Known World

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…

27 February 2016

Lining Up Mystara XIX

Atlas of Mystara, Hollow World, Known World, Mystara, planet renders 34

We are rapidly approaching the conclusion of this project. This may even turn out to be the last post, if community feedback is mostly positive. So let’s get into it.

The Atlas of Mystara World Model

Diagram 1 shows the world model, as determined by the world dimensions we came to previously. All of the diagrams and images in this post are derived from Placement 5, which seemed to be the most popular of the placements I proposed. (There was also support for placement 4, with its tunnel-shaped polar openings, but if we can preserve the polar openings in their original shape, that would be preferable.)

I have split the world into four parts, as illustrated on the right of this diagram: the Hollow World, the Outer World and the two Polar Lips. The north-south measurements of each of these are also given; these are essential for fitting the world maps to the 3D model correctly.

The next three diagrams show the model itself, which is very simply a 3D extrusion of the shape in diagram 1.

I made the rendered diagrams blue to differentiate from the 2012 versions of these same diagrams.

Finally, here’s the sunlight diagram:

The areas of black marked in the northern polar opening show the extent of the Darklands — where neither sun shines. An area the same size exists in the southern polar opening. There’s also an area which experiences both day and night in summer, marked in grey, but most of the land at the poles gets constant day in midsummer and constant day in midwinter.

With that out of the way, it’s time to explore the model.

Atlas of Mystara 3D Model

This is it: hopefully the final model and placement. I put some clouds on this one for fun, but the rest of the mock-ups are cloud free for better clarity.

From straight on, Mystara looks like a ball with its top and bottom cut off:

The latitudes seem to be working rather well, don’t you think?

Here’s a better view of the Arm of the Immortals and the Savage Coast area:

Skothar:

And Davania:

When it’s on the model, Davania is far more visibly South America and Africa with Antarctica and Australia added on. It’s very clear to see in this image.

Next, let’s take a look at the polar openings. The north pole:

Frosthaven sits just south of absolute north. The composition of the polar opening seems close to the official maps. Note that Nentsun is actually quite small — it’s only marginally larger than Frosthaven in size.

Next, the south pole:

Just the very southern tip of the continent falls into the opening, but it goes about halfway in. As expected, southern Davania is far smaller than it looks on the world maps, due to the pinching effect of the poles, which is lessened on Mystara thanks to the polar openings, but it still significant.

Now let’s delve into the Hollow World. In these shots, you can see the polar openings as well as the Hollow World itself.

The extent of the expanded Grey Sea and Sea of Keleb is apparent in this last one.

Let’s take a closer look.

The fuzziness is because I haven’t rendered these shots, as it takes close to two hours to do so. That can wait for the finished Atlas versions of these maps, hopefully in a few years’ time.

It’s perhaps a little hard to make out how the curvature works here, so let’s try some perspective shots.

The placement of the Hollow World’s landmasses seems pretty good.

Conclusion

I’m quite happy with this model. What do you think?

If you have any feedback, please don’t hold back. Now is the time to iron out any issues.

If nothing major comes up, I will declare the project closed, and all my maps from that point on will use this as the model. Of course there’s a huge amount of work needed to turn these collages back into usable maps, but that is for the next project.

18 February 2016

Lining Up Mystara XIV

Atlas of Mystara, Hollow World, Known World, Mystara 21

First, thank you very much for the wave of feedback since my posts last weekend. I think I have finally caught up with all the messages — apologies if yours slipped through the net. I hope this article answers all of your comments and questions.

I’m going to examine three more placements, all based on your feedback.

Placement 4

Both Paul Dupuis and Michele Carpita advocated a tunnel-shaped polar opening, to solve the problems with Mystara’s size. Here’s what I’ve come up with. First, the latitudes are the same as placement 2:

Placement 3 full world view; the red line shows 66º latitude, where the polar lip begins — Placement 4 full world view; the red line shows 76º latitude, where the polar lip begins

This of course means that the size of the world is the same 31,752 miles as placement 2, too, with 12.25 hexes to every 10º:

Placement 4 close-up showing 10º of latitude

But the polar lip now starts a full 10º higher, at 76º. The Hollow World remains largely the same, with the polar lip starting at 66º, although the curve of course is different.

