aan asked me some great questions in a comment recently and I'm posting my response as a full blog post to be able to elaborate a bit more.
Preparation
Coastlines are one of the most defining features of cartography, and in many ways even more so when you work in 3D, so they need a lot of steps and input to look good in the end. In most cases there are already some form of map or description of the area that the final map need to adhere to, meaning follow more or less strict. How strict depends on how the existing map or text portray it compared to the result needed. If the goal is to create a realistic model of the terrain and what we have are a vague text or an illustration that looks cool but very unrealistic, a lot of changes needs to be made. In other cases the problem is the opposite, you might get a picture of a terrain for a commission and the goal is to use that as a base for something that should be part of an illustrative fantasy looking parchment map. In my work the former is the most common case, but both ends or cases in between occur all the time.
When I have decided the goal and gathered the sources, the next step is to prepare a useful guide image from the material. This usually means using Photoshop to get rid of things like text symbols and things that are clutter and in the way. The previous map might be done in some artistic perspective so stretching and warping it try try and create a top down view are needed. This process can range from very easy to very complex depending on the quality and size of the source.
If all I have are text I read it all and take geographical notes, and then sketch out a simple terrain and then read the text again to make sure that all the geographical mentions in the text matches my sketch. Then I use imagination to try and sketch out the rest of the terrain to fill out the gaps keeping in line with the theme and spirit of the story. The overall environment of the story is key for this, is the story set in a jungle, mountains, what is the climate, is it a demonic waste land, or a idyllic farmland and so on.
Using the sketch I can then use that as an overlay when working in World Machine or Gaea to create the terrain. I'm only using it for visual guidance, tweaking the fractals to generally follow the guide image coastlines. It is possible to create a mask (a black and white or greyscale image) in Photoshop and use that directly in terrain creation. This have a strong tendency to limit the fractals creating harsh unnatural, sterile coastlines, but in some cases especially with large scale maps it can work well. Vectors are possible to import and use in World Machine but they are tricky to get right and require even more work to get detailed.
Create
Yes, I use World Machine or Gaea to try and sculpt terrain to match the guide image. It sounds simple but can be a true pain, fractals live their own life and you need to terrain features like hills, rivers and erosion, terracing an more to also work together to create a good looking terrain that meats the specifications. The coastlines are only one of the parameters to get right, import yes, but only one of many things to make a good looking terrain.
The key is to try and understand how the different aspects of the process like the fractal generating the elevation, erosion, filters like Terracing, Glaciation, Displacement and Flow Restructuring, each affects the result so you can tweak the the right way. Then you have the different forms of Erosion that are often needed to make the terrain look realistic, like old weathered rough low hills for that haunted moor, or wind swept rocks for a sandy desert. Costal Erosion is especially critical for coastlines, forming long beaches of flattened terrain and shallow water aplenty, but that needs to be applied sparingly, far from all coastlines are pristine beaches.
Islands and, bays and inlets are features that I try to program into the cocktail of fractal generators, filters and erosion used to create the terrain. You use shapes in World Machine to apply the various effects and there is a setting that lets you apply a "warping factor" as well as a fall off helping you to create the endless varying of the same theme across large areas that we see all over the natural world. The key is to blend a lot of different factors together and let probability and randomness work out the details for you. It is a trial and error process, but over time you learn and you can re use combinations that worked well in the past.
The key is to study the real work, imagine what a fantasy world could look like and then use a systematic trial and error to try and achieve your vision.
Other ways of creating coastlines
The way I described it above is the way I go about creating coastlines for 3D terrain. That might not be what you need or want to create, which means you can use different approach using Photoshop, texture generators, or even pancakes!
What you need are some fractal large scale random pattern, that can come from almost anywhere, real world data, patterns in nature, random scribbles, or the burn marks on pancakes. Make pancakes in a frying pan, use your smart phone to take a top down image of each pancake. Use filters in Photoshop (or GIMP) to reduce the image down to pure black and white and you have a set of coastlines, islands or lakes as needed. Combine, resize and rotate and you can create any type of realistic set of coast lines for any type of project. Randomness, creativity and base knowledge of a image editor software is what is needed along with a vision of what the goal is for what you need to accomplish.
Lots of things besides pancakes can be used for this, clouds, splash patterns, a rock wall, bark on a tree etc. Let nature inspire you!
Taken my Oerth planetary project for another spin to try and improve it a bit more and take a first look at drainage basins and major rivers. Given the simple elevation maps some color tweaks to make it a bit easier to read, with a purple for depressions and black for deep depressions.
Focus for this round is the Empyrea homage in the Solnor that have been given some more shape and character but kept the same general size. I wanted to get away from the big blob to something more interesting, and hopefully this is better. Added an loose string of islands fanning out north along an extension of the shelf north towards Fireland.
Starting to get the feel that the major stuff are now good enough to go in and have a first look at the major rivers. Remember that the rivers shown are only major drainage channels home to the biggest rivers. Some of these rivers will only be seasonal or only flow during very wet conditions, for example the river flowing west across the Dry Steppes creating Lake Udrukankar. It probably only comes to life a few weeks late spring early summer when snow melt from the Crystalmists feeds it and the lake, disappearing quickly in the hot and dry conditions only to come back again next spring. During those short weeks it is the longest river with its roots in the Flanaess.
