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mindflenzing — Anduris World Map
Published: 2008-08-08 01:19:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 3217; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 70
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I made an important discovery this week. J.R.R. Tolkien must have had nothing but free time. His inventing several languages should have tipped me off but his maps take a crap-ton of work. I did this map in his style (though my handwriting sucks fantastically). It took me over 5 hours to draw (I did it all in ink so this was basically a one step pic, not counting the photoshopping).This is Anduris, the campaign world I am creating for my D&D 4th Edition campaign. This is a world where an ancient evil is beginning to stir from it's ancient prison. A world where a great number of "Divine Engines" shape the world and indeed are the main reason it can sustain life. A world of Tech Priests and tinkerers. A world of great benevolence on the one hand and one of great malevolence on the other. It is a massive undertaking for me which makes me very happy I am not GMing SWRPG for the next few weeks.
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Comments: 63
It was no small undertaking.
I was planning to make a larger map to encompass more of the world than is known to the two major civilizations on the map but it was a mind numbing amount of work and didn't work as well as this map so I never finished it.
It does have its glaring flaws but overall I'm pretty happy with it (and use it perpetually on my fantasy character wallpapers).
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Contrary to your claims, I think your handwriting adds to the appeal. The whole map looks very nice, even if some of the rivers aren't geo/hydrologically possible
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Thanks. I do admit I have absolutely no clue how to place rivers and this is only made worse by the fact that Anduris does not have a self regulating ecosystem and I really don't know how all that effects the geography.
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well, it's mostly good, and in a lot of cases it doesn't matter. There are simply so many variables that getting something a bit wrong isn't a big deal...
...but, having said that, I really hope I don't sound too finnicky in pointing out: Rivers Flow Down Hill.
Water follows gravity. Thus, rivers will start in the mountains and flow to the sea. They converge, but rarely, if ever, split. They don't travel from one coast to the other, and they don't pass through mountain ranges.
Not that that stops many RPG and novel writers. 
Still makes an awesome picture, though
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Most of my rivers start in the upper parts of the mountains and flow down (like cutting ravines through the mountains) but they do split because I don't know what I'm doing. If the 7th Sea map is really jacked up than I'm hosed because that is one of my all time favorite games which I've played for years and that is likely to be part of my problem.
If Tolkien's maps also have problems than that's even worse since that's the model I used for the design of this map.
Well, at least as a background for other images it's harder to see all the mistakes.
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Aww, hey, don't be hard on yourself (assuming you're being hard on yourself. It's hard to tell, what with text and all.)
I love the 7th Sea game and setting. It's just the map that drives me up the wall. It has four rivers flowing out of one lake, each one going to a different coastline. Which would seem to indicate that the lake is the highest point on the continent... and that would be a trifle unusual for a lake. Anyway, this is why I got my friend to make this: [link]
I don't think Tolkein's maps do that, but it's been so long since I read the Hobbit that I can't remember. But Everything is a learning experience!
At least you can make fantasy maps. That's a step up from me.
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Well, geography's not a strength for me so when I meet somebody who knows better I'm gonna take heat. In the future I should see if there is a website that can demonstrate for me how to do the topography.
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I hear Kharadrin is really nice this time of year.
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As the capital of the Empire, it's nice all the time. Except of course for Octobris when all light fails. That month just sucks for everybody. Unless you're a cultist, demon, or undead. Then it rocks.
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It must be tough making a living as a Necromancer in Kharadrin. Only one solid month of employment per year.
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Well, there's always the Old Kingdom Necropolis to the South. If you can get past the magical barriers. Or you can just live like a rat in a hole. As holes are readily available in urban areas as are the recently deceased (especially with the Great Goblin Wars still raging).
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I agree with that statement. If you want to create a detailed world, you must have a lot of free time!
Your handwriting is good but this map needs more curvy and tailed letters.
Great map by the way. Good luck.
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You're probably right about the letters, this is one of the few times I wished I had learned calligraphy.
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You can find a font from internet and copy it.
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True but there is something to be said for writing which matches the linework (which is why many artists create fonts from their own lines).
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Man, that map is just so amazingly friggin' awesome.
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I will probably consider redoing it at some point with a full world view but for now it covers all the stuff the party is likely to see.
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Ahahahahah, redoing. Well, it's your life to lose ten hours of.
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If I have more than a couple of things to do when I get off of work I schedule what I will do for the entire day like I did when I was in college. It has allowed me to find the time to watch through whole series on Veoh or Youtube which I remembered from my childhood, spent up to 10 hours a week working on the campaigns I Game Master, or accomplish other things like art projects. For this reason I almost never watch TV, play very little video games, and cannot allow myself to own WOW.
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Oh you kids and you schedules.
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It got me Magna Cum Laude in college while still having time to engage in floor wars, pranks, and lots of movies at the dollar theater so I gotta respect the schedule.
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ahh, to be young again.
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Back when only sleeping on the weekend worked.
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mind if i take a shot at the txt?
or enlarge a section in my own stylings?
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As long as you credit me and post a link, go for it.
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He probably did have a lot of freetime. Evenso, he still didn't write as much as Asimov. I really wish he had.
It looks cool man, very Tolkienesque. His handwriting was cooler than yours though. One thing I don't understand is why did you put so many mountains?
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Thanks. The Mountains exist to give the world a continental feeling but functionally keep it a couple of islands in terms of land mass. My handwriting just sucks but computer text would have looked totally out of place.
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I thought it might have something to do with limiting space.
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It's kinda like dark city.
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Man... It starts to stir a memory but not quite. Was that a giant orbital city in space with some white bald headed aliens?
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Who use a giant machine which looks like a clock inside of a face to remake the world every night while the people sleep and switch their memories around searching for the essence of the human soul. That's the one.
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So weird, I have only seen a fraction of that movie. What was your overall impression of it? Is it worth watching or owning?
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It's one of my favorites. It is dark and mysterious with great ambiance but in the end it turns hopeful. It's certainly worth seeing.
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wow. I tried drawing a couple maps a while back for certain stories and such... Never got past the first little river. Amazing stuff
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Thanks. I had to do it over 4 days while listening to pod casts to keep myself from going nuts doing it.
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that's what I do when I'm backed up on my comics and have to ink 7 or 8 pages a day.
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Ouch. This is why I what is now a bi-weekly update schedule.
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I have a lot of buffer pages for Krrobar stuff, but the latest stuff I always get way ahead with the pencil work.
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It's nice when you can. I used to keep a month or so of queue.
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my goal is to have like... six months of stuff in advance. By that point I'll probably go insane
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Back when 2DD was all pencil, I could do 5 strips during classes in one day so when I started online I had about a 3-5 month queue. Now I finish ever strip the day I post (since I have to do them all during my free time. Having extra strips in advance is really nice when you have other things to do on your days off.
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yeah. Got sick over the weekend.... had to have my brother put up a comic HE drew for my site. Gotta get some buffer pages started again.
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So your brother draws too? Mine used to but he quickly got frustrated that he could not compete with me and for years he gave up on all artistic endeavors till he took up electric guitar a few years ago. But then he was a Finance Major so one can only expect so much from him artistically.
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My older brother was like that too. He drew comics up until I surpassed him (in his eyes) with my talents. We still collaborate with writing the comics though, when he has time.
My OTHER brother, Tommy, can't draw to save his life but he drew friday's bookseller comic just the same!
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About the only thing my brother and I collaborate on is car audio systems but I doubt either of us will be upgrading ours any time soon.
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