Last year I revitalised an old hobby: Role playing games. A lot of my creative energy have gone into this, which have been more than fine as it also has involved taking up some old, personal relations that has not only been a great joy for me, but for all of us playing.
This new hobby has required a lot of world building, so I have decided to show some of the things that I have made.
Today we will look at the maps, which is a very important part of any world building effort - the actual physical image of the world. The maps below are part of a greater map that shows a large formation of Islands, but which is not described in any detail in the game. So I have just included the maps that are important for the game.
This is the Island of Amadeff, the home to the theocracy of the undead God called Norn. His remains are buried in a machine in the capital of Arangungel, surrounded by the congregation of undead demigods, who are the actual rulers of the land. You can see a drawing of the poor God Norn right here.
So now we will move a bit closer...
This is the administrative region of Norgatar, North of the valley of the large cultic city of Soloma. No one wants to be in or even near one of those big cities, but in this area there's reasonably good living conditions. As good as they get in this hellish realm actually. About in the middle you will find the town of Tuskvod... that is where we are heading.
So here we are in the moist lake area of Tuskvod, a town that is built in the high-altitude plateau called the Tuskvod valley. The place has some millet and buckwheat agriculture, but is importing most of its grown food products from the south. Instead the fresh water crab fishing is the large income of the town and the menus in the inns and pubs bears the stamp of the crab fishery. Crab stew with beer made from the shell of the sugar-crab...
East of the town of Tuskvod is a sparsely populated area of marshland where poor farmers, hunters and fishermen struggle to survive in the rugged mountains. A lot of things have been going on in the valley of Darmon Gar, named after a characteristic mountain peak.
You might see where the Tuskvod map overlaps with the map of the Darmon Gar Valley.
OK, this is it for now. I will see if I can find time to show some more details from this imaginary world.
So cool! What did you use to draw the map? I love a bit of cartography, I've drawn a few maps but pencil drawn. I find the landscape can create elements of world building, as well as ruins and places of interest like that.
Funny thay you say the place is a bit hellish, I would have imagined it was an idealic land full of greenary.
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I use the paint app, Krita, and the text I add in Inkscape. Both free and open source applications. The large map of the island I put together with a map I photographed in an old book, and then I simply zoomed in on the first map, and painted the details myself on this new rough and pixelised image, inventing new details that then again got more detailed when I zoomed in further.
There's no hint from the maps of the nature of the world I am building here. It is a medieval sort of world, but as magic is derived from sacrificing the living, the whole thing turns toward the bleaker end of fantasy.
Must be fun to come up with new worlds. I know fantasy may be looked down on by some writers, but you are really stretching your imagination beyond what you have experienced. Do computers make it easier to manage such worlds? I know Tolkien was very into maps and he was a pretty good artist. I have not played too many role-playing games, but I can see the fun in it.
I would say that computers make many things easier, not least making maps. There are even map engines out there that can make rather good looking fantasy maps - my youngest brother who is the only one of my siblings that do not draw or paint have bought a license for one of them. But this is handmade like we used to do it when I was teenager, just much easier to scale up and down with the computer.
Fantastic worldbuilding and these are wonderful maps. I admit I am a huge sucker for maps.
Yes, like maps too. When I started this a year ago I was studying Ukraine and its rivers, and thought to myself that I should probably go there to see it with my own eyes... and now look what happened :(
Oh jeez, that's super bad timing. I hope when things are all done you're able to go!
Yes, war is fucked up. One day I hope to be able to see the Dnipre and the rivers runnign in from Belarus in the North. There should be a fantastic wild life.
What a cool imaginary world. You will have to make this come to life
Yea, I am working hard on making it a believable world. The interesting thing with role playing is that you get some immediate response, and that you sort of experience the world as you go along. For every game I make I understand the world better and get new ideas for how everything is working in such a world. I will try to make some more posts about it.
i bet that took so much time! because the details are really good, it is so good made.
Yes, it takes quite some time and I have used a lot of hours on maps and illustrations for this game.
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