Oerth's longest river in this version of the planet are in the western Oerik originating in the central desert, with a similar story of seasonal snow melt from four mountain ranges giving it enough staying power to be flowing, at least to some degree, all year round. It will pick up more and more tributaries and water as it flows south ending up as a huge river with an estuary in the taiga on the Southern Oerik coast. Since it flows into colder regions it is likely to have huge overflows when spring flooding hits the still cold and frozen southern regions, like Canadian and Russian rivers flowing into the arctic. Makes for interesting adventuring geography!
Oerth comes with about half a dozen mighty tropical rivers in the class of the Amazon or the Congo. Again it is the Western Oerik that is the home to three of them, with the biggest draining the eastern part of the rainforest of the Western Oerik. It is on a similar or larger scale than the Amazon, forming a huge lake basin half way through its flow north. It drains not only millions of square miles of tropical rainforest, two large mountain ranges as well, so it will be navigable for a large part of its length for all types of ships. Its two neighboring rivers are smaller but still mighty, rivaling the the Velverdyva in length and probably carries more water, being in the class of the Mississippi, Nile or the Volga.
The most unusual river must be the river in the eastern side of Western Oerik flowing north in the huge basin east of the big canyon. It start in a desert valley far south with mainly seasonal melt water. After more than 1,000 miles north it hits the tropical region where it receives a major boost from the humid air from the east and the drainage from some of the mightiest mountains of Oerth both east and west of it. This makes it top up the old ocean remnant in the center of the valley. During high flows this lakes drains north into an even lower depression that far below sea level where its water forms a large dead sea like body of very salt water surrounded by huge salt flats. This water sits here until evaporated away by the hot desert sun.
The "banana" peninsula in the south central Oerik have been given a work over splitting up the general shape to make it stand out a bit less. The final thing to have been looked at this update is the Sea of Dust that now have the depressed areas marked.
With this iteration I'm starting to have a really positive feel about this planetary model being good enough to be really interesting, and useable as a diverse and robust platform for adventuring across a landscape that can harbor almost anything you like, and still have room left over to surprise!
Here is a version with the continents of Earth on top so you can compare and see the true size of Oerth's features: https://www.dropbox.com/s/km7fzd9wvg6lwkg/Oerth%20Continental%20Layout%20w%20Earth%20outlines%20-%2040-3.jpg?dl=0
Try it out in https://www.maptoglobe.com/
I've got multiple requests to do political maps of the Flanaess for both 576CY and 598CY, so here is a set!
First a HUGE thank you, over 300 Patreon members, wow, thank you all for your support!!!!
And thank you all for all the great feedback on my Oerth modeling, lots of good creative points that I have tried my best to address with this update. I've recruited help of friends and friends of friends who are experts at climate, oceanography, ecology and geography. Over a series of zoom calls they have helped me trying to come up with cool solutions to try and improve on the Oerth model. There were three main issues with my first version, too much desert in the west, more islands would be better and the "cowhide factor" is still too high.
Below is the revised continental layout:
My goal is to try and improve on the three mentioned issues and still try to honor the DA1 map and the other scare source material available. Lets start in the North Western Oerik where I hade made into Hot Steppes and Desert, and the Sundered Empire Map made into a enormous forested and fertile region. So how to turn desert into a lush forest? You have to give the region a decent amount of rainfall reliably spread out over the year. In order to increase the rainfall in the desert zone we need to bring in humid air and keep dry air away. We started by adding a group of islands in the ocean north of the NW tip of Oerik, large enough and placed to divert the ocean currents coming across the Solnor from the west south along the northern Oerik and then sweep north effectively revering the gyre from my previous version. This will bring in warm moist air from the west rather than cold dry air from the north giving us a good start with a forested peninsula sticking out.
Next is to bring the ocean south by creating a large inlet just west of the peninsula. To make it more interesting I broke it into two with a land tongue and sprinkled in some islands. We added mountains east and west of and they are especially high in the east to create a barrier from the prevailing eastern winds brining in dry desert air, instead forcing moist ocean air south. The humid tropical area at the equator has lots of humidity, so instead of if having most of that flowing west to the coast we added a low range of hills to force the a large part of the rainforests to drain NE. This will fill out the depression SE of the added ocean inlet making the climate humid subtropical to tropical as well as make the geography much more interesting. Hills and mountains in this area will be mostly covered in vegetation ranging from tropical to temperate depending on elevation and direction. The added islands will have a climate similar to Ireland with an oceanic climate.
Here is the legend with adjusted matching colors.
Western Oerik is in this version given a much larger area of Tropical Rainforest and Savannah in the northern half, and a much more broke up coast in the southern half along with an rearrangement of the mountain ranges to again keep the dry desert air away from the coast, will make for much larger Mediterranean and Humid Subtropical areas. The broken up coast and added islands makes the geography more interesting, reduces the cowhide factor and also better matches the Sundered Empire map.
