latest version, I have a new question:
Laerakond?
Edit: If it would fit, I suppose the best place for Laerakond would be near Ansalon and Argonessen...  |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 18 Jun 2010 04:54:57 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jun 2010 : 05:45:04
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Re-reading that, I see how it sounds confusing. What I meant is I haven't even done the outlines of those continents - I just pasted the images in there to see how they'd look. Technically, nothing is EVER final.
I might even pull Osse a bit more north... not sure yet... it looks pretty good. Also seems a little too conveniently 'uncrowded' at the edges of the map (probably gonna replace Oceania with Myrmidune, and have that wrap-around to the other side). I might chop that map at a different point when this is finalized just to see how it looks from other perspectives - the space between Mystara/Brun and Eastern Oerik/Iron Kingdoms may be quite large compared to the rest - its a very land-heavy map.
I like how the current map has lots of straights between continents. If I did replace Osse with Khorvaire we'd have the whole of Eberron here... and then what world would this be? It would then be Eberron with bits of others attached.... 
I have several world maps all sized the same now, with outlines of each continent: another idea I had today was to release each world (in outline form) scaled the same on my DeviantART site, so others can play with all the different worlds and make their own. I will probably do Golarion next that way (but I'll let others futz with it). Might as well get some extra mileage out of this exercise. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 18 Jun 2010 05:48:02 |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jun 2010 : 21:36:26
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I really like that map CG, I like it A LOT.
The only change I would make is putting Oerik back the way its supposed to be - I find it too disconcerting on its side. The rest looks awesome though! |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2010 : 02:21:24
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CG, I agree with MT on both counts... I really had to look to find Oerik. But then, it was mirror-flipped and then rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, so I guess I can be forgiven for that.
I like the Harn coastlines... I just don't know if I like it as much as the canon coastlines of Katashaka and Osse... 
Edit: And YES, I want to see Myrmidune in there, having seen you mention the place recently. It fits too well with our other dragon-related realms (as discussed earlier)... on which note... Laerakond? |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 19 Jun 2010 02:24:10 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2010 : 03:43:22
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Laerakond fits into my 'no redundancy' clause - there is nothing there that doesn't already exist somewhere else. The lore I don't mind so much, but I really dislike the shape of the continent.
Someone mentioned earlier that they saw a map somewhere with an alternate shape for Laerakond - I wouldn't mind seeing THAT. maybe someday I will give that a go as well - see if I can't tinker-it into something more sensible, but that would be after I finish the other 97 projects I'm in the middle of. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 19 Jun 2010 04:26:33 |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2010 : 10:07:49
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Cheers!
Yeah, I pretty much threw consistency and logic to the wind and rotated, resized and fiddled everything on the basis of what looked pretty. In the event that my PCs ever leave Faerun, the foreign shored will likely be a matter of homebrew. And do feel free to nick it in whole or in part!
I've never seen an alternate Laerakond map, but there are plenty of roughly horse-shoe shaped maps floating around out there that might be more pleasing to the eye. Or, as has been pointed out, the more interesting bits of the places lore can easily be transplanted elsewhere... You could even just dump them on Myrmidune, actually...
EDIT: Speaking of Laerakond and other alternative maps, here's some good stuff from DA.
Kinda cool, dunno where or what for though: http://sozokureed.deviantart.com/art/Map-of-Nevermore-146784189?q=1&qo=1
Strange looking crater peninsula: http://iririv.deviantart.com/art/Map-166721244?q=1&qo=1 (slight tangent; this artist is awesome in general, his stuff frequently gets trotted out in my game as illustrations).
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Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
ALL HAIL LORD KARSUS!!!
Vast Realmslore Archive: Get in here and download everything! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl
2e Realms book PDFs; grab em! - http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-around-purge.html |
Edited by - Cleric Generic on 19 Jun 2010 10:32:28 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 20 Jun 2010 : 01:24:29
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Funny... I actually like the shape of Laerakond now, after initially looking at it and going ... I think it was your map that made it look good, MT.
As for the redundancy aspect, this is true... but Laerakond is more Realms than Argonnessen or Ansalon; it was developed by Ed, after all. I'm reluctant to lose something of Ed's in the Realms (even if not Ed's original Realms) for something from another world. My preference would be to ditch Ansalon; I admit, partly because I've never liked kender. In the one and only Dragonlance campaign I played in, I played a 1E Barbarian (1E Unearthed Arcana rules) whose favourite dish was "Braised Thief Kenderloin"... yes, my fondness for punnery began early, but thankfully has improved (slightly) in taste over the years. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 20 Jun 2010 : 02:50:37
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I may just try something.... sneaky... tonight.
You guys sort-of gave me a good idea, and those DeviantARTists are a great find CG! |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jun 2010 : 04:25:13
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I really hope this sneaky good idea doesn't have anything to do with "braised kenderloin", Mark...  |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Knight of the Gate
Senior Scribe
USA
624 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jun 2010 : 04:47:05
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| You know,if you're looking for another setting to toss into the hat, there's always GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire. The Isle of Westeros is roughly the size of the UK, and the 'main continent' of Osse is really only Europe-sized.... |
How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for mediocrity? -Umberto Ecco |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jun 2010 : 21:40:30
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Time for something new
Looks like Anchorome? Guess again
The top half is taken from that Anchorome map floating around on the web (because Rob's map is down right now). The rest is pasted together from several others (mostly from the FRIA), and all pasted onto my sized 'map of Toril' (really just the crappy map from the FRCS blown-up huge). I then colored-in the outline so you guys can see it better, and shrunk it down so it fits onto a standard piece of printer paper. The original is the same scale as the official 3e Faerūn Map.