I used the official figure of 774 miles for the width of the polar openings at their narrowest point. Of course they could be a lot smaller if we wanted them to be, but I think the terrain fits pretty well like this anyway; the land beyond the red lines on the map above will easily fit onto the curve before the tunnel begins.

This seems like the best we can do using the Princess Ark/Hollow World Set equator. But what about that other one — the equator shown on Poor Wizard’s Almanac II‘s map?

Placements 5 & 6

Sheldon Morris proposed that we use the PWA2 equator. Back in 2012, he used it and 72 mile per hex maps to calculate an Outer World circumference of 25,920 miles. That is small enough to solve our problem with polar openings, even using the gradual curve model, I believe. This circumference comes with the bonus of 1º being equal to 72 miles.

However, Sheldon’s calculations were based largely on 72 mile per hex maps, and as we have already seen in this project, those unfortunately are not to be trusted. Our model now is primarily based on 8 and 24 mile per hex maps, with the 72 mile per hex maps filling in just a few gaps with Davania, Skothar and Bellissaria. The main difference is that the 8 and 24 mile per hex maps include more space between the various areas.

Personally, I don’t think the neat mathematics of 1º = 72 miles is as important as getting a good fit with the latitudes, so I’m going to present my own take on this, too.

Placement 5

My take on the PWA2 equator is that it could perhaps work best using the official figure for Farend at 60ºN. Take a look:

Applied to the gradual curve model, this will mean that Frosthaven sits at the top of the world, near or on the point of absolute north. Farend is at 60ºN, Sundsvall 45ºN, Landfall 44ºN, Thyatis 31ºN, and the eastern Thanegioth Archipelago around 18ºN. These numbers are all rather close to the official figures.

The main difference with this model, unsurprisingly, is that a large chunk of Davania will be moved further into the polar opening. It’s actually less of a chunk than it may appear to be, because (due to the shape of the world) southern Davania is nowhere near as large as it looks. But it’s still quite a lot. And of course Davania itself will be smaller, since it straddles the equator less.

It’s still huge, nonetheless.

I reckon that Davania’s southern tip will find its way far into the polar opening.

It’s worth mentioning that a tunnel model could still be used with this, but if a gradual curve model is an option at all, I’d definitely prefer to go with it.

Let’s do some counting:

Placement 5 close-up showing 10º of latitude

This is 10.5 hexes precisely. 10.5 x 72 = 756. 756 / 10 x 360 = 27,216 miles circumference.

We need to see some mock-ups of this on the 3D model, but I think this is the best option so far. Mystara is quite a bit bigger than Earth, but not nearly as much as it was with the other equator. The official latitudes are largely in place. The only potential problem is with how much of Davania and indeed northern Brun and Skothar may fall into the polar openings.

Placement 6

Last for your consideration today is Sheldon’s placement, albeit adapted to the Atlas of Mystara‘s hex map composite.

As you can see, it’s not all that different from placement 5 — just a bit more compact. The main difference is that reducing the length of 1º to 72 miles makes the world a bit smaller. Count the hexes, ten to each 10º:

Placement 6 close-up showing 10º of latitude

Everything is a bit further north: Farend is at 63ºN, Sundsvall 47.5ºN, Landfall 46.5ºN, Thyatis 32ºN, and the eastern Thanegioth Archipelago around 20ºN. Frosthaven looks as if it may be past absolute north, on the inward slope of the polar opening. The gap between the sides of the opening will be around 250 miles.

I prefer placement 5 to this one. The latitudes worked out better, with everything a little further south, and slightly less land in the polar openings. I don’t think it’s worth shrinking things just to make the maths rounder — especially since I believe that 72 miles per hex is an inappropriate scale. Hex maps work better at larger scales such as 8, or 24 at most. Smaller scales should be topographical maps, not hex maps.

In any case, you can all make up your minds for yourselves. I await your feedback. 🙂