Next up is the central valley of Western Oerik, east of the big rift. In my firs model this was hot dry depression shielded from the rainforest east of the huge mountain range. By creating a series of canyons that opens up for winds from the east this depression will become a huge tropical rainforest oasis in a very hot dry desert and rivers draining the mountains will create a lake that seasonally grows to the size of the Nyr Dyv . East of the lake will be a hot steppe before some of the most impressive mountain pillars on Oerth with large valleys covered in forests of all kinds, a very diverse mix of biomes and adventuring possibilities. It is important to know that climate zones are not monolithic, just because an area is a desert doesn't mean that there are only sand and rock. If you take the Sahara or the Deserts of South Western USA there are large areas with varying forms of vegetation including forests where there are water, open or in aquafers.
Thank you so much for your help, I think this is an large improvement and we are getting closer to a really useable model of Oerth.
This post is a month late, sorry for hinting at things and that information is coming and then keeping things to myself. The main reason for this are that my mother got a cancer diagnosis a month ago and even though I live 5000 miles away from here there was still a lot of things to take care of, just in case of the worst. The prognosis looks much better that what we feared initially, and she is undergoing surgery tomorrow. My calendar for this fall have also been in limbo for a couple of weeks and I've just now confirmed that there will be way more time for me to work on Greyhawk maps this summer and fall, there are some advantages with a pandemic! I'll tell you more of what has been postponed to next year soon when it it official, in the meantime lets dive into what is going on right now and what I'm working on!
The Fantasy Mapping Show
Alyssa Faden and me have decided that we need to talk about maps more, so with the help of Jay Scott aka. Lord Gosumba we are starting a new Twitch Show "The Fantasy Mapping Show" which will be a monthly two hour show about all aspects of Fantasy Cartography, from the Underdark to Space, from rooms to worlds and from painting to programming. We want to hear from you to know what topics you want us to cover! First episode will be Friday June 18th @7pm EST on https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba
Oerth
Thank you again for the wonderful reception of my first Oerth planet model, this have given me a taste for more! I'm looking into variants like ice-age and historic (geologic time) versions to drill deeper into the topic. Dissecting Oerth is another interesting project related to this. My own campaign ideas are that the planet actually hosts the inner planes, there of comes the name. The elemental planes are actually a dimension of the planet itself, and elemental interaction creates both underdark realms, a fantasy version of plate tectonics and can be a driver of climate. This way things can be adjusted a bit as needed. A more conventional planet model need to be looked into as well.
Campaign Maps
My Shield Lands campaign are up and running after a bit of struggling start. The party is still in Auldet in Shield lands and are fighting hard to retake the keep from the Iuz priests who are now countering with laying siege to the village with the animated corpses of all the inhabitants they have killed during their 15 year occupation. The maps of the area are coming together and live up to my expectations, there will be much more coming this summer in the form of Shields Lands map coverage as a first test of my new mapping standard.
Lendore Isles
This project have been in the launching phase for two years now, I haven't had the workflow or tools ready to give Lens Islands justice until now that is. I will map Lendore Isle and its smaller sister islands in 5ft/px detail just like my Shield Lands Campaign maps. Detailed enough to see individual houses, roads and trees.
Patreon
For a year my Patreon have operated under "pandemic conditions", having all post public as a way for those who could afford to spend money on very much non-essential things like fantasy maps. Thanks to so many of of you have continued to support me I've been able to keep up my Greyhawk related work the past year, thank you so much everyone!!
Now it is time to both go back to normal and shake things up a bit, start looking forward and make plans for the future. I have had my goals and tiers the same for the past three years, and to be honest my Patreon Goals was more than a bit fussy and something I just filled out to get things going. Support for my Greyhawk mapping endeavour is now solid at around $900/month which means I can schedule a large chunk of time every week to work on my Greyhawk projects. So what can be done with more resources, what do I want to do with more money?
My computers are four and five years old, still functioning but getting a bit out of date and lacks performance. Anyone who have tried to buy powerful computers have noticed that it has been hard to find certain parts and prices have been and still are absurdly high. So computer investments have to be postponed for a while, maybe next year will be more sane when it comes to computer hardware.
GIS
The next big leap in my map making will be to start using GIS (Geographical Information systems) tools and standards. I've been prepping myself knowledge wise for this one for several years, and soon ready to launch a new GIS based edition of my Greyhawk maps. My Oerth modeling is a step in this, figuring out the placement of the Flanaess. When we reach $1000/month will be the official go ahead for this. It is initially very time consuming referencing and then placing everything on the current map properly on the planet, but worth it for the flexibility and usability of the date once defined. Maps with different styles, sizes and publishing methods will be much easier to create, for example online versions of the map.
My plan with GIS is to create a repository for Greyhawk geo data that can be downloaded and used in QGIS and other cartography tools the same way you would use real world data. QGIS is an open source tool so the cost are none, but you still need a bit of knowledge to create your own versions of the map which is unfortunately true regardless of how you try and do it. The GIS Goal is also an important step leading up to my next goal.
