Time for the first look at the ongoing work on the Flanaess 576CY map. In my infinite wisdom I decided do this in alphabetical order and start with the first entry from the 1983 Setting book - Almor. Almor is one of the most changed realms in the years between 576 CY and 598 CY, it practically got wiped out as a nation. It will be a good taste of how much work will be needed for this map conversion by setting a standard for how much need to be changed.

When I started to read the Almor entry I was surprised to read that the Lord Mayor of Innspa swore loyalty to Almor. I had a vague idea that Innspa was part of Nyrond at this time, and the alignment map on page 44 looks like that is the case. 

This is one of the many times where text and maps differ in source materials. My instinct is to stay with the text, since I know how little the cartographer or illustrator often knows (or cares) when the maps is made, which can often be before the text is written.

So for this first draft I'm including Innspa and its surroundings in Almor. Two towns that are questionable whether they are in Almor or not are Harskern and Jennden. Haven't found any sources for them this early but they should both exist, but Jennden ought to be much smaller before the influx of refugees during the war. Since it was a destination for refugees, it seems more likely to me that it was in the Principality of Rel Deven on the Great Kingdom side of the border. Placing Jennden and the eastern shore of the Harp in the Great Kingdom also gives it a border along the Harp which I think I've read somewhere.

Harskern also seem to belong more to the Almorian side being rather distant from things in Nyrond. By including Harskern and bending the border further to the NW it matches the Alignment map better so that is my first choice for a western Almorian border. This rounds out the country well in the west and also make the road network make sense, so I like it.

When it comes to Innspa and its surroundings was my plan to include it in Nyrond, but the Almor description made me incorporate it into Almor. The post was map makes it a bit easier and I also think that the Principality of Innspa was built on an existing structure.

The western Adri is also interesting with the road between Innspa and Knurl are routed on the east side of the Harp for a bit, inside the Great Kingdom. It looks from the roads that Edgefield are trying its best to cash in on the traffic. When the Great Kingdom fell apart and the newly created United Kingdom of Ahlissa and the North Kingdom started competing for territory here the Ahlissa side was more offensive and seized  the road between Innspa and Knurl. I'm not sure this is really canon but it makes for a good story!

The southern border of Almor I've extended all the way to the northern edge of Thelwood, so it included all the Marchlands from the LG campaign. All in all it makes for logical borders that matches the text sources and makes for some interesting scenarios, but the shape is a bit distorted.

The terrain map has been edited in numerous places to better reflect the pre war situation. Both the surroundings of Chathold, Almor heartlands north of the Harp and the Bonewood have now been rested back to Thelwood.

The surrounding lands on the draft map are more or less done, less the further away from Almor things are. Please tell me in the comments for details that need to be adjusted!

Now you know a bit more how I reason going about this project, and I must admit it is more fun than I thought. Lots of interesting Greyhawk knowledge that comes with it, in more ways than I imagined before I started.

Thank you again for helping me do this! 🙂

In case Patreon messes with the map here is a direct link:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnxlsntres726m8/Almor-04c.jpg?dl=0

Made a set of terrain only maps, both the standard terrain texture and a the latest parchment version. They come in both 12 mile hexed and non hexed versions.

You can get them here:

 http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessTerrain-JPG-2019REV1 

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessTerrain-HEX-JPG-2019REV1 

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessTerrain-Parchment1-JPG-2019REV1 

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessTerrain-Parchment1-HEX-JPG-2019REV1 

Adobe have updated Illustrator, and now for the first time you can properly export PSD files of individual layers and retain transparency. This is a huge time saver and means that I can save individual layers in 250 dpi resolution. There seems to be a 30,000 px export limit on all formats except PNG which can take forever to compile, so expect large PNG export to take a VERY LONG time. With PSD  exports there are very little compression involved which mean  faster exports but huge files.

For me I prefer things to go faster and invest a bit more in storage, but your preferences might vary. High on my investment list some sort of SSD based storage for my Dropbox and OneDrive, it will be expensive but save me lots of time in less wait for things to open or save.  I have SSD's for system and scratch drives, 3TB all in all, but for storage I need at least 6TB more. Prices are coming down:  Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB M.2 SATA Internal SSD for $319! Seems like I need to start to read reviews on PCIe M.2 adapter cards...

If you want to change to content of the map the easiest way is to grab the Illustrator file and edit it to your liking you can get it here:

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessFull598CY-AI-2019REV1

The PSD format (Photoshop's standard file format) only supports file sizes up to 2GB, and for my Flanaess map in layers that is far from enough, since it weighs in at  8.36GB. Thankfully Adobe has created the PSB file format (Large Document Format) that support much larger files, both in bite- and pixel size.

The 598 CY Flanaess PSB map file has over 40 layers, and I added a few masks as well to make it more useful. You can grab it here:

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessFull598CY-PSB-2019REV1 

This file and the Water- and Ocean Masks are the ingredients you need to start styling the map to create a look you like! 

By using Photoshops built in filters, blend modes you can create something really cool and varied  results without having to do too much work. Below is a version I created in about 6 hours of playing around

You can get the full JPG map here: 

http://bit.ly/GH-FlanaessFull598CY-Parchment1-JPG-2019REV1

Here is the PSB file I used to create this map version (a warning, it is 11.6GB):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdlwhvekgyknouk/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%20598%20CY%20-%202019%20Edition%20REV1_Handout%20Example-1.psb?dl=0

Here you can see the blend modes I used, and get the parchment layer I added. Test to play around with the filters and see what you can come up with.   

Vue, that is one of the tools I use to render 3D images with, have finally included isometric camera projection. Been waiting for a proper 3D rendering tool that could do terrains the way I need and also have the Isometric camera projection. This is one of the easiest ways to show as 3D landscape as a 2D image and get a good sense of the topography, even over a large area.

Couldn't resist the temptation to try it out, and here are my first results. 

The resolution is about 100 ft per pixel and my initial reaction is that this is very promising!
It renders very quickly and it looks good, and gives a good sense of the landscape.

Considering that these images are a first test that only uses a highmap and a simple texture as material, and still comes across as OK, means that this has great potential. With a proper material setup and forest material, PBR and specular map, bumps etc this can hopefully look really good. 

It is also easy to merge rendered bits to cover a large area, which makes it something to look into for future setting maps. It will be a good variat in the mapping bag of tricks.

A detailed blog post will come when I know a bit more of what I'm doing and have read the manual! 

My next convention will be Gamehole Con in Madison Wisconsin, and on Thursday October the 31st Alyssa Faden and me will have a seminar together.

It will be an AMA session that I'm sure will be interesting for Fantasy Cartography enthusiasts. There are still 70 tickets available as I'm posting this.

Here is a link for those who are interested in  coming: https://www.gameholecon.com/events/event/7950

I hope to see many of you there!