Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

There is no population breakdown by race in the main book. My guess is that the majority of the population is human. The only significant non human population mentioned are the goblins in megalos. In any case, the continent is under populated compared to the settlement patterns on the map. As it stands, with 16 million people Megalos would only use between. 200-230 hexes for farming. That is a fraction of the total area of the empire. I may add farming icons back on the map to indicate manors and cultivated areas.

There would likely be much larger forests as well. My assumption is that every clear hex east of Bannock counts as lightly wooded.

Both the Great Forest and the Blackwoods will have a massive special tree in their center, quasi-sentient ancient beings beyond mortal kin. The Tree in the Blackwoods has been corrupted and is causing the mutation and expansion of the forest (per the Banestorm book). These Trees radiate magic and are the last two of their kind on Yrth. Their location is a closely guarded Elvish secret.

Anyway, today I am working on Araterre and the southern oceans; detailing the area more with jungles, lakes, rivers, named locations and adventure sites (monster dens, ruins, pirate coves, ect).

Here is a link to an interesting article concerning population density (for gaming purposes no less). The article presents evidence that low population densities did occur in Europe (some very low).

https://medium.com/migration-issues/...y-fd062449364f

If we take the population of the various countries and only include lands which are inhabited (removing for example the Blackwoods and the empty lands of Caithness) I got the following population densities (very generalized BTW):

Megalos - 15, Caithness - 10, Cardiel - 22, al-Wazif - 20, al-Haz - 12

The author suggests that any urbanized realm needs at least 20 per square mile. Bumping Megalos to 20 or even 30 is quite possible without causing too much trouble.

This article is definitely something for me to consider and may cause me re-evaluate my belief that Ytarria is severely underpopulated (all those 500 square mile blank hexes call out to me to add something interesting to them).

12/29/23 - I have updated the online maps. Araterra is more detailed (those islands combined are bigger than the British isles!). I still need to add more villages and or farmlands and trails. The islands are actually somewhat densely populated for Ytarria, about 20 people per square mile.

There are more rivers in the Nomad Lands as well. The color of the minor lakes have been tweaked to now blend seamlessly with the rivers and the major rivers had their thickness slightly increased to better indicate their importance. Seven towers are still unnamed; I might leave these for the DM (unsure right now). My custom map is more of an example of what custom (non-canon) areas I have created so far. There is now a large plateau along the coast of the southern Orclands (for a lost world scenario). I would not necessarily use all of these features in my own campaign (they are all mix-and-matchable, designed to create any custom combination one desires).

https://darebearsminiemporium.blogsp...f-ytarria.html

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Low tech societies will retain managed woodlands throughout otherwise agricultural areas. They're used for forage areas for animals like pigs, sources for fuel, wood and other forest products such as fiber, fur, game, herbs and nuts.

Grazing lands might have fewer trees than expected due to deforestation by animals.

Those hexes probably have people in them, but they're probably nomads or seasonal herders. This is particularly true in prairie and upland areas. Total population density might be minimal, but they could still be significant sources of opposition or PC interactions. Many of those "people" might be monsters; sapient or semi-sapient top predators with huge territorial needs to have sufficient prey density. For example, a dragon might claim an entire 500-mile hex as its territory and manage the wildlife and terrain within that area to its own advantage.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

All good points pal. Most of the hexes would indeed have small populations in each hex. It is likely there are many undocumented residents of Ytarria living in the wild.

I updated the map slightly again.

Roads are more definable now, with a solid line vs dash marks.

The road to New Jerusalem was partly on the wrong side of the al-Wazif border. Fixed that.

Changed the size of the large city icons so that they are more identifiable than the smaller population cities. Added some additional trails and hills to various areas.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

No it doesn't need a great deal of skill or experience. It requires a little bit of reading to get to know how to do things, but once you've done that, you can easily do anything you want. Artistic talent helps make things look better, but that's all it does.

Oh, I must have missed that somehow. Can you give me a direct link? This sounds like a good thing to do for a Banestorm campaign.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The printed examples are at the bottom of the blog post. Printers differ of course and most folks do not have access to a commercial color laser printer that does up to 12"x18" sheets. The easiest thing to do is to download the image off the blog and convert it to a PDF. I typically use 2400 DPI as a resolution during conversion. You can then open the PDF and print out any sections you want or need.

I created a PDF file of the canon version and linked it onto my Google Drive if anyone is interested. If anyone wants a custom version posted (no labels, special terrain, whatever) just let me know.

I tweaked some of the roads into more rationale routes. Nothing major there. The village icons have been replaced with more easily identifiable and more visual small circular icons.


https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...PDUk9PVA<br />

1/6/2024 - Uploaded a new version today. Small additions in many areas (settlements, terrain features, adventure sites).

