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  1. Robin
    30 December 2015 @ 7:36 am

    You say; Someone already brought the Great Escarpment up over at The Piazza — does anyone know who, or have a link for the thread, or their map?
    Look here;
    http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14611
    by carrillion

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    • Thorfinn Tait
      31 December 2015 @ 9:34 pm

      Robin, thanks for the link!

  2. Lining Up Mystara I – Thorfinn Tait Cartography
    31 December 2015 @ 8:27 pm

    […] Serpent Peninsula (Lining Up Mystara III) […]

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  3. LoZompatore
    31 December 2015 @ 8:49 pm

    Excellent work, Thorf! Good catch on Thanegia Island, I was not aware of the misalignment.
    Some minor comments on my side.

    Hule: another source for eastern Hule is the large, non-hexed color map from “Savage Coast” boxed set. Here it seems that plains are more likely steppes, while the city of Kuur is called Kizil. What about a “double city” built on both sides of the river with different names? Real world example: Budapest (Buda+Pest)

    Alphatia: the lack of nearby landmasses on the 24mi/hex is a real disappointment, I agree. Years ago I tried my own approximate match here:
    http://www.pandius.com/Metropolitan_Alphatia_in_detail_01.jpg
    Moreover, as you see, the 72mi/hex map should show on its northern edge also the southern tip of an island belonging to the same archipelago Orol Island belongs to.

    Ochalea: in Mentzer’s map a small island is shown along Ochalea’s SW coast, which was never included in following hexed maps. What is your opinion about this island (and similar missing islands like the two westernmost landmasses of the Pearl Islands)? My personal opinion is to keep all of them, as the setting is lacking minor islands outside of the Sea of Dread. Opinions may vary, anyway.

    Pearl Islands: see above about the missing islands. Notice also that the “atlas” description in PWAI lists an additional total area of “minor islands” not shown on the maps.

    Alatians: I suggest you to check out also the map of Aegos in WotI’s adventure book, as it seems to me that some geographical features are different from DotE. I may be wrong on this, anyway.

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    • Thorfinn Tait
      3 January 2016 @ 11:39 am

      Thanks for your great comments! 🙂

      I just posted a whole article dealing with the Savage Baronies map, inspired completely by your first note. It led me to some surprising discoveries, too — I had been avoiding that map, due to its peculiarities.

      Regarding the world map’s extra islands, I agree with you completely. I will definitely be adding all of these back in, probably using a localised best fit of the world map on neighbouring islands in order to get their exact scale and location.

      Your Pearl Islands comment is interesting. I think that it’s always okay to add in extra small features when detailing an area, including new islands. For areas that we only have in 72 miles per hex, this is especially true, but even 24 miles per hex maps should be considered fair game — especially if the island or feature in question is smaller than a single 24 mile hex.

      So for the Pearl Islands, there could and probably should be a plethora of smaller islands scattered among the major ones on the maps.

      About Aegos: at a glance, I couldn’t find an Aegos map… I’ll have another look later when I get a chance.

  4. Cthulhudrew
    1 January 2016 @ 8:28 pm

    Yavdlom is definitely a mess. I tried to work it out a couple of times in the past, and always ended up giving up in frustration. Ultimately, I agree with you that going with the 8 mile hex map should hold precedent, but it definitely creates a mapping nightmare when trying to reconcile the 24 mile hex map.

    The Septentriona one is one that I encountered when working on the southern half of the Isle of Dawn as well, and as you note, it really doesn’t change much overall. I didn’t get up to that area in too much detail in the 8 mi hex mapping (just an outline), but I vaguely remember addressing it and sharing my map with Mark Howard when he did his southern Isle of Dawn 8 mi hex map, and I believe he either copied my version or otherwise rectified it on his own.

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    • Thorfinn Tait
      2 January 2016 @ 2:58 am

      Thanks, Andrew. 🙂

      It does look like the 24 mile per hex map would end up being a bit of a mess for Yavdlom. One thing that can help this is using the smaller settlement icons, which to be honest are much more fitting for this scale than the full hex icons. I’ve always planned to do this myself — you only need to look at the Known World map from Wrath of the Immortals to see why this is so, it’s just so crowded.

      There may have been an element of moving things around on the Yavdlom 24 mile per hex map, just to make things look better.

      I remember talking with you about the Isle of Dawn. I’ll certainly refer to your maps and indeed Mark Howard’s when I come to deal with that area at 8 miles per hex — which seems likely, as I’m aiming for a contiguous set of trail maps from the Savage Coast to Alphatia at some point in the near future.

  5. LoZompatore
    5 January 2016 @ 2:36 am

    Just to complete my comments: Aegos map is actually shown in the 48 miles/hex WotI’s map. The villages of Pittston and Selenion are included (Selenion is very likely also shown in DotE’s black and white map but the village’s name is missing).

    Notice also that:
    – Gaity plateau is reversed with respect to DotE’s map
    – WotI’s map represents also another source showing the link between the Alatians and Bellissaria. I believe I actually used this map as a reference for my homemade map of Bellissaria.

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    • Thorfinn Tait
      5 January 2016 @ 2:26 pm

      Aha! The 48 mile per hex map. Thanks for reminding me — I must add it in to my master file, and see how it fits. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it is very much in line with the 72 mile per hex maps. But I may be misremembering. I may write an article about the map, dealing with its uses all in one go.

      Gaity — interesting. Dawn of the Emperors had Rainbow Park on a ridge, with a series of lakes beneath it. Wrath of the Immortals has just the river (though the scale is likely too small to show pools anyway), and has it running on top of a ridge which looks down on Rainbow Park. I think I would go with the larger scale map, since it shows more detail. Do you have a preference?

  6. LoZompatore
    8 January 2016 @ 5:39 am

    About Gaity I’d go with the solution already shown on your map (i.e. Rainbow Park below the cliff), as it seems to me more believable to have lakes and a winding river because they were stopped by the cliff.

    Notice also that the 48 mi/hex would show another solution for the Heldann/Norwold junction. Moreover, hexes NW of Denagoth are pretty different from the same region of DotE 72 mi/hex map.

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