Skenara [Land Beyond the Sea]

[J.Edward]

This one was done over the course of 4 days.
Two 8 hour days drawing and then one 8 hour and one 10 hour day painting.
This was a new attempt... all pencil work is actually done digitally in Manga Studio.
I found the pencil tools to be quite good.
I have been having issues with wacom and photoshop of late and am trying other options.
Line work was done in Manga Studio, color and text done in PS.
Might also post a non-color version and a black and white, but I need to make some adjustments first.

Skenara, and ancient land beyond the sea... It rests southeast from the lands of Haldesher over the Kohl Sea.

When the peoples of Simbral first came to these lands, they found them inhabited by crude beasts and dark secretive folk who dwelt in caves and in the stony grounds. The vegetation ruled the lands in all but a few scant places.

An old and powerful people had once called this land home, but few remained.
In places like Ygryn and Skar, or far to the south in Far Nyeshe, the lasy of Ylan weaved splendid magics and crafted arcane wonders in the hopes of undoing what they had done in ages past. The primeval lands grow over them, invested with strange forms and powers not of the natural world.

Thus the travellers form Simbral laid hands upon the land, to claim it and tame it to their purposes. Over many centuries it would seem they had succeeded. But forces once unleashed upon the TuAl, the wild woods, do not sleep. They creep, slow and steady, caring little of time and the ages of men.

Genereation after generation, the peoples of Skenara face the insidious crawl of the skagrafol and all the dark menace they bring. Great swathes of woodlands must often be burned to the ground to ensure that the blight does not spread.

Long ago the cities of Kida and Sekiz were lost to the dark fingers within the Zurinal. The blight threatens to spread even unto the very lands of Bhale.

Some folk believe that hope will come from Yleshe or Ylande. Others believe that the secrets lie hidden in some dusty ruin long since abandoned by the Ylan.

Others believe that a new power rises deep in Volanus, awakening fire and stone to roll against the the green plague; one day to return things to their natural order.

But an ancient thing sits north of Ragrinal who knows that none of these things are true. It waits, as it has for ages, to break the bones of mortal men and crumble their stone cities to rubble and dust under the thorny touch of skeck.

And on a side note......
A friend has suggested that I should start a Patreon account to produce more work for these sorts of game and story places.
Obviously the Patreon funds would allow more time to be devoted to these non-commission pieces and all the story stuff that goes with them.
Let me know what you think - would you be interested? What sort of things would you want to see? What would make that interesting for you?

Here's the map

[kacey]

It's gorgeous J.Edward! Like always I'm envious of you're talent. I love the colours, the border is awesome, I really like this style. The text, and compass are really cool, and the story that goes along with it really helped to paint a picture of this place in my mind.

I don't know much about Patreon, but if I were into role playing games I would definitely pay money to use this setting.

[zhar2]

gorgeous!!

[Wired]

Wonderful map, and the description just makes it better.

[ThomasR]

The map of course is another gem ! I love the mountain range that turns into a rift, I love the lonely peak near Nyshe, the wondrous variety of your mountains. The forest following the coasts tell a lot about this world. There are so much different features to look at, the maps makes me dizzy. The old paper is really a win and the little dark spots really tell "I've spent some time in a moist drawer". The sea monsters are really classic but you somehow managed to give them your unique touch. The font, if I can call those gorgeous letters a font, is masterfully executed and I love the key, the key border and the calamari. I love the backstory but I'd say that for me, the real marvel of this map is the compass whose aesthetics are both looking like it's coming out of a fairy tale and have a chilling vibe to it. Bravo ! And Patreon on !!

[Mouse]

Oh my! :sigh: I'm going to end up running out of walls to put your maps on, J.Edward

Having attacked cartography from the DIY writer-turned-cartographer side of things, and never having played an RPG in my life, I'm sadly not really in a position to either comment or vote on the other issue, but I would definitely buy a print of as many of your maps as I could afford, to frame and put on my wall

[Chashio]

Absolutely wonderful map, J! Every bit of it.

Patreon... Yes. Do it.

[Greg]

Absolutely stunning piece J! This is going straight into my inspirations map collection. I love the colours, the style, the creatures, pretty much everything about it!

Only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the title font, which is a little much in my opinion, but I'm probably in the minority on this.

Great work once again!

As for Patreon, I'm not too sure about the ins and outs of it, so won't vote, but if Chashio recommends it, it's gotta be good!

[FrancescaBaerald]

As I have already told you on DevianArt this map is absolutely one of my favourite. I really love every aspect of it. It's a terrific piece of art.

[Robulous]

Lovely Is this a commission or just for fun? It would look great in a book.

Re Patreon I've seen other people have them - I think vorropohaiah has a Patreon for his Atlas Elyden - there's no harm in giving it a try. I just wonder how much people contribute. They're big on Youtube which is more of a mass medium, fantasy cartography must be a fairly small community though it attracts the wider roleplaying community.