I have great plans for 2016. Whether you enjoy my work on Mystara, Calidar, or other things besides, I don’t think you will be disappointed. 😀
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Calidar’s second Kickstarter is coming to an end in less than a week, and I will be involved in the book’s production as well as doing its cartography.
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Meanwhile, I have set a date of 15th February — the 11th anniversary of the announcement of my Atlas of Mystara project — as the deadline for me to work through all the major issues with Mystara’s maps. You’ve probably seen the flurry of posts I made in the last week on this.
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I can’t say anything more about other plans, but suffice it to say that they are afoot.
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I couldn’t do any of this without your support. Thanks for being there, and please keep sharing your opinions and comments on all of my work.
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
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. Â 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.
Here’s one I only just noticed last night. Â 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!
A tiny corner of Bellissaria shown in the corner of the Alatian Islands map, overlaid on Poor Wizard’s Almanac I‘s 72 mile per hex 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. Â The 72 mile per hex maps just don’t line up well with the other maps at all. Â Look again at the image above. Â Did you think I staggered the 72 mile per hex map in order to show how it should fit? Â I’m afraid not. Â 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.