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks for the pointers.
I guess I just managed to completely ignore the tiled version of the map on your blog, somehow. I knew I was missing something here, but it was the tiled version, not the pdf.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I made a few updates to the map last week. Small details (rivers, lakes, ect). The hills of northern al-Haz were increased in size, towards the Caithness border. I felt this made sense and better depicted the area. Cardiel also has two new small wooded areas in out-of the way places, one infested with a magical rotting disease and the other a forest of giant mushrooms and other fungi.

One thing that I totally missed from the map was the Acid Swamps of Solfor, in the Southeastern Orclands.

The only reference to this location is on page 220. It is curiously absent from the geography information in the Orclands section, which is obviously an oversight.

The watercolor map of Ytarria does show this area, un-labeled, in a murky green color, sitting just west of the Great Desert. I always thought this was grassland or plains (the darker color being artistic expression of some sort); it never occurred to me that it was actually a wetland area. My assumption (after reading the entry) was that the Solfor swamps were to be placed wherever the GM needed them. At no point does the text indicate the size of this area; the only reference we have as to the geography is the original watercolor map done for the book.

Anyway, my map is updated, but the swamp area is actually a little smaller than the canon map (another mistake which I will fix today). It should cover all the heavily forested areas and extend northward more. This makes the wetlands roughly 100,000 square miles in size, equivalent to Pripet Marshes in Belarus.

Problem
This swamp was never mentioned prior to the Banestorm 4E book and it complicates, IMO, the backstory of Castle Defiant and the Orclands. A hazardous swamp of this size makes large-scale travel between the Orclands and Caithness, well, quite impossible, in either direction. There might be paths and routes which are safe to travel for small groups of course. But the idea of a 100,000 square mile area of acidic swamp strains credulity. My guess is that the artist who drew the main map (through no fault of her own) had no idea that this area was supposed to be a toxic zone, knew the backstory of the Orclands or had a clue as to the square miles of the area being depicted. What is more likely is that they were simply told the area was a "wetland", and painted it accordingly.

So, I am looking for opinions. My gut tells me that this area should be a lot smaller than what is depicted. The area would likely run along the rivers south of the unnamed lake which is to the east of Castle Defiant, with a southern border along the Great Desert, and a northern border just south of the small unnamed forest along River Kashik. This would still be a large area, but not an impassable barrier for travel between Caithness and the Orclands.

However, unless the area has a reason for explorers to visit it will simply be ignored and avoided 99.9% of the time by travelers.

It would be possible to travel to the Defiant area by boat, starting from the mountains of Zarak. You could also skirt the Great Desert and go around to the south or take one of the tributaries to the lake and then along the River Kashik to Castle Defiant. Castle Defiant had a trade route through Zarak so perhaps water travel was the primary mode of transportation between this area and the East. Another travel route would be through the larger northern forest bordering Zarak. Since the lore does not specify how folks travel to and from the Orclands, we are left to speculate as best we can.

Thoughts? How should this area be depicted and how big should it be? Perhaps the acidic aspect of the area be toned down (limited to a specific area on the map) or eliminated? If it was just a large wetland area with a small localized zone of toxicity then it would be more amenable to travel and possible sites of adventure (ruins, lairs, ect). Right now, having a 100,000 square mile Death-Zone serves no purpose and throws a monkey wrench into travel from Caithness to the Orclands (IMO anyway).

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

That seems like a good idea. The whole swamp might have a reputation for being acidic, of course, and the inhabitants might well play this up to keep outsiders away. That creates plot possibilities.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The Solfor swamp is actually featured in Orcslayer. On a quick scan of the book, however, there's not MUCH geographical data on it, but it does mention it's 30 miles from Castle Defiant, and that it takes the PCs a couple of days to trudge through (it implies around 25 miles).

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Wow, that map has sure turned out absolutely gorgeous! (Speaking about the maps on your blog - the links in the posts don't work for me.) I find I like the most heavily version most. It looks more organic to me.

As for the swamp: the idea of exaggerating the acid content is good. But I agree with you that it should more or less follow the rivers from the mountains. Feels a bit strange to me that it extends so much into the desert. Those twin rivers that feed the lake seem especially close to the desert with no indication of why the rain would fall on this particular bit of land. I know a map is always a simplification, but that feels strange. Since it would also solve your storyline problem, I think there's not much of a reason not to do it. Sticking more closely to the Banestorm maps is probably more hassle than it's worth.

I have one further suggestion: To me some of the larger forests feel a bit empty compared to the smaller ones, especially the Great Forest, but also the Blackwoods and that forest north of the Yazak Steppes. This is visible zoomed in and zoomed out. I think the Emperor's Forest just hits the right spot and most of the smaller ones are very good too. Just a minor quibble, though. I would buy a poster in a heart-beat. Thanks for sharing.