April 2018 Mapping Challenge: The Dominion of Tirene

[GreatWhiteNorth]

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!

[GreatWhiteNorth]

### Latest WIP ###

The day's work of landforms, colors, and borders. There's a few things I'm not in love with but I think it's coming along well.

[kacey]

Looks good so far, I'm loving this border and these land forms are really cool.

[Straf]

This is a grand start GWN. I really like the palette you have chosen. The shadow effects between land and sea could maybe toned down a little IMO as it looks too floaty at the moment. The frame is lovely - it's simple but looks great. The land mass in the north east looks like it's having a bit of a laugh as well

[GreatWhiteNorth]

### Latest WIP ###


Latest update, with some adjusted land colors, water lining, and mountain shading.

[MistyBeee]

I really like it, GWN ! The texture and fade works very well and your mountains are great too !
I'm curious to see what you'll place in the corners

[MapMappingMapped]

Looking great so far! And I hope you'll get to finish it this time! Eager to see some more!

[GreatWhiteNorth]

### Latest WIP ###


First round of labeling, and a test of how I might depict the four cities of note in the Dominion. Comments on the success of the one city's label would be helpful!

I placed city and castle (the square) icons based on generally how I conceive of "civilized" vs. "wild" places. Civilized doesn't necessarily imply arable land, so I took that into account as well.

[nopkin]

Wow! This looks awesome already! Fantastic! I love the city label, it fits perfectly with the icon and the entire map.

[Diamond]

Oh man, this is really superb. I wasn't sure if I'd like the landforms breaking through/over the border like that, but you handled it just right - that fade out works fantastically.