If we can reach $1500/month it is time for something I'm getting asked all the time, prints! With GIS making it much easier to create a variety of map versions specially made for print, and the resources for me to do test prints to make sure they look right. The test prints will then be raffled out among Patreon members and used at conventions as promotion. It would be a dream come true to have the money to do cool prints, so far I've only printed my Flanaess map in full once, on over 60 sheets of 11x17 inch photo papers, which took days and cost more than I dare to think of on my ink jet, using up more than a dozed cartridges. Low cost generic ones, but still over $100, print is expensive. To help out with this I'm in talks with Noble Dwarf , who does prints and apparel and is located not too far from me. They have done some great work for other cartographers so I'm sure we can get something going when we have the resources. Will make prints easier to order and less costly, but we need to have a series of different maps of different sizes for this!
Unreal
The highest goal I'm going to list here now is $2000/month, and if we can reach that its time to level up into the world of Game Engines. The workflow I'm developing now is with the intent for the data to be used in a Game Engine like Unreal or Unity. This requires major investment in both time, software and knowledge. I've been looking at this field for several years and I think it is a major tool in the future for visualising, but also to make customization a lot easier. This is a full time commitment but with this technology it is possible take Fantasy mapping truly to the next level. I've seen a lot of promising projects in the small scale, but nothing on a world level which is where I want to start. Some VTT's and Campaign managers have robust API's which makes interaction possible, and having an interactive world atlas in a new form!
Patreon Tiers
The three current tiers have some glaring issues, the main one is the $3 tier has been sadly neglected and underused. Haven't been able to create a lot of my own campaign content, and most of it should go directly to all of you and then to the whole Greyhawk community as my other content. The other tier problem is that the $1 tier is plagued by the fact that a disproportional amount of the money get lost in fees.
To try and fix this and also make sure that my Patreon is still accessible without a huge investment each month I suggest an updated tier structure:
$2 Adventurer Tier
All the stuff from the $3 tier for a bit of less money. Giving you early access to all my maps right away including Discord. What happens to the ones who are $1 tier? You will be grandfathered into the new $2 tier and stay on it for $1 as long as you keep your membership active.
$5 Cartographer Tier
Will continue to be the "technical" tier giving you "How To" and other articles, source material and similar stuff. Some of that will be available for everyone later and some will be for the tier members only.
$10 "Vanity" Tier
I sometimes get asked, how do go about pledging more? I'm so humbled by this and haven't really known what to do, what to give and such. Of course I want to make it possible for those of you who want to support me more. This Tier will get you a special mention on maps, on my website and promotional material. This can be your name, logo or some other message. For legal purposes I have to state the following: I retain the right to not publish names or images I find inappropriate for any reason.
Special blog posts where I discuss project ideas and things to come before posting them to the other tiers are another treat I can offer, but to be blunt this is a tier primarily for those of you who want to be my biggest supporters.
The New tiers and their Annual plans will start July 1st.
Flanaess Map and Atlas 2021 Edition
I have a whole Evernote notebook full of map updates and I keep working on the new edition a few hours a week editing and doing research. The Atlas Edition will be expanded south to include the Ilse of Dread and other islands in the Vohun Ocean. Work on the terrain have already started, and my goal is to have the new editions ready this fall. I haven't decided the format for the Atlas yet. Last years remake with a "double"11x17 inch format was cool, but a lot of extra work and also had the drawback of being put together in Photoshop, which meant loosing the vector quality of text and symbols. I have to make some nest of better ways to do it that are both effective, useful and keep the vector quality.
Thank you so much for making this possible!! 🙂
Time to put all the data from the previous steps to create an first true attempt at a planet visualization of Oerth. First I need to remind you that this is a only a first take on this and very much a work in progress, but it looked so damn cool that I could wait any longer and have to show what I'm working on.
I've used the elevation and climate model to create a rough sketch of what the planet actually looks like in summer, and it is summer in both hemispheres which is not natural but practical for this purpose. The ocean depths are only rudimentary done in Photoshop and need a lot of more work, as well as the the mountain colors, too many black ones. Despite all these shortcomings, I think is a stunning image!
This equirectangular map can serve well as a start of making a more detailed image of the planet, both its landmasses and the oceans.
Thank you so much for all the support that makes it possible for me to spend serious amount of time on this project!!!! 🙂
A revamp of my Patreon will be announced soon, I'm working out the details, with new more defined and ambitious goals and a slight adjustment of the tiers.
First a heartfelt thank you, for all the wonderful and encouraging feedback you have given me for the first Oerth Continent post!!
This second instalment will be a look at the climate of Oerth and the Flanaess using a slightly simplified version of the Köppen Climate Classification. For this part of the project I've had help from a friend of mine who has working with oceanography and she has helped me explain how the oceans of the Earth works and what could be the case for a planet like Oerth. I've also leaned on my weather knowledge from having been a pilot and especially my long distance glider piloting which relies heavily on understanding weather patterns. Wikipedia and Artifexian's YouTube channel have been very helpful is applying this knowledge onto a fantasy world. I'm not an expert on climate matters, but I think I have enough understanding of the topic and knowledge of the Greyhawk setting to feel qualified to create a model of the planet that can be both useful and inspiring for Greyhawk fans who want to expand their campaign horizons.
