The map I made ten years ago for Sind has always left me a bit empty. So tonight, inspired by Bruce Heard’s work on Alphatia, I decided to take another pass at it.
I concentrated mostly on Azadgal and Baratkand, adding things that seemed appropriate to the descriptions of these regions in Champions of Mystara.
Any thoughts?
The main direction is to bridge the gaping chasm between Sind and Shahjapur, upping the population by upgrading a few towns to cities and adding more towns and villages.
I couldn’t resist playing with the 3D model a bit more.
Specifically, I noticed that the way I had applied the maps to the model yesterday was not right. Count the latitude lines on this image from yesterday and see for yourself:
Yesterday’s post’s globe
Notice how nine small squares fit into the space between the equator and the extreme northern point of the world? This is why I had to stretch the continents to make them fit more into the polar openings. Do you also notice how the squares are not in fact square, even near the equator? They should be almost square at the equator, getting squeezed more and more as you near the pole. But they’re squashed into rectangles at the equator.
In other words, the map is not correctly applied to the globe. The Outer World should go further into the polar openings, and the Hollow World shouldn’t be poking out the top quite as far as it is.
Unfortunately there is no super precise way of doing this, but that’s okay — unlike with the real world, this globe is just a visualisation of the maps, so it doesn’t have to be pixel perfect, as long as I can get it to look roughly the same each time I make it.
So I reverse-engineered the graticule (the grid lines) so that 66º sits roughly at the start of the polar opening, then squashed the Hollow World graticule to compensate. Here’s what the texture map has to look like for this model (prepare for weirdness!):
Revised texture map for Mystara’s globe
Each part of the map has to be squashed into the texture in order to display on the model correctly. And for some reason it all has to be vertical like this!
Apply it to the globe, and…
The Revised Globe
The revised texture map applied to the 2012 globe model
Much better!
Note that the graticule squares are indeed almost square near the equator.
Let’s take a look inside, too (complete with an improvised Red Sun):
Cross-section showing the Hollow World beneath the Far End OceanCross-section showing the Hollow World beneath the Known World continentsMystara’s north pole from the outsideMystara’s south pole from the outsideThe southern hemisphere of the Hollow WorldThe northern hemisphere of the Hollow World
Does anyone have any objections to these placements of the two worlds? There’s lots of room for tweaking, but in general I’m pretty happy with this configuration.
We should probably get the exact dimensions of the world locked in before playing with this stuff any more. Changes to the size of the Outer World will doubtless cause changes to the model anyway.
I’ve been working on lining up the world map with what we have so far. This leads naturally into Davania and the problems with latitude, and I think I’m starting to get a handle on all these.
But that’s for another day. Because today I want to share a sneak peek at what else I’ve been working on.
Revised World Map, Take One
In order to do this, I had to piece together a world map. So you can see here my current position thinking on placing Davania and Skothar, and indeed the latitude problem. (Of course it may well still change.)
A preliminary draft of the Mystara Outer World map
Note how large the Far End Ocean is — and this is not likely to change much. It takes up more than half of the world! Ripe for development…
But let’s get going! Now that we have a 2:1 ratio world map, it’s time to have some fun.
The World of Mystara?
The world map applied to a spheroid. Note the pinching at the pole.
Here’s what happens when you apply the above map to a spheroid. Of course, we all know Mystara is not a simple ellipsoid, so it’s not going to look quite like this, but this is the basic idea.
Do you see the pinching at the north pole? Hyborea is all squashed and tiny, and the Pelatan Peninsula is more of a blob. These can be redrawn slightly to restore their familiar shapes, but their small size is unavoidable.
Thankfully, since Mystara has no poles, the distortion will be rather different from what we see here.
Back in 2012, I created some scale diagrams with my calculated world dimensions of the time. Take a look:
Cross-section of Mystara with hex map-based dimensions and Polar Lip beginning at 66°
I don’t really remember the exact basis for these measurements, but I will need to revise the Outer World figures when I have everything locked down.
The axial tilt of 24º, combined with the polar openings beginning at the Arctic Circle, 66º, was an arbitrary decision that I’d like to stick with — unless there are any objections. Neither of these were detailed much in official sources; the tropics and Arctic and Antarctic Circles were shown on various maps, but without much consistency.
Cross-section of Mystara with Axial Tilt of 24°, Polar Lip starting at 66°, summer time in Northern Hemisphere
So what would this look like in 3D, with the preliminary world map applied?
The World of Mystara!
The map together with the Hollow World map applied to my 2012 model of Mystara
Not bad at all!
I actually cheated and expanded the land somewhat so that it starts to fold into the opening. On my final model, I think I’ll want to make it do so even more. This is going to be a tricky calculation, because how much the land folds over will decide the eventual size of the world.
My grid here is a regular square grid, 12 large squares by 12 large squares. Each of these is 30º of latitude, but due to the polar openings this has been thrown off somewhat. We’re going to need to redefine the grid based on where the Outer World/Hollow World split is considered to be. It looks like the last visible line in this picture, just visible before plunging into the Hollow World, may be the best bet.
In any case, let’s leave that sort of thing for another day. This model is not precise. Nor are the maps used to make it. Let’s take a look at it from some other angles.
Cross-section showing parts of the Hollow World and its openings
This is almost the same view as the image above, but with a cross-section applied. You can actually see inside what should be solid rock too, which is a bit confusing. But the Hollow World is right there! That’s Jomphur, Aerical and Suridal.
Cross-section with the diagram superimposed
Here’s a straight-on view, which allowed me to add in the cross-section diagram. It’s a bit of a hack, but you get the picture. Here we can see eastern Iciria on the right, with Aerical and Suridal on the left.
Looking straight down through the northern polar opening
This is a fun one! That’s northern Iciria poking through the opening, with northern Brun at the bottom. Hyborea and Pelatan don’t look nearly so bad on this model as they did on the ellipsoid.
Do you think that Hyborea and Pelatan should be further into the polar opening? I think they should be almost a full small square further in, personally.
Inside the Hollow World, looking down through the south polar opening
Here’s a fun one, with the camera inside the Hollow World looking out. You can see the pinching effect of the south polar opening, although it’s far less than it would be for a south pole proper.
Looking up into the south polar opening from outside
And finally, the Blacklore Elves’ valley, and southern Davania. Again, I think Davania should extend further into the opening.
What a blast! I can’t wait to get to the end of this lining up project, so I can do all this properly with the final model.
