Known World Trail Map

Growing up with the Known World of Mystara, TM1 The Western Countries and TM2 The Eastern Countries were always two of my favourite products.  They combined most of the Gazetteer series maps into two massive super-maps, allowing us to see for the first time what the whole region looked like.  I never had enough wall space in my room to put either of them on the wall, and unfolding them side by side took up the whole floor of my living room, so it wasn’t something I could do very often.

Some years later, at university, Mystara had already finished its run, and the nascent Mystara Internet community was going from strength to strength.  I shared a large room with my brother in an Edinburgh flat, with a big blank wall right behind my bed.

You can guess what I did with that wall.

Being able to look at the full map every day was great.  I loved it.  But of course it wasn’t to last, and the map had to come down when my brother finished university and I moved to a different flat.  Then I came to Japan, whose flats and indeed houses are renowned for their size — or rather their lack of it.  Such extravagances were forgotten.

Fast forward to today, and I have become very used to enjoying these things on the computer screen.  In fact, for me printed goods have become a premium that often disappoints, since the computer screen these days can present things so vividly, and of course interactively.  Screen colours are bright and clear, while print often turns out dull, sometimes even muddy.  Don’t get me wrong — I still love printed maps — but these days I equally love their digital equivalents.

So why not have both?

All this to say: here is one of my most popular maps, available here for the first time in high resolution.  Whether you print it or just look at it on the screen, enjoy!

Update 16th June 2018

This map has now been added to the new Atlas of Mystara website. Click on the map above to go to its page at the Atlas and download the latest version.