A key guiding principle for this project is to try and create a planetary model that can work as a canvas for both the published stories we know and love, and an inspiration and help in creating new stories from other parts of the planet Oerth.
Below is an image showing what the climate looks like for Earth.
and here is Oerth for comparison (using a slightly simplified set of classes)
Several differences are striking, Oerth has way more deserts of both the hot and cold variety. This is due to mainly the larger single continent and a larger axial tilt. Larger continents tend to heat up away from oceans and the increased axial tilt exaggerates the tropics and poles, and on Oerth the Tropical Circles are at 30 deg N and S instead of the 23 degrees on Earth. The same goes for tropical rainforests and should have been the case for savannahs, but due to the dryer larger continent, ocean currents and mountains the savannahs are not as widespread as the could have been.
Here is the classes and the temperature and precipitation characteristics
Before we go into the details a brief discussion on climate science and how I have used it in my Oerth model. Climate are influenced by a myriad of things but since this is a fantasy world we can simplify things to aspects that can be more useful for our games. I've chosen geography, meaning where on the planet a region is located, ocean currents and general wind patterns.
Geographic location drill down to three general climate regions, the tropics between 30 deg N to 30 deg S, temperate between 30-60 deg N and S respectively, and the polar regions 60-90 deg N and S respectively as illustrated below.
The actual climate varies with airflow, ocean currents, humidity, and in some cases magic or other fantasy factors climatologists in the real world don't have to deal with. I've tried to keep them to a minimum and there are only one clear case of this and that is the Bright Desert, and even there it is only marginal as we will se when we get there on this journey.
Next up is to take a look at the global ocean currents and how it distributes heat and cold around the planet. Overall Oerth have a 57.56% land and 40.98% ocean (including major lakes and inland seas). Oerth's larger land area is all due to the landmass covering the north pole, apart from this difference the water land ratio are similar.
Due to planet rotation and size ocean currents form large rotating gyres, and on an earth-like planet (size and rotation) it will for two gyres N and S of the equator respectively. The can be likened to gigantic cogwheels that move the water around in the large oceans, where they form and how large they are are due continental layout. If we look at the Solnor Ocean north of the equator we have a clockwise gyre that carries warm water and humid water up along the eastern coast of the Flanaess making it both warmer and wetter way far north than would otherwise been the case.
Temperatures of ocean currents are relative, meaning they bring in water that are warmer or colder in relation to the average temperature of the area. So cold currents in the tropics can be way warmer than warm currents in the arctics. Warm currents generally makes areas more humid as well as warmer. Reversely cold currents, makes an area dryer as well as cooler. Cold currents in the tropics can mean desert or savannahs instead of rainforests. Warm currents in the arctic can mean oceanic climate instead of sub arctic boreal climate or even polar tundra.
How much difference currents make also depends a lot of the wind patterns, are they warm or cold on-shore or off-shore winds. Warm winds are generally a bit more humid than cold, and on-shore winds much more humid that off-shore winds. The combination of all this plus elevation, latitude and water presence determines the climate.
Winds are affected by planet rotation and temperature, and form bands of similar airflow across different latitudes. This is very obvious on giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, but the same mechanics apply to smaller planets as well. The bands of winds mixes heat and cold across the planet, bringing warm from the tropics into temperate areas, and cold from the arctic south into temperate areas. These wind patterns are persistent enough to create typical weathers in different latitudes. Low pressure and humid along the equator. High pressure, dry areas north and south if of this create deserts on the edges of the tropics. The temperate zones are dominated by low pressure, humid and windy conditions, and the arctic see mostly high pressure cold and dry conditions.
I've done my best to try and take all this into account creating this climate model of Oerth. It gives a rich and varied planet to explore with lots of contrast and every climate zone we have on earth is present in significant areas on several locations.
The Flanaess has a rich climate diversity, from frozen arctic in the Black Ice, Yatils, Crystalmists and Corusk Mounatins. A band of boreal subartic from the Barbarian lands in the west to the Thillonrian in the east. Cold steppes stretches from west of the Fler river to the northern shores of the Nyr Dyv, and are again forming a large part of the North Province. A temperate humid continental climate reigns over lands from the Baklunish coasts in the west though Ket and much of the central western Flanaess. East of the grat lakes and the steppes are yet another large stretch of humid continental temperate climate. Each of the coastal areas of this temperate belt have wet humid conditions giving rise to rainforest on the north western slopes of the Yatils in Ekbir and showers the islands and cost of the Solnor with rain and warm winters. This is an effect not from magic but warm currents from the south and humid warm winds. It is only a local phenomenon in Ekbir but the much warmer currents on the Solnor warms up and humidifies and much larger area from Hepmonaland to the Sea Barons.
