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!
Here are the first 598CY - 2022 Edition Public preview:
EasyZoom: https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/449e0b6dfcfc4bf3adf7a2603c926069
This easy zoom link will only be valid until the next preview or final edition becomes available.
12 mile Hexed version JPG (303MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjvhh7e27gy966w/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022-%20HEX12%20-%20Preview%201.jpg?dl=0
30 mile Hexed version JPG (265MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2z170pbb8ibcxd/Flanaess%20%26%20Hepmonaland%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202022-%20HEX30%20-%20Preview%201.jpg?dl=0
Please check for typos and other mistakes and report back to me here, on Facebook, or Twitter message.
The final version will be in a week or two depending on the number of things to fix. the final version will be available in JPG, PDF and EasyZoom versions.
The links will only be valid until the next preview or final edition becomes available, and new ones posted here and on my website: https://www.annabmeyer.com
The credits section is not yet final, and will receive an update with all the latest patreon supporters on it. Thank you so much for all your help making this possible, and there are lots more coming. I will have several updates coming on that this week, more heraldry, MeyerHawk, Shield Lands Altimira, Oerth and more!
Mapping Live Stream today Friday 29th at 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT I'll be on Twitch again for some more mapping. Alyssa Faden and CaveGeek will join me, and you are invited to hangout with us!
twitch.tv/anna_b_meyer
Tonight! Join Alyssa Faden, Jay Scott and me for the Fantasy Mapping Show, Episode 14; we welcome Special Guest: Matt Ryan of Chaosium Inc!
Friday, July 22nd 8:00 PM EDT https://twitch.tv/lordgosumba
This weeks Legends & Lorre Show was dedicated to Vecna, so I created some more heraldry. Like this D&D5E inspired Vecna shield:
and here it is on old and rusted version:
and a cultist shield:
and another Vecna Cultist shield:
and all of them in a zip: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2b4azj7m75x5u1u/Vecna.zip?dl=0
Time to give the villains some love with new heraldry. Here comes a few that I have developed for my campaign, so lets go through them.
First stop is Bone March, and Lands of the Broken Bone. The area directly ruled by Spinecastle. First in original polished form.
and then in the more decrepit state you will find it in the hands of most of those using it.
Next in line from the Bone March are the Ripper Hills Hobgoblins.
and the Gashclaw Gnolls:
and maybe the worst in Bone March, the Evil Eye Orcs:
and finally the Vile Rune Orcs also from the Bone March:
Horned Lands
Here are a few from the sands once ruled by the Horned Society and now (mostly) under Iuz. But there are still those who resist him and Dahlvier is one of them, he is as mean and tough as the Old One they say and his heraldry goes back a long time and is a dire waning to those who dare intrude...
With the Dahlvier shield I wanted to reach back and tie into old flan tradition of symbols. Very different from the Aerdy designs, simpler and more occult. My inspiration is Celtic, Nordic and European bronze age.
Next are the Tribal Lands of the Hoch Jebline in the Northern Horned Lands. Nominally under Iuz rule but in reality a mostly self, or non governed area full of various Goblinoids who are fans of Maglubiyet. The design is inspired by the Illustration in Dragon #372 p33.
Next is Kazgund, a city run by Orc's in my campaign. They want to convey a bit more civilized flair and show of their building prowess.
Last in this small collection are the city of Izlen. Originally (in my campaign at least) it got started as a outpost of the Great Kingdom on the north western shores of the Whyestil Lake. It was probably intended to be the base for further expansion, but then Ferron broke off and Izlen's future became very different. The original heraldry shows the fledgling city as a bastion of the Aerdy.
if you can find any of those old shields in the late 500's they will look something like this:
Nowadays the Old Empire have adopted a more, for their emperor, suitable shield that still keeps the same old elements:
You can get all of these in a zip file (139MB) here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q34zmb6i1dhqf3p/Heraldry%207.zip?dl=0
You can see a old version of my campaign map here: https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/5f9d1e423c2d442fa71ed45397420b63
I haven't updated it properly, that is something for later this year. The places referred to here are on the map.
That was it for this time, more is coming. Now back to my 598CY map again.
I'll be streaming a work session on my Twitch channel tomorrow at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. https://www.twitch.tv/anna_b_meyer
The plan Photoshop and Illustrator work for the most part both artistic and tedious work. Stop by and questions and keep me company!
Her comes the last of the updated old heraldry and some new ones as well. Notable among the new ones are Kargoth, the death knight, based on the illustration in Dragon Magazine #290.
Next of the new ones are Duke Szeffrin, which is my design I created for my Rel Deven campaign.
Next is a shield I've looked at many times without seeing, on the cover of TSR 9577 - Adventure Begins. One of the humanoids hold a shield that I have assigned to one of the fiercest orc tribes in the Flanaess, the Urzun.
And her are another piece of heraldry also from a very iconic module, and overlooked until now. Larry Elmore illustrated the Inn of the Welcome Welch in Hommlet, and on the wall there is a shield hanging. It is only in black and white so a bit of imagination have to be added. I decided to label it Nulb until we can figure out more.
The shield above is an old and decrepit shield that probably was recovered after the Battle of Emridy Meadows and was already old at the battle. Below is a version of what it looked like in better condition.
Mike Bridges did the design of the Sybarate shields with a 576CY,
and a 598CY version.
You can download a zip file with all 38 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tfvt5wyz8l05vpa/Heraldry%206.zip?dl=0
Tomorrow at 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT I'll be on Twitch again for some more mapping. I'm sure exactly what I'll work on but it will be Greyhawk related for sure!
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