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Thread: Una the Infinite Archipelago

  1. #1
    Guild Novice SoaringMoon's Avatar
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    Map Una the Infinite Archipelago

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Name:	una_new_9_8k_100.jpg 
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Size:	8.27 MB 
ID:	119192

    This map is "The World of Una the Infinite Archipelago". Depicting a never ending sea of islands floating in the sky.

    The Making Of

    The islands of this map were hand drawn individually using a XP-Pen tablet in Inkscape.

    An initial layer was made for these islands, and were exported as an image into GIMP.

    They were over-layed with an image of the earth reversed transformed to polar coordinates. I used green areas on the polar coordinate map to create national park zones within the map. Colored green.

    After this the islands were split into two layers. One for green islands, one for white. I used an Inkscape filter called "cracked glass" to create the terrain.

    I carefully planned all of the routes I wanted for trace and pathed them using dotted lines.

    For the windwalls (dark blue), I painted thick lines then speckle blurred them.

    Finally, I added various labels.

    Additionally, I cut the exported image into 4096, 250 x 250 images and stitched them together as a zoomable google maps like map.

    The splitting of the images was done with a freeware tool called "Tile Mage".

    I used another freeware tool called "Bulk Rename Utility" to rename the files.

    I then used the Leaflet javascript library to make a the zoomable map.

    The SVG source 32.0mb in size containing over 5300 objects. 2700 of which are island outlines, and 1500 text labels.

    About the Map

    Wind Walls - Windwall labels are rotated to mark their wind direction.

    Island Labels - Almost 800, one-third, of the islands have been named. Named islands are primarily important locations and areas around cities. The number of labels has caused a problem in inkscape, which has lead me to discussion with inkscape's development team and optimizations in the 1.0 release of the product.

    Skyways - The yellow lines all over the map represent skyways. These are trade and travel routes between islands that are marked with buoys. There are 5 kinds of skyway.

    Skyways - Mostly straight line routes.

    Windways - Curved, indirect, windy, or otherwise difficult routes.

    Crossways - Merging shipping lanes with an extraordinarily high traffic.

    Exchanges - Wide open areas that contain a high number of ships where open trade occurs outside of ports. No marking is needed as there must always be another ship in sight to qualify as an exchange.

    Raceways - Skyways with a strong wind consistently favorable in one direction, and unfavorable in the other.

    Cities - Every port city with a population greater than 250,000 is labeled. There are markers indicating cities with 500,000 or more and 1,000,000 or more residents.

    Parks - Green islands are biomes that grow many trees. Some park areas have been labeled as to their purpose with green text. Islands that contain more than 50% forest have also been colored green.

    Interest - Dark teal labels many mark many areas of interest, natural geological, and meteorological structures such as windwalls, areas of high wind difficult to pass, and drifts which move both islands and ships.

    Hazards - Red labels indicate dangerous locations and places to avoid.

    About Una (Expositional Onslaught)

    The map depicts my would of Una, the infinite archipelago. It is made up of approximately 2,700 islands floating above a sea of clouds, and torrent of wind. Una is an infinite flat plane of islands that is limitless. These islands float overtop of a void of clouds and storms. What is below the clouds is an ever deepening mass of gases that collect into heavier forms and is homogeneous. This expanse is populated by airships and sky pirates.

    The sky is covered in birds, the ground in birds, and the waters in fish with wings. The humans glide from island to island in wingsuits and ships. Around all of the ports of the cities of Una, nets hang to catch the gliders that inevitably fall short of the island docks. The only thing that can be seen when you look above is the source. The Source is a large sphere in the sky that pulses dark and light every 28 hours and 48 minutes. It is theorized to be made of gemin.

    Gemin are gemstones that are a crystallization of pure magical energy that is assumed to radiates from the source. The quality of this magical force is determined by the purity of the stone. Gemin have magical properties indicated by their color. Blue can expel water in gallons, red radiate heat in excess, or lime gives a spring board to flora and fauna. These stones are semi-sentient beings with their own thoughts, preferences, and emotions. A person holding a willing Gemin may press it against any material transmuting that material into a golem powered by the Gemin stone. This stone becomes a key unlocking the power of this new creature, called a Keygemin. Keygemin are vain creatures that prefer their stones to be vibrant and pleasing to both themselves and to others.

