Here is a link to the AI file (4.04GB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5itd553brpmjx1/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022%20-%20Public.ai?dl=0
All the terrain and other bitmaps is embedded into the Illustrator file. All the text is outlined, both for performance, and for making sure that exports and prints looks right. It is a beast of a file so be careful downloading it and use a download manager if you have issues.
Here is a font guide to make sure you have the right fonts installed to enable seamless edits.
Text and graphics style templates are embedded in the document, as well as symbols. So all you should need are the latest version of Illustrator, the fonts and a really powerful computer.
This is hopefully my latest major version of this map before migrating the project over to GIS, and it is as big as something can get using Illustrator.
Here comes the hexed versions and PDF!
12 mile hexed version JPG (405MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ceec29qhwyhfy2p/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022%20-%20HEX12.jpg?dl=0
30 mile hexed version JPG (351MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/warlq8zk760b7r0/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022%20-%20HEX30.jpg?dl=0
PDF version (391MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/e06krkw7s5j7e3q/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022r.pdf?dl=0
Here comes the first of the 598 CY 2022 Edition - non hexed JPG and EasyZoom versions.
JPG (280MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/pi1jvfl7gcz7cr2/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022.jpg?dl=0
EasyZoom: https://www.easyzoom.com/image/356079
Change list
Implemented all the relevant changes from the 576CY 2022 map update:
Changed the internal borders of the Duchy of Urnst to provincial.
Blackfriar Manor --> Blackfair Manor
Shield Reclaimed - From Bastion of Faith
Tweaked the roads of Freehold
Densac Gulf, Pearl Sea and Vohun Ocean labels placement adjusted
Johnsport, river and road adjustments
Blemu Castle added
Old Town of Blemu renamed to Harrowkeep
Knurl moved and border adjusted
Nivlek moved
Roads around Knurl adjusted
Named the road from Harrowkeep to Spinecastle, The Harrowing Road
Wild Coast, Town of Blue Bay added
South Olman Isle, added Atloxtin and Mahuatl
Narisban, added heraldry
Ratik, added Cavrik's Cove
Added Boval Islands
Added Estold Islands
Fharlanst Castle, moved a bit south
Mansbridge, moved east and changed to a small valled town
Hochoch moved to west side of the Realstream
The Docks added next to Stoink
Goldchasm moved further into the Adri
Adjusted Great Kingdom Adri border
Nanonshaven changed to Nannonshafen and moved westwards
Added Flosh Crossing, from Saga of Old city p259
Agnelford renamed Ongleford and moved to the Tessar Torrent west of Knurl
Oddgave Hill added from Saga of Old City
Druid's Well moved further into the Adri
Added Ripper Hills
Changed Blemu Uplands to Teesar Uplands
Len Lakofka's elven town Labelas Grove and Treant Moot added in Axewood
Lo Nakar relocated a bit to the west to better match Amy Crittendens OJ35 article
The Eddri Line of keeps in Idee are now labeled
Sheldomar River, the first part renamed Kla'arkash River
Shiboleth moved north and roads rearragned
The Black Obeslisk site added in the Rushmoors
Riddlings Pass moved north
Added Rutherton and Mt Rantoloch in Tehn
Uskedge and its Marchland added to the North Province
Red Falls changed to large town
Baronies of Highlander added
Split Rock added in the Rovers
Legend updated with Imperial borders, edited text and new sea depths
Lo Reltarma moved to Len's original locations on the small island
Pel Reltarma added
Lake Farmin removed
Garrotten moved to Lake Farmin
Manville moved to Garrotens old location
Asmogorgon upgraded to a town
Removed a few roads and sea lanes in the SW
Galeford added in Nyrond
Cepentar added in eastern Hardby territory
Macroom renamed Gysselen
Shanscross added in Veluna, from Saga of Old city
Road from Veluna city to Littleberg via Shanscross added
Stump in Furyondy moved north to the road to Laurelinn, from artifact of Evil
Pen-Wilds area added in the northern Barrier Peaks, from Sea of Death
Hardby heraldry updated
Bardillingham added in the Vale of the Mage, from Sea of Death Gord book
Added Jotslpat heraldry, CASL
Applebee removed
Ruined city of Zinbyle in the Sea of Dust is named
Added Jungle of Lost Ships
Added Turucambi
Dustbrigde heraldry added
Franz river and its tributaries
Vesve
Nesser River
Rushmoors
Added rivers along the cost of the Gulf of Ghayar
Chanded the small river flowing through Innspa
Additional updates
Ahlissa and North Kingdom heraldry added
Added the Mines of Father Eye in the Bright Desert
Added the Hold of Jarl Gnorak west of Sterich
Added Krabalsthorpe
Adjusted border of the Free Reaver's
Added Urzun heraldry
Added Kazgund
Corrected The Mines of Father Eye, Bright Desert
Added Twilight Monastery
Tamoachan moved SW to a location better matching original module location, research by DH Boggs
Ruarto Plateau from Tamoachan added
Added Temple of Celestial Winds, from Dungeon #89
Added Free Reaver's heraldry
Added Free Borough heraldry
Adjusted and reclassified borders in empire of Iuz.