The lands around the Azure range from humid subtropic in the west and south to Mediterranean in the north and east giving it excellent living conditions, among the best of the planet in fact, so now wonder that it it has a large population and developed countries. Mediterranean, subtropics and warmer part of the temperate areas are the most prosperous climates to live in for humans and similar creatures dependent on agriculture. The Sheldomar Valley and Flamni basin are prime examples of good areas for empires to develop in.
Most of the Baklunish west are dry steppes that get progressively hotter and dryer the further south you get, which give much less support for civilisation to grow. There is a bad along the cost of the Dramidj and the western slopes of the Yatils all the way to Ket that the Baklunish have been taken advantage of and make a good living in. The far western end of the Dramidj is another example of good climate conditions for humans (and similar creatures) to thrive, giving DM's plenty of lands to develop civilisations in.
Apart from the Flanaess and the western Dramidj I see four main areas for bred baskets, the north western Oerik hava long coast and a peninsula with excellent conditions for settled life. The south western Oerik have a long subtropic coast and temperate lands next to it with a wet oceanic part in the south, like the Baklunish coast in reverse. The south eastern cost of Western Oerik is also a great place to settle with a drier Mediterranean coast and temperate interior. The northern end ready for your Eryptian civilization, with deserts as well as a fertile coast and south. The large southern continent gives Oerth a huge expanse of land in the temperate zone with great potential for agriculture, plus a cold wild southern interior and coast.
Western Oerik gives Oerth several deserts, a huge expanse of tropical savannah, some of its tallest mountains ranges and the biggest canyon on the planet. The mountains and inland seas gives it a wide range of climates in a close proximity, from glaciers, tundra, boreal forest to hot deserts in only a few days journey. Like a big version of California, Central Asia and Africa all in one.
There are lots more to look at when it comes to Oerth and climate, this is just a first look and I'm intrigued by all the possibilities!
One thing most Greyhawk fans have in common is a curiosity of what the rest of the planet looks like, with that said, there are probably few issues that will bring up more difference then what the rest of Oerth looks like. So it is with great trepidation I have taken on the task of modeling the planet.
My approach is to try be inclusive and make room for lots of things, while still try and pay homage to existing work that have been done before. From the little map in the Glossography, the Dragon Annual #1 map and numerous fan made maps have taken turns at tackling the "cowhide", it is hard to hide the fact that the DA1 map looks like an ugly cowhide. My approach is to look at all these maps as I would look at real world ancient or medieval maps , a work of art that vaguely resembles the lands it is trying to map. I kept the basic shape but broke up the coastlines and added lots of detail to try and obfuscate as much as possible.
Overall I'm fairly happy with it at this stage, the cowhide is half hidden and broken-up by mountains and other features. Geographically it is a very interesting continental layout with pleasantly habitable areas sprinkled out in several places, and a lot of contrasting areas with plenty of adventuring possibilities. The Flanaess for example stretches from the arctic to the tropics with at least a sliver of every type of climate zone (more on that in the next post in this series) to make it extra interesting.
Hepmonaland just south of the Flanaess is the only other continent that is reasonably well mapped in the Scarlet Brotherhood. I've added some more small islands around it to make it a bit more realistic. Some further refinement of the coastlines are probably called for, they are a bit too sterile for my taste. It is a midsize hot continent that spans the equator into a dry south creating an African like environment but on a smaller scale.
South Central Oerik features Oerth second biggest Mountain range that divides the central continent into three areas, the Baklunish basin that we are already familiar with the eastern part that we call the Baklunish West and southerly regions. The curved southern peninsula really needed to be broken up, the banana shape was terrible. It might need more work before its good enough, w'll see how it holds up in the discussion.
A very interesting region that according to DA1 is one with the polar region preventing the Dramidj Ocean from forming a northern global maritime route. I've kept this land bridge creating a pathway for polar creatures reaching south and vice versa, a good place for mammoth hunting!
Due to the larger axial tilt of 30 degrees temperate areas get squished between bigger poles and more expansive tropics so land real estate at these latitudes are very important and a land bridge stops the cold currents from circulating and staying cold. Keeping the land bridge adds to the land and a shallow enclosed sea keep the water a bit warmer giving the area a boost.
Western Oerik, Oerth's big place, and that is giving it a blend of features we recognize from both Afrika and Asia and more. It is defined in the east by Oerth equivalent of the Andes, a north south range separating it from the Central Oerik. To make this was lump of land more interesting I've added a rift valley west of the eastern divide creating a couple of huge inland lakes, that might be fresh, salty or just dried out salt flats. West of this is a second range of highlands with the biggest rift on the planet, a it more than four times the size of the Rift Canyon. This is an huge dry interior worthy of a Dark Sun like campaign, or a place for Dragons to come to nest or wait for their eternal rest. Several massive mountain rages in this part gives it climate and terrain variety with lots of interesting opportunities beyond dry hot deserts.
The western central part forms a tropical plain with Oerth's largest tropical plains. The northern end reaches beyond the plain with a coast and peninsula that I'm sure some sort of creatures have settled!
Western Oerik reaches al the way to the southern arctic circle adding the was variety of different biomes on this end of the continent.
