Canonfire!

Hey everyone!

I had been making announcements on various forums I knew Greyhawk fans hung out. I'd tried to resurrect my prior user account but I couldn't figure it out after too many tries, I gave up made a new one.

I had recently published some completed Sheldomar Valley maps, after I began them 8 years ago, the finish is in sight. I have to get place names entered in but that's coming up next, in the meantime I released the physical geography map, and the location map (sans names)

I used fan resources where I could find little canon material. Such as Mortellan's Ull material made appearances. I fit in Maldin's Melkot map for inspiration there. Smaller villages often came from late-era Greyhawk sources like Living Greyhawk Journal for Keoland. Dungeon #117 for Sterich. Against the Giants: Liberation of Geoff for . . . Geoff!

I was able to squeeze in UK2 in there by tracing. I took inspiration from the Living Greyhawk triads of Bissel and Gran March to get those places. Valley of the Mage I blended the map from the accessory and the LGG description of the valley.

Take a look around, if you have opinions pass them on here or over on my deviantArt gallery.
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:35 pm

I love your maps Eric! They're the most asthetically pleasing renditions of the Flanaess I've every seen. Smile

Thanks for all the hard work it took to produce them and I hope you'll continue with the project.

SirXaris

Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:01 pm

Eric,

Long time no see, glad your still plugging away on your awe inspiring maps. Mortellan has kept the community updated on both yours and Anna's maps. If you have a chance stop by Thursday for greytalk we can speak to Gary and see if we can resurrect your old account.

Later

Argon

Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:02 pm

I do intend to continue. Naming the locations involves so much research, then finessing the label placement, it sometimes is overwhelming. But's it's on deck. I want to get that done before I map more regions.

That said, I had to start out a map for the Jeklea Bay and another map for the Sea of Dust to get the Sea Princes portion of the Southern Sheldomar Region done to my satisfaction.

So I have sitting here the nearly-finished physical geography maps of Jeklea Bay/Hook of Amedio and the Sea of Dust. I am strongly pulled to finish those off as well before I lose the "drawing" momentum I had.

We'll see.

My mapping practically went from the Northeast corner to the Southwest corner of the Darlene map. After all these I'd like to head off north and map the Yatils region and get some of the Baklunish lands done. Maybe then head back diagonal to the Southeast finishing in the Great Kingdom.

I'll say this, I don't intend to stop after I map every inch of the Darlene map. I intend to even put to map the Beyond, just outside Darlene's coverage. I hope to someday get the entire Sea of Dust basin done, the entire Amedio Coast then on down to the lands south of the old Suel Empire.

I hope to get the entire Baklunish lands out to the Gulf of Ghayar, maybe the entire Drawmidj Ocean . . .
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:05 pm

Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:16 pm

Mmmm...Baklunish West maps....:)

Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:21 am

Eic: You should get in touch with Anna and swap notes on named locations. I am betting that you have both done a lot of work in that regard, and swapping notes might fill in some blanks for both of you.
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Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:29 am

Looks like 2012 is officially going to be a "map year". Hoorah!

Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:06 pm

Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:58 pm

Fri Jan 06, 2012 10:17 pm

There is a good chance I might have found Fort Blackwell in the research stage, but with your pointing it out I will be absolutely looking out for it. Thank you for that, and if anyone else has any more details you might think my eyes could overlook, lemme know!

Fort Blackwell's a sure thing now. :D
_________________
My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:11 am

Great Anondson, love maps.
I am involved with the baklunish and other regions further west as part of the "beyond the flanaess" project. As for the baklunish - Gulf of Ghayar - area. I have created rough maps, via paint, based on a compliation of the available information, thanks to Aramfrast of the LGG Zeifan Triad, and a liberal dose of creative liscense.

More then happy to share, pm me.

Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:42 pm Update

It wasn't much to do because there didn't seem to be much to find, but I found some scraps I was surprised to see, but I finished the placename version of the Crystalmists quad of my map project.

Please, if any one knows more info I can include let me know! Corrections, I'll take too. I considered adding some scattered camps around the Dry Steppes, but I held my desire to see more out there . . .

http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/gallery/34547853
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:01 pm

Looks great EA, I know I mentioned it before but somewhere along the Sulhauts you could place this:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/lgmp/20050524a

One of these days I'd love to develop the Dry Steppes like I did for Ull. There is alot that could be taken from Gygax's novels. I am also interested in your water systems for the DS and running close to Ull. Those are essential in understanding how the land is inhabited.

That further reminds me. One of these days I'd love to see someone tackle and "Arcane Age" map of Ancient Suel and Baklunish Empires. It would take significant reverse engineering of canon but it would be cool.

Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:42 pm

Good stuff, Mort!

An arcane age map would be very excellent, probably could be done with my maps when I finish the Beyond region, I'm tempted to map that region sooner than finishing the Flanaess, in all truth. The Empire of Lynn thread added some inspiration.