Upgraded settlements in occupied Shield Lands to match the latest 576CY map
Veralos ruin added at the Rift Canyon
Downgraded some Bandit Kingdoms roads to Tertiary.
Added mile markers to all roads
Callistor - location and roads adjusted
Come and join Alyssa Faden, Jay Scott and me tonight for the Fantasy Mapping Show Ep 15. We will talk about our setups, tools and how we go about things.
https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba @8PMEDT!
Here comes what I hope is the final version with updated credits as well. So please make sure that if you are a $3/month tier patron member or higher your name (or nickname) should be in the list.
Other changes since the preview: Callistor location is adjusted a little bit to accommodate better road access to Beetu, as described in the Marklands. This was something I did on my Campaign map but forgot to add to the public map todo list.
There are still some issues with some symbols looking a bit wonky, that is due to me using text antialiasing. I want to keep the credits text editable until the final release, and in order to make the text easier to read I'm using text antialiasing. For the final map I will outline all text and use art antialiasing which will make the symbols and other vector art export better.
Here is the JPG version (269MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7i0hytrlwovxnd/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022-%20RC.jpg?dl=0
And here is the EasyZoom version: https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/d659f3b3e2ab454bb3b5c32a2ab214e9
Final map export will be done Monday and then released asap. The only changes I plan to make are typos and credits. The rest have been out for preview for a month and its time to settle this edition. Thank you everyone for your support and help, this project is now 99% done! 🙂
Today August 12th Alyssa Faden and me will do another Mapping Live Twitch Stream. Come join us when we map Greyhawk @5PM PDT/8PM EDT!
Here comes along overdue update and outlook, and it is the first day of Gen Con 2022, which I will sadly miss this year due to too high travel costs. I hope my friends at Syrinscape have a great convention and I'm missing them and the buzzle of Gen Con a lot.
Flanaess & Hepmonaland 598 CY - 2022 Edition
A preview is out in the wild and people are sending me things to correct and a couple of glaring misses have been caught. Thank you everyone who take a close look at it and report problems with it, you are the best quality assurance team any cartographer can wish for!
A release candidate will come early next week, and that will be non hexed JPG and EasyZoom only. Then I'll correct the outstanding issues and small things that comes in during the week for a wrap up and final export next weekend. Then a major project is done, which feels great. Might be my last Major Greyhawk map work using Illustrator, and then it can be delegated to things it was intended to do, Illustrative stuff like symbols, heraldry and decorative elements. GIS work using QGIS and other related tools will gradually fill the void next year and onwards.
Custom Map Patreon Tier
I've talked a bit about my idea to test a much higher patreon tier for a few people who want to have a customized map, and other related stuff for their campaign. My premise will be that I will dedicate a day per month to work on your project,and with a day I mean around 6 hours of work. The pricing of the new tier would be $50/month with a yearly plan as well with a month free.
This tier is not an ongoing full commission, the content created using this will still be released under the same Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license I publish my other Greyhawk content under. This means that it is not for publishers looking for content for their products, it is a tier for Greyhawk DM's, streamers, bloggers and others who want to have access t custom versions of my Greyhawk content to use in their games, streams, blogs etc.
How things will work practically needs to be worked out with each of you who sing up. The way I similar stuff for Jay Scott and his Knights of Ulek Campaign is that we have a zoom conference on a monthly bases for an hour or two to go over things and I made some changes while we are on the call and work on other stuff afterwards. Some of you might want to send a list of things to change sketches etc, and that could work as well.
My original plan was to try it out first with 5 slots and see how that works, and the number will always be limited. My plan is to keep it limited to a week per month with limits the number of slots to somewhere around 7. I have 4 interested already which means that there might only be 3 more slots for late comers. If the demand is way higher, which I doubt considering the price, a rethink might be needed. But this is my plan so far please tell me in the comments what you thing would work best.
Heraldry
The new and updated heraldry have been a huge success, I've received a ton of positive comments, emails and more telling they like it. This is fantastic and show that there is a huge interest and need for heraldry, and I have several projects related to heraldry. First is to look at how to best go about with the Heraldry Compendium this fall. Almost all the heraldry for it are done now it is time to start looking into things like layout, formats etc. I want to look into having a print option for this project, a real print option which I will contact Noble Dwarf about to see if something could be worked out. There sill be a separate post about the compendium soon to keep topics separate, and there are a lot of things to consider with the Heraldry Compendium project.
