Man, I love your world-building! Even just this little bit is so immersive and cool.
the Shadow March
This was a difficult map to get done, mostly because I wanted to create the map before I had mapped roughly a third of the land depicted in it (the southwest). I actually began laying out the perspective of the map about 2 years ago with what parts of the world I had already mapped out, and I added all the labels and markers, ready for when I finally got the land ready.
I came round to it again recently, forcing myself to get the topography completed specifically so I could finally publish this map!
In finishing off the topography I realised that I wasn't happy with the perspective of the map, so I rotated the projection, which of course meant that I had to scrap the work done on the labels and markers and start from scratch...
I am pleased with this one. the blurb has been ready for many years now, though it has been updated periodically over time with new ideas and additions to the world, and the last update was made specifically for this map. Now that this is done I intend in making a proper map detailing the tainted lands of Kharkhardontis, through which the worst part of the Shadow March passes, though that requires working on a LOT more topography, as shown in the map below.
Man, I love your world-building! Even just this little bit is so immersive and cool.
Completely agree with Diamond. This is giving me so much inspiration for my own world! That is definitely not a pilgrimage that I want to undertake!
I might have missed it in the text but why do people actually still undertake the pilgrimage if it has such awful effects on those on it? Are the adverse effects not widely known or ...? If they are known there must be a really good reason!
thanks!
I think it boils down to centuries of the church advertising martyrdom as a good way to die, with the suffering along the road proportionate to the reward they will receive in the afterlife. people in the real world do crazy things for religion - stuff like self-flagellation and decades-long penances for instance. this is just an extension of that. plus most people who undertake the march have pretty bad lives at home - to all intents and purposes most are slaves toiling away in factories and food farms, some might actually think that life on the road, under a sky that they may never have seen before due to the smog of the cities, is better.
So. Stunningly. Good. Your work is always right from an atlas. Love it