I'll pick a valley of the Sulhauts for that battlefield and get it placed.
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:26 am

Hmm, I forgot I owned all of Gygax's Gord the Rogue books. I even found that I mistakenly had bought two copies of Sea of Death.

Should the placenames of Gygax's books be mapped with Gygax's given names when the places have no prior given name in Greyhawk lore?
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:40 am

Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:38 pm

And example might be the town of Bardillingham in the "Vale of the Archmage", the seat of power of the demiurge Basiliv. Discussed in Sea of Death. On the Darlene map of the valley, and even the Paizo maps, there is no comparable town from canon sources. But a town like that doesn't exactly fit with the Valley of the Mage accessory and the following products have cemented the accessory as the go to source.

So . . . *shrug*
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:50 pm

Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:07 pm

Gord spends quite a few pages of the book in the town, he meets with Basiliv there. The town is described as having a couple thousand residents, is rather plain and unattractive compared to Greyhawk or Dyvers. The people are neither hostile nor secretive. Town officials receive Gord, there is an earl who resides in a castle. Eventually Gord enters a small plain stone building inside which is a T.A.R.D.I.S.-like larger interior, the interior apparently is a traveling domain that Basiliv uses to visit other locales. When a building is not being "occupied by Basiliv's abode the building is empty.

[Basliiv gives Gord his mission to locate the third Theorpart before Grazzt or Zuggtmoy find it. The Scarlet Brotherhood holds the initial piece, Iuz holds the middle key. With the third, the possessor of all three can free Tharizdun.]

Bardillingham is, as I mentioned, the seat of power of Basiliv, and Basiliv noted as the ruler of the Valley to whom the valley elves pay allegiance.
_________________
My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Sun Feb 05, 2012 9:52 pm

Long delay, but now complete with place names added to the Northern Sheldomar Valley map. Errors have been found and fixes coming soon.

http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/gallery/34526034
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My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:37 pm The day is finally here!

Celebrate!

All four parts of my Sheldomar Valley project have been completed. All the maps for this project have had updates since originally published, check them out. The Crystalmists geography-only and Barrier Peaks geography-only maps will have their updates posted soon, maybe as soon as tomorrow night.

Check them all out. There weren't many Gord-isms I found that I could confidently place somewhere, but a few showed up! Mike Bridges Ull project served as the basis for placenames around Ull.

http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/gallery/
_________________
My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:42 pm

Holy hell that is beautiful work Eric. Your detail on Ull-Barrier Peaks map is breath-taking and makes what has alway been a small blotch on the Darlene map into this vast wilderness that holds plenty of more room for development. I especially love how you extended the three trails I created back to their sources farther north and northeast. And most of all, the intricate water systems in all your maps are invaluable. I don't think I could've imagined them the way you did and like I said it opens up a whole new set of ideas for me in the future for Ull. Again, wow.

Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:40 am

Agreed! And a real boon for my Sterich (now expanding to other locations in the Sheldomar) Campaign. Thank you Eric!

Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:02 pm

These are truly beautiful renditions of the Flanaess, Eric! Thanks for sharing them. :)

SirXaris

Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:15 pm

These are amazing! I'm having a problem downloading them, however.

Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:48 pm

Which ones? Seems deviantArt has had issues with processing them. Lemme know which ones and I'll try and re-upload.
_________________
My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/

Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:45 pm

The only one I tried was the Barrier Peaks with labels

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:34 am

The maps are looking great! Cool

I have only one suggestion: unify the image sizes of the letter-sized and poster-sized maps to be the exact same size so that, if one pastes them all together, they fit together seamlessly. For instance, some of the Sheldomar poster-sized maps are 10500 x 9000, while others are 10500 x 10575. Different sizes work fine for a restricted area, but if the whole project grows to encompass the entire Flanaess, the different sizes could end up being an issue in joining everything together, such that some of the maps may need to be altered.
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Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:59 pm

I just checked out all the Barrier Peaks maps and they downloaded fine for me. Have you tried again?

I explained in one of my postings of the maps why the size of the maps were the way they were. But here is the gist.

I picked 10500x900 as they standard dimension for nearly every one of my maps. I went larger for the southern maps, (Southern Sheldomar and Crystalmists) because I needed to include more geography to draw the Sulhaut mountains and Hool Marsh well. Without the extra pixels south it would have made the entire process a mess to complete. Drawing a mountain chain using my style with only part of it on the screen is a mess to pull off.

In fact this is precisely why I even mapped the Barrier Peaks and Crystalmist quads to begin with. The Crystalmist mountains would have been only half mapped.

Once I get the Jeklea Bay and Sea of Dust drawn I'll likely be able to properly cut them up into equal-sized proportions. :)
_________________
My Greyhawk mapping project is being published at my website:http://admundfortgeographer.deviantart.com/