In the middle of the Solnor Ocean I've placed a small continent as an homage to Empyrea, Frank Mentzer's part of the planet he was given the right to develop. It is a tropical place with jungle and rainforests, but I added several mountain ranges and a really tall massive in the center to provide a number of different biomes to make it interesting.
A Great Southern continent is said to exist, and if you look carefully at DA1 map you can see it hinted at bottom right. To add to the precious temperate resources of Oerth, and to make room for Empyrea, I placed it touching the southern polar circle giving it a god range of possible biodiversity.
The South Pole looks a bit too star-shaped due to Map 2 Globe's quick render. This needs to be mapped properly as a separate project. I'm thinking of keeping a center mountain, might be cool with a huge volcano jutting out of the ice, and maybe it is an opening to a hollow Oerth.... 😉
This was a short presentation of my thoughts and approach to mapping Oerth. This is still a work in progress, and to be able to evaluated it better I'm working on a climate map using Köppen Classifications.
You can create the globe at https://www.maptoglobe.com/
Use this image for texture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/clf737d1kbbh2qc/Equrectangular.jpg?dl=0
and this for heightmap: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6fljvnyzc3hv097/Oerth%20Continental%20Height%20%20-%2021%20blur2.jpg?dl=0
Tonight's Legends & Lore Show on LordGosumba - Twitch will be about the Flan, Druidism and the Old Faith, and I was going to bring up some of my take on the topic by trying to look at it from the Flan side of things so I wrote a short history piece, Greyhawk history seen from the Flan perspective.
The Flan, Flanaess seen from the Old Side
This is an attempt to write a short version of the history seen from the Flan perspective, it is normally told by the "victorious" Oerdian side.
The Flan have always been a people of faith, faith in themselves, their gods and their ability to defend themselves. When the Aerdy arrived in the Flanaess all that was going to be challenged and despite what most historians in the Flanaess have told you, that struggle is still not settled, far from it.
The faith of the Flan lives up to its name The Old Faith, because it roots are old, very old. Their devotion for Beory, their planet, Pelor their sun, Rao their wisdom and all the life Obad-Hai nurtured is legendary. Druids have guarded both the Flan people and all other life in their lands, in harmony with the Olves, Noniz and even Dwur since the day of the Ur-Flan. Existence isn’t always harmonious and sometimes interests collide, moral codes and tempers vary and in some cases faith in what is good and well wains. For the Flan this was seen as part of the natural cycle of life and death, growth and decay, and for this they worshipped another set of powers to help them through the dark times and to make sure that the Flan would always prevail in the end, no matter what.
This was the Dark Faith, a cabal of powers ready to bring even the worst aspects of the world into submission. Those among the Flan that was too greedy, prone to violence or just sinister enough to be shunned by their peers had in Flan society an outlet that made them useful and important, they were the ultimate guardians of the Flan, called to perform the duties no one else was morally or otherwise quipped to carry out, they were The Horned Ones, guardians of the Flan and the Dark Faith. When discussion, negotiation and even threats were not enough the Horned Ones heard the calling. The Dark Faith had a menagerie of powers just like the Old Faith, and to everyone knowledgeable of the Flanaess a familiar set it is, Incabulos to get them ready for their doom, Nerull to handle their death, Orcus to bring them beyond death, Zuggtmoy to get rid of even the worst remains, add in the demon Graz’zt to give the Flan motivation, strength and lust to make more Flan and a number of other demon lords including Demogorgon and Jubilex as a service to the most wicked parts of nature. This assured the Horned Ones would make the blood freeze in anyone who dared to opposed them and the Flan cause. A cabal of Dark Druids served these masters to keep the enemies of the Flan, both internal and external, at bay. When the age of the cataclysms entered, they were slowly and reluctantly called in by whispers among the Flan. Everyone knew the toll that came with calling for the Horned Ones, but as times became dire enough, the Horned Ones had to show what they were made of. First to rise was a young star of the Dark Faith that had mastered both the art of magic and later undeath, Vecna. He created a strong Flan bulwark, and nothing stood in his way to make the Flan the undisputed rulers of all their ancient lands and more. That was the credo of the times until he was betrayed by Kas and destroyed. The Flan was dealt a severe blow that would diminish them for an age. The good-hearted Flan adherents tried to negotiate with the other people of the Flanaess, both old and new and with some success. Together with the Olve and Noniz they managed to establish a state run by an order of Rao priests that have recruited among both newcomers and Flan for some time. Veluna became a haven for the Old as well as new faiths.
With the rise of the Malachite Throne, the Horned Ones took refuge in the north away from the onslaught of newcomers with new ideas, gods and enemies of the old. They bided their time and planned to strike at the heart of the new power that was hellbent in diminishing Flan traditions as well as the lords and ladies of the Flan courts in what has always been Flan lands.