Anyhow, didn't bother with mountains or anything yet - really just wanted the outline to get started. I also need to dig-up my file on Ed's original Anchorome, so that all of his islands are in their proper places. Also haven't bother to add-in my own Island chain down around Maztica and Katashaka, because I'm not sure how far south I'm going to take this yet.
This will be something very different then what I usually do - similar to what I was going to do with Katashaka, but Rob took care of that 'blend' so I will fiddle with this instead. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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HandsomeRob
Seeker
68 Posts |
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HandsomeRob
Seeker
68 Posts |
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Quale
Master of Realmslore
1757 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jun 2010 : 17:36:39
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| That plateau in Anchorome is interesting, do you think that meteors made those lakes? |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jun 2010 : 18:19:37
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That massive ring of mountains above the 'A' in Anchorome certainly looks like a crater. Are there any major meteorite impacts recorded in Realmslore?
Anyway, if the main issue with including Anchorome and Katashaka in the mega-map is that they look odd, perhaps exaggerating their features a bit would make them more interesting? e.g. make the three protrusions along Anchorome's north coast larger and reach further out to sea, perhaps ending in an island or two, make various bays and gulfs deeper and more pronounced, and so forth.
I can't think of a non-fiddly and labour intensive way to do that though... |
Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
ALL HAIL LORD KARSUS!!!
Vast Realmslore Archive: Get in here and download everything! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl
2e Realms book PDFs; grab em! - http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-around-purge.html |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jun 2010 : 18:56:40
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quote:
Originally posted by HandsomeRob
Since the zoomify map is down I've decided to upload these two here so that you can use them for your project.
Anchorome: http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2118/anchorome.jpg
Katashaka: http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8118/katashakaw.jpg
-Rob
Thanx Rob!
The original outlines I had for the world map were outlines I did from the map in the FRCS, and they weren't all that accurate. I've since gotten a hold of a copy of the FRIA and have been using those (which is why the north coast of Katashaka changed a bit from my old one with the Islands.
I will be putting those islands back, but I first want to place all of Ed's originals.
Also, this latest project has nothing to do with the 'Dream campaign' - thats a done deal, except for posting all those outlines as I promised. This will be a conversion for folks wanting to use the Laerakond info in a 3e campaign, while leaving the canon map intact.
I just got to figure-out exactly where I will be taking a bite out of Anchorome. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 23 Jun 2010 18:57:19 |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jun 2010 : 22:16:44
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Nope... too easy.
I want it to fit into the existing, known terrain. After manipulating my Laerakond map a bit (bending, twisting, and smooshing it), I think I can get a layout very similar to the original, but with the Anchorome terrain pretty-much intact. One of the existing lakes even works as the Crescent lake with a bit of fudging.
The 'bite' actually becomes a bay, and the internal parts of that sea become a series of three inland lakes along a very long and wide river. I wasn't sure if I was really going to do this, but what I have so-far (just a buncha pasted stuff) looks so promising I think I'm going to go for it.
I have to say, as botched-together as it currently is, I'm actually liking this layout for Laerakond MUCH better then the original - more intriguing, and more possibilities me thinks. I have more room in the East (which Ed mentioned it was supposed to have anyway), and I can even keep some of the western islands (which blend into that Anchorome chain).
I will be losing the entire northern coast, but thats okay - northern Anchorome was filled with vast mountains anyway, so that giant region (Fimbrul) just becomes all the more huge. The West Coast also goes under some heavy modifications, but it works and, I think, even adds to the feel of the place.
Also, the climates look good when compared to other places at the same latitudes (the official placement actually made little sense). With Evermeet not far off the coast, its small wonder Faerunian explorers never discovered this region before - no one could sail straight across from the Moonshaes.
I even have a rather unique back-story, for folks wanting to use the 4e rules with the 3e setting (as many do, I've heard).
So this isn't an 'anti-Hasbro' project - it actually allows people using the older setting (with any edition of rules) to use the material in the 4e FRCG, thereby making it more appealing to folks who didn't purchase that tome before. And like I said, its rules-neutral - I'm just making everything work within the context of an 'unchanged' world.
I figure with Katashaka being filled-in with Nyambe, and Osse getting fleshed-out in another thread, why not glue returned Abeir into Anchorome? Now just the islands off the coast go back to being Anchorome (as it should be), and the mainland becomes Laerakond.
I'm going to try-out some new techniques with this as well, so don't expect the '3e look' anymore - i need to practice my own style and that's what these little exercises are really all about. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 25 Jun 2010 04:23:09 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jun 2010 : 04:20:56
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I'm not sure if anyone is paying attention anymore, or if anyone even cares about this one, but since I'm into it and having fun doing it I'll post a WIP just for posterity -
Anchorome/Laerakond Conversion
I think I have all the inland Seas finalized, but of course everything may get nudged around as I add in the mountains and forests. I tried to keep as much of Anchorome's terrain 'canon' as I could, while squeezing in the other stuff, so its sort-of a blend of the two right now (and I had to shift some of Anchorome's waterways around a bit as well). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jun 2010 : 04:48:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
I'm not sure if anyone is paying attention anymore, or if anyone even cares about this one, but since I'm into it and having fun doing it I'll post a WIP just for posterity -
I'm still "into it." I just haven't had the time to really go over the last few "WIPs" that you've posted.
Sorry for the inattentiveness, Markus. |
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Building a 'better' FR
