Eastern Athearn & The Mirrorwood

[PorkStewJoe]

Here's a map! With some notes for those interested



For my Dungeons and Dragons game I mapped part of the lands of Athearn, visualizing the forests, mountains, rivers and towns of this nook of the world. I wanted it to look like a thing that actually existed in the world - made by an actual inhabitant of Athearn, not drawn by some omniscient illustrator. This would mean that some parts of the map might be embellished, or just straight up incorrect. Hopefully this way the players felt like the world was *mysteriouus*.




Dots on the Map
I wanted to differentiate the settlements of my fantasyland: giving them all their own bit of character so that they were more than just dots on the map. ⁠⁠So I drew miniatures of each town, featuring landmarks a traveler might actually recognize. The size of the settlements indicates importance, with the two rival capitals of Treyford and Blenskell even being accompanied by standard-bearers flying the reigning clans' colours.




Dragons, Frogs and Firebirds
As they would surely be the star of many an adventure, I wanted the critters of this world to also make an appearance. ⁠⁠Inspiration came from the old Hereford Mappa Mundi, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. The map was framed by many naked frogmen and other crazy creatures. I toned down the quantity of nude amphibians a bit, but liked the idea of having these little portraits surrounding the map. ⁠I further alluded to the lands outside of the scope of this map by putting some cryptic text in the frame, thereby making the world expand beyond the edge of the paper.

Hope you liked my little write-up. And if you have any thoughts or feedback, please let me know! This map is pretty much done, but in the interest of my continued carthographic career I'd like to improve