The time came when even their best knights of the Great Kingdom became decadent and weak. A well-executed deception made the top echelon of the once valiant Knight Protectors the most powerful servants of the Horned Ones so far unleashed in the Flanaess, but to be sure of victory the Dark Order also added in the worst they could muster from their dark lords most wicked realms, Arendagrost, Maw of the Abyss. In this atrocious act they inadvertently helped the very power they were set to destroy, the fear that flew across the lands was so strong that it united everyone against them even the Druids and people of the brotherly Flan faith they were supposed to protect. A posse led by Sir Benedor defeated Arendagrost, assisted by every priest, mage and warrior brave enough to face it, including the druid brethren from the Adri, Grandwood Thelwood and surrounding lands. The direct strike at Rauxes was a failure but the Death Knights is a serious threat even to this day and the Malachite Throne never regained its former glory.
The western lands of the Aerdy gained their independence which also meant that they gained strength, both in political and military terms but also culturally and spiritually. The Old Faith and customs of the Flan was now seen as a thing of the past in large part of the world. The Dark Faith leaders had to find refuge far into the north, desperate for a new champion, someone strong, ruthless and ready to take the fight to the enemy. Graz’zt took on the mission to create a new hero for the Flan, and in the Witch Iggwilv he found the right might, blood and cunning for the mission. He willingly sacrificed some of his essence in return for Iggwilv’s eternal hatred as she was ravaged by the lust of Graz’zt. From this union of deception, violence and wrath came a son, a cambion that Graz’zt gave his advisor Lord Vuron to torture and indoctrinate from the very beginning to be filled of hatred and cunning and never to never give up. To make young Iuz good start he was given a small fief in a secure northly area with the title the Old One to made sure every Flan understood his ambitions. Young Iuz wasn’t taken seriously by anyone except the Dark Ones who had high hopes for the fledgling cambion who soon started to acquire some notoriety for cruelty and success in taking over neighboring realms.
After a promising start Iuz was captured by the enemy alongside other powers, both Flan and of other allegiances, and held in Zagyg’s Castle Greyhawk. To try and protect the holdings of their captured hero the Dark Ones scrambled and set up a protective state in the city of Molag run by the Hierarchs of the Horned Society, a name no Flan could mistake. Thanks to secret play by the Dark Ones agents, Iuz and the other power was later freed and once again ready to continue their important work to secure the future power of the Flan.
Iuz first offensive move after regaining his freedom was together with Zuggtmoy, to create a diversion in the south to try and make his nearby enemies look the other way while he was preparing his forces at home for his coming attacks. The Horned Society had played out its role and was abolished with wild scenes to give the impression that there was serious internal strife, which was not the case, the Horned Ones was just changing tactics back to the way they had conducted their grizzly business for centuries, in secret. This is when the plans of the Dark Faith derailed, when Iuz created a diversion using an impression of the god Vatun to lure the Stonefists to attack the very heart of Flan power, Tehn. What lays behind Iuz move few if any outside the court in Dorakaa knows, but in an instant the hero of the Flan had become the enemy. Flan power and culture was dealt one of the worst defeats in Flan history by a protegee devised to lead them to victory. The ranks of the Flan were in true disarray for years, and it gave Iuz the chance to keep advancing despite the lack of support from his old peers.
It took until the late 580’s CY for him to lose his momentum and new alliances could be formed to counter the threat. Again, it was the good side of the Old Faith who showed the way by building on the old, the alliances with their Rao brethren of Veluna and the Olve. With the diplomatic power of Mitrik and the newfound strength of the Olve, King Belvor and the new regent in Rel Mord was all aboard in joining forces to counter the threat of the Old One. A secret partner in this alliance is none other than the Horned Ones out to revenge the fall of Tehn. War and politics are strange and now fly the banners of Pelor, Rao, in the form of the Heart and the Shield against the Old One backed in secret by the Horned Ones of the Dark Faith is now hunting one of their own.
This part of the map have been in need of some TLC for a long time, and in order for changes to be included this year we have to figure out what it should look like. As usual the sources are sketchy this far away from the central Flanaess so a fair bit of guess work has to go into this.
For this project have have used the latitude map from the Glossography
Mike bridges excellent map that you ca find on his blog here: http://greyhawkery.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-greyhawk-map-south-seas.html
The Infamous Best of Dragon Map Oerth map:
From all this and maps from Savage Tide and some other fan creations, have started to work crate my own Oerth model. Here is the current version that is still in its early stages:
Azure modeled along all these sources could look something like the title image.
On the Glossography map there is what looks like a large island that I completely missed, but Mike didn't and its about time to get it on the map. I'll kept the small islands north of it and added in the surrounding islands from Mike's map. I hope its not too many Pirate Isles, it is good for adventuring to have plenty of hideouts to discover!
The Mist Kingdom have been squeezed in a bit but I hope they have enough waters around them. Ruja has been moved just south of the Mist Kingdom chain as of the Glossography map. Auxaul Ilses have been moved SW a bit to make room for all the extra stuff added, but its not too far from the Glossography map I hope.
The island that started it all the Isle of Dread I moved a bit north compared to Mikes map in order for it to be in a remote location in the center of the Vohun Ocean.
It is a bit thrilling to venture so far away from Greyhawk, but is also very interesting, requiring plenty of compromise. What do you guys think?