Map 32 - The Maucland Confederacy

[jshoer]

Scan of some initial ideas, and laying out who my nearest neighbors are:

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Where Warlin's country is indicated should really be #33, an as-yet-unclaimed island nation. So maybe those fortresses and lookouts are not so necessary for dinosaur protection!

EDIT: Putting the finalized background up front
The Maucland Confederacy is an association of four states populated by a mix of native peoples and colonists from other lands. The people are peaceful and industrious; active as traders, fishers, and craftspeople. The isle of Maucland is supports enough agriculture to make the people self-sufficient, but they eagerly trade with partners near and far. Mauclanders have always been adventurous types and their oldest trading partner is Janantara Elubor a thousand miles away. Valuable local commodities include the fascinating mystic opals found below the Spine Range that crosses Maucland from north to south, and the uniquely practical shipwrights of Allaine have been known to provide long-lasting boats to many a foreign trader.

Older info:
This nation has a straight shot up to the north pole and I see it lacks major waterways, so I figure it divides into two halves: the NW part would be an outback-like desert area of windy scrubland, and the SE would be more mild as it's sheltered by the mountains running up the spine of the island. I figure the population concentrates in cities located in this more temperate region, and would be trading (/raiding, if diplomatic efforts fail) the more fertile nations on mainlands nearby. The trade cities would be fairly independent from one another, though with the dry climate they realized a need to band together into a loose confederacy.

Fortunately, there is substantial mineral wealth in the mountains and desert area, making for some productive mining towns along the northwest line of the Spine! In exchange for timber, livestock, and grains, my would be willing to trade its metal ores and opals to friendly neighbors.

Azelor, Meshon, Ilanthar, and SteffanBrand, what do you say?

[J.Edward]

My apologies. I was trying to get those lands done quick and apparently missed the rivers.
You may place them as you see fit. I like that you did the distances from the other countries.

[jshoer]

Gotcha, I will add some rivers! That will make it easier for my people to build ships out of timber. And give them less incentive to go raiding Azelor.

I still like the mineral wealth idea, so I'm still entertaining trading relationship/alliance offers!

Edit: I see there are now rivers on this overall map. I will incorporate those into my WIP, and will be rethinking the climate a little accordingly.

[jshoer]

I have named my country! I have also decided that, because of its latitude, I am sort of modeling it on colonial-ish New England. Still going for the merchant marine vibe.

[Ilanthar]

I think our courntries have probably good relationships, based on trade by the sea! Ores and opals are certainly interesting for the technical projects of my people and I could sale you whale oil, coal, fish and machines!

[jshoer]

This is excellent news! I will send some trade envoys immediately. :-)

[jshoer]

Well, so far I have been mostly naming things and playing with styles:


But now that I've solidified my nation's place in the world a bit more, here is my...

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The Maucland Confederacy is an association of four states populated by a mix of native peoples and colonists from other lands. The people are peaceful and industrious; active as traders, fishers, and craftspeople. The isle of Maucland is supports enough agriculture to make the people self-sufficient, but they eagerly trade with partners near and far. Mauclanders have always been adventurous types and their oldest trading partner is Janantara Elubor a thousand miles away. Valuable local commodities include the fascinating mystic opals found below the Spine Range that crosses Maucland from north to south, and the uniquely practical shipwrights of Allaine have been known to provide long-lasting boats to many a foreign trader.

[Chashio]

That's really nice work jshoer - I'm greatly looking forward to how you finish this map - and I love the sound of the names.

[Ilanthar]

Interesting. I like your choices for dividing the lands.

[jshoer]

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At first, I was just approaching this project as something I'd have to crack out quickly. (As I do cartography on the side from my day job, usually my projects happen at a very leisurely pace!) I figured that would make the map of Maucland quite difficult, and I decided to just take a basic approach. But the more I do, the more I am enjoying diving into this, and the more I want to experiment. I'm building a lot more into the embellishments of this map than I have in the past, and I'm using that as a great excuse to incorporate Maucland's place in the Guild World into the individual map!

So the current state of things shows the actual work in progress - I've moved beyond the sketch map. Linework for the terrain is nearly complete; I want to put in some lines for the forests, I'll be shading in the mountains, and I might add some things here and there like ocean labels. On the embellishment side of things, you can see my compass, the start of my banner and scale, and lines in the ocean, connecting to the border, that show the directions to other Guild World nations as viewed from the highest point in Maucland, Mount Garrash. There's also a little sketch for a ship that you can see off to the side. I think I'll put a legend in somewhere in its own box off to the side, maybe above the compass (dots are towns, squares are cities, red-border squares are capitals, open triangles are peaks, and the half-open trapezoids are lighthouses).

I really wanted to do this with my dip pens, but the ink bled like heck over another piece of paper from this pad, so I went back to the Pigma Microns. I will color this in with watercolor pencil washes (including blue pencil over the blue labels in the oceans; I think that'll make those labels look much more subtle). I am debating whether to indicate the actual state boundaries within Maucland with dashed red lines, or whether things are OK as they stand.

Feedback and suggestions welcome!

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Maucland is a mix of cultures: several colonist groups from other nations integrated with a native population. This mixing is obvious in the place names of Maucland - colonial clansmen brought the name "Doch" to many towns and cities; other colonists simply named things descriptively in their own tongue, ranging from "Coaston" to "Isle du Clauroc." But the native cultures and languages flourish in the Maucland Confederacy, with many landmarks and provinces keeping their native names.

Each province is autonomous, but the whole island has recently banded together in a central confederacy. There isn't yet an established capital for the nation as a whole; instead, delegates to the Congress rotate through the individual state capitals. Allaine is the most industrialized state, founded on fishing, shipbuilding, and mining industries. The city of Poscadia is renowned for its fishing and whaling, while traders sail from the capital of Eastport carrying loads of Maucland opals from Rockland to far-off lands. Mounackett, capital city Bashoat, is a small, mountainous state with a small population. West Maucland is comparatively vast, and is the "breadbasket" of Maucland. Numerous small towns and farms too small to view on the map dot the state, and Stonevale hosts productive mines. Nasgaranett is a more temperate land than the other states and contains the greatest seat of higher learning in Maucland at the Hellam Doch university, as well as maintaining the largest proportion of native population. Fine goods from Quinnameg sell well throughout Maucland (and further afield, after shipping out from Greenport).