Thorfinn Tait Cartography

1 May 2017

Narwan, 10 miles per hex Full Map (Patreon)

Calidar, hex maps, Narwan, Patreon, trail maps 0

I have now been producing new maps for Bruce Heard’s World of Calidar for six months. With the support of close to forty patrons, I have created a total of eight new maps. It’s no exaggeration to say that none of this would exist without these wonderful people, and I’d like to take a moment to thank all of you, as well as everyone who has helped spread the word about my projects.

Links to all eight maps are at the bottom of this post. But first, here is the eighth one:

This map combines all of the hex maps for Narwan into a full poster map. In fact, it’s really a double poster map, as its intended printed size is 28″ x 44″, or double the size of Meryath’s poster map. Appearing here for the first time is the Emirate of Taiffah in its entirety, as well as the Ras-Meliyah Dread Lands and extensive border-regions of Osriel and a little of Phrydias.

It has been a labour of love from start to finish. It involved a lot more terrain design than I am used to — most of my maps up until now have been remaking or adapting existing maps, after all. Bruce was a great help in this regard, providing feedback as well as extra labels and other things to place on the map even while in the midst of his own Calidar project, the upcoming Dreams of Aeries adventure.

That said, there will undoubtedly be more revisions to this map in the future, whenever Bruce decides to take the next Calidar book to the Emirates of Narwan.

Finally, here is the Honour Roll for this map:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, Trentin Bergeron, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Joshua DiCicco, Paul Dupuis, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Eric Jackson, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Carl Matthews, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Mirco Sadrinna, Jeff Scifert, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Joshua Starnes, Kurt Stoffer, Sandra Tait, Douglas Zielsdorf.

I have great plans for the next six months of maps. I can’t wait to share them with you!

In the meantime, here are the articles for the other seven maps I’ve produced so far:

Patreon Maps

: Topographic Map of the Emirates of Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Full Hex Map of the Emirates of Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Hex Map of the Emirate of Ad-Dhimah, Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Hex Map of the Emirate of Al-Barami, Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Hex Map of the Emirate of Jhufar, Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Hex Map of the Caliphate of Fuscat, Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Hex Map of South Central Narwan, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

: Illustration showing Calidar's solar system, the Soltan Ephemeris

30 April 2017

Central Narwan Hex Maps (Patreon)

Calidar, hex maps, Narwan, Patreon 1

I’m approaching the end of my first major project on Patreon, the Emirates of Narwan. It started with the topographical map back in December 2016, and has now progressed to a total of five hex maps: the Emirate of Ad-Dhimah, the Emirates of Al-Barami and Jhufar, and now South Central Narwan and the Caliphate of Fuscat (below). Very soon now I will post one final hex map, combining all of these (along with the missing parts of the Emirate of Taiffah and some of neighbouring Osriel and Phrydias) into a huge poster map.

So without further ado, here is March’s South Central Narwan hex map:

With many thanks to my patrons for March:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, Trentin Bergeron, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Joshua DiCicco, Paul Dupuis, Brad Fonseca, Marty Godsey, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Eric Jackson, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Carl Matthews, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Jeff Scifert, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Joshua Starnes, Kurt Stoffer, Sandra Tait, Douglas Zielsdorf.

This part of Narwan is basically the border between the emirates, and indeed parts of all five areas appear on this map.

Moving on to April, here is the Caliphate of Fuscat:

Narwan is composed of four emirates and one caliphate — the religious centre of the nation. Fuscat is an interesting place, split into lowland desert valleys and more fertile uplands with some of Narwan’s most extensive forests, as well as all of Narwan’s lakes.

This map was brought to you with the generous assistance of April’s patrons:

As with all of these maps, the Arabic was provided by Grant Bruce Hewitt. Thanks again, Grant!

You can actually see a fair amount of the final emirate, Taiffah, on these two maps, including its capital, Al-Mukaidah, and Narwan’s only large town, Ibbar. The remaining parts will appear on the upcoming poster map.

1 April 2017

Al-Barami and Jhufar Hex Maps (Patreon)

Calidar, hex maps, Narwan, Patreon 1

Yesterday I finalised another two maps created for Patreon. These maps were posted to backers in draft form in January and February, but now that they’re finished, I can at last publish them here. As always, higher resolution versions are available for backers. If you’re interested, please visit my page at Patreon. If you are already a backer, you should have received a message with a download link yesterday.

First, January’s map was Narwan’s Emirate of Al-Barami. This map is located immediately south of December’s Emirate of Ad-Dhimah map. There’s a slight overlap, so it should be clear how they join up. Terrain-wise, Al-Barami is far poorer than its northern and southern neighbours, with a few wadis (seasonal rivers) and not very much usable land.

Many thanks to January’s patrons:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, Trentin Bergeron, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Paul Dupuis, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Kurt Stoffer, Sandra Tait, Tom Zunder.

Next up is February’s map. Once again it joins on to the south, showing Narwan’s southwestern coast: the Emirate of Jhufar.

Jhufar is a much more pleasant land than its northern neighbour, with forested coasts and pristine beaches. It’s also the land closest to the Kingdom of Meryath, and the long-disputed Kamearea Island appears on the western side of this map. The eastern extent of Jhufar will feature on the next map.

I’d like to thank February’s patrons:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, Trentin Bergeron, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Joshua DiCicco, Paul Dupuis, Marty Godsey, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Eric Jackson, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Jeff Scifert, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Joshua Starnes, Kurt Stoffer, Sandra Tait, Douglas Zielsdorf.

And once again special thanks to Grant Bruce Hewitt for transliterating the labels into Arabic.

With these three maps published, we’re halfway done with Narwan. In a couple of months, when all the parts are finished, I will bring them all together into a single large trail map.

Do you have any comments, corrections, or other feedback on these maps? Please don’t hesitate to post them here. I will do one last pass on all of them before publishing the final trail map.