Mystara – Page 3 – Thorfinn Tait Cartography

The Grand Duchy of Karameikos and surroundings

17 April 2018

Let’s Map Mystara 1981-1982

Atlas of Mystara, Isle of Dread, Karameikos, Known World, Let's Map Mystara, Mystara 8

In which we proceed through the rest of 1981’s maps and add 1982’s sole contribution.

**Map 4: “Grand Duchy of Karameikos” from Expert Rulebook (1981)**

Colourised replica of the Expert Rulebook (1981)'s Karameikos map, 6 miles per hex — *Colourised replica of the Expert Rulebook (1981)’s Karameikos map, 6 miles per hex*

From the Atlas of Mystara:

Although the 1981 Expert Set did not reprint the Known World map in any form, it did include a 6 mile per hex map of the Karameikos region. In addition to X1 (1981)’s cities of Specularum and Selenica, this larger scale map introduced a number of new settlements to Karameikos, including Luln (marked as a town); the Haunted Keep and Wereskalot in the neighbouring Five Shires (both ruins); and Fortdoom, Krakatos, and the Estate of Marilenev (all castles). The Black Eagle Barony is named, and labels appear for gnomes, elves, dwarves, kobolds, goblins, orcs, bugbears, and frost giants.
Interestingly, the Lost Valley is shown (though hard to make out) and labelled — and it’s across the border, in Darokin.

The text on page X60 provides some level of detail for some of these names, as well as a few more labels to add to the map: Gulf of Halag and Black Peaks/Cruth Mountains/The Steach.

The text also sets up the Black Eagle Barony and defines its relationship with Luln, and notes that the Haunted Keep is also known as Koriszegy Keep. Amusingly, half of the page is given over to the gnomes, although there is no mention yet of the name of their settlement.

15 April 2018

Let’s Map Mystara 1981 II

Atlas of Mystara, Isle of Dread, Known World, Let's Map Mystara, Mystara 9

Map 2: “Isle of Dread” from X1 (1981)

Colourised replica of X1 (1981)'s Isle of Dread map, 6 miles per hex — *Colourised replica of X1 (1981)’s Isle of Dread map, 6 miles per hex*

Including Map 2a, the player’s map of the Isle of Dread, which is a variant of this map.

From the Atlas of Mystara:

X1 contains not one but two iconic Mystara maps. This is the original Isle of Dread map.
The map itself used horizontal rather than vertical columns of hexes, but since nothing around it was ever mapped, this doesn’t really pose a great problem. Much more problematic is the scale, and it has become common knowledge in the Mystara community that the map needs to be interpreted as 4 miles per hex in order to get it to match with the size of the Isle as shown on the 24 mile per hex map. The alternative — rescaling the 24 mile per hex map’s Isle to match the 6 mile per hex scale — would put the Isle of Dread out of scale with the other islands in the Thanegioth Archipelago, although it’s an equally valid solution.

12 April 2018

Let’s Map Mystara 1981 I

Atlas of Mystara, Known World, Let's Map Mystara, Mystara 9

Let’s get started…

Overview

In this project, we’re going to start from the very beginning and work through Mystara’s entire canon of official maps, in the order they were published. We will examine each map and its associated text in the context of its time, extracting details from the text to add to the map wherever possible. Then we will incorporate all of this into our body of maps, building a picture of the world as it existed in that snapshot of time. As we add more and more maps, we will watch its gradual expansion and evolution, eventually resulting in a complete journey from its beginnings in the 70s and 80s right up until the end of its official line in the late 90s… and perhaps even beyond.

Principles

Since this is the very beginning of the project, I’d like to lay out some ground rules for us to follow, to define the process and keep us on track.

The Time Directive: The nature of the project dictates that we limit our considerations to things published up until the point of time we have reached in our journey. So let’s try not to refer to “future” maps and texts.
The Hindsight Directive: Except, that is, where arbitrary decisions must be made. In these cases, it’s worth checking what the official decision was, even if it happened far in the future. This is to prevent needlessly introducing incompatibility when it can be avoided.
Stay Positive: Let’s keep things positive as much as possible, and avoid making value judgements. This isn’t about what the “best” Mystara is; it’s about looking at how the world’s myriad designers conceived it at each point in time. It’s all about looking at change, not about evaluating the relative worth of that change. Everyone has their own favourite time period, so let’s treat them all with respect.
Document Sources: It’s crucial that we keep track of which map element came from where as we move forward. I will do most of this by tagging things in each map’s GIS database. If you find something to add to the map, please try to provide the page reference.

I may well add to these principles later on.

How will this work? And what can I do to help?

This is a question that has come up often wherever I’ve posted about this project. So let’s deal with it right up front.

As each map is posted, I will open the floor to research things to add to the map. The main source will be the text associated with that map, but anything introduced previously is also always open for discussion.

If you want to chip in, just get out the book in question and start reading — or more likely, start scanning. The object is to find things to add to the map. I can do this myself, but it will be faster (and more fun) if we crowdsource the research.

Things that we can add to the map include:

Terrain and terrain labels (mountains, rivers, beaches, bays, valleys, hills, etc. and their names)
Settlements and their names (cities, towns, villages, castles, forts, towers, etc.)
Ruins, landmarks, and other points of interest
Geopolitical information (population figures and other demographics, names of important NPCs, and anything else that can be tied to a geographical location)

Things to look out for:

Changes of spelling between map and text, and from map to map
Things in the text that are absent from the map, or vice versa
Capitalised words in the text (which are often names that can be added to the map)

That’s about it. How much we want to add before moving on to the next map is entirely up to how much research we want to do.

So let’s get started!

Great! Here we go…