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.