The Ecumene

[seth.alter]

The Ecumene is the three continents of the "known world" surrounded by the vast Oceanus. It is the setting of my video game Traitor Nightly and a bunch of other WIP projects.

My goal in making this map was to create a fantasy setting that is both as realistic as possible, and also accounts for authorial intent and bias. For example, the map is stylized like an early 19th century survey map because the imagined cartographer (from the "Pharostine Empire") has approximately 19th century surveying technology at hand, as well as 19th century imperialist biases and ambitions. Likewise, place-name are bolded or muted to reflect the cartographer's very skewed perception of Pharostine exceptionalism; in reality, the Empire's has tenuous-at-best control of any land in Turia.

Some neat features:

• Most of the place-names were generated with my program not_constantinople which creates random names from "recipe" mixes of real-world place-names and cultures.
• The geography is loosely based on Eastern Europe/Anatolia/North Africa, but in a way that's meant to evoke reality without drawing any 1:1 particulars.
• Plausible plate tectonics, water flows, prevailing winds, and windward sides of large mountain ranges (i.e. one side of a range having more cities than the opposite).
• Curved projection, with lat/long notation, a scale, and a compass rose.

[Arimel]

Really nice map! I like the continent/island shapes. Maps that are more realistic are always interesting to observe. Along those lines though, there is a slightly unrealistic river system on Erali where the river splits into two streams, the Taraqabuk and the Ogliara. Besides that though really nice map!

[Nicholas S]

Hey, good job! This is extraordinarily clean.

[- JO -]

Very interesting this style very light, stripped, very clean! The effect is surprising, but I really like the fact that you don't feel like you're in front of an "empty" map at all!

[Tiana]

Is this vector artwork with custom brushes for the outlines to create the topographic effect? I don't see many people brave it due to how challenging it is to set up, that's the only way I can think of pulling off this style... it looks great anyway.

[seth.alter]

Is this vector artwork with custom brushes for the outlines to create the topographic effect? I don't see many people brave it due to how challenging it is to set up, that's the only way I can think of pulling off this style... it looks great anyway.

It's just a dashed line in Illustrator that's really wide and narrow. I mitigated the setup challenge by not going overboard with the number of contour layers, drawing gentle arcs so the lines wouldn't intersect, etc.