April 2018 Challenge: The Empire of Elelion

[Mouse]

I REALLY don't have time for this but I just can't seem to resist the idea, so there may be some really long pauses, but I will try to finish on time.

These are the stats:

Donjon generated data.png

I won't bore you with all the figures I've been working on, but here is a general idea of what I intend to do:

The Empire of Elelion was founded nearly 2000 years ago by the tough seafaring men of Galandor, who crossed the Wild Ocean and discovered a whole new continent. Initially the settlements were coastal, reflecting the seafaring nature of the Galandorans, but as more and more of the people of Galandor braved the Wild Ocean to come and settle in Elelion, families started to move inland and cut swathes out of the primal forests for farmland to support the growing number of people - particularly in the new capital port city of Nimrasea. From here the roads fan out along the coast and into the hinterland valleys and their farming communities.

I am intending to do this as an isometric regional map, with the land squashed down to reflect the fact that the vertical scale will be just a bit more than half the horizontal scale, but I'll see how much time I have...

[Mouse]

Well.

I had to get an idea of the scale of the empire, and it turns out its near enough in size to Poland. That helps a lot, because although Poland isn't really the same shape as Elelion, it gives me some idea about the scale of rivers, valleys, and such like.

Here is a screen shot of the basic shape I've decided on.

Elelion basic shape.png

and here it is squashed down to isometric proportions:

Elelion map shape.png

Anyone else trying to get to grips with the relative size of things this list is quite useful:

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-...a/Square-miles

[Quenten]

Thanks for this Sue, my realm is between Laos and Guyana in size. Very helpful, as was the area tool of CC3+ for the landmass from my Myirandios World map.

[Straf]

Heheh that's the same page that I looked at Mouse. It's actually quite a useful resource in a number of ways. Perhaps it should be added to its own thread in the Resources section with a title like "Countries by area" or something so that anyone searching might land on it.

[Mouse]

Really? I had no idea it would be so useful.

Please feel free to do the honours, Straf

I'm really busy at the moment with a whole shed load of real life stuff, so this may be one of those pauses I mentioned at the start. I've settled on the shape (if not the coastline, which is way too thick at the moment), and I've created a temporary iso grid just so I can see what I'm doing. This is the first time I've had a go at drawing a proper regional map in iso perspective (rather than some kind of general landscape view), so the grid is there like stabiliser wheels for now

I've added two scale bars because the vertical scale is less than the horizontal one. Is this the right way to go?

The Empire of Elelion v4.jpg

[- JO -]

I looked at that one : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...encies_by_area

[Greg]

Nice start Mouse, the iso regional map isn't something you see too often, let alone with your talented paws behind it!

Yeah, first thing I did with mine was check what country it was similar too, because I literally had now clue how it translated size wise. Turns out Bangladesh is where it's at.

[Mouse]

I looked at that one : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...encies_by_area

That's another useful one - thanks Jo

Nice start Mouse, the iso regional map isn't something you see too often, let alone with your talented paws behind it!

Yeah, first thing I did with mine was check what country it was similar too, because I literally had now clue how it translated size wise. Turns out Bangladesh is where it's at.

LOL! I'm having trouble drawing my first proper iso mountain, so I'm not so sure about the talented bit, but thanks all the same

I really thought I was the only one having a problem with scale!

The other problem I'm having, now that I know how tiny everything is going to have to be in a region that is basically 350 miles square-ish (that's if my calculations aren't way off), is making a decision between realism and symbolism. I mean, the map will look better if I draw the mountains twice as big as they would naturally be at that scale, but far less realistic. I think I may just have been skating around this most basic cartographic consideration on a subconscious level for the last two years and never really faced it till now. Now, of course, its bitten me on the bum!

[Straf]

An interesting base to start from Mouse I've seen a few iso style maps but I haven't even dared to attempt one so I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses

[Mouse]

Thanks Straf

I'm just a bit busy doing my first real commission at the moment (not a map, but mapping related), but I'm hoping to get back to finish this in time in the last 10 days of the month