April 2018 Mapping Challenge: The Dominion of Tirene
Welcome to the Dominion of Tirene! I think I might actually be able to finish the challenge this month so here we go.
Tirene is a relatively young nation, occupying two small land masses separated by a shallow see cut Norhwest to Southeast by a swirl of craggy islands. The population centers on each of the landmasses share a distant ethnic background, but it was only 370 years ago that they came together to form a cooperative Dominion. Since the unification, a new group of savage sea raiders have taken the islands that shallow sea, cutting off trade and communication between the two halves of the Dominion. In the 220 years since the sea barbarian's incursion, trade and transportation have been resumed thanks to the Dominion's re-acquisition of some larger islands on the outskirts of the shallow sea and the establishment of military outposts and naval yards on a key stretch of islands that guards these new Strait Settlements. Now, in the year 370 AU, Tirine is finally marhalling a strong enough navy to retake the islands and establish safe movement between the peoples of the Dominion.
The whole landmass is approximately the same size as my own great state of Minnesota, so I'm using that as a bit of a reference. Considering how much of the land is "wild" though, it got me thinking of vast stretches of space where people just couldn't live. Of course, to the challenge this needs to be incorporated into the land forms as well, but I expanded that idea to include stretches of sea that were uncontrolled by the Dominion. That in conjunction with the name also got me thinking of Greek maritime trade and movement, and so I decided to sort of flavor the aesthetic of the map in that direction. This mornings work has been setting up to border, and I'll soon move on to outlining the landmasses.
Happy challenge everyone!
