The Continent of Ictaria - linguistic map

[Caenwyr]

This is the second map in a series on the continent of Ictaria. The in-story idea is that this map was commissioned by the Idur, the leader of the Ictari Faith, who resides in his capital of Cailltir. Fun fact: the Prime Meridian runs straight through the Iduric Academy of Geography just west of Cailltir.


On the political map the "uncivilised" lands are left empty, with barely a tribe name in italics to indicate a human presence. This map however shows that the "uncivilised" regions, too, are actually brimming with cultures. The nomadic tribes in Hamad (the eastern empty zones) and Svariin (the north) have very diverse, complex societies. Language and culture have no 1:1 relationship but this map at least allows us a glimpse in the true wealth of civilisations in the known world.


Some figures about the map:

• roughly 60 x 42 cm at 300 dpi
• created in Photoshop (with a helping hand from Wilbur) on my Surface Pro 7
• here's the WIP thread (a chain thread that also has my other maps in the series)

The other maps in this series are:

• the political map
• the topographic map

The plan is to one day do one for the distribution of different religions, but I'm a bit short on time for the moment .

I hope you'll like it, and if not, let me know why!

[GrahamSnow]

Having seen the entire series of these maps, I must say they are incredible! I particularly like the vibrant colors on this map and how the topography is still very much a visible feature throughout. Fantastic job.

[Caenwyr]

Looks like I hadn't replied yet. Oops! Thanks for your kind words, Graham!

[rbnvgl]

I think from the three maps of the regions, this one is my favorit. Just for the fact that it`s an linguistic map. Really interesting how the languages party correlate with the political borders or cross them in other cases.

[Caenwyr]

I think from the three maps of the regions, this one is my favorit. Just for the fact that it`s an linguistic map. Really interesting how the languages party correlate with the political borders or cross them in other cases.

Oh yes, well noted! Languages are only a half-decent proxy to cultures, but even this map shows that there's a strong interplay between languages and borders: some languages are spoken in multiple countries (e.g. the Sakhuriye language group, which are almost perfectly mutually intelligible, covering the entire southern fringe of the Silver Sea), while on the other side of the spectrum there are countries where a multitude of languages are spoken, sometimes in their own distinct region, sometimes overlapping.

My personal favourite is Arlinnian Hamad, a "nation of many nations". The most prominent nations are

• Ictarians: speakers of the Arani, Gahendri en Ilani languages; and
• Hamadîm: the peoples speaking any of the Hamadje languages.

Naturally, some members of either group speak other languages still. Life is never as easy as these maps make it appear. There's a vast difference in culture between these two groups: Ictarians can roughly be compared to our "Western" civilisation, right about the year 1750; Hamadîm are a huge collection of nomadic tribes with vast but very gradial differences between different tribes.

The cool thing about Arlinnial Hamad is that it is the only successful state where Ictarians and Hamadîm live together. Centuries ago there used to be an Ictarian principality (part of the long-gone Kindom of Araniell) named Arlinn, covering the extreme eastern reaches of the Kingdom. Its original purpose was to be a buffer state between the Arani heartland and the "barbaric" Hamadîm, and to solidify that, they were instructed to build a massive wall on their eastern border. This wall turned out to be much more penetrable than anticipated: not by armies but by cultural influence. Even long before Araniell fell (in the Great War of Blood and Darkness, roughly 250 years before this map), Arlinn culture had started assimilating many Hamadi aspects, and the western Hamadi tribes had adopted plenty Ictarian customs, convictions and even religious concepts. When the war broke out and Araniell ultimately collapsed, the Ictarian world splintered into tons of warring little nations. Soon Arlinn was so threatened by its western neighbours (officially belonging to the same Ictarian culture) that they decided to expand eastward, even while their western fringes were eaten away.

This "soft invasion" of Arlinnians into Hamadian territory was mostly tolerated and sometimes even welcomed by the Hamadi tribes who were familiar with Arlinn. The Arlinnians got concessions to build towns in certain well-defined regions on the coast and to unlock the vast mercantile potential of the area, under the condition that they would never interfere with the rest of the region. Very soon these towns developed into multicultural hubs where nomadic caravans met with merchants from all over the world. Nowadays, Arlinnian Hamad is a nation of a handful of sprawling cities interspersed by tens, sometimes hundreds of miles of empty land roamed by nomadic tribes. Many of these tribes now have Ictarian members and in every city there's a sizeable section dedicated to Hamadîm. Most everyone, especially those who work in trade, can speak at least one Ictarian and one Hamadian language. Officially the country is non-religious, although all inhabitants are free to practice any religion they want. The core concept of Arlinnian Hamad seems to be peaceful co-existance resulting in a wild, exciting mix of cultures, languages, religions and convictions.