    Islands on Una are grown from Gemin, and have at their center a gemin core. These, like all Gemin, descend from the Source and the sky. Material collects around the larger stones, and through time scales geological begin to for a platter of stone. Islands can sink, lift, split, drift, and plummet. The wind eventually pushes islands around and away from each other. Island gemin cores pass the traits of their color to their island's, causing some to become deserts, or others oases. All of the natural processes these islands undertake are set into motion by the Gemin in the cores of each island; and now, by the humans that have adapted to inhabit their surfaces.

    If you have any questions, I enjoy answering them.
    Last edited by SoaringMoon; 12-05-2019 at 02:35 AM.

  2. #2

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    Nice! That's huge. It has a very google-maps feel to it, all the way down to the font used.

    > Additionally, I cut the exported image into 4096, 250 x 250 images and stitched them together as a zoomable google maps like map

    Do you have a link to this? That'd be interesting to see how that works. Or is it offline only? How many stitched maps did you have to split it into?

  3. #3

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    It looks amazing! I'm very impressed that you managed to name so many of the islands! And the map prompts so many questions!

    Is there any water? You mention that "The sky is covered in birds, the ground in birds, and the waters in fish with wings" ..., but I couldn't work out where the fish are, is that because of the scale, have we zoomed out too far to be able to see lakes and rivers? Do islands collide, or do their gemin cores prevent them from crashing? Do islands grow, are larger islands older or are they formed from more powerful gemins?

  4. #4
    Guild Journeyer Misjay Maps's Avatar
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    WOW... just wow! I love islands and this is all islands... this must have taken weeks of time. Makes me want to zoom in and see the city maps and islands in detail!

  5. #5
    Guild Novice SoaringMoon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by swiss View Post
    Do you have a link to this? That'd be interesting to see how that works. Or is it offline only? How many stitched maps did you have to split it into?
    Zoomable Una Map, it is just a single map made of of 4096 images. Google maps works like this, and is just made of trillions of small images.

    Quote Originally Posted by RobEm View Post
    Is there any water? You mention that "The sky is covered in birds, the ground in birds, and the waters in fish with wings" ..., but I couldn't work out where the fish are, is that because of the scale, have we zoomed out too far to be able to see lakes and rivers? Do islands collide, or do their gemin cores prevent them from crashing? Do islands grow, are larger islands older or are they formed from more powerful gemins?
    There is water on the islands, lakes and what you might call rivers. The fish may have evolved to survive outside of the water at least for some amount of time (like the lungfish), but would move from island to island. Some smaller islands could be jumped between salmon style. Some islands have blue gemin cores and just have alot of moisture in and around them or spill a rivers worth of water into the sky. Animal would have to adapt to this threat among others.

    Islands do collide. Some islands attract one another (romantically), and become close through "social" means. Islands grow slowly (I mean millions of years), and larger islands can "merge" to become masses, or crystallize together to form a landmass that breaks apart when the gemin move (apart from the wind moving them). Large gemin are not "powerful" they are just contain alot of energy.

    I have this excerpt to reference from my "Guide to Gemin Grading".

    The Carat [ct] weight of a gemin is not very important. It determines the maximum capacity of magical force the stone can carry, but not the strength of that magical force. It is the capacity of the battery, not the voltage. Larger stones are less common than smaller ones, so larger stones tend to be more valuable. Stones are graded by size their smallest diameter, a good indicator of their maximum potential power output. Generally, gemin work more efficiently when spherical in shape.

    Unlike size, color intensity is the greatest indicator of the maximum power output of a gemin. The saturation or vibrancy of the color, and its ability to radiate light a measured in a dark room or box with a polarizing filter. It is graded on a couple total criteria that will class the gemin.
    You can read more about gemin grading here.

    Quote Originally Posted by Misjay Maps View Post
    WOW... just wow! I love islands and this is all islands... this must have taken weeks of time. Makes me want to zoom in and see the city maps and islands in detail!
    It took approximately 300 hours, I have been doing this over months as there is alot of lore I have to write as well.
    Last edited by SoaringMoon; 08-03-2020 at 09:03 AM. Reason: additional information

  6. #6
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Okay, now you're gonna have to teach us how to do that zoom thingamagic! Don't make us make you!

    Seriously, this is an awesome map. Very well executed!!
    Caenwyr Cartography


    Check out my portfolio!

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