Death Knight heraldry is coming fairly soon. I had a set of designs, but then Mindjourney (AI graphics service) made it possible for me to use its power to work on this. So I'm going to give it my ideas and see what comes out, which can be cool I think. Same goes for my series on the heraldry of the Horned Society, elves and expanding on the Iuz heraldry. Dwarven stuff is beyond my horizon for the moment, I haven't researched the Dwarves of the Flanaess enough yet to dare start with it. There are also some gaps to fill when it comes to provinces and local heraldry of the major nations which will be given some love too, and having a powerful AI engine will probably help a lot with stuff like this.
Converting all the exiting heraldry to SVG files will also start very soon. It is fairly easy but repetitive and tedious which means I will do it for a couple of hours each day until it is done. Not sure if I'll release them in batches or in a single release when they are all done. I want o get things in your hands as soon as possible, but keeping track of all of what have been released when adds administration which should be kept to a minimum.
MeyerHawk Stuff
Slowly but steadily a whole new branch of my creative content is taking shape. Wasn't really sure how much you would like my campaign stuff, but just like the heraldry it have turned out surprisingly popular so I'm making more of it. The really good part with this is that in most aspects it is a win-win, most of the stuff I create and use in my own campaign is of dual use for general Greyhawk release as well. Also running games and being a creator who is also an active DM makes me better understand an anticipate what you need for your games. The popularity of the heraldry I originally made for my own campaign is a good example of this, and lots of it is now on the public map.
I removed my old campaign map from EasyZoom, both to make room for other stuff and also because it was past it due date. A major overhaul of my MeyerHawk campaign map has just started and it will be presented in regions this fall for my mid tier patreon members and a full release this winter. Comments and background information on what is going on will be added as well.
My Shield Lands campaign "Against the Old One" is now on its second year and we have played 33 sessions. The characters are now 4th level and close to being 5th. Its only nine days in campaign time though,so these youngsters have been through a lot in a bit over a week!! Originally my intention was to use my campaign material for my DM during D&D in a Castle, but I canceled that this year. Which means I no longer have to keep it secret (more that for my players), so I'm going to start releasing it for my mid tier patreon members very soon. First out is Auldet the little settlement my campaign started in, maps lots of maps, but also indoor map, NPC presentation with stats, and some notes on hos things turned out when we played it.
In my games we use a heavily house ruled version of Level Up - Advanced 5E from EN World: https://www.levelup5e.com. I will present a series on how I run my games, rules, tools and more.
Mapping Live Streams
The Friday Mapping Live streams are popular and we have around 30 or so viewers which is great, and with Alyssa and at times CaveGeek being there as well it is a lot of fun. This Friday I'll work on my Shield Lands detailed area maps. Please join us and make sure we work hard!
Thank you again everyone for all your support!!! 🙂
I'm sure most of you have seen a new craze hit the interwebs, AI generated art. When I got a chance to jump in fairly early using the Midjourney service I couldn't resist taking the plunge.
It is a service that plugs into Discord that lest you use a cloud based set of servers that use Artificial Intelligence art using written input from you. You can then guide it further by telling it to create variants of the samples you like the best. My first test was to create my fantasy cartography office in the World of Greyhawk, and with a bit of fiddling around this is what it came up with.
For what I wanted to use it far the results are fantastic, and I'm really impressed with what it could create in about 15 minutes of trying for the first time. As a bonus you get a whole bunch of great variants giving me screenshots of "my" whole workplace in Enstad.
With results like that I got in deep and decided to have it help me illustrate things for my Shield Lands campaign "Against the Old One" and yes it works wonders...
creating the backdrop for a promo banner for my campaign!
Now its time to take a look at what this beast can really do, and it really shines when it comes to portrait creation. I need a druid and found this:
and it can illustrate you magic items like nothing I've seen so far..
and a villain from my campaign.
This was a taste of what this tool can do. I have already made a couple of hundred images for use in my campaign and my work, from textures, concepts, illustrations and much more. This technology will be VERY disruptive and change what creatives can do and what they will get payed for in fundamental ways. It is too early for me to have any conclusions on that yet, since the service is only in its infancy and I'm new to this world.
Even if it is the end of things as we know it, it is a VERY cool tool and kind of a dream coming true for a graphic nerd with a world building passion like me. It will mean that I can now illustrate my campaign material in ways I never thought possible before. Look forward to lots of cool stuff...
Thank you again for all your support, more map and fantasy content coming up!
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