Brun continental outline in red overlaid on the hex maps

3 January 2016

Lining Up Mystara VI

Atlas of Mystara, Brun, hex maps, Mystara, Savage Coast 12

I’d like to express my thanks for all the amazing feedback on my work so far, here on my site, on Facebook, and over at The Piazza. In today’s article, I’m going to address some of these ideas while dealing with the next issues.

Savage Baronies poster map

LoZompatore pointed out that I hadn’t yet brought in the Savage Baronies poster map, which covers a huge area of Brun, from Hule all the way to the Arm of the Immortals. Let’s take a look at this, and see what it can do for us.

To start with, I’m not a fan of this map, for two reasons: first, it’s very general, the equivalent of a 72 mile per hex map; but second, and most of all, it doesn’t have north at the top like all other Mystara maps do! Take a look at what you have to do to get it to fit with other maps:

Savage Baronies poster map (65% opacity) on top of other regional maps

On the other hand, after rotating it and resizing it to fit, it does fit the Savage Coast rather well — including even the Orc’s Head Peninsula and the Trident Bay region. (It doesn’t fit at all well with the Serpent Peninsula, but I’ve already disregarded Red Steel and Savage Baronies as sources for lands east of Slagovich, so we can ignore this.) Most of the settlements marked on the map fit remarkably well with their 8 mile per hex counterparts.

There are three areas where this map could come in useful. Let’s take a look at each in turn.

Hule

LoZompatore noted quite correctly that this map is another source for Hule. It shows it somewhat differently than X5 and Champions of Mystara, with steppes instead of plains, the town of Magden in a different location from Champions, and the town of Khuur named instead Kizil. It also shows that the large escarpment labelled “Dankut Territory” in fact curves east before almost meeting up with the Savage Baronies’ Great Escarpment.

Savage Baronies poster map (65% opacity) layered on top of X5, Champions' Great Waste, and my Savage Coast 8 mile per hex trail map — Savage Baronies poster map (65% opacity) layered on top of X5, Champions’ Great Waste, and my Savage Coast 8 mile per hex trail map

I’m inclined to go with X5 and Champions with plains rather than steppes for Hule. Champions suggests that southern and southwestern Hule are steppes, while the central area is plains and forests, and this seems the most interesting solution. Besides, Savage Baronies, like Red Steel, has a bad habit of contradicting other sources in these areas, so I’d prefer to use other sources where they are available. I think the steppes should start past western Hule, with the Yazak Steppes.

Regarding Magden, X5 wasn’t clear on exactly which town was Magden out of the three it showed, so this alternate location is just as valid as that shown on Champions‘ Great Waste map. But since Champions named them all, I will go with its version. Kizil could be reused for another town or village in Hule.

As I said previously, I agree with Carillion that the Great Escarpment should be restored to something more like its X5 dimensions. Carillion’s excellent map of the Eastern Savage Coast presumably uses Savage Baronies as the source for this, joining up the large plateau labelled “Dankut Territory” with the Savage Baronies’ Great Escarpment. Personally, I’m tempted to go further than this, largely restoring X5’s Great Escarpment in place of — or even in addition to — the Savage Baronies and Red Steel terrain. I’d be interested to hear other opinions on this.

Here’s how X5’s Great Escarpment fits in to the Savage Coast:

The Savage Coast, 8 miles per hex, with X5's Great Escarpment — The Savage Coast, 8 miles per hex, with X5’s Great Escarpment

Carillion also has a great mock up of this version, which you can see here.

Now that I see this, I’m not so sure. Carillion’s first version does seem to do the Great Escarpment justice, and the bend to the north, creating a large lowlands area encircled on three sides by the plateau, seems rather interesting, too. I find myself inclined to go with the Savage Baronies version joined up, rather than discarding it in favour of X5.

Thoughts?

The Yazak Steppes

Savage Baronies poster map (65% opacity) layered on top of X5 and my Savage Coast 8 mile per hex trail map

This is the only official source at this scale for this area. The only other source at all really is the Outer World map from the Hollow World Set. It builds nicely on the terrain from Red Steel‘s poster maps, although as with those maps it’s all rather general, and without detail. Still, good for a base map of the area. I will certainly use this as the main source to expand the area.

The area on the left of this image, approaching Yalu Bay, probably has a better source. Let’s look at that next.

Yalu Bay

There’s one other source for the Yalu Bay area that I have yet to tackle: Dungeon 6 and 7’s Great Northway Lands map. This is one of the few maps I have yet to create a replica for.

Happily, once again Carillion has mapped this area out in his Orc’s Head Peninsula and the Great Northway Lands map. Carillion’s map actually goes way beyond what Dungeon 6 and 7 showed, to create a far more interesting picture of the area, and I will definitely be looking at this as a major source for the area.

Arm of the Immortals

Getting back to the Savage Baronies map, there is one more area where it could be of help: the Arm of the Immortals. The far western edge of the map portrays this area in a surprisingly nice amount of detail, especially considering how little detail it goes into for the Yazak Steppes area. Red Steel had some detail here too, but this map provides almost the same again, and it looks quite consistent, both with Red Steel as well as with Dragon 200’s 24 mile per hex map.

Talking of which, could this map be the source I’ve been looking for to place Dragon 200’s map?

Savage Baronies poster map (50% opacity) overlaid on Savage Coast 8 miles per hex and Dragon 200

It’s not quite a perfect fit, but it seems to be pretty good for showing the relative locations of the Arm of the Immortals and the Orc’s Head Peninsula. And since it provides lots of nice detail on the adjacent coast, all the way up to the end of Yalu Bay, there are good arguments to use this to decide the relative locations.

Incidentally, look closely and you can see the location shown on Dragon 196’s map (here overprinted with the word “Kingdom”). This location always seemed off. I’m much happier using this as a source.

Any thoughts on this? You may be wondering how the continental and world maps will fit with this. I’m afraid the answer is not very well, but that’s the case in general for Brun. The continental map of Brun already requires all sorts of warping to fit at all, and it will likely have to be cut up and placed like a jigsaw to get the best fit in each location.

But perhaps I’m looking at this all too closely. Zoom out, and it doesn’t seem at all a bad fit:

Of course this is after rotating and scaling to try to get a best fit, but I guess it’s surprising how well it’s all fitting, considering.

31 December 2015

Lining Up Mystara V

Alphatia, Atlas of Mystara, hex maps, Mystara 1

Bellissaria Revisited

Thus far, the consensus seems to be to base Bellissaria’s position on the 72 mile per hex map centred on Alphatia’s 24 mile per hex map.

Here’s what this looks like:

Dawn's 72 mile per hex map with 24 mile per hex maps overlaid at 50% opacity — Dawn’s 72 mile per hex map with 24 mile per hex maps overlaid at 50% opacity

Note how well the 72 mile per hex map lines up with 24 mile per hex Alphatia. It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s pretty good — especially Sundsvall.

You can also just make out the little corner of Bellissaria that was visible on the Alatian Islands map. Bellissaria’s coastline is only a single 24 mile hex away from this — although the Alatians themselves are not in sync.

If there’s agreement, I will move forward with this configuration as the basis for both Bellissaria and Esterhold’s positions — and therefore Skothar’s too.

72 mile per hex map alignment

While we’re on this topic, I’d like to call attention to something that we discussed in the Piazza thread for this project more than two years ago: the consistency of the 72 mile per hex maps. There are four of these: one in Dawn of the Emperors, and one from each Poor Wizard’s Almanac, I, II and III.

In general, these maps line up rather well with each other. The coasts were obviously redrawn for each map, but they are very similar otherwise.

The 72 mile per hex maps in general are the best sources for Bellissaria, Esterhold, Minaea, and the other small areas of Skothar visible on them; and for the regions of Davania shown on Dawn and Poor Wizard’s Almanac II‘s maps. They are also the only sources for the area across the Icereach Mountains from Norwold.

However, though they align nicely with each other, we have already seen that their alignment with the other scales of maps is rather lacking. For this reason, as well as the extremely zoomed out nature of this scale, we need to take everything on these maps with a grain of salt.

Here’s a combined reference map I hacked together from all four maps. The only thing that it doesn’t show is the conflict between Dawn and Poor Wizard’s Almanac II‘s Davania.

A hacked together version of all four 72 mile per hex maps

Note that Davania and Norwold both require their own treatments, which I will tackle in upcoming articles.

A tiny corner of Bellissaria shown in the corner of the Alatian Islands map

30 December 2015

Lining Up Mystara IV

Atlas of Mystara, hex maps, Mystara 3

Bellissaria!!

Here’s one I only just noticed last night. Well, I may have noticed years ago, but this project has been going on so long at this point that it’s hard to tell if something is new or just forgotten!

What am I talking about? There’s a tiny part of Bellissaria’s coastline visible in the corner of the Alatian Islands map!

This is great, because it gives us a much-needed reference for Bellissaria’s exact position in regard to the other parts of the map.

But wait, don’t we already have this on the 72 mile per hex maps?

The simple answer is, no. The 72 mile per hex maps just don’t line up well with the other maps at all. Look again at the image above. Did you think I staggered the 72 mile per hex map in order to show how it should fit? I’m afraid not. The placement here is based on a best fit with the Known World and the northern tip of the Isle of Dawn.

The good news is that it’s roughly a hex out. It turns out that the 72 mile per hex map fits not that badly with the Alatians, as well as Alphatia and the southern Isle of Dawn, if we shift its position. Unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect placement — lining it nicely with Alphatia puts the others out of sync, and vice versa.

It seems like the best solution here may be to use multiple placements of the 72 mile per hex map to expand the world. For the far east, it makes more sense to reference it with Alphatia or the Isle of Dawn than with the Known World. The only remaining question is, which one?

There are three choices. We can determine the locations of Bellissaria and Esterhold by centring the 72 mile per hex map on the (24 mile per hex) map for:

Alphatia
Isle of Dawn
Alatian Islands

I’m inclined to go with either choice 1 or choice 3. Alphatia fits well with Dawn of the Emperors‘ 72 mile per hex map, and it’s also the closest major body to both Bellissaria and Esterhold. On the other hand, the Alatians are the only source to provide a 24 mile per hex reference for Bellissaria, however small it may be.

Thoughts